Despite the Prius's strong start, Toyota, the world's largest automaker by sales, predicts more red ink this year.
It's also on course to be No 1 in America, with 260,000 first-week sales predicted.
By comparison, profits for the S.& P. 500 are expected to grow 18 percent, while sales predicted to climb 9 percent.
The coffee chain sector is expected to grow at 6% a year and exceed 6,000 outlets by 2015, with sales predicted to reach £3.2bn by 2015.
Still, they are the big success story in the PC industry, with sales predicted to double this year, even as overall PC sales fall 12percentt, according to the research firm Gartner.
The speaker of the Assembly, Sheldon Silver, a Manhattan Democrat who for years has sought further restrictions on gun and ammunition sales, predicted that the newly proposed gun legislation would meet the same fate as many other gun-related bills.
This year earnings will come in at $1.3 billion on $17.7 billion in sales, predicts J.P. Morgan analyst Donald Carson.
That's way above the 3.5% growth in overall retail sales predicted for 2008 by the National Retail Federation.
A recent forecast by Horace Dediu of Asymco — using iTunes accounts to project iOS device sales — predicts Apple will pass one billion iOS devices sales by late 2014 or early 2015.
Pharmaceuticals now make up just over a quarter of sales (predicted to total $12.4 billion in 2000) but more than 40% of earnings before interest and taxes.
