KERRY KEEPS CLOSE EYE ON COMMODITY COSTS - Food group Kerry has reported pre-tax profits of €175.2m for the first six months of this year, up 7.9% from the same period last year.
Its underlying sales rose by 8.4% to €2.6 billion, and chief executive Stan McCarthy described the performance as 'solid'.
Mr McCarthy said costs rose across the board for the company, in line with rises in commodity prices. He said cost increases had stabilised, but the market was nervous due to concerns about some crops across the world.
Mr McCarthy said the group was maintaining its forecast for full-year earnings growth of 8% to 12%, despite uncertainty about the wider economic outlook.
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NO PARIS MOVEMENT ON BIG TWO ISSUES - At their meeting in Paris yesterday, Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy called for 'true economic governance' for the euro zone in response to the debt crisis, and much closer economic and fiscal policy.
Charles Forelle, Brussels bureau chief at the Wall Street Journal, said investors had been looking for any movement towards eurobonds, or an expansion of the euro zone's rescue fund. He said both leaders were 'quite clear' in their rejection of both possibilities.
Mr Forelle said President Sarkozy argued that eurobonds would not give any control over individual countries' borrowing, whereas now the market kept pressure on countries.
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CURRENCIES - The euro is trading at $1.44 and 87.6p sterling.
