Business news for Mon, 31 Dec 2007 & with word demand. 9 news.

Oil prices headed slightly lower Monday, marking a quiet end to a record-breaking year, although rising demand and geopolitical ...

Sales of existing homes edged higher in November, according to a report released Monday, but experts disagreed whether the better-than-expected performance represents only a temporary pause in the troubled sector's continuing decline, or tantalizing early evidence that housing demand may be bottoming out at last.

Soybean futures fell in light trading Monday, the last day of the year, but prices were expected to continue their overall rise in 2008 to meet growing demand in China.

TEL AVIV (MarketWatch) -- Magic Software Enterprises Ltd., the Or Yehuda, Israel, provider of business-integration and application-development technology, sold its Advanced Answers on Demand subsidiary to Fortissimo Capital for $17 million. Fortissimo is the Rosh ha'Ayin, Israel, investment firm. Magic expects to post a more than $9 million gain on the sale of AAOD, which develops software for application in long-term health care, including retirement facilities as well as home-health and rehabilitation agencies. As part of the deal, Magic has licensed to AAOD the right to continue to sell its product portfolio for three years.

Oil prices ended the year near $96 a barrel, or 57 percent higher than where they began, and analysts expect rising demand and geopolitical instability to keep upward pressure on energy costs early in 2008.

LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Sales of semiconductors rose 0.7% in November compared to October to $22.5 billion, or 2.3% more than last year, the Semiconductor Industry Association said Monday. "Early indications are that consumer products with high semiconductor content such as LCD TVs, PMP and MP3 players, along with digital cameras all sold well in the holiday buying season," said SIA President George Scalise. "While unit demand has been very robust, average selling prices have declined in a number of key product segments," it added.

Hitachi Ltd., Japan's biggest electronics conglomerate, plans to exit the business of making small hard disk drives as demand shifts to flash memory chips, the Nikkei business daily reported Sunday.

Battered sector braced for plunge in income with demand forecast to drop by up to 20pc.

Sales of Rolls-Royce cars for 2007 are expected to be up by nearly 25 per cent on the previous year, fuelled partly by strong demand for its Phantom Drophead Coupé, which was launched this year. The marque, which is owned by BMW, will detail its performance for 2007 shortly as it embarks on a substantial expansion at its factory at Goodwood, West Sussex.