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Risk-Aversion Buoys JPY, BoC Awaited by Korman Tam

2010-11-30T09:27:00.001+07:00

9/7/2010 10:00 PM: EUR/$..1.2689 $/JPY..83.66 GBP/$..1.5372 $/CHF..1.0114 AUD/$..0.9116 $/CAD..1.0469

Risk-aversion continued to dictate market direction, with the Japanese yen touching a fresh 15-year high against the dollar while most of the major currencies tumbled against the greenback. The Canadian dollar slid by 1.2% and the euro dropped by more than 1.5%. The US equity bourses slid after returning from the long-weekend, with the major indexes shedding more than 1%. Meanwhile, safe-haven flows propped spot gold it’s a new record higher to settle around $1,257.30 per ounce while crude oil drifted lower to dip beneath the $73-per barrel mark.

Central bank policy decisions will be the key event risks in the week ahead. The Reserve Bank of Australia announced the results of its policy deliberation, leaving interest rates on hold at 4.5%. The accompanying policy statement was largely unchanged from the August statement, widely seen as more dovish and indicative the RBA leaving rates on hold for the rest of the year.

The Bank of Canada is scheduled to announce its monetary policy decision at 9:00 AM EDT, with consensus forecasts calling for a 25-basis point rate hike to 1.0%. Traders will closely scrutinize the accompany statement from the BoC. In light of the sharp pullback in second quarter GDP growth, which revealed the pace of economic growth slowing to 2.0% and down drastically from first quarter growth of 5.8%, it will be interesting to see whether the Bank will downwardly revise its growth outlook again following the downgrades from the policy statement issued in July. Given market expectations leaning toward a rate hike tomorrow, the risk stands with an unchanged BoC decision and a signal that interest rates will remain on hold in the near future as a result of the pullback in economic activity. If that scenario was to materialize, the reaction in the currency market will likely prompt a knee-jerk sell-off in the Loonie to breach the 1.0550-mark.

Everyday investors wonder if market is rigged

2010-11-30T09:09:00.001+07:00

NEW YORK — The Wall Street insider trading investigation may lead everyday investors — already rattled by a stock market meltdown, a one-day "flash crash" and the Madoff scandal — to finally conclude that the game is rigged.

"A large part of trading has to do with trust, and I don't have it," says Mark Swenson, a 43-year-old plumber from New Hampshire who refuses to buy individual stocks.

"When a stock moves up 10 percent, you don't know why," he added. "We can pretend that everyone has access to the same information, but they don't."

Even before news broke that federal investigators were looking into whether hedge funds traded on inside information, small-time investors were pulling their money out of stocks — despite a remarkable run for the market since the spring of 2009.

Hedge funds are speculative funds which make large bets on market movements and are usually used by wealthy private investors or institutions.

Americans have pulled $60 billion out of U.S. stock funds this year, according to the Investment Company Institute, a trade group. Meanwhile, investors have piled money into Treasurys and bond funds that are considered safer investments. And at the same time, banks like Wells Fargo have reported that money is moving into checking and savings accounts.

To be sure, it's natural for people worried about their jobs or the falling value of their homes to sock cash into more conservative investments. But this has been no garden-variety recession.

It has coincided with turmoil in the stock market that goes back a decade, to the collapse of the Internet bubble and portfolio-draining scandals involving high-flying companies such as Enron and WorldCom.

More recently, investors have lived through the housing bubble, the collapse of Wall Street firms such as Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers and stomach-churning days when it wasn't clear whether capitalism would survive. On top of that came news that financier Bernard Madoff had bilked investors out of billions.

"Virtually everyone on the Street believes there are significant improprieties, and I think there is an even more important point for the massive number of investors who are not Wall Street players," says former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer, once known as the "sheriff of Wall Street" for aggressively prosecuting white-collar crime as state attorney general. "And that is for most of us, you can't beat these guys at their own game."

People are nervous about the state of their assets in part because their homes are worth so much less these days, not to mention job insecurity and slow economic growth overall.

Some pros on Wall Street say hesitation by small investors is good news. It means that there's plenty of "dry powder" to propel the market higher in the next few months when and if the little guy finally relents and joins in the rally.

The insider-trading probe could test that theory. The FBI this week searched the offices of three hedge funds, and some of Wall Street's most influential firms, including Janus Capital Group, have been subpoenaed in the probe.

On Wednesday, an employee of a firm that supplied market intelligence to hedge funds was arrested and charged, among other things, with conspiracy to commit securities fraud. It was not yet known whether the man dealt with the funds raided this week.

For Swenson, the allegations of insider trading are unnerving, particularly on top of the "flash crash" in May, when a computerized selling program set off a chain reaction that drove the Dow Jones industrials down nearly 1,000 points in mere minutes.

The sell-off was a reminder to some individual investors that hedge funds and other powerful traders use computer programs to make rapid-fire stock trades, giving them an advantage over the slower smaller investor.

"The hedge funds are resorting to more questionable tactics. It's mind-boggling," says Swenson, who invests largely in exchange-traded funds, which track market indexes and can be traded throughout the day, unlike mutual funds.

Spitzer says the new insider trading probes illustrate how the game is tilted against small investors.

"If you are sitting there in front of a screen, thinking your information is going to be good enough to make smart judgments that will permit you to outperform the hundreds of thousands of people on Wall Street who have access to better information and more timely information than you, you're mistaken," Spitzer says.

It's not the first time small investors have been scared out of stocks.

Charles Geisst, a finance professor at Manhattan College who has written 18 books on the history of markets, says investors balked at buying for years after the Crash of 1929 and Black Monday in 1987. The view both times: The odds are stacked against the little guy.

To combat such an impression, the Securities and Exchange Commission was established in 1934, and "circuit breakers" were instituted after the 1987 crash to stop massive selling. But all of the safeguards don't seem to be helping lately.

"If the stock markets had any reputation for integrity, they lost it in the past year," Geisst says.

Restoring small investors' confidence may depend on whether they see ample evidence that federal regulators are successfully cracking down on bad behavior, says Ross B. Intelisano, a securities fraud attorney with the firm Rich & Intelisano.

The market needs them back. Most of the stock in U.S. companies, both public and private, is held by individuals, not institutions, according to Federal Reserve data.

Small investors may be comforted to know that professional investors don't always fare better, even with the edge they have over the masses.

Numerous studies have shown that mutual funds overseen by professional stock pickers often are outperformed by computer-driven index funds.

The record for hedge funds hasn't been so impressive, either. Since 2008, when the number of those funds hit 10,000, nearly 3,000 have gone out of business, according to Hedge Fund Research in Chicago.

"The edge is hugely exaggerated," says Richard Ferri, founder of the investment advisory firm Portfolio Solutions and an advocate of low-cost index funds. "If the small investor does the right thing, he can do better than 99 percent of anyone else."

Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Stocks pare back losses after early tumble

2010-11-30T09:03:00.002+07:00

NEW YORK — Stocks ended lower Monday on lingering fears that Europe's debt crisis will continue to spread even after Ireland gets bailed out. The Dow Jones industrial average dipped below 11,000 but recovered much of its losses late in the day.

The euro fell to a two-month low as investors flocked to the safety of the dollar and U.S. Treasurys. Gold prices also rose.

Investors are worried that other weak European countries like Portugal and Spain will still need help even after the $90 billion bailout package for Ireland announced on Sunday.

Some of those worries faded late in the day as traders shifted their focus to positive economic news. The Federal Reserve Banks of Dallas and Chicago both reported higher manufacturing activity in their areas.

"The fundamentals are improving and there are several indications that the economy is picking up a little bit of steam here," said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Avalon Partners, a New York brokerage house. "There's a slew of numbers that are coming out later this week and the market is preparing for that."

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 39.51 points, or 0.4 percent, to close at 11,052.49. It had been down as many as 163 earlier.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index edged down 1.64, or 0.1 percent, to 1,187.76. The technology-heavy Nasdaq composite index dropped 9.34, or 0.4 percent, to 2,525.22. Holiday retail sales also got off to a good start in the post-Thanksgiving weekend. The National Retail Federation, a trade group, estimated that 212 million shoppers visited stores and websites during the first weekend of the holiday season, up from 195 million last year.

Online spending rose more than 14 percent from Thanksgiving Day through Saturday, according to IBM's Coremetrics. Shares of online retailer Amazon.com rose 1.3 percent on expectations that shoppers were returning on what is known as "Cyber Monday," when retailers offer deals to lure people to buy items online while at work.

A fuller picture on spending will come Thursday when retailers report November sales. Investors have been hoping that consumers, who have generally been spending cautiously since the recession, would feel more comfortable about shopping during the holidays.

Bank stocks were some of the best performers. Wells Fargo & Co. rose 2 percent, Bank of America Corp. was up 1.7 percent, while JPMorgan Chase & Co. rose 1.7 percent.

Dick Bove, a banking analyst at Rochdale Securities, said investors realized that some U.S. banks had little exposure to European debt issues. He added that if European banks are subject to more stringent capital requirements, U.S. banks could benefit.

"When people sit down and think about the situation in Europe, it is clear that the American banks emerge in a much stronger position," he said.

In corporate news, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. rose 0.2 percent, after the company said it is buying a 51 percent stake in South African retailer Massmart. The transaction, worth about $2 billion, will cost Wal-Mart $20.71 per share. It gives the retailer access to the growing South African economy.

Oil prices rose $1.97 to $85.73 a barrel. Gold for February delivery rose $3.20, or 0.3 percent, to $1,367.50 an ounce.
Quotes delayed 15+ min.

The dollar rose 0.4 percent against an index of six other currencies.

Bond prices rose as investors shifted money out of riskier assets like stocks and commodities and into defensive investments. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note, which moves opposite its price, fell to 2.83 percent Monday from 2.87 percent Friday.

Investors were also cautious as they awaited the week's economic reports, including the government's monthly employment report due out on Friday. Also due this week are the Conference Board's survey of consumer confidence on Tuesday, and the Institute for Supply Management's assessments of the manufacturing and services industries.,

Bank of America credit losses soar, profit falls

2009-07-20T02:42:00.001+07:00

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Bank of America Corp, the largest U.S. bank, posted a quarterly profit that topped Wall Street forecasts but warned of a fresh surge in soured loans to credit card, mortgage and business customers.

Soaring credit losses may add to pressure on Chief Executive Kenneth Lewis as the U.S. Congress and regulators ramp up scrutiny of the bank's ability to manage risk and its controversial purchase of Merrill Lynch & Co, and that tough economic conditions could hurt results into 2010.

"Growth in charge-offs and nonperforming assets still scares the daylights out of me," said Paul Miller, an analyst at FBR Capital Markets in Arlington, Virginia.

Second-quarter net income applicable to common shareholders fell 25 percent to $2.42 billion, or 33 cents per share, from $3.22 billion, or 72 cents, a year earlier.

Before preferred stock dividends in both periods, profit fell 5 percent to $3.22 billion. Net revenue on a taxable equivalent basis rose 60 percent to $33.09 billion.

Analysts on average expected profit of 29 cents per share on revenue of $33.26 billion, according to Reuters Estimates.

Lewis on a conference call predicted that "profitability in the second half of the year will be much tougher than the first half" because of an expected absence of one-time gains. Such gains helped boosted first-half net income to $7.47 billion.

Second-quarter results included an unspecified tax benefit and $9.1 billion of pretax gains from selling a stake in China Construction Bank Corp and putting a processing unit into a joint venture with First Data Corp. The bank took a $760 million charge to bolster a U.S. deposit insurance fund.

CEO SEES INCREASE IN LOSSES MODERATING

Bank of America set aside $13.38 billion for bad loans for a second straight quarter, and net charge-offs totaled $8.7 billion, up 25 percent from the prior three-month period.

Total reserves increased $4.63 billion to $35.78 billion, and nonperforming assets surged 21 percent to $30.98 billion.

"It was expected to be difficult in the quarter, and it is," said Richard Bove, an analyst at Rochdale Securities in Lutz, Florida.

Credit cards were a big trouble spot. The bank said it is not collecting payments on 11.73 percent of its $169.8 billion card portfolio, up from 8.62 percent three months earlier.

