Dell opens call center in Philippines

American computer maker Dell has opened its second customer call center in the Philippines. Dick Hunter, Dell's vice president for customer experience, said the company plans to hire about 100 people per month until it reaches the target of about 2,600 employees. Philippine Trade Secretary Peter Favila said Dell had infused investments of 466 million pesos ($9.7 million) for the second call center.

The call center industry is one of the fastest growing sectors in the Philippines, which has a large pool of college-educated workforce easily trained for English-language customer assistance. The Contact Center Association of the Philippines projects the local call center business to become a $7.3 billion industry by 2010. It employed almost 180,000 people last year.

Airbus to slash 10000 jobs under crisis plan

news.yahoo.com :

European jet maker Airbus has revealed plans to axe 10,000 jobs, nearly a fifth of its workforce, as part of a radical cost-cutting scheme to lift the company out of a financial crisis. Airbus said it planned to cut the jobs over four years. The group said it would sell off several factories and make greater use of sub-contractors. Almost immediately after the announcement, workers in three factories in Germany downed tools, foreshadowing what is expected to be a major struggle between the company and labour organisations.

Problems at Airbus, a subsidiary of European group EADS, were exposed by long delays in production of the A380 superjumbo airliner. Deliveries of the A380 are two years behind schedule, putting a severe strain on Airbus's finances and damaging the company's reputation among clients and investors. The group is expected to report an operating loss for 2006, a sharp turnaround in its fortunes after years of bumper profits. It also faces pressure from a weakening dollar, which makes Airbus airliners more expensive in international markets.

CompUSA closing more than 50% of stores

hardware.slashdot.org -> extremetech.com :

CompUSA, the computer and gadget retailer owned by Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim, said it would close more than half of its U.S. retail locations over the next two to three months to focus on top performing locations. CompUSA said it would close 126 of its stores and would receive a $440 million cash capital infusion. The company also said it would cut costs and restructure.

Intense gross margin pressure, especially in the flat panel television category, has plagued others in this sector, contributing to Circuit City Stores Inc.'s announcement earlier this month that it was closing 70 stores. CompUSA competes with Best Buy and Circuit City.

(2007-03-08 20:10:10 SGT) [Biz] Permalink

Stocks have worst day since 9/11 attacks

news.yahoo.com :

Stocks had their worst day of trading since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, hurtling the Dow Jones industrials down more than 400 points on a worldwide tide of concern that the U.S. and Chinese economies are stumbling and that share prices have become overinflated. The steepness of the market's drop, as well as its global breadth, signaled a possible correction after a long period of stable and steadily rising stock markets that had not been shaken by such a volatile day of trading in several years. The repercussions continued Wednesday in morning trading in Asia. Shares in Tokyo, Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines and Indonesia all tumbled more than 3 percent.

It began with a 9 percent slide in Chinese stocks Tuesday, which came a day after investors sent Shanghai's benchmark index to a record high close. The Dow began the day falling sharply. Stocks took a huge plunge in late afternoon as computer-driven sell programs kicked in, and also as a computer glitch caused a delay in the recording of a large number of trades. It was the Dow's worst point decline since Sept. 17, 2001, the first trading day after the terror attacks, when the blue chips fell 684.81, or 7.13 percent. The drop hit every sector across the market, and a total of $632 billion was lost in total in U.S. stocks on Tuesday, according to Standard & Poor's Corp.

Traders' dwindling confidence was knocked down further by data showing that the economy may be decelerating more than anticipated. A Commerce Department report that orders for durable goods in January dropped by the largest amount in three months exacerbated jitters about the direction of the U.S. economy, just a day after former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said the United States may be headed for a recession.

- This is a backblog, and that was last week. My own portfolio went down by around $6000 right away, and at one point close to $10,000 was wiped out. No realized losses though. I was still comfortably in the black even at the low point. In the recent sessions, it has rebounded somewhat, narrowing the difference from the peak and pushing the portfolio further into the black, where it now sits at a 34% gain.

If you are curious as to how volatile the kinds of shares I trade are, well this is how volatile : the share price of one of the uranium companies dropped by 42% at one point. I was already out of it by then, having made a few thousands when it more than doubled (for an over 100% profit). Out of the various natural gas companies, one is down by over 50%, and another is down by around 60%.

Fun stuff. It has its ups and downs. Big ups - and big downs. As I remarked to a colleague recently, "the speculators have this saying : volatility is your friend". I'm not an "all-out crazy speculator" though. A separate chunk of cash and cash-equivalents is out there earning more sedate interest rates between 0.25% and 3.8% in various savings, money-market and fixed deposit accounts.

One can imagine the cliches; you've probably come across some of these in the news article that followed. What goes up must come down. Bull runs don't last forever. No market goes up in a straight line. Buying now is like catching a falling knife.

Interesting times, aren't they.