• Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ), the world’s largest maker of personal computers, offered a preview of its fiscal fourth-quarter profits – reporting that it will beat market expectations and raise its fiscal 2009 outlook. “HP is gaining market share in an extremely strong competitive position. They’ve got share gains, combined with very aggressive cost reduction,” Shannon Cross of Cross Research told Reuters.

• Lars Olofsson, Executive Vice President of Nestle SA, has been named Chief Executive Officer of Carrefour S.A., the world’s second-largest retailer. He’ll join the company in at the Carrefour’s next shareholder meeting in January, MarketWatch reported.

• Belgium’s InBev NV officially completed its $52 billion, or $70 a share, acquisition of Anheuser-Busch Cos., Inc. (BUD), as it won its last regulatory approval from China. The combined company will be based in St. Louis and named Anheuser-Busch InBev, Dow Jones reported.

• The Home Depot, Inc. (HD) reported a 31% decline in earnings during its fiscal third quarter ended Nov. 2. Profit declined 31% as well, but the home retailer expected steeper loses in the face of the U.S. housing crisis, Reuters reported.

• Kuwait’s Gulf Bank – the country’s second-largest lender – said Monday that it had lost $1.4 billion (375 million dinars) as a result of trading in derivatives and other financial instruments for customers who subsequently defaulted. The bank also said its board had resigned. To allay investor fears, Gulf Bank announced a plan to double its capital base by issuing 1.25 billion new shares. Investors knew there were losses. But the amount was nearly double the original estimate of $750 million. Trading in Gulf Bank shares remains suspended for their fourth week, Forbes.com reported.

• Mexican retail and media tycoon Ricardo Salinas Pliego could be building a controlling stake in bankrupt electronics retailer Circuit City Stores Inc. (OTC: CCTYQ), Reuters reported. Salinas already owns 28% of the company, having accumulated stock in the open market before and after the retail chain went bankrupt.

• Wholesale prices experienced the biggest one-month drop in more than 60 years in October, The Associated Press reported. Wholesale prices dropped by a record 2.8% last month, as the cost of oil and other raw materials declined.

Source: Global Investing Roundups Wednesday, November 19th, 2008

• Beleaguered banking giant Citigroup Inc. (C) will buy back more than $7 billion worth of illiquid auction rate securities under a settlement, the Office of the New York Attorney General said yesterday (Thursday). Citi will also have to pay two civil penalties of $50 million each: One to New York state and the second to the North American Securities Administrators Association. The settlement calls for Citi to buy back the securities by Nov. 5. The deal is aimed at relieving about 40,000 customers who have been unable to sell the securities since Feb. 12, according to MarketWatch.com.

• The number of U.S. workers filing new claims for unemployment benefits unexpectedly rose last week to a six-year high, the Labor Department reported yesterday (Thursday). Initial claims for unemployment benefits rose 7,000 to 455,000 after seasonal adjustments in the week ended Aug. 2 – the highest level since March 2002.

• Toyota Motor Corp. (ADR: TM) said yesterday (Thursday) that its fiscal first-quarter profit dropped 28% to $3.23 billion, as demand was stifled by a sluggish global economy. The strengthening yen, which eroded the profits of Japanese exporters, cost Toyota $1.8 billion, the company said. Quarterly sales fell 4.7% to $56.8 billion.

• Brazil’s statistics agency is forecasting a 9% increase in national grain production this year as more fields were planted amid rising world food prices, The Associated Press reported. The agency says Brazil’s grain harvest will rise to 145 million tons this year from 133 million tons in 2007.

• Brazil’s Vale (ADR: RIO) mining company announced that net income hit $5 billion in the second quarter, as demand from emerging markets resulted in a higher price for the company’s iron ore, according to Bloomberg News. On a per-share basis, profits rose to $1.02 a share in the second quarter, up from 85 cents a share a year ago. Revenue increased 22% to a record $10.9 billion in the quarter, up from $8.9 billion a year ago, Vale said.

• Nestle SA, the world’s biggest food-and-beverage company, reported 6.1% growth in first-half net profit yesterday (Thursday). The company said it earned $4.93 billion during the first six months of the year, an increase of $282 million from the same period last year. Nestle posted $ 50.18 billion in sales during the first half, up 3.8% from a year ago.

Source: Global Investing Roundups Friday, August 8th, 2008

Only 21% of Europeans are willing to eat genetically engineered food, according to a survey by the European Commission.

Some nations, such as France, have banned the planting of genetically modified crops, while others like Germany have enacted laws that allowed foods to be labeled as “GM free.”