"We have a really ugly economic backdrop," Michael Holland, a money manager at Holland & Co in New York, said on Reuters Television. "Those numbers aren't going to go away soon."

Still, Lewis said the bank expects to boost reserves more slowly, as consumer charge-offs perhaps peak around year end.

The bank announced results just before Citigroup Inc, whose difficulties are considered more severe, posted a quarterly loss excluding a big gain from a brokerage joint venture with Morgan Stanley.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc and JPMorgan Chase & Co posted better-than-expected results earlier this week. Like JPMorgan, Bank of America said it has no material exposure to struggling business lender CIT Group Inc.

In afternoon trading, Bank of America shares fell 29 cents, or 2.2 percent, to $12.88 on the New York Stock Exchange.

CEO UNDER PRESSURE

Many of Bank of America's problems relate to its takeover of Merrill, after less than 48 hours of negotiations.

Lewis considered scrapping the deal as Merrill's losses soared, but completed it after then-U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson threatened to oust management, fearing a cancellation would threaten the financial system.

According to The Wall Street Journal, regulators have placed Bank of America under special secret oversight to address problems with risk and liquidity management.

Shareholders in April stripped Lewis of his chairman role, and Bank of America has since installed several directors with banking or regulatory experience.

Congress, meanwhile, is investigating whether Lewis withheld information about Merrill's problems from investors.

Regulators have barred Bank of America from repaying its $45 billion of bailout money from the Troubled Asset Relief Program, and in May ordered it to build a $33.9 billion buffer to cope with a possible $136.6 billion of losses through 2010.

The bank said it is in early talks with the government about repaying TARP funds, preferably "sooner rather than later" according to Lewis.

Despite the problems, Chief Financial Officer Joe Price told reporters on a conference call that Bank of America is ahead of schedule in realizing $7 billion of merger savings and has made the "lion's share" of a potential 35,000 job cuts.

He expects within 30 days to resolve whether the bank owes anything under an agreement for the government to share losses on $118 billion of assets. The bank said the agreement, part of a January bailout, was never signed and is not needed.

Price also said the bank is moving into the "contract phase" in its efforts to sell its Columbia asset management unit, and remains in talks with "multiple parties."

Investment banking posted a $1.38 billion second-quarter profit, though trading revenue fell short of levels posted by Goldman and JPMorgan.

Credit card operations lost $1.62 billion, and Lewis said new credit card rules in 2010 could reduce annual card revenue by $700 million, similar to what JPMorgan expects.

The home lending and insurance business lost $725 million, though mortgage and home equity loans rose to $114.3 billion from the first quarter's $89.26 billion. Bank of America bought mortgage lender Countrywide Financial Corp last July.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel; Additional reporting by Steve Eder and Sweta Singh; editing by John Wallace, Tim Dobbyn and Bernard Orr)

White House's $50B foreclosure plan a bust so far

2009-07-20T02:34:00.003+07:00

The Obama administration’s $50 billion program to curb foreclosures isn’t working, and the White House knows it.

Administration officials blame the mortgage servicers charged with carrying out the mortgage modifications and refinancing under the federal program. Many of their Democratic allies on Capitol Hill back them up, but others are criticizing the White House for fumbling the execution. Whatever the reason, the program hasn’t stopped the rising tide of foreclosures: Experts predict that at least another 2 million homes will be lost this year, and the administration’s plan has so far reached only about 160,000 of the 3 million to 4 million homes it was supposed to protect over the next three years.

That’s bad news for the economy — and bad news for the Democrats.

The Democrats’ political and policy fortunes rest on their ability to persuade voters that they’re fixing the economy. But experts say that rising foreclosures will only exacerbate the nation’s economic woes, pushing down home prices, slashing state and local tax revenues and imperiling consumer confidence.

“Everybody understands that getting out of this broader crisis requires that we stabilize our housing market and stem the tide of foreclosures,” Senate Banking Chairman Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) said in a hearing Thursday. But in unusually harsh words for a Democrat, Dodd said that the Obama administration’s progress in stopping foreclosures has been “disgraceful” so far.

“It’s just hard to explain to the working families in America how it is we could move so fast with extraordinarily complicated deals with the huge financial institutions, and we are moving so incredibly slowly, mired in paperwork, in rules, in talking to banks back home,” said Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.).

The foreclosure listing service RealtyTrac Inc. reported Thursday that the number of homeowners in foreclosure in the first six months of 2009 was up 15 percent from the same time period a year ago.

The Center for Responsible Lending, a nonpartisan research and policy organization, projects at least 2.4 million additional foreclosure starts this year, causing nearly 70 million surrounding households to lose a combined $500 billion in property value.

The group estimates there will be 9 million foreclosures through the end of 2012, at the cost of $2 trillion in lower home values — enough to pay for the House Democrats’ health care plan, twice.

The White House realizes the stakes. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan took the 27 participating servicers to task in a July 9 letter to their CEOs, telling them to add more staff, improve training, create an appeal path for borrowers dissatisfied with the service and fulfill other measures to do more modifications, better.

The servicers were told to designate a liaison with the administration who will meet with Treasury and HUD on July 28. The servicers have to tell the administration by July 23 what specific steps they’re taking to improve performance.

In addition, the administration announced that next month it will start publishing company-by-company results, including how many modifications each servicer has made and how quickly. At the least, that will give policymakers ammunition to shame recalcitrant lenders.

“We think that that type of disclosure, servicer-by-servicer, will be important to spurring greater activity on their part,” Herbert Allison, assistant treasury secretary for financial stability, told Dodd’s committee.

But assurances that the administration is paying attention were not enough to satisfy senators on either sides of the aisle — and Republicans are ready to make the case that slow progress on the foreclosure front is just one more example of the Obama administration overpromising and overspending.

“I see these extravagant promises in just about everything that happens here, ... and then I see this terrible execution,” said Sen. Mike Johanns (R-Neb.). “The stimulus money isn’t getting out, you’re not getting on top of the foreclosure numbers, you know, and that has nothing to do with what you inherited. Execution is what you do every day.”

Ukraine's economy 'to shrink 15%'

2009-07-19T15:46:00.003+07:00

The World Bank has downgraded its economic forecast for Ukraine again, predicting that the country's economy will contract by 15% this year.

In April, the bank had predicted the economy would shrink by 9% in 2009, which was also a downgrade from its original forecast of a 4% contraction.

The economic downturn has hit the price of metals worldwide, and Ukraine relies heavily on this sector for exports.

The World Bank now predicts a gradual recovery starting in 2010.

"The situation has deteriorated the most seriously in the public finances," said the World Bank's head economist for Ukraine, Ruslan Piontkivski.

He added: "The fall in GDP has led to a reduction of income without which expenses are not going to be revised. All this increases the risk of the budget deficit."

The country's budget deficit is expected to be 6.5% of GDP this year, before falling to 4.2% next, he said.

Analysts argue Ukraine is too dependent on a limited number of heavy industries - such as metal production - making it more vulnerable when foreign demand slows.

The economic contraction has also exacerbated diplomatic problems with Russia, since Moscow is worried about how Kiev will be able to find the funds to pay for significant debts owed on energy supplies.

A dispute in January between Russia and Ukraine - a key transit nation for energy - over gas supplies caused tensions in Europe, which is heavily dependent on such fuel.

On Friday, the EU will hold negotiations with Kiev, Moscow and international lenders to try to prevent a repeat crisis.

More factories 'are freezing pay'

2009-07-19T15:43:00.002+07:00

Tough times for the manufacturing industry mean a record number of companies are freezing salaries, a new survey indicates.

Pay data from the EEF, the manufacturers' organisation, reveals two-thirds of employers suspended pay increases in the three months to June.

Workers also saw historically low levels of average pay settlements.

The EEF says the survey is clear evidence that the economic downturn is hitting manufacturing hard.

The EEF's July Pay Bulletin was based on information from 240 pay settlements covering 55,405 employees.

David Yeandle, the head of employment policy at the EEF, said the figures also showed that manufacturers were trying to manage pay "far more flexibly" than they had done in previous recessions.

Nevertheless, the monthly pay settlement levels for both May and June were both below 0.5%.

This means it is likely that average settlement levels in manufacturing will continue to fall in the near future, the EEF says.

Jobless rate tops 10 percent in 15 states, DC

2009-07-19T15:39:00.003+07:00

By JEANNINE AVERSA, AP Economics Writer

WASHINGTON – Fifteen states have crossed a painful threshold: 10 percent unemployment. More states, and the nation, likely will follow, one of the biggest dangers to an economic recovery.

How consumers behave in the face of rising unemployment will figure prominently in shaping a broader rebound. If they go back into hibernation and sharply cut spending like they did at the end of last year, the recovery could cave in. More likely is that consumers will stay cautious, making for a fragile and slow-moving national economic turnaround, economists said.

The Labor Department on Friday said unemployment topped 10 percent in 15 states and the District of Columbia last month. And the jobless rate in Michigan surpassed 15 percent, the first time any state hit that mark since 1984.

The Federal Reserve this week projected that the national unemployment rate, currently at a 26-year high of 9.5 percent, will pass 10 percent by the end of the year. Most Fed policymakers said it could take "five or six years" for the economy and the labor market to get back on a path of long-term health.

"With so much uncertainty, companies will stay in cost-cutting mode and consumers will watch their spending," said Steve Cochrane, managing director at Moody's Economy.com.

The news was not all bad. North Dakota, helped by the oil business, reported the lowest unemployment rate of 4.2 percent in June. It was followed by Nebraska at 5 percent and South Dakota at 5.1 percent, supported by farm businesses. None of those states ever got carried away with the housing boom, either, so their residents didn't suffer as big a hit to household wealth.

Still, the state unemployment report underscored the damage that the longest recession since World War II has inflicted on companies, workers and communities, and the challenges the economy faces getting back on its feet.

A common theme running through states suffering from high unemployment was heavy layoffs tied to the troubled auto industry and the collapse of the housing market. Workers in manufacturing, construction, retail and finance have been the hardest hit.

"A lot of older industries are having to shut down and many of these jobs will never come back," said Bernard Baumohl, chief global economist at the Economic Outlook Group.

Take Michigan, ground zero of the recession.

Home to the nation's struggling auto makers, Michigan has been clobbered by lost factory jobs. Its jobless rate of 15.2 percent in June was the nation's highest. It was the first time in 25 years that any state has suffered an unemployment rate of at least 15 percent.

If laid-off workers who have given up looking for jobs or have settled for part-time work are included, the state's jobless rate was 22.5 percent, according to Michigan's Department of Energy, Labor and Economic Development. Nationwide unemployment by that measure was 16.5 percent in June, the highest on government records dating to 1994.

"In Michigan and elsewhere, the unemployment rate is just the tip of the iceberg of the extensive adverse impact of this 'Great Recession,'" said economist Lawrence Mishel, president of the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute.

Many workers have seen hours trimmed, their pay cut and have lost benefits. Combine that with a dismal housing market making it difficult for people to sell their homes and move to other places to find work, some jobseekers are trapped.

The other states where unemployment topped 10 percent last month were: Alabama, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina and Tennessee. In May, 13 states plus the District of Columbia watched their jobless rates surpass 10 percent. Alabama and Georgia joined the list in June.

Rhode Island had the second-highest unemployment rate in the country in June at 12.4 percent. When including people who stopped looking for work and those forced into part-time jobs, the state's unemployment rate was 22.7 percent, Mishel estimated.

Oregon had the third-highest unemployment rate at 12.2 percent, which was 21.6 percent by the broadest measure. South Carolina's jobless rate of 12.1 percent jumped to 22 percent when underemployed workers were included. It was followed by Nevada with a jobless rate of 12 percent, or 21.6 percent by the broadest measure, Mishel said.

The June jobless rates for Nevada, Rhode Island and South Carolina were the highest ever for those states in records dating to 1976. Other record-highs: Florida at 10.6 percent, Georgia at 10.1 percent and Delaware at 8.4 percent.

Oil extends rally to settle above $63

2009-07-19T15:35:00.002+07:00

NEW YORK – Oil prices surged through the week, rising above $63 a barrel Friday as China reported faster economic growth and political turmoil in Iran raised concerns about future oil supplies.

