AP - NEC Corp.'s profit for the fiscal year through March more than doubled from the previous year as the Japanese electronics maker's mobile phone and computer-chip businesses swung to profit.
AP - Sony shares jumped nearly 9 percent in Thursday trading in Tokyo, a day after the Japanese electronics and entertainment company released upbeat earnings that included a record fiscal year profit.
AP - Mizuho, Japan's No. 2 banking group, took a beating from U.S. subprime credit problems, reporting Thursday a 50 percent drop in profit for the fiscal year.
AP - Credit Agricole said Thursday it plans to sell $7.72 billion worth of assets and named a new leader at its investment bank. The French bank, shaken by the global credit crisis, will also seek $9.1 billion in new capital. -- read full article
Reuters - Friedman Billings Ramsey said Freddie Mac
will not realize meaningful earnings growth until 2012,
at the earliest, and that the $5.5 billion capital raise it
announced Wednesday will not be enough.
AFP - Europe's main stock markets diverged on Thursday as companies published mixed earnings news, and after share-price gains in Tokyo and overnight on Wall Street, dealers said.
