Shares News

BOAO, China (Reuters) - Chinese banks will increasingly opt to list shares at home as China's financial markets mature, a senior banking regulator said on Saturday. Bank of China, the country's second-largest bank, is set to raise $8 billion next month in an initial public offering (IPO) in Hong Kong that bankers say could reignite a debate over whether it is right for China's big lenders to list ...

NEW YORK (Dow Jones) -- Ford Motor Co. on Friday posted a loss of more than $1 billion, its worst quarterly results in more than four years, with much of the damage linked to a costly turnaround campaign that includes shutting down plants and cutting up to 30,000 jobs. The Dearborn, Mich., automaker, struggling with shrinking sales in its core North American market and burdened by heavy labor a ...

NEW YORK (Dow Jones) -- Ford Motor Co. on Friday posted a loss of more than $1 billion in the midst of a sales decline and a turnaround plan that will eventually cut up to 30,000 jobs. The Dearborn, Mich., automaker swung to a first-quarter loss of $1.2 billion, or 64 cents a share, from a profit of $1.2 billion, or 60 cents a share, a year earlier. Ford (F) said adjusted income, which exclu ...

It is 8:05 on a Wednesday morning and Tracey Pierce is sipping a glass of champagne. // But this is not an unusual start to her working day. Ms Pierce, head of global business development at the London Stock Exchange, is toasting the launch of another foreign-based company on Europe’s largest stock market. “It is the beginning of your life at the stock exchange,” she congratulates the beaming e ...

SAN FRANCISCO (Dow Jones) -- Google Inc. shares rallied Friday as Wall Street cheered the search giant's 60% profit jump on its surging advertising business. Mountain View, Calif.-based Google (GOOG) reported first-quarter net income of $592 million, or $1.95 a share, up from $369 million or $1.29 a share a year earlier. The results include stock-option costs and other expenses. Analysts expected ...

SAN FRANCISCO (Dow Jones) -- Ecolab Inc. reported Friday a 12% increase in its first-quarter net profit and raised its outlook for the rest of the year, led by double-digit sales growth for its cleaning services in the U.S. and Latin America. For the three months ended March 31, St. Paul, Minn.-based Ecolab (ECL) posted net income of $77.9 million, or 30 cents a share, up from $69.4 million, or ...

NEW YORK (Dow Jones) -- 3M Co. said Friday first-quarter net income rose nearly 17% on across-the-board gains, particularly in the diversified manufacturer's industrial and safety segments. St. Paul, Minn.-based 3M (MMM) , part of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, also lifted its profit and sales outlook for 2006. Shares of 3M climbed to a 52-week high of $85 on an intraday basis and traded la ...

NEW YORK (Dow Jones) -- Shares of electronic options-trading firm OptionsXpress Holdings Inc. fell Friday morning despite posting strong first- quarter earnings, as a decline in average commissions and slightly slower March trading activity tempered investors' enthusiasm for the stock, which has more than doubled in price over the past year. OptionsXpress (OXPS) on Friday reported first-quarter n ...

SAN FRANCISCO (Dow Jones) -- Halliburton Co. shares dipped Friday after the firm reported almost $500 million in first-quarter earnings and more than $5 billion in revenue, as record results at its energy-services operations overcame slowing U.S. military work in Iraq. A day after setting an all-time high $83.97 on Thursday, Halliburton shares traded down by 1.4% to $81.65 on Friday. Houston ...

By Tarmo Virki and Lucas van Grinsven HELSINKI/AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - The world's largest cellphone maker Nokia (NOK1V.HE: Quote, Profile, Research) will unveil new multimedia phone models, including an N73 camera phone, at an event in Berlin next week, sources close to the company told Reuters. With its new N-series phones Nokia will take a step toward more stylish and lighter models, b ...