Profitshop

Carnival Corp. (CCL) fell the most in more than 11 years in London trading after saying the grounding of the Costa Concordia off Italy’s Tuscan Coast that killed at least six people will cost the company as much as $95 million. Carnival, the world’s biggest cruise operator with brands including Cunard and Princess Cruises, dropped 16 percent to 1,878 pence, the biggest decline since 2000. The vessel will be out of service for at least the current financial year ending Nov. 30, the Miami- and London-based company said in a statement today. The reduction in fiscal 2012 earnings will amount to 11 cents to 12 cents a share, it said. Carnival said it anticipates additional costs to the business that aren’t possible to determine at this time. “There will be negative short-term implications for bookings across the cruise sector as pictures of the stricken ship are flashed around the world,” said Wyn Ellis, an analyst at Numis Securities in London who reduced his recommendation on the stock

Overseas investors sold South Korean stocks for the seventh day, the longest losing streak in two months, helping drag down the benchmark Kospi (KOSPI) index to its lowest level since Feb. 5. Global funds pulled a net 542.9 billion won ($492 million) of Kospi shares as of 3:36 p.m. in Seoul trading, taking total sales in the seven days to 2.83 trillion won, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The string of outflows is the longest since mid-October. The Kospi dropped 0.1 percent to 1,897.5, while the won weakened 0.7 percent. Korea’s stock index has declined 5.7 percent this year, the worst performer in Asia after Malaysia, as profits declined at the nation’s biggest companies and volatility in the won increased. Investors withdrew more than $2.5 billion from U.S. exchange-traded funds that buy developing nation stocks and bonds last week, the biggest outflow since January, as oil declined and concern grew the U.S. will raise borrowing costs. “Global investors in general have be

Commodity producers led European stocks to their worst week since 2012 as U.S. benchmark oil extended declines below $60 a barrel. Norway’s krone weakened and Russia’s ruble slid to a record, while a surge in government bonds sent yields in Europe to all-time lows. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index dropped 1.5 percent at 10:45 a.m. in London. Standard & Poor’s 500 Index futures slipped 0.6 percent, with the gauge set to end seven weeks of gains. West Texas Intermediate crude lost 1.5 percent to $59.05 a barrel. The krone slid to an 11-year low against the dollar, while the cost of insuring Russian government debt rose for a 15th day, the longest streak on record. The yield on 30-year German bunds slid as much as six basis points to a record 1.465 percent and France’s reached 1.931 percent. Oil is headed for the 10th weekly drop since the start of October after OPEC decided against reducing its output, even as the highest U.S. production in more than three decades exacerbates a global gl

Households in England and Wales today received a boost when Britain’s water regulator published a final determination on prices that will see the average customer bill fall about 5 percent starting next year. Ofwat published the prices that Britain’s water and waste companies, including United Utilities Plc (UU/) and Severn Trent Plc (SVT), can charge for the five-year period starting 2015. The measures will see average annual rates drop by about 5 percent before inflation, meaning bills will be reduced by about 20 pounds ($31) from 396 pounds now to 376 pounds, it said in a statement. The water regulator sets limits on how much utilities can charge customers every five years. The decision is aimed at supporting 44 billion pounds of investments in measures such as curbing leaks and sewer flooding including into the Thames River while keeping household bills as low as possible. The price review has been subject to consultation with some utilities tweaking and re-submitting rate plans.

Shengjing Bank Co., the biggest city commercial lender in northeastern China, and its investors are seeking as much as $1.4 billion from an initial public offering in Hong Kong. The company, based in Shenyang city, and its shareholders offered about 1.38 billion shares at HK$7.43 to HK$7.81 each, according to a term sheet obtained by Bloomberg News. New shares account for 90.9 percent of the offering. Shengjing Bank is following provincial and city lenders Harbin Bank Co. and Huishang Bank (3698) in going public in Hong Kong to bolster capital as the world’s second-largest economy slows and bad loans increase. The lender aims to set a final price on Dec. 18 and start trading on Dec. 29, the terms show. Five cornerstone investors, including Chow Tai Fook Nominee Ltd., agreed to buy a combined $700 million of stock as part of the IPO. Chow Tai Fook committed $100 million, while Paul Suen Cho Hung will invest $180 million, the terms show. Cornerstone investors typically agree to hold

Mexico’s central bank sold dollars to bolster the peso for the first time in more than two years, as officials try to curb volatility in the currency following an 8.2 percent slide in the past month. The Bank of Mexico sold $200 million today at an average price of 14.7544 pesos each, according to a website posting. The auction, conducted under procedures disclosed earlier this week, took place after the market exchange rate weakened by more than 1.5 percent from yesterday’s official price. The market closed today at 14.7772 pesos per dollar, the weakest since March 2009, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The peso, the most-traded emerging-market currency, has weakened as plunging oil prices damped speculation that a projected energy boom in the country would attract foreign investment and spur economic growth. The slide has upended bets made earlier in the year on peso-denominated bonds by money managers including Pacific Investment Management Co. and BlackRock. “At the end

Perhaps 2014 will go down in history as the year that junk bonds sent a warning signal as oil plummeted and stocks just kept rallying. Prices on high-yield bonds have declined 2.4 percent this month and 5.7 percent since the end of August, even as U.S. equities have climbed to new highs. The dollar-denominated debt is now yielding the most relative to a comparable measure on the Standard & Poor’s 500 index since 2011. The divergence may signal junk-bond traders are picking up on a fundamental problem of overvalued energy companies in frothy markets fueled by six years of record Federal Reserve stimulus -- and that stock investors should pay attention. While falling oil prices mean consumers have extra cash to deploy elsewhere, boosting the economy, the price plunge may also crimp the capital spending by energy companies that has been a driver of growth in recent years. “The big question is whether oil’s problems are going to stay local or whether they’re going to spread out,” M