Critics insist that such foods could pose risks to health and the environment, and further assert that genetically modified crops produce better yields.

“Most testing is carried out by the very biotech companies that have the most to gain from results that say GM food is safe,” the activist group Friends of the Earth says on its Web site. “Growing GM crops also threatens wildlife and the production of GM-free foods. What’s more, some GM crops could allow more pesticides to be used.”

But global demand for foodstuffs is on the rise, and as supplies tighten, prices continue to soar. For instance, global corn consumption is expected to rise to 793.1 million tons in 2009, up from a record 778.9 million tons this year. Stockpiles are expected to fall to just 103.3 million tons next year. Corn prices have surged about 75% over the past year and 17.5% since early June.

The price increases have trickled into the meat and dairy industry, as corn is widely used in animal feeds. Tyson Foods, Inc. (TSN), the Arkansas-based meat producer, has predicted that retail chicken prices will have to jump by double-digit percentages in 2009 for poultry processors to recoup their feeding costs, according to the Times Online.

Higher feed prices will eventually filter through to the cost of milk, cheese and yogurt, too, since 65% to 75% of a dairy farmer’s production costs are for feed, Chris Galen, a spokesman for the National Milk Producers Federation, told The Associated Press.

The World Bank estimates that worldwide food prices have risen a scorching 83% over the past three years. And the president of the World Bank, Robert B. Zoellick, estimates that the spike in food prices could push 100 million people in low-income countries deeper into poverty, as food costs cut into already meager earnings.

The biotech industry claims it can help. Research by the U.S. Department of Agriculture found that one variety of genetically modified corn yielded 9% more than conventional corn. The International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications, which encourages developing countries to adopt GM technology, says GM cotton has increased yields by 50% in India.

Monsanto Co. (MON), whose insect resistant crops have gained widespread popularity among U.S. farmers, has pledged to double yields on corn and soy by 2030.

Genetically modified crops have become so popular in countries like the United States that they are actually cheaper and more readily available than their non-GM counterparts.

“We cannot get hold of non-GM corn nowadays,” Yoon Chang-gyu, director of the Korean Corn Processing Industry Association, told the International Herald Tribune.

According to Yoon, non-modified corn costs Korean millers about $450 per metric ton, up from $143 a metric ton in 2006. Genetically engineered corn costs about $350 per metric ton.

In 2007, 75% of the corn grown in the United States was genetically modified, up from 40% in 2003.

With food prices soaring and GM crops posting impressive results in the United States, Argentina and Brazil, the tide of opinion is beginning to turn in Europe. In Britain, the National Farmers’ Union is asking supermarket chains to drop their GM-free requirements for all but organic foods.

And the National Beef Association issued a statement earlier this year demanding that “all resistance” to GM crops “be abandoned immediately in response to shifts in world demand for food, the growing danger of global food shortages, and the prospect of declining domestic animal production.”

Yesterday (Monday), Peter Brabeck, chairman of Nestle SA, the world’s biggest food company, joined the chorus in calling for a change in European policy.

“You cannot today feed the world without genetically modified organisms,” Brabeck, told the Financial Times. “We have the means to make agriculture sustainable in the long term. What we don’t see for the time being is the political will.”

Organic crops are “a nice treat for those who can afford it,” Brabeck said.

“The European Union used political pressure in Africa to prevent some of those countries using genetically modified organisms,” he said. “I don’t think that was necessarily helpful for the agriculture of those countries nor for their supplies.”

Monsanto Chief Executive, Hugh Grant, recently told BusinessWeek that his company would distribute seeds to African farmers royalty free. However, he was quick to point out that this was not a “feel-good thing,” but that “satisfying the demand curve is a great business opportunity.”

As such, critics have been quick to accuse biotech companies of exploiting the world’s food crisis to further their own agenda.

“Where politicians and technocrats have always wanted to push GMOs, they are jumping on this bandwagon and using this as an excuse,” Helen Holder, who campaigns against biotech foods on behalf of Friends of the Earth, told IHT.

Regardless of that view, policymakers have been forced into reconsidering their once ardent stance against GM crops. The European Union has launched a study into whether increased use of the crops could help to curb soaring food costs across the world. Also, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has called on the European Union to relax its rules on importing genetically modified animal feed.

“His view is that we must be guided by the scientific evidence,” a spokesman told the Independent.

Should scientific evidence continue to accrue on behalf of GM foods, a company like Monsanto might soon find itself with a whole new crop of clientele.

Source:  “Frankenfoods” Gain Greater Acceptance as Food Prices Skyrocket