MarketWatch

TEL AVIV (MarketWatch) — General Motors Corp., the Detroit automaker currently reorganizing under U.S. bankruptcy law, will file for an initial public offering of stock sometime next year, The Wall Street Journal reported. When GM leaves Chapter 11 proceedings, possibly as soon as this month, the U.S. government will hold about 60% and the Canadian [...]

LONDON (MarketWatch) — Citigroup downgraded U.K. advertising firm WPP Group to sell from hold, saying a continuation of the trends in the second quarter would suggest a 7.5% organic sales decline in fiscal 2009 and limited growth in fiscal 2010. “Reflecting their largely fee-based revenue model, we see agencies as fundamentally late cycle. Just as [...]

LONDON (MarketWatch) — The Swedish central bank said Thursday that it cut its key interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point to 0.25%. The bank said economic activity remains very weak and requires a more expansionary monetary policy. The repo rate is expected to remain at this low level over the coming year, [...]

LONDON (MarketWatch) UBS upgraded U.K. bank Standard Chartered to neutral from sell Thursday, saying revenues in the wholesale banking business are again outperforming and it now sees this business making a pretax profit of $2.5 billion in the first half of 2009 — nearly four times its earning of four years ago. “While the environment [...]

LONDON (MarketWatch) — European shares pulled back on Thursday morning ahead of interest rate news from the European Central Bank and U.S. jobs data. Mineral extractors gave back some of the previous session’s sharp gains and oil producers were also under pressure as shares of platinum producer Lonmin fell 4% and shares of oil giant [...]

LONDON (MarketWatch) — Swedish Match said Thursday that it will sell its South African operations to Philip Morris International for 1.75 billion South African rand ($224 million). The transaction is subject to approval by the South African Competition Authority and is expected to be completed during the second half of 2009. Read the full story [...]

LONDON (MarketWatch) — U.K. investment firm Intermediate Capital Group said Thursday that it plans to raise around 351 million pounds ($578 million) through the sale of 302.2 million new shares in a rights issue. Shareholders will have the right to buy seven new shares for every two they hold at 121 pence each, or a [...]

LONDON (MarketWatch) — PC and video game retailer Game Group said Thursday that, for the 21 weeks to June 27, total sales fell 9.1% and comparable sales declined 15.4%. The sales performance met expectations, given very strong sales last year, a period which included software releases such as Mario Kart, Wii Fit and Grand Theft [...]

TEL AVIV (MarketWatch) — Beijing Automotive Industry Holding Co. is preparing a bid for General Motors Corp.’s Adam Opel GmbH German operations, Dow Jones Newswires reported. The Chinese company would step in, a person familiar with the matter told the news agency, if talks under which Canada’s Magna International Inc. would acquire Opel and the [...]

TOKYO (MarketWatch) — Australia’s seasonally adjusted trade balance nearly doubled to a deficit of A$556 million ($449 million) in May from April’s deficit of A$282 million, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said Thursday. The deficit was much deeper than analysts’ expectations of a A$175 million deficit, according a Dow Jones Newswires. Read the full story [...]