McDonald's Rise in Sales

The McDonald’s Corporation said Monday that sales at stores open at least a year climbed 4.3 percent in July as the nation’s biggest hamburger chain benefited from budget-conscious consumers.
The company, based in Oak Brook, said that sales at American stores open at least a year climbed 2.6 percent because of new products, including McCafé espresso-based coffee.
European sales surged 7.2 percent, helped by growth in France and Britain. Sales for Asia Pacific, the Middle East and Africa rose 2.1 percent, as strength in Australia helped offset weakness in China. Longer operating hours also increased sales.

McDonald’s sales at restaurants open at a year, also called same-store sales, are a key indicator of performance because they measure growth at existing restaurants rather than newly opened ones.

Total sales declined 0.3 percent because of currency translation.
Many companies that sell their products abroad convert sales from foreign currencies back to dollars when reporting financial results. When the dollar is stronger than those currencies, it results in fewer dollars in revenue.

McDonald’s results have benefited from consumers trading down to cheaper meal options in the recession, but its second-quarter profit declined 8 percent because of the stronger dollar and a year-ago gain. Results a year ago benefited from a better economy and stimulus checks, the company said.

McDonald’s, which has at least 32,000 restaurants worldwide, plans to release August sales on Sept. 9.

Source :- NYTimes


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China Everbright Bank Earns $497 Million

- China Everbright Bank Co., the Chinese lender preparing for an initial public offering, said it earned 3.4 billion yuan ($497 million) in the first half after expanding credit by 32 percent.

Revenue totaled 11.7 billion yuan in the first six months, the Beijing-based company said in a statement on its Web site late yesterday, without giving any comparison figures. Everbright Bank had net income of 6.5 billion yuan in the first half of 2008, according to an earlier statement.

Everbright Bank, the nation’s 11th-largest by assets, raised $1.7 billion last month in a private placement to boost its capital adequacy ratio to above the 10 percent regulatory minimum. The lender, whose public offering in Shanghai has been delayed for more than a year, said in June its capital ratio may have dropped below 9 percent after paying its first dividend in six years.

The company advanced 148 billion yuan of new loans in the first half, taking the total to 616.5 billion yuan as of June 30. Deposits gained 27 percent to 792.1 billion yuan, it said today. Non-performing loans accounted for 1.42 percent of total advances by the end of June, down 0.58 percentage points from a year earlier.

Source : - Bloomberg

Great achievement for China Everbright Bank. Even on this economy they still get high income..

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Small business still struggling

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- While Washington talks up the importance of small businesses and their vital role in economic recovery, small business owners remain caught in a credit maelstrom.

Bank lending is down, credit card interest rates are up, and the country's largest small business lender, CIT Group (CIT, Fortune 500), is hanging by a thread. The top small business credit card issuer, Advanta, shut its accounts down indefinitely.

As President Obama approaches his 200th day in office, here's a look back at his promises and programs intended to help small companies pull through the recession.

The rescue plan
In October, then-candidate Obama issued a campaign paper calling on the Small Business Administration to take emergency measures to assist small businesses endangered by the financial crisis. The three-part plan called for the SBA to increase the loan guarantee it offers banks that make qualifying small business loans, to reduce the fees it charges lenders, and to lend more money directly to small businesses through its Disaster Loan Program.

Two of those three measures were included in the Recovery Act that Obama signed into law in February. The SBA's loan guarantees rose to 90% -- if a business defaults, the government pays the bank back for the guaranteed portion of the loan. The agency also temporarily reduced or eliminated the fees it charges for its loan programs.

Those measures were intended to induce lenders to issue more SBA loans. According to Karen Mills, the SBA's administrator, the recipe worked. The SBA's weekly loan volume is up 45% since the stimulus bill passed, compared to the seven weeks immediately prior.

But the program wasn't a fix-all. The SBA is backing more loans than it was before the Recovery Act, but less than it did before last fall's financial meltdown. For the most recent quarter, ended June 30, SBA's main lending program issued 30% fewer loans than it did in 2008 and 55% fewer loans than it did in 2007.

Obama's third proposal, calling for direct lending from the SBA, was axed from the final version of the stimulus bill. But many small businesses have expressed their support for a program that would allow them to bypass the banks and receive loans directly from the government.

"In the '70s, we could go to the SBA and get a loan with money that was funded [directly], rather than the guarantees from banks," says Clarence McGill of Cincinnati, who owns Integrated Solutions and Services, a facilities management firm, with his son. His 43-person company is doing well but can't grow without a line of credit. McGill has had to skip making bids on lucrative contracts because he can't find a bank willing to offer the financing his firm would need to fulfill the contract.

"Direct lending would definitely be beneficial because there would be no bank risk criteria," he says. "Just like the government deals with GM and Chrysler, the government can say, 'We see a possibility that you may fail, but we'll take chance.' Banks don't say that.

SOurce :- CNNMoney

It's not good. Can Obama proposal rescue small business and US economy???

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US Postal Office may be closed?

The Postal Service has assembled a list of nearly 700 offices that may be closed or consolidated. That's out of a total of 32,741 post offices across America. The list of possible closures has been sent to the independent Regulatory Commission for review, "and officials say more may be added." The news, while not exactly a surprise, still sent searches soaring on everything from "post office closures" to the service's official website for the straight scoop.
Though the postal service has not made any final decisions, the substation at Hollins University may be the one to close in this area. They do the least amount of business, in terms of walk-in traffic.

It is not good. post services is still relevant for customer but knowing about increase of cost operation maybe they just need to close some of their office..
Do your post services will shut down?? Let's check the list here

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