US FINANCIAL MARKET
- Boeing appeared to recapture bragging rights as the world’s largest planemaker for the first time in a decade, after saying it delivered 601 jets in 2012. Airbus’ final figures won’t be announced until January 17 but its goal was 580 deliveries for the year. Boeing also beat its rival in sales, booking net orders for 1,203 aircraft in 2012, compared with about 900 for Airbus. Boeing is aiming to produce nearly 660 jets in 2013.
- GM recalls more than 69,000 vehicles that could roll away.
- BMW sales surged 39% in the U.S. in December to top Mercedes-Benz in luxury-auto deliveries for the year. BMW delivered 281,460 vehicles. Lexus was the U.S. luxury champ for 11 years until 2011 but came third at 244,166.
- Wegelin, the oldest Swiss private bank, said on Thursday it would shut its doors permanently after following its guilty plea to charges of helping wealthy Americans evade taxes through secret accounts.
- Transocean agreed to pay $1.4 billion to settle U.S. government charges over BP’s massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill in 2010.
- U.S. regulators on Thursday ended their investigation into Google. EU says its Google case is not affected by U.S. ruling.
- Wal-Mart has gone on the defensive against charges by competitors that a recent ad campaign is using inaccurate information, leading the competitors to file complaints with state legal officials.
- Eastman Kodak was sued by Japan’s Kyocera for allegedly infringing more than a dozen U.S. patents with its printers and digital cameras.
- Eli Lilly forecast 2013 profit higher than analysts estimated on expectations of increased sales of diabetes treatments and the erectile dysfunction drug Cialis. Earnings may be $3.75 to $3.90 a share, more than the $3.71 average of 18 analyst estimates. Profit last year probably met company forecasts of $3.30 to $3.40. Lilly has been struggling to boost earnings as generic copies take sales from its $5 billion schizophrenia treatment Zyprexa. The CEO said profit won’t grow again until after 2014.
- Pentagon announced that Lockheed Martin has won a contract valued at $755 million for procurement of Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) missiles.
- PIMCO’s Bill Gross wrote in his first letter to investors this year that money printing by central banks will lead to a destructive bout of inflation. He said financial markets will probably be more volatile with the Federal Reserve focusing on the unemployment rate. Gross recently wrote on PIMCO’s twitter account on December 30 that stocks and bonds will return less than 5% in 2013.
- Global smartphone shipments will jump 27% to 875 million this year, slowing from last year’s torrid 41% pace.
- Samsung is expected to widen its lead over Apple in global smartphone sales this year with 35% growth. Samsung is forecast to sell 290 million smartphones this year, up from a projected 215 million in 2012.
- Apple’s smartphone sales are projected to reach 180 million this year, up 33% from last year, slightly trailing Samsung’s 35% increase.
- This will give Samsung a 33% share of the 2013 smartphone market, up from last year’s estimated 31%, while Apple will hold 21%, versus last year’s 20%.
US ECONOMY & POLITICS
- Job growth cools slightly, recovery grinds on. Nonfarm payroll employment rose by 155,000 last month, the Labor Department said. The jobless rate held steady at 7.8% in December, down nearly a percentage point from a year earlier. The rate for November was revised up from an initially reported 7.7%. November’s job gains were revised up 15,000 to 161,000. October’s increase was nearly unchanged at 137,000.
- For 2012, employers added 1.84 million jobs, an average of 153,000 jobs a month, which was the same number in 2011.
- Hourly pay is staying slightly ahead of inflation. Hourly wages rose 7 cents to $23.73, a 2.1% increase compared with a year earlier. Inflation rose 1.8% over the same period.
- Friday’s report did point to some weakness in the job market. For example, the number of unemployed actually rose 164,000 to 12.2 million. Approximately 192,000 people entered the work force last month, but most of them didn’t find jobs.
- US factory orders unchanged in December despite strong gain in demand for investment goods.
- The Institute for Supply Management’s (ISM) non-manufacturing index climbed to 56.1 last month from 54.7 in November. Services industries in the U.S. expanded in December at the fastest pace in 10 months.
- Minutes from the December Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting suggested that the Committee expects a slightly less accommodative path of balance sheet policy than markets had anticipated. The minutes showed increasing reticence about adding to the central bank’s $2.9 trillion balance sheet.
EUROPE & WORLD
- Annual consumer inflation in the 17 countries sharing the euro was 2.2% in December.
- Canada’s Jobless Rate Falls to Four-Year Low of 7.1%.
TODAY in HISTORY
- Dr. William W. Grant of Davenport, Iowa, performed what is thought to be the first appendectomy (1885)
- Utah was admitted as 45th state in the United States (1896)
- In Gonzales v. Williams, the U.S. Supreme Court decided that citizens of Puerto Rico are not aliens and can enter the U.S. freely (1904)
- The U.S. Mint began distributing the 50 State Quarters (1999)
- Nasdaq was hit for its worst point loss, falling more than 229 points (5.6%). The market appeared to be concerned about future Fed rate hikes (2000)
- California Democrat Nancy Pelosi becomes the first woman U.S. Speaker of the House of Representatives (2007)
Sources: Reuters, Yahoo Finance, Google Finance, Bloomberg, CNN Money.
This information has been prepared from sources believed to be reliable, but no representation is being made as to its accuracy or completeness. The information provided should be used only as general information and is not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual. The economic forecasts set forth in the material may not develop as predicted. All indices, such as the S & P 500, are unmanaged and may not be invested into directly.
