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May 27 2012 11:21
There's a price war raging between South Africa's cellphone networks after Cell C lowered the rates of its prepaid calls by more than 34%.
May 28 2012 07:53
The City of Cape Town has spent R175m running the Myciti bus service since the Soccer World Cup compared to an income of R35m, a report says.
May 27 2012 13:09
The oversupply of golf estates has claimed another victim.
New York - US stocks opened slightly lower Tuesday as investors focused on the outlook for the US economy and digested the latest batch of earnings reports.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average edged down 9.38 points (0.07%) to 12 798.05 in opening trade.
The tech-rich Nasdaq Composite fell 3.90 points (0.14%) to 2 860.18, while the S&P 500 index, a broad measure of the markets, dipped 2.24 points (0.16%) to 1 358.98.
"Traders are contemplating what lies ahead for the economy as global central bank monetary policies are diverging and US fiscal issues continue to loom over Capitol Hill," Charles Schwab analysts said in a client note.
They pointed out that Dow member Pfizer reported "mixed results."
Before the markets opened, drugmaker Pfizer reported first-quarter earnings jumped 10%, despite a 13% fall in sales of its best-selling anti-cholesterol drug Lipitor due to new competition from generics in some markets.
After touching multi-year highs, equity markets slipped Monday as euphoria about the US slaying of Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden faded.
The Dow dipped 0.02%, the Nasdaq fell 0.33% and the S&P 500 index shed 0.18%.
"We're sticking with the equity market's overbought nature - up 8.3% since March 16 - as a germane explanation for why it is sputtering at the moment," said Patrick O'Hare at Briefing.com.