Fewer Americans signed contracts to buy previously owned homes in September, indicating the credit crisis will inflict more damage on the housing market.
The index of signed purchase agreements, or pending home resales, fell 4.6 percent, more than forecast, to 89.2, the National Association of Realtors said today in Washington.
The housing slump may extend well into a fourth year as banks turn away borrowers, foreclosures worsen the glut of unsold homes and job losses climb. Lower property values will keep eroding home-equity, causing consumers to retrench further and reinforcing the risk of a deeper recession.
“The outlook has deteriorated,'' said David Sloan, a senior economist at 4Cast Inc. in New York, who estimated a 5 percent drop. “The tightening of credit conditions will push pending home sales lower. We're in quite a sharp recession, and housing is part of it.''
Economists expected pending sales to fall 3.4 percent, according to the median forecast of 30 economists in a Bloomberg News survey. Estimates ranged from a drop of 6 percent to a gain of 1 percent. The jump in August was revised up to 7.5 percent from an originally reported 7.4 percent gain.
A Labor Department report today showed the U.S. unemployment rate rose to 6.5 percent in October, the highest level since 1994, and payrolls plunged by 240,000. Economists said the figures indicate the economy is heading for the steepest decline in decades.
The Realtors' group, whose data on pending sales go back to January 2001, started publishing the index in March 2005.
Northeast Slump
Three of four regions saw a drop, led by a 17 percent slump in the Northeast and a 7.9 percent decline in the South same day cash advance. They rose 3.7 percent in the West.
Compared with September 2007, pending resales increased 1.6 percent.
Pending resales are considered a leading indicator because they track contract signings. Closings, which typically occur a month or two later, are tallied in the existing-home sales report from the Realtors.
An earlier report from Realtors showed purchases of existing homes jumped 5.5 percent in September to a 5.18 million annual pace, the highest level in a year. Foreclosure-related sales accounted for 35 percent to 40 percent of the total, it said.
Sales of new houses also increased in September, according to a Commerce Department report on Oct. 27.
Extended Slump
Today's report signals the improvement in sales may be short-lived. The lending crisis worsened last month and persistent job losses have led consumers to retrench further. Home prices will likely keep falling, extending the housing recession well into 2009, economists predict.
Housing-related companies are bracing for prolonged weakness. Illinois Tool Works Inc., the maker of Duo-Fast nail guns and Wilsonart countertops, predicts home construction won't hit bottom until 2010 because of large inventories and tight lending.
“There are too many issues to be sorted out with both the inventory of existing homes as well as the mortgage market for us to see much change,'' Chief Executive Officer David Speer said in a Webcast yesterday. “We're going to be in a reasonably long period — four to six quarters — before we would see the bottom.''
The Bank of Korea lowered interest rates for the third time in four weeks and signaled it's ready to act again to prevent the economy from sinking into the first recession in a decade. The nation's shares and currency rose.
The bank reduced the key rate by 25 basis points to 4 percent, the lowest since 2006, adding to 100 basis points of cuts in October. Policy makers are focused on keeping “the economy from weakening too much,'' Governor Lee Seong Tae said, adding he's prepared to “take bigger actions if necessary.''
Lee has undertaken the most aggressive round of cuts since the bank began setting a policy rate a decade ago, striving to limit economic damage from the global credit crisis that has sent Korea's won down 30 percent this year and the stock index plunging 41 percent. India, Japan and Australia lowered rates in the past week as the financial turmoil that has pummeled the U.S. and Europe threatens to engulf Asia's export-dependent economies.
“The Bank of Korea is joining global efforts to prevent a recession and can't afford to be an outsider,'' said Park Sang Hyun, an economist at HI Investment & Securities Co. in Seoul.
The Bank of England slashed its benchmark rate by 1.5 percentage points yesterday and the European Central Bank lowered its rate by a half-point. The International Monetary Fund yesterday predicted economic contractions in the U.S., Japan and euro region next year, calling for further interest- rate cuts and fiscal stimulus.
Further Reductions
Twelve of 16 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg expected Korea to cut borrowing costs today. Economists from Capital Economics Ltd. and SC First Bank Ltd. forecast the benchmark rate will be reduce to 2 percent by mid-2009 as the economy falters.
“The committee will do what's needed to ward off the risk of a severe slowdown in economic activity brought about mainly by financial-market unrest,'' the Bank of Korea said today, adding inflation pressures are moderating.