Benchmark crude for August delivery jumped $1.54 to settle at $63.56 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. In London, Brent prices climbed $2.63 to settle at $65.38 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.

Earlier in the week, crude futures were tugged higher by a rally on Wall Street, and prices continued to rise as China reported that its economy grew faster in the second quarter.

Political unrest in Iran, combined with reports of union troubles with Iraq's Southern Oil Co., also sparked concerns about whether oil production would suffer later this year.

In Tehran, Islamic cleric Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani criticized Iran's crackdown on election protests at a Friday prayer service. Outside, police and militiamen fired tear gas at protesters who sided with opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi.

Iran sits on 136.2 billion barrels of oil, ranking behind Saudia Arabia and Canada in proven reserves, according to the Energy Information Administration. Ongoing political turmoil there could disrupt supplies in the future and possibly force crude prices higher.

"The Iranian regime may be falling apart at the edges, and you don't want to be short on oil when this is happening," analyst Phil Flynn said.

Oil prices also were buoyed by a U.S. government report that new home construction rose in June to the highest level in seven months. And Bank of America Corp. and Citigroup Inc. reported big second-quarter profits.

Still, with the country swimming in surplus oil and consumer demand hovering around 10-year lows, analysts struggled to find a fundamental reason for an extended rally in oil.

Analyst Stephen Schork said investors, especially those who have no commercial use for the oil contracts they're buying, aren't basing their decisions on the economy's present condition. They're simply buying oil right now on the expectation that the economy will eventually heal.

"We're trying to get at the bottom of the next great rally," Schork said. "It's just one giant crapshoot."

Retail gas prices fell throughout the week, dropping for the 26th straight day on Friday. Pump prices shed another 1.1 cents a gallon overnight to a new national average of $2.481 a gallon, according to auto club AAA, Wright Express and Oil Price Information Service. A gallon of gas is 19.8 cents cheaper than last month and $1.633 cheaper than a year ago.

In other Nymex trading, gasoline for August delivery added 5.64 cents to settle at $1.7699 a gallon and heating oil climbed 4.16 cents to settle at $1.641 a gallon. Natural gas for August delivery ticked higher by a fraction of a penny to settle at $3.669 per 1,000 cubic feet.

Honda bringing back overtime at Japan plants

2009-07-19T15:33:00.000+07:00

TOKYO —

Honda is stepping up production and bringing back overtime at its Japanese plants in response to solid demand for its small cars and hybrids, the automaker said Friday.

Honda Motor Co will have workers come in on weekends and other days off at its Saitama plant for the first time since the financial crisis, starting with one day in July. Honda is adding another extra work day in August, and two days each in September and October, said company spokesman Hiroyuki Horiuchi.

The Saitama plant, in a Tokyo suburb, is returning to a double-shift at one of its two assembly lines in August, because of the solid demand in Japan for the Freed hatchback, boosting production there to 1,450 vehicles a day from 1,100, according to Japan’s No. 2 automaker.

Before the global slump, the plant had two shifts at both its lines. The latest move underlines signs of a gradual recovery at Honda, which has been riding out the slump relatively better than its bigger Japanese rival Toyota Motor Corp.

Honda is also having workers do overtime at another Japanese plant, in Suzuka, which makes the hit Insight hybrid, as well as the Fit subcompact.

Small ecological models like the Insight, Freed and Fit are doing well despite the downturn in the auto market, partly because of tax breaks and government incentives on green cars.

Honda had transferred about 400 workers at its Saitama plant to Suzuka, to protect jobs while adjusting production, but those workers will be returning to Saitama as Freed production there increases, it said.

Gov't spends over Y3.8 tril to help crisis-hit businesses

2009-07-19T15:29:00.001+07:00

TOKYO —

The Japanese government spent a total of about 3.83 trillion yen in seven months through June in extending emergency loans to and buying commercial paper from private businesses hit by a global financial crisis, according to government data made available Saturday. The government effectively declared in its monthly economic report in June that the nation’s economy had bottomed out of the recession, but analysts say private-sector businesses are still largely dependent on public funds and assistance.

The data, including those from the Finance Ministry, show that the amount was spent in a total of 12,800 cases of emergency loans and CP purchases implemented by three government-backed lenders—Development Bank of Japan, Shoko Chukin Bank and Japan Bank for International Cooperation—as well as by private lenders. The DBJ extended emergency loans totaling 1.83 trillion yen to large and midsize companies and bought 350 billion yen worth of CP, or short-term debt issued by companies to facilitate operations, between last December and this June.

German investor confidence falls

2009-07-15T04:26:00.002+07:00

Confidence among German analysts and investors has fallen in July for the first time since October 2008, an influential survey suggests.

The findings of the Zew economic sentiment index will temper hopes of recovery in Europe's largest economy, observers say.

The index, which measures expectations of economic activity over the next six months, fell to 39.5 from 44.8 in June.

A Reuters poll had suggested analysts' sentiment was improving.

But Zew said that respondents had expressed concern over whether lending to firms and households would work out - something that posed "considerable risk for the future development of the German economy".

A separate measure of current conditions rose slightly, to -89.3 from -89.7.

Germany's economy shrank by 3.8% in the first quarter of 2009 on the back of slumping demand for exports.

Late last month, a separate survey suggested that firms in Germany were more confident than they had been for seven months.

The Ifo index climbed for the third month in a row to 85.9 in June from 84.2 in May - better than many analysts had been expecting.

UK inflation dips to 1.8% in June

2009-07-15T04:20:00.000+07:00

A key measure of inflation has fallen below the Bank of England's target rate of 2% for the first time since 2007.

Lower food prices caused the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) to drop to an annual rate of 1.8% in June from 2.2% in May, official statistics showed.

The Retail Prices Index (RPI) inflation measure, which includes mortgage interest payments and housing costs, fell to -1.6% from -1.1%.

The RPI is now at its lowest since ONS records started in 1948.

The Bank of England aims to keep inflation at 2% to maintain price stability and more broadly, economic stability.

Consensus

Lower prices for meat, milk and fruit last month were the main reason for the fall in inflation.

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"A significant downward effect also came from furniture prices, which rose by less than last year," the Office for National Statistics said.

It also pointed to a large upward pressure on the CPI rate from the recreation and culture sector, with computer games in particular rising by more than a year ago.

The CPI is far below what it was last September, when the rate hit 5.2% because of high oil and food prices.

The Bank of England is now predicting CPI will fall below 1% this year, as the downturn hits demand and sends prices lower.

"The figures are bang on consensus," said economist Philip Shaw of Investec.

"We note that food prices fell back on the month and the increase in petrol prices was a little less than we'd factored in."

He added that the RPI measure was negative because of "aggressive" cuts in interest rates since last autumn.

Interest rates are now at a record low of 0.5%.

"To call this a period of deflation would be totally wrong," he said

But not everyone agreed.

David Kern, head economist at the British Chambers of Commerce said: "The figures confirm the BCC's assessment that in the short-term, the main policy priority must be countering the risks posed by recession and deflation".

In the near future the BCC is urging the Bank of England to expand the scale of quantitative easing well beyond £125bn.

Having lowered interest rates sharply the government has aimed to increase the amount of money circulating to boost the economy, though quantitative easing.

Stephen Bell, of hedge fund GLC, said: "Underlying inflation will remain low for some time, which is good news for home [loan] borrowers."

While it will be a "long hard struggle to recovery" he said the positive message was that the UK economy was recovering faster than other economies.

Stocks post moderate gains after Goldman earnings

2009-07-15T04:11:00.002+07:00

By SARA LEPRO and STEPHEN BERNARD, AP Business Write

NEW YORK – Investors got the solid results from Goldman Sachs they wanted on Tuesday, but the gains were modest after a big rally the day before.

Mixed economic data reminded investors of the challenges businesses still face and left the market zigzagging all day. Some stocks gained on a handful of strong earnings, while Treasurys tumbled on news of a jump in inflation.

Investors were pleased that Goldman Sachs Group Inc.'s second-quarter earnings easily surpassed analysts' forecasts thanks to big gains in trading and underwriting. But the release of the results came as something of an anticlimax, as anticipation of a strong report sent the entire stock market soaring Monday.

Johnson & Johnson also had better-than-expected results, although its profits fell 3.5 percent.

In economic data, retail sales posted their largest gain in five months in June, but much of that increase came from higher gas prices. Prices for gas have fallen sharply since mid-June amid increasing concerns about energy demand, so the higher sales figures may not be sustainable.

Investors were also uneasy after a separate report showed wholesale prices rising far more than expected last month and the most since November 2007, due partly to higher energy prices. That sent Treasurys falling and their yields climbing.

The mix of earnings and economic reports over the next few weeks is likely to make for some difficult days on Wall Street. The stock market has already been drifting over the past month, having given up on a massive spring rally as troubling signs began to emerge on the economy including rising unemployment and waning consumer confidence. Unless companies start issuing promising outlooks for the second half of the year, it will be hard, if not impossible, for the market to resume that rally.

"We need a general consistent pattern of bullish news coming out to turn this market around," said Darin Newsom, senior analyst at DTN.

According to preliminary calculations, the Dow rose 27.81, or 0.3 percent, to 8,359.49. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 4.79, or 0.5 percent, to 905.84, while the Nasdaq composite index rose 6.52, or 0.4 percent, to 1,799.73.

More than two stocks rose for every one that fell on the New York Stock Exchange, where volume came to a light 978.8 million shares, down from 1.2 billion Monday.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury note jumped to 3.47 percent from 3.35 percent as its price fell nearly a point. Long-term government debt tends to be sensitive to reports of higher prices, as inflation erodes the value of fixed-income securities over time.

Investors sent stocks sharply higher on Monday, lifting the Dow 2.3 percent, after Meredith Whitney, a respected banking analyst, upgraded her view on Goldman, stoking hopes that financial companies will show continued signs of improvement this quarter.

But Goldman's actual results had little impact as investors' focus quickly turned to the rest of the financial industry and what those reports might have to say about the state of the industry.

"Here we have a best-in-class sort of company reporting outstanding results," said Craig Peckham, an analyst with Jefferies & Co. "The earnings reports we get in the financial sector from here on out quite honestly are coming from companies that just don't have the same kind of cachet."

Goldman rose 22 cents to $149.66. Later this week, investors will get reports from JPMorgan Chase & Co., Bank of America Corp. and Citigroup Inc.

One troubling indication that the financial industry has not fully recovered: Commercial lender CIT Group Inc. is talking with the government about receiving emergency assistance to help solve liquidity problems. CIT rose 26 cents, or 19.3 percent, to $1.61 after tumbling 11.8 percent Monday.

There were mixed forecasts from several companies. Dell Inc. warned late Monday that quarterly gross margins will fall below first-quarter levels due to higher component costs and pressure to keep prices low. Shares sank more than 8 percent, falling $1.05, or 7.8 percent, to $11.97.

Railroad operator CSX Corp. said it expects shipping demand to sink by double-digits again this quarter, but not as drastically as the 21 percent decline in the second quarter. Shares jumped $2.26, or 7 percent, to $34.80.

Johnson & Johnson gained 51 cents to $58.23.

The dollar fell against other major currencies, while gold prices rose.

Oil prices reversed early gains and slipped 17 cents to $59.52 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

In other trading, the Russell 2000 index of smaller companies rose 3.21, or 0.7 percent, to 496.52.

Overseas, Japan's Nikkei stock average gained 2.3 percent. Britain's FTSE 100 rose 0.9 percent, Germany's DAX index rose 1.3 percent, and France's CAC-40 gained 1.0 percent.

Oil settles below $60

2009-07-15T04:07:00.001+07:00

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. – Oil prices settled under $60 a barrel again Tuesday, with investors still wary about the economy despite as better-than-expected economic and earnings data.

Benchmark crude for August delivery fell 17 cents to settle at $59.52 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Doubts about the strength of the economy have left crude prices hovering around $60 a barrel for the last few days — pausing after a drop from an eight-month intraday high of $73.38 on June 30.

Crude was up more than a dollar earlier Tuesday, as oil traders sought to cover short sales with the expiration of the August contract approaching, said Alaron Trading Corp. analyst Phil Flynn.

