TORONTO (Reuters) - BlackBerry shares fell 4 percent on Wednesday after a Bernstein Research analyst cut his rating on the stock to "underperform" ahead of the company's quarterly earnings release next week. While Bernstein's Pierre Ferragu said he expected disappointing results from the smartphone maker, other analysts have bullish expectations, pointing to an even more volatile run for a generally volatile stock. ...

By Susan Kelly CHICAGO (Reuters) - Shares of U.S. hospital operators have been on a tear this year, on average posting triple the gains of the broader stock market, as investors tallied up the benefits of President Barack Obama's healthcare reform. While some on Wall Street have held back amid signs of trouble as U.S. states prepare to implement the reform law, long-term investors still see more reward than risk on the horizon for hospital stocks. They expect company earnings to strengthen as more Americans gain insurance coverage and hospitals lose less money treating the uninsured. ...

By Ayai Tomisawa TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's Nikkei will rise 51 percent in 2013 on expectations of higher company earnings, driven by a weaker yen after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe embarked on radical fiscal and monetary expansionary policies to spur growth, a Reuters poll showed, A gradual economic recovery in the United States, Japan's biggest export market, will also help reignite buying in Japanese stocks after a bout of selling in recent weeks pushed the benchmark index briefly into bear market territory. ...

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Employment in South Africa's non-agriculture sector edged up 0.1 percent in the first quarter of 2013 compared with the previous three months, although the key mining and manufacturing sectors shed jobs, Statistics South Africa said on Tuesday. On a year-on-year basis, the number of people with formal jobs rose 1 percent to 8.463 million during the quarter, the statistics agency said in a report. Gross earnings fell 3.9 percent to slightly more than 377 billion rand in the three months to March compared with the previous quarter but were up 8. ...

By Miyoung Kim SEOUL (Reuters) - Analysts fell under Samsung Electronics Co Ltd's marketing spell when they made what they now admit were hopelessly optimistic forecasts for its smartphone sales. Samsung's huge share of the high-end smartphone market also persuaded some analysts to downplay industry data pointing to a fast-saturating segment, a reality that is already eating into sales of Apple Inc's iPhone 5. Woori Investment & Securities, one of South Korea's largest securities firms, cut its outlook for Samsung's earnings and target share price on June 5. It was the first to adjust its ...

DAR ES SALAAM (Reuters) - Tanzania's current account deficit narrowed by 13.3 percent in the year to April, with stronger tourism, manufacturing and agricultural output and earnings cushioning a decline in gold exports, its central bank said on Friday. The current account deficit narrowed to $3.94 billion in the 12 months to April from $4.54 billion during the same period last year. The bank did not say what it was as a percentage of GDP. "With the exception of gold, all other non-traditional exports increased. Much of the increase was recorded in manufactured goods which amounted to $1. ...

LONDON (Reuters) - Britons' real net incomes fell to their lowest level in a decade in the year ending in March 2012, annual data from the country's labour ministry showed on Wednesday. Average net incomes including social benefits fell 3 percent during the 2011/12 tax year to their lowest level since 2001/02 on an inflation-adjusted basis. "Income fell as earnings and benefit income grew more slowly than the cost of living as measured by RPI (retail price inflation)," the Department for Work and Pensions said. ...

(Reuters) - Chemical maker DuPont said its operating profit would fall more than it expected in the first half of the year as a wet spring in North America and Europe hurt its agriculture business, sending its shares down 1.5 percent. Dupont is focusing on food and agricultural products to cut its dependence on a weakening market for paint pigments. The company expects its first-half operating earnings per share to be about 10 percent below last year, Chief Financial Officer Nicholas Fanandakis said in a statement on Thursday. The company had forecast a 7 to 9 percent fall in April. ...

LAGOS (Reuters) - The Nigerian unit of South Africa's Standard Bank said on Tuesday it expected its pretax profit for the third quarter to hit 4.38 billion naira, compared with 3.14 billion naira in the same period last year. The lender said gross earnings will be 21.52 billion naira in the three-months to September 2013, up 17 percent from 18.4 billion naira in the same period a year ago, it said in a filing with the Nigerian Stock Exchange. It gave no reason for the increase in earnings.

Christine Day, the CEO of the workout clothing giant Lululemon, announced Monday afternoon during a company earnings call that she's stepping down after a costly, offensive scandal in which her company failed to do what it does best: make workout pants that people feel comfortable in.

(Reuters) - Tiger Woods has become the world's best-paid athlete once again after reclaiming golf's number one ranking, according to business magazine Forbes. Woods had total earnings of $78 million over the past year - $65 million in endorsements and the remainder from appearance and prize money, Forbes said in its annual sporting survey. The American returned to the top of golf's rankings in March for the first time since October 2010. ...