The Kospi stock index rose 3.9 percent to 1,134.49 at the close of trading in Seoul. The won climbed 0.2 percent to 1,328.7 per dollar.
“The central bank probably will cut rates further because, like other countries, Korea is clearly under a lot of pressure going through this financial turmoil,'' said David Cohen, director of Asian forecasting at Action Economics in Singapore. That said, South Korea has been “very aggressive'' in taking steps to aid its economy compared with Asian neighbors, he added direct payday loan cash advance.
Liquidity Measures
South Korea has pumped funds into the banking system, guaranteed lenders' debts and secured an Oct. 30 agreement from the Federal Reserve to provide $30 billion in U.S. currency as the nation tackles its biggest crisis since needing an IMF bailout in 1997.
The measures are aimed at easing the freeze in credit markets and a shortage of U.S. dollars that has stoked concern the nation's banks wouldn't be able to refinance their offshore borrowing.
Korea's won rebounded after the Fed swap deal was announced from the lowest level in 10 years and default protection costs on government debt fell by the most in more than four years.
“Concerns about foreign-currency liquidity seem to have mostly diminished and now is the time to take more close care of the real economy,'' President Lee Myung Bak said this week.
Finance Minister Kang Man Soo unveiled a 14 trillion won ($10.5 billion) package of extra spending and corporate tax breaks this week, adding to almost $20 billion in income-tax reductions announced in September.
Slowdown Deepens
South Korea's slowdown is deepening. Economic growth cooled to the weakest in four years last quarter as exports declined the most in almost seven years and consumer spending stagnated.
Exports, the main engine of the economy's expansion, rose at the weakest pace in 13 months in October as shipments to China, South Korea's biggest market, fell for the first time since 2002. Retail sales gained by the least in nine months in September.
Hyundai Motor Co., South Korea's second-biggest exporter, on Oct. 23 slashed its global vehicle-sales forecast for the year. Posco, the region's biggest maker of stainless steel, said last month it will cut output by about a third this quarter to cope with slowing demand.
“The central bank probably didn't cut rates more than 25 basis points today because more reductions are on the way,'' said Lee Sang Jae, an economist at Hyundai Securities Co. in Seoul. “You don't want to use up all your bullets at once.''
Consumer prices rose 4.8 percent in October, the smallest gain in six months. Inflation peaked at 5.9 percent in July.
Research In Motion appears to have dialed up a mainstream hit with the new flip version of its popular BlackBerry Pearl by tapping into cell phone users’ love affair with clamshell mobiles.
Also, analysts expect the flip Pearl will be relatively affordable right from its launch, which, combined with its shape, will make it RIM’s first truly mass market BlackBerry.
“There is a huge percentage of the population — especially North Americans and especially women — that seem to really like flip phones,” said Canaccord Adams analyst Peter Misek. “So now they have a BlackBerry that addresses that.”
RIM says that in the United States about 70 percent of mobile phone users opt for a flip phone. By attacking a market of that size, the Waterloo, Ontario-based company hopes to continue to diversify its customer base beyond its mainstay of executives and professionals.
“This device is a multimillion-unit device per year,” Misek said of the flip Pearl’s prospects.
The size and fashion appeal of a mobile phone are big considerations and consumers sometimes fickle tastes must be appeased if a device is to succeed.
“A lot of consumers don’t like the bulky BlackBerry holstered to a belt and having a small product that fits into a purse or a pant pocket is appealing,” Scott Pope, an analyst at First Analysis Securities Corp., said of RIM’s newest smartphone.
“It’s an excellent addition to the portfolio, which . easy fast cash. payday loan. has been short on consumer products.”
JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Morgan Stanley have agreed to repurchase a combined $7 billion in auction-rate securities as part of a settlement with New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo and other regulators.
The companies will also pay a combined $60 million in fines.
Last week, regulators reached settlements that required Swiss bank UBS (UBS) to repurchase $18.6 billion in the securities, while Citigroup (C, Fortune 500) agreed to buy back $7 billion of the securities.
Auction-rate securities are investments that resembled corporate debt, but with interest rates reset at regular auctions instant payday loan payday loans lenders.
The market for the securities collapsed in February amid deterioration in the broader credit markets.
Shares of JPMorgan (JPM, Fortune 500) still rose 2.5% and Morgan Stanley (MS, Fortune 500) rose 1.5% in morning trade.
