(Reuters) - Goldman Sachs Group Inc on Thursday said third-quarter revenue plunged 20 percent, hurt by weak mortgage and bond-trading results, but profit dropped only slightly as the Wall Street bank slashed compensation and other expenses.
Revenue from trading fixed-income, currency and commodity products for clients, one of the bank's biggest businesses, plunged 44 percent, a much sharper decline than those posted by rivals. Goldman said revenue from investing its own money in bonds and loans fell 46 percent. The bank's shares fell 2.6 percent in pre-market trading.
"Goldman showed that they are also mortal," said Michael Holland, founder of Holland & Co, which owns financial stocks but does not own Goldman shares.
Banks across Wall Street were hurt in the third quarter by the Federal Reserve's surprise decision to continue its bond buying stimulus instead of starting to wind it down. Customer trading volume dropped because the decision assured investors that they could hold onto their bonds for longer periods without worrying about rising rates.
Goldman responded to the weaker revenue by cutting the money set aside for compensation by 35 percent, to $2.38 billion. So far this year it has set aside $10.4 billion to pay employees, down 5 percent from the first nine months of 2012.
Overall, Goldman reported net income for common shareholders of $1.43 billion, or $2.88 per share, down 2 percent from $1.46 billion, or $2.85 per share, a year earlier. Per-share earnings rose because of stock repurchases.
Analysts had been expecting earnings of $2.43 per share, on average, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. But analysts had forecast higher revenue, and most of Goldman's earnings beat came from cost-cutting.
The bank boosted its dividend for the third time in less than two years, to 55 cents per share quarterly from 50 cents. The dividend is a relatively small expenditure for the bank, but Goldman is usually loathe to boost its payout if there are better opportunities for it to invest the money elsewhere.
"The third quarter's results reflected a period of slow client activity," Chief Executive Lloyd Blankfein said in a statement.
Blankfein laid some of the blame on the budget impasse in Washington, which made companies and investors hesitant to take risk. Wall Street banks that reported earnings earlier in the month, including JPMorgan Chase & Co , Citigroup Inc and Bank of America Corp , also reported lower fixed-income trading revenue, and said that uncertainty about the Federal Reserve's plans for monetary easing had also hurt trading volumes.
(Reporting by Lauren Tara LaCapra; Editing by Dan Wilchins and John Wallace)
Tina Fey and Amy Poehler go together like chocolate and peanut butter. And they'll be making more sweet moments together — on Tuesday, it was announced that they'll be co-hosting the Golden Globe Awards both in 2014 and 2015.
What can viewers expect from the comedic chemistry of the two ex-"Saturday Night Live" pals? These classic Fey-Poehler moments might give a few hints.
Golden girls at the 2013 Globes Hosts Fey and Poehler managed to get in some deft jibes without leaving the audience feeling like they'd turned into the "Mean Girls" from Fey's 2005 movie. They even poked fun at the event's sponsor, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, with Poehler pretending to confuse it with HPV, saying, "When left untreated, HFPA can lead to cervical cancer."
Channeling their inner Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton on 'SNL' Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin didn't actually say, "I can see Russia from my house," (she said: "you can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska"), but Fey delivered that "SNL" line so perfectly in an iconic 2008 skit that some are actually confused about who said what. Poehler was equally memorable as Sen. Hillary Clinton, eventually blowing up at the very idea that Palin was closer to the White House than she was.
Behind the Weekend Update desk In 2004, Fey and Poehler became the first all-female team to anchor fake newscast Weekend Update on "SNL." (On their first broadcast, Horatio Sanz as Elton John referred to Poehler as "the other girl.") They fell into the swing of things just as anyone would expect from two old friends, whether it was one-upping each other's Ray Charles impression or "interviewing" old clips of actor Robert Blake after his 2005 acquittal on murder charges. ("He's free, but he's still mad!" cracked Poehler.)
NBC
Fey and Poehler made history as the first all-female anchor team on Weekend Update.
Hangin' at the Jersey Floor Jimmy Fallon's show has a mysterious elevator with a button labeled "Jersey Floor" that turns elevator occupants into tanned-and-moussed "Jersey Shore" residents. And when Fey and Poehler visited in 2011, the elevator transformed them as well, hiking their hair and their hemlines and turning them into nightclub stalkers of Fallon and crew. "I wanna make babies with you!" a mega-made-up Fey shouts at Fallon on the dance floor. The ensuing bleep-filled fight was all too real for anyone who ever watched Snooki and crew.
