BRIEFCASE MGA'S BRATZ SOON WILL BE IN BOOKS.Byline: - Staff and Wire Services NORTH HILLS - The Bratz are bound for books. The brainchild of MGA Entertainment MGA Entertainment is a manufacturer of children's toys and entertainment products founded in 1997. Its products include the Bratz fashion doll line. External links
Six additional titles will join the line later in the year. February's retail sales take a dip WASHINGTON - Shoppers faced with heavy snow, job cuts and war worries were tightfisted tight·fist·ed adj. Close-fisted; stingy. tight  fisted·ness n. in February, driving down sales at retailers by the largest amount in 15 months. The latest snapshot of retail activity released by the Commerce Department on Thursday added to fears that the economy could slide back into a new recession, economists said. Retail sales fell 1.6 percent from the previous month, with weakness widespread. Building and garden supply stores posted a record drop. February's performance was weaker than analysts expected and marked a big pullback by consumers from January, when sales rose by 0.3 percent. Bayer profits rise, but come up short BERLIN - Drug maker Bayer AG Bayer AG German chemical and pharmaceutical company. Founded in 1863 by Friedrich Bayer (1825–1880), it now operates plants in more than 30 countries. Bayer has originated scores of pharmaceuticals, chemicals, and synthetic materials; it was the first developer and said Thursday net profit rose almost 10 percent last year as it sold off peripheral businesses, but still fell short of analysts' expectations. The company also warned that the cost of lawsuits over a withdrawn anti-cholesterol drug could outstrip out·strip tr.v. out·stripped, out·strip·ping, out·strips 1. To leave behind; outrun. 2. To exceed or surpass: "Material development outstripped human development" its insurance coverage. Bayer's 2002 net profit increased to 1.06 billion euros ($1.17 billion) from 965 million euros the year before. Analysts had predicted the company's net profit would be 1.3 billion euros ($1.43 billion). Sales fell 2.2 percent to 29.6 billion euros ($32.6 billion) against the backdrop of a weak global economy. Schwab: Outlook for profits too high NEW YORK New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of - Faced with a continued decline in client trading, the chief financial officer of Charles Schwab Charles Schwab can refer to:
CFO See Chief Financial Officer. Christopher Dodds warned the current target of 7 cents a share is much more than what Schwab is likely to eke out eke out Verb [eking, eked] 1. to make (a supply) last for a long time by using as little as possible 2. for the first quarter. ``Right now, it is still too aggressive,'' he said. But he said he didn't have enough information to provide a more precise earnings figure. Analysts polled by Thomson First Call have the San Francisco brokerage firm earning 7 cents a share for the first quarter. Just last month, they revised their estimate a penny lower after Schwab cautioned it was too aggressive considering the depressed trading environment. Since then, the trading picture has grown even bleaker, Schwab said. Ford, GM to slash auto production DETROIT - Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Corp., the world's two largest automakers, are expected to slash production even further in the coming months as the possibility of war with Iraq and lagging consumer confidence continue to hurt sales. Hurt by harsh winter weather and a sluggish economy Sluggish Economy A state in the economy in which the growth is slow, flat or declining. The term can refer to the economy as a whole or a component of the economy, such as weak housing starts. , U.S. auto sales Auto Sales The major producers of domestic automobiles report sales monthly. These numbers are seasonally adjusted by the U.S. Department of Commerce and are available to the public one to five business days after the end of each month. fell 6.5 percent in February, and analysts' sales forecasts for March are equally chilling. Goldman Sachs & Co. reports that sales in the first two weeks of March were weak and ``may weaken further as the month progresses because the potential war with Iraq would seem to be a late-month event.'' Baxter shares fall more than 20% DEERFIELD, Ill. - Shares in Baxter International Inc. plummeted more than 20 percent to a six-year low Thursday after the medical products maker scaled back its estimate of sales and profits for the first quarter and the year. Baxter cited increased competition for its products in the plasma protein plasma protein n. Any of the various dissolved proteins of blood plasma, including antibodies and blood-clotting proteins, that act by holding fluid in blood vessels by osmosis. business, temporary inventory reductions for some other products and economic instability in Latin America and Turkey. The profit warning came a day after the company said it had been subpoenaed by the Justice Department as part of a 17-month-old government investigation into Baxter's involvement in the deaths of as many as 53 kidney-dialysis patients in Texas, Nebraska and six countries. |
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