Business Feeds

Strong earnings reports from Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) and Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) couldn’t prevent another losing day on Wall Street Friday, as stocks ended their worst month in a year on a down note.

Microsoft fell more than 3 percent despite much stronger than expected results, as traders fretted about the pace of enterprise spending.

Amazon also slipped despite another stellar quarter, but Juniper (NASDAQ: JNPR) managed to edge higher on its results.

But the day’s biggest decliners were in the chip sector, led by an 11 percent decline in SanDisk (NASDAQ: SNDK) on a disappointing outlook. Micron (NYSE: MU) and Marvell (NASDAQ: MRVL) were other decliners.

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Business Week
I mentioned in an earlier post that Davos can be a catalyst for great ideas, and one example is the GreenXchange conceived by Nike. This morning Nike formally launched the Xchange at a CEO breakfast in Davos.

The venue was a conscripted hairdressing salon that was pressed into service by the Forum as a meeting space. We were like sardines. But the energy in the tiny room was high.To recap: The Xchange is a Web-based marketplace where companies can collaborate and share intellectual property which can lead to new sustainability business models and innovation. Ten organizations have already signed on.

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The whole concept of free online reviews is great in theory. It could be a way for your small business to build a customer base without expending too much money on marketing. However, it can also lead to unwanted legal problems. Inc. recently wrote about the dangers of the Yelp reviewer. Small business owners can open up a legal can of worms if they try to fight negative online reviews. Here are some of the current legal issues facing small business owners with Yelp and other free online reviews of small businesses.

Bad Reviewers Can Bring Bad Legal News

Inc. wrote about how one small business owner named Diane Goodman got into legal trouble. She wrote messages to a negative reviewer which then culminated into a physical altercation. The result? Ms.

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Being British sometimes feels synonymous with a resigned acceptance of disappointment. A feeling football, cricket and tennis fans know all too well. Having brought these great sports to the world, we can now quietly murmur into our pints that we’re ‘not bad’ at most of them.

Even as we emerge from recession today, our recovery is way behind most other developed countries (Germany and France returned to growth last summer) and comes at a very marginal increase of 0.1 per cent. It’s almost as if we were the chubby kid at a sports day event gasping to reach the finishing line while everyone else leisurely sips orange squash.

Strange then that in a poll from SmallBusiness.co.uk 31 per cent of the 538 respondents said this Sceptered Isle was the top country for business. Or is i

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With the economy suffering and unemployment percentages reaching historically high double digits, it is naturally getting much harder for people to keep up with their bill paying, and that means a spike in credit card defaults and late payments.

According to recent industry research and statistics gathered from card companies, the rate of credit card defaults in the USA rose to record highs in 2009, in lock step with similarly high unemployment rates.
Bank of America, which is the nation’s biggest bank – and one of the top credit card issuers in the USA – reported that its own default rate jumped to more than 12 percent. That represented a climb of more than 10 percent when compared to the previous year, but in the prior year the employment picture across America was also more robust and rosy. Meanw Read more…

We have written about how bleak the economy looks for finance and small business. While there are definitely some dark clouds hovering over small business loan opportunities, there are some bright spots in terms of small business grants. Small business grants afford you the opportunity to grow your business with funding that you don’t have to pay back. It is typically given by the federal government, state governments, and by private corporations.

So what exactly do you need to do in order to make sure that your small business can get a grant? Keep reading for places to look for grants and for tips on how to land a grant that could help your small business.

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Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) on Thursday gave its investors — and the information technology industry as a whole — a dose of good news when the tech bellwether easily hurdled analysts’ estimates in its fourth quarter, returning an adjusted profit of $2.19 billion, or $6.79 a share, on sales of $6.67 billion.

A survey of analysts by Thomson Reuters pegged the Mountain View, Calif.-based company for a profit of $6.45 a share.

The $6.67 billion in sales marks a 17 percent improvement from the year-ago quarter when it earned $1.62 billion, or $5.10 a share, on sales of $5.7 billion.

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The Washington Post

For much of last year, Paul Volcker wandered the country arguing for tougher restraints on big banks while the Obama administration pursued a more moderate regulatory agenda driven by Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner.

Thursday morning at the White House, it seemed as if the two men had swapped places. A beaming Volcker stood at Obama’s right as the president endorsed his proposal and branded it the “Volcker Rule.” Geithner stood farther away, compelled to accommodate a stance he once considered less effective than his own.

The moment was the product of Volcker’s persistence and a desire by the White House to impose sharper checks on the financial industry than Geithner had been advocating, according to some government sources and political analysts.

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Many people from all walks of life to make the decision to work from home. There are an unlimited number of work at home business ideas, but the Internet has the greatest potential.

Websites are developed for personal use or business. What this may once have been regarded as a personal site may now also be used to make money. Affiliate programs, commonly referred to as associate programs, are a way for website owners money through Internet marketing to do. Affiliate programs work by people to another site. There are a number of reputable companies national and affiliate programs to enable them to increase traffic to its website.

People who have shown their own Web sites usually have a banner or link on a particular website. The website link is often a company that sells something.

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