PepsiCo Inc recorded a 9.6% decline in profits in its third quarter results, prompting the company to announce 3300 job cuts and a lowering of its sales forecast for the rest of the year.

PepsiCo is the largest snack maker in the world and among its most popular products in North America are beverages like Gatorade and Pepsi-Cola which make up around a quarter of its total revenue. However drink sales in US and Canada fell by 3% in the last quarter and its profit declined by 9.6%. The decline in demand is being attributed to higher costs of living as consumers cut back on soft drinks in order to afford increasingly expensive gasoline and food items.

The poor sales climate has compelled PepsiCo to lower the forecast of its full-year earnings to $3.67 to $3.68 a share, excluding certain costs. The company also announced that in order to save costs, it would shut down as many as six of its plants and cut 3300 jobs, constituting 1.8% of its workforce, especially in “overlapping” areas of marketing and sales. The lay offs would enable the company to save around $1.2 billion over the next three years.

News of the decline in profits led to a fall in PepsiCo stocks as shares fell by 12% or $7.37 to $54.40 early evening at the New York Composite Exchange, marking the biggest decline since December 1982.

Paul Krugman, professor at Princeton University, won the 2008 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences on Monday.

Famous for his Op-Ed columns in the New York Times and International Herald Tribune, Krugman’s views on economic policies has won him both ardent supporters as well as vehement critics. In his columns, Krugman has especially been critical of economic policies followed by the Bush administration and now perpetuated by the Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain.

However Krugman won the Nobel Prize not for his political views but for his academic research that he conducted before he began regularly writing for the New York Times. His research began in 1979 and proceeded to analyse and explain patterns of trade between countries, besides seeking to understand what goods are produced and exchanged where and why. While the traditional view of international trade posits that nations will export those commodities which they are good at producing, Krugman went on to show that in recent times global trade was being dominated by a few countries which were greatly alike and why a nation was importing the very kind of products it was more likely to export.

The Nobel Prize Committee stated that Krugman’s research had revealed “the effects of economies of scale on trade patterns and on the location of economic activity”.

Jones Apparel Group Inc cut its year view and posted weak preliminary third quarter results amidst lower consumer spending brought on by an economic slowdown.

The apparel company scaled down its earnings estimates from previous forecasts of $1.20 to $1.35 a share to between 93 cents and 98 cents a share for the rest of this year. even though Jones Apparel company will come up with its complete third quarterly results on October 29, the company announced that it expects earnings of around 32 to 34 cents a share from continuing operations for the present quarter.

Jones Apparel is the maker of Jones New York Clothing and Nine West Shoes. Like several other retailers, Jones Apparel too has suffered a large decline in same-store sales which have fallen by 2% in the last quarter and registered a significant decline in September. Same-store sales are a key indicator of the retailers’ financial health and its decline is being attributed to sluggish economic conditions which have put a damper on retailers as well as consumers.

Officials of Jones Apparel announced that the company has been forced to revise its guidance due to difficult economic conditions and expects to usher in more promotional events in the fourth quarter.

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has announced a finance rescue package worth A$10.4 billion or $7.3 billion to revive the national economy as the global market crisis freezes credit and slows growth.

Rudd said that the government of Australia was ready to spend A$4.8 billion on lump sum payments to the elderly, A$3.9 billion on families and an additional A$1.5 billion on payment to first-time home buyers. The government hopes that this spending package would help to stimulate consumption and investment which have taken a hit in the aftermath of financial turmoil. The A$4.8 billion outlay is also expected to provide a much-needed boost to job growth as well as the A$1 trillion Australian economy.

The Australian Premier further revealed that the spending would be funded from the 2008-09 surplus which was expected to stand at A$21.7 billion according to a forecast in May. Rudd tried to infuse confidence among investors and in the banking sector by assuring them that savings deposits as well as “term wholesale funding” among banks would be guaranteed. Finally he announced that the government would double the investment in residential mortgages to A$8 billion. Stocks in Australia reacted positively to Rudd’s assurances as well as to the US finance rescue initiatives by climbing the highest in more than a decade on Tuesday.

Stocks soared back in US financial markets in one of the best single day trading ever after experiencing some of the worst plunges last week. The rally came as governments in US as well as Europe vowed to infuse cash into troubled banks so as to restore confidence in a battered global financial system.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average shot up by 936.42 points or 11.08% to reach 9387.61 thus marking its biggest single-day point gain ever and biggest one-day percentage gain ever since the time of Great Depression in March 15, 1933. The S&P 500 economic benchmark too signalled its best one-day point gain by soaring 104.13 points or 11.5% to touch 1003.35. The NASDAQ Composite Index also recorded a similar rise of 11.81% or 104.13 points when it reached 844.25 marking its biggest single-day gain since January 2001.

The spectacular bounce-back of Wall Street was mainly due to assurances given by governments across the Western world that state agencies would continue to support its banks and do everything to thaw the credit freeze that had come up after the market meltdown. The stock market rally at Dow Jones as well as S& P was led by surges in healthcare, energy and utility stocks while Morgan Stanley’s 87% rise drove up the finance sector.

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