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City of Industry, CA DETROIT (AP) -- Toyota's auto sales fell 16 percent in January, a month when it recalled millions of vehicles and halted sales of several models. Most other automakers reported higher sales and looked for opportunities to snatch sales from the troubled Japanese automaker.


January is typically a weak month for U.S. auto sales, but automakers expected sales to improve over last January, when they dipped to a 26-year low because of the tough economy.

General Motors Co. said its January sales rose 14 percent due to higher fleet and crossover vehicle sales. Crossovers are SUV-like in size but sit on a car instead of a truck frame. Rival Ford Motor Co., meanwhile, also saw sales rise 25 percent on higher fleet sales, while Nissan Motor Co.'s rose 16 percent thanks to higher demand for sedans like the Versa, Sentra and Maxima. Hyundai Motor Co.'s sales rose 24 percent as sales of the newly redesigned Tuscon SUV doubled. [Read the full article]

MILPITAS, Calif. (AP) -- JDS Uniphase Corp. reported a much smaller net loss for its fiscal second quarter than a year ago, when it recorded a big accounting charge.

The company's sales fell, but the results were better than Wall Street expected, and its shares rose after it reported the results after regular trading closed Tuesday.

The maker of optical communications equipment and testing gear for communications companies, JDS Uniphase said it lost $19.5 million, or 9 cents per share, in the three months that ended Jan. 2.

A year earlier, it reported losing $722.9 million, or $3.36 per share, in large part due to a nearly $700 million write-down on the value of parts of its business.

That tops the average forecast of analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters for 9 cents per share, also excluding one-time items.

JDS Uniphase predicted its revenue would be $325 million to $350 million in its fiscal third quarter. Analysts were expecting $323 million. [Read the full article]

Reuters - A woman looks at an electronic board with stocks information at a brokerage house in Hefei, Anhui province ...

LONDON (Reuters) - World stocks rose for a third day running on Wednesday as better-than-expected U.S. company earnings and firm data raised expectations that the economy would keep strong momentum into the first quarter.

Government bond futures eased ahead of the release of the European Commission's opinion on Greece's deficit-cutting plan, where a tick of approval could help Greek debt recover further.

Upbeat housing and manufacturing data and robust earnings from the consumer and industrial sector in the United States on Tuesday followed last week's figures showing the world's biggest economy grew at its fastest pace in more than six years in the final three months of 2009.

All pointed to signs that massive government stimulus is feeding through into the real economy, which bodes well for risky assets such as stocks and higher-yielding currencies. [Read the full article]

NEW YORK (AP) -- The Energy Department will likely report a 1 million-barrel draw in crude oil reserves on Wednesday for the week ended Jan. 29, according to a survey by Platts, the energy information arm of McGraw-Hill Cos.

Platts expects gasoline stockpiles to rise by 1.5 million barrels, distillate stocks to decline by 1.2 million barrels and refinery utilization to increase a quarter of a percentage point to 78.75 percent.

Last Wednesday, the EIA said for the week ended Jan. 22 crude inventories fell by 3.9 million barrels to 326.7 million barrels; gasoline inventories rose by 2 million barrels to 229.4 million barrels; and distillate inventories 400,000 barrels to 157.5 million barrels.

Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. [Read the full article]

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