Business news for Thu, 20 Dec 2007 & with word rose. 42 news.

RALEIGH, N.C. - Red Hat Inc. tapped former Delta Air Lines Inc. executive James Whitehurst to lead the company into a new phase of growth, as the open source provider said Thursday its third-quarter earnings rose 12 percent.

Arizona's unemployment rate rose to 4.1 percent in November, compared with 3.5 percent in November.

AP - Red Hat Inc. tapped former Delta Air Lines Inc. executive James Whitehurst to lead the company into a new phase of growth, as the open source provider said Thursday its third-quarter earnings rose 12 percent.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks rose on Thursday, led by technology shares, as a reassuring profit and outlook from Oracle Corp (ORCL.O) offset nagging concerns about financial companies' exposure to bad debt.

FT.com - Wall Street stocks rose on Thursday, after strong results from Oracle (NASDAQ:ORCL) raised hopes that fears of a slowdown in corporate technology spending were premature, but investment bank Bear Stearns (NYSE:BSC) suffered another weak quarter.

RALEIGH, N.C. - Open-source software provider Red Hat Inc. said Thursday that its third quarter profit rose 12 percent as a surge in subscriptions helped offset increased spending on marketing and research.

OVERALL consumer prices in Hong Kong rose 3.4 percent year on year in November, slightly higher than October's 3.2 percent, the Census and Statistics Department said yesterday. The larger increase was mainly attributed to higher costs for town gas, private housing rents, outdoor dining as well as package tours, a spokesman for the department said. The spokesman said forecast for inflation in 2007 remained unchanged at two percent, adding that the slightly higher increase in November had been taken into account in the outlook, which was announced in mid-November. Looking ahead, sustained economic expansion, high food and oil prices, the weak US dollar and the appreciation of the yuan would continue to exert pressures, he added. "Lately, the pick-up in private housing rents also deserved attention. Yet the sustained increase in labor productivity should help mitigate the pressures to some extent," he added. For the three-month period ended November, the average

CHINA Cosco Holdings Ltd, Asia's largest container line, boosted its profit forecast for this year because of improved demand for shipping services. The shares rose. China Cosco gained 2.03 percent to close at HK$22.60 (US$2.75) yesterday in Hong Kong, after earlier climbing as much as 7.7 percent. The stock has surged more than fivefold this year, beating the 36 percent advance of the benchmark Hang Seng Index, Bloomberg News reported. Net income will probably jump ninefold this year to 18 billion yuan (US$2.44 billion), according to a China Cosco statement to Shanghai Stock Exchange yesterday. Profit is likely to be 50 percent higher than a forecast of 12.17 billion yuan made in September, based on international accounting standards, the company said. "Dry-bulk shipping will be the main profit driver for the company," said Stella Kei, a Hong Kong-based analyst at UOB Kay Hian Ltd. "The market looks good for 2008 and 2009 on strong demand for iron ore and

DAITO Trust Construction Co's founder is set to sell his stake in the company through an auction, which may lead to Japan's largest takeover involving private equity firms, insiders said. Katsumi Tada, chairman of Daito Trust, Japan's fourth largest developer by market value, owns 29 percent of the company, according to regulatory filings, Bloomberg News reported. The first round of bids will close at the end of this month, said the insider. The buyer, most likely a private equity fund, may approach other shareholders to purchase the rest of the company, leading to a transaction worth about 700 billion yen (US$6.2 billion). Daito Trust jumped 18 percent yesterday in Tokyo trading, giving the company a market value of US$7.1 billion. "The chairman has expressed his intention to retire and he probably wants to sell his shares after the company's value has grown," said Yoji Otani, a Tokyo-based analyst at Credit Suisse Group. Tokyo-based Daito Trust rose 1,000 yen to

THE SCMP Group Ltd, publisher of the South China Morning Post newspaper, rose the most in more than four years in Hong Kong after the company received a HK$2.37 billion (US$304 million) buyout offer from parent Kerry Group. The shares gained as much as 8.8 percent, the biggest increase since September 24, 2003, to HK$2.72 at the end of trading. Kerry Group, owned by billionaire Kuok, offered HK$2.75 a share to buy the 55.1 percent of the stock that it doesn't already control, 10 percent more than the last traded price before it was suspended on December 13, Bloomberg News reported. The company's profit doubled in the past five years as growth in Hong Kong's economy boosted demand from advertisers. SCMP shares have hovered near record lows since June when the city's government relaxed rules that required public companies to publish corporate announcements in newspapers, which made up about 12 percent of the South China Morning Post's ad revenue last year. "SCMP's earnings

IT took a computer maker and a pager company to convince Americans a mobile phone is worth paying for, and now shoppers are splurging. US customers shelled out 40 percent more for handsets last quarter than a year earlier, just as Apple Inc put its Web-browsing iPhone on sale and Research In Motion Ltd brought out BlackBerry e-mail phones with video features. Spending rose to a record and jumped the most since at least 2005, Bloomberg News reported. Americans, previously hard-pressed to pay US$50 for a phone, are now more like their European and Asian counterparts and paying up to US$400 for the top devices. That will translate into higher sales for Apple and Research In Motion and may bolster rivals Nokia Oyj and Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications Ltd, which tried for years to promote camera and music phones to US buyers. "The iPhone has made the US consumer appreciate the value of the mobile phone," said Carolina Milanesi, an analyst at Stamford, Connecticut-based

Taiwan's stocks yesterday rose the most in more than three months, snapping a five-day decline. Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. led advances on speculation a US$500 billion injection by the European Central Bank will help sustain global growth.

ITE Technology Inc. and ENE Technology Inc. rose by their daily limits in Taipei after a report said the two computer-parts makers received orders from Dell Inc.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said Tuesday fourth-quarter earnings rose 2 percent, beating expectations and capping a record year, but its shares fell after the investment bank cautioned that markets will remain challenging in the near future.

Arizona's unemployment rate rose in November even as the number of nonfarm jobs in the state hit a new record.

Mortgage rates rose slightly this week, with economic and housing data keeping mortgages nearly flat.

Mortgage rates rose slightly this week, with economic and housing data keeping mortgages nearly flat.

Food maker ConAgra Inc.'s quarterly profit rose 15%, as strength in its food and ingredients business offset a pot pie recall.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Nasdaq composite index rose on Thursday following a reassuring profit and outlook report from Oracle Corp that lifted the technology sector, but the broad market was little changed as troubles at a major bond insurer weighed down the financial sector.

FT.com - Wall Street stocks rose on Thursday, after strong results from Oracle raised hopes that fears of a slowdown in corporate technology spending were premature, but investment bank Bear Stearns (NYSE:BSC) suffered another weak quarter.