Crying with laughter at 'Baby Mama' In 2008, Fey and Poehler co-starred in the big-screen comedy "Baby Mama," with Poehler playing an obnoxious surrogate mother carrying a child for Fey's character. Poehler is stumped by Fey's child-proofed toilet, appalled by her healthy dietary suggestions, and horrified as labor approaches. They feud, they fight, but in the end, they end up friends, just as the actors are.
What's your favorite Fey-Poehler moment? Vote in our poll.
REUTERS - IBM reported a 4 percent drop in third-quarter revenue, worse than expected by Wall Street, amid a decline in hardware and emerging markets even as it beat earnings estimates.
IBM shares fell 6 percent in after-hours trade to $175.56.
Chief Financial Officer Mark Loughridge said on a conference call for investment analysts that third quarters tended to be difficult for the world's largest technology service provider but added the company faced some particular challenges this year.
Profitability in its hardware business declined by $1 billion year-to-date and currency effects had a $500 million year-to-year negative impact, he added.
There is increasingly less demand for hardware as software replaces traditional infrastructure. IBM has recognized that trend and is itself shifting to become a more software focused business.
Hardware was mostly hit in China, which Loughridge said broadly accounted for about 5 percent of IBM's business and about 40 percent of that business was hardware.
China's growth has slowed this year, impacting corporate and public spending as the country develops an economic reform plan.
"As far as the growth markets are concerned, we will be dealing with the China impact for another couple of quarters," Loughridge said.
Revenue dropped 4 percent to $23.7 billion, below Wall Street analysts' expectations of $24.74 billion, mainly due to the decline in its hardware division, excluding its System z mainframe servers, and in emerging markets, which were down 9 percent.
Hardware revenue was down 17 percent, while System z mainframe revenue rose 6 percent.
Quarterly net income rose 6 percent to $4.0 billion, or $3.99 a share on a non-GAAP basis from $3.62 a year earlier, above estimates of $3.96 a share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
The revenue drop was worse than investors expected, RBC Capital analyst Amit Daryanani said.
Edward Jones analyst Josh Olson agreed, saying it was a disappointing quarter from a revenue standpoint.
"I think that the hardware business is going to be something they need to work through, and growth markets are down much more than expected," he said.
Olson added that the services backlog was healthy, but "we are not seeing the conversion of that backlog into meaningful revenue."
The company reiterated its full year outlook of non-GAAP EPS of at least $16.25.
But ISI Group analyst Brian Marshall said there was concern that IBM's days of double-digit EPS growth are nearing an end.
"Increasingly, we believe IBM has been relying on non-operating, inorganic drivers of EPS growth," he said.
Asked on the call if investors should prepare for no revenue growth and less than double-digit earnings growth in the future, Loughridge promised "stronger operational performance as we go into 2014."
IBM's hardware business should return to profit growth in the second half and stabilize profit on a year to year basis for the year, he said. Emerging markets would return to mid-single-digit performance for the 2014 full-year especially after the implementation of China's new economic plans, he added, without specifying the measure of performance.
Asked about the impact of the U.S. federal government shutdown, Loughridge said that there would not be much of an impact to the company if the issue is resolved this month.
"If this extends into December, then it's going to get to be a meaningful number, say around a nickel, that we would probably not be able to contain," he said.
The U.S. federal government business was a little less than 3 percent of the total revenue mix, Loughridge said.
(Reporting by Nicola Leske; Editing by Leslie Gevirtz and Cynthia Osterman)
Irene Adams cooks supper for husband, Luke, and 2-year-old son, Cole, at their home in Fayetteville, Ark. She used to serve lots of green beans, but switched to edamame after tasting it at a local restaurant.
"[Cole] used to split his green beans and take out the little seeds inside," Adams says. "So I told Luke we should try edamame, because it's bigger seeds and has more flavor, so that's why we decided to try it and he loves it."
Cole squeezes the bright green buttery beans out of the pod and pops them into his mouth. Edamame, it turns out, is a healthy finger food, high in fiber and protein.
