Chief Financial Officer Craig Owens said Monday that the price increases are coming because the soup giant expects input costs to continue rising, although at more moderate levels than over the last year.

The price increases will not apply to Campbell’s ready-to-serve soups.

Owens made the comments on Campbell’s earnings call for the fiscal third-quarter. Profit fell 5.4% as the food company was hit by rising commodities prices and higher marketing and selling expenses.

Campbell is in the midst of a multi-year plan to turn around its soup business after several years of declines.

Campbell shares were down 2.3% in recent trading to $32.62.

SOURCE: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/campbell-to-hike-list-prices-for-condensed-soup-5-2012-05-21

Chief Executive Marc Bolland is expected to roll back aggressive growth targets he set 18 months ago, amid the consumer downturn. The retailer is likely to moderate store expansion in the U.K from the 3% space growth per annum until 2015, outlined when Bolland revealed his strategic blueprint in November 2010, the FT said.

Some investors and analysts are also calling for capital expenditure to be reduced, in line with the softer targets, the newspaper said.

This could help cut M&S’s capital expenditure, originally estimated at GBP900 million a year over three years, the FT said.

M&S declined to comment, the FT said.

In curbing expansion, the retailer would join Tesco PLC (TSCO.LN), Britain’s biggest supermarket by market share, and its smaller rival J Sainsbury PLC (SBRY.LN), which have both pledged to limit the opening of new U.K supermarkets, and extensions to existing stores, the newspaper said.

Newspaper Web site: http://www.ft.com

SOURCE: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/ms-to-scale-back-new-stores-growth-targets-ft-2012-05-19-94854434

In Germany, Corsa models are currently produced in Eisenach. Should that be stopped, it might benefit the Spanish city of Zaragoza, according to Focus.

In Zaragoza in 2011, around 216,000 Corsa models were produced, besides the minivan Meriva and pickup truck Combo, Focus says, adding, that according to its information, the Zaragoza plant is currently running at a 59% capacity use, due to weak demand for Opel models.

An Opel spokesman tells Focus that the question about the future Corsa plant is not on the agenda “because the car is in the middle of its life cycle.”

Without the Corsa model, the future of the Eisenach plant would depend on the success of the small car “Adam,” the serial production of which begins in 2013 with annual planned sales of at least 100,000 units, Focus says.

Adam Opel recently said that from 2015, the next generation of Astra compact models will be produced in the U.K. and Poland, and no longer in the German production site of Ruesselsheim.

-By Frankfurt newsroom; Dow Jones Newswires; +49 69 2972 5500

SOURCE: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/opels-eisenach-plant-may-lose-corsa-production-2012-05-19

For the year, the company now expects results at the high end of its March view, which called for a profit of 85 cents to 95 cents a share and revenue of $9.1 billion to $9.5 billion.

The company forecast third-quarter earnings of 21 cents to 29 cents a share with revenue flat to down 10% from the prior quarter, amounting to $2.29 billion to $2.54 billion. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected 26 cents and $2.44 billion, respectively.

Applied Materials is the largest provider of machines used in making semiconductors, solar panels and displays. Due to tough conditions in the solar market, the company earlier this month said it plans to restructure its solar business and will start posting charges in its third quarter.

The company now has reported three consecutive quarters of weaker earnings amid pressure from lagging solar and display markets.

Applied Materials, best known for its semiconductor manufacturing equipment business, regularly experiences sharp boom-and-bust cycles triggered by fluctuations in supplies of chips and demand for them. The company has broadened its business to include tools used in making solar panels and displays used in computers and TVs. But supply gluts for manufacturers in those businesses have slowed plans to boost production capacity in the past year and have hurt Applied Materials’s results.

For the quarter ended April 29, Applied Materials reported a profit of $289 million, or 22 cents a share, from $489 million, or 37 cents a share, a year earlier. Excluding restructuring costs, acquisition-related expenses and other adjustments, per-share earnings were 27 cents. Revenue dropped 11% to $2.54 billion.

The company’s upbeat February forecast called for a per-share profit of 20 cents to 28 cents with revenue of $2.3 billion to $2.52 billion.

Gross margin narrowed to 39.8% from 41.5%.

Shares edged up 1.4% after hours Thursday to $10.63. The stock is down 2.2% so far in 2012.