The Commerce Department said Tuesday that retail sales rose 0.6 percent last month, better than the 0.4 percent gain that economists had expected. And the Labor Department reported a 1.8 percent jump in the Producer Price Index, which tracks the costs of goods before they reach store shelves.

"If there was more of a deflationary tone to that, I think oil would have been under a lot more pressure," Flynn said.

But prices slipped as the day wore on, a possible indication that those deflationary pressures are creeping back into the energy complex, Flynn said.

The economy seems to be shifting back to neutral, he said, and a further drop in oil demand could follow.

Major stock index averages were little changed from market open.

Goldman Sachs' second-quarter results easily surpassed analysts' expectations thanks to big gains in trading and underwriting. Johnson & Johnson, one of the 30 stocks that make up the Dow Jones industrial average, said its profit fell 3.5 percent but still topped analysts' estimates.

Meanwhile, President Barack Obama conceded Tuesday that the unemployment rate will keep growing for "several months" as he headed to battered Michigan to unveil a plan to help train people for the next generation of jobs.

Retail gasoline prices dropped overnight by slightly more than a penny to a new national average of $2.517 for a gallon of regular unleaded, according to auto club AAA, Wright Express and Oil Price Information Service. That's nearly 9 cents below what it was a week ago, and more than 14 cents below the month-ago average.

Motorists have pumped about 1 percent more gas this summer driving season compared to 2008, but the amount remains significantly lower than in 2005 through 2007, according to the weekly SpendingPulse report by MasterCard released Tuesday afternoon.

For the week ended Friday, consumption was down 6.3 percent compared with the prior week and 4.3 percent from the same week a year ago. MasterCard's report is based on aggregate sales activity in the MasterCard payments network, coupled with estimates for all other payment forms, including cash and check.

With this year's July 4 holiday falling on Saturday, the week-to-week decline is not necessarily reflective of a significant drop in holiday gas demand this year, said Michael McNamara, vice president of SpendingPulse.

But a comparison between this summer's gas demand and 2005, 2006 and 2007 numbers shows that the struggling economy continues to weigh on driving decisions.

"While the year-over-year numbers are definitely up from last year, it's hard to say that we're in any kind of robust demand environment at all here," McNamara said.

In other Nymex trading, gasoline for August delivery rose 0.72 cent to settle at $1.6466 a gallon and heating oil gained 0.8 cent to settle at $1.5119 a gallon. Natural gas for August delivery rose 16.6 cents, settling $3.429 per 1,000 cubic feet.

In London, Brent prices rose 17 cents to settle at $60.86 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.

Japan stocks snap 9-day losing streak

2009-07-15T04:01:00.000+07:00

TOKYO —

Japan stocks snapped a nine-day losing streak Tuesday, propelled by a weakening yen and strong overnight gains on Wall Street.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 stock average rose 211.48 points, or 2.3%, to 9,261.81. The broader Topix index rose 1.9% to 868.57.

Exporters benefited as the dollar climbed back above the 93-yen line, and financial issues followed their U.S. counterparts higher.

Rising bank stocks propelled U.S. indexes to their biggest one-day gain in six weeks Monday after influential banking analyst Meredith Whitney raised her rating on Goldman Sachs Group Inc. The Dow Jones industrials jumped more than 2%.

“Investors were looking for buying cues,” said Seiichi Miura, an equity strategist for Mitsubishi UFJ Securities in Tokyo. “So the gains overnight on Wall Street and the positive comments about Goldman Sachs provided that incentive.”

Nomura Holdings Inc, Japan’s biggest brokerage, shot up 6.9% to 721 yen, while rival Daiwa Securities Group Inc advanced 3.8% to 518 yen.

Miura said further moves will depend on second-quarter results this week from Goldman and other financial giants—Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase & Co, and Citigroup Inc—as well hundreds of earnings reports from other sectors.

Japanese automakers headed north after the Nikkei financial daily reported that Nissan Motor Co and Honda Motor Co are boosting production capacity in China. Nissan surged 7.3% to 545 yen, and Honda closed up 2.7% at 2,435 yen.

Beverage company Kirin Holdings Co edged up 0.7% to 1,401 yen, extending gains after confirming that it’s considering a merger with smaller rival Suntory Holdings Ltd.

“The two would be able to forge a complementary relationship over a broad range of areas, including alcoholic beverages and soft drinks in the domestic market, food products in Asia and business expansion in China,” Credit Suisse analyst Yoshiyasu Okihira said in a note to clients.

In currencies, the dollar was trading at 93.24 yen from 92.97 yen late Monday. The euro stood at $1.4002 from $1.3976.

Copyright 2009 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

G8 leaders 'hopeful on economy'

2009-07-12T09:54:00.001+07:00

Leaders of the major industrial powers, the G8, say there are signs of stabilisation in the world economy but warned that "significant risks remain".

The statement came as the International Monetary Fund said the world economy was beginning to pull out of recession.

The G8 summit is being held in the town of L'Aquila, Italy, where nearly 300 people died in an earthquake in April.

UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown said later on Wednesday that the summit has agreed tough new carbon emissions cuts.

He said the G8 had agreed it would cut carbon emissions by 80% by 2050 with the rest of the world committed to a 50% cut over the same period.

Mr Brown said the G8 would try to prevent global average temperatures rising more than 2C above pre-industrial levels.

The summit agenda is also expected to include food security, North Korea and Iran.

The area where the three-day summit is being held is still suffering aftershocks and an evacuation plan is in place in case a serious tremor should hit.
See a map of summit venues

Security is also tight and at least 36 protesters have already been arrested.

US President Barack Obama arrived on Wednesday, as did British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev flew in fresh from talks with Mr Obama in Moscow in which they agreed a framework for new nuclear weapons cuts.

The leaders of France, Canada and Japan are also attending, along with EU representatives.

But Hu Jintao, China's president, cancelled plans to attend the summit and address G8 leaders, instead flying back to Beijing amid continuing unrest in China's western region of Xinjiang.

The summit opened with a working lunch for the leaders, but a draft declaration was already circulating amongst journalists covering the talks.

On the world economy it said: "While there are signs of stabilisation, including recovery in stock markets ... the situation remains uncertain and significant risks remain to economic and financial stability."

Other points reported to be in the draft communique include:

* G8 leaders will agree that the global economy is too shaky to begin rolling back massive fiscal stimulus plans
* The G8 is seeking to conclude the stalled Doha round of trade talks with developing nations by 2010
* The world's average temperature should not rise by more than 2C (3.6F)
* Gender equality will be promoted as a "key issue for aid effectiveness and to reduce poverty"

The statement echoed an assessment by the IMF on Wednesday which said the world economy was beginning to pull out of recession, but recovery was likely to be uneven and sluggish.

The IMF says problems in financial markets and banks remain, and developed economies are unlikely to resume growth until the second half of next year.

On climate change, an EU official told AFP news agency that the G8 had dropped a pledge to cut global greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2050.

"There is a very strong commitment to identify the global goal for substantially reducing global emissions by 2050, but there is no 50%," the official said.

G8 leaders are under pressure to get closer to a new deal on climate change management ahead of a crucial meeting in Copenhagen in December.

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi moved the summit to L'Aquila to show solidarity with the victims of April's earthquake.

He took Mrs Merkel on a tour of Onna, a nearby village almost flattened by the quake, and Mr Obama was later given a tour of L'Aquila.

Germany has pledged to help rebuild the church in Onna as a symbol of reconciliation for a massacre of 17 villagers by German troops in 1944.

"The world has changed. We have become friends with the people (of Onna) and Germany can help," Mrs Merkel said.

Mr Berlusconi may also be hoping to use the summit to put his domestic troubles behind him. His wife has filed for divorce and he has faced myriad accusations about wild parties and relations with young women and prostitutes.

Officials will also be hoping for more positive headlines than when Italy hosted the G8 in Genoa in 2001. That summit was marred by violent protests and police faced charges of brutality and misconduct.

But on Tuesday, police in Rome said they had arrested 36 people after masked protesters blocked roads, threw objects and set fire to tyres.

On Wednesday, dozens of protesters occupied four coal power plants in different regions of Italy, demanding tougher measures from G8 leaders in fighting climate change, Greenpeace said.

International political issues like the Iranian election aftermath, the Middle East, nuclear weapons and terrorism will also feature in talks.

African leaders will join the three-day summit on Friday to push for a new initiative to fund farming in the developing world and tackle global hunger.

The financial crisis has had a severe impact in some developing countries and campaign groups say it makes it all the more important for the G8 to live up to earlier commitments to increase aid, the BBC's Andrew Walker in L'Aquila says.

G8 pledges to boost food supplies

2009-07-12T09:49:00.002+07:00

Leaders of the G8 developed nations have pledged $20bn (£12bn) for efforts to boost food supplies to the hungry, on the final day of a summit in Italy.

The investment, which is $5bn more than had been expected, will fund a three-year initiative to help poor nations develop their own agriculture.

US President Barack Obama said the issue of food security was of huge importance to all nations in the world.

Richer nations had a moral obligation to help poorer nations, he said.

Mr Obama added that the G8 nations had agreed to commit $15bn for the new initiative going into Friday's meeting, but had then promised an additional $5bn in "hard commitments" during the talks.

"We do not view this assistance as an end in itself," he said.

We believe that the purpose of aid must be to create the conditions where it's no longer needed, to help people become self-sufficient, provide for their families and lift their standards of living."

Mr Obama, who has relatives in Kenya, said he had drawn on his family's personal experience in his discussions with other world leaders.

The US will reportedly contribute some $3.5bn to the programme.

Mr Obama met representatives of Angola, Algeria, Nigeria and Senegal in L'Aquila, where the summit is being held. He will also meet Pope Benedict XVI in Rome before embarking on an African tour later on Friday.

African leaders had earlier urged G8 nations to live up to past aid pledges.

BBC economics correspondent Andrew Walker says the idea is to put more emphasis on helping people feed themselves.

That is to be achieved with more investment in the agriculture of developing countries, and the G8 nations - Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the US - will provide significant resources, our correspondent adds.

However, although the total amount of overseas development aid (ODA) was increased in 2008, the rich countries are still behind on their target to double aid that was made at the G8 Gleneagles Summit in 2005 - and Italy is among the laggards. Not all the money pledged to the agriculture initiative at the summit will be new funding.

Kanaya Nwanze, president of the International Fund for Agricultural Development, told the BBC that he welcomed the announcement of more investment in agriculture in the developing world.

"It is time for us to switch because food security is not just food aid," he said.

"It is the ability of people to produce food locally and for them to be able to have access to local markets."

Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, who also attended Friday's talks, told Reuters news agency beforehand that the key message from African nations was that the G8 had to live up to its commitments.

Aid organisations have criticised some members for failing to deliver on the promise made at the 2005 G8 summit to increase annual aid levels to sub-Saharan Africa by $25bn by 2010.

Italy, the present summit host, has come under particular pressure for cutting, rather than increasing, aid this year.

Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has said the global economic crisis and Italy's mounting debts are responsible for a delay in Rome meeting its promises.

Climate challenge

On Thursday, when the summit focused on climate change, leaders from both developed and developing nations agreed that global temperatures should not rise more than 2C above 1900 levels.

That is the level above which, the UN says, the Earth's climate system would become dangerously unstable.

Mr Obama said the G8 and developing nations had made important strides in dealing with climate change.

But the G8 failed to persuade the developing countries to accept targets of cutting emissions by 50% by 2050.

On Wednesday, the G8 agreed its own members would work towards 80% cuts by the same date.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said the G8 had not done enough and should also set 2020 targets for emissions cuts.

BBC environment analyst Roger Harrabin says the declaration is a significant step, with all big countries - rich and poor - agreeing there is a scientific limit on the amount we can warm the climate.

But there is still a huge way to go, he says, as developing nations like India will not sign up to any 2050 targets unless rich nations show more determination and offer more cash.

US trade gap lowest in nine years

2009-07-12T09:47:00.001+07:00

The US saw its deficit narrow to $26bn (£16bn) in May, its lowest level in more than nine years, according to figures from the Commerce Department.

