OUCH !

“TOKYO (Reuters) – Sony Corp said it will cut staff in its headquarters by a fifth and shutter a factory making camera lenses and mobile phones in Japan, providing new details of a previously announced plan to trim its global headcount by 10,000 by end-March.

In addition to 1,800 at a chemical business it sold to a state-run bank in Japan, Sony will let go roughly another 2,000 people from its head office and plant in Gifu, central Japan, Sony said in a statement on Friday.

Around another 2,000 workers will be trimmed in Europe, half at a joint mobile phone venture with Ericsson it recently ended. The remaining job losses will be at other factories around the world, the company said.

The maker of PlayStation and Bravia TVs expects the job cuts to save about 30 billion yen ($378.6 million) a year, funds the company needs as it struggles to stem losses in televisions and other consumer electronics operations.”

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“SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Apple Inc.AAPL -1.07% saw its shares fall 1.1% to $637.51 in early trades on Thursday after wireless carrier Verizon VZ +1.27% disclosed “supply constraints” for the iPhone 5 in the September quarter. Verizon reported its own third-quarter results on Thursday morning, noting that it activated a total of 3.1 million iPhones — including about 651,000 units of the iPhone 5. “We had a supply constraints,” Verizon CFO Fran Shammo said on a conference call about the new smartphone, which went on sale on Sept. 21. He added that “we’re not sure where we are going to stand in the fourth quarter with those constraints,” but also said a large portion of customers are also coming to the carrier for the iPhone 4S, the price of which was cut to $99 with a two-year contract upon the launch of the newer iPhone. “

ADE JOHNSON | Stringer | Getty Images Apple Store

Apple has lost its appeal against a ruling that cleared rival Samsung Electronics of copying its registered designs for tablet computers, in a decision which could end the two firms’ legal dispute on the subject across Europe.

The world’s two leading smartphone makers are fighting over patents, both for smartphones and for tablets like Apple’s [AAPL  644.6136   -5.1789  (-0.8%)   ] iPad, in courts around the world.

Britain’s Court of Appeal on Thursday upheld the country’s High Court judgment that, despite some similarities, Samsung’s Galaxy tablet did not infringe Apple’s designs, in part because its products were “not as cool.”

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Gapping up

GIVN +9.4%, BWEN +9.2%, NOK +8.8%, CLWR +8.4%, NVAX +7.1%, WCC +6.5%,

ETH +6.1%, BSX +3.9%, EXPO +3%, EWBC +2.7%, CYS +1.7%, VOD +1.6%, WNR +1.9%,

AEO +1.1%, NLY +1%, AEZS +2.1%,  ALU +4.7%,  NVAX +7.1%, GIVN +6.1%, LPI +7.2%,

Gapping down

ALGN -19.8%, CYTR -16.4%, IMUC -12.9%, MLNX -11.4%, GORO -10.1%, MNKD -9.6%,

LXRX -4%, SCSS -3.8%, STLD -3.2%, UL -2.6%, SYK -2.3%, DEO -1.7%, PANW -1.4%,

WAC -1.1%, HHC -1%, XLNX -0.6%, POT -1.4%, CSX -1%, HAL -1.1%, ABT -0.3%,

“Newsweek will become an online-only publication next year, ending 80 years as a print magazine.

The last print edition in the U.S. will be the Dec. 31 issue, Tina Brown, editor-in-chief and founder of The Newsweek Daily Beast Company, said today on the company’s website. The all-digital publication, to be called Newsweek Global, will require subscriptions and will be available on tablet computers and on the Web, Brown said.”

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Gapping up 

CYMI +69.0%,  MANH +10.1%, WTFC +3.7%, MT +3.3%, SONC +3.1%, RIO +3%, RBS +2.9%, BP +2.9%,

BHP +2.6%, TEF +2.6%, CREE +2.4%, VHC +1.9%, CSX +1.2%, CHRW +4.3%,  PANL +2%,

CPT +0.4%,  ALU +6.1%, BP +3.8%, TOT +1.3%, GOLD +1.7%, VALE +1.4%, AUQ +1.1%,

KCG +5%,
Gapping down 

FTNT -11.3%, APOL -10.5%, ISRG -5.1%, LLTC -4.8%, OSG -3.5%, IBM -3.3%, POT -3.1%,

INTC -2.5%, HCP -1.8%, ESI -1.7%, ASML -1.5%, FIRE -1.2%, CSCO -0.8%, IMAX -0.6%,

KRG -3.7%, DV -4.7%, ESI -2.2%, LOPE -1.5%,  VVUS -0.7%

“Electric car battery manufacturer A123 Systems Inc., AONE -74.75% the recipient of nearly $250 million in government grants, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Tuesday.

The Massachusetts-based company and two affiliates filed for bankruptcy a day after it said it would be unable to make a $2.8 million interest payment to bondholders due Monday.”

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What a great ride. Sell your defunct mortgage company to $C, let the shareholders eat the losses, get hired and payed handsomely to run $C into the ground.

Great job!

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[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lni6OAJz3sk 450 300]

“NEW YORK, Oct 15 (Reuters) – The American Civil Liberties Union is filing what it says is the first lawsuit against an investment bank, Morgan Stanley, alleging discrimination for packaging subprime mortgage loans into securities.