SOURCE: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/applied-materials-earnings-fall-41-2012-05-17

The largest U.S. domestic carrier had steadily booked rising traffic for much of last year with help from its acquisition of low-cost rival AirTran. However, the airline industry has been challenged by higher fuel costs and has been cutting capacity to retain pricing power.

The dividend was raised for the first time since early 2001, with the company boosting the payout to 1 cent a share, up from .45 cent. The increase should cost Southwest an extra $4.2 million a quarter.

The stock buyback program, which still included $175 million from a previous authorization, was boosted to a total of $675 million.

Southwest last month reported stronger first-quarter income amid positive hedging impacts and strong revenue growth.

Shares are up 1.4% at $8.18. The stock is down 4.4% so far this year.

SOURCE: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/southwest-air-lifts-dividend-and-buyback-program-2012-05-16

Under the deal, Boyd will take over privately held Peninsula’s Kansas Star, Diamond Jo, Diamond Jo Worth, Evangeline Downs and Amelia Belle casinos, which are located in Kansas, Iowa and Louisiana. The deal includes $200 million of cash consideration plus about $1.2 billion of assumed debt. Peninsula also will include a roughly $144 million note as part of the deal.

Boyd President and Chief Executive Keith Smith called the deal a “transformative transaction that fits perfectly into our growth strategy” by broadening the regional operator’s scale and bolstering its financial profile.

Boyd, one of Las Vegas’s oldest gambling companies, had posted mostly weaker results in recent quarters as revenue from its other casinos in the South and Midwest–once a source of solid revenue growth–failed to keep up with growing costs.

Its first-quarter results still improved over last year’s pressured bottom line, delivering a stronger-than-expected core profit.

Boyd expects its latest purchase, which is slated to close by the end of this year, to add immediately to its earnings.

Boyd is required to make additional payments in 2016 if a measure of Kansas Star’s earnings tops $105 million in 2015.

Boyd shares closed Wednesday down one cent at $6.98 and were inactive after hours. The stock is off 28% over the past year.

SOURCE: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/boyd-gaming-to-buy-peninsula-gaming-in-145b-deal-2012-05-16

Based on discussions between the parties over the past week, Talbots said the exclusivity agreement now will terminate on May 22. The parties had signed an exclusivity agreement last week that was originally set to terminate on Tuesday.

Shares jumped by 8.8% to $2.59 in recent after-hours trading Tuesday. Through the close, the stock was off 23% over the past three months.

Talbots said it doesn’t intend to comment further on its negotiation with Sycamore or the company’s evaluation of strategic alternatives, unless a specific transaction is recommended by its board.

Last week, Talbots received an increased takeover offer from Sycamore Partners, the private-equity firm run by retail veteran Stefan Kaluzny. The latest offer values the company around $215 million.

The bid, worth $3.05 a share, is a 5-cent per-share increase from Sycamore’s December offer. Talbots had rejected the unsolicited bid, saying it was inadequate and substantially undervalued the company. Kaluzny and the Sycamore firm took a 9.9% stake in Talbots last year to become its No. 2 shareholder after OppenheimerFunds. They received access to the company’s books earlier this year.

Efforts by Talbots to stage a turnaround from fashion mistakes and the recession have produced uneven results as the retailer has aimed to freshen its range of merchandise, reduce its store count and broaden its appeal beyond the older women who had been its core customers.

Last month, Talbots reported its fiscal fourth-quarter loss widened, as restructuring, executive retirement costs and promotions pressured results, and sales declined 1.1%.

SOURCE: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/talbots-exclusivity-deal-with-sycamore-extended-2012-05-15

HOUSTON -(MarketWatch)- Chesapeake Energy Corp. CHK -13.80% said Friday that it could delay or change some of its planned asset sales in order not to endanger compliance with the conditions set out by creditors.

In a quarterly filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Oklahoma City, Okla.-based oil and gas producer said that while asset sales generate cash, they decrease the cash flow generated by the company, and “reduce the amount and value of collateral available to secure our obligations, both of which are exacerbated by low natural gas prices.” In order to comply with the requirements of its $4 billion corporate credit facility, the company “may delay one or more of our currently planned asset monetizations, or select other assets for monetization.” As of March 31, the company had $2.5 billion outstanding in its corporate credit facility.

