Mattel disappoints in holiday quarter; shares fall

(Reuters) - Mattel Inc missed Wall Street's profit and sales estimates for the fourth quarter on weak demand for its mainstay Barbie dolls and movie-themed toys in a holiday season plagued by concerns about the U.S. economy.

Shares of the world's largest toymaker fell 2.3 percent to $36.75 in trading before the market opened on Friday.

Mattel's news came after rival Hasbro Inc warned its fourth-quarter revenue could fall far short of analysts' estimates. Hasbro blamed weaker-than-expected demand for playthings in what is typically the industry's biggest selling season of the year.

"The retail environment was very difficult in the fourth quarter," said MKM Partners LLC analyst Eric Handler.

U.S. shoppers held back a bit during the 2012 holiday season, spending only 3 percent more than 2011 because of concerns about the economy, the National Retail Federation has said.

Sales of Barbie products fell 10 percent in North America in the fourth quarter, which Handler said was the steepest decline for the brand in several years.

Handler expects Mattel to have a better 2013, citing a strong product lineup and a slowly recovering global economy.

Despite the sales miss, Mattel still appears to have gained market share from smaller rivals such as Hasbro in the United States and nearly a half-dozen European markets, analysts said.

Hasbro's lack of entertainment-themed toys could hurt its prospects in the near term, said Handler, who rates Mattel shares as "buy" and Hasbro as "neutral."

It will be another two years before the release of another "Transformers" movie, which is based on a Hasbro brand, Handler said.

Hasbro plans to report its fourth-quarter results on February 7.

WEAK SALES GROWTH

Mattel, also home to Hot Wheels cars and Fisher-Price toys, said its net income had fallen to $306.5 million, or 87 cents a share, from $370.6 million, or $1.07 a share, a year earlier.

Excluding a litigation charge, the company earned $1.12 a share, missing the analysts' average estimate of $1.15, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Net sales rose 5 percent to $2.26 billion, and fell short of the analysts' average estimate of $2.29 billion.

Global sales of Barbie products fell 4 percent. Sales at Mattel's entertainment business, which includes electronic games, were down 13 percent, mainly on weak demand for "Cars 2" movie-themed toys.

Also on Friday, Mattel announced a first-quarter cash dividend of 36 cents a share. That reflects an annualized payout of $1.44 a share, which would be up 16 percent from last year.

(Reporting by Dhanya Skariachan; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/mattel-misses-analysts-estimates-holiday-quarter-113644396--finance.html

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Former New York Mayor Ed Koch dead at 88 (cbsnews)

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Dan Marino Paid Mistress Millions To Keep Lovechild On The Down-Low

Dan Marino Paid Mistress Millions To Keep Lovechild On The Down-Low

Legendary quarterback Dan Marino admits to fathering a lovechild with a production assistant at CBS sports, keeping their lovechild a secret. The former Miami Dolphins football star cheated on his wife of 28 years, Claire, with a woman named Donna Savattere. Donna and Dan’s daughter Chloe was born in June 2005, and is being raised ...

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Source: http://stupidcelebrities.net/2013/01/dan-marino-paid-mistress-millions-to-keep-lovechild-on-the-down-low/

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iPad Tops 4Q2012 Tablet Market Share, But Lead is Shrinking

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Richard's Real Estate and Urban Economics Blog: It's the G.

After I saw the weak 4th quarter GDP number reported this morning, I went to the National Income and Products Accounts website, where I found that in the 4th quarter, government expenditures and investment has declined by 6.6 percent on a seasonally adjusted annualized rate and that defense spending had dropped 22.2 percent, again, on a SAAR.

Can this possibly be correct? ?I am wondering if there is some anomaly in the data.

Source: http://real-estate-and-urban.blogspot.com/2013/01/its-g.html

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Retirement investing requires optimism - Early-Retirement.org

Retirement investing requires optimism

Join the #1 Early Retirement and Financial Independence Forum Today - It's Totally Free! Are you planning to be financially independent as early as possible so you can live life on your own terms? Discuss successful investing strategies, asset allocation models, tax strategies and other related topics in our online forum community. Our members range from young folks just starting their journey to financial independence, military retirees and even multimillionaires. No matter where you fit in you'll find that Early-Retirement.org is a great community to join. Best of all it's totally FREE! You are currently viewing our boards as a guest so you have limited access to our community. Please take the time to register and you will gain a lot of great new features including; the ability to participate in discussions, network with our members, see fewer ads, upload photographs, create a retirement blog, send private messages and so much, much more!

