Yahoo! Finance
10-23-2006, 07:02 AM
From The Best of Today's Business by Harold Maass
The Best of Today's Business
by Yahoo! Finance and The Week
Ford Bleeds, Shell Looks to the Future
Monday, October 23, 2006
NEWS AT A GLANCE
Ford's losses continue
Ford Motor Co. (F) said it lost $5.8 billion in the third quarter as a North American sales slump continued. Much of the bleeding stemmed from the cost of cutting thousands of jobs. CEO Alan Mulally called the results "unacceptable." (MarketWatch.com) It was the automaker's biggest loss in more than 14 years, although the $1.2 billion loss after excluding one-time expenses was in line with Wall Street expectations. "It was a pretty awful quarter," said fixed-income analyst Pete Hastings of Morgan Keegan & Co. (Bloomberg)
Shell seeks control
Royal Dutch Shell (RDS-B) is offering to buy out minority shareholders in its Canada unit for $6.8 billion. (Reuters) The company wants to step up production from Canadian oil sands as supplies dry up elsewhere. Extracting oil from sand is expensive, but "it's sensible to do the deal at this time" because oil prices are high, said analyst Jason Kenney of ING Wholesale Bank. (Bloomberg) Oil prices are being tugged downward for the second day on expectation that OPEC members will not comply with a 4 percent reduction in supply to stop a three-month slide in oil prices. (AP in Yahoo! Finance)
Making room for supertankers
Voters in Panama have approved a $5.3 billion expansion plan for the Panama Canal. The latest supertankers and massive container ships are too big to use the 92-year-old waterway as a shortcut between Asia and the Eastern U.S. The project aims to double the canal's size by 2014. "The expansion will basically help keep Panama in the competitive picture," said Arley Baker, a spokesman for the Port of Los Angeles. (Bloomberg)
A snack giant on a health kick
Frito-Lay is unveiling a line of snacks made with fruits and vegetables to show it cares about nutrition. The Flat Earth line will include veggie crisps -- such as Tangy Tomato Ranch -- and fruit crisps -- including Wild Berry Patch -- for $2.99 per 6-ounce bag. "Consumers are looking for healthier snacks," said Tess Zbuchalski, Frito-Lay's wellness chief. Nutritionist and author Cynthia Lair isn't sure Flat Earth delivers. "Once you pulverize and powder vegetables," she said, "there's not a lot left." (USA Today)
complete article here... (http://us.rd.yahoo.com/finance/allnews/columns/rss/*http://finance.yahoo.com/columnist/article/business/11218)
The Best of Today's Business
by Yahoo! Finance and The Week
Ford Bleeds, Shell Looks to the Future
Monday, October 23, 2006
NEWS AT A GLANCE
Ford's losses continue
Ford Motor Co. (F) said it lost $5.8 billion in the third quarter as a North American sales slump continued. Much of the bleeding stemmed from the cost of cutting thousands of jobs. CEO Alan Mulally called the results "unacceptable." (MarketWatch.com) It was the automaker's biggest loss in more than 14 years, although the $1.2 billion loss after excluding one-time expenses was in line with Wall Street expectations. "It was a pretty awful quarter," said fixed-income analyst Pete Hastings of Morgan Keegan & Co. (Bloomberg)
Shell seeks control
Royal Dutch Shell (RDS-B) is offering to buy out minority shareholders in its Canada unit for $6.8 billion. (Reuters) The company wants to step up production from Canadian oil sands as supplies dry up elsewhere. Extracting oil from sand is expensive, but "it's sensible to do the deal at this time" because oil prices are high, said analyst Jason Kenney of ING Wholesale Bank. (Bloomberg) Oil prices are being tugged downward for the second day on expectation that OPEC members will not comply with a 4 percent reduction in supply to stop a three-month slide in oil prices. (AP in Yahoo! Finance)
Making room for supertankers
Voters in Panama have approved a $5.3 billion expansion plan for the Panama Canal. The latest supertankers and massive container ships are too big to use the 92-year-old waterway as a shortcut between Asia and the Eastern U.S. The project aims to double the canal's size by 2014. "The expansion will basically help keep Panama in the competitive picture," said Arley Baker, a spokesman for the Port of Los Angeles. (Bloomberg)
A snack giant on a health kick
Frito-Lay is unveiling a line of snacks made with fruits and vegetables to show it cares about nutrition. The Flat Earth line will include veggie crisps -- such as Tangy Tomato Ranch -- and fruit crisps -- including Wild Berry Patch -- for $2.99 per 6-ounce bag. "Consumers are looking for healthier snacks," said Tess Zbuchalski, Frito-Lay's wellness chief. Nutritionist and author Cynthia Lair isn't sure Flat Earth delivers. "Once you pulverize and powder vegetables," she said, "there's not a lot left." (USA Today)
complete article here... (http://us.rd.yahoo.com/finance/allnews/columns/rss/*http://finance.yahoo.com/columnist/article/business/11218)