Honda’s Prius-killer is looking a lot like roadkill….

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A tale of two hybrids

The Anglo-Dutch energy giant plans to trim staff and capital expenditures after reporting a 70% fall in second quarter earnings on lower oil prices and demand

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Shell Seeks Cost Cuts as Profits Plunge

A long time ago, I created a list of low grocery prices for my readers. My theory was, and still is to this day, that if you know what a “good” price is for the items you buy most often,…

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Coupon clippers unite — and save

Bill Hambrecht, AOL Chairman Tim Armstrong, and other wealthy investors say they want the UFL to be Off Broadway to the NFL’s Broadway

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The United Football League’s Game Plan

Scott Mitic is chief executive of TrustedID, an identity theft prevention company based in Redwood City, Calif. Fighting identity theft will soon become a part of everyday business….

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New law targets identity theft

(Reuters) – Power company Constellation Energy Group Inc reported better-than-expected quarterly results helped by strong margins in its wholesale and retail businesses, and increased its earnings forecast for the full year 2009.

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Constellation Energy earnings beat estimates

Take a look at first-quarter earnings released yesterday for Sony and Sharp. They can be summed up in a word: dismal. Though Sony and Sharp announced results that weren’t as bad as analysts had expected, both companies had racked up sizable net and operating losses. (Sony’s operating loss topped $271 million while Sharp’s was $274 million.)

Now dial back a week to Samsung Electronics’ earnings. Samsung said quarterly operating revenues rose 5% to more than $2 billion, compared to the same quarter a year ago. Its revenues gained nearly 12% to $26 billion. Meanwhile, LG said operating profit surged 32% to $912 million.

Samsung and LG boasted operating margins of 8% compared to around minus 4% for Sharp and minus 6% for Sony.

The simple explanation is that a strong yen wrecked Japanese tech exporters while a weak won buoyed Korean tech firms. To be sure, the yen’s 30% gain against the won since the April-June quarter of last year is part of the reason for the discrepancy in performance. Currency rates can significantly inflate or shrink exporters’ revenues earned overseas when those revenues are repatriated. (Even Nintendo, which has been on a roll despite the recession, got hammered by unfavorable currrency rates. It was safely in the black but its earnings fell sharply–sales were off 40%, operating profits dropped 66% and net profits sank 60%–than the April-June period last year.)

But currencies hardly explain everything. Nomura Securities’ Eiichi Katayama points out that Korean manufacturers buy equipment and materials from Japanese companies and then sell their products to the same countries where Japanese tech firms do business.

So how to account for the diverging results? “We think that Korean companies’ strategic moves and speedy management decisions are a key reason,” Katayama wrote in a report to investors yesterday. “For example, all the consumer electronics majors are pouring resources into the flat-panel TV business. However, Samsung Electronics is already generating an operating margin of more than 10% from this business, while Panasonic and Sony, the two Japanese majors, are both struggling with double-digit operating loss margins.” (Panasonic reports first-quarter results next Tuesday.)

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Why Korean Tech Firms Make Money But Japanese Tech Firms Don’t

A look at whether emerging-market stocks are rising on strong fundamentals or are a sign of another bubble, in this video edition of The Business Week

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Is the Emerging-Markets Rally for Real?

A look at whether emerging market stocks are rising on strong fundamentals or are a sign of another bubble, in this video edition of The Business Week

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Is the Emerging Markets Rally for Real?

LONDON (Reuters) – British Airways said on Friday it saw no improvement in bleak trading conditions and vowed to continue to cut costs, rounding off another miserable week for Europe’s airlines.

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BA sees no upturn, pledges more cost cutting

Better-than-expected economic data bolster the case that the recent stock market rally was based on solid fundamentals.

According to the U.S. GDP report, the economy contracted 6.4% in the first quarter of 2009, but only declined 1% last quarter. That’s progress, and (as much as such things make sense) it arguably justifies the S&P 500′s 46% advance since Mar. 9.

But what now? GMO’s Jeremy Grantham describes the dilemma facing investors in his quarterly letter. One thing I admire about Grantham is his honesty: He admits when he really doesn’t know what’s going to happen next. As a value investor, Grantham has definite opinions about what the stock market should be worth, but he’s aware the market usually acts irrationally.

So the problem right now for Grantham is that, for one brief moment, stocks seem to be fairly priced:

A year ago, equities globally — and everything else for that matter — were very overpriced, particularly if they were risky. A quarter ago, in mid-March, prices everywhere were cheap. Now they have all — or almost all — converged for a few unusual moments at fair value.

Grantham, who thrives on exploiting the market’s irrationalities, is finding fewer opportunities in such a rational environment. “When markets sell at normal prices, life for us becomes much harder, perhaps 10 times harder,” he writes.

One of the only things he can do is wait:

Just be patient. In our strange markets, you usually don’t have to wait too long for something really bizarre to show up.

Read Grantham’s entire note here.

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Grantham: Are Stocks Fairly Priced?

LONDON (Reuters) – British Airways said on Friday it had cut operating costs by around 6.6 percent since last October as it fights to slim down during the downturn, but it had seen no signs of improvement in trading conditions.

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British Airways costs down, says more cuts needed

A San Francisco Bay-area real estate broker is targeting his message to an unlike group of buyers and sellers: Vegetarians. I’m not sure what an agent’s eating habits have to do with his ability to sell houses, but I’m sure the pitch is more likely to work in San Francisco than, say, Houston.

This is how Daniel Berman of Pacific Century Realty explains it on his VeggieReeltor.com Web site (Yes, that’s how the URL is spelled), in an “Open Letter to My Fellow Vegetarians:”

Why would it matter that you, as a vegetarian, have a real estate agent who is also a vegetarian? Simply stated, it’s a matter of shared values, an approach to life and a way of relating to others. If you’ve been a vegetarian (or vegan) for any length of time, you know what I mean.

This blog item might be red meat for all the non-vegetarians out there, but let’s hear from some veggie buyers and sellers as well.

(Thanks to the San Francisco Chronicle).

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Is a Vegetarian Real Estate Agent More Trustworthy?

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. economy probably contracted again in the second quarter, pressured by a huge inventory liquidation, but the pace of decline likely slowed from previous periods, according to a Reuters survey.

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U.S. economy likely contracted in Q2, recovery seen

The GDP report showed a smaller drop than expected for the second quarter, sparking hopes that the economy is recovering

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Stocks End Mixed on GDP News