Daryl Lorette Cafe

Caterpillar raises profit outlook on demand surge - Yahoo! News

BOSTON (Reuters) – Caterpillar Inc recorded a fivefold surge in profit and raised its forecast for the rest of the year, citing rising demand for its bulldozers, excavators and other heavy equipment.

The world's biggest maker of earth-moving equipment said on Friday it now looks for full-year earnings of $6.25 to $6.75 per share, up from its prior forecast of "near $6" and above analysts' expectations.

It also reported first-quarter profit of $1.84 per share, well above the $1.31 Wall Street expected.

(For a related graphic click: http://r.reuters.com/bak39r)

"It's a huge number on huge volume, that's the simplest way of describing it," said Eli Lustgarten, an analyst at Longbow Research. He noted that revenue came in more than $1 billion above forecasts.

via news.yahoo.com

Sheen to make donation for Giants fan beaten in LA - Yahoo! News

LOS ANGELES – Charlie Sheen's tour is taking a softer approach when it arrives in San Francisco later this week, with a donation planned for a Giants fan severely beaten during the Los Angeles Dodgers' home opener.

Sheen's publicist announced Thursday that the actor will donate the profits made from merchandise sold at Saturday's show to benefit the fan, Bryan Stow.

Stow is a paramedic who had to be placed into a medically induced coma after being beaten on March 31 outside Dodgers Stadium.

The "Major League" star is an avid baseball fan, and has drawn cheers for sporting the hometown ball club's jersey in cities on his "Violent Torpedo of Truth" tour.

Sheen is selling T-shirts and other merchandise emblazoned with some of his new catchphrases, including "Duh, Winning."

via news.yahoo.com

Jason Aldean leads CMT Awards nominees

Bernanke seen indicating no haste to tighten policy - Yahoo! News

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on Wednesday will likely use his first-ever news conference on monetary policy to hammer home the case for a patient approach to withdrawing the central bank's extensive support for the U.S. economy.

He will face the press this afternoon at the end of a two-day policy meeting, the first time a Fed chairman has held a regularly scheduled news conference in the central bank's 97-year history.

Bernanke is expected to amplify the consensus view at the central bank that the economy still needs monetary policy support with near-zero interest rates and its purchases of more than $2 trillion in longer-term securities.

via news.yahoo.com

'Glee' hits the big apple

Texas may strip away transgender marriage rights - Yahoo! News

AUSTIN, Texas – Two years after Texas became one of the last states to allow transgendered people to use proof of their sex change to get a marriage license, Republican lawmakers are trying to roll back the clock.

Advocates for the transgendered say a proposal to bar transgendered people from getting married smacks of discrimination and would put their legally granted marriages in danger of being nullified if challenged in court.

One of the Republican sponsors of the legislation said he's simply trying to clean up the 2009 law in a state that bans same-sex marriage under the constitution.

via news.yahoo.com

New home sales up more than expected in March - Yahoo! News

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – New U.S. single-family home sales increased more than expected in March and the supply of new houses on the market hit their lowest since August 1967, a government report showed on Monday, but prices fell from a year ago.

The Commerce Department said sales rose 11.1 percent to a seasonally adjusted 300,000 unit annual rate, after an upwardly revised 270,000 unit pace in February.

Economists polled by Reuters had forecast new home sales climbing to a 280,000-unit pace last month from a previously reported record low 250,000 unit rate.

via news.yahoo.com