NEW YORK | Fri Jan 18, 2013 4:11pm EST

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Mint has suspended sales of its 2013 American Eagle silver bullion coins after running out of stock due to soaring investor demand for the newly minted coins in the first two weeks of the year.

Sales to authorized dealers will resume on or about the week of January 28 after the U.S. Mint has replenished its inventory, it said in an email to authorized dealers on Thursday. The coins are produced at the Mint's West Point, New York, facility.

While it is typical for collectors to snap up newly stamped coins, interest this year has ballooned due to investors seeking refuge from U.S. economic uncertainty.

Silver Eagle sales to January 15 exceeded 5 million ounces and were on track to surpass the all-time monthly high of 6.1 million ounces, set in January 2012.

Physical coin sales had risen in the final months of 2012 as investors protected their nest eggs from a feared U.S. recession. Many economists predicted a U.S. economic downturn would occur if Congress and the White House did not act to stop pending huge tax hikes and automatic spending cuts known as the "fiscal cliff."

It is not the first time the Mint has faced a run on its stock. It started allocating sales to authorized dealers in recent years after its supplies were depleted by unprecedented demand.

The Mint on January 24 is due to start taking orders from the general public for silver proof coins, which fetch just under $63 each and are aimed at collectors.

(The story corrects last paragraph to make clear that silver proof coins, not silver bullion coins, fetch $63)

(Reporting By Josephine Mason; Editing by Gary Hill and Steve Orlofsky)

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Guests are silhouetted at the launch event of Windows 8 operating system in New York, October 25, 2012.

LAS VEGAS | Thu Jan 10, 2013 9:28pm EST

LAS VEGAS (Reuters) - Holiday-season sales of personal computers fell for the first time in more than five years, according to tech industry tracker IDC, as Microsoft Corp's new Windows 8 operating system failed to excite buyers and many instead opted for tablet devices and smartphones.

The slump caps a miserable year for PC makers such as Hewlett-Packard Co, Lenovo Group and Dell Inc, which saw the first annual decline for more than a decade with no immediate signs of relief.

It underscores an unspectacular launch for the latest version of the Windows franchise, which Microsoft is banking on to fight off incursions into the PC arena by touch-friendly devices such as Apple Inc's iPad.

"The sense is that until Windows 8 is fully installed and prices start to come down, we will be in this state of negative dynamics in the PC market," said Aaron Rakers, an analyst at Stifel, Nicolaus & Co.

Still, analysts warn against counting out Windows 8 -- the most radical change in the operating system in 20 years -- as consumers grow more comfortable with its tile-based interface and touch features.

In the past, a new operating system from Microsoft tended to stimulate a spurt of PC sales, but PC makers simply did not get enough attractive machines into the market, said IDC.

"Lost in the shuffle to promote a touch-centric PC, vendors have not forcefully stressed other features that promote a more secure, reliable and efficient user experience," said Jay Chou, senior research analyst at IDC.

This year could be better, he suggested, even in the face of talk about the death of the PC as tablets are on track to outsell full-featured machines for the first time in the United States.

"As Windows 8 matures, and other corresponding variables such as Ultrabook pricing continue to drop, hopefully the PC market can see a reset in both messaging and demand in 2013," said Chou.

PC makers sold 89.8 million units worldwide in the fourth quarter of last year, down 6.4 percent from the same quarter of 2011. That was slightly worse than expected by most, and the worst performance for more than five years, when the global economy shuddered to a halt and ushered in the worst recession since World War II.

For all of 2012, 352 million PCs were sold, down 3.2 percent from 2011. That was the first annual decline since 2001, according to IDC, in the wake of the tech stock crash and the September 11 attacks.

IDC is forecasting a meager 2.8 percent growth in PC sales for 2013.

"There's a lack of compelling reasons to upgrade," said Ashok Kumar, an analyst At Maxim Group, who said people are now waiting up to 10 years to replace computers rather than five in the past.

"Increases in performance have been smaller and there are fewer new applications that require more computing horsepower," he said. "In developing markets, the first purchase is not a PC, it's a smartphone, especially in markets where literacy levels are low."

NO MIRACLES AT CES

The numbers are bad news for Microsoft, which still provides the underlying software for nine out of 10 PCs but is suffering as Apple's iPad and other tablets eat away at the cheap end of the PC market.

Touch-friendly Windows 8 and Microsoft's own Surface tablet were designed to counter that shift, but the radical new-look software has not gripped consumers' imaginations.