Imports continued to fall while exports increased, pushing the deficit to its lowest level since November 1999.

The deficit, the difference between what the US exports and imports, was 9.8% lower in May compared to April.

The deficit in 2009 to date is running at a yearly rate of $350bn - around half what it was for the whole of 2008.

"I think this was a very positive report and consistent with the idea that the US recession will come to an end in the next few months," said Mark Zandi, economist for rating agency Moody's.

But separate figures on Friday showed consumers were increasingly negative in early July.

Worries about a prolonged downturn and job security were key concerns hitting sentiment, the Reuters/University of Michigan survey suggested.

The preliminary reading for July dropped to 64.6 from June's final reading of 70.8.

Fewer cars

The trade deficit between the US and its single biggest trading partner, Canada fell to its lowest level in 15 years at $628m.

And the US deficit with Japan dropped its lowest level in more than 20 years, at $1.9bn.

The deficit with China meanwhile added 4.4% to $17.5bn - though this is below the level seen in 2008.

Figures from China recently showed a fall in exports and imports for June - though less than predicted.

Fewer cars, auto-parts, civilian aircraft and computers were imported to the US in June.

Canada jobless less than expected

2009-07-12T09:44:00.001+07:00

Canada saw fewer job losses than expected in June, but the unemployment rate hit an 11-year high, data shows.

The number of job losses for the month was 7,400, after falling 42,000 in May. Analysts expected a fall of 35,000.

While the figure pushed the rate of unemployment up from 8.4% to 8.6%, this was also less than forecast.

The government said employment remained will below its October 2008 peak, but noted a shift in the pace of the downward trend in the second quarter.

Net job losses for the three months to the end of June was 13,000, after falling 273,000 in the first three months of the year.

However, while 47,500 full time jobs were lost last month, around 40,100 part-time positions were added.

"The job report is more good news than bad, but it would have been much better had the jobs been full-time" said Dale Orr, an economist and private consultant.

Figures recently showed Canada's economy shrank by 5.4% on an annualised basis during the first quarter after the economy shrank by 3.7% in the last quarter of 2008.

Despite being the worst result for 18 years, it was better than expected.

Geithner urges derivatives curbs

2009-07-12T09:39:00.002+07:00

US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner wants securities and futures regulators to police the largely unregulated over-the-counter market in derivatives.

Derivatives are the complex financial instruments that brought down some of Wall Street's biggest names.

AIG and Lehman Brothers were among the firms ruined by dealing in derivatives.

In testimony to Congress, Mr Geithner said his plan would "help prevent market manipulation, fraud and other abuses" by keeping regulators informed.

New regulation

The $450 trillion (£278 trillion) privately-traded global derivatives market includes the notorious credit default swaps, the financial instrument which devastated AIG.

Four large banks control more than 90% of the derivatives market in the US: JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup and Goldman Sachs.

Mr Geithner is now proposing that all standardised derivative contracts be cleared through well-regulated central clearing houses, and executed either on regulated exchanges or regulated electronic trade execution systems.

He also wants to move towards "convergence of the regulatory frameworks that apply to securities and futures markets, and establishing more uniform standards and enforcement of standards for financial products and activities across the system".

It is also proposed that all major dealers in derivatives would be subject to "substantial supervision and regulations".

These regulations would include conservative capital requirements and strong business conduct standards.

'Too weak'

"This financial crisis has exposed a set of core problems with our financial system," said Mr Geithner.

"The system permitted an excessive build-up of leverage, both outside the banking system and within the banking system.

"The shock absorbers that are critical to preserving the stability of the financial system - capital, margin, and liquidity cushions in particular - were inadequate to withstand the force of the global recession, and they left the system too weak to withstand the failure of major financial institutions."

Mr Geithner said the US had not had an adequate set of tools to contain the risk of broader damage to the economy and to manage the failure of large, complex financial institutions.

"Risk management practices at financial firms failed to keep abreast of the rising complexity of financial instruments."

Toyota mulls liquidating joint production firm with GM in California

2009-07-11T13:02:00.001+07:00

NEW YORK —

Toyota Motor Corp said Friday it will consider liquidating New United Motor Manufacturing Inc, a Fremont, California-based joint manufacturing venture with General Motors Corp.

Toyota revealed the plan following GM’s announcement the same day that a new GM, now majority-owned by the U.S. government, has emerged from the bankrupt GM by taking over the best assets of the Detroit-based automaker, such as Cadillac and Chevrolet.

Japan stocks edge down as yen keeps climbing

2009-07-11T12:59:00.000+07:00

TOKYO —

Japanese stocks were virtually flat Friday, ending an anemic week that saw the benchmark index fall more than 5 percent.

The Nikkei 225 stock average fell 3.78 points, or 0.04%, to 9,287.28 in thin trading. It was the Nikkei’s eighth straight loss.

The broader Topix index declined 0.2% to 872.50.

Investors have grown increasingly cautious over the past week amid doubts about a speedy economic recovery, a sharp appreciation of the yen and nerves about U.S. corporate earnings reports next week.

Recent foreign exchange volatility spells trouble for the nation’s exporters like Toyota Motor Corp and Sony Corp. A stronger yen means Japanese products are more expensive in foreign markets, and it reduces the value of overseas earnings when repatriated to Japan.

Most companies have based their earnings forecasts this year on the assumption that $1 buys 95 yen. The dollar fell under the 93-yen level Friday in Asia.

Sony fell 0.9% to 2,230 yen, Nintendo Co lost 1% to 25,942 yen, and Hitachi Ltd shed 3.9% to 272 yen.

Shares of discount clothing chain operator Fast Retailing Co fell 0.9% to 11,590 yen, despite reporting strong profit growth Thursday and boosting its net profit outlook for the year ending August by 19%.

The figures were “encouraging, but since they were effectively in line with market forecasts they do not leave a particularly positive impression,” Dairo Murata, an analyst with Credit Suisse in Tokyo, said in a note to clients.

Other retailers fared better, with Seven & i Holdings Co jumping 2.4% to 2,120 yen and department store operator Takashimaya Co up 2.7% at 717 yen.

In currencies, the dollar was trading at 92.71 yen from 93.02 yen late Thursday. The euro stood at $1.3912 from $1.4018.

Bank of England holds key rate at 0.5 percent

2009-07-11T12:55:00.000+07:00

LONDON – The Bank of England kept its key interest rate on hold at a record low 0.5 percent Thursday and surprise markets by saying it would not for the moment seek to expand its 125 billion pound cash injection into the British economy.

The rate decision surprised no one but most analysts had expected the Bank to announce that it was pumping in another 25 billion pounds ($40.5 billion) into the financial system in a further attempt to get banks lending again. At present, it has only asked to use 125 billion pounds.

British government made available up to 150 billion pounds in March for asset purchases and most analysts had thought that the central bank was close to exhausting the money it currently has access to.

Instead, the Bank of England's rate-setting monetary policy committee said in its statement accompanying the rate decision that it will take another month to use up its current financial firepower, though it did not say whether that was because it was slowing down its purchases of government bonds.

By the next rate-setting meeting in August, the Bank of England will be armed with its latest projections for the British economy.

"The Committee will review the scale of the program again at its August meeting, alongside its latest inflation projections," the MPC said.

Analysts reckon that may be a good time for the Bank of England to determine the effects of the asset purchase program on the wider economy — in particular whether there is clear evidence that the money supply and lending have increased.

"A further extension through the autumn is needed, and clear communication of the Bank's intentions throughout will be critical in order to prepare the markets," said Ian McCafferty, chief economic adviser to the Confederation of British Industry, the country's biggest business lobby group.

By buying assets such as government bonds from banks, the central bank puts more cash in their hands in hopes they will lend it to business and consumers and get the economy going again.

A key communication to the markets will be the minutes to the meeting. The markets will be interested to see whether the monetary policy committee thinks so-called quantitative easing, or QE, is working. The minutes will be published on July 22.

So far, the jury is out. The Bank of England's own data show that credit conditions remain tight and lending to business fell in April and May despite signs elsewhere that the recession eased during the second quarter. In the first three months of the year, the British economy contracted by a massive 2.4 percent from the previous quarter.

Benjamin Williamson, an economist at the Centre for Economic and Business Research in London, said the policy has at least "put the plug on the contraction of money" that was taking place as banks hoarded their cash balances to boost their capital bases. Moreover, he said it also looks like it is propping up prices.

Fears were mounting earlier in the year that a dangerous deflationary spiral of falling prices would emerge, further undermining the British economy.

Though inflation in the year to May stood at 2.2 percent, above the Bank's 2 percent target, it is expected to drop in coming months amid falling commodity prices and a sharp first quarter contraction.

Williamson said deflation remains a danger for the British economy especially as earnings growth has ground to a halt and the number of unemployed rises up towards 3 million.

"The economy is taking some strong medicine with quantitative easing and it is difficult to predict exactly when it will be healthy enough to stop," he said.

Oil below $60 as traders eye company results

2009-07-11T12:46:00.000+07:00

VIENNA – Oil prices slid well below $60 a barrel Friday as investors braced for company earnings reports next week that will provide clues on the strength of crude demand.

While global appetite for crude over the next few months remains unclear, expectations are that it will increase by next year, with the International Energy agency predicting a 1.7 percent rebound in demand by next year.

Benchmark crude for August delivery was down $1.58 at $58.83 a barrel by afternoon European electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. On Thursday, the contract rose 27 cents to settle at $60.41.

Oil had bobbed near $60 a barrel the last two days after dropping from an eight-month intraday high of $73.38 on June 30 on investor concern that a rally since March wasn't justified by weak global crude demand.

"All the focus is on demand," said Christoffer Moltke-Leth, head of sales trading for Saxo Capital Markets in Singapore. "The second quarter earnings season is going to be very important for crude."

"If we see disappointments there, people will say we've gone too far, too fast."

The Paris-based IEA looked further ahead, predicting in its monthly survey that economic recovery in developing countries will help counter a two-year drop in oil usage sparked by the global recession.

It said global oil demand will increase by 1.4 million barrels a day in 2010 to 85.2 million barrels a day — a "strong rebound" that would be led by growth in developing countries.

The IEA left its forecast for 2009 oil demand unchanged, and still expects it to drop 2.9 percent.

Still the direction of the oil market remained unclear in the short run, with prices poised to rise substantially above — or fall precipitously below — the $60 mark.

"If the bulls are going to put up a defense, this is where it will occur," wrote trader and analyst Stephen Schork, in his Schork Report. "If they succeed, then this support will act as a springboard for a second run at $75. If they fail, the path towards a $40-handle will be wide open."

Prices were supported Thursday after Aluminum maker Alcoa Inc., the first Dow Jones industrial average component to release earnings, reported a narrower-than-expected loss.

Results over the next few weeks from multinational mass market retailers — such as Colgate Palmolive, PepsiCo, and Johnson & Johnson — will help investors better gauge the strength of the global economy.

"These companies have a good feel for how demand is around the world," Moltke-Leth said. "What they say is going to be important for the near-term outlook for oil."

In other Nymex trading, gasoline for August delivery fell by nearly 3 cents to $1.65, while heating oil lost almost 4 cents to fetch $1.50 a gallon. Natural gas for August delivery shed 5 cents at $3.36 per 1,000 cubic feet.

In London, Brent prices fell $1.24 to $59.86 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.

Wall Street mixed in hesitant trade

2009-07-09T06:30:00.001+07:00

Wall Street finished narrowly mixed Wednesday with investors cautious about the economic outlook at the kickoff of the corporate earnings season.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended with a gain of 14.81 points (0.18 percent) to 8,178.41, after wobbling in and out of positive territory.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite eked out a gain of 1.00 points (0.06 percent) to 1,747.17 and the broad-market Standard & Poor's 500 index lost 1.47 points (0.17 percent) to 879.56.

"It was a wishy-washy session on the Street today, as traders digested the latest economic and energy data, and prepared for the start of second-quarter earnings season," said Andrea Kramer at Schaeffer's Investment Research.

Kramer noted that stocks were lower for much of the day but "staged a late-session rebound in the wake of surprisingly strong demand for 10-year Treasury notes, which eased fears about Uncle Sam's ability to finance spending."

