Boston, MA 01/31/2014 (wallstreetpr) – Peabody Energy Corporation (NYSE:BTU) is looking ahead to modest growth as it continues to target volume increase and cost improvement. The company was able to avoid a high burnout in the just reported quarter due to volume boost and cost cutting. BTU managed to trim its losses by nearly 44 percent in Q4. In the quarter, the company realized a loss of $565.7 million or $2.12 per share for the three months duration ending December. By comparison, in the corresponding quarter in the prior year, the company suffered $1.1 billion loss or $3.78 per share. Peabody Energy Corporation (NYSE:BTU) is hoping that it will turn a loss of $0.10 or profit of $0.14 in the current quarter if it is able to stick to its cost-cutting and volume improvement efforts.
Petroleo Brasileiro Petrobras SA (ADR) (NYSE:PBR) has now brought online a key gas production project with the potential of boosting its present 27 million cubic meters per day capacity to 41 million cubic meters per day. The company commissioned the new production complex located in Bahia state early this month, being its third biggest plant in the state. PBR had invested about $1 billion to bring the project online and supply to the national grid from the facility started around January 24. Increasing fuel production ranks high on the agenda of Petroleo Brasileiro Petrobras SA (ADR) (NYSE:PBR) as this seems to be the most viable approach to dealing with the pricing problems it faces. The company is divesting in several of its foreign holdings to raise funds towards boosting production.
eBay Inc (NASDAQ:EBAY) has seemingly won the argument against the spinoff of its online payment service PayPal. The company’s management was recently embroiled in a war of words with some of its investors, prominent among them activist investor Carl Icahn, who are supporting separation of the online marketplace from its online payment platform. Shares of EBAY suffered on the browser as the argument dragged on. However, things seem to have cooled off and the shares are starting to gain, suggesting that investors may have gotten the point being put across by eBay Inc (NASDAQ:EBAY) management team against taking away PayPal from the parent company.
