Financial news on December 16, 2011
Business and Financial news
Kevin W Sharer, chief executive at biotechnology company Amgen, and Dr Roger M Perlmutter, company's head of research, will step down in 2012 after more than a decade on the job; changes come as Amgen's once-torrid growth has cooled and its stock price has stagnated. Read more..
Stuart Elliott Advertising column notes that WPP, massive agency that handles all campaigns for Ford Motor, will create a separate, boutique agency in New York to work with company as it tries to reinvigorate its Lincoln brand of luxury cars. Read more..
St Jude Medical announces that its Riata defibrillator leads have been recalled by the Food and Drug Administration because of their potential to injure or kill patients; devices, which the company is no longer selling, remain implanted in an estimated 79,000 patients. Read more..
Oil pipeline operator Kinder Morgan will purchase leading rival El Paso Corporation for $21 billion, in what amounts to massive bet on the booming natural gas industry; bet is somewhat risky considering controversy surrounding hydraulic fracturing technique, which has already been banned in some areas. Read more..
Highlights from the DealBook newsletter. Read more..
Labor Department reports number of Americans filing new claims for jobless benefits drops 19,000 to 366,000, lowest figure has been in three and a half years. Read more..
Top executives at Olympus may seek to keep their jobs despite accounting scandal, intensifying standoff with ousted chief executive Michael C Woodford and throwing company's future into further disarray; company's president Shuichi Takayama contends that officers and board members who were not directly implicated in the scheme to cover up past losses should not have to step down, reversing his promise that management and directors would resign en masse. Read more..
News analysis; spiraling costs of sports programming for American television subscribers is fraying the formerly tight bonds between the creators and distributors of television; National Football League's recent extraordinary deal with the major networks, $27 billion over nine years, most likely means the average cable bill will rise again soon, raising concerns across the industry that cable bills may be reaching the breaking point for some consumers who are short of money; Read more..
New line of BlackBerry smartphones will not come to market until late in 2012, the latest in a string of product delays and missteps for Research in Motion; phones were widely seen as RIM's last hope for reducing drastic decline in their market share in the United States; company reports third quarter net income of $265 million, or 51 cents a share, plunging from $911 million, or $1.74 per share, in same period the year before. Read more..
Janet L Robinson will step down as chief executive of The New York Times Company, following stewardship that was marked by aggressive strategies and digital innovation during period of uncertainty for the newspaper industry; she is widely credited with remaking The Times as a national newspaper in the 1990s. Read more..
Stock Markets
Values are reported in US Dollars
Stock | Ticker symbol | Open | High | Low | Close | Volume |
Microsoft | MSFT | 25.67 | 26.17 | 25.63 | 26.00 | 101M |
General Electric | GE | 16.94 | 17.09 | 16.91 | 17.01 | 96.5M |
Cisco Systems | CSCO | 18.19 | 18.53 | 17.94 | 17.94 | 95M |
Intel | INTC | 23.47 | 23.89 | 23.23 | 23.23 | 94.6M |
Pfizer | PFE | 21.33 | 21.37 | 21.03 | 21.03 | 68.9M |
JPMorgan Chase | JPM | 32.16 | 32.60 | 31.81 | 31.89 | 52.6M |
Oracle Corp. | ORCL | 29.26 | 30.07 | 28.96 | 29.21 | 46.1M |
AT&T Inc. | T | 28.55 | 28.85 | 28.51 | 28.85 | 44.9M |
Wells Fargo & Co. | WFC | 25.81 | 26.11 | 25.75 | 25.98 | 43.8M |