The ACLU and other plaintiffs will file the case on behalf of five Detroit residents and its Michigan affiliate, claiming the investment bank encouraged a mortgage lender to make loans with justifiably high costs and a strong possibility of foreclosure to enrich its business of selling securities to institutional investors.

“With this lawsuit, real victims of the subprime lending scandal are stepping forward to hold investment banks like Morgan Stanley accountable for the devastation the banks wrought in their lives and in our economy,” ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero said in a prepared statement.”

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Here is an interesting study….

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” The last time a Primary Dealer decided to go all in on the Italian “recovery”, MF Global went bankrupt. This time around the bank that apparently can’t get enough of Italy (and to a smaller extent Spain) and its glorious taxpayer funded, bailed out future is none other than JPM, which according to its earnings presentation has seen its net exposure to Europe double from $6,3 billion to $11.7 billion, following a surge in Italian trading exposure. Surely this will end very well for the bank that only 5 months ago had to reshuffle every executive in its internal $300 billion hedge fund for massive IG9 CDX losses.”

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“While most attention has focused on the No. 2 U.S. bank’s $35 billion in mortgage losses stemming from settlements and repurchases of soured home loans, information the bank provided to the Federal Reserve in 2008 and recent company reports show the mortgage mess could undermine efforts to improve profits for some time to come.

Bank of America now employs some 42,000 people – or nearly 1 in 6 of its 275,000 employees – in Legacy Asset Servicing, the unit that services problem mortgages. Operating costs in the mortgage servicing business reached $2.7 billion in the second quarter, up 29 percent from a year ago, as the bank added 7,000 workers to handle foreclosure reviews and loan modifications required under government settlements.

The bank has also had as many as 16,000 additional contractors working in the unit, according to company reports.”

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“BP (NYSE:BP) and the Justice Department are nearing a deal to resolve the company’s civil and criminal liabilities from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill, reported the Wall Street Journal. The two sides remain about $6 billion apart for a final number with BP worried that if the figure is too large, it could suggest negligence and encourage plaintiffs with lawsuits to ask for greater damages.

Sprint’s (NYSE:S) shares jumped 23 percent in pre-market trading on a report that Japan’s Softbank is considering a two-thirds stake in the company for approximately $13 billion. Softbank responded it is “checking the facts of the Nikkei report.”

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PC shipments dropped 8.3 percent in the third quarter vs. the second quarter’s -0.1 percent, according to Gartner, Inc. From tablet sales, the firm sees weak back-to-school sales and cautious retailer orders. It also said that Lenovo (LNVGY.PK) surpassed Hewlett-Packard(NYSE:HPQ) to sit as the world’s leading PC OEM. Gartner also estimated that industry shipments dropped 8.6 percent.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) CEO Brian Moynihan has repeated there will be large headcount cuts at the company, reported Bloomberg, and said, “It’s really based on demand.” After citing the bank’s flat revenues with the flat yield curve and flat economy, he said, “When Italk to our clients…they don’t expect to hire a lot more people.”

General Motors (NYSE:GM) will introduce 13 new Chevrolet brand models in 2013, including updated versions of its Silverado pickup, Tahoe SUV and Spark electric vehicle. After years of no interest, the company said younger buyers are now considering buying Chevrolet vehicles.”

“(Reuters) – JPMorgan Chase and Co’s chief financial officer, Doug Braunstein, may step down and take another position with the bank, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters.

The move would be the latest management change at the bank, which has been roiled by $6 billion of losses from bad bets on derivatives.

The person familiar with the matter said Wednesday that any shift would be Braunstein’s decision, and would be unrelated to the trades.”

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Everyone is talking of corporations having a lot of cash on the books. Zero out the debt load and you have a wash. One must ask the question why is there so much cash on hand?

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“The workers are protesting company attempts to “silence and retaliate against workers for speaking out for improvements on the job,” according to a United Food and Commercial Workers news release. Walmart workers, who are not unionized, have long complained of low pay and a lack of benefits.”

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Remember crime pays kidz. If you can settle for 1/100th of what you stole it is all good in this great nation!

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Gapping up

TRLG +20.9%, ODP +8.2%, GEVO +8%, AUQ +7.5%, MG +4.8%, GLUU +3.3%, YUM +2.1%

Gapping down

FOE -8.5%, CWH -7.9%, ESE -6.1%, CMI -4.5%, LXP -4.2%, HRB -3.5%, NAV -3%, MNST -2.7%, MRC -2.2%, PCAR -1.4%, AA -1.4%, CVX -1.3%, CAT -1.2%, RDS.A -1%

“LONDON (Reuters) – New funds targeting debt issued by emerging market companies have helped push outstanding issuance past $1 trillion as investors chase high returns while sidestepping problems in developed economies.

Total volumes of debt issued by emerging companies are up tenfold since 2000 and the size of the market now rivals that for U.S. high-yield bonds. Investors are attracted by companies’ strong balance sheets and rising demand for consumer goods and financial services in most emerging economies.

Emerging corporate debt has also milked a general rush from ultra-low-yielding developed markets, with new funds springing up to service demand.

Of 87 emerging market bond funds launched in the past nine months, 33 are dedicated corporate debt funds, according to Lipper, a Thomson Reuters company. Another 17 have said they will invest in both corporate and sovereign instruments.”

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