The Profits-Investment Disconnect - NYTimes.com: "Profits are very high, so why are companies concluding that they should return cash to stockholders rather than use it to expand their businesses?
After all, we normally think of high profits as a signal: a profitable business is one people should be trying to get into. But right now we see a combination of high profits and sluggish investment : What’s going on? ... this kind of divergence — in which high profits don’t signal high returns to investment — is what you’d expect if a lot of those profits reflect monopoly power rather than returns on capital." 'via Blog this'
European shares were mixed. Asian stocks edged top after optimistic US economic news powered Wall Street shares to a record overnight. The final estimate of the US gross domestic product (GDP) for the third quarter was revised up to a 5% annual pace, its quickest in 11 years, from 3.9% reported last month, on stronger consumer and business spending. US Consumer feeling rose to 93.6, its maximum reading since January 2007.
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