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PRI Productions headquarters in San Marco gives a sense of Mardi Gras, ancient Egypt opulence and a crowded stadium cheering the Jacksonville Jaguars.

But as far as PRI owner Randy Goodwin is concerned, the display floor showcases his companys diversity at handling big events, ranging from company parties to inaugurations of some of the biggest names in politics to handling many of the Jaguars functions.

What began as Presentation Resource Inc. in 1994 has proliferated into the go-to party guys. They have all the goodies for the biggest celebrations, and PRI handled the inaugurations for Jacksonville Mayor Alvin Brown and Gov. Rick Scott in the past year.

For Goodwin, 48, the business has taken off more than he could have expected as he now employs about 80 people and pulls in about $6.5 million in annual revenue, including services at SED Event Rentals, which he owns across the street from his offices at 1819 Kings Ave.

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Australian banks will slice thousands of jobs to shore up profit, investment bank UBS predicts.

The big banks are likely to scrap 7000 jobs over the next two years as lenders cut costs that account for 58 per cent of expenses to offset the weakest credit growth since World War II, according to UBS.

Lenders will reduce total staff numbers by 3.9 per cent to 172,000 from 179,000, UBS analysts said in a note to clients. Those figures dont include ANZ’s Asian staff, they said.

The focus on employment costs at banks mirror the challenge faced around the world by lenders battling slower revenue growth amid weak household and business confidence. ANZ is preparing to cut as many as 900 jobs in coming months, the union that represents bank workers said last week.

We expect the banks to be heavily focused on their cost bases, the UBS analysts said.

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Stock-index futures surged on Monday morning on the heels of the worst week in two months as traders cheered record retail sales during Thanksgiving weekend and reports that European leaders are moving closer to a solution to solve the continent’s debt crisis.

Today’s Markets

As of 9:00 a.m. ET, Dow Jones Industrial Average futures soared 274 points to 11,461, SP 500 futures jumped 34 points to 1,188 and Nasdaq 100 futures rallied 55 points to 2,203.

After falling more than 500 points, and close to 5%, last week, the blue chips are set for a powerful rebound on Monday.

Despite an unemployment rate that is stuck above the 9% and slow economic growth, American shoppers came out in force on Thanksgiving weekend — seen as the kickoff of the key holiday shopping season.

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Walgreen Co. posted a lower quarterly profit as the largest U.S. drugstore chain’s margins were hurt by lower reimbursement rates for the prescriptions it fills, fewer flu shots and its spat with pharmacy benefits manager Express Scripts Inc.

Walgreen, which has more than 7,800 U.S. drugstores, reiterated that is does not plan to renew its contract with Express Scripts, which is set to expire Dec. 31, but Chief Executive Greg Wasson said the chain remains “open to any fair and competitive offer.”

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If the contract does expire, patients who fill Express Scripts prescriptions at Walgreens stores will have to go elsewhere, cutting into Walgreen’s sales.

Walgreen estimated that it will have 97 to 99 percent of last year’s prescription volume in fiscal 2012, assuming it does not resolve its impasse with Express Scripts.

Walgreen earned $554 million, or 63 cents per share, in the fiscal first quarter that ended on Nov. Read more…

Morning Ireland: Return to bond markets mooted: NUIG’s John McHale

European Central Bank president Mario Draghi says there is “no external saviour” for heavily indebted governments in the euro zone debt crisis and gave no sign the bank is ready to step in and support their finances.

Draghi said governments must take the tough steps to balance budgets and reform economies to promote growth. “I will never tire of saying that the first response should be from government,” Draghi said today at a speech in Berlin.

“There is no external saviour for a country that doesn’t want to save itself,” he added.

As a “firewall” to calm markets in the meantime, the EU has its newly strengthened bail-out fund, he said. Some economists have urged the ECB to support governments with bigger purchases of government bonds.

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The Jacksonville Economic Development Commission on Thursday supported $180,000 in city and state incentives for Interactive Intelligence Group adding 30 jobs in Jacksonville.

The average wage would be $67,640.

The new jobs would be at Interactive Intelligence’s Jacksonville subsidiary Global Software Services on the Southside.

The city would pay up to $36,000 of the incentives and the state would pay the rest.

The Times-Union