Yesterday, 08:45 AM	? #5
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ... ? Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Chicagoland Posts: 6,318	It's a surprisingly insightful article for it's brevity, thanks. I could write 10 times as much and say far less. It will be interesting to see if folks can just read it dispassionately instead of through their own "lenses." I also liked: The media's 24/7 barrage of bad tidings and other distractions (such as the fiscal cliff countdown clock that appeared on this website) serve to frighten rather than educate. The best way I have found to develop optimism is to study history. It will help you put today's headlines and countdown clocks into historical perspective. The last century has contained most of the history altering events that we are likely to experience in the future ? war and peace, a growing economy, a declining economy, bull and bear markets, inflation and deflation, high and low interest rates and countless other frightening events that now reside on the timeline of things long forgotten. By reading today's headlines instead of history, you're left with the impression that we live in unusual times but each decade is unusual in its own unique way. I am bored by those who assert that the dark future they envision in their fevered dreams is a certainty. Those bearded, white-robed seers holding "The End Is Near" signs have gone digital and the Internet gives them a global microphone. It requires no special insight to complain about the budget deficit, a dysfunctional Congress, the national debt, high unemployment, slow economic growth, etc. ad nauseam. __________________ It's a pity to waste your life living the same tiny day over and over again. James Taylor Retired Jun 2011 at age 57
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Yesterday, 11:22 AM	? #7
Dryer sheet aficionado ? Join Date: Jun 2012 Posts: 46	Very nice article. I can't figure out how to cut a snippet out of the article and past it in here with my phone but there is a line in the article that says people need to educate themselves on how to invest for their future. To me this is key. Reading a few books on investing has given me a better understanding of how the market has worked over time and that gives me power over my fear. I think most people invest because they are told it is the best way to prepare for the future. They go to the company open enrollment meeting and get an outline of how and what to invest in pick a plan and go with. They don't really understand why or how it works and at the first sign of trouble they bail out. 401K plans are a great tool but like many other tools they are dangerous if you don't know how to use and maintain them properly. NMF __________________
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Yesterday, 11:39 AM	? #9
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ... ? Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Chicagoland Posts: 6,318	But I believe that the news media, in general, just wants us to stay worried all the time because they think that will keep their audience captive. Originally Posted by youbet +1 Audrey, you're right on target! It's all about ratings to sell advertising of course, serving any other purpose is a distant second. Chicken-or-the-egg maybe but Is the media negative? Media studies show that bad news far outweighs good news by as much as seventeen negative news reports for every one good news report. Why? Humans seek out news of dramatic, negative events. Many studies have shown that we care more about the threat of bad things than we do about the prospect of good things. Our negative brain tripwires are far more sensitive than our positive triggers. We tend to get more fearful than happy. So from evolutionary and neuro-scientific and probability perspectives, we are hard-wired to look for the dramatic and negative, and when we find it, we share it. However, more encouraging (I hope)? Is there any good news in all this? According to positive psychologists we can change our habits, and we can focus on the glass being half-full. When we acquire new habits, our brains acquire "mirror neurons" and develop a positive perspective that can spread to other people like a virus. Giving us the bad news, so that our brains are hard-wired into a negative state, will just reinforce the current negative economic climate. http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/wired-success/201012/why-we-love-bad-news just one of many articles online. __________________ It's a pity to waste your life living the same tiny day over and over again. James Taylor Retired Jun 2011 at age 57
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Yesterday, 12:24 PM	? #11
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ... ? Join Date: Jul 2008 Posts: 7,309	An important thing an investor must avoid is to extrapolate his particular situation to the world at large. Here's an example. In the 2000-2002 tech bust, our business was hurt badly. Looking around, I saw huge tech and communication companies like Nortel, Cisco imploding, let alone a little business like ours. Yet, I also saw that there were sectors shunned earlier by investors now doing well. Of course, people needed less silicon chips, but still ate potato chips. From the top of 2000 to the bottom in 2002, my portfolio shrank to 50% of its high. And this happened while we toiled for no pay trying to keep the business alive. My personal situation was pretty gloomy. I sold most of my tech holdings and reinvested in other sectors like material and energy. I got back to my 2000 high at around 2005 in late 2004, and even got the confidence and money to buy a 2nd home in 2005. So, I can relate to people in beaten down industries like auto and housing who would feel pretty bad, and cast a gloomy outlook over the whole world. Nope! Just because you are in a destitute personal situation does not mean the rest of the world isn't out partying. __________________
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Yesterday, 10:59 PM	? #16
Recycles dryer sheets ? Join Date: Jun 2010 Posts: 401	well maybe the skill of self control ' + '?' + google_ads[i].line2 + '?' + google_ads[i].line3 + '?' + '' + google_ads[i].visible_url + ' '; } } '' } if (google_ads[0].bidtype == "CPC") { /* insert this snippet for each ad call */ google_adnum = google_adnum + google_ads.length; } document.write(s); return; } google_ad_client = 'ca-pub-7757781251671730'; google_ad_channel = '2895579729'; google_ad_output = 'js'; google_max_num_ads = '6'; google_ad_type = 'text'; google_feedback = 'on'; // --> __________________
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