The Market Monitor Minding the Nation's Business

A 14-year-old company first known as the publisher of graphic novels and of author Bob Ong’s popular books beat highly regarded Anvil Publishing Inc. and several university-based presses to win the top prize at the 34th National Book Awards, which honors books published in 2014. 

By Riza Lozada  Telecommunications giant Globe Telecom Inc. sustained its growth momentum for the first nine months of this year, posting a 34-percent increase in profit to P14.1 billion on a 15-percent jump in revenues to P83.4 billion, compared with last year’s figure. 

Casino operator Bloomberry Resorts Corp. reported taking a hit from the recent devaluation of the yuan resulting in a P1.509-billion loss in the first nine months, compared with a year ago, but said at the same time that prospects for the company were getting better, particularly its local operations. 

By Luis Leoncio  The Philippines is being warned against hastily joining any of the trade agreements that are expected to be aggressively promoted by the United States and China during next week’s summit of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec). 

The Tax Management Association of the Philippines (TMAP), an organization of accountants and consultants of the country’s biggest corporations, is at loggerheads with Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima, one of its own, over the tax-cut measures pending in Congress.

Washington—The United States is taking action to make sure it militarily stays ahead of China, US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said in remarks at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

Stock investors are taking caution amid indications of a likely decision of the US Federal Reserve (the Fed) to raise interest rates amid a steadying US economy.

San Miguel Pure Foods Co. Inc. (SMPFC) booked a 7-percent surge in profit in the first nine months of the year, boosting expectations it would sustain growth momentum during the last quarter amid holiday spending. 

Welcome to the Philippines.

Globe Telecom’s aggressive play is paying dividends, as its nine-month financial performance has beaten that of erstwhile telephone monopoly Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) by a wide margin. PLDT’s legacy businesses as well as that of its wireless business have shown a frightening drop of 6 percent from P91.2 billion to P85.5 billion, and that alone was no comforting …