"Windows 8 wasn't going to be as big a catalyst," said Shaw Wu, analyst at Sterne Agee. "It's so different, it's almost uncomfortably different from past Windows, and there's a risk that Windows 8 ends up like Vista."

Windows Vista, released worldwide in 2007, was Microsoft's least popular operating system with users in recent years.

Microsoft pulled out of the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this year, vacating its usual sprawling display area, but PC makers such as Asustek, LG Electronics and Samsung Electronics filled the gap with a dizzying array of big screen computers, lightweight laptops, tablets and combinations of those, all running Windows 8.

Many of the new models attracted jostling crowds on the show floor, like Panasonic Corp's 20-inch ultra-high-definition tablet and Razer's dedicated Edge tablet for PC gamers.

But none was hailed a show-stopper that might single-handedly turn around the fortunes of Windows.

"No single device will spur sales, it will take time for consumers to learn that Windows 8 even exists. CES will do little to change that," said Sarah Rotman Epps, an analyst for tech research firm Forrester. "Windows 8 is going to be a slow ramp, regardless of hardware quality."

Microsoft says it feels good about the progress of Windows 8, as sales hit 60 million this week after 10 weeks on the market. That is in line with Windows 7 three years ago, and well ahead of Vista, which took 100 days to reach 40 million sales.

Tami Reller, chief financial officer of Microsoft's Windows unit, said sales of Windows 8 PCs may have been held back by shortages of the most popular touch-screen machines.

"The level of demand I think surprised a lot of people. And frankly, the supply was too short," said Reller at an analyst presentation at CES this week.

Microsoft is looking to juice that demand further this month with its new Surface with Windows 8 Pro, a tablet running an Intel processor that is fully compatible with Office and traditional PC programs, unlike the first Surface it launched last year based on an ARM Holdings-designed chip.

Despite that bullishness, analysts have been edging down their earnings expectations for Microsoft lately.

"Win 8 is disappointing, the PC market will remain weak for awhile and margins are likely capped," said Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Holt on Thursday, as he downgraded the stock to 'equal-weight' from 'overweight'.

Investors are also nonplussed, driving Microsoft's shares down neraly 20 percent since last March, even as the Standard & Poor's 500 has marched upward to a five-year high this week. The shares are down 6 percent since the launch of Windows 8 on October 26.

(Additional reporting by Poornima Gupta, Miyoung Kim, Timothy Kelly, Sinead Carew and Noel Randewich in Las Vegas, and Alistair Barr and Alexei Oreskovic in San Francisco.; Editing by Gary Hill and Steve Orlofsky)

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Microsoft Corp CEO Steve Ballmer displays a Nokia Lumia 920 featuring Windows Phone 8 during an event in San Francisco, California October 29, 2012.

HELSINKI | Thu Jan 10, 2013 3:15pm EST

HELSINKI (Reuters) - Nokia said strong sales of Lumia smartphones helped its mobile phone business achieve underlying profitability in the fourth quarter, raising hopes the struggling handset maker may be past the worst.

The Finnish company, which has been losing market share to Samsung and Apple, said the better-than-expected result was also helped by cost cuts, a stronger-than-expected performance from its Nokia Siemens Networks unit and 50 million euros ($65.2 million) in patent royalties.

The surprise announcement lifted the shares to nine-month highs and eased pressure on Chief Executive Stephen Elop, who has been trying to prove his February 2011 decision to switch to Microsoft Windows software was the right one.

Elop was seen to be running out of time after saying that the transition would take two years. Success of the high-end Lumia smartphones has been considered crucial for the company's survival, and investors had said Elop would need to quit or change strategy if sales did not pick up by early 2013.

"We're very pleased with the Lumia response," Elop told analysts, although he added that sales of the latest 920 models, which use the new Windows Phone 8 software, had been constrained by a shortage of supplies.

Nokia estimated fourth-quarter operating margin in its mobile phone business was between break-even to 2 percent. It previously forecast the margin to be around minus 6 percent.

Official results, including more details on its profit and cash position, are due on January 24.

Fourth-quarter net sales in devices and services were about 3.9 billion euros ($5.09 billion), Nokia said. It sold a total of 86.3 million devices. Smartphones accounted for 6.6 million units, of which 4.4 million were the Windows-based Lumia handsets.

Nokia shares rose 10.8 percent to 3.32 euros as some investors cheered the rare positive announcement from Nokia and traders scrambled to cover their short positions.