ExxonMobil | XOM | 80.74 | 80.91 | 79.88 | 80.16 | 33.5M |
HP Inc. | HPQ | 26.34 | 26.67 | 25.83 | 25.84 | 33.1M |
Comcast | CMCSA | 23.46 | 24.00 | 23.22 | 23.33 | 29.7M |
Merck | MRK | 36.50 | 36.62 | 36.02 | 36.25 | 26.5M |
Gilead Sciences | GILD | 38.17 | 38.60 | 37.04 | 37.16 | 23.2M |
Abbott Laboratories | ABT | 54.94 | 54.96 | 54.63 | 54.89 | 22.6M |
Amgen | AMGN | 59.75 | 61.00 | 59.65 | 60.05 | 21.4M |
Walt Disney & Co. | DIS | 35.45 | 35.74 | 35.15 | 35.32 | 20.4M |
Home Depot | HD | 39.75 | 40.54 | 39.74 | 40.42 | 20.2M |
Verizon Communications | VZ | 38.61 | 38.78 | 38.46 | 38.78 | 19.9M |
Johnson & Johnson | JNJ | 64.36 | 64.37 | 63.55 | 64.30 | 19.2M |
Procter & Gamble | PG | 65.43 | 65.63 | 64.82 | 65.14 | 18.3M |
Altria | MO | 29.30 | 29.47 | 28.98 | 29.14 | 15.6M |
Bristol-Myers Squibb | BMY | 34.41 | 34.50 | 34.08 | 34.22 | 15.4M |
Apple | AAPL | 380.36 | 384.15 | 379.57 | 381.02 | 15.1M |
Wal-Mart Stores | WMT | 58.30 | 58.49 | 58.09 | 58.27 | 14.9M |
Chevron | CVX | 100.32 | 100.86 | 99.59 | 100.86 | 14.7M |
Coca-Cola | KO | 67.47 | 67.72 | 67.26 | 67.44 | 12M |
International Business Machines | IBM | 188.01 | 188.01 | 181.91 | 183.57 | 11.8M |
Schlumberger | SLB | 67.13 | 67.95 | 65.81 | 66.91 | 11.8M |
United Technologies | UTX | 73.67 | 74.31 | 71.86 | 72.39 | 11.7M |
UnitedHealth Group | UNH | 49.02 | 49.50 | 48.71 | 49.00 | 10.2M |
Berkshire Hathaway | BRK.B | 75.50 | 75.70 | 74.60 | 75.13 | 9.27M |
General Motors | GM | 20.16 | 20.52 | 19.97 | 20.15 | 9.11M |
Alphabet | GOOGL | 624.32 | 629.32 | 621.47 | 625.96 | 8.91M |
McDonald's | MCD | 98.54 | 98.62 | 97.08 | 97.49 | 8.87M |
Boeing | BA | 71.11 | 72.37 | 70.56 | 71.01 | 8.85M |
Pepsico | PEP | 65.28 | 65.40 | 64.62 | 64.71 | 8.62M |
ConocoPhillips | COP | 69.04 | 69.09 | 67.98 | 68.40 | 8.23M |
Amazon | AMZN | 182.42 | 184.41 | 180.31 | 181.26 | 6.66M |
3M | MMM | 79.52 | 80.02 | 78.42 | 78.87 | 6.49M |
Union Pacific | UNP | 99.79 | 101.05 | 99.23 | 99.88 | 4.93M |
Visa | V | 96.67 | 97.75 | 96.41 | 97.44 | 4.39M |
Exchange Rates of December 16, 2011
Currencies | Exchange Rates | ||
US Dollar | Japanese Yen | 1 USD = 77.790 JPY | 1 JPY = 0.013 USD |
US Dollar | Canadian Dollar | 1 USD = 1.038 CAD | 1 CAD = 0.963 USD |
US Dollar | Swiss Franc | 1 USD = 0.936 CHF | 1 CHF = 1.069 USD |
US Dollar | Chinese Yuan | 1 USD = 6.351 CNY | 1 CNY = 0.157 USD |
Euro | Japanese Yen | 1 EUR = 101.460 JPY | 1 JPY = 0.010 EUR |
Euro | Pound Sterling | 1 EUR = 0.839 GBP | 1 GBP = 1.192 EUR |
Euro | Australian Dollar | 1 EUR = 1.306 AUD | 1 AUD = 0.766 EUR |
Euro | Canadian Dollar | 1 EUR = 1.354 CAD | 1 CAD = 0.739 EUR |
Euro | Swiss Franc | 1 EUR = 1.221 CHF | 1 CHF = 0.819 EUR |
Euro | Chinese Yuan | 1 EUR = 8.259 CNY | 1 CNY = 0.121 EUR |
Japanese Yen | Pound Sterling | 1 JPY = 0.826 GBP | 1 GBP = 1.210 JPY |
Japanese Yen | Australian Dollar | 1 JPY = 1.287 AUD | 1 AUD = 0.777 JPY |
Japanese Yen | Canadian Dollar | 1 JPY = 1.334 CAD | 1 CAD = 0.750 JPY |
Japanese Yen | Swiss Franc | 1 JPY = 1.203 CHF | 1 CHF = 0.831 JPY |
Pound Sterling | Australian Dollar | 1 GBP = 1.557 AUD | 1 AUD = 0.642 GBP |
Pound Sterling | Canadian Dollar | 1 GBP = 1.614 CAD | 1 CAD = 0.620 GBP |
Pound Sterling | Swiss Franc | 1 GBP = 1.455 CHF | 1 CHF = 0.687 GBP |
Pound Sterling | Chinese Yuan | 1 GBP = 9.835 CNY | 1 CNY = 0.102 GBP |
Australian Dollar | Canadian Dollar | 1 AUD = 1.035 CAD | 1 CAD = 0.966 AUD |
Australian Dollar | Swiss Franc | 1 AUD = 0.934 CHF | 1 CHF = 1.071 AUD |
Australian Dollar | Chinese Yuan | 1 AUD = 6.316 CNY | 1 CNY = 0.158 AUD |
Canadian Dollar | Swiss Franc | 1 CAD = 0.901 CHF | 1 CHF = 1.110 CAD |
Canadian Dollar | Chinese Yuan | 1 CAD = 6.102 CNY | 1 CNY = 0.164 CAD |
Swiss Franc | Chinese Yuan | 1 CHF = 6.766 CNY | 1 CNY = 0.148 CHF |
See what else happened on December 16, 2011