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Morning Market Roundup: Greece Public Sector Cuts, Toyota Back on Track, Coke Looks to Grow

Morning Market Roundup: Greece Public Sector Cuts, Toyota Back on Track, Coke Looks to Grow

Here’s what’s important in the financial world this morning:

EU: Late Monday, and as reported earlier on The Blaze, Greece announced plans to lay off 15,000 public-sector workers by year’s end. The cuts will come from either getting rid of or cutting back on public-sector entities according to the Administrative Reform Minister Dimitris Reppas. In response to the news, Greece will stage a one-day strike against the new measures. Meanwhile, Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos and his country’s political leaders will continue their talks today over reforms demanded by Greece’s creditors.

Auto: Toyota reported its third quarter profit dropped 13.5 percent to ¥80.9 billion ($1.05 billion) but exceeded analyst forecasts as revenue increased 4.1 percent to ¥4.865 trillion. The company’s numbers had been affected by Japan’s earthquake, the Thai floods and a strong yen. Confident that it is back on track along with cost-cutting, Toyota increased its fiscal year 2012 profit forecast to YEN 200 billion from ¥180 billion.

Coca-Cola: Coke plans to double its net revenues to more than $200 billion by 2020, up from 2010′s $100 billion. Speaking at a Dubai sugar conference, Jacob Robbins, Coke’s managing director of the global sweeteners unit, said a positive longer-term macroeconomic outlook, demographic growth, along with a flourishing beverages industry, would contribute to the rising revenues.

“We’ve got significant room for growth,” Robbins siad and added that he sees 800 million new consumers entering the global beverage market in the next decade.

UBS: UBS reported its fourth quarter net profit came in below analyst expectations, tanking 76 percent to 393 million Swiss francs ($427.9 million). The company’s revenue dropped 16 percent to 5.97 billion francs. UBS announced a cautious 2012 outlook but said it will pay its first dividend since 2006 at $0.10 franc per share.

[Editor’s note: the above is a cross post that originally appeared on Wall St. Cheat Sheet.]

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