India's central bank Governor Yaga Venugopal Reddy said policy makers will take steps to contain consumer demand and tame inflation, stoking speculation of an increase in interest rates.
“The Reserve Bank of India will play its part in moderating and managing aggregate demand so that pressures on prices are not intensified,'' Reddy told reporters in the western Indian city of Pune today. “We are in the midst of intensive examination of options.''
Inflation in Asia's third-biggest economy has raced to 11.05 percent, the fastest since May 1995, even as the central bank raised interest rates to a six-year high. Finance Secretary D. Subbarao said on June 21 that monetary policy is the “first line of defense'' against spiraling prices.
“We expect the central bank to go ahead with aggressive rate hikes,'' said Shuchita Mehta, senior economist at Standard Chartered Bank in Mumbai. “Inflation expectations need to be anchored swiftly.''
Mehta expects the central bank to increase its key repurchase rate by 100 basis points to 9 percent in the year to March 31 and raise the cash reserve ratio, or the proportion of money that lenders must set aside as reserves, by 75 basis points to 9 percent.
“The RBI will continue to take determined and calibrated measures as and when warranted, with a focus on managing expectations and on enabling adjustments in the economy in response to the oil shock,'' Reddy said.
Bond Losses
Indian bonds pared losses as investors bet the central bank's policy will help slow inflation. The yield on India's 10- year bonds slowed to 8.64 percent after Reddy's comments from the day's high of 8.76 percent.
“We are confident that with a well-managed smooth adjustment of this episode, the inflation would be brought in alignment with our aim as expressed in the policy from time to time,'' Reddy said.
Reddy, who wants to contain inflation to around 5.5 percent by March 31, said he is optimistic about food prices declining because of bumper crops.
“From October-November we should see some containment in food prices,'' Indranil Pan, chief economist at Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd., said in a television interview in Mumbai faxless payday loans payday loans. “There can be comfort from food prices.''
Food grain production may rise to a record 227.3 million tons in the year ending June helped by bumper rice, wheat and lentils output, the agriculture ministry said in April. It may receive a further boost as rains in the four-month monsoon season that started last month are forecast to be adequate.
`Global Problem'
“Oil price increase is now a global problem, making inflation a problem for all countries,'' Reddy said. “Hence, our solutions to the problem will also be similar, but tailored to suit our conditions.''
Reddy has raised the repurchase rate eight times in the past 2 1/2 years and increased the cash reserve ratio seven times since December 2006 to slow money supply and cool inflation. He last raised the repurchase rate on June 11 and the cash reserve ratio on April 29.
China told lenders to set aside more money for a fifth time this year on June 7 to cool inflation that is close to a 12-year high. Banks must put aside a record 17.5 percent of deposits as reserves from June 25.
Faster Pace
Singapore's central bank has allowed its currency to strengthen at a faster pace against the U.S. dollar this year, saying the exchange rate remains its most effective tool to fight inflation.
Reddy said rising borrowing costs won't hurt India's record growth momentum. India's economy, which has grown an average 8.9 percent in the past four years, may grow as much as 8.5 percent in the year ending March 31.
“We on the basis of current information, don't come to a conclusion that managing this problem will necessarily involve sacrificing growth,'' Reddy said. “As of now, we don't see any reason to jump to a conclusion that growth will be adversely affected.''
Spanish finance minister Pedro Solbes cut his forecast for economic growth this year as the global credit shortage exacerbates the country's housing slump.
The Spanish economy will expand 2.3 percent this year and next, Solbes said at a press conference in Madrid. That compares with the 3.1 percent expansion he predicted for 2008 in December. The economy grew 3.8 percent last year.
“The real estate slowdown is proving more intense than originally foreseen,'' Solbes said. There is “a significant weakening in economic activity.''
The unemployment rate in Spain, once an engine of European job creation, jumped the most in 15 years in the first quarter as 2.7 percent of construction workers lost their jobs. Home sales fell by more than a quarter in the year to January as prices softened and banks tightened lending to potential buyers.
“Spain's getting hit from all sides,'' Dominic Bryant, an economist at BNP Paribas SA in London, said. “This is still the early stages, and unemployment is picking up pretty quickly already.''