Nokia had 17 percent of shares out on loan, according to Markit data, making it one of the most "shorted" stocks in Europe.

STILL NEED EVIDENCE

The company said that conditions remained tough despite the stronger-than-expected fourth quarter, and forecast its margin to be around minus 2 percent in the first quarter of this year.

"We continue to operate in a competitive environment with limited visibility," Elop said.

Some analysts were skeptical about the success of the Lumia strategy. Nokia would not say how many of the Lumias it sold were the newest models rather than the heavily discounted ones launched earlier.

Many also noted Lumias sold in the fourth quarter still make up a small portion of global smartphone sales in the same period, estimated at over 200 million.

"4.4 million Lumias sold is not yet a promise of a turnaround," said Inderes analyst Mikael Rautanen, who had just downgraded the shares to "sell" on Tuesday.

Bernstein analyst Pierre Ferragu said he was still negative about the shares, rating them "underperform".

"Last year, in order to sustain Lumia volumes, Nokia had to cut prices very rapidly, driving gross margins close to zero. We believe this will repeat this year," he said.

Redeye analyst Greger Johansson said it was too early to call it a turnaround.

"They will have to prove a lot more until you can say that," he said. "I'm not still convinced that they are going to manage to succeed with those new smartphones. They have to sell a lot more in volumes until you can say that."

($1 = 0.7667 euros)

(Additional reporting by Terhi Kinnunen and Sudip Kar-Gupta; Editing by David Goodman and Sophie Walker)

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Wed Dec 26, 2012 5:08pm EST

n">(Reuters) - The 2012 holiday season may have been the worst for retailers since the 2008 financial crisis, with sales growth far below expectations, forcing many to offer massive post-Christmas discounts in hopes of shedding excess inventory.

While chains like Wal-Mart Stores Inc and Gap Inc are thought to have done well, analysts expect much less from the likes of book seller Barnes & Noble Inc and department store chain J. C. Penney Co Inc.

Shares of retailers dropped sharply on Wednesday, helping drag broader indexes lower, as investors realized they were likely to be disappointed when companies start to report results in a few weeks' time.

"The broad brush was Christmas wasn't all that merry for retailers, and you have to ask what those margins look like if the top line didn't meet their expectations," said Kim Forrest, senior equity research analyst at Fort Pitt Capital Group.

Growth was always expected to slow this season, though an improving employment picture and rising home values had helped mitigate the worst fears. But then Superstorm Sandy hit the East Coast in late October, mild weather blunted sales of winter clothing and rising concern about the "fiscal cliff" became more of a reality, dragging down already-pessimistic forecasts.

The latest sign of trouble came from MasterCard Advisors Spending Pulse, which reported holiday-related sales rose 0.7 percent from October 28 through December 24, compared with a 2 percent increase last year.

The preliminary estimate from SpendingPulse was in line with other estimates showing weak growth during the holiday season, when retailers can book about 30 percent of annual sales - and in many cases, half of their profit.

"It has been a very uneven industry performance, probably at least for the last year, and that certainly continued into the holiday season," said Michael Niemira, chief economist at the International Council of Shopping Centers, in an interview with Reuters Insider.

The latest holiday season could end up the weakest since 2008, during the last recession, when sales actually declined. The National Retail Federation had previously predicted 4.1 percent sales growth this year, versus a 5.6 percent increase a year earlier.

Markets reacted sharply to the gloomy outlook.

The S&P retail index closed down 1.7 percent, and 14 of the top 20 decliners in the broader S&P 500 were retailers or consumer brands.

INVENTORY CRUSH

To be sure, the actual percentage change in holiday sales can differ substantially, depending on which group is calculating the figure. SpendingPulse and the National Retail Federation, for example, look at different categories, which can cause some variation in their forecasts.

Regardless of how bad the figure is, one concern for retailers is that soft sales will mean an excess of inventory that will force some to slash prices.

The day after Christmas, retailers were using deep discounts to lure shoppers. Among other brands, Barnes & Noble offered 50 percent discounts in stores via email promotions on Wednesday, while Ann Inc had half-off at its Loft stores, and Macy's Inc's Bloomingdale's promoted discounts of up to 75 percent in some cases.

At a Target store in New York City's Harlem neighborhood, most shoppers seemed to be spending more on groceries, toys and small gifts than on gadgets or clothes.

