Dow Jones: +43 at 13,208
S&P 500: +3 at 1,406
NASDAQ Composite: +2 at 3,021

RIM and IBM in spaghetti soup rumours

Embattled Research In Motion (RIM), maker of the fast-fading Blackberry phone, attracted speculative interest as rumours circulated that International Business Machines (IBM) is sniffing around. looking to buy RIM's enterprise-services unit.

Things were not looking quite as rosy for another tech colossus of yesteryear, Yahoo!, which fell back after management appeared to signal it would not be returning cash to shareholders despite selling half its stake in Chinese e-commerce platform Alibaba for $7bn. New Chief Executive Officer Marissa Mayer may prefer to keep the windfall to invest in the business.

US fund manager Janus Capital has its glad-face on after sealing a deal which will seek Japan's largest life assurance firm, Dai-Ichi Life, take a large stake in the US firm.

The Japanese firm is looking to buy at least 15% and up to 20% of the US fund manager, which has seen its star wane since its golden era of the nineties.

Medical devices maker CareFusion was in rude health after announcing fiscal fourth-quarter profits that were 29% higher year-on-year, as it achieved the double-bubble bonus of lifting sales while cutting operating costs.

Earnings per share of 49 cents were up from 37 cents in the corresponding quarter of last year, and more or less in line with market forecasts. Revenue of $968m was ahead of market forecasts of $957m.

No longer a bad Penney

Retailer JC Penney's second quarter profits were not much to write home about but investors chased up the shares after the group said its facelift programme for its stores began to pay off in July.

Like-for-like sales plummeted 21.7% in the second quarter, with many pundits attributing the sharp decline to an unpopular change in pricing strategy.

Loss per share in the firm's fiscal second quarter was 67 cents, versus positive earnings per share of 7 cents the year before.

In-car gizmos maker Harman International powered ahead on better than expected fiscal fourth quarter figures. Earnings per share (EPS) of 69 cents for the April - June quarter were up sharply from 26 cents a share in the corresponding quarter of 2011. Underlying EPS, which strips out once-off items, came in 2 cents above market consensus at 67 cents.

Investors chased the shares higher as the firm doubled its annual cash dividend to 60 cents a share.

Manchester United will be hoping to make a better start to the new football season than its shares managed on their début in New York. Bundled by US financial institutions into lowering its flotation price to $14, below its previously indicated range of $16 to $20, the flotation is looking about as well-timed as a Paul Scholes tackle, with the shares closing little changed before falling behind in extra-time in screen-based trading.

Other markets

With the IEA cutting oil demand expectations (see above), there was little enthusiasm for the black stuff in New York trading, and the September futures contract for West Texas light sweet crude eased 49 cents to $92.87 a barrel.

In contrast, gold edged higher on Friday. With equity investors not sure which way to turn, gold seemed like a safe option, especially as a weakening US dollar made the yellow metal cheaper in relative terms. Gold for December delivery rose $2.60 to $1,622.80 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.