UPDATE 1-Stanley Black & Decker Q3 earnings beat; cuts organic rev growth view
Oct 17 (Reuters) - Stanley Black & Decker Inc posted
a better-than-expected quarterly profit, but the toolmaker cut
its full-year organic revenue growth outlook, citing a
retraction in unit volumes within U.S. hand tools, and softness
in Europe.For 2011, the company revised its earnings outlook to the
lower end of its prior view of 5.15-$5.40 a share.The company said it now expects about 3.5 percent organic
revenue growth for the full year, down from its previous range
of 4-5 percent.For the third quarter, Stanley Black & Decker’s net income
was $154.6 million, or 92 cents a share, up from $123.2 million,
or 73 cents a share, a year earlier. Excluding items, the
company earned $1.34 a share.Net sales rose 11 percent to $2.6 billion.Analysts on average had expected earnings of $1.33 a share,
according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E S.Shares of the New Britain, Connecticut-based company closed
at $56.19 Monday on the New York Stock Exchange.
Putin hints Medvedev PM job depends on vote outcome
Putin and Medvedev, who is now president, revealed plans last month to switch roles in 2012, with Putin running in a March presidential election and making Medvedev his prime minister.
Obama seeks to put onus on Republicans over jobs
By Matt SpetalnickWASHINGTON, Oct 15 (Reuters) - President Barack Obama urged
Republicans on Saturday to stop picking “ideological fights”
and focus instead on job creation efforts as he pressed
Congress to begin voting next week piece by piece on his
defeated jobs package.With an eye to the 2012 election, Obama is working with
fellow Democrats to break into parts his $447 billion jobs bill
— which Republicans blocked in the Senate on Tuesday — and
challenge their opponents to show where they stand.He used his weekly radio speech to showcase his strategy to
paint the Republicans as obstructionists impeding his drive to
improve the economy and reduce stubbornly high unemployment,
considered crucial to his re-election prospects.Republicans have said Obama’s original package was laden
with what they see as wasteful spending and counterproductive
tax hikes for wealthier Americans and that he now seems more
interested in demonizing them than working to find common
ground.The deadlock on jobs has raised concerns that political
dysfunction in Washington may make it impossible to take major
steps to spur hiring before next year’s presidential and
congressional elections.”Republicans (in the House of Representatives) spent the
past couple days picking partisan ideological fights,” Obama
said, citing Republican proposals over the past week to ease
environmental regulations and restrict abortion funding.But Obama, who has adopted an increasingly populist tone in
the jobs debate even as his poll numbers have languished, said
he would give Republicans “another chance to spend more time
worrying about your jobs than keeping theirs.”“Next week, I’m urging members of Congress to vote on
putting hundreds of thousands of teachers back in the
classroom, cops back on the streets and firefighters back on
the job,” he said, identifying the first piecemeal proposal he
wants lawmakers to bring up. “And if they vote ‘no’” on that,
they’ll have to tell you why.”Obama was referring to a portion of his jobs package that
is seen having little chance of winning Republican support —
giving billions of dollars in aid to states to prevent layoffs
of teachers and support the hiring of police and firefighters.POLL SHOWS SUPPORT FOR OBAMA PLANA Wall Street-NBC poll this week showed the public, by a
2-to-1 margin, backed Obama’s jobs plan through a mixture of
stimulus spending and tax cuts. Democratic leaders propose
financing it with a 5.7 percent surtax on millionaires.Senate Republicans offered a largely repackaged plan of
their own on Thursday that featured calls for tax reform and
cuts plus repeal of Obama’s U.S. healthcare overhaul and
lifting prohibitions on offshore energy exploration.Republicans, who control the House of Representatives, have
in the past backed some components of Obama’s package, such as
a payroll tax cut, but have suggested they may not do so
again.Obama said he wanted other elements of his plan put to a
vote in coming weeks, including infrastructure spending,
small-business tax breaks, preventing middle-class tax hikes
from kicking in next year and extending unemployment aid.Obama, who has spent the past month barnstorming across the
country touting his jobs package, will make a bus tour from
Monday to Wednesday through North Carolina and Virginia, two
election battleground states.
UPDATE 2-Iraq signs final Akkas gas deal with KOGAS
By Ahmed RasheedBAGHDAD, Oct 13 (Reuters) - Iraq’s oil ministry said it had
signed a final deal with Korea Gas Corp. (KOGAS) to
develop its Akkas gas field in the western province of Anbar,
the country’s largest with reserves of 5.6 trillion cubic feet.Iraq had asked KOGAS to develop the field on its own after
partner KazMunaiGas Exploration Production withdrew
from the deal. .”Development of Akkas gas field will provide a source of
power generation and open the way for establishing a promising
petrochemical industry,” said Ahmed al-Shamma, Iraq’s deputy oil
minister, during a signing ceremony on Thursday.OPEC member Iraq has already signed scores of contracts with
foreign companies to develop its oil industry as it seeks to
rebuild after years of war and economic sanctions.The signing of the Akkas deal was delayed for months by a
dispute between the Iraqi government and provincial officials in
Anbar, a Sunni heartland and former al Qaeda stronghold, which
included the issue of possible gas exports to Syria.While the oil ministry said this dispute had been resolved,
the signing was postponed for a second time in February when
officials again disagreed over contract terms.Anbar’s deputy governor said his province has made demands
as a condition for backing the deal, including building a power
station near the field, a gas pipeline to supply a nearby
thermal power station and the processing of gas inside Iraq.”Definitely if these demands are met by the oil ministry,
the Akkas project will get support from people of Anbar
province,” Fouad Chetab, the deputy governor, said at the
signing ceremony.Abdul-Mahdy al-Ameedi, director of the Iraqi oil ministry’s
contracts and licensing directorate, told Reuters that, under
the terms of the contract, surplus gas produced from Akkas could
be processed in Syria.”It will not be acceptable to shut down the field if gas
produced from Akkas overcomes (the) capacity of the gas
processors we have. Under the deal, gas could be sent to the
nearby Deir al Zour gas processor in Syria,” Ameedi said.Iraq, holder of the world’s 10th-largest gas reserves, has
said the priority for the gas will be domestic consumption,
mainly for power generation, but has left open the possibility
of allowing exports once domestic needs are satisfied.More than eight years after the U.S.-led invasion, Iraq’s
national grid supplies only a few hours of power each day,
shortages that could be satisfied through utilising untapped gas
reserves in the oil rich country.