Despite discounts of 50 percent, there were few takers for Jason Wu glass ornaments, Oscar de la Renta canvas totes and other designer goods launched under the mass merchant's tie-up with upscale chain Neiman Marcus.

Even in a good year, retailers would have offered discounts to lure customers, but some suggest a weak year has now forced their hands.

"Retailers are no longer chasing sales, they are chasing inventory management. That means the discounts that they would have liked to be at 50-60 (percent) off have climbed to 75 to even 80 (percent) off," said Marshal Cohen, chief industry analyst at The NPD Group.

This week's cold, snowy weather on the heels of a warm start to December could spur people to use the gift cards they received or their remaining discretionary income to buy everything from jackets to snow blowers, said Evan Gold, senior vice president of client services at Planalytics, which tracks weather for businesses including retailers.

In December, he said, "people are out spending anyway, weather can trigger what you purchase, not if you purchase, but what you purchase."

SANDY AND CLIFF

A variety of factors were thought to be at fault for the weak season, starting with Superstorm Sandy, which depressed sales in the U.S. Northeast in late October and early November.

Sales recovered in the second part of November, with early hours and promotions helping drive traffic during the "Black Friday" weekend after Thanksgiving, analysts said.

But there was a deep lull in early December as a winter storm in parts of the United States may have limited sales, said Michael McNamara, vice president of research and analysis at MasterCard SpendingPulse.

On top of that, there were fears that taxes will rise in the new year if Washington cannot negotiate a solution to the end-of-year "fiscal cliff" dilemma.

A recent Ipsos poll for Reuters found that only 17 percent of shoppers were spending less due to cliff fears, though analysts said the damage was still done.

"The government usually does not have a role in holidays but this year they did. They got right in the midst of it, the timing couldn't have been any worse," NPD's Cohen said.

BRIGHT SPOTS

One bright spot has been online sales, which continue to grow at a faster pace.

On Christmas Day, online sales jumped 22.4 percent, outpacing the 16.4 percent increase in 2011, according to IBM Digital Analytics Benchmark, which tracks more than 1 million e-commerce transactions a day from 500 U.S. retailers.

Whether online or off, some of the winning retailers were expected to be Wal-Mart, which attracted shoppers with early deals on the night of Thanksgiving and kept its focus on value, and apparel chains like the Gap, whose bright sweaters were successful, according to analysts.

Toys sold well, and hot items that were harder to find later in the season included certain Mattel Inc Barbie dolls and LeapFrog Enterprises Inc's LeapPad2 tablet computer, according to B. Riley Caris analyst Linda Bolton Weiser.

For retailers that have struggled, analysts said all hope was not lost. Many have fiscal quarters that end in January, so they still have time to benefit from a post-Christmas rebound. Because Christmas fell on a Tuesday, some said they could even see a boost this week from people who have extra time off.

"There's still a little bit more time to go until the holiday season is officially over," Morningstar analyst Peter Wahlstrom said.

Wal-Mart shares ended down 0.8 percent at $67.99 on Wednesday, while Macy's shares were down 1.1 percent at $37.11, Barnes & Noble shares were down 3.5 percent at $14.49, Amazon.com Inc shares ended 3.9 percent lower at $248.63, and Ann Inc shares lost 5.1 percent to close at $32.06.

(Reporting by Brad Dorfman, Nivedita Bhattacharjee and Jessica Wohl in Chicago; additional reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak and Dhanya Skariachan in New York; writing by Ben Berkowitz; editing by Jeffrey Benkoe and Matthew Lewis)

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Russian President Vladimir Putin looks on during a joint news conference with European Council President Herman Van Rompuy and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso (unseen) following a European Union-Russia summit in Brussels December 21, 2012.

MOSCOW | Sun Dec 23, 2012 7:05pm EST

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Arms sales will be on the agenda when Russian President Vladimir Putin visits India on Monday to court a country that has traditionally been a top client.

Putin's trip, his first to India since he started a new Kremlin six-year term in May, is a chance to reaffirm Russia's interest in India, long a regional ally and now a partner in the BRICS group of emerging market nations.

In an article for publication in the Indian newspaper The Hindu on Monday, Putin stressed that "deepening friendship and cooperation with India is among the top priorities of our foreign policy".

"India and Russia show an example of responsible leadership and collective actions in the international arena," he wrote, a veiled swipe at the West and in particular the United States, whom Putin accuses of seeking to impose its will on the world.

