Fiscal first quarter net income from continuing operations fell 5 percent to $591 million from $620 million in the year-ago quarter.

But earnings per share rose 4 percent to $1.06 following an aggressive share buyback during the period. Analysts on average had been expecting profit to come in at $1.05 according to Thomson Reuters.

Revenue rose 3 percent to $3.95 billion. “Despite short term softness in the overall ad markets, Viacom’s quarterly results benefited from strong affiliate fee revenue growth,” said Viacom Chief Executive Philippe Dauman in a statement.

Viacom spent $700 million buying back some 16.2 million shares during the quarter.

The company, which makes chips used in cellphones and other wireless devices, posted fiscal first-quarter earnings excluding items of 97 cents per share, up from 82 cents a share in the year-earlier period.

Net income was $1.395 billion, up from $1.17 billion a year ago. Revenue was $4.68 billion, a 40-percent increase from $3.35 billion a year ago.

Analysts had expected the company to report earnings excluding items of 90 cents a share on $4.58 billion in revenue, according to Thomson Reuters.

The company said it expects earnings for the current quarter, which ends March 12, to be between 91 and 97 cents a share. The current consensus was for 89 cents a share.

The IMF warned that if the West imposed financial sanctions on Iran, it would be tantamount to an oil blockade, and the shock to the market could be as bad as from Libya’s revolution last year.

Iran produces 5% of global oil output. Moreover, if Iran goes ahead with a threat to blockade oil exports via the Straits of Hormuz in the Gulf, the IMF said the shock could be even greater.

About a quarter of all oil produced globally, and some 40% of all oil exports – including those from Iraq, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia – are shipped through the Straits each year.

“A blockade of the Strait of Hormuz would constitute, and be perceived by markets to presage, sharply heightened global geopolitical tension involving a much larger and unprecedented disruption,” the Fund said in a regular note to the Group of 20 leading industrialized countries.

The ISM survey of US services covers industries ranging from utilities and retailing, to healthcare and finance.

It comes on the same day a survey showed numbers of new private sector jobs in the US surged in December.

The ADP National Employment Report’s December job tally rose by 325,000 – compared to 204,000 in November.

The figure, released on Thursday, was almost double the 178,000 estimated by economists.

It comes a day before an official government report is expected to show that the US economy added 150,000 public and private sector jobs last month.

Wayne Kaufman, chief market analyst at John Thomas Financial in New York, said the ADP report was “stunning”.

He said: “This is another data point that shows our economy is healing.

“It fits in well with improvements we’ve seen in consumer sentiment, and obviously that’s because there are more people getting paychecks, which is making everyone happier.”

The South Korean firm said it expects operating profits for the period to be $4.5bn, 73% higher than a year a earlier.

Samsung overtook Apple as the world’s biggest-selling smartphone maker in the second half of last year. The firms have been locked in a number of patent battles in recent months.

Analysts said Samsung’s profits were likely to grow again this year.

“Samsung is likely to continue record-breaking earnings this year as earnings from flat screens and memory chips will improve, making up for any potential slowdown in handset growth rates,” said Lee Seung-woo at Shinyoung Securities.

“I’d expect profits to grow by another 5tn won this year.” The company is due to publish its official results for the fourth quarter of 2011 later this month.

Sinopec will get a one-third stake in five new shale projects, with the firms expecting to drill 125 wells this year.

China has been buying energy sources to feed its fast-growing economy, and wants to improve its ability to extract domestic shale deposits.

China has some of the biggest shale deposits in the world. Analysts said that the recent increase in demand for shale oil and gas meant that many companies were now looking to tie-ups to help them expand quickly.

Sinopec, meanwhile, is not alone in trying to access US shale deposits, and France’s Total announced a separate $2.3bn shale deal with Chesapeake Energy and EnerVest.

“It looks like the preferred transaction structure for a lot of these players, whether they are European or Asian, who are behind the curve on this technology,” said Mark Hanson of Morningstar.

Under the terms of the deal with Devon, Sinopec will pay $900m in cash, with the remainder of the investment being paid by the end of 2014.

The deal could be worth as much as $2.5bn when all the payments are made.