The language, which Argus Research analyst Phil Weiss says is new, puts a damper on Chesapeake’s unrelenting strategy of raising money from asset sales to keep drilling in new areas and bring down its high levels of debt. At times when natural gas prices were high, the company was able to keep aggressively growing while selling stakes in its fields. But with prices near decade-low levels, “at least there may have to be a change in the asset monetization strategy,” Weiss said.

The company says it expects to obtain $11.5 billion to $14 billion from asset transactions in 2012, which will be enough to fund its capital expenditures and reduce debt.

Chesapeake shares tumbled Friday after the company filed a notice that it would not be able to produce an annual report on time with the SEC, followed shortly by the quarterly report, which had been expected Thursday. In 46 minutes, Chesapeake’s market capitalization lost $1.05 billion, as shares fell from $16.39 to their $14.81 closing price. Total market capitalization now sits at $9.8 billion, falling below $10 billion for the first time since the financial crisis. In July 2008, Chesapeake was worth about $49 billion.

Chesapeake has recently come under scrutiny due to the extraordinary complexity of its financial operations, which concerns many analysts. In addition, Chief Executive Aubrey McClendon has borrowed personally up to $1.4 billion to finance his participation in a controversial Chesapeake program that gives him a small stake in every well drilled by the company; he borrowed money from financial institutions that had done business with Chesapeake, prompting investors and analysts to decry a lack of oversight at the top echelons of the company. The program has since been scrapped, and McClendon was removed from his chairman role on Chesapeake’s board, although he remains CEO.

Ben Casselman of The Wall Street Journal contributed to this article.

SOURCE: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/chesapeake-says-may-delay-asset-sales-2012-05-11

Google’s U.S. market share rose 0.1 percentage point to 66.5% in April from the prior month. Microsoft’s share also edged up 0.1 percentage point to 15.4% last month. Yahoo Inc.’s YHOO -1.62% sites remained in the No. 3 spot, slipping 0.2 percentage points to 13.5%. IAC/InterActiveCorp.’s IACI -0.23% Ask.com’s share and AOL Inc.’s AOL -0.84% shares were unchanged at 3% and 1.6%, respectively.

Americans conducted 17.1 billion core search queries last month, down from 18.36 billion in March. Google again ranked first, with 11.4 billion searchers, followed by Microsoft, with 2.6 billion, and Yahoo with 2.3 billion.

ComScore has shifted how it reports its data after Yahoo’s “contextual searches” skewed earlier results. The group measures U.S. explicit core searches, which exclude contextual searches that don’t reflect any intent by users.

SOURCE: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/googles-web-search-market-share-rises-in-april-2012-05-11

The company raised its full-year earnings view by 10 cents, now projecting adjusted earnings of $2.35 to $2.55 a share. It reaffirmed its full-year revenue targets.

For the current quarter, CenturyLink sees adjusted per-share earnings of 59 cents to 64 cents and operating revenue of $4.55 billion and $4.6 billion. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters most recently projected 59 cents and $4.58 billion, respectively.

The third-largest landline provider in the U.S. in recent periods has recorded increases in high-speed Internet subscriptions and has seen revenue helped by gains from last year’s acquisitions of Qwest Communications and Savvis Inc. Meanwhile, the company’s legacy businesses have been affected by access-line losses and lower access revenue in recent periods.

CenturyLink reported a first-quarter profit of $200 million, or 32 cents a share, down from $211 million, or 69 cents a share, a year earlier. Excluding integration and severance-related costs and other impacts, earnings fell to 39 cents from 76 cents. Operating revenue nearly tripled to $4.61 billion.

In February, CenturyLink forecast earnings of between 57 cents and 63 cents a share and revenue of $4.58 billion and $4.64 billion.

Operating expenses more than tripled to $3.96 billion, due primarily to operating costs associated with the Qwest and Savvis acquisitions.

The company added more than 89,000 net high-speed Internet customers in the latest quarter and ended the period with about 5.6 million subscribers.

Shares rose by 32 cents to $38.44 after hours. The stock is down 6.6% over the past 12 months.

SOURCE: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/centurylink-earnings-slip-lifts-earnings-target-2012-05-09