A record $4.7 billion quarterly operating profit was posted by Samsung Electronics Co that was driven booming smartphone sales. The company will be spending $22 billion this year to boost production of chips and flat screens to pull further ahead of smaller rivals.

The world’s top technology firm by revenue, Samsung, is locked in breakneck competition with Apple Inc in the red-hot smartphone market.

Research firm Strategy Analytics put Samsung sales at 36.5 million smartphones in October-December, with 3rd-ranked Nokia on 19.6 million.

“The battle of the two big smartphone powers, Apple versus Samsung, will go on,” said Baik Jae-yer, fund manager at Korea Investment Management. “The smartphone market will expand this year to more mid-and low-end models that are affordable to the wider public,” Baik said. “Rather than focus on market share, I’d point out the strong contribution of Samsung’s handset business to earnings growth and margins.”

On Monday, Hewlett-Packard Co unveiled a new glass-encased laptop computer as the largest computer maker stepped up its efforts for chipping away at the stronghold of rival Apple in high-end PC market.

The laptop, called HP Envy 14 Spectre, is the latest entry of the Silicon Valley company in the slim, ultrabook category of personal computers and is the first to use glass on the lid, display and palmrest. The 14-inch laptop has built-in wireless links to speakers and can transfer website links from a nearby phone to the browser on the laptop using an emerging technology.

It will be available next month for a price starting at $1,400, which makes it more than the popular 13-inch MacBook Air of Apple.

The optimism of investors for Google Inc is running high and the stage is all set for another jump in shares of the Internet search company.

Options investors appear to be betting on more gains for the stock that hit a record high of $670.25 on January 4. Traders have been buying Google calls that grant the right to buy the stock at a fixed price up to a specific date at a greater pace than its puts or stock selling rights at a preset price.

“The options market is positioned bullishly ahead of results. Call options have been bought over the past few weeks,” Credit Suisse equity derivatives strategist Terry Wilson said.

“Google is a stock that is surrounded by a lot of optimism from Wall Street analysts and option speculators. This sets a high bar on the earnings report, and any disappointing news could leave the stock vulnerable to the downside,” said Bell, of Schaeffer’s.

On Tuesday, the single currency euro held its ground early in Asia, having been squeezed higher overnight as the market pared extremely bearish bets against it ahead of key events in Europe this week.

After bouncing off a 6-month trough at $1.2666, the euro stood at $1.2767 and traders said buying ahead of a $1.2650 option barrier had prompted some short covering. The euro was also nearing strong support seen just below $1.2600.

After a holiday on Monday, trading activity in Asia is likely to pick up as Tokyo reopens and investors will also have the December trade figures of China to chew on. The Chinese report is expected to show export growth slowing to 13.5 percent, the weakest in two years.

The short covering of Monday helped the euro rise against other currencies; the single currency popped above 98.00 yen from an 11-year trough of 97.28 yen and stood at A$1.2467, off a record low around A$1.2408 set last Friday.

On Saturday, the head of one of Angela Merkel’s coalition partners said the European Union would be fine if a country dropped the currency.

In an interview with Deutschlandfunk radio, Horst Seehofer, leader of the conservative Christian Social Union (CSU), said he did not agree with Merkel’s statement “If the euro fails, Europe fails.”

“There are many healthy economies in Europe that do not have the euro, and Europe works nonetheless,” he said in a transcript of the interview. “Great Britain is an example.” “I am not proposing it, but if Greece did leave, it would not bring damage and destruction to European integration,” he said.

In a move that could push back expectations of when near-zero U.S. interest rates will rise, the U.S. Federal Reserve will begin publishing its policymakers’ forecasts for borrowing costs.

The step is seen as a significant milestone in the push by Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke for greater policymaking transparency besides offering the economy a bit more of a lift by better aligning financial market bets with the main view at the central bank.

“This step is arguably the greatest increase in transparency undertaken by the Bernanke Fed, and could represent his most lasting change to the way the FOMC conducts conventional interest rate policy,” said Michael Feroli, an economist at JPMorgan in New York.