Finance & Capital Management

No matter what the politicians in Washington are saying, the United States is married to China. And, this relationship has been nearly 40 years in the making. Ever since Nixon visited China, the United States has become more and more reliant upon low-cost Chinese goods. Indeed, according to The United States Trade Representative, the United States imported nearly $300 billion worth of goods from China in 2009 alone. To the extent an economic recovery in the United States depends on consumers spending at retail, the ability of U.S.

The folks in the electronics and entertainment area at Walmart had to be smiling this week at Best Buy’s admission that it lost market share to discounters during the third quarter. The share loss resulted in a 5% same-store sales decline at U.S. stores that was well below guidance that called for flat to modest growth. Earnings per share of 54 cents were well below consensus estimates of 60 cents and full-year guidance was reduced to a range of $3.20 to $3.40 from a range of $3.55 to $3.70.

The word competition gets tossed around a lot in the retail industry as operators talk about market positioning -- who they do and don’t compete with. Oftentimes, companies will refer to direct competitors, but one thing about Walmart is that it has always tended to take the broad view of competition in that any company, no matter how small, who sold anything offered at Walmart was viewed as a competitor.

Teradata, the data warehousing and enterprise analytics leader, has a new deal with Walmart to help the retailer store, manipulate and analyze the expanding volume of information that results from selling more than $400 billion worth of goods annually.

CONSHOHOCKEN, Pa.  - Ikea announced that it plans to install solar energy panels on two East Coast stores: Paramus, N.J. and Stoughton, Mass. Pending governmental permits, rooftop installation will begin in the new year, with completion expected in spring 2011. The plans bring the number of U.S. Ikea locations that will have a solar energy system to a total of 13. According to the company, these two systems will represent the largest store-top solar installations for Ikea in the United States.

NEW YORK - The Deloitte Spending Index, comprising four components -- tax burden, initial unemployment claims, real wages and real home prices -- fell to 4.29%, from an upwardly revised gain of 4.71% a month ago. According to Deloitte the decline was primarily due to sustained weakness in the housing market despite incremental gains in other areas.  

MINNEAPOLIS - Best Buy reported net earnings of $217 million, or 54 cents per diluted share, for its fiscal third quarter, compared with $227 million, or 53 cents per diluted share, for the prior-year period.

MONTVALE, N.J. — Bankrupt grocer A&P has announced that the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York has approved the $800 million debtor-in-possession financing provided by JPMorgan Chase. Of the total DIP facility, a $350 million term loan immediately has been made available.

As previously reported, A&P filed for bankruptcy on Sunday and will keep its 395 stores open and operational during the proceedings.

In addition, the court granted A&P's motion to approve its request for "first day orders," including:

Washington – After a solid start to the holiday season, the National Retail Federation announced that it is revising its holiday forecast to 3.3%, up from 2.3%. The upward revision is due to improvement in a variety of economic indicators including stock market gains, recent income growth, savings built up during the recession - all giving consumers the capacity to spend.  

PLANO, Texas - Two members of the Dr Pepper Snapple Group executive leadership team have been promoted to the level of executive vice president, the company announced.

Effective Jan. 1, 2011, David Thomas, Ph.D., is EVP research and development, and Tina Barry becomes EVP corporate affairs. Both continue to report directly to Larry Young, DPS president and CEO.