Mid-Day Minute - July 29

Big Web Ad Deal Sealed
Microsoft and Yahoo announced their long courtship is over, reaching a 10 year search deal that will see Microsoft’s Bing Internet search engine powering Yahoo’s search ads. The agreement sets up a united front to attempt to rival Google’s web search dominance. Regulatory approval must be gained as legal challenges may arise. Read Full Article here

U.S. Factories Lose Work
New orders for manufactured durable goods in June fell 2.5 percent, a U.S. government report said today, stopping a run of increases in the previous two months. Excluding transportation, new orders were up 1.1percent. Excluding defense, orders grew 0.7 percent. [Correction: Census bureau reported a loss, not gain in orders]

Oil Supply Glut
Crude oil inventories increased by 5.1 million barrels for the week ending July 24, at 347.8 million barrels, the Energy Information Administration said on its weekly report on U.S. stockpiles on Wednesday. Analysts had expected gasoline stockpiles to fall by 1.5 million barrels and distillate fuel supplies including heating oil and diesel climbed 1 million barrels last week, according to a Bloomberg survey.

Time Warner hurt by ad, dvd slump

Time Warner’s second quarter net profit in the second quarter fell 8.7 percent to $519 million while revenue was down 9 percent to $6.81 billion. Profit was better than expected but the firm did not meet revenue expectations. The firm was affected by a fall in advertising and lower DVD sales, while cost cuts helped the firm beat profit expectations, according to Reuters.

In Congress, energy trade limits debate continues

Hedge exemptions in energy should be allowed but there are concerns that these can defeat the purpose of establishing position limits, the chief commodities and futures regulator Gary Gensler said on Wednesday. Goldman Sachs’ managing director Donald Casturo warned that even limiting exemptions could have negative consequences.

Sprint's customer losses continue

Sprint Nextel Corp reported a $384 million loss as revenue fell 10 percent to $8.1 billion on Wednesday. The firm lost 991 thousand postpaid customers, but gained 777 thousand prepaid customers. Shares were down more than 11 percent today. Read Full Article here

Daimler's big loss, not as bad as expected

Daimler reported a 1 billion euros loss in the second quarter compared to the same period last year when it lost 1.35 billion euros while revenue fell 25 percent to 19.6 billion euros. The loss was smaller than expected as shares rose trading in New York were up nearly 3 percent.

Chipmakers optimistic on recovering demand, prices

Top Asian and European semiconductor manufacturers sounded a note of optimism on Wednesday as they predicted demand and prices picking up in the second half of the year. Taiwan's UMC, the world's second-biggest contract chipmaker, Europe's top chipmaker STMicroelectronics and even struggling German competitor Infineon all forecast that this quarter's sales would beat last quarter's. Read Full Article here.

Singapore may open soverign wealth fund Temasek to public

Singapore’s sovereign fund Temasek Holdings Pte, with assets of S$127 billion as of Nov. 30, said it may allow public investment for the first time, said Ho Ching, the wife of Prime Minister Lee Hsie Loong, according to Bloomberg.