Five Best Thursday Columns

Jonathan Cohn in The New Republic on Starbucks In hopes of inspiring latte-sipping lawmakers to reach a deal on the fiscal cliff, yesterday Starbucks started writing "come together" on every cup it sells in the DC area. Cute effort, right? More like misguided, argues Jonathan Cohn. He thinks the issue isn't about two warring parties reconciling—it's about convincing the Republicans...

Read More..

Why Apple's First American-Made Mac Minis Wouldn't Create Jobs

If the latest rumors are true, Apple's made-in-America shift will be an extremely experimental, low-cost operation — and if you look at the supply chain, that may point to more of a symbolic gesture than a genuine engine of job creation. The whispers, which have increasingly better sourcing, now say the tech giant will move its Mac Mini production line from China's Foxconn to the the U.S., possibly...

Read More..

Survey finds increase in e-reading, drop in paper

The tastes of the reading public are turning digital.A Pew Internet Research Center survey released Thursday found that the percentage of Americans aged 16 and older who read an e-book grew from 16 percent in 2011 to 23 percent this year. Readers of traditional books dropped from 72 percent to 67 percent. Overall, those reading books of any kind dropped from 78 percent to 75 percent, a shift Pew called...

Read More..

New purported BlackBerry Z10 specs emerge: 1.5GHz processor, 2GB RAM, 8MP camera

Another week, another batch of purported leaks for Research In Motion’s (RIMM) first BlackBerry 10-powered Z10. BBin claims to have most of the Z10′s final specs confirmed and it is shaping up to be a powerful device. Rumored specs for the Z10 include a TI OMAP 4470 1.5GHz dual-core processor (Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8960 for the U.S. and Canada), a 4.2-inch display (1,280 x 768 resolution), quad-band...

Read More..

Instagram gains users in December despite recent uproar as Zynga gets pecked to death by rivals

Zynga (ZNGA), the Facebook (FB) app behemoth, still reigns supreme on its most important platform. But the erosion of its dominant position continues as smaller rivals keep chipping away at its market share. On December 26, Zynga-owned Facebook applications had 267 million Monthly Active Users, down 20 million in two weeks. Far behind it followed Microsoft (MSFT) with 70 million MAU, King.com with...

Read More..

TEXT-S&P summary: Bharti Airtel Ltd.

We assess Bharti's financial risk profile as "significant" because of thecompany's high debt. For the six months ended Sept. 30, 2012, Bharti'sdebt-to-capital ratio remained high at about 61.6%, and its ratios ofannualized funds from operations (FFO) to total debt and debt to EBITDA wereat 23% and 3.5x, respectively. The company's financial ratios were marginallyweaker than in the previous year. This...

Read More..

Decline of listed firms on London's junior market slows

A decline in the number of companies listed on London's junior stock market eased this year and around half the companies that did leave were bought up or transferred to bigger exchanges, a Deloitte report shows.It said the number of companies listed on the London Stock Exchange's Alternative Investment Market (AIM) had fallen every year since 2007, but the fall in 2012 was just 4 percent, compared...

Read More..

Toyota Tsusho Corp secures almost 98 percent of France's CFAO

Toyota Tsusho Corp , the Japanese conglomerate, said on Monday it had secured almost 98 percent of French distribution company CFAO .The Japanese company said it would decide within three months whether to keep CFAO's French stock market listing.TTC had bought a 29.8 percent stake in CFAO in July from luxury and retail group PPR . TTC later launched a tender offer for CFAO, including PPR's remaining...

Read More..

S&P cuts Egypt rating on political strife

Standard & Poors' cut Egypt's long-term credit rating on Monday and said another cut was possible if deepening political turbulence undermines efforts to prop up the economy and public finances.Egypt's popular uprising two years ago chased away tourists and foreign investors, helping push its budget deficit into double digits as a percentage of national output and worsening its balance of payments.A...

Read More..

U.S. budget uncertainty hangs over quiet stocks, FX

 European shares and oil prices edged lower on Monday with Wall Street expected to follow suit, as a deadlock in U.S. budget talks left an undercurrent of uncertainty in markets ahead of the Christmas break.With a number of stock markets including in Germany, Italy and Switzerland closed for the Christmas holiday, the FTSEurofirst300 provisionally closed down 0.1 percent at 1,137.94 after a shortened...

Read More..