Month: September 2012

MGM Resorts International is planning a new project in an unexpected place: Springfield, Massachusetts. The current plans are to bring entertainment venues, a casino resort, and new housing all to downtown Springfield.The city has been coping with a string of bad luck recently, having trouble with both finances and high unemployment. In addition, a good portion of its downtown area was destroyed by a 2011 tornado. MGM’s plans would see much of this damage replaced with new developments. While the city officials are eager to hear proposals for the project, church groups have vowed to fight the encroachment of gambling establishments in Springfield. According to the Boston Globe, up to 3 other casino companies are also making proposals to the city.

From Fnno.com, this is the Financial News Network. Here’s a few things to watch for in the financial world today August 23.Hewlett-Packard (NYSE:HPQ) on investors minds this morning after it reported its biggest quarterly loss in at least two decades. Net profit for the third quarter came in at $2 billion or $1.00 per share, a 9% decline from the same time a year ago. Sales also fell 5% to $29.7 billion, mostly due to lower demand for PCs. The company’s CEO Meg Whitman responded to the earnings saying HP is still in a multi year turnaround process and so far things are looking good despite some headwinds.Another company with some dismal earnings this morning is Big Lots (NYSE:BIG). The retailer reported profit of $22.1 million or 36 cents a share for the second quarter, down 38% from the same time last year. Sales did rise 4.4% to $1.22 billion but both earnings and revenue missed the street’s expectations. The company is also in the midst of a slew of executive changes, including the appointment of Timothy Johnson as its new chief financial officer.Finally, Qantas Airways saying it struggled this past quarter and has decided to cancel orders for 35 of Boeing’s 787 aircraft. After the Australian airline posted its first annual loss in years, it has decided to pass on paying Boeing the $8.5 billion needed for the new fleet. This is not only bad news for Qantas but also bad news for Boeing. The cancellation is the biggest on record and hurts the struggling aircraft manufacturer who already has had delays in its Dreamliner model line.Those were a few things to watch out for here on the Financial News Network. For more coverage and analysis of the business world follow us on twitter @FNNOnline or check out our website at fnno.com.

Microsoft (NYSE:MSFT) putting on a new look this morning. The software company announced Thursday a new updated logo, its first logo redesign in 25 years.The new branding is one of the many changes being made ahead of the company’s launch of Windows 8. The multicolored wavy window is now replaced by four equally sized squares that represent the different products and solutions Microsoft offers. The type face also changed slightly to give it a more simple look. On Microsoft’s blog, General Manager of brand strategy Jeffery Meisner says it will already be used on the company’s website Microsoft.com and will appear in stores over the next few months. The change in branding could work either way for Microsoft, a company that has been struggling against competitors such as Apple and Google. Who knows, this could be the change the company has been looking for to get that extra edge on the competition.

The housing market seems to be on its way to recovery. New home sales in the United States grew 3.6% in July. This matches the high reached in May, which was the highest since April 2010. Over the past year, home sales have risen 25%. However, sales of new homes are still nowhere near 700,000, which is the annual pace that economists deem healthy. Today, the seasonally-adjusted annual rate of new-home sales reached 372,000. Homes are more affordable now, which mortgage rates at near-record lows. Still, the new home market may be rebounding slowly because there simply aren’t that many new homes to buy. Last month, the number of new homes up for sale came in at 142,000, which is the lowest on record since 1963.

Hormel Foods Corp. came out with its third-quarter earnings, which rose 13%. For the quarter ending July 29th, earnings per share came in at 41 cents, up from 36 cents a year ago. This exactly matched analyst predictions. Hormel’s reported profit was $111.2 million, while sales rose to $2 billion, up 5.1%. Hormel is the company of Spam and Dinty Moore stew. Over the past three years, its revenue has been growing as consumers choose to cut costs and eat at home more frequently. However, rising commodities costs, along with shoppers’ refusals to pay higher prices, have kept the company’s profits from skyrocketing. Hormel’s stock is up 1.37%, at $28.81.

From FNNO.com, This is the financial news network. I’m Kimberly Odom. Billionaire investor Carlos Slim Helú sold 1.5 million shares of Saks Inc. this week bringing his stake down to 25 million shares.According to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the series of sales started early on Wednesday. The shares sold for around $11.75 each.The shares were acquired by Slim through his Mexican trust fund. In afternoon trading, Saks’ shares finished down over 1% to $11.66. At 25 million shares, Slim’s Saks holding is worth nearly $288.8 million.Even after selling, Slim is still Saks’ single-largest shareholder. Behind Carlos is Diego Della Valle, Tod’s SpA chairman and chief executive officer. Valle’s stake totals 22.7 million shares.For more coverage and analysis of the business world follow us on twitter @FNNonline or check out our website at fnno.com.

United Airlines officially received its first Boeing 787 Dreamliner Saturday, making it the first North American airline to have one. The new aircraft is fitted to carry about 220 customers, offering larger windows, more storage space, and lower emissions. The carrier will be putting the new jet through a training program for the next month as a part of the certification process.United is planning the first commercial Dreamliner flight on November 4th, from Houston to Chicago. The Dreamliner fleet will then serve domestic flights for the month of November before taking on their intended international service starting in December.

Stoneridge (NYSE:SRI) was downgraded from Buy to Hold at BB&T Capital today. The stock closed yesterday at $5.95 on volume of 364,000 shares, above average daily volume of 75,000.Stoneridge (NYSE:SRI) has potential upside of 86.5% based on a current price of $5.27 and analysts’ consensus price target of $9.83. The stock should find initial resistance at its 50-day moving average (MA) of $6.36 and further resistance at its 200-day MA of $8.15.In the past 52 weeks, Stoneridge share prices have been bracketed by a low of $4.53 and a high of $10.89 and closed yesterday at $5.95, 31% above that low price. The 200-day and 50-day moving averages have moved 0.68% lower and 0.49% lower over the past week, respectively.

Panoro CEO interview COMING SOON!

Discover Financial Services has come to a settlement agreement with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The deal will see Discover paying around $200 million in refunds to customers in addition to $14 million in civil fees. Discover is being forced to pay these fees after it was found that its sales campaign misled customers. Specifically, its telemarketing practices were found to be deceptive, often leading customers to believe they were getting things for free, or would not be charged until after a review process. In addition, customers were enrolled for product plans without their consent, and subsequently charged for them. Lastly, Discover was found to have withheld disqualifying factors from customers for certain programs.In addition to the hefty fees, Discover must change its marketing tactics to be less misleading.