“Retailers broadly missed analysts’ estimates for same-store sales in March, a month that typically sees cold weather and slow hiring in the early weeks.

So far, 63 percent of retailers who reported results fell short of Wall Street’s estimates for sales at stores open at least a year, a key industry metric, according to the Thomson Reuters same-sales index, released Thursday. Excluding Walgreen and Rite Aid, whose results are heavily skewed by prescription drug sales, forecasters were expecting a jump in same-store sales of 2.2 percent, slowing from the blistering pace of 7.1 percent in March of last year.

Costco Wholesale reported a slightly smaller-than-expected rise in same-store sales, hurt by weak international results and lower gas prices, while Victoria’s Secret parent L Brands posted better-than-expected sales at all of its chains.

Costco fared better in the U.S., where sales at stores open at least a year rose 5 percent, largely in line with expectations. Small appliances, jewelry and fresh food logged some of the biggest gains.

L Brands saw continued improvement at its La Senza chain, as well as an unexpected rise in same-store sales at Bath & Body Works. Company-wide, same-store sales rose 3 percent; Wall Street had been expected flat results, according to Thomson Reuters.

Analysts had been expecting 13 top U.S. retailers, including Gap, to post a 1.8 percent rise in same-store sales for March, according to Thomson Reuters, down from a rise of 2.9 percent in March 2012….”

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“For the first time in many years, Microsoft has a vision.

In November 2012, CEO Steve Ballmer proclaimed that Microsoft (MSFT, Fortune 500)is no longer just a software company that licensed its operating system to PC makers to use as they pleased. Instead, Microsoft is now a devices and services company that develops its own end-to-end experience for consumers. Ballmer said Microsoft wants to maintain firm control over how its products are used.

Microsoft provided the first glimpse of how that plan might come together two weeks ago, when it unveiled its new strategy codenamed “Blue.” The company promises to roll out more frequent and more incremental updates of Windows, Windows Phone,Office and Xbox software. More than that, those updates will be coordinated across Microsoft’s multiple platforms, to get all customers’ “devices, apps and services working together.”

Instead of a mishmash of systems out there using outdated Microsoft software with glaring compatibility issues, “Blue” could ensure that Microsoft’s own products evolve at the same rate as the rest of the tech world.

If this is starting to sounds a lot like how Apple (AAPL, Fortune 500) and Google(GOOG, Fortune 500) do business, that’s intentional.

But Microsoft’s plan may be even better than anything Apple or Google currently have to offer. If — and it’s still a lofty if — there’s a shred of validity to rumors that Microsoft will merge the Windows and Windows Phone platforms, “Blue” could end up being a huge deal. Dissolving the barrier between mobile and desktop would be nothing short of impressive.

That would mean the main difference between Microsoft’s products would be the size of the hardware they run on. It’s the post-PC concept at its ideal peak….”

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“Chevron, the second-largest U.S. oil company, said on Wednesday its production of oil and gas has declined from a relatively strong fourth quarter while work on two of its three biggest U.S. refineries cut into downstream performance.

Output from oil and gas wells – accounting for about nine tenths of the company’s business – declined in the first two months of the first quarter from the previous quarter, due to maintenance in the Gulf of Mexico and weather-related downtime elsewhere.

Maintenance at Chevron’s largest refinery in Pascagoula, Mississippi, the ninth-largest refinery in the country, led to a decline of 145,000 barrels per day in U.S. refining input from the previous quarter to 557,000 bpd.

Its domestic refining operations have already been hit hard by the shutdown of a key unit at its plant in Richmond, California, after a fire last August. That unit is due to start up at some point this quarter.

In the second quarter of 2012 – the last period of full U.S. refining production before the fire – input was 928,000 bpd.

Unlike past quarters, the San Ramon, California-based company did not indicate where its first-quarter earnings were headed in its quarterly interim update on Wednesday….”

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“Takata Corp. (7312) faces its biggest recall crisis in almost two decades after defective airbag inflators led Toyota Motor Corp. (7203), Honda Motor Co. (7267) and Nissan Motor Co. to call back more than 3 million vehicles.

The Japanese safety-gear producer made the products from 2000 to 2002, Takata spokesman Hideyuki Matsumoto said, declining to comment on its customers, who identified the supplier. According to Toyota, malfunctioning inflators could cause the airbag to deploy abnormally during a crash.

