• Microsoft Corp.’s (Nasdaq: MSFT) Bing search engine has gained market share from rivals Google Inc. (Nasdaq: GOOG) andYahoo! Inc. (Nasdaq: YHOO) just weeks after its launch. The Redmond, Wash.-based software giant grabbed 12.1% of total U.S. Internet searches for the workweek of June 8-12, according to market research firm comScore, Inc. (Nasdaq: SCOR). That was up from the previous week’s share of 11.5% and May’s share of 8.2%. While the start is good for Bing, Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer was cautiously optimistic. “We have had some very good initial response,” Ballmer said. “I don’t want to over-set expectations. We are going to have to be tenacious and keep up the pace of innovation over a long period of time.” comScore did not offer the share numbers for Google or Yahoo in the same periods, but said it would have a bigger picture for the entire month when the final tallies are in.

• Natural gas reserves in the United Stats are much bigger than once thought, according to a report released yesterday (Thursday) from the Potential Gas Committee. The country possesses a resource base of 1,836 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) and a total available future supply of 2,074 Tcf. Some, such as Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens, are pushing hard for natural gas as an alternative fuel for transportation. “I launched the Pickens Plan a year ago to help reduce our dangerous dependence on foreign oil, and using our abundant supply of natural gas as a transition fuel for fleet vehicles and heavy-duty trucks is a key element of that plan,” Pickens told The Associated Press. “On the same day this report is going out, diesel prices are again on the rise, squeezing the trucking industry. Now more than ever we need to take action to enact energy reform that will immediately reduce oil imports.”

• Shares of Carnival Corp. (NYSE: CCL) closed up more than 7% yesterday (Thursday) following news that the cruise line operator beat Wall Street earnings estimates and discounting is starting to abate. Carnival’s net income fell 32% to $264 million, or 33 cents per share for the quarter ended May 31. That compares to a net income of $390 million, or 50 cents per share. Average analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg News had Carnival earning 29 cents per share. Executives called the rise of fares on some itineraries since the end of March “encouraging.”

• Prices of Treasury bonds fell for a second day as the U.S. government said note sales will increase to a record $104 billion next week and other reports showed the deepest recession since the Great Depression may be coming to an end.  Yields on ten-year notes, which move in opposition to prices, touched the highest in almost a week amid concern President Barack Obama’s record borrowing will overwhelm demand, Bloombergreported.  The yield gap between two- and 10-year notes widened to 2.56%, the most in over a week. “There’s so much focus on the borrowing amounts Treasury will face over the next couple of years,” said Carl Riccadonna, a senior economist at Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. (NYSE: DB) in New York. Deutsche is one of 17 primary dealers that trade with the Federal Reserve. “There’s evidence that the economy may be turning the corner. That’s pushing yields up.“

• General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) may have to consider the government’s new stance on regulatory reform when it restructures its giant GE Capital finance unit.  The possibility that the Federal Reserve might gain regulatory authority over the unit arose when President Barack Obama this week unveiled his proposal for the most sweeping overhaul of U.S. financial regulations since the 1930s.   He proposed the central bank oversee not just banks but “other large firms that pose a risk to the entire economy in the event of failure.”  GE investors said the label could apply to the U.S. conglomerate’s finance business, a major commercial lender. “I could definitely see that potentially becoming an issue if companies like GE and their finance arms came under more scrutiny,” said Perry Adams, vice president and senior portfolio manager at Huntington Private Financial Group in Traverse City, Michigan, told Reuters.

• Tourism in Mexico took a severe hit from the swine flu scare as Cancun, Cozumel, Los Cabos and other destinations reported fewer foreign tourists since the outbreak that began in April killed 108 people, the Mexican Health Ministry said. Cancun’s hotel occupancy plunged as low as 20% in May, when 13 inns with 5,200 rooms shut down, Bloombergreported.  It rebounded to 45% in the first week of June and is forecast to reach 60% next month, said Rodrigo de la Pena, president of the Cancun Hotel Association. That’s still down from 80% last July. “We’re recovering quicker than we thought,” de la Pena said. “The hotels have almost all their workforce back and tourists are arriving.” To fend off unemployment, the government rolled out a $91 million campaign urging Mexicans to vacation at home and encouraging hotels and restaurants to cut prices.

• Discover Financial Services (NYSE: DFS), the fourth-largest U.S. credit card network, reported a smaller-than-expected quarterly loss as it cut costs and bad loans weren’t as bad as forecast, sending its shares up more than 4%. The company’s expenses fell 10% after it cut 500 jobs and trimmed marketing costs.  Credit card default rates also remained well below levels of its bigger rivals. The Riverwoods, Ill.-based company posted a net income of $226 million, or 43 cents per share for the quarter ended May 31. That compares to a net income of $234 million, or 48 cents per share in the same period last year.

Source: Investment News Briefs Friday, June 19, 2009

• FedEx Corp. (FDX) mixed bad news with good in its latest quarterly report. After posting a profit for its second fiscal quarter, the package delivery giant also said it’s suspending pension contributions, freezing new hires, cutting its CEO’s pay by 20% in order to cut $800 million by the end of its fiscal 2010, Reuters reported.

• Wal-Mart Inc. (WMT) store representatives told Bloomberg that the world’s largest retailer would begin selling Apple Inc.’s (APPL) iPhones by the end of the year. The move is seen as positive for both companies, as it gives Wal-Mart a hot new item and Apple a gigantic new sales outlook.

• General Motors Corp. (GM) denied a report yesterday (Thursday) that the company reopened merger talks with Chrysler LLC. The report first appeared in The Wall Street Journal. “We have had no talks with them since we announced during our third-quarter earnings call that the talks had been suspended,” GM spokesman Tony Cervone said, Reuters reported.

• Credit card firm Discovery Financial Services (DFS) added itself to the list of companies applying to become a bank holding company, thus making it eligible for federal TARP money. The company also reported a $432 million profit in its fiscal fourth-quarter, up from a $56 million loss the previous year, MarketWatch reported.

• The Labor Department said yesterday (Thursday) that the number of filings for initial jobless benefits fell to a seasonally adjusted 554,000 from an upwardly revised figure of 575,000 the previous week. Still, claims remain near the highest level since 1982.

• Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) has agreed to share its 29% in Sanyo Electric Co. Ltd. (OTC: SANYY) to Panasonic Corp. (ADR: PC) for at least $6.4 billion, Reuters reported. The purchase will make Panasonic Japan’s No. 2 electronics manufacturer after Hitachi Ltd with $120 billion in annual sales. Goldman had previously rejected two other offers from Panasonic.

• The U.S. economy will begin to rebound late next year or early in 2010, IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn told Spanish newspaper Expansion. He based this view on the likelihood that the housing market will soon bottom and demand will follow the recent wave of fiscal stimuli. Though he added: “We recognize, however that the possibility of a recovery is plagued with uncertainty.”

• Carnival Corp. (CCL), the world’s largest cruise operator, reported a 4% rise in fourth-quarter earnings yesterday (Thursday), but lowered its 2009 outlook as consumers will likely cancel or delay vacations for the next year. The company’s quarterly revenue rose 6% to $3.3 billion.

Source: Global Investing Roundups Friday, December 19th, 2008