EBay reports higher 4Q earnings, revenue

FILE - In this April 22, 2011 file photo, two pedestrians pass eBay headquarters in San Jose, Calif. EBay Inc. reports quarterly financial results Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2012, after the market close. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma, File)

FILE - In this April 22, 2011 file photo, two pedestrians pass eBay headquarters in San Jose, Calif. EBay Inc. reports quarterly financial results Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2012, after the market close. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma, File)

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ? EBay reported on Wednesday that its net income grew sharply in the fourth quarter, helped by a gain from the sale of its remaining investment in Skype. Its results beat Wall Street's expectations, boosted by strong holiday sales at its namesake website and growth at PayPal, its online payments business.

Investors sent eBay's stock higher in after-hours trading. The company gave a first-quarter outlook that was shy of analysts' estimates. However, its guidance for the full year was stronger than expected, suggesting robust earnings momentum later in 2012.

CEO John Donahoe called 2011 an "inflection point for shopping." This means the lines between online and offline shopping are blurring, as even people who shop in retail stores are increasingly using their mobile devices to compare prices, check for deals or search for products.

If all goes as planned, that's where eBay comes in.

"For consumers and retailers, we intend to make shopping more locally convenient and more globally accessible," he said in a conference call with analysts. "This means enabling retailers of all sizes to reach consumers when, where and how those consumers want to shop."

EBay's long-term plan is to transform into a commerce company that melds the online and offline shopping worlds. As part of this effort, it has been expanding PayPal's reach beyond the Web, to mobile devices and tablets. The company is also testing a service that will let people use their PayPal accounts to shop in brick-and-mortar stores, though the program is still in the early stages.

The company earned $1.98 billion, or $1.51 per share, in the October-December quarter. That's up from $559 million, or 42 cents per share, in the same period a year earlier. Excluding special items such as the Skype gain, eBay Inc. says it earned 60 cents per share in the latest quarter, above the 57 cents that analysts were expecting.

Revenue grew 35 percent to $3.38 billion from $2.5 billion.

On average, analysts polled by FactSet expected revenue of $3.32 billion.

The e-commerce and online payments company said its PayPal business continued to grow, ending the quarter with more than 106 million active accounts. That's up 13 percent from a year earlier. Revenue jumped 28 percent to $1.24 billion and the business processed $33.4 billion worth of payments during the quarter. That's up 24 percent from a year earlier.

As more people used their smartphones and tablets to buy things online, payments made through mobile devices accounted for $4 billion of the total payments processed through PayPal ? a more than fivefold increase from the prior year.

The company's marketplaces business, which includes eBay.com and other e-commerce sites and businesses, saw its revenue grow 16 percent to $1.77 billion. Marketplaces' gross merchandise volume, an important metric that measures all items sold on eBay excluding vehicles, rose 10 percent to $16.5 billion.

EBay's outlook for the current quarter fell shy of expectations. The company expects adjusted first-quarter earnings of 50 cents to 51 cents per share on revenue of $3.05 billion to $3.15 billion. Analysts are predicting earnings of 54 cents per share on revenue of $3.16 billion.

For all of 2012, the company is forecasting adjusted earnings of $2.25 to $2.30 per share on revenue of $13.7 to $14 billion. Analysts are expecting $2 per share in earnings and $11.59 billion in revenue.

The San Jose, Calif.-based company's stock climbed 60 cents, or 2 percent, to $30.94 in after-hours trading after closing down 19 cents at $30.34.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2012-01-18-Earns-EBay/id-36540de54ac94383aa51f89a00e78f33

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US calls on S. Africans to prevent Sudan crisis (AP)

PRETORIA, South Africa ? The U.S. is calling on South Africa to help prevent a humanitarian disaster in Sudan.

Speaking Wednesday in South Africa, Princeton Lyman, the special U.S. envoy on Sudan, said civilians caught up in fighting in Sudan's Blue Nile and South Kordofan states are running out of food and medicine. Lyman says South Africa should pressure Sudan to allow in international humanitarian agencies.

Lyman says he fears "the prospect of hundreds of thousands of people dying with no access to food or medicine."