China produces most of the world's edamame, handpicking and processing it there. Now lots of locally grown edamame are being packed in the town of Mulberry, Ark. Fresh-picked pods jiggle across a massive high-speed conveyor for automated sorting, washing, blanching and flash freezing.
A Texas-based Asian foods importer choose Arkansas to build its company, American Vegetable Soybean and Edamame Inc., here.. Raymond Chung, the chief financial officer, says one reason is because plenty of local farmers are willing to grow the nongenetically modified vegetable soybeans.
"The bulk of soybeans in the U.S. are [genetically modified] and grown for industrial purposes, but edamame is a special variety," he says.
Arkansas ranks 10th nationally for conventional soybeans and is the first to develop an edamame variety licensed for commercial production.
Linda Funk expects more states to follow Arkansas' lead. She's with the Iowa-based trade group Soyfoods Council.
"Most people when I tell them about edamame and say it's really a soybean, they are shocked," she says. "They just feel like it's a vegetable ... it's a more familiar food to them than maybe tofu or soy milk."
Like tofu, edamame is widely available in many major supermarket chains supplied by smaller producers in California, Minnesota and Ohio. The Soyfoods Association of North America says frozen edamame sales grew 4.3 percent from 2010 to 2011.
Arkansas processor Chung intends to be the top link in the chain. Since his factory opened last summer production has doubled. He now supplies Costco, Whole Foods and Sam's Clubs. "We are turning Arkansas into the edamame capital of the U.S. and eventually the capital of the world," he says.
And if Chung can get Cole Adams and millions of other kids to eat their vegetables? The town of Mulberry may have to change its name to Edamame.
Antibiotic use to treat catheter-associated bacteriuria futile in decreasing risk of mortality
Public release date: 16-Oct-2013 [
| E-mail
| Share
]
Contact: Tamara Moore tmoore@gymr.com 202-745-5114 Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America
With 30 million indwelling bladder catheters placed annually nationwide, patients face an increased risk of developing catheter-associated bacteriuria (bacteria in the urine). Many patients with indwelling urinary catheters acquire bacteria in the urinary tract while they are catheterized. Most previous studies assessing morbidity and mortality associated with catheter use have not separated urinary tract infection from asymptomatic bacteriuria. This has made it difficult to determine if bacteria in the urine puts patients at higher risk for bloodstream infection or death. The study is published in the November issue of Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology, the journal of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America.
In a retrospective cohort study of 444 urine cultures from 308 patients, researchers at Baylor College of Medicine found that catheter-associated urinary tract infection, but not asymptomatic bacteriuria, was significantly associated with developing bacteremia (bacteria in the bloodstream) within 30 days but was not significantly associated with mortality. Treatment with antibiotics did not reduce the risk of developing bacteremia or change mortality rates. Overall mortality was high (21.1 percent), indicating, as expected, that hospitalized patients who require indwelling bladder catheters have many serious underlying illnesses.
"Our study findings call into question what we are accomplishing by treating with antibiotics bacteria that are found in urine in asymptomatic patients" said Barbara Trautner, MD, senior author of the study.
Fifty-two patients experienced bacteria in the bloodstream within a month after the urine culture was collected, but only three of these infections might have started in the urinary tract. In other words, only three of 444 positive urine cultures (less than 1%) might have led to bloodstream infection. Giving antimicrobial agents specifically to treat bacteria found in the urine did not decrease the risk of bloodstream infection or death. In spite of that, nearly 90 percent of patients (277 of 308 patients) received some antimicrobial agent for some reason, not necessarily to treat the urine, between 7 days before to 30 days after obtaining the urine culture.
###
Quratulain F. Kizilbash, Nancy J. Petersen, Guoqing J. Chen, Aanand D. Naik, MD;2,3,5 Barbara W. Trautner. "Bacteremia and Mortality with Urinary Catheter-Associated Bacteriuria." Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology 34:11 (November 2013).
Published through a partnership between the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America and The University of Chicago Press, Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology provides original, peer-reviewed scientific articles for anyone involved with an infection control or epidemiology program in a hospital or healthcare facility. ICHE is ranked 13 out of 158 journals in its discipline in the latest Web of Knowledge Journal Citation Reports from Thomson Reuters.