Analysts at Charles Schwab & Co. said that in the absence of fresh economic news, the market awaited the kickoff of corporate earnings seasons -- with Alcoa the first of the blue chips to release results -- for clues on an economic recovery.

"Corporate bottom lines are likely to come under scrutiny this season as the Street is looking for signs of growth outside of aggressive cost cutting," the analysts said.

After the bell, Alcoa reported a net loss of 454 million dollars in the second quarter, which was not as bad as feared when special charges are excluded. The aluminum maker ended the regular session with a gain of 0.53 percent at 9.46 dollars.

The market close came before the announcement of a big tech sector deal. Computer storage giant EMC, up 0.24 percent at 12.52, won the bidding for rival Data Domain, which ended down 0.15 percent at 22.90 dollars.

EMC agreed to pay 33.50 dollars a share or 2.1 billion dollars, topping a bid from NetApp, which gained 1.66 percent to 18.39 dollars.

Among other stocks in focus, Google climbed 1.48 percent to 402.49 dollars after the Internet giant said it was preparing a new operating system for personal computers to compete with Windows by Microsoft, up 0.13 percent at 22.56 dollars.

Electric utility NRG Energy rose 5.75 percent to 23.35 dollars after rejecting a sweetened takeover bid from rival Exelon, up 0.96 percent at 48.21 dollars.

Bonds firmed. The yield on the 10-year US Treasury bond dipped to 3.289 percent from 3.460 percent Tuesday while that on the 30-year bond eased to 4.164 percent against 4.308 percent. Bond yields and prices move in opposite directions.

"Investor demand for Treasuries was robust, sending prices higher and yields sharply lower," said Sara Kline at Moody's Economy.com. "The afternoon auction of 10-year government debt was well received."

JAL to cut Chubu-Paris flights in October

2009-07-09T06:26:00.000+07:00

Thursday 09th July, 06:24 AM JST

NAGOYA —

Japan Airlines plans to cut all flights between Central Japan International Airport and Paris from the end of October as part of its restructuring, sources said Wednesday. Japan’s largest airline has been stepping up measures to reduce money-losing flights nationwide after it inked a deal to receive state-backed emergency loans to turn its business around.

JAL currently operates seven regular flights per week between the airport in Aichi Prefecture and the French capital, but demand for travel has dropped sharply due to the economic downturn and fears about the spread of the new influenza strain. For the April-June period, the routes have been operating at around 60% capacity, JAL said.

Bank may pump more cash into UK

2009-07-09T06:21:00.001+07:00

The Bank of England is expected to keep interest rates at their historic low of 0.5% on Thursday.
But it may announce an extension of its quantitative easing scheme under which it prints money to buy bonds in order to stimulate the economy.

At the moment it plans to spend £125bn, but it can increase that by £25bn without asking the Treasury.

At the current rate of spending, the £125bn will all have been spent in the next two weeks.

Taking on the extra £25bn would allow the Bank's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) to see the next set of quarterly economic forecasts before it decides whether to ask the Treasury to extend the scheme further.

Continuing declines

At its last meeting, the MPC noted there had been encouraging news on the economy.

"Overall, the risk of a continued sharp contraction on output in the near term had receded somewhat," the minutes from the June meeting said.

However, the committee added that there was not enough evidence to suggest that the medium-term outlook for the economy had changed significantly since the Bank's last Inflation Report in May.

While survey evidence from the likes of the British Chambers of Commerce suggests that economic conditions may be improving, economic data has showed continuing declines.

Since the MPC last met, the amount that the UK economy contracted in the first three months of the year has been raised from 1.9% to 2.4%, a decline not exceeded for 51 years.

Also, UK unemployment rose to 2.261 million in the three months to April, the highest since November 1996, while industrial output fell by an unexpectedly large amount in May following April's rise.

Oil below $62 on recovery doubts

2009-07-09T06:14:00.000+07:00

By GEORGE JAHN, Associated Press Writer

VIENNA – Oil prices slipped below the $62 a barrel mark Wednesday reflecting growing concerns over a slower-than-expected recovery in the global economy and OPEC predictions of a lasting crimp in world demand.

Prices were lower for the sixth straight day from a peak of above $73 last week, in tandem with continued weakness in Asian stock markets and a stronger U.S. dollar.

Benchmark crude for August delivery fell $1.06 to $61.87 by afternoon in European electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. On Tuesday, the contract fell $1.12 to settle at $62.93.

"Worries about the state of the global economy and that the recovery won't be fast enough are causing both the equities and oil markets to tumble," said Victor Shum, an energy analyst with consultancy Purvin & Gertz in Singapore.

The global economic data — from rising unemployment to plunging exports — is still grim and most economists think the nearly two-year long recession has not yet bottomed out.

OPEC's annual report on supply and demand reflected expectations of continuing weak demand

The 12 nation organization said that demand for its crude has fallen so sharply because of the world recession that it will take another four years to recover to 2008 levels.

OPEC meets more than a third of the world's annual oil demand, which the International Energy Agency has put at nearly 86 million barrels a day for 2008 — about 2.5 million barrels more than for recession-ridden 2009.

In its annual report, the organization said the world would need 87.9 million barrels of crude a day by 2013 — nearly 6 million barrels less than previously expected. Of that, said the report, OPEC would need to produce 31 million barrels a day, compared to a daily 31.2 million barrels last year.

Unemployment in Europe surged in May to a 10-year high with more than 15 million people out of work. In the United States, the jobless rate jumped to a 26-year high of 9.5 percent in June as U.S. employers cut a larger-than-expected 467,000 jobs.

"Economic news remains mixed, with stock markets also losing ground," noted Vienna's JBC Energy, in linking the fall in crude to concerns that the world recession still has some ways to go. "Calls for a second U.S. economic stimulus package by a member of the U.S. president's economic advisory panel were also taken as a negative sign for the status of the country's economy."

Shum said oil prices face continuous downward pressure and may drop to below $50 a barrel in the coming weeks.

"So far there is no clear evidence of oil demand returning. Prices at $60-$70 a barrel for oil is way too expensive given the weak state of oil demand," he said.

Stockpiles of gasoline have increased steadily for the past four weeks during a time when traffic volumes usually peak. Supply data coming from the Department of Energy on Wednesday is expected to show that trend continuing.

In its short-term outlook released Tuesday, the department said it expects consumption of liquid petroleum to shrink 3.3 percent this year. Still, it expects oil to average about $70 per barrel for second half of the year.

Oil prices have doubled since the beginning of the year and that volatility has brought increased scrutiny from Washington. Federal regulators said Tuesday they would examine whether the government should impose limits on the number of futures contracts in oil and other energy commodities held by speculative traders.

Investors have plowed millions into exchange-traded funds like the United States Natural Gas Fund. The funds allow individuals to buy shares that track commodities like natural gas.

In other Nymex trading, gasoline for August delivery slid by more than 3 cents to $1.70 a gallon and heating oil lost nearly 3 pennies to fetch $1.57. Natural gas for August delivery was down more than 8 cents at $3.35 per 1,000 cubic feet.

In London, Brent prices shed 89 cents to $62.34 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.

New GM to be created as judge approves plan to sell assets

2009-07-07T07:42:00.001+07:00

NEW YORK —

Bankrupt U.S. auto giant General Motors Corp said Monday it will reemerge in a streamlined form following a federal judge’s approval of its plan to sell profitable assets to a government-backed company. Judge Robert Gerber of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York issued the ruling late Sunday, only around a month after GM filed for Chapter 11 protection on June 1, according to GM.

The government-funded company, NGMCO Inc, will change its name to General Motors Co The new GM will be made up of four brands—Chevrolet, Cadillac, Buick and GMC—and will seek to be relisted in 2010. The plan calls for selling other GM brands such as Pontiac and Hummer.

Japan pledges $12 bil to help developing nations benefit from trade

2009-07-07T07:39:00.000+07:00

GENEVA —

Japan pledged Monday to provide $12 billion (1.14 trillion yen) to help developing countries take advantage of world trade to facilitate their economic growth during the three-year period to 2011. Shintaro Ito, state secretary for foreign affairs, made the pledge as the representative of the Japanese government to a World Trade Organization conference on the “Aid for Trade” process.

The process, launched at a WTO ministerial conference in 2005, is designed to help poor nations, particularly least developed countries, build trade-related infrastructure like ports and roads and train citizens in trade-related matters, in order to take full advantage of global trade liberalization.

Bank to get powers to cut credit

2009-07-07T07:33:00.001+07:00

The Bank of England is to be given new powers to control the amount of money that banks and building societies lend, the BBC has learnt.
A new committee will take members from the Bank of England as well as the Financial Services Authority (FSA).

It will try to stifle lending booms, of the kind seen between 2005 and 2007, as well as stimulating lending during recessions such as the current one.

The plans are due to be published by the Treasury on Wednesday.

But the new committee will not be set up quickly because there are disagreements between the Treasury, Bank of England and FSA about what tools it should be given, according to the BBC's business editor, Robert Peston.

One possibility is that banks should have limits on the amount they are allowed to lend relative to the amount of capital they hold.

The committee would then be able to raise or lower those limits depending on the state of the economy.

Alternatively, the committee could be given powers to set limits on the amounts that banks are allowed to lend to housebuyers, relative to their income.

Another possibility is that the committee could be given powers to impose targeted taxes on loans that could be used to limit lending in a boom.

Our correspondent says the plan represents an important cultural and economic break from the policies and ideology of the past 20 years, during which there was a political consensus that there should be no attempt to ration lending and that a free market in loans was essential to British prosperity.

Wage restraint seen as big hope on budget deficit

2009-07-07T07:31:00.001+07:00

By Chris Giles and George Parker

Wage restraint remains one of the main hopes for rectifying Britain’s budget deficit – due to reach £175bn this year – despite the opposition to a pay freeze voiced on Monday by public sector unions.

Steve Bundred, the head of the Audit Commission, ignited the debate about pay at the weekend when he argued that freezing public sector pay was “a pain-free way of cutting public spending”, citing the fact that the total pay bill is large, workers in the state sector have done well over the past decade and changes can be forced through relatively quickly.

Oil plunges below $64 on fears recovery may lag

2009-07-07T07:24:00.000+07:00

By PABLO GORONDI, Associated Press Writer

Oil prices plunged nearly $3 to below $64 a barrel Monday as dismal unemployment figures from the U.S. and Europe last week sparked investor doubts about any nascent economic recovery.

A significant fall in natural gas prices — a likely sign that industries are still struggling and unlikely to add jobs — as well as gains by the U.S. dollar and falling stock markets around the world all helped push energy prices lower.

By mid-afternoon in Europe, benchmark crude for August delivery was down $2.93 to $63.80 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Earlier in the session, the contract fell as low as $63.40. It last settled on Thursday at $66.73.

Trading was closed in the U.S. on Friday for the Independence Day holiday.

Oil has tumbled from an eight-month high above $73 a barrel last week after gloomy U.S. consumer confidence and jobs numbers fueled doubts about a rally that has doubled the price of crude since March.

"It's not looking too pretty in terms of economic data," said Christoffer Moltke-Leth, head of sales trading for Saxo Capital Markets in Singapore. "The demand side fear is coming back into play."

A Labor Department report last week showed the U.S. economy lost a larger-than-expected 467,000 jobs in June. The unemployment rate climbed to 9.5 percent, a 26-year high. Unemployment in the 16 countries that use the euro spiked to a 10-year high in May, also at 9.5 percent.

"More and more people are becoming convinced we won't see a full-blown recovery any time soon," Moltke-Leth said. He said he expects the oil price to soon test the $60 a barrel level.

"With economic news still gloomy, oil demand sluggish, stocks plentiful and no supply side disruption in sight, we could be on the verge of a short term downward price correction," said KBC Market Services in London.

The dollar's rise against other major currencies also weighed on oil prices, as investors who seek out commodities as a hedge against dollar weakness and inflation returned to the U.S. currency.

The euro was trading at $1.3915, down from $1.4001 late Friday in London, while the British pound fell to US$1.6164 from $1.6341.