Unemployment Rising
The jobless rate rose to 9.6 percent from 8.6 percent in the fourth quarter, the Madrid-based National Statistics Office said today. The last time the rate increased that much was in the first quarter of 1993, when Spain most recently slipped into recession. The number of unemployed rose 13 percent, or 246,000, to 2.1 million people, the report said.
Solbes forecast the economy will add 200,000 jobs this year while the unemployment rate will finish the year at 9.8 percent due to an increase in the number of workers. The jobless rate will reach 10 percent next year, he added.
“This is brutal,'' said Jose Luis Martinez, a strategist at Citigroup Inc. in Madrid. “That this can happen while the economy is still growing around 2.5 percent is really worrying.''
The government's forecast compares with the Bank of Spain's prediction that growth will slow to 2.4 percent this year. The International Monetary Fund says the growth rate will be 1.8 percent, less than half of last year's pace.
The yield on Spain's benchmark government bond fell 1 basis point to 4.45 percent and the price rose, the only of Europe's benchmark government bonds to advance today cash advance payday loans.
Construction Jobs
Europe's fifth-biggest economy created more than half of all new jobs in the euro region in the five years through 2006 as record low interest rates and surging construction fueled a virtuous circle of consumption and hiring. Now that process has gone into reverse as banks shut off funding to homebuyers and a glut of properties is depressing home prices. Mortgage lending fell 28 percent in the year to January.
“This is a credit crunch,'' Angel Berges, managing director of Analistas Financieros Internacionales told an April 7 construction industry conference. “This is a result of the drought that Spanish banks are facing in the international markets.''
Spain's immigrant population is suffering the most from the economic slowdown. The number of unemployed immigrants jumped 24 percent in the quarter to 504,700 while the unemployment rate for that group rose to 15 percent from 12 percent. Even so, another 519,100 foreigners of working-age arrived in Spain in the past year.
House Prices
Real home prices in Spain declined for the first time in a decade in the first quarter weighed down by a glut in supply. Around 800,000 homes built in the past four years remain unsold, according to Bloomberg calculations based on data from the Housing Ministry and Sociedad de Tasacion SA, a real estate valuation company. Cesar Oteiza, director of operations at Idealista.com property web site, says there may also be as many as 300,000 second-hand homes for sale.
Luis de Guindos, chairman of Lehman Brothers for Spain and Portugal, says housing starts will collapse this year, with builders breaking ground on 200,000 new homes after 760,000 last year.
Solbes said there will be a “very substantial reduction'' in house-building this year to return the industry to “a more normal pace.'' The government has said there is demand for around 400,000 new homes a year in Spain.
The Federal Reserve, in its first extension of credit to non-banks since the Great Depression, lent $28.8 billion as of yesterday to the biggest securities firms to try to stabilize capital markets.
In a separate announcement, the Fed expanded collateral eligible for its first auction of Treasuries March 27 to include bundled mortgage debt and securities linked to commercial real- estate loans. The value of the sale was set at $75 billion, part of a $200 billion facility unveiled last week.
The auctions and Wall Street's new loan facility are Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke's answer to a credit squeeze that's eroded U.S. economic growth and forced Bear Stearns Cos. to sell for $2 a share to JPMorgan Chase & Co. The recipients of the Fed's credit are getting cash and Treasury notes in exchange for securities tied to mortgages and other distressed debt.
“The Fed's pulling out all the stops here to add liquidity,'' said Chris Rupkey, chief financial economist at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd. in New York. “All these things are an attempt to bring down financing costs.''
The central bank's Primary Dealer Credit Facility, announced March 16, allows Wall Street banks to borrow money overnight at a 2.5 percent interest rate, the same charged to commercial banks. The Fed bypassed its own emergency-lending policies and used broader authority in the Federal Reserve Act to give both kinds of companies the same borrowing costs.
Six Months
The central bank said the loans will be available for at least six months. The Fed's decision to be lender of last resort to the 20 primary dealers of government debt came two days after the Fed provided emergency financing to Bear Stearns through JPMorgan.
The Fed's weekly balance sheet released today showed other credit extensions, including loans to facilitate JPMorgan's purchase of Bear Stearns, averaged $5.5 billion a day for the week ended yesterday. The balance ended at zero, according to the Fed's weekly balance sheet.