Russian defense industry sources said the visit could produce deals on the sale of fighter jets and aircraft engines worth more than $7.5 billion. One said that could include the sale of 42 Sukhoi Su-30MKI fighters and a deal on the long-term supply of 970 warplane engines.

The Kremlin said it expected the signing of "a number of large contracts in the area of military-technical cooperation", a term referring to weapons sales, licensing and servicing.

However, warm ties dating back to the Soviet era have been complicated by recent Russian efforts to improve relations with Pakistan, one of Moscow's proxy enemies during the Soviet Union's war of occupation in Afghanistan in the 1980s.

Relations between the world's second biggest arms exporter Russia and India, its largest buyer last year, have also run into sporadic problems including delays in the delivery of a reconditioned Soviet-built aircraft carrier, now expected late in 2013.

MILITARY MIGHT

India plans to spend about $100 billion over the next 10 years to upgrade its largely Soviet-era military equipment, as Asia's third largest economy looks to match its economic might with military power and warily eyes assertive Asian rival China.

Moscow has warm political ties with China, another ally in opposing U.S. clout and a key consumer of the oil and gas that drives Russia's economy, but is thought to also be wary of a faster-growing neighbor with nearly 10 times its population.

India relies on Russia for 60 percent of its arms purchases, but has diversified its suppliers in recent years.

Putin announced record arms sales this year but wants to minimize the effect of the loss of deals with Libya and of uncertainty about the future of longtime client Syria on Russia's defense industry, an important source of political support for him.

Putin, whose country took up the presidency of the G20 this month, also hopes for strong growth in overall trade with India.

In his article, he said the volume of bilateral trade with India was expected to reach a record $10 billion this year, after declining due to the global financial crisis, and set a target of doubling that to $20 billion by 2015.

For Putin, who will meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, President Pranab Mukherjee and senior lawmakers, India is the most distant destination since rumors of a back problem emerged after he was seen limping in September.

He had originally been expected to travel to India last month but the Kremlin has dismissed suggestions he has serious health problems, and Putin implied last week that such talk was politically motivated.

(Writing by Steve Gutterman; Editing by Andrew Osborn)

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The Apple logo hangs in a glass enclosure above the 5th Ave Apple Store in New York, September 20, 2012. Apple's iPhone 5 goes on sale tomorrow.

WASHINGTON | Thu Dec 20, 2012 6:04pm EST

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Tech giant Apple Inc, battling Samsung Electronics Co over patents in several countries, argued on Thursday that a U.S. appeals court should reconsider its decision to overturn a pretrial sales ban on Samsung for infringement.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in October overturned a pretrial sales ban ordered by a lower court in California. The order was to stop sales of Samsung's Galaxy Nexus smartphone.

Apple argued that this was inappropriate and asked for an "en banc review," which means that a larger panel of judges would reconsider the decision made by the three-judge panel in October.

The fight is over a single patent - one that allows the smartphone to search multiple data storage locations at once. For example, the smartphone could search the device's memory as well as the Internet with a single query.

Apple argued that the sales ban should be reinstated because it uses the patent in question and competes with Samsung. The three-judge panel had said that consumers did not buy Samsung phones primarily because of the patent, and thus, a sales ban was inappropriate.

It has become increasingly difficult for companies to win sales bans related to patent infringement in recent years. Such sales injunctions have been a key for companies trying to increase their leverage in courtroom patent fights.

Apple, in a different patent lawsuit, scored a sweeping legal victory over Samsung in August when a U.S. jury found Samsung had copied critical features of the hugely popular iPhone and iPad and awarded Apple $1.05 billion in damages.

The Nexus phone was not included in that trial, but is part of a tandem case Apple filed against Samsung earlier this year.

The case in the Federal Circuit is Apple Inc vs. Samsung Electronics Co Ltd et al., 12-1507.

Earlier this week, U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh rejected Apple's request for a permanent sales ban against 26 mostly older Samsung phones, though any injunction could potentially have been extended to Samsung's newer Galaxy products. Koh cited the Federal Circuit's Nexus ruling as binding legal precedent in her order.

In a separate court filing on Thursday, Apple said it intended to appeal Koh's ruling.

(Reporting by Diane Bartz; Editing by Leslie Gevirtz)

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Two men chat in front of a polka dot covered Sotheby's signage, part of an installation by Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, at Sotheby's newly opened gallery in Hong Kong May 18, 2012.

