US FINANCIAL MARKET
- Boeing 787 Dreamliner is temporarily grounded worldwide by the FAA. Airlines scrambled on Thursday to rearrange flights as Europe, Japan, Qatar and India joined the US in grounding Boeing Co’s 787 Dreamliner. Boeing has sold around 850 of its new planes, with 50 delivered to date.
- EBay reported holiday quarter results that beat Wall Street expectations as the e-commerce company benefited from a boom in mobile shoppers, but it gave a 2013 forecast in line with analyst estimates.
- Citigroup posted $2.32 billion of charges for layoffs and lawsuits in the first financial report under its new chief executive. Fourth-quarter net income was $1.2 billion, well below Wall Street expectations.
- Bank of America fourth-quarter profit dropped after it took some $5 billion of mortgage-related charges. Fourth-quarter net income was $732 million.
- AT&T is looking at an acquisition in Europe, possibly of Dutch peer KPN or the UK’s Everything Everywhere, to offset weak growth at home, the WSJ reported.
- Sony plans to expand sales from next year once the business has stopped losing money.
- Dunkin’ Donuts to open shops in southern California in 2015 in its long-awaited return to the state it left more than a decade ago. The coffee chain expects to open 150 to 200 shops in southern California by 2020. There are about 7,200 Dunkin’ Donuts in the United States and more than 3,100 elsewhere.
US ECONOMY & POLITICS
- Initial claims for state unemployment benefits fell 37,000 to a seasonally adjusted 335,000, the lowest level since January 2008, the Labor Department said. The four-week moving average for new claims, a better measure of labor market trends, fell 6,750 to 359,250.
- The claims report showed the number of people still receiving benefits under regular state programs after an initial week of aid increased 87,000 to 3.21 million in the week ended January 5.
- Starts at building sites for homes surged 12.1% last month to a 954,000-unit annual rate, the fastest since June 2008, the Commerce Department said.
EUROPE & WORLD
- The euro-area economy won’t return to growth until the next quarter as a recovery in Italy is delayed and France continues to shrink, according to a survey of economists.
TODAY in HISTORY
- Benjamin Franklin was born in Boston (1706)
- James Madison Randolph, the grandson of Thomas Jefferson, became the first child born in the White House (1806)
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.
