Business Today: Wall Street poised to make four-year high

		Click to View in Browser 08/21/2012 Wall Street poised to make four-year high NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stock index futures edged higher on Tuesday, with Wall Street set to make another run at a four-year high as equity markets continue to grind steadily higher on hopes that central banks will act in the near future to stimulate their economies. Shell plans at least $1 billion a year China shale gas investment BEIJING (Reuters) - Royal Dutch Shell plans to spend at least $1 billion a year exploiting China's potentially vast resources of shale gas, the firm's top China executive said, part of an aggressive strategy to expand in the world's biggest energy market. Best Buy cuts outlook, suspends buybacks (Reuters) - Best Buy Co cut its fiscal-year profit outlook on Tuesday, citing lower expectations for industrywide sales and uncertainty about key product introductions, and the consumer electronics retailer suspended its share buybacks for the year. Barclays downgrades Groupon on shift to low-margin business model (Reuters) - Barclays Capital downgraded Groupon Inc to "underweight" from "overweight" and cut its price target on the stock as the company faces a slowdown at its core daily deal business, forcing it to rely on its lower-margin discount business. Apple's market value exceeds Microsoft's during 1999 bubble NEW YORK (Reuters) - Apple Inc's market value climbed past $623 billion on Monday, surpassing the record set by Microsoft Corp during the heyday of technology stocks in 1999. KKR buys into Novo, bets on China youth apparel market HONG KONG (Reuters) - Global buyout fund KKR & Co L.P. has placed a bet on China's $38 billion youth apparel retail market, saying on Wednesday that it will acquire a stake in privately held retailer Novo Holdco Ltd for $30 million. Siemens seeks thousands of job cuts: paper FRANKFURT (Reuters) - German engineering conglomerate Siemens is in early internal talks to cut thousands of jobs in response to a weakening economy, particularly in Europe, a German newspaper reported. Nike sets new rules to beef up store, customer safety: WSJ (Reuters) - Nike Inc has come up with new rules for retailers, prompted by unruly crowds outside stores selling its shoes, the Wall Street Journal reported. Surprise deficit raises risk of more UK austerity LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's public finances veered further off track in July after a shortfall in corporation tax revenues and higher spending, putting the government's deficit goals in doubt and raising the prospect of more austerity on top of the planned spending cuts. Global stock rally continues on ECB, Greece optimism LONDON (Reuters) - Rallying European markets lifted global stocks to a 3-1/2 month high on Tuesday, on hopes that meetings on Greece's future this week and new crisis plans being drawn up by the European Central Bank will see the euro zone master its debt problems. Related Video Telekom Austria banks on Carlos Slim backing China's private jet pipe dreams Economic News Consumer sentiment at three-month high in early August Fed's Lockhart says monetary policy not a panacea A daily digest of breaking business news, coverage of the US economy, major corporate news and the financial markets. Register Today   The latest Reuters articles on M&A, IPOs, private equity, hedge funds and regulatory updates delivered to your inbox each day. Register Today   » MORE NEWSLETTERS - 3 Times Square New York, NY 10036 USA © Copyright 2010 Thomson Reuters Ensure delivery of Reuters Newsmails, add mail@nl.reuters.com to your address book. Details Subscribe to other Reuters newsletters. Unsubscribe from this newsletter. Follow us on Twitter Friend us on Facebook Forward to a friend