Stocks

When one talks about outsourcing, it is India that usually comes to mind. It cannot be denied that India has the largest market for outsourcing firms. Last October 26, 2010, we published an article entitled “Philippines Continues to Live Up To Offshoring Destination Of The Year Title“, which reported that despite having been given the Offshoring Destination of the Year award, the Philippines still ranks second to India in the outsourcing space. There is indeed a remarkable gap between these two countries. But while there is a significant difference between the two, recent figures show that the Philippines is actually starting to catch up and close the lead between it and India. In the call center branch of the industry, latest forecast figures from the Everest Group show that the Philippines will be able to surpass India’s contact center revenues this year. Everest Group reported that the Philippine contact center industry will pocket about $5.7 billion, from clientele mainly from European...

By Donny Kwok HONG KONG (Reuters) - McDonald's Corp <MCD.N> has raised menu prices in mainland China by 0.5 yuan to 1 yuan per item with immediate effect because of rising materials costs as the country grapples with accelerating food inflation. McDonald's, which has more than 1,000 outlets in China, was raising prices for the first time this year, while Yum! Brands Inc <YUM.N>, parent of KFC and Pizza Hut chains, had so far kept prices unchanged, the official Xinhua News Agency said. "Because some materials prices have increased, we have adjusted menu prices accordingly," a McDonald's (China) Co Ltd spokeswoman said. She said the increases only applied to mainland China, and its restaurants in Hong Kong and Macau were not affected. McDonald's move is evidence of rising food prices in China, a key concern among Chinese leaders. China was ready to take steps to curb inflationary pressures, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said after inflation in the world's second-largest economy hit the fastest pace in more...

The greenback came back after the better than estimated US confidence data which showed improvement to 50.2 in October from the revised 48.6 while analysts expected 49.9. However, the dollar remains under pressure before next week's Fed meeting which is expected to witness a second round stimulus to give another boost to the economy that started to show sluggishness. The dollar index rebounded from a low of 77.03 to a high of 77.68 where it is doing attempts to breach resistance at that level. On the other hand, the euro slipped after Mohamed A. El-Erian, Pacific Investment Management Co. Chief Executive Officer, said Greece will fall into default over the coming three years as the announced austerity measures are not sufficient to reduce the budget deficit that reached 13.6% of GDP last year. The announcement raised concerns that despite the improvement seen recently debt woes will cause recovery to falter. Concerning the euro-dollar pair, it is plummeted to a low of 1.3838 below 1.40 key...