SHEA is a professional society representing more than 2,000 physicians and other healthcare professionals around the world with expertise in healthcare epidemiology and infection prevention and control. SHEA's mission is to prevent and control healthcare-associated infections and advance the field of healthcare epidemiology. The society leads this field by promoting science and research and providing high-quality education and training in epidemiologic methods and prevention strategies. SHEA upholds the value and critical contributions of healthcare epidemiology to improving patient care and healthcare worker safety in all healthcare settings. Visit SHEA online at http://www.shea-online.org, http://www.facebook.com/SHEApreventingHAIs and @SHEA_Epi.
[
| E-mail
| Share
]
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Antibiotic use to treat catheter-associated bacteriuria futile in decreasing risk of mortality
Public release date: 16-Oct-2013 [
| E-mail
| Share
]
Contact: Tamara Moore tmoore@gymr.com 202-745-5114 Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America
With 30 million indwelling bladder catheters placed annually nationwide, patients face an increased risk of developing catheter-associated bacteriuria (bacteria in the urine). Many patients with indwelling urinary catheters acquire bacteria in the urinary tract while they are catheterized. Most previous studies assessing morbidity and mortality associated with catheter use have not separated urinary tract infection from asymptomatic bacteriuria. This has made it difficult to determine if bacteria in the urine puts patients at higher risk for bloodstream infection or death. The study is published in the November issue of Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology, the journal of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America.
In a retrospective cohort study of 444 urine cultures from 308 patients, researchers at Baylor College of Medicine found that catheter-associated urinary tract infection, but not asymptomatic bacteriuria, was significantly associated with developing bacteremia (bacteria in the bloodstream) within 30 days but was not significantly associated with mortality. Treatment with antibiotics did not reduce the risk of developing bacteremia or change mortality rates. Overall mortality was high (21.1 percent), indicating, as expected, that hospitalized patients who require indwelling bladder catheters have many serious underlying illnesses.
"Our study findings call into question what we are accomplishing by treating with antibiotics bacteria that are found in urine in asymptomatic patients" said Barbara Trautner, MD, senior author of the study.
Fifty-two patients experienced bacteria in the bloodstream within a month after the urine culture was collected, but only three of these infections might have started in the urinary tract. In other words, only three of 444 positive urine cultures (less than 1%) might have led to bloodstream infection. Giving antimicrobial agents specifically to treat bacteria found in the urine did not decrease the risk of bloodstream infection or death. In spite of that, nearly 90 percent of patients (277 of 308 patients) received some antimicrobial agent for some reason, not necessarily to treat the urine, between 7 days before to 30 days after obtaining the urine culture.
###
Quratulain F. Kizilbash, Nancy J. Petersen, Guoqing J. Chen, Aanand D. Naik, MD;2,3,5 Barbara W. Trautner. "Bacteremia and Mortality with Urinary Catheter-Associated Bacteriuria." Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology 34:11 (November 2013).
Published through a partnership between the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America and The University of Chicago Press, Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology provides original, peer-reviewed scientific articles for anyone involved with an infection control or epidemiology program in a hospital or healthcare facility. ICHE is ranked 13 out of 158 journals in its discipline in the latest Web of Knowledge Journal Citation Reports from Thomson Reuters.
SHEA is a professional society representing more than 2,000 physicians and other healthcare professionals around the world with expertise in healthcare epidemiology and infection prevention and control. SHEA's mission is to prevent and control healthcare-associated infections and advance the field of healthcare epidemiology. The society leads this field by promoting science and research and providing high-quality education and training in epidemiologic methods and prevention strategies. SHEA upholds the value and critical contributions of healthcare epidemiology to improving patient care and healthcare worker safety in all healthcare settings. Visit SHEA online at http://www.shea-online.org, http://www.facebook.com/SHEApreventingHAIs and @SHEA_Epi.
[
| E-mail
| Share
]
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_u7knUCD4j41aXct9_sfLYBVfaBNpBSt7n7PhsSOaurGNCbCM3uBhynLF30XUM3ERU_d5GYDn2JiAQBGEwhpRjaiuIdoKx3-XjzN089wZo=s0-d){kind=small}
Share