Airbus is expected to announce today that 2007 was a record year for passenger jet orders and deliveries, allowing the European planemaker to steal the lead back from U.S. rival Boeing Co. But the healthy order book doesn’t make up for another feature of 2007 dogging Airbus and its parent company, European Aeronautic Defence &Space Co. NV: the expensive euro. The dollar’s 11 percent fall against the euro last year cut into Airbus’ revenue.
Intel Corp. profits soar 51 percent
Intel Corp.’s profit leaped 51 percent as sales of microprocessors accelerated in the fourth quarter, but its shares plummeted on signs that the world’s largest semiconductor maker is feeling the pinch of an ailing U.S. economy. The Santa Clara, Calif.-based company’s results, released after the market closed Tuesday, narrowly missed Wall Street’s profit and sales expectations. The results jolted investors who thought the technology bellwether was shielded from the housing and lending morass that has crimped consumers’ discretionary spending, analysts said.
Merrill Lynch gets $6.6 billion help
Merrill Lynch &Co. said Tuesday it is getting a fresh cash investment of $6.6 billion to strengthen its balance sheet, led by three foreign investment groups. Merrill Lynch has been raising capital after losing billions of dollars on bad bets in the mortgage market. Rising delinquencies and defaults among mortgages have forced banks to write down the value of bonds and debt backed by the troubled loans. That, in turn, has put their levels of spare capital under pressure.
Consumers cut their spending
Frugal shoppers cut back on their spending at the nation’s retailers by 0.4 percent in December, wrapping up the weakest sales year since 2002, in a gloomy report that fanned fears of a coming recession. The Commerce Department reported Tuesday that the drop in retail sales, which followed a brisk 1 percent gain in November, marked the worst showing since June, when merchant sales declined by 0.8 percent. Shoppers turned into penny-pinchers under the strains of a deteriorating job market, expensive energy bills and a persistent housing slump.
Justices narrow securities suit
The Supreme Court ruled Tuesday against investors who sue businesses that help manipulate stock prices of publicly traded companies. In a 5-3 decision that split along conservative-liberal lines, the court gave a measure of protection from securities lawsuits to suppliers, banks, accountants and law firms that do business with corporations engaging in securities fraud. The ruling comes at a pivotal point for a similar class-action lawsuit covering more than a million shareholders who invested in scandal-ridden Enron Corp. Stockholders in Enron, once the nation’s seventh-largest company, are seeking more than $30 billion from Wall Street investment banks, alleging they schemed with Enron to hide its financial problems. Shortly after the decision, the justices put the Enron investors’ suit on their list of cases to consider.
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