Takata tumbled as much as 15 percent in Tokyo trading after Japan’s three biggest carmakers made the announcements. It’s the biggest recall involving Takata since 1995, when several automakers called back almost 9 million vehicles to replace faulty seat belts made by the Japanese company — a record for the auto industry at the time.

“It looks like the cost of the recalls may be pretty big,” saidSatoru Takada, a Tokyo-based analyst at Toward the Infinite World Inc., referring to Takata. “It doesn’t seem like something that would be easy to identify and fix. But if the cause is clear, it shouldn’t have a lasting effect.”

Takata, which says it’s the second-biggest maker of automotive safety parts, fell 9 percent to close at 1,819 yen in Tokyo, the biggest drop in two months. Autoliv Inc. (ALV), the world’s biggest maker of airbags, rose as much as 1.6 percent in Stockholm.

Toyota rose 5.8 percent to 5,640 yen, Nissan gained 4.4 percent and Honda rose 3.1 percent in Tokyo. The benchmark Nikkei 225 (NKY) Stock Average climbed 2 percent.

Other Recalls…”

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“Rising stock prices, rebounding profits, restored dividends and a growing economy are signaling to U.S. banks it’s time for more job cuts.

Even after the industry posted its best results since 2006, the six largest U.S. banks announced plans in the first three months of this year to eliminate about 21,000 positions, or 1.8 percent of their combined workforce, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That’s the most since 2011’s third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM), whose 259,000 people produced three straight years of record profit, topped the list with 17,000 reductions scheduled by the end of 2014.

Banks are under pressure to keep profit climbing amid weak revenue growth, and employees are among the biggest expenses after interest costs. The most vulnerable people work in units where demand is waning such as mortgageforeclosures. Their departures would come on top of 320,000 jobs culled from U.S. financial companies in the past five years, the data show….”

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“NEW YORK (AP) — J.C. Penney is hoping its former CEO can revive the retailer after a risky turnaround strategy backfired and led to massive losses and steep sales declines.

The company’s board of directors ousted CEO Ron Johnson after only 17 months on the job. The department store chain said late Monday, in a statement, that it has rehired Johnson’s predecessor,Mike Ullman, 66, who was CEO of the department store chain for seven years until November 2011.

The announcement comes as a growing chorus of critics including a former Penney CEO, Allen Questrom, called for Johnson’s resignation as they lost faith in an aggressive overhaul that included getting rid of most discounts in favor of everyday low prices and bringing in new brands.

The biggest blow came Friday from his strongest supporter, activist investor and board member, Bill Ackman, who had pushed the board in the summer of 2011 to hire Johnson to shake up the dowdy image of the retailer. Ackman, whose company Pershing Square Capital Management, is Penney’s biggest shareholder, reportedly told investors that Penney’s execution “has been something very close to a disaster.”

On Saturday, Ullman received a phone call from Penney’s chairman Thomas Engibous asking him to take back his old job, according to Penney spokeswoman Kate Coultas. The board met Monday and decided to fire Johnson.

Neither Johnson nor Ullman were available for an interview.

The early reaction to the shakeup was negative. J.C. Penney shares tumbled 96 cents, or 6.1 percent, to $14.91 in trading about three hours before the market opening on Tuesday….”

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“Russian investment banks controlled by the government of President Vladimir Putin are squeezing out foreign competitors, helped by a bailout of the country’s richest men five years ago.

OAO Sberbank (SBER), the nation’s biggest lender, and VTB Group have increased investment-banking fee income more than fivefold since 2005, according to data compiled by Freeman & Co., a New York-based consulting firm. European financial institutions including UBS AG (UBSN), Deutsche Bank AG (DBK) and Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc (RBS) lost almost half their market share during the period.

With credit lines abroad frozen after the 2008 collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., Russia’s state-run banks stepped in as Putin pledged $200 billion in loans and tax relief to bail out allies who owned strategic businesses. Among companies that received loans were aluminum producer United Co. Rusal (RUALR), controlled by billionaire Oleg Deripaska, and Evraz Plc (EVR), a steelmaker part-owned by Roman Abramovich. Sberbank and VTB then used their position to leverage follow-up business…”

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“Vodka seller Central European Distribution Corp. (CEDC), headed by Russian billionaire Roustam Tariko, filed for U.S. bankruptcy protection amid heavy bond debt and with a pre-approved restructuring plan aimed at cutting about $665.2 million in liabilities.

The company, based in Warsaw, Poland, lists a U.S. address in Mount Laurel, New Jersey. It claimed $1.98 billion in assets and $1.73 billion in debt in court filings filed yesterday in U.S. bankruptcy court Wilmington, Delaware. Its stock trades as CEDC on the Nasdaq Stock Market.