The zero balance on the Bear Stearns loans signals that the Fed has yet to extend the $30 billion in financing to JPMorgan in exchange for collateral that includes “less liquid'' Bear assets. The $5.5 billion daily average of the JPMorgan-Bear Stearns loan indicates that a March 14 bridge loan, assuming it was paid off three days later, totaled about $13 billion free credit report instantly http://payday-faxless.com.
`Show Some Leadership'
Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said yesterday that they borrowed to “test'' the new lending facility. Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. Chief Financial Officer Erin Callan said in a Bloomberg Television interview that the firm was using the lending window to “show some leadership.'' The Fed report today showed that the lending averaged $13.4 billion in the week ended yesterday.
Spokespeople for the 20 primary dealers, which also include Banc of America Securities LLC and Citigroup Global Markets Inc., either declined to comment today, didn't return phone calls or couldn't be reached.
In the Term Securities Lending Facility, the New York Fed bank today altered its plans so it will accept the expanded collateral list, which includes residential mortgage-backed securities, in the first weekly auction instead of the second.
The new eligible collateral for the TSLF includes agency collateralized-mortgage obligations and AAA/Aaa-rated commercial mortgage-backed securities, in addition to similarly rated private-label residential mortgage-backed securities and any collateral normally eligible for Fed open-market operations.
`Give Them to Us'
“What the Fed has said is give them to us, and we'll give you very liquid Treasuries,'' said Paul J. Miller Jr., an analyst at Friedman, Billings, Ramsey & Co. in Arlington, Virginia.
The Fed scheduled the second auction for April 3 and said the central bank's Open Markets Desk will announce the size and the eligible collateral the prior day.
On March 18, the Fed cut the discount rate by 0.75 percentage point to 2.5 percent, two days after reducing it by a quarter point. The more closely watched U.S. benchmark rate, the federal funds rate, was cut this week to 2.25 percent.
From the discount window, direct lending to commercial banks fell by $18 million in the past week to a daily average of $81 million. As of yesterday, the amount of loans outstanding totaled $120 million, the Fed reported in Washington.
Bank of Japan governor nominee Toshiro Muto told lawmakers he'll defend the central bank's independence, responding to opposition claims that he might allow the government to influence monetary policy.
“I want to firmly ensure the Bank of Japan's independence,'' Deputy Governor Muto, 64, said in parliamentary hearings in Tokyo today. “It's extremely important for the bank to secure the transparency of policy.''
Governor Toshihiko Fukui's five-year term expires on March 19, giving Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda about a week to win the approval of both chambers of parliament and avoid a leadership vacuum at the central bank. The opposition Democratic Party of Japan, which has the most seats in the upper house, has indicated it may reject Muto because his background as a top Financial Ministry official could hurt the bank's autonomy.
“Sacrificing the economic good and stability at the central bank would come at a very perilous time for the economy,'' said Jan Lambregts, head of Asia research at Rabobank International in Hong Kong. “When push comes to shove the Democratic Party is going to back down on this because it'll be very easy for the LDP to depict them as irresponsible.''
Parliament may vote on the appointments on March 14, Jiji Press reported today, citing a DPJ lawmaker it didn't identify. The DPJ had wanted a ballot tomorrow so the government has time to select another candidate should the opposition reject Muto.
Lawmaker Questioning
Muto and the two nominees for deputy governor, Masaaki Shirakawa and Takatoshi Ito, were questioned by lawmakers after giving five-minute testimonies to both houses of parliament. The questioning was closed to the media.
Yoshito Sengoku, head of the DPJ's committee on the nomination, said Muto's lower-house testimony “didn't erase doubts'' among the party that his 37 years at the Finance Ministry could affect monetary policy.
Fujio Mitarai, head of Keidanren, the business lobby that represents Japan's biggest companies, yesterday urged politicians to stop wrangling over who will lead the bank, saying a vacancy would “damage the country's credibility.''
Finance Minister Fukushiro Nukaga said the top three positions mustn't be left unfilled at a time when risks to economic growth are rising. “I strongly hope the opposition will agree on the government's nominations,'' Nukaga said today fast cash advance loan cash till payday.
Policy Juggle
Muto, if appointed, will have to juggle the prospect of slower growth and faster inflation. He said the economy faces both upside and downside risks, including financial-market volatility and slower growth in the U.S., Japan's biggest market.
The Nikkei 225 Stock Average has tumbled 17 percent this year on concern that a U.S. recession would hurt Japan's exports, the main driver of growth last year. The yen surged to an eight- year high against the dollar today, eroding exporters' earnings.
