The Star Online: Business
The Star Online: Business |
- Financial stocks gain in early trade
- Ford plans smallest engine ever
- Moody's warns US gov't on possible debt downgrade
| Financial stocks gain in early trade Posted: 02 Jun 2011 06:44 PM PDT KUALA LUMPUR: Shares of CIMB and the Hong Leong group were up in early Friday trade as investors continue to bet on financial stocks in the midst of merger and acquisition activities. The local bourse's benchmark index added a quarter-percent to 1,561.94 at 9.30am while Asian markets regained ground lost in recent days. At Bursa Malaysia, advancers outpaced decliners 138 to 86 while 169 other counters were traded unchanged. There were 72.34 million shares traded with a total turnover of RM100.18 million. CIMB gained 6 sen to RM8.38, Hong Leong Financial Group added 12 sen to RM12.18 and Hong Leong Bank was 6 sen higher at RM12.56. Tradewinds, a counter related to media-shy billionaire Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar Albukhary, rose 30 sen to RM9.10 while Malayan Flour, which recently announced a special dividend and rights issue, gained 15 sen to RM8. Bursa was up 15 sen to RM7.77 and Esso was 11 sen higher at RM5.21. Spot gold lost US$1.22 to US$1,532.43 per ounce while silver was unchanged at US$36.19. Nymex crude oil in electronic trade gained 27 cents to US$100.67 per barrel. The ringgit was quoted at 3.015 to the US dollar and 4.366 to the euro. Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by USA Best Price. |
| Ford plans smallest engine ever Posted: 02 Jun 2011 05:54 PM PDT DEARBORN, Michigan: Ford Motor Co. plans to introduce its smallest engine ever by 2013, part of the race to improve fuel economy across the industry. Ford said Thursday it's working on a one-liter, three-cylinder engine that will be available in small cars globally. Ford didn't say which cars will get the engine, but it plans to release more details this fall. Currently Ford's smallest engine available in the U.S. is the 1.6-liter, four-cylinder used in the Ford Fiesta subcompact. That engine has 120 horsepower and gets up to 38 miles per gallon (16 kilometers per liter) on the highway. Ford says the new three-cylinder engine would match that power but be more efficient. The engine has Ford's EcoBoost technology, which uses turbocharging, direct injection and variable camshaft timing to boost performance. It's also about 20 pounds (9 kilograms) lighter than the four-cylinder, which helps fuel economy. "No one's ever built a three-cylinder engine quite like this," said Joe Bakaj, Ford's vice president of global powertrain engineering. Three-cylinder engines are common in Europe and Asia, but the only one currently available in the U.S. is in the Smart Fortwo. The Fortwo has a 70-horsepower engine - the same as some snowmobiles - and gets 41 miles per gallon (17.5 kpl) on the highway. EcoBoost technology is currently available on four Ford products - the F-150 pickup, the Ford Flex and Lincoln MKT crossovers and the Taurus SHO sedan. Ford is adding it to the lineup for the Edge crossover and the Explorer SUV this summer. The starting price of the Flex SEL with EcoBoost is $40,080, or nearly $8,000 more than a Flex SEL with the base engine. It costs $4,400 to add EcoBoost to an F-150 XL. Still, the option has been popular with some customers looking for fuel economy. Forty-one percent of individual F-150 buyers chose the EcoBoost option in May, the company said. Ford said there are currently 180,000 vehicles in North America with EcoBoost, which was introduced in 2009. Ford aims to have 1.5 million on the road globally by 2013. Ford product development chief Derrick Kuzak said the company is exploring whether it could use EcoBoost technology in hybrid vehicles for even more fuel savings. Ford also said Thursday it's developing its first eight-speed transmission, which will get up to 6 percent better fuel economy than its six-speed. General Motors Co. and Chrysler Group LLC have also said they are developing eight-speed transmissions, which are already available on luxury brands like Lexus and BMW. - AP Latest business news from AP-Wire Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by USA Best Price. |
| Moody's warns US gov't on possible debt downgrade Posted: 02 Jun 2011 05:52 PM PDT WASHINGTON: A credit rating agency is warning the U.S. government that it could lose its sterling debt rating if Congress and the Obama administration don't reach an agreement to raise the nation's borrowing limit. Moody's Investors Service said Thursday that if the parties fail to make progress soon, it would put the U.S. rating under review for a possible downgrade. That's because there's a "very small but rising risk" that the government will default on its debts. Standard & Poor's, another major credit rating agency, issued a similar warning in April. The U.S. government hit its $14.3 trillion borrowing limit on May 16. The debt limit is the amount the government can borrow to help finance its operations. A lower credit rating could ripple through the U.S. economy and ultimately hurt consumers. That's because many loans, including mortgages, tend to follow yields on U.S. Treasury bonds. So interest rates could rise. Moody's also warned the government could face a downgrade if it fails to come up with a long-term plan to reduce the country's deficit. The federal budget deficit is on pace to exceed $1 trillion for the third straight year. Moody's said it had expected strong political debate over the topic. But the entrenchment of both sides is greater than it anticipated. President Barack Obama and Republicans both have said the country needs to reduce its annual deficits. But they are at odds over how to do it. Republicans insist cutting spending without tax increases. Democrats say any plan should include both. Obama met privately with both parties this week to discuss the issue but no progress has been made. Time is growing short. The Treasury Department has said the U.S. government is at risk of a default if it does not raise the borrowing limit by Aug. 2. "The heightened polarization over the debt limit has increased the odds of a short-lived default" by the government, the rating agency said. "If this situation remains unchanged in coming weeks, Moody's will place the rating under review." In April, Standard & Poor's for the first time lowered its long-term outlook for the government's fiscal health from "stable" to "negative." And it warned that it could strip the government of its top credit rating over the next two years if lawmakers failed to reach a deal to control the massive federal deficit. - AP Latest business news from AP-Wire Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by USA Best Price. |
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