WASHINGTON

Visiting Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping, in line to be China’s next leader, said Wednesday that Beijing welcomes U.S. efforts to assert influence in the Asia-Pacific region, but that Washington must also respect the interests and concerns of China in its own neighborhood.

Appearing before the U.S.-China Business Council, Xi spoke warmly of evolving relations between the world’s two economic super powers but, as in earlier stops here, offered little new insight into how he will lead China, or whether the present tenseness in U.S.-Chinese relations might be eased.

China’s Vice President Xi Jinping speaks to the US-China Business Council, Wednesday, Feb. Read more…

The average price of a 30 second commercial slot at this year’s Super Bowl will cost 3.5 million dollars, television executives have claimed.

According to Comcast Corp’s NBC network, which will broadcast the game in February, the slot of an advert is up 500,000 dollars as compared to last year.

Brands including Coca-Cola and Volkswagen will be using social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter to extend the buzz of their adverts.

“The social media conversation has put more value on a Super Bowl ad, fans will discuss your ads on Twitter and Facebook and then go to YouTube to watch it on demand over and over again,” the Telegraph quoted Brad Adgate, senior vice president of research at Horizon Media as saying. Read more…

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Weak inflation raises chance of rate cut

Will low inflation figures influence the RBA’s decision on another interest rate cut?

Read more…

AAP

German auto giant Volkswagen said it was sticking to its plan to assemble 400,000 cars this year at its Slovak plant despite a gloomy economic outlook.

The economic situation has changed but we are sticking to our plans to make 400,000 cars this year, Volkswagen Slovakia chief executive officer Albrecht Reimold told AFP after talks with Slovakia’s Prime Minister Iveta Radicova in Bratislava.

Volkswagen said last month it planned to raise output of four-wheel drive vehicles at its Slovak plant by 25 per cent this year to meet rising demand.

With 7,000 employees, Volkswagen is among the biggest employers in the Slovakia, a country of 5.4 million plagued by high unemployment exceeding 13 per cent.

The carmaker, which produces the high-end Touareg, Audi Q7 and Porsche Cayenne models at the plant in the Slovak capital Bratislava, will publish the 2011 results later this year.

Volkswagen launched production of small family cars at its Slovak plant last year, following rivals South Korea’s Kia Motors and France’s PSA Peugeot Citroen.

Volkswagen exports nearly all of the cars produced at its Slovak plant, with some 36 per cent going to Germany and nearly 19 per cent to China.

Auto production is the driving economic force in Slovakia, which joined the European Union in 2004 and eurozone in 2009.

AMSTERDAM – Philips Electronics warned of soft fourth quarter profits due to weakness in European markets that is leading to charges for inventory it cannot shift.

The Dutch group – Europe’s biggest consumer electronics maker and the world number one in lighting equipment – said it will report a fall in underlying earnings to about 500 mln euros from 910 mln a year earlier, slowing sales growth across its divisions and unspecified charges for stock that is still sitting in its warehouses.

“Our expected fourth-quarter financial results have been affected by the weakness in Europe, which has impacted our Healthcare business, as well as pricing in our Consumer Lighting business,” Chief Executive Frans van Houten said.

The shares were hit hard by the profit warning, falling 6.4 percent by 0745 GMT, while the main AEX index was up 0.5 percent.

The latest warning follows a prediction in June of sharply lower profits at the lighting division, its biggest alongside healthcare equipment, due to weak consumer demand in Europe.

Read more…

SALT LAKE CITY Utah’s overall business conditions index for December remained above growth neutral 50.0, climbing to a solid 59.4. Components of the index were new orders at 59.2, production or sales at 62.8, delivery lead time at 52.5, inventories at 63.8 and employment at 58.7.

Durable goods producers, especially those dependent on exports, outperformed non-durable goods manufacturers,” said Ernie Goss, director of the Goss Institute for Economic Research at Creighton University. “Healthy manufacturing growth for 2011 pushed overall Utah job growth higher. I expect this trend to continue into 2012.

Alfonso Chung looks for items for Christmas at the Zumiez store at the Valley Fair Mall Thursday, December 15, 2011. Read more…