“This arrangement improves Devon’s capital efficiency by recovering our land and drilling costs to date and by significantly reducing our future capital commitments,” John Richels, Devon’s president and chief executive, said in a statement.

The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index rose almost 10 points to 64.5 in December, up from a revised 55.2 in November.

The result beat market expectations, sparking a short-lived market rally in early Tuesday trading on Wall Street.

Analyst reaction was cautiously positive. “It suggests there is some real improvement in the economy,” said Mark Vitner, senior economist at Wells Fargo Securities. “Consumer confidence really boils down to how people feel about the labour market.”

Although separate figures released this month by the US Commerce Department showed that consumer spending rose by only 0.1% in November, the rise in consumer confidence matches a fall in the jobless rate for the same period.

US unemployment fell to its lowest level for two-and-a-half years in November according to the Department of Labor.

“Looking ahead, consumers are more optimistic that business conditions, employment prospects, and their financial situations will continue to get better,” said Lynn Franco, director of the Conference Board.

In the eight weeks to Christmas Day, sales at Kmart fell 4.4% and by 6% at Sears. The company, which has 2,200 outlets in the US, says the closures should raise up to $170m. It added that it expected fourth-quarter earnings to be less than half of last year’s amount.

Retail analyst Howard Davidowitz told the that the news came as no surprise: “Sears took their cash flow and used it to buy back shares instead of enhancing their offer to the customer. This has proven to be a disastrous investment that was made even though the company has been losing market share every single quarter for the past four years.”

Both Sears and Kmart have experienced a decline in demand for consumer electronics, amid fears of another US recession.

Kmart has also reported a decline in clothing sales over the same period.

Chief executive Lou D’Ambrosio said: “Given our performance and the difficult economic environment, especially for big-ticket items, we intend to implement a series of actions to reduce ongoing expenses, adjust our asset base, and accelerate the transformation of our business model.”

That resulted in a modest 1.9 percent increase in sales for the three days that started with what’s known as Black Friday. Customer counts actually dropped almost 2 percent, compared with Friday, Saturday and Sunday a year ago.

ShopperTrak, which didn’t provide sales figures for every day, gathers data from 25,000 stores nationwide.

It said Saturday that on the day after Thanksgiving, sales rose 6.6 percent to $11.4 billion, and customer counts climbed 5.1 percent that day compared with a year ago. The buying spree was fueled by midnight openings following the turkey feast, with some merchants like Toys R Us opening even earlier.

“Retailers offered door-busters and other pre-holiday specials earlier in the Thanksgiving week to ensure they had the best opportunity to capture value-conscious shoppers,” ShopperTrak founder Bill Martin said in a statement. “They succeeded in taking share earlier than they had in the past years.”

Bank of America, JP Morgan, Wells Fargo, Citigroup, and GMAC must pay for the “harm” caused, the writ says.

Martha Coakley, the state’s attorney general, said the banks had no legal right to foreclose on “hundreds, if not thousands, of properties”. The banks have expressed disappointment over the move.

Massachusetts’ action could potentially de-rail attempts to reach a US-wide settlement against banks accused of hastily calling in debts as the country’s property bubble imploded.

Federal and state prosecutors have been negotiating a $25bn (£16bn) deal to resolve the issue over so-called “robo-signing”, where banks employed people to sort out foreclosure documents without reviewing homeowners paperwork and circumstances.

Ms Coakley said: “We have two clear goals with this lawsuit – one is to provide for real accountability for the role the banks have played in unlawful and illegal foreclosures, and secondly to provide for real and enforceable relief for the harm that the misconduct has caused.”

The complaint claims the banks violated Massachusetts law with “unlawful and deceptive” conduct in the foreclosure process, including unlawful foreclosures, false documentation, robo-signing, and deceptive practices related to loan modifications.

A statement from the state attorney general’s office said: “The single most important thing we can do to return to a healthy economy is to address this foreclosure crisis.

“Our suit alleges that the banks have charted a destructive path by cutting corners and rushing to foreclose on homeowners without following the rule of law. Our action today seeks real accountability for the banks illegal behavior and real relief for homeowners.”