HONG KONG | Tue Oct 9, 2012 12:12pm EDT

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Sotheby's sold HK$2 billion ($258 million) worth of Asian and Chinese artwork and luxury goods in its autumn sales in Hong Kong on Tuesday, a 37 percent decline from the same period last year as the market consolidates on a weaker China economy.

The tally was also some 18 percent less than the $316 million Sotheby's sold in its Hong Kong spring sales.

The modest showing comes as two major Chinese auction houses muscle into the Hong Kong market for the first time, posing a fresh competitive threat for Sotheby's and rival Christie's whose revenues in Hong Kong have soared on the Chinese art boom in recent years, but which may now be difficult to sustain.

Anchoring the five-day auction series was again Chinese imperial ceramics with a pair of yellow ground famille-rose double-gourd Qianlong vases fetching HK$107 million ($13.7 million) while a pair of turquoise-glazed "pomegranate" vases from the Qianlong period that sold for HK$23 million from the prominent J.M. Hu collection of Qing monochrome wares.

Faring less well, however, were pieces of lesser quality and minor flaws amid more discriminating bidding, with buyers indifferent to some porcelain pieces from even great old European collections such as the Meiyintang.

"It's still quite strong, but more selective," said John Berwald, a London dealer in the room. "It's not so crazy and I think it's better like this. It has just lost some of its exuberance," added Berwald who bid for several Qing wares.

China last year accounted for nearly 44 percent of global auction revenue, according to the French government's Conseil des Ventes art market report, and is a vital driver for the global art market now, making Sotheby's results a stress test of sorts with broader art sector repercussions.

But the market has been dogged by a proliferation of issues including a large-scale Chinese customs probe into tax evasion on art imports that has cooled recent sentiment, while high art taxes, complex regulations, widespread fakes and market manipulation remain tangible risks.

China's annual economic growth is expected to slow for a seventh straight quarter to the weakest level since the global financial crisis, with luxury demand having waned substantially.

"To cool down a bit is a good thing," said Zheng Hong, a mainland Chinese buyer at the ceramics sale. "Last year, it was too high ... China's economy is weakening, property and other sectors are not booming as before, so this is a natural result."

In Sotheby's contemporary Asian art sales, demand was again patchy, even for blue chip artists with 27 percent of lots going unsold, though master works like a 1992 painting by Liu Wei, "Revolutionary Family Series - Invitation to Dinner," made an artist record of $2.24 million, while Indonesian modern artist Lee Man Fong's "Fortune and Longevity" also fetched a record $4.4 million after competitive bidding.

Sotheby's fine Chinese paintings sale was strong with 97 percent of works sold by lot, including auction favourite, Chinese ink master Zhang Daqian's "Swiss Peaks; calligraphy in Xingshu", and Fu Baoshi's "Lady at the Pavilion" that each sold for HK$23 million.

New Hong Kong auction debutante China Guardian, now ranked among the world's top four auction firms is shaking up the landscape in older Chinese paintings, having sold some of the most expensive ink brush paintings in the world in recent years including Qi Baishi's "Eagle Standing on Pine, 1946" that fetched 425 million yuan ($57.2 million) in a Beijing sale.

At Guardian's debut Hong Kong auction on Sunday, a landscape series by Chinese ink painting master Qi Baishi, "Album of Mountains and Rivers, 1922" sold for HK$46 million, helping the Chinese house notch up an eye-catching HK$455 million sales total, nearly a quarter that of Sotheby's overall autumn tally.

Sotheby's, however, recently forged a breakthrough partnership with a Chinese art firm to enter the mainland Chinese market in Beijing for the first time, which could lead to fully fledged sales early next year and let them take on Guardian in their home base.

Chinese authorities have long refused to grant licenses to Sotheby's and Christie's for the lucrative mainland market, with Beijing topping even New York and London for art and collectibles revenues last year with sales of 6.4 billion euros ($8.30 billion) according to the Conseil des Ventes French government annual art market report.

(Reporting by James Pomfret, editing by Paul Casciato)

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A customer looks at products on sale at a supermarket in central Beijing June 12, 2012.

BEIJING | Sun Oct 7, 2012 9:00am EDT

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's retail sales growth slowed during the Golden Week holiday, local media said on Sunday, providing a snapshot of increasingly important sources of demand in the world's second-largest economy.

Overall retail sales revenue grew 15 percent to hit 800.6 billion yuan ($127.4 billion) during the National Day holiday, which coincided with the Mid-Autumn Festival to provide a rare eight-day break, China's state television China Central Television said.

