Market News

U.S. stocks, oil rebound on strong consumer data

NEW YORK - U.S. stocks and oil prices gained on Friday on a rise in U.S. consumer sentiment to a more than five-year high, outweighing gloom that the "fiscal cliff" in the United States and Europe's economic woes may lead to a world recession.

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Wall Street Week Ahead: "Fiscal cliff" blues may lead to correction

NEW YORK - Wall Street's post-election sell-off may gather steam in the coming weeks as worries mount about the looming "fiscal cliff" and technical weakness suggests a possible correction ahead. | Video

09 Nov 2012

Euro at two-month low versus dollar on European growth concerns

NEW YORK - The euro dropped to a two-month low against the U.S. dollar on Friday and could extend losses further as fears mount that the euro zone's debt crisis and deteriorating economic conditions could drag down global economic growth.

09 Nov 2012

U.S. judge insists Argentina must pay holdout creditors

NEW YORK - A U.S. judge told Argentina on Friday it should not even consider evading a recent ruling requiring it to pay bondholders who did not participate in two major debt restructurings after the country's 2002 default.

09 Nov 2012

House vote on Russia trade bill expected next week

WASHINGTON - The House of Representatives is expected to vote next week on a long-delayed bill to ensure U.S. companies receive all the market-opening benefits of Russia's recent accession to the World Trade Organization, congressional aides said on Friday.

Politics, Russia 09 Nov 2012

Greek debt could go above 140 percent of GDP in 2020, ECB says

BRUSSELS - Greece will fail to reduce its debt burden to a manageable level by 2020 with current policies, European Central Bank policymaker Joerg Asmussen told Belgian daily De Tijd, forecasting the target set by creditors will be widely missed.

U.S. Market Report

Canada's Carney says rate hikes 'less imminent'

TORONTO, Nov 10 - Interest rate hikes have become less imminent than the Bank of Canada once expected, although rates are still likely to rise, central bank Governor Mark Carney said in an interview published on Saturday.

Stocks, Bonds News, Bonds, Financials 11:50am EST

UK Market Report

UPDATE 1-UK Stocks-Factors to watch on Friday, Nov.9

* Britain's FTSE 100 index is seen opening flat on Friday, according to financial bookmakers. For more on the factors affecting European stocks, click on

Stocks, 09 Nov 2012

European Market Report

European shares end flat as US data fuels rebound

* Strong U.S. data fuels bounce, counters fiscal cliff worries

Stocks, European Markets, Financials 09 Nov 2012

Tokyo Market Report

Nikkei falls to 4-week closing low on U.S. fiscal worries

* Nikkei falls for 5th straight day, down 3.2 pct this week * 60 pct of Nikkei firms miss results expectations so far By Dominic Lau TOKYO, Nov 9 - Japan's Nikkei fell a four-week closing low on Friday, led by exporter shares, as a looming U.S. fiscal crisis threatened to tip the world's largest economy into recession and as uncertainty over a Greek bailout rekindled worries about the euro zone. Exporters, which already face slowing demand for their products due to sue.

Macro Approach

Countries can be seen as segments. For example, there will only be a large market for expensive pharmaceuticals in countries with certain income levels, and entry opportunities into infant clothing will be significantly greater in countries with large and growing birthrates.
There are, however, significant differences within countries. For example, although it was thought that the Italian market would demand "no frills" inexpensive washing machines while German consumers would insist on high quality, very reliable ones, it was found that more units of the inexpensive kind were sold in Germany than in Italy—although many German consumers fit the predicted profile, there were large segment differences within that country.

Micro Approach

This approach caters to segments within countries. This can be approached in two ways :

• Intra-market Segmentation

This involves segmenting each country’s markets. Here the company entering a new market segments that market to attain greater understanding of it. For example, an American firm going into the Indian market would research to segment Indian consumers without incorporating knowledge of U.S. buyers. Here the idea is that every country's market is different from the others and that it hence demands to be approached differently. This approach is a long term strategy and involves a lot of research and investment.

• Inter-market Segmentation

This involves the detection of segments that exist across borders. It may be noted that that not all segments that exist in one country will exist in another and that the sizes of the segments may differ significantly. For example, there is a huge small car segment in India, while it is considerably smaller in the U.S. Inter-market segmentation entails several benefits. The fact that products and promotional campaigns may be used across markets; introduces economies of scale, and learning that has been acquired in one market may be used in another—e.g., a firm that caters to a segment of premium quality cell phone buyers in one country can put its experience to use in another country that features that same segment. (Even though segments may be similar across the cultures, it should be noted that it is still necessary to learn about the local market. For example, for a product, although a segment common across two countries may seek the same benefits, the cultures of each country may cause people to respond differently to it.