Costs stemming from the acquisition of UK chocolate business Cadbury left foods giant Kraft with a 24% drop in fourth quarter profits today.

A gloomy consumer confidence survey and bad news from Asian markets served to pull the FTSE 100 Index downwards today.

London’s blue-chip share index failed to hold on to gains today as losses on Wall Street wiped out early progress.

Colgate-Palmolive is to invest €4.6m in its Dublin operation, it was announced today.

AS Irish Open sponsors “3”continue their search for a suitable date for the Irish Open in 2010 with their preference currently heading towards the August weekend, they may take some consolation from the unfortunate situation in which another big spending European Tour sponsor, Volvo, find themselves.

A pair of Tesco electric toothbrushes came bottom of a performance test, Which? said today.

Wall Street today bounced back from its sharp decline a day earlier, boosted by takeover activity ahead of second-quarter earnings reports.

Wall Street had a surge of optimism today, sending stocks higher after investors interpreted a Federal Reserve report on the economy as a sign that the Fed’s year-long string of interest rate hikes may be nearing an end.

Stocks slumped today as investors sifted through mixed economic data and rumours about big merger deals, including a report that consumer products giant Johnson & Johnson is in talks to purchase a leading medical device maker.

Toothpaste maker Colgate-Palmolive said today it is cutting 4,400 jobs and closing a third of its 78 factories around the world.

Bargain hunters kept Wall Street mixed today, allowing blue chips to rise despite a new record high for oil prices. But fresh warnings from semiconductor firms sent the tech sector falling, and the three major indexes ended the week substantially lower.

A grim combination of higher oil prices and lowered outlooks from companies including Colgate-Palmolive, Unilever and The New York Times Co sent stocks sliding In New York today.

A NEW dental care plan from the VHI is to be boycotted by a group of 61 dentists opposed to fluoridation.

STOCK markets have had a flying start to the year.

Colgate-Palmolive, the world's leading toothpaste manufacturer, has said it is buying Swiss private oral care copany Gaba Holding for a price of between $630 (€508.64m) and $830m (€607.19m), depending on the number of shares acquired.

The European Commission today approved a joint venture between Swiss food giant Nestle and Colgate-Palmolive to develop and market oral-care gums and lozenges in Britain and Ireland.