McDonald's expanding in Italy
The world's No. 1 burger chain said it's investing $457 mil in Italy in a bet that Europe will quickly emerge from its prolonged debt crisis. Italy has been in recession since '11 and investment there has fallen 30% since '07, but McDonald's (MCD) said it plans to build 100 new restaurants and hire 3,000 more employees in Italy by '15. The company is looking to spur sales amid lackluster growth. Last quarter, EPS dipped 1% and sales also fell slightly. Both missed analyst targets. Shares fell 0.1% to 90.81 .