Fits with yesterday’s chart and the theme of modest positive growth until private sector credit expansion kicks in

Maersk lifts full-year profit guidance

July 7 (Reuters) — Danish group AP Moller-Maersk upgraded its earnings guidance for the full year, saying on Thursday its container shipping business had rebounded faster than expected. “The upgrade is due to a combination of [freight] rates and cost reductions,” chief executive Nils Smedegaard Andersen told Reuters. “The improvement of especially the container business has since then been greater than envisaged and the company now expects that the profit for 2010 will exceed the profit for 2008 [which was $3.5bn corresponding to DKr17.6bn at the time], provided that freight rates, oil prices and the USD exchange rate remain stable at current levels,” it said. Andersen added: “We know the development in the second quarter, and have a degree of certainty about how the third quarter is going, and there are prospects for good utilisation [of the fleet] in the peak season.”