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Rogers posts lower profit Intense competition in the wireless industry is showing up in quarterly results. Rogers Communications Inc. today posted a 24-per-cent decline in third-quarter profit and a hefty decrease in new subscribers that didn't match what analysts had expected.
The country's biggest wireless outfit earned $370-million or 64 cents a share, compared to $485-million or 79 cents a year earlier.
Revenue increased 3 per cent to $3.1-billion but net additions of new subscribers for wireless fell 42 per cent.
Rogers, like the other incumbent carriers, are facing heightened competition from several new players in the market.
"The modest year-over-year increase in net subscriber additions for the quarter primarily reflects increased prepaid subscriber additions offset by an increase in the level of postpaid churn associated with heightened competitive intensity," Rogers said in a statement.
It is also, in a sense, competing with itself as it meets the new entrants with its own discount offering, Chatr Wireless, that has seen some higher-paying customers trading down.
Earnings generally positive The latest earnings season is going generally well, with a strong majority of S&P 500 companies beating expectations. Canadian companies begin reporting in force this week, and, noted Peter Buchanan of CIBC World Markets, "the earnings beat goes on, but not as loudly."
The S&P/TSX composite has climbed by an average of 4 per cent in recent quarterly reporting periods, Mr. Buchanan noted in a report, and analysts are expecting a 7-per-cent year-over-year increase this time out.
"While trailing the latest expectations for S&P 500 members, the growth of TSX earnings in [the third quarter]is expected to be modestly above the 5-per-cent average annual rate of the last 25 years," he said. "Given reduced expectations for both the domestic and U.S. economies and a more challenging exchange rate environment, expectations for earnings growth in the quarter have not surprisingly eased by about 3 percentage points since the middle of September.
"Even with that downshift, [the third quarter]performance means earnings for TSX companies will have regained about half of the ground lost in the recession, which saw profits slide by 30 per cent as the reeling global economy battered Canada's resource exports."
Ford profit surges Ford Motor Co. continues to gain on its American rivals, boosting its share of the U.S. market and posting 68-per-cent gain in third-quarter profit.
Posting its sixth consecutive quarterly profit, the only Detroit auto maker to escape bankruptcy protection earned $1.7-billion (U.S.) or 43 cents a share in the quarter, up from $1-billion or 26 cents a year earlier and above analysts' estimates.
Ford's share of the U.S. market for light vehicles climbed to 15.1 per cent, up 1.3 percentage points. In Canada, Ford said it notched up an increase in market share of 2.3 percentage points.
"The key drivers for improvement in 2011 will be our growing product strength, a gradually strengthening economy and an unrelenting focus on improving the competitiveness of all our operations," chief executive officer Alan Mulally said in a statement.
Britain's readings buoy hopes Fresh economic readings from Britain are buoying hopes for the country's outlook. The economy expanded by 0.8 per cent in the third quarter, about double the pace that had been expected.
At the same time, Standard & Poor's upgraded the country's debt to stable and held its Triple-A rating on long-term credit.
The latest measure could take some pressure off the Bank of England to boost its quantitative easing when it meets next week.
Carney at Commons finance committee Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney and his senior deputy Tiff Macklem testify at the Commons finance committee this afternoon, followed by an appearance at the Senate banking committee tomorrow. But don't expect too much new, given the lengthy comments last week when the central bank held interest rates steady and then released its monetary policy report.
"The [question-and-answer]session might offer a few tidbits on the policy outlook, though probably nothing to dissuade the view that the bank is parked on the sidelines at least through year end," said BMO Nesbitt Burns economist Sal Guatieri.
"A lot has changed since the governor last faced this committee six months ago. Notably, the bank has slashed its economic growth forecast by three-quarters of a percentage point for this year and next, and now believes the output gap will close one and one-half years later than previously thought (at the end of 2012 instead of the second quarter of 2011)."
Hobbit leads New Zealand to study labour laws There's labour trouble in Middle Earth.
New Zealand's Prime Minister John Key met today with officials of Warner Bros. and New Line Cinema after Peter Jackson, director of The Hobbit, warned the studios could move production out of the country.
The studios not only want tax breaks, but also changes in labour law in what has become a raging controversy in New Zealand - there have been rallies across the country - given the huge tourist draw after Mr. Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy.
Bickering over collective bargaining, Mr. Key said government lawyers are studying labour laws to dampen the threat of labour disruptions to the $500-million project. A major union, New Zealand's Actors Equity, wants the film's producers to bargain with the actors.
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