CEDC said in February that it had proposed a debt-for- equity plan to reduce liabilities by more than $750 million. The company’s immediate financial crisis involved $257.9 million in 3 percent convertible notes that matured March 15.

The company said yesterday in a statement that holders of existing 2016 notes will receive $822 million, consisting of $172 million in cash, $450 million in new secured notes and $200 million in new convertible notes — an estimated recovery of about 83.7 percent….”

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“Hewlett-Packard Chairman Ray Lane, who is under fire from shareholders for his role in the botched, costly acquisition of British software firm Autonomy, has stepped down, the company said on Thursday.”

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“China Southern Airlines Co. (1055) plunged the most in more than a year in Hong Kong trading, leading a slump in shares of the nation’s carriers on concern an outbreak of bird flu may hurttravel demand.

China Southern, the country’s biggest domestic carrier, fell 8.5 percent, the most since Jan. 16, 2012, to HK$3.87, while Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd. (293) dropped the most in almost eight months. Shares in Air China Ltd. (601111), China Eastern Airlines Corp. (670), Singapore Airlines Ltd. (SIA) and Qantas Airways Ltd. (QAN) also declined, causing the Bloomberg Asia Pacific Airlines Index to drop the most since May.

The death toll in China from a new strain of bird flu rose to six people as Shanghai began slaughtering birds at a local market and concerns of an outbreak sparked the biggest drop in Hong Kong stocks in more than eight months. Previous outbreaks of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, and bird flu had emptied planes and caused some Asian airlines to post losses.

“People are worried the new bird flu would develop into a disaster like SARS,” Davin Wu, a transportation analyst at Credit Suisse Group AG, said by phone. “At least leisure travelers will be cutting back their trips to China.”

Shanghai, China’s financial hub, has reported six of the 14 human cases of the H7N9 strain of avian influenza confirmed by local authorities since the country’s health ministry reported the first cases last month, China’s official Xinhua News Agency reported yesterday.

Chicken Feed…”

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$BBY currently looking like the best winner in the S&P today with a 14%+ melt-up ….

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“Facebook just unveiled Home, a new app which more or less takes over the user experience on phones running Google‘s Android operating system.

The whole point of Android is to get people to use Google’s services, like Gmail and Google Web search. Home basically kills that.

Home shows updates and notifications from friends on the phone’s home screen. It also provides one-tap access to the Facebook mobile app and Facebook Messenger.

Finally, there’s an app launcher, to help you get to everything else you might want to do on your phone.

What’s missing? Search.

People have already noticed how users are searching less, as mobile devices and apps command more and more of their time. Already, Facebook and Instagram account for about a quarter of time spent on mobile devices….”

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“Hustlers. Cheaters. Crooks. American business has always had them, and sometimes they’ve been punished. But today, those who cheat and put the rest of us at risk are often getting off scot-free. The recent admission of Attorney General Eric Holder that systemically dangerous megabanks may escape prosecution because of their size has opened a new chapter in fraud history. If you know your company won’t be prosecuted, a perverse logic says that you should cheat and make as much money for shareholders as you can.

Jim Chanos is one of America’s best-known short-sellers, famed for his early detection of Enron’s fraudulent practices. In deciding which companies to short (short-sellers make their money when the price of a stock or security goes down), Chanos acts as a kind of financial detective, scrutinizing companies for signs of overvaluation and shady practices that fool outsiders into thinking that they are prospering when they may be on shaky financial footing. Chanos teaches a class at Yale on the history of financial fraud, instructing students in how to look for signs of cheating and criminal activity. I caught up with Chanos in his New York office to ask what’s driving the current era of rampant fraud, who is to blame, what can be done, and the ways in which fraud costs us financially and socially.

Lynn Parramore: You’re often characterized as a short-seller. How does fraud become a concern in that context?

Jim Chanos: One of things we like to say is that in virtually all cases of major financial market fraud over the past 20 years, the only people who really brought forth the fraud into the light were either internal whistleblowers, the press, and/or short-sellers. It was not the normal guardians of the marketplace – regulators, law enforcement, external auditors or people like that — that did it. It was people who had an incentive to come forward either for personal reasons or for profit to point out what was going on at the Enrons and the Sunbeams and Worldcoms. Short-sellers played an important role in the marketplace not only in terms of capping, sometimes, irrational exuberance in terms of prices, but also in ferreting out wrongdoing.

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