Premium ContentMouse over Home then click on Premium Content for information.Strong sales boost Deere profit
Deere & Co. said Wednesday that strong equipment sales, particularly abroad, boosted its quarterly net income by 4 percent and the company raised its outlook for 2012. The world's largest maker of agricultural equipment posted first-quarter earnings of $532.9 million, or $1.30 per share in its fiscal first quarter. That's up from $513.7 million, or $1.20 per share, last year. Deere's quarterly revenue grew 11 percent. to $6.77 billion from last year's $6.12 billion.
Optimism on housing grows
U.S. homebuilders are gradually growing more optimistic about the depressed housing market and believe homes sales could pick up sharply at the beginning of 2012. The National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo said its builder sentiment index rose for a fifth straight month in February to 29, up from 25 in January. The index has climbed 15 points since September and is now at its highest level since May 2007.
Factory output jumps
U.S. factories boosted output last month and December ended up being their best month of growth in five years. Strong auto sales and growing business investment in machinery and other equipment are keeping factories busy and helping the economy grow. The Federal Reserve said Wednesday that manufacturing production increased 0.7 percent in January. And output soared 1.5 percent in December, according to an upward revision. That was the biggest gain since December 2006.
IRS2go app is expanded
The Internal Revenue Service has a new, expanded version of its smartphone application. IRS2Go 2.0, available on the Apple and Android platforms, adds a new YouTube feature, news feed and tax transcript service in addition to existing tools, such as checking on the status of a tax refund. The IRS released the first version of IRS2Go in 2011 and had more than 350,000 downloads.
Kellogg snaps up Pringles
Kellogg Co. agreed to acquire Procter & Gamble Co.'s Pringles potato chip business for about $2.7 billion in cash to triple its global snacks sales after a P&G deal with Diamond Foods Inc. fell through.
The purchase gives Kellogg the world's second-largest maker of savory snacks, with more than $1.5 billion in sales in 140 countries. Kellogg Chief Executive Officer John Bryant said that the company is working to boost its global snacks business, which includes Cheez-It, Townhouse crackers and Keebler.
"This is an irresistible asset at a good price. So we moved very quickly," Bryant said.
Lexus ranks as most dependable
Lexus is the top performer in a survey of vehicle dependability released Wednesday, but most other brands also showed improvement in an industry that has reached historically high dependability levels.
Consulting firm J.D. Power and Associates polled 31,000 owners of 2009 model-year vehicles and rated brands by the number of problems owners have experienced in the last 12 months. Problems can range from stalling engines and transmission issues to peeling paint and electronics glitches. The top complaint in this year's survey was excessive wind noise, followed by noisy brakes.
Lexus owners reported 86 problems per 100 vehicles. Porsche, Cadillac, Toyota and Scion rounded out the top five. The worst performers were Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Ram and Jaguar. Chrysler owners reported 192 problems per 100 vehicles.
The industry average of 132 problems per 100 vehicles is the best score since the survey began in 1990.
"The fact that almost every brand improved . . . at a time when the industry was really hurting is impressive and frankly surprising," David Sargent, vice president of global automotive for J.D. Power and Associates said .
Feds putting halt to LightSquared
Federal officials plan to kill a private company's plans to start a national high-speed wireless broadband network after concluding it would in some cases jam personal-navigation and other GPS devices.
The Federal Communications Commission said it will seek public comment on revoking LightSquared's permit after a federal agency that coordinates wireless signals, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, concluded that there's no way to mitigate potential interference.
— From staff and wire reports
Copyright ©2012 Omaha World-Herald®. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, displayed or redistributed for any purpose without permission from the Omaha World-Herald.