That marked a cooldown from the 17.5 percent growth last year during a seven-day holiday. No further details were given,

The Golden Week holiday, when millions of people take time out to travel and spend more than usual, brings huge discounts and promotions as retailers battle for market share.

Economists are watching China's 1.3 billion consumers closely during the National Day Golden week holiday, running from Sept 30 to Oct 7, amid escalating worries about China's hard landing. ($1 = 6.2849 Chinese yuan)

(Reporting by Judy Hua and Koh Gui Qing; editing by Ron Askew)

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An Apple IPhone 4s and Samsung Galaxy S are seen in this illustration photo in Berlin August 27, 2012.

SAN FRANCISCO | Fri Sep 28, 2012 1:57pm EDT

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A U.S. appeals court ruled on Friday that a lower court should reconsider a sales ban against Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1 won by Apple in a patent dispute with the South Korean electronics maker.

The injunction was put in place ahead of a month-long trial that pitted iPhone maker Apple Inc against Samsung Electronics Co Ltd in a closely watched legal battle that ended with a resounding victory for Apple last month on many of its patent violation claims.

However, the jury found that Samsung had not violated the patent that was the basis for the tablet injunction and Samsung argued the sales ban should be lifted. U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh said she could not act because Samsung had already appealed.

In its ruling on Friday, the Federal U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Washington said Koh could now consider the issue.

The decision comes just a month before the South Korean corporation is expected to unveil the second generation of one of its most successful devices, the stylus-equipped Note.

The Galaxy 10.1 is an older model, but the ban still hurts Samsung in the run-up to the pivotal holiday shopping season.

The world's top two smartphone makers are locked in patent disputes in 10 countries as they vie to dominate the lucrative market, which is growing rapidly.

A U.S. jury found during the just-concluded trial that Samsung had copied critical features of the iPhone and iPad and awarded Apple $1.05 billion in damages.

(Reporting By Dan Levine; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn. Editing by Andre Grenon)

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A ''for sale'' sign is seen outside a home in New York June 19, 2012.

WASHINGTON | Thu Sep 27, 2012 10:09am EDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Contracts to buy previously owned U.S. homes slipped in August due to a shortage of lower priced inventory in most of the country, an industry group said on Thursday.

The National Association of Realtors said its Pending Home Sales Index, based on contracts signed in August, fell 2.6 percent to 99.2, but was 10.7 percent higher than last year.

July's reading was revised up to 101.9, the highest level since April 2010, when buyers were racing to use the home-buyer tax credit before the deadline, the group said.

"The performance in month-to-month contract signings has been uneven with ongoing shortages of lower priced inventory in much of the country," the association's chief economist, Lawrence Yun, said in a statement.

(Reporting by Rachelle Younglai; Editing by Neil Stempleman)

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1 of 2. Research in Motion (RIM) BlackBerry smartphone handsets are pictured in this illustration picture taken in Lavigny, Switzerland in this July 21, 2012 file photo.

TORONTO | Thu Sep 27, 2012 9:17pm EDT

TORONTO (Reuters) - Research In Motion Ltd reported a narrower-than-expected loss on Thursday and the struggling BlackBerry maker bolstered its cash reserves, sparking optimism ahead of the launch of its make-or-break line of next-generation smartphones.

Shares of RIM surged 20 percent in after-hours trade on indications the company will have plenty of cash to ramp up production of its new BlackBerry 10 devices and mount a robust marketing campaign for the revamped line, due in early 2013.

It was the biggest jump for the stock since a 50 percent surge in December 2003, underlining the importance of the BB10 launch. The company, which has fallen far behind its rivals in a smartphone market it once dominated, has staked its future on the BB10 and its completely redesigned operating system.

RIM's second fiscal quarter brought shareholders additional glimmers of hope, a break from a succession of dreadful quarterly reports. The company not only generated more revenue than Wall Street had forecast but it topped expectations on the number of devices shipped in the period, which ended on September 1.

"It's very impressive," said Jefferies & Co analyst Peter Misek. "I didn't expect they could execute on the business given the models they have in the market, but they obviously did really well in emerging markets."

RIM was also able to bolster its cash pile by collecting on cash owed to the company, drawing down inventories and cutting costs.

ONE-TIME PIONEER

A one-time smartphone pioneer, RIM has failed to keep pace with rivals such as Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics Co, and its stock price has tumbled about 70 percent over the past year while its market share shriveled.