Lending some support to prices was another attack on oil operations in Nigeria. Militants said on Sunday they attacked a Royal Dutch Shell oil facility in southern Nigeria, the latest sabotage in a campaign that has undermined output from Africa's largest producer.

In other Nymex trading, gasoline for August delivery fell 5.14 cents to $1.7394 a gallon and heating oil slid 6.21 cents to $1.6395. Natural gas for August delivery plummeted 19.5 cents to $3.420 per 1,000 cubic feet.

In London, Brent prices dropped $1.51 to $64.10 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.

European stocks calm as US readies for 4th of July

2009-07-05T20:50:00.001+07:00

By PAN PYLAS, AP Business Writer

LONDON – European stock markets traded in a narrow range Friday as investors caught their breath after big losses the day before on U.S. jobs data. Wall Street's closure for the Independence Day holiday kept trading volumes exceptionally light.

The FTSE 100 index of leading British shares closed up 2.01 points, or 0.1 percent, at 4,236.28, while Germany's DAX fell 10.28 points, or 0.2 percent, to 4,708.21. The CAC-40 in France was 3.10 points, or 0.1 percent, higher at 3,119.51.

Earlier, Asian markets mostly fell but the losses were tame compared to those recorded on Wall Street on Thursday after the payrolls data, which showed U.S. employers slashed 467,000 jobs in June — 100,000 more than anticipated.

That was also the first increase in monthly jobs losses since January.

"Yesterday's U.S. jobs data contained plenty of bad news and put a big question mark over the 'green shoot' thesis that we are through the worst and that economic recovery is around the corner," said Neil Mackinnon, chief economist at ECU Group.

Equities rose from the middle of March until the start of June on hopes that the U.S. economy in particular will recover from recession sooner than anticipated. Many investors saw stock valuations as particularly cheap and started buying. But bad economic news over the last few weeks brought an abrupt end to the rally and altered the general mood prevailing among investors.

Nevertheless, stocks around the world still managed to achieve one of the best quarters in years during the second quarter. The S&P 500 index in the U.S. rose around 16 percent during the quarter, its best performance since 1998, amid hopes of a global recovery despite worries about the banking system, public finances and the length and depth of the recession.

Trading has been subdued as the U.S. has a day off ahead of Saturday's 4th of July celebrations and many in London focused on the Wimbledon tennis championships semi-finals, where Andy Murray was facing American Andy Roddick as the markets closed in an attempt to become the first Briton for 71 years to make the final.

"With New York shut for Independence Day the boys and girls in equity trading rooms are levitating two inches above the carpet in anticipation of the two Andys swapping rackets at 50 paces... and care little about the vagaries of the market place," said David Buik, a markets analyst at BGC Partners in London.

Earlier, Japan's Nikkei 225 stock average dropped 60.08 points, or 0.6 percent, to 9,816.07, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng closed up 25.35 points, or 0.1 percent, to 18,203.40 after trading in the red most of the day.

Australia's benchmark fell 1.4 percent, and Singapore's main index finished down 1 percent.

China's Shanghai Composite index was largely flat. In Korea, the Kospi rebounded to close up 0.6 percent.

Oil prices rose in light holiday trading volume after tumbling the day before as the disappointing U.S. job numbers raised concerns about demand. Benchmark crude for August delivery fell 48 cents to $66.25 a barrel.

The dollar was up 0.1 percent at 96 yen, while the euro rose 0.3 percent to $1.3992.

____

AP Business Writer Jeremiah Marquez in Hong Kong contributed to this report.

Oil hovers above $66 after weak jobs data

2009-07-05T20:45:00.001+07:00

AP - Fri Jul 3, 9:14 am ET
By PABLO GORONDI, Associated Press Writer
AP - Oil prices hovered above $66 a barrel Friday in light holiday trading a day after grim unemployment numbers from the U.S. and Europe sent prices tumbling.

Oil prices hovered above $66 a barrel Friday in light holiday trading a day after grim unemployment numbers from the U.S. and Europe sent prices tumbling.

By mid-afternoon in Europe, benchmark crude for August delivery was down 16 cents to $66.57 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. On Thursday, it fell $2.58, nearly 4 percent, to settle at $66.73.

Trading in the U.S. is closed Friday for the Independence Day holiday.

Oil came off an eight-month intraday high of $73.38 a barrel earlier this week on growing investor concerns that a doubling of the crude price since March isn't justified by a sluggish global economy.

"Renewed concern over the global economy, reflected in lower equities, is the main driver of weaker oil market sentiment," said Britain's KBC Market Services. "However, in contrast to recent months, weak oil market fundamentals seem at last to be exerting some influence."

KBC mentioned rising oil inventories and U.S. gasoline stocks as evidence of weak demand.

"There is no longer a shortfall, or support, in any key sector of the oil complex," KBC said.

Weak jobs figures released Thursday suggested consumption will remain tepid and crude demand may not pick up quickly.

A Labor Department report showed the U.S. economy lost a larger-than-expected 467,000 jobs in June. The unemployment rate climbed to 9.5 percent, a 26-year high.

Unemployment in the 16 countries that use the euro spiked to a ten-year high in May, also at 9.5 percent.

The dismal economic data undermined investor confidence and sent the Dow Jones industrial average down 2.6 percent Thursday. Most Asian and European stock indexes also were lower Friday.

In other Nymex trading, gasoline for August delivery was down 0.73 cent to $1.7835 a gallon and heating oil rose 0.44 cent to $1.7060. Natural gas for August delivery rose 6.4 cents to $3.679 per 1,000 cubic feet.

In London, Brent prices slid 27 cents to $66.38 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.

Economists point to rising debt as next crisis

2009-07-05T20:37:00.000+07:00

Higher taxes and reduced federal benefits, services may be result

The soaring national debt is recorded on the National Debt Clock in New York. The national debt was $11,518,472,742,288 on Wednesday, acording to the Treasury Department.

WASHINGTON - The Founding Fathers left one legacy not celebrated on Independence Day but which affects us all. It's the national debt.

The country first got into debt to help pay for the Revolutionary War. Growing ever since, the debt stands today at a staggering $11.4 trillion — equivalent to about $37,000 for each and every American. And it's expanding by over $1 trillion a year.

The mountain of debt easily could become the next full-fledged economic crisis without firm action from Washington, economists of all stripes warn.

"Unless we demonstrate a strong commitment to fiscal sustainability in the longer term, we will have neither financial stability nor healthy economic growth," Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke recently told Congress.

Higher taxes, or reduced federal benefits and services — or a combination of both — may be the inevitable consequences.

The debt is complicating efforts by President Barack Obama and Congress to cope with the worst recession in decades as stimulus and bailout spending combine with lower tax revenues to widen the gap.

Interest payments on the debt alone cost $452 billion last year — the largest federal spending category after Medicare-Medicaid, Social Security and defense. It's quickly crowding out all other government spending. And the Treasury is finding it harder to find new lenders.

U.S. has been debt-free only once, in 1834-35
The United States went into the red the first time in 1790 when it assumed $75 million in the war debts of the Continental Congress.

Alexander Hamilton, the first treasury secretary, said, "A national debt, if not excessive, will be to us a national blessing."

Some blessing.

Since then, the nation has only been free of debt once, in 1834-1835.

The national debt has expanded during times of war and usually contracted in times of peace, while staying on a generally upward trajectory. Over the past several decades, it has climbed sharply — except for a respite from 1998 to 2000, when there were annual budget surpluses, reflecting in large part what turned out to be an overheated economy.

Middle East wars helped 'break' the debt clock
The debt soared with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and economic stimulus spending under President George W. Bush and now Obama.

The odometer-style "debt clock" near Times Square — put in place in 1989 when the debt was a mere $2.7 trillion — ran out of numbers and had to be shut down when the debt surged past $10 trillion in 2008.

The clock has since been refurbished so higher numbers fit. There are several debt clocks on Web sites maintained by public interest groups that let you watch hundreds, thousands, millions zip by in a matter of seconds.

The debt gap is "something that keeps me awake at night," Obama says.

He pledged to cut the budget "deficit" roughly in half by the end of his first term. But "deficit" just means the difference between government receipts and spending in a single budget year.

This year's deficit is now estimated at about $1.85 trillion.

Venezuela assumes control of bank

2009-07-05T20:32:00.000+07:00

By Will Grant
BBC News, Caracas

Venezuela has taken formal control of its third largest bank, the previously Spanish-owned Banco de Venezuela.

The first instalment of a $630m (£387m) price tag was made amid much ceremony in the capital Caracas, with nearly all the shares passing to the government.

The rest of the agreed price of $1.05bn (£645m) for the institution will be paid in October and December.

Both sides have declared themselves to be satisfied with outcome, but for very different reasons.

For Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, the acquisition of the bank, the country's largest in terms of deposits, is an important addition to the government's financial portfolio.

It comes quick on the heels of nationalisations in the energy, steel, cement and ceramics sectors.

For Spain's Grupo Santander, it has sold Banco de Venezuela to Mr Chavez for significantly more than it bought it for.

The move will be seen as an significant return on their investment amid the global economic crisis.

Spending chief urges pay freeze

2009-07-05T20:22:00.000+07:00

Public sector pay should be frozen or at least subject to "severe" restraint to help rebalance the public finances, says the head of a spending watchdog.

Audit Commission chief Steve Bundred told the Observer public sector workers had "done well" in the past 10 years and would "tolerate" modest reductions.

Chancellor Alistair Darling said public sector pay had to be "fair" to private sector employees as well.

Last year a policy to limit public pay rises to 2% prompted walkouts.

'Shroud-wavers'

Mr Bundred wrote: "At a time when inflation is likely to be between 2% and 3%, a pain-free way of cutting public spending would be to freeze public sector pay or at least impose severe pay restraint.

"This is especially true if real wages in the private sector are still falling."

He said it could provide £5bn of the £50bn that would have to be found through tax rises or spending cuts.

He said health and education spending should not be shielded as efficiency savings could be made in both.

"Don't believe the shroud-wavers who tell you grannies will die and children will starve if spending is cut. They won't. Cuts are inevitable and perfectly manageable," Mr Bundred said.

Asked about his comments, Mr Darling told Sky News: "Public sector pay obviously has got to reflect prevailing conditions, and in particular inflation has come way down.

"Of course we have got to be fair with regard to people who work in the private sector, many of whom have seen their pay conditions somewhere near freeze."

He said pay policy would be decided "over the next few weeks".

"It has got to be fair to people who work for the public sector just as we have to be fair to the private sector."

Bonuses

Public sector pay has proved a contentious issue for the government. Gordon Brown faced union anger in 2007 when he said public sector pay rises had to be held down to prevent inflation.

A 2% cap on public sector pay rises in 2008, at a time of rising living costs, was criticised as "morally bankrupt" by the Public and Commercial Services union and prompted walkouts.

Chris Keates, of the NASUWT teaching union said investment over the past 10 years followed decades of underfunding and criticised Mr Bundred's comments.

"The idea that you have to have some equity of misery, that because the private sector is suffering, the public sector must too is disgraceful," she told the Observer.

"What it is doing is not understanding the role of public services in a recession - to sustain and rebuild the economy," he added.

Shadow business secretary Ken Clarke said public sector pay had to reflect "the current low level of inflation".

He told Sky News: "When that is put to you by somebody like the head of the Audit Commission, you look at it as an option but you have got to put it alongside other options.

"Looking for constraint, you have got to decide whether that is really the best and fairest way of going about it."

Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman Vince Cable said an "absolute across-the-board freeze" in public sector pay did not make a "great deal of sense" because of different contractual obligations.

But he told Sky News there should be "an absolute and complete stop immediately to bonuses".

1,000 to lose jobs when Social Insurance Agency abolished

2009-07-05T20:20:00.000+07:00

Sunday 05th July, 04:45 AM JST

TOKYO —

Roughly 1,000 full-time employees of the Social Insurance Agency will lose their jobs when the agency is dissolved in January to make way for a new national pension management organization, according to officials of the agency and the welfare ministry.

