Business Blog Posts

FedEx said on Thursday fiscal first-quarter profit was $380 million, or $1.20 per share, compared with earnings of $181 million, or 58 cents per share, a year earlier.

Analysts, on average, had anticipated earnings of $1.21 per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Revenue rose 18.1 percent to $9.46 billion.

The Memphis, Tennessee-based company, which had last raised its 2011 profit forecast in July, increased it for a second time to a range of $4.80 to $5.25 per share, excluding the cost of merging some ground operations. It said demand for air freight services rose as companies -- particularly Asian electronics makers -- scrambled to rebuild the inventories they had cut to the bone during the recession.

FedEx shares are up about 2 percent so far this year, outpacing the 0.5 percent rise of the Standard & Poor's 500 .SPX, but lagging the 18 percent rise of larger rival United Parcel Service Inc (UPS.N).

(Reporting by Scott Malone; Editing by Maureen Bavdek)

At 8.30 am., investors will eye the Labor Department release of first-time claims for jobless benefits for the week ended September 11. Economists in a Reuters survey forecast a total of 460,000 new filings compared with 451,000 in the prior week.

Investors will also watch the Labor Department release of the August producer price index at 1230 GMT. Economists in a Reuters survey forecast a 0.3 percent rise compared with a 0.2 percent rise in July.

Looking at earnings news, investors will focus on first-quarter results from FedEx and Oracle (ORCL.O).

At 10 a.m., Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner testifies before the Senate Banking Committee on the Treasury Department's report on international economic and exchange rate policies. At 1800 GMT he testifies before the House Ways and Means Committee on China's exchange rate policy.

President Barack Obama plans to name Wall Street critic Elizabeth Warren to a special advisory role helping to set up the new U.S. consumer financial watchdog, Democratic party sources said on Wednesday.

No thanks. That is what Yahoo Inc (YHOO.O) Chief Executive Carol Bartz tells the founder of Alibaba Group whenever he asks if he can buy back Yahoo's 39 percent stake in the Chinese Internet company.

Yahoo (YHOO.F) shares were up 2 percent in Frankfurt.

European shares slipped 0.4 percent on Thursday in morning trade, with miners tracking metal prices lower and sentiment weighing after data showed British retail sales volumes fell last month for the first time since January.

Wall Street advanced on Wednesday but remained hemmed in a trading range as disappointing economic data hindered the S&P 500 from breaking through a stubborn technical level.

The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI gained 0.4 percent, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index .SPX rose 0.4 percent and the Nasdaq Composite Index .IXIC climbed 0.5 percent.

(Reporting by Joanne Frearson; Editing by Michael Shields)

Potash Corp has said ever since BHP launched its bid nearly a month ago that it was working to find a white knight, and worries in China about BHP getting control over the market for a key crop nutrient have spawned talk that China would try to block BHP.

Citing unnamed sources, Canada's Globe and Mail reported on its website the bid being considered would include a big element of capital from a Chinese resource company or investment fund, with smaller contributions from international sovereign wealth funds and possibly Canadian players such as pension funds.

It also said rival potash producer Mosaic Co could be part of the consortium.

"It is a viable option," the newspaper quoted a source close to Potash Corp saying.

The source added that it was tough to put together a structure for the consortium and that other options were still possible.

"It is still a big check to write ... and it is a challenge to manage multiple parties," the source was quoted saying.

A Potash Corp spokesman in Melbourne declined to comment on the report.

Sinochem Corp, parent of China's largest fertilizer distributor, Sinofert Holdings, has expressed concern over BHP's bid for Potash Corp.

UNLIKELY CONSORTIUM

Analyst Tom Gidley-Kitchin at Charles Stanley in London said such a consortium would be unwieldy since China as the world's top potash consumer would want to keep a lid on potash prices while other investors would have the opposite motive.

"Everyone else who might come into a consortium like that if they weren't Chinese would be certainly interested in maximizing returns and doing everything that BHP would be doing," he said.

"I do think that local regulators (in Canada) would certainly asking themselves why the Chinese were getting involved here. China would be taking quite a risk in getting involved in something like this is there was a significant possibility that regulators would stop it."

The deadline for BHP's offer is October 19, but it needs clearance from regulators before going ahead.

Potash Corp shares in New York closed Wednesday at $147.13, which was 13 percent higher than BHP's cash offer of $130 per share.

BHP shares in London fell 0.5 percent to 1953.5 pence, largely in line with the British mining index.

The Globe and Mail report came a day after a respected Chinese business magazine Caijin quoted an official at Sinochem saying that a bid for Potash Corp would not be a good deal for the firm but it may consider other assets of the world's biggest fertilizer maker.

The magazine has since deleted any comments from the Sinochem official from the report on its web site.

(Reporting by Sonali Paul; Editing by Ed Davies and Hans Peters)