Fighting between the Sudanese army and rebels who want to topple the Khartoum government started last year in the states. Groups in both states, which border the new country of South Sudan, sided with the south during a lengthy civil war but remain part of the north.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120118/ap_on_re_af/af_us_sudan

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Romney rolls out final SC primary ad (AP)

COLUMBIA, S.C. ? Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is rolling out his closing appeal for votes in Saturday's South Carolina primary with an ad that takes swipes at President Barack Obama's economic policies and makes tough-to-keep promises.

The ad shows Romney giving his victory speech in New Hampshire's primary two weeks ago with his family in the background and mixes images from campaign stops on factory floors around the country.

"President Obama wants to fundamentally transform America," Romney says. "I stand ready to lead us down a different path. This president has enacted job-killing regulations; I'll eliminate them. He lost our triple-A credit rating; I'll restore it. He passed Obamacare; I'll repeal it."

Romney promises in the ad to cut, cap and balance the federal budget. "If you believe that the disappointments of the last few years are a detour, not a destiny," he says, "then I am asking for your vote."

The ad is a stark contrast to the harsh messages Romney and a political action committee supporting him have been using for weeks in South Carolina, a state whose Republican primary winner has gone on to win the nomination each time since 1980. South Carolina's primary is expected to thin the field before candidates rush to delegate-rich Florida, which holds its primary Jan. 31.

Television ads, mailers and phone messages have been rough. Mail pieces, for instance, have called challenger Rick Santorum a hypocrite for raising his pay while in the Senate and said former House Speaker Newt Gingrich launched an attack on America's free enterprise system by questioning Romney's business deals.

Romney's ad sets up several challenging policy initiatives for a Romney administration. Cutting the deficit, much less balancing the federal budget and capping spending, has been an elusive goal for a deeply partisan Congress. While Romney and other candidates complain about regulations killing jobs, businesses have cited the overall economy and slow consumer demand more frequently than regulations as the top problems. That suggests that rolling back regulations may not easily lead to job creation.

When Standard and Poor's downgraded the nation's AAA debt rating last year, it came after months of warnings about gridlock in Congress over dealing with the nation's financial problems. In a time of rising economic challenges, S&P said the U.S. had weakened "effectiveness, stability and predictability" in its policymaking and political institutions. It is far from clear when and how those shortcomings will be repaired.

The new federal health care law that Obama pushed through over GOP objections will have key elements tested in the Supreme Court this year. Even if those elements fail, facets of the health care law are popular and may never be repealed, including ending lifetime maximum policy limits and extending coverage under a parent's health insurance policy to children until they're 25.

___

Follow Jim Davenport on Twitter at http://twitter.com/jimdavenport_ap

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/obama/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120119/ap_on_el_pr/us_romney_ad

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IMF sees euro zone GDP down 0.5 percent in 2012: ANSA (Reuters)

MILAN (Reuters) ? The International Monetary Fund expects the euro zone economy to contract by 0.5 percent this year and warns that tensions arising from the bloc's debt crisis threaten global growth, Italian news agency ANSA reported on Thursday quoting a draft of the World Economic Outlook (WEO).

The figure is 1.6 percentage points lower compared with the IMF's September forecast, ANSA said.

The IMF is due to publish next week its latest WEO report.

ANSA said the IMF saw a growth of just 0.3 percent in Germany this year, accelerating to 1.5 percent next year.

Similarly, France was expected to grow by 0.2 percent this year and 1 percent the next.

Both Italy and Spain, according to the draft document, would record two years of negative growth. The Italian economy was expected to shrink by 2.2 percent this year, the Spanish by 1.7 percent.

The GDP contraction should slow to 0.6 percent next year in Italy and to 0.3 percent in Spain, ANSA said.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/eurobiz/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120119/bs_nm/us_imf_weo_ansa

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Romney's rivals take shots at try to knock him off perch in South Carolina debate (CNN)

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Chinese premier stresses need to keep Hormuz open (AP)

DOHA, Qatar ? China's premier, touring the oil-rich Gulf, on Wednesday stressed the importance of keeping the Strait of Hormuz open after threats by Iran to shut the strategic waterway.

