■ Banking
CSFB fires 20% of bankers
Credit Suisse First Boston fired about 400 investment bankers while Bear Stearns Co fired as many as 50 equity salespeople and traders, according to people familiar with the situation. Credit Suisse's cuts come after Chief Executive John Mack warned earlier this month he would eliminate as many as 1,750 jobs, or cut 7 percent of its work force of 25,000. Bear Stearns, the No.6 US firm by capital and the only firm to report quarterly-earnings gains every quarter this year, hasn't cut as deeply as rivals because it hadn't grown as much during the telecom-munications and underwriting boom in the 1990s. "Every firm on Wall Street is cutting into muscle, not fat, at this point," said Jeff Bell, co-head of the investment banking practice at Spencer Stuart, a recruiting firm in New York.
■ Telecoms
DoCoMo retreats to Japan
Japan's NTT DoCoMo Inc plans to halt investment in its overseas counterparts until the global telecommunica-tions market recovers, following the company's huge losses incurred from its strategy of actively seeking capital alliance abroad, a leading Japanese newspaper reported yesterday. According to the Asahi Shimbun, the largest Japanese mobile phone company will instead focus on promoting tie-ups to offer its leading "i-mode" technology for Internet-capable mobile phones to overseas concerns.
■ Consumer trends
Confidence down in the US
US consumer confidence plunged in October, pushed downward by a weak labor market and the looming threat of military action in Iraq, according to a closely watched index released Tuesday by the Conference Board. The private research group's consumer confidence index declined 14.3 points to 79.4 in October, from a revised 93.7 in September. This is the lowest level of consumer confidence since November 1993. Confidence has fallen for five straight months. Consumer confidence is considered critical to the economic outlook because consumer spending accounts for two-thirds of US economic activity.
■ Robotics
Robot can `hear' feelings
Japan's Business Design Laboratory said yesterday it developed a robot which can read people's feelings through their tone of voice and responds accordingly. Kenji Kimura, head of the laboratory in Japan's central Nagoya city in Aichi prefecture, said the robot could tell by people's tone of voice whether they are happy, sad, upset or are having fun. If the owner raises his voice, the robot promptly responds: "I'm sorry. Don't get upset." The robot, called IF, is 40cm tall and weighs 5kg. IF will be on the Japanese market coming April at a price of ?300,000 (US$2,440).
■ Consumer trends
P&G posts good results
US consumer products giant Procter & Gamble Co Tuesday posted impressive third quarter results as profits surged by a third on stronger sales in several product lines. Procter & Gamble said net income in the quarter amounted to US$1.46 billion, or US$1.10 per share, compared to US$1.1 billion for the same period a year ago. Profits grew to US$1.58 billion in the quarter. Sales rose more than 11 percent to US$10.8 billion as the company's varied products such as the new Crest Spinbrush and osteoporosis drug Actonel had strong sales growth.
Agencies
RSS