But the latest quarter showed that RIM is still able to lure buyers for its lower-end smartphones in the more price-conscious emerging markets. And that has helped make up for ground the BlackBerry has lost to cutting-edge devices such as Apple's iPhone and Samsung's Galaxy S III in North America and Europe.

"RIM and its products, however obsolescent, are still relevant in the parts of the planet where most people live," said CCS Insight analyst John Jackson. "The bad news is that these results have little or no bearing on what remains true, and that is, RIM still needs to execute on BB10."

In an attempt to create a buzz, Chief Executive Thorsten Heins gave a preview of the new smartphone and its features to app developers at an event on Tuesday in San Jose, California.

Analysts said RIM struck the right chords at the event but cautioned that it is hard to evaluate how well the BB10 devices will work in real world conditions until they are on the market.

"We are now just a few months away from our launch and our teams are working night and day to meet the expectations we have of ourselves," said Heins on a conference call after the results were released on Thursday.

Heins said RIM executives have met with dozens of carriers in more than 16 countries in the last few weeks and the feedback on the new devices so far has been overwhelmingly positive.

QUARTERLY RESULTS

Shipments of BlackBerry smartphones were 7.4 million in the quarter, easily outpacing Wall Street's expectation of about 6.9 million.

The Waterloo, Ontario-based company reported a net loss of $235 million, or 45 cents a share, in its fiscal second quarter. That compared with a profit of $329 million, or 63 cents, in the same period a year earlier.

Excluding one-time restructuring-related items, the loss came in at $142 million, or 27 cents a share, in the quarter just ended.

Revenue rose to $2.9 billion, a gain of 2 percent from the fiscal first quarter, but the latest result was down about 30 percent from the same period a year earlier.

Analysts, on average, had expected RIM to report a loss of 46 cents a share, on revenues of $2.5 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

"You still have revenue declining 31 percent on a year-over-year basis but it's certainly not the train wreck that a lot of people feared," said BGC Partners analyst Colin Gillis. "They live to fight another day."

CASH PILE

RIM also increased its cash to about $2.3 billion from $2.2 billion in the fiscal first quarter.

"In the last two quarters RIM has done a really good job on collecting on receivables," said Sterne Agee analyst Shaw Wu, but he cautioned that this was not sustainable over the long run and RIM would have to return to a profitable business model for it to thrive once again.

While RIM has warned that it faces another operating loss in its fiscal third quarter, it expects its cash position to remain stable unless it is hit by restructuring charges.

Wu believes that the company can achieve this by continuing to draw down on its receivables, which stood just shy of $2.2 billion as of Sept 1.

RIM's chief financial officer said the company had entered into a new secured credit facility of $500 million which expires in September 2013, and in the first half RIM realized some $350 million of the up to $1 billion in cost savings it hopes to achieve in fiscal 2013, which ends on March 2 of next year.

The company, which earlier this year said it would cut about 5,000 jobs to save money, said it has already laid off roughly 2,500 workers.

"It's still bad, but it's a much smaller disaster than expected," said Wu. "These stocks all trade on expectations. Expectations were really low, and they were able to beat that."

RIM's U.S.-listed shares surged 20 percent to $8.55 in trade after the closing bell on Thursday.

(Additional reporting by Alastair Sharp, Allison Martell and Cameron French; Editing by Frank McGurty and Edmund Klamann)

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TAIPEI Aug 9 (Reuters) - Taiwan's Compal Electronics Inc , the world's No.2 contract laptop PC maker, said on Thursday that July consolidated sales fell 3.3 percent to T$56.08 billion ($1.87 billion) from a year earlier.

It did not give further details. (Reporting by Clare Jim; Editing by Ed Lane)

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TOKYO | Thu Aug 2, 2012 2:11am EDT

TOKYO Aug 2 (Reuters) - Sony cut its forecast for TV sales on Thursday, saying it now expects to sell 15.5 million televisions in the business year to next March compared with its forecast in May of 17.5 million.

In the April-June quarter it sold 3.6 million TVs compared with 4.9 million in the same period last year.

Sony forecast sales of its PlayStation games console this business year would reach 16 million, unchanged from its May forecast, but combined sales of its handheld PSP an PS Vita devices would be 12 million, down form its May forecast of 16 million.

The company said it still expects an average dollar-yen rate for the business term of 80 yen, the same as its assumption in May. But it predicts a yen-euro rate of 100 yen compared with its assumption of 105 yen three months ago.

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