Investors see a 61 percent chance the central bank will have to cut the benchmark rate from 0.5 percent, already the lowest among major economies, by December, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co. calculations.
Muto said the bank has no preset schedule for adjusting rates and will “act without hesitation if necessary.'' Costlier oil and raw materials are hurting Japan's small businesses and prices of daily necessities are rising, he said.
Comments `Shrewd'
“Muto's comments were shrewd,'' said Hideo Kumano, chief economist at Dai-Ichi Life Research Institute and a former central bank official. “Muto didn't indicate what the BOJ's next move would be, probably knowing that there's a difference of opinion even among DPJ members on whether the central bank should raise rates or not.''
The government's candidates for the two deputy governor posts also spoke in today's lower- and upper-house hearings.
Shirakawa, 58, a former executive director at the bank, said the Bank of Japan's mission is to ensure prices and the financial system are stable. The deputy's priority is to support the governor, the Kyoto University economics professor said.
Ito, a Tokyo University professor who sits on the government's key economic panel, said the purpose of inflation targeting, which he has advocated, is to keep prices stable and stop them from falling.
In the lower-house questioning, Ito, 57, said the issue of a target was important when the economy was experiencing deflation that has since been vanquished, according to Sengoku, who attended the closed session.
Ito said the central bank's policy framework has become more transparent in the past 10 years, though there is still room for improvement.
Two top Air Force acquisition officials will testify on Capitol Hill on Wednesday to explain why they passed over Boeing Co. to award a massive $35 billion aerial refueling tanker contract to its French rival.
They won’t lack for an interested audience. Since the contract was awarded Friday, lawmakers, governors, union leaders and Boeing (BA, Fortune 500) executives have demanded an explanation for why the incumbent contractor lost to European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co., the maker of Airbus planes, and its U.S. partner, Northrop Grumman Corp. of Los Angeles.
Sue Payton and Lt. Gen. John L. "Jack" Hudson will testify before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense following last week’s surprise, backlash-inducing decision. In states where Boeing would have built the planes, the outrage and the output of statements denouncing the Air Force’s decision were considerable.
Sens no teletrack payday loans fast cash advance. Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray, both Democrats from Washington, Sens. Sam Brownback and Pat Roberts, both Republicans from Kansas, are among the lawmakers who sent a letter to top Pentagon officials requesting an Air Force briefing this week. And the Kansas congressional delegation on Tuesday asked Defense Secretary Robert Gates to suspend its award of the tanker contract until Congress can review the decision.
Chicago-based Boeing, which has been supplying air-to-air refueling tankers to the Air Force for nearly 50 years, had been widely expected to win the deal.
The contract to build up to 179 tankers is the first of three Air Force awards worth as much $100 billion to replace its entire refueling tanker fleet over the next 30 years.
CVS Caremark Corp., the nation’s largest pharmacy chain, said Thursday that fourth-quarter profits nearly doubled with its acquisition of Caremark.
For the period ended Dec. 29, earnings after preferred dividends jumped to $811.2 million, or 55 cents per share, compared with $413.8 million, or 49 cents per share, in the previous year.
Excluding an income tax provision, profit rose to $860.3 million, or 58 cents per share, from $442.9 million, or 52 cents per share.
Analysts polled by Thomson Financial expected net income of 55 cents per share.
CVS Corp. acquired pharmacy-benefits manager Caremark Rx Inc. last March, creating one of the largest players in the prescription drug industry. CVS Caremark said acquisition-related costs took a penny per share off its quarterly profit.
Tom Ryan, CVS president and chief executive, said the company saw solid revenue growth and improved gross margins in both the retail and pharmacy benefits management segments faxless payday loans cheap payday loans. He said the company’s $5 billion share repurchase program should be complete by the end of the first quarter.
Sales leaped 82% to $21.94 billion from $12.07 billion a year ago. Consensus estimates for sales was $21.38 billion.
Retail pharmacy sales were $11.64 billion, while pharmacy services revenue was $11.61 billion.
Sales in stores open more than a year were up 3.4% from the previous year. Pharmacy same-store sales were somewhat hurt by the introduction of generic drugs, but rose 3.6%.
CVS operates 6,245 retail pharmacy stores and 56 specialty pharmacy stores, as well as mail order pharmacies in 44 states and the District of Columbia.
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