• AT&T Inc. (T) said it would scale back 12,000 jobs, about 4% of its workforce, between now and the end of 2009 to fight “economic pressures, a changing business mix and a more streamlined organizational structure.” It will also take a severance charge of nearly $600 million for the fourth quarter, Reuters reported.

• Credit Suisse Group AG (ADR: CS) will scale back its workforce, eliminating 5,300 workers, or about 11% of its workforce. Switzerland’s second-largest bank will also nix bonuses for its top executives, Bloomberg reported.

• Capital One Financial Corp. (COF) said it will acquire privately-held Chevy Chase Bank for $520 million in cash and stock, The Associated Press reported. Bethesda, Md.-based Chevy Chase Bank has branches primarily in Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C., and has about $11 billion in deposits.

• Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner said the government will offer 13.2 billion pesos ($3.9 billion) for an economic stimulus. The plan seeks to reduce loan costs to manufacturers, help finance new auto purchases and reduce export taxes on corn and wheat, Bloomberg reported.

• The number of U.S. workers on unemployment benefits rolls soared to 4.09 million last month, the highest level in 26 years, according to the Labor Department. The four-week moving average of initial claims, a less volatile measure, climbed to 524,500, also the highest since 1982.

• E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co. (DD) said yesterday (Thursday) that it will not turn a profit in the fourth quarter, and consequently, will be forced to cut 2,500 jobs and release 4,000 contractors by the end of this year. “We expect 2009 to be a very challenging year,” said DuPont chief financial officer Jeff Keefer.

• Williams-Sonoma Inc. (WSM) beat analysts’ third-quarter expectations, but the company’s revenue still fell 16% from a year ago, to  $752.1 million. The company lost $11 million, or 10 cents a share, for the in the three months ended November 2, compared with a profit of $27.1 million, or 25 cents a share, a year earlier. Analysts’ average forecast was a loss of 11 cents a share, according to Reuters Estimates.

• Crude oil prices fell more than 5% yesterday (Thursday) as employment and manufacturing data indicated the U.S. recession would be severe. Light, sweet crude for January delivery fell $2.49 to settle at $44.30 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Source: Global Investing Roundups, Friday, December 5th, 2008

• Lukoil (OTC ADR: LUKOY), Russia’s second-largest oil producer said its new Artic oilfield would allow it to match last year’s production, Reuters reported. Oil output from Russia fell in the first six months of the year for the first time in a decade, due to aging infrastructure, maturing fields and heavy taxes.

• Williams-Sonoma Inc. (WSM), America’s biggest gourmet-cookware retailer, yesterday (Thursday) announced second quarter net income fell to $18.4 million or 16 cents per share, from $26 million or 23 cents per share in the same period the year prior. Sales worsened through the quarter as the “macro-economic environment deteriorated,” Chief Executive Officer Howard Lester said, Bloomberg News reported.

• Financial Guaranty Insurance Co. (FGIC) avoided regulatory intervention by having MBIA Inc. (MBI) reinsure a portion of its municipal bond debt, but still faces solvency issues according to CreditSights. “While the deal will boost capital supporting the remaining FGIC policy-holders, it does little to solve the company’s longer-term solvency issues,” CreditSights analyst Rob Haines said in a report issued yesterday (Thursday), Reuters reported.

• Diageo PLC (ADR: DEO), London-based maker of Smirnoff vodka, Captain Morgan rum and others, yesterday (Thursday) said it earned $2.8 billion (1.52 pounds), an increase of 2.7% over the prior year. Diageo shares traded in London closed up 2% on the day of the announcement, the Associated Press reported.

• Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. (LEH) plans to layoff 1,500 employees. The battered investment bank will cut 6% of total employees prior to its announcement of third-quarter fiscal earnings on Sept. 15, The New York Times reported on its website yesterday (Thursday).

• Toyota Motor Corp. (ADR: TM) lowered its 2009 sales forecast to 9.7 million vehicles from a previous estimate of 10.4 million based on slower global demand. “The business environment is rapidly becoming more difficult. Things remain very uncertain, not just in the United States but in emerging countries and resource-rich nations as well,” Toyota President Katsuaki Watanabe told a press conference, AFP reported.

Source: Global Investing Roundups Friday, August 29th, 2008

• American Express Co. (AXP) said Thursday that it agreed to buy General Electric Co.’s (GE) Corporate Payment Services, a commercial credit card and corporate purchasing business, for $1.1 billion. The all-cash deal will give American Express more than 300 large corporate clients, notably its largest client, GE. American Express said it expects that deal will have a “minor dilutive impact” on earnings per share and return on equity “in the early years following the transaction.”

• Osaka-based Sharp Corp. (OTC:SHCAY) said it would spend $729 million to build a new solar cell plant next in western Japan, Reuters reported. The new plant will be built next to a Sharp plant that builds liquid crystal display panels. Sharp’s new plant is further evidence that there is a growing demand for solar, and that of course gives investors a few opportunities to capitalize early.

• The Federal Reserve said yesterday (Thursday) it would hold public meetings on Bank of America Corp.’s (BAC) planned acquisition of Countrywide Financial Corp. (CFC). The central bank is required by law to consider whether the merger offers benefits such as greater convenience and increased competition, or produces conflicts of interest or excessive concentration of resources, Bloomberg reported.

• Lennar Corp. (LEN), one of the nation’s largest homebuilders, reported a first quarter loss yesterday (Thursday), after taking charges to adjust land values, and new home sales and collapsed. Lennar reported a loss of $88.2 million, or 56 cents per share, in the three months ended Feb. 29 compared with profit of $68.6 million, or 43 cents per share, in the year ago quarter. “There is a growing consensus that the deterioration of the housing market has likely led us into recession,” chief executive Stuart Miller said in a statement, “and the stabilization and recovery of the housing market will likely lead us out.”

• Williams-Sonoma Inc. (WSM) posted a 2.9% rise in fiscal fourth-quarter net income and will cut its 2008 forecast in response to “one of the most challenging macro-economic environments we have seen in many years.” The company boosted its quarterly dividend by 4.3% to 12 cents a share after reporting net income of $124.6 million, or $1.15 a share, for the quarter ended Feb. 3. Net income was $121.1 million, or $1.06 a share, a year earlier.

• MF Global Ltd. (MF) stock rose $0.31, a 3% increase, to close at $10.04 yesterday on news that it will no longer provide Man Investments, a subsidiary of parent company Man Group PLC, with clearing services for certain over-the-counter forward foreign exchange trades. The change is expected to free up $800 million in capital that had been reserved to secure unrealized gains from the trades. MF Global has been suspected of having liquidity problems since late last week when Money Morning Investment Director Keith Fitz-Gerald warned of a possible “British Contagion.”

• Oracle Corp. (ORCL), the third largest U.S. software company, announced earnings after the market closed Wednesday. Sales were $5.35 billion for the fiscal quarter ended Feb. 29, a 21% increase over the prior year, but below analyst estimates of $5.42 billion in sales. Profit was $1.34 billion, or 26 cents per share, an increase from $1.03 billion, or 20 cents per share, for the same period a year ago. Shares dropped $1.51, a 7% decline, to close at $19.43 yesterday (Thursday), the day after the announcement.

• Shares of Google Inc. (GOOG) slumped $14.11, a 3% decline, to close at $444.08 yesterday (Thursday), the day after data released from comScore Inc. showed that Google’s paid clicks increased only 3% in February, compared to the same period in the prior year. Paid clicks tally the number of times Web users click on ad-supported links, generating revenue from the company’s advertising customers, DowJones reported.