Word: quarters
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...sure, Wells Fargo still has plenty of fans, and its bottom line has held up better than expected - the bank's first-quarter earnings of $3 billion were up 50% over the prior year's first quarter, despite a tough economy. Executives at Wells are also reassuring investors that the bank's loans will perform better than rivals; they point to the $39 billion in loans the bank wrote off when it acquired Wachovia last fall as proof of its conservative posture...
...least one prominent investor thinks Wells is doing something right. Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway bought nearly 12.4 million shares of Wells Fargo stock in the first quarter, upping its stake to just over 300 million shares. In early May, Buffett told attendees at his firm's annual meeting that he thought Wells was well capitalized and had a competitive advantage over other banks. (Read "My $650,100 Lunch with Warren Buffett...
...tumbled in recent weeks amid signs of dwindling demand for chocolate products in mature markets. The European Cocoa Association said last month that grinding - the process that turns the crop into cocoa butter or powder and a handy proxy for demand - by its members fell 11% in the first quarter of this year. Grinding across the U.S., Canada and Mexico fell by slightly more in the same period. That's prompted some manufacturers to "provide some promotion on their products," says Laurent Pipitone, senior statistician at the London-based International Cocoa Organization, "because they face a difficult situation...
...secret that luxury has taken a beating in the Great Recession. High-end restaurants are hurting as people trade the $30 Steak for the $3 Big Mac. Saks Inc. lost $5.1 million in the first quarter of '09, a 129% drop from the previous year. Necessity is the new luxury...
...Nonetheless, a PAD party could pose a major challenge to Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva of the Democrat Party, whose ability to hold together his fractious governing coalition appears increasingly shaky amid civil unrest, political conflicts and an economy that contracted by 7.1% in the first quarter of this year. As Abhisit's coalition is still intact, no election date has been set. "We have been asking for political reform, but for five months this government has not responded to us," Panthep said. "We will ally ourselves with any party that wants transparency, the rule...