About 10,000 employees of the agency, which currently has 13,100 full-time employees, will be taken on by the new pension agency while the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry will hire around 1,200 and about 700 are scheduled to retire or will quit voluntarily. The new pension body has yet to decide on the fate of around 200 agency employees who it previously offered jobs to. The new pension body has decided not to hire around 790 people upon whom the insurance agency has imposed punitive actions. Nearly 300 of them have managed to secure job offers from the welfare ministry.

© 2009 Kyodo News. All rights reserved. No reproduction or republication without written permission.

Mazda upgrades Premacy

2009-07-05T20:16:00.000+07:00

Sunday 05th July, 05:24 AM JST

HIROSHIMA —

Mazda Motor Corp has upgraded its Premacy (known as the Mazda5 in overseas markets) compact minivan in Japan. Popular due to its sporty styling and driving performance, the Mazda Premacy compact minivan has earned plaudits for its efficient seven-seat packaging, outstanding driving performance and sporty styling since its debut in 1999.

The range topping 20Z model grade now comes with specially designed aluminum alloy wheels and seat and door trim that enhance its sporty appearance. To highlight its sharp lines, exclusive Dark Plum Mica exterior body paint is also newly available for this model grade. In response to high demand, the mainstay 20CS grade has been augmented with a new fuel economy gauge and a freshly designed center panel. With the addition of these features and a full equipment review, the upgraded Mazda Premacy 20CS is even more affordable than before.

All Mazda Premacy FWD model grades qualify for Japan’s eco-car tax incentives, with 50 percent reductions on both the automobile acquisition tax and the automobile weight tax.

Manufacturer’s suggested retail prices (including sales tax) for front-wheel drive (FWD) models range from 1,820,000 to 2,195,000 yen.

Eurozone inflation turns negative

2009-07-04T23:53:00.000+07:00

The eurozone's annual rate of inflation turned negative in June for the first time since the single currency was introduced in 1999.

Prices in the 16-nation zone fell 0.1% in the past year, Eurostat said. The inflation rate had been 0% in May.

Inflation in the eurozone has been dragged down by lower energy and food prices, and by falling demand for goods from companies and households.

The European Central Bank's target rate for inflation is just below 2%.

Downward trend?

Some analysts fear that this is the start of a period of deflation for the eurozone.

Deflation is considered damaging to an economy as consumers tend to delay making purchases until prices fall further. Without consumer spending to stimulate growth, economic output falls.

"There are plenty of reasons to believe that the annual decline of 0.1% in June is just the beginning of a downward trend," said Daniele Antonucci from Capital Economics.

"At this stage, we expect negative inflation rates for the next six months or so. With factory gate prices falling, wage growth likely to slow sharply and a big amount of spare capacity in the economy, core inflation will decelerate considerably."

But European Central Bank officials have played down the threat of deflation, saying that any fall in prices is likely to be temporary and linked to the drop in oil price.

Inflation in the eurozone peaked at 4.1% in July last year when oil reached a record high of $147 a barrel.

The price of oil has since fallen back to about $70 a barrel.

Unemployment up again in eurozone

2009-07-04T23:50:00.001+07:00

The unemployment rate across the 16 countries using the euro rose to 9.5% in May from 9.3% in April, data from the Eurostat agency has shown.

It is the highest rate since May 1999. Fifteen million people were out of work, up by 273,000 from April.

In the 27-nation EU, the jobless rate was 8.9%, while the number unemployed rose by 385,000 to 21.5 million.

Spain had the highest unemployment rate at 18.7%, while the Netherlands had the lowest rate of 3.2%.

'Likely to continue'

"May's sharp increase in eurozone unemployment demonstrates that the 'green shoots of recovery' are not yet showing up in the labour market," said Martin van Vliet, an economist at ING.

"It would have been higher still if not for the short-time working schemes in some eurozone countries such as Germany and the Netherlands, where recent increases in unemployment have been less severe."

Short-time working is a system that allows companies to work less for up to six months while their loss of earnings is made up by the government.

"We think that unemployment is likely to continue to rise certainly through this year and actually through most of next year as well," said Nick Kounis, an economist at Fortis.

"We see the unemployment rate peaking at around 11.5%... at the end of next year."

Eurozone retail sales post fall

2009-07-04T23:46:00.000+07:00

Retail sales in countries that use the euro fell more than expected in May, a further sign that consumers are still limiting their spending, data shows.

Eurozone retail sales fell 0.4%, month-on-month, reversing April's 0.1% rise. On a yearly basis the drop in May was 3.3%, according to Eurostat figures.

As a whole, European member states that don't use the euro, including the UK and Sweden, saw sales fall 0.5%.

Individuals are cutting their spending as job losses continues to rise.

The latest figures suggest the chance of a consumer-led recovery is not likely soon.

"There was further confirmation today, if any were needed, that domestic demand is not set to ride to the rescue of the euro area economy any time soon," said Colin Ellis, economist at Daiwa Securities.

Sales of non-food items fell 0.6% last month, and by 3.4% compared to the same period a year earlier.

The April retail figure was revised down to 0.1% from an initial reading of 0.2%.

Earlier this week, figures showed the rate of eurozone inflation turned negative in June for the first time since the single currency was introduced in 1999.

Prices in the 16-nation zone fell 0.1% in the past year, Eurostat said. The inflation rate had been 0% in May.

Jobless rate rises to 26-year high

2009-07-04T23:21:00.001+07:00

U.S. employers cut a larger-than-expected 467,000 jobs in June and the unemployment rate climbed to a 26-year high of 9.5 percent. Workers also saw weekly wages fall, suggesting Americans will have little appetite to spend and the economy's road to recovery will be bumpy.

The Labor Department report, released Thursday, showed that even as the recession flashes signs of easing, companies likely will want to keep a lid on costs and be wary of hiring until they feel certain the economy is on solid ground.

President Barack Obama, in an interview with The Associated Press, said he is "deeply concerned" about unemployment and conceded that too many families are worried about "whether they will be next" to suffer an economic blow. He also expressed disappointment over the weak employment figures, acknowledging that "what we are still seeing is too many jobs lost."

June's payroll reductions were deeper than the 363,000 that economists expected and average weekly earnings dropped to the lowest level in nearly a year.

However, the rise in the unemployment rate from 9.4 percent in May wasn't as sharp as the expected 9.6 percent. Still, many economists predict the jobless rate will hit 10 percent this year, and keep rising into next year, before falling back.

All told, 14.7 million people were unemployed in June.

If laid-off workers who have given up looking for new jobs or have settled for part-time work are included, the unemployment rate would have been 16.5 percent in June, the highest on records dating to 1994.

"We were on the road of things getting less bad in the jobs market, and that has been temporarily waylaid," said economist Ken Mayland, president of ClearView Economics. "But this doesn't change my view that the recession will end later this year. We're probably two months away."

On Wall Street, the employment news pulled stocks lower. The Dow Jones industrials lost about 175 points in afternoon trading, and broader indices also fell. Overseas markets dropped after a report showed unemployment in Europe rose to a 10-year high in May.

Since the recession began in December 2007, the economy has lost a net total of 6.5 million jobs.

As the downturn bites into sales and profits, companies have turned to layoffs and other cost-cutting measures to survive. Those include holding down workers' hours and freezing or cutting pay.

The average work week in June fell to 33 hours, the lowest on records dating to 1964.

"We are in some very hard and severe economic times," Labor Secretary Hilda Solis said in an interview. "The president and I are both not happy."

Still, Solis thought it was too early to consider a second government stimulus, saying more time is needed for the current one to take hold. "I do think the public needs to be patient," she said. "We know they are hurting."

Layoffs in May turned out to smaller, 322,000, versus the 345,000 first reported. But job cuts in April were a bit deeper — 519,000 versus 504,000, according to government data.

Even with higher pace of job cuts in June, the report indicates that the worst of the layoffs have passed. The deepest job cuts of the recession came in January, when 741,000 jobs vanished, the most in any month since 1949.

For the second quarter, job losses averaged 436,000 a month. That was down from a monthly average of 691,000 in the first quarter. Economists predict the economy will continue to lose jobs through the rest of this year, although they hope at a slower pace.

And there was some other encouraging job news Thursday.

CNBC

In a separate report, the department said the number of newly laid-off workers filing applications for unemployment benefits fell last week to 614,000, in line with economists' predictions. The number of people continuing to draw benefits unexpectedly dropped to 6.7 million.

Meanwhile, the Commerce Department said orders placed with U.S. factories rose 1.2 percent in May, the most in 11 months. The increase also was better than economists expected.

Still, job losses last month were widespread.

Professional and business services slashed 118,000 jobs, more than double the 48,000 cut in May. Manufacturers cut 136,000, down from 156,000. Construction companies got rid of 79,000 jobs, up from 48,000 the previous month. Retailers eliminated 21,000, up from 17,600. Financial activities cut 27,000, following 30,000 in May. The government cut 52,000 jobs, up from 10,000 the previous month. Leisure and hospitality cut 18,000 jobs, erasing a gain of the same size in May.

One of the few industries adding jobs: education and health services, which added 34,000 positions last month and 47,000 in May.

Mayland and other economists said a good chunk of June's job losses likely were affected by shutdowns at General Motors Corp. and fallout from the troubled auto industry, which should let up later this summer. The government said employment at factories making autos and parts fell by 27,000 last month.

Payroll losses and the unemployment rate are derived from two separate statistical surveys. The jobless rate probably would have moved higher if not for people dropping out of the labor force.

With the weakness in the job market, workers saw wages drop in June.

Average weekly earnings fell from $613.34 in May, to $611.49 in June, the lowest level in nearly a year and the first drop since March. That raises fresh questions about consumers' willingness to spend in the months ahead.

The worst crises in the housing, credit and financial markets since the 1930s have plunged the country into the longest recession since World War II.

6 major Japanese carmakers resume weekend output thanks to tax breaks

2009-07-04T23:13:00.000+07:00

Saturday 04th July, 11:40 AM JST

TOKYO —

Six of Japan’s major automakers will resume plant operations on weekends to manufacture hybrids and other fuel-efficient cars amid nascent signs of an improvement in car demand thanks to recently introduced government tax breaks. ‘‘In order for domestic production to improve, we need a recovery of global auto demand that will lead to exports,’’ Satoshi Aoki, chairman of the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association and Honda Motor Co, recently told reporters.

Toyota Motor Corp will restart weekend production to meet booming demand for the all-new Prius gasoline-electric hybrid car, which has received orders for over 200,000 units since its debut in mid-May. Toyota will operate the Prius plant in Toyota, Aichi Prefecture, and its manufacturing unit Toyota Auto Body Co. will operate the plant in Kariya in the same prefecture on July 11, a Saturday.

The subsidiary will also resume operations at its plant in Inabe, Mie Prefecture, which manufactures the Alphard and Vellfire minivans, on July 4 and 11.

Honda, Toyota’s main competitor in the hybrid race, has also seen a recovery in demand for its Insight hybrid hatchback and the Freed minivan after tax breaks for eco-friendly cars began in April.

Japan’s second-largest automaker will resume weekend operations on July 11 at its plant in Sayama, Saitama Prefecture, for the first time in eight months, and also at another plant in Suzuka, Mie Prefecture, for the first time since December.

Four other Japanese automakers—Mitsubishi Motors Corp, Mazda Motor Corp, Daihatsu Motor Co and Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd—will also take similar measures in July.

While signs of an easing in drastic production cuts are beginning to emerge, the automakers are still far from removing the measures altogether.

Mitsubishi Motors, for example, will resume output on Saturdays during this month at its Nagoya plant in the city of Okazaki in Aichi Prefecture on the back of robust sales of its Colt compact car.

But it also plans to suspend operations at its Mizushima plant in Kurashiki, Okayama Prefecture, for six days in July due to lackluster overseas sales.

© 2009 Kyodo News. All rights reserved. No reproduction or republication without written permission.

Japan stocks sag on dismal US jobless data

2009-07-04T23:10:00.000+07:00

Saturday 04th July, 04:47 AM JST

TOKYO —

Japanese stocks fell for a third straight day Friday, dragged down by renewed pessimism over a recovery in the global economy following dismal U.S. employment report.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 stock average shed 60.08 points, or 0.61 percent, to 9,816.07. In the morning session, the index lost more than 100 points. During the week, the Nikkei lost 0.6 percent.

The broