U.S. stock rally translates into weekly gain

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — U.S. stocks tallied robust gains Friday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average capping its longest weekly win streak in six months, after a surge in retail sales and Google Inc.’s earnings lifted sentiment.

“Retail sales were a little better than expected, and earnings so far have been pretty good,” said Randy Frederick, director of trading and derivatives at the Schwab Center for Financial Research.

He noted the S&P 500 Index SPX +1.74%was testing 1,220, the upper part of a two-month trading range.

On Friday, the index added 20.92 points, or 1.7%, to 1,224.58, with energy, natural-resource and technology companies leading the gains among its 10 industry groups.

Tallying a second weekly gain, the S&P 500 rose 6% from last Friday’s close, its biggest weekly rise since July 2009.

Closing in positive territory for 2011 for the first time in more than six weeks, the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA +1.45%  added 166.36 points, or 1.5%, to 11,644.49, a level that has the blue-chip index 4.9% higher on the week and scoring its third consecutive weekly advance, the last occurrence of which took place in the three-week period ending April 8.

Up 7.6% from last Friday’s finish, the Nasdaq Composite Index COMP +1.82%  advanced 47.61 points, or 1.8%, to 2,667.85. Year-to-date, the Nasdaq is up 0.6%. It was the Nasdaq Composite’s biggest weekly gain since March 2009.

Volume was light. For every stock on the decline, more than five rose on the New York Stock Exchange, where 847 million shares traded; composite volume neared 3.7 billion shares.

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Debit vs. credit: Plastic war heats up

For customers angry about rising debit card fees, banks are promoting an alternative that, they say, is just as convenient, but with lower fees and better rewards. They call it a "credit card."

In Paris, finance ministers and central bankers from the Group of 20 started discussions on Europe’s debt trouble, with officials reportedly thinking about writing down as much as 50% on Greek bonds. Read more on G-20.

“There are a lot of efforts under way to push those potential default concerns out through the end of the year, to get that off the table for the rest of 2011,” said Schwab’s Frederick.

Equities relinquished some of their gains after the Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan preliminary index of consumer sentiment for October fell to 57.5 from 59.4 in September.

More inspiring for riskier investments, the Commerce Department on Friday reported a 1.1% increase in retail sales for September, the largest growth since February, following a 0.3% gain for August, with the latter figure revised up from the prior estimate. See more on retail sales.

The data offered “encouraging news for the U.S. economy,” noted analysts at Wells Fargo in emailed commentary.

Shares of internet-search engine Google Inc. GOOG -0.22%  rallied 5.9% a day after it reported better-than-anticipated sales for the third quarter.

By Kate Gibson, MarketWatch

Credit -marketwatch

Apple Steve Jobs die at

In an email to employees, Tim Cook, Jobs’s handpicked successor, called Jobs a “visionary and creative genius” as well as a “dear friend and inspiring mentor.”

His statement did not give any further details of Job’s condition prior to his passing.

“Steve leaves behind a company that only he could have built, and his spirit will forever be the foundation of Apple,” Cook wrote.

Jobs’s passing leaves behind the legacy of an iconic executive who has led Apple since 1997 — and has since managed to shake not one but three massive industries to their roots.

Known for his meticulous attention to detail, as well as a keen eye for aesthetics, a prescient sense of where technology was heading and an occasionally hot temper, Jobs has arguably left the stage at the top of his game.

Jobs leaves behind a company that has become a power broker across the technology, media and telecommunications industries. Ironically, he has done this as Apple’s legacy business — the Mac computer — inhabits much the same spot it has for decades, as a well-regarded but niche player in the PC market.

A decision not to license the operating system to other hardware manufacturers back in the 1980s relegated Apple to a bit-player role in the PC market relative to then-archrival Microsoft Corp. MSFT -0.12% , which managed to grab a dominant market share for its Windows OS that has remained to this day.

Jobs was ousted from Apple in 1985 only to return in 1996 through the company’s acquisition of his NeXT Computer — and ended up doing an end run around Microsoft.

Rather than continuing to wager the company’s fortunes on the slowing PC market, Jobs took Apple into such rapidly evolving areas as digital music and, later, cell phones. This turned out to be especially prescient, as the computing market has shifted to mobile devices that can pack the processing power and applications that PCs did just a few years prior.

A decade after its launch, Apple’s iPod still controls about two-thirds of the market for digital music players. Jobs was able to use the iPod to convince music executives to allow him to sell songs for 99 cents apiece.

That, along with later capabilities to play video over the device, helped turn the company’s iTunes store into the world’s largest retailer of music, TV shows and movies in digital form.

Jobs cemented his position in the media landscape through Walt Disney Co.’s DIS -0.86% purchase of Pixar Entertainment, which Jobs had bought from “Star Wars” creator George Lucas in 1986.

Pixar, having morphed into a producer of high-end computer-animated films such as the “Toy Story” series, was acquired by Disney in a $7.4 billion deal in 2006, making Jobs the largest shareholder at the entertainment conglomerate.

These uncanny moves have left Apple in an enviable position. The company still derives most of its profits from selling devices. But it also gets a cut of every song, movie, book and application it moves through its system to be used on its products.

As such, Apple as a company is unlikely to revisit the near-ruin that it experienced once before in Jobs’s absence. A deep pool of talent, extensive relationships with developers and an all-but-bottomless pile of money mean Apple has plenty of resources to continue innovation and defend its hard-won territory for many years to come

Credits -apple, -

Kraft boss bumps Pepsi chief as top U.S. woman exec

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Kraft Foods boss Irene Rosenfeld is the most powerful woman in U.S. business, Fortune magazine said on Thursday, bumping PepsiCo Inc chief Indra Nooyi into second spot after five years on top.

The 14th annual ranking was determined by the size and importance of the woman's business in the global economy, the health and direction of the business, the arc of the woman's career and her social and cultural relevance.

"Rosenfeld made a big show of power this year with her decision to split Kraft into two companies, a reversal of her previous strategy of expanding through acquisitions," Fortune magazine said of the Kraft chief executive, who led a hostile $18 billion takeover of Britain's Cadbury last year.

"On Nooyi's watch, PepsiCo has forged further into nutrition-focused products," Fortune said. "But Nooyi has been criticized for taking her eye off the core North American soda business, which has lost share to Coke."

Nooyi was the only woman in the top 10 most powerful to be among the top 10 highest paid, coming in at No. 9 after earning $14 million last year. The highest paid woman was Oracle President Safra Catz with $42 million.

Just a week after being appointed chief executive of Hewlett-Packard Co, Meg Whitman -- who was chief executive of eBay Inc until 2008 and last year ran a failed bid to become governor of California -- returned to the ranking of the top 50 most powerful business women at No. 9.

"While her ascent to the role is a sure sign of her power, it remains to be seen if she can fix the computer maker and bring order to its dysfunctional board," Fortune said.

Whitman filled a top 10 vacancy left by the firing over the phone last month of Yahoo Inc Chief Executive Carol Bartz, who has now dropped off the Fortune list.

PUSH FOR WOMEN IN BOARDROOMS

Media mogul Oprah Winfrey fell 10 spots to No. 16 with Fortune saying her influence had waned after hosting the final season of "The Oprah Winfrey Show" in May. Johnson & Johnson Vice Chairman, Executive Committee, Sherilyn McCoy, filled that top 10 opening, coming in at the 10th spot.

Otherwise the top of the list was largely unchanged from 2010.

Archer Daniels Midland Chief Executive Patricia Woertz came in at No. 3, followed by DuPont Chief Executive Ellen Kullman, Wellpoint Chief Executive Angela Braly and Avon Products Chief Executive Andrea Jung.

Rounding out the top 10 was IBM Senior Vice President Ginni Rometty at No. 7, followed by Xerox Chief Executive Ursula Burns.

While women represent about half of the United States' white-collar workers, they are a rarity in the upper echelons of business, with female chief executives running just 3 percent of companies in the Standard & Poor's 500 index.

More companies have been focusing recently on increasing their female board representation as more and more research has shown that companies with women directors or even just more diverse boards tend to do better than those with executive teams made up entirely of men.

Some countries such as Norway and Spain have introduced quotas requiring a minimum level of female board representation.

A former British trade minister wants FTSE 100 companies to have 25 percent women on boards by 2015 and EU internal market commissioner Michel Barnier has put gender diversity for bank boards on his radar in the wake of the financial crisis.

Credit -yahoonews

What is Marketing

What is marketing?

... 1. You see a gorgeous girl at a party. You go up to her and say: ' I am very rich. Marry me! ' - That's Direct Marketing'

... 2. You're at a party with a bunch of friends and see a gorgeous girl. One of your friends goes up to her and pointing at you says: ' He's very rich. 'Marry him.' -That's Advertising'

... 3. You see a gorgeous girl at a party. You go up to her and get her telephone number. The next day, you call and say: ' Hi, I'm very rich. 'Marry me - That's Telemarketing'

... 4. You're at a party and see gorgeous girl. You get up and straighten your tie, you walk up to her and pour her a drink, you open the door (of the car)for her, pick up her bag after she drops it, offer her ride and then say:'By the way, I'm rich. Will you 'Marry Me?' - That's Public Relations'

... 5. You're at a party and see gorgeous girl. She walks up to you and says:'You are very rich! 'Can you marry ! Me?' - That's Brand Recognition'


6. You see a gorgeous girl at a party. You go up to her and say: 'I am very rich. Marry me!' She gives you a nice hard slap on your face. - ' That's Customer Feedback '

7. You see a gorgeous girl at a party. You go up to her and say: 'I am very rich. Marry me!' And she introduces you to her husband. - 'That's demand and supply gap'


8. You see a gorgeous girl at a party. You go up to her and before you say anything, another person come and tell her: 'I'm rich. Will you marry me?' and she goes with him - 'That's competition eating into your market share'

9. You see a gorgeous girl at a party. You go up to her and before you say: 'I'm rich, Marry me!' your wife arrives. - ' That's restriction for entering new markets'

JUST FOR LAUGH

Global Growth at Risk

U.S. stocks were thrashed Thursday, with the major indexes taking their hardest single-day hit in five weeks, amid widespread selling of stocks and commodities on escalated fears about the global economy.

After falling almost 528 points during the session, the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA -3.51%  finished with a drop of 391.01 points, or 3.5%, at 10,733.83.

The battering left the Dow nearly 14 points above its lowest close for the year and represented its steepest drop since Aug. 18.

All 30 of the blue-chip index’s components lost ground, with United Technologies Corp. UTX +0.16%  hardest hit, its shares tumbling 8.8%.

The negative sentiment taking hold among investors is “driven by the bank runs in Europe, and some of the European banks are rumored to be looking in the Middle East for capital; it’s like a replay of 2008 for some of the U.S. banks,” said Charlie Smith, chief investment officer at Fort Pitt Capital.

“When you talk about bank recapitalizing and going to places like Dubai to do it, everything echoes back to 2008 except economic fundamentals,” said Lazard’s Hogan.

U.S. stocks were part of a global stock selloff as investors also reacted to the Federal Reserve’s statement late Wednesday. The central bank warned of risks to the economic outlook and unveiled a bond-swap program, seen as something that would have minimal sway in revitalizing growth.

“The Fed cannot engender growth; the Fed cannot engender risk-taking. What it can do is buffer declines, but let’s see a real decline,” said Smith at Fort Pitt Capital, pointing out that the S&P 500 is down 5.8% for the year to date, on a total return basis. “Let’s talk when we make it 18% or 20%. The Fed is going to hold their fire until they see the whites of people’s panicked eyes.” 

Credit -marketwatch

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