Prep-Business-Report

(Canadian Press Broadcast Wire (Canada) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) The Toronto stock market closed slightly higher yesterday thanks in part to positive earnings at C-P Rail and rising gold stocks. But the market was held back by Research In Motion, which lost more ground ahead of the unveiling of its new BlackBerry 10 products.

Toronto's S-and-P/T-S-X composite index gained 14 points, to 12,830.

In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average rose 72 points, to 13,954.

And the Nasdaq composite index slipped two-thirds of a point, to 3,153.

In Tokyo this morning, the Nikkei index surged 247 points, to 11,114.

In Hong Kong this morning, the Hang Seng index rose 167 points, to 23,822.

And our dollar is trading overseas this morning at 99.75 cents U-S -- down one basis point from yesterday's close of 99.76.

(World Markets) Asian stock markets rose today after strong U-S corporate earnings outweighed sagging consumer confidence.

Japan's Nikkei surged 2.3 per cent, to its highest level in nearly three years, as the yen continued to weaken against the U-S dollar.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 0.7 per cent.

Investors are awaiting the end of a two-day meeting in Washington that will determine the U-S Federal Reserve's monetary policy including interest rates.

Analysts say if the Fed sticks to its commitment to low interest rates, that would drive more money toward stock markets.

(RIM-BlackBerry 10) It`s a critical day for Research in Motion, which unveils its long-delayed BlackBerry 10 smartphones today in New York.

The B-B 10 could be a make-or-break product for Waterloo, Ontario-based RIM, which lost its grip on the smartphone market over the past few years.

Instead, customers are flocking to Apple's iPhone and Android-powered devices.

Yesterday, RIM shares lost almost 3.5 per cent on top of a 7.6-per-cent slide on Monday and closed yesterday at $15.71.

Some brokers blame the losses on profit-taking. (The Canadian Press) (Apple-Samsung-Lawsuit) A U-S federal judge has rejected Apple's demand to increase the more than one-billion dollars in damages a jury ordered rival Samsung Electronics to pay its fiercest rival in the smartphone market.

The judge also rejected demands from both firms to hold another trial on different issues over claims that Samsung unfairly used technology controlled by Apple to build market knockoffs to the iPads and iPhones. (Associated Press) (AltaGas-Idemitsu) A partnership has been formed to explore shipping Canadian liquefied natural gas to Asia.

It's a 50-50 partnership between Calgary-based pipeline fim AltaGas and Idemitsu Kosan, a Japanese company.

Japan is Asia's biggest consumer of L-N-G. (The Canadian Press) (Swiss-Roche-Earns) Swiss drugmaker Roche Holding AG posted a 2.4 per cent increase in its full-year profits as demand grew for its cancer medicines and diagnostic lab tests.

Roche said today it had a net profit last year of 10.57-billion dollars.

It credits approval of a breast cancer medicine it makes (Perjeta) and the weakening of the Swiss franc against the dollar and Japanese yen.

The world's biggest manufacturer of cancer drugs says demand for its top-selling products Rituxan, Herceptin and Avastin grew in all regions last year. (Associated Press) (LG-Electronics-Earns) L-G Electronics has reported its first quarterly loss in a year after Europe slapped it with a massive fine for price fixing.

The South Korean consumer electronics maker says its net loss totalled 429-million dollars for the last quarter of 2012, while revenue dipped slightly to 12.4-billion.

The European Union fined it 664-million dollars last month for rigging prices of cathode-ray tubes for years.

LG said it would appeal. (Associated Press) (Nintendo-Earns) Japanese video game maker Nintendo was back in the black for the first nine months of the fiscal year, but remains pessimistic about sales prospects.

The maker of Super Mario and Pokemon games says April-to-December profit totalled 160-million dollars -- a reversal from the 530-million-dollar loss reported a year earlier.

Nine-month sales inched up 2.4 per cent to six-billion dollars.

But Nintendo has lowered its sales forecast, expecting now to sell only four-million Wii U consoles for the full fiscal year instead of the 5.5-million it estimated earlier. (Associated Press) (The Business Report by Karen Rebot and Bill Marshall) (c) 2013 The Canadian Press

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