Business news in brief

Lowe's doubles profit in third quarter

MOORESVILLE, N.C. -- Lowe's Cos. profit more than doubled in the third quarter as Americans along the Gulf Coast loaded up trunks and trucks with material to repair the damage delivered by a pair of hurricanes.

The company said sales related to hurricanes Irma and Harvey reached $200 million in the quarter, pushing revenue to $16.77 billion. That's better than the $16.57 billion Wall Street was looking for, and it topped last year's revenue of $15.74 billion.

Net income was $872 million, or $1.05 per share, also besting industry analyst projections by 3 cents per share.

Still, stock trading Tuesday indicated investors were not wowed. Lowe's shares closed down 87 cents to $80.59, a 1.1 percent drop.

The Mooresville, N.C., home improvement retailer said it expects to earn $4.20 to $4.30 per share this year, the same projections it released in August. That's below the per-share projections of $4.50 on Wall Street.

-- The Associated Press

Data show Tesla blowing through cash

Tesla has been burning money at a clip of about $8,000 a minute (or $480,000 an hour), Bloomberg data show.

To be fair, few Tesla watchers expect the cash burn to continue at quite such a breakneck pace, and the company itself says it's ramping up output of its Model 3, which will bring money in the door.

But all this is a pittance compared with Tesla's financial needs. The company is blowing through more than $1 billion a quarter thanks to investment in making the Model 3, a $35,000 car that's looking less likely to generate a return anytime soon.

"So long as the company is burning cash, it will remain dependent on the patience and enthusiasm of public markets or the deep pockets of a white knight," said Christian Hoffmann, a money manager at Thornburg Investment Management.

-- Bloomberg News

Sales rise puts HP over earnings estimate

HP Inc., formerly known as Hewlett-Packard Co., reported revenue that beat analysts' estimates, with an industry-defying surge in personal-computer sales driving a fifth consecutive quarterly increase.

Sales at the world's biggest maker of PCs rose across all businesses and all regions in the fiscal fourth quarter. While profit for the current period may fall slightly below analyst projections, the company raised by one cent its forecast for the fiscal year that started Nov. 1.

Chief Executive Officer Dion Weisler has spent much of the past year cutting costs, introducing new products and expanding the Palo Alto, Calif.-based company's 3-D printer offerings. Those efforts helped push revenue 11 percent higher from a year earlier to $13.9 billion, the company said Tuesday.

"HP is executing and gaining share in two categories that were largely left for dead by the industry," IDC analyst Crawford Del Prete said. "At the same time, they are innovating in new segments. Comparisons are going to get harder in the future, but the disciplined approach they are taking is not only working, it's providing for growth."

-- Bloomberg News

China steps up efforts to rein in debt

China's drive to reduce its debt burden has shifted into a higher gear after the Communist Party's twice-a-decade congress in October.

Regulators have set their sights on a key pressure point -- shadow banking -- with rules around asset-management products tightened last week as they seek to bring the market under control.

But these popular, high-yielding products are just one slice of China's sizable banking leverage pie, characterized by state media as the "original sin" of the financial system.

Even if credit growth eases, China's debt is on track to be more than three times the size of the economy by 2022, Bloomberg Economics estimates.

-- Bloomberg News

Takata signs deal on asset sale to rival

DETROIT -- Troubled Japanese air bag maker Takata Corp. signed a definitive agreement to sell most of its assets to a Chinese-owned rival.

Key Safety Systems of suburban Detroit will pay $1.6 billion in a deal expected to close early next year.

The companies reached an understanding on the sale in June. Key will get all Takata assets except those making replacement air bag inflators. Takata will continue to run those operations until they close.

Takata inflators can explode with too much force and spew shrapnel into drivers and passengers.

Much of the money will go to pay a $1 billion penalty from a U.S. criminal fraud case.

-- The Associated Press

Venezuela holds Citgo execs in scheme

CARACAS, Venezuela -- Venezuelan authorities detained the acting president of Citgo Petroleum Corp., the state-owned oil company's U.S. subsidiary, and five other executives suspected of involvement in a corruption scheme, officials said Tuesday.

Jose Pereira and five Citgo vice presidents have been detained on suspicion of embezzlement stemming from a $4 billion agreement to refinance company bonds, chief prosecutor Tarek William Saab said.

Saab said the deal provided "unconscionable and unfavorable" terms for state oil giant Petroleos de Venezuela SA and offered Citgo itself as a guarantee on repayment without prior government approval. Mediators of the contract were purportedly eligible for a 1.5 percent payoff of the total.

Saab described the Citgo executives as "putting at risk Citgo's assets while obtaining personal benefits."

The detentions are part of an investigation by Venezuelan authorities into the country's oil sector, which has struggled in recent years amid mismanagement and declining production.

Citgo runs three refineries in Illinois, Texas and Louisiana.

Officials at Houston-based Citgo distanced themselves from the arrests, saying in a statement that the firm operates independently and meets the standards and regulations set by the United States.

-- The Associated Press

Business on 11/22/2017

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