During a visit to the Qatari capital Doha, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said ensuring the security of the strait is in all nations' interests. About a fifth of the world's oil supply flows through the narrow strait.

"Any extremist action in this region will go against the will of all people in the world," he said following meetings with Qatar's ruling emir and other officials.

China is a major customer for Iran's oil and gas. It has opposed tighter sanctions on Iran over Tehran's disputed nuclear program and has called for a Middle East free of atomic weapons.

China and government-run Qatar Petroleum agreed to work together to develop a petrochemical facility in China, Wen said. Financial details were not disclosed.

The Chinese premier's Gulf tour has also taken him to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. It was the first such visit by a Chinese prime minister to Saudi Arabia in 20 years, and to the other two Gulf countries since diplomatic relations were established in the 1980s.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/china/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120118/ap_on_bi_ge/ml_qatar_china_oil

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Wall Street rises but off highs as Citi sinks (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Reuters) ? Stocks advanced on Tuesday, pushing the S&P 500 to its highest since early August, but sharply pared gains late in the session as Citigroup's steep drop in profit gave investors a reason to unload bank shares.

The financial sector, which has outperformed the broader market so far this year, took a hit on investors' disappointment with Citigroup Inc's (C.N) earnings.

Citigroup's stock slid 8.1 percent to $28.25 after it reported weaker-than-expected earnings. The KBW Banks Index lost 1.4 percent. Through Friday, the KBW Banks Index was up about 10 percent for the year, while the S&P 500 was about 2 percent higher.

The banks' sell-off poured cold water on a rally that drove the S&P 500 through 1,300 for the first time since August.

Stocks rallied about 1 percent across the board after data showed China's economic growth was better than expected, even though it expanded at the weakest pace in 2-1/2 years.

"The better numbers out of China this morning got the market off to a better start, but then there wasn't much follow-through, and you have had what looked to be from JPMorgan and Citigroup not very good-looking earnings," said Eric Kuby, chief investment officer of North Star Investment Management Corp., in Chicago.

Citigroup's results followed similarly disappointing earnings on Friday from JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N).

The Dow Jones industrial average (.DJI) rose 60.01 points, or 0.48 percent, to 12,482.07 at the close. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index (.SPX) added 4.58 points, or 0.36 percent, to 1,293.67. The Nasdaq Composite Index (.IXIC) gained 17.41 points, or 0.64 percent, to 2,728.08.

Bank shares also suffered on Friday ahead of the widely expected announcement by Standard & Poor's that it was downgrading the credit ratings of nine euro-zone countries.

"It was expected that some of the big banks would continue struggling, especially those heavily involved in investment banking because that part of the financial system has clearly slowed down," said Bryant Evans, investment advisor and portfolio manager at Cozad Asset Management, in Champaign, Illinois.

While Wells Fargo & Co (WFC.N) posted a 20 percent jump in quarterly profit, its stock, which earlier had risen more than 1 percent to a session high at $30.69, pulled back sharply from that peak and ended up just 0.7 percent at $29.81.

The Nasdaq outperformed the other major U.S. stock indexes, with shares of Applied Materials (AMAT.O) up 2.4 percent at $11.78. RBC upgraded the stock to "outperform."

The benchmark S&P 500 briefly moved above 1,300 on an intraday basis for the first time since August 1. Analysts said a substantial move past that resistance point could trigger more buying.

On the downside, Carnival Corp (CCL.N) shares slid 13.7 percent to $29.60 as its Italian unit, Costa Crociere, struggled to locate missing passengers after a cruise liner capsized. Fellow cruise operator Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd (RCL.N) fell 6.2 percent to $26.97.

On the U.S. economic front, a gauge of manufacturing in New York State rose to its highest level in nine months, keeping in line with the trend of modest improvement in U.S. economic data.

Volume totaled 6.74 billion shares traded on the New York Stock Exchange, NYSE Amex and Nasdaq, just above the daily average of 6.68 billion.

Advancing stocks outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by about 3 to 2, while on the Nasdaq, advancers beat decliners by about 13 to 12.

(Reporting By Caroline Valetkevitch,; Editing by Jan Paschal)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/business/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120117/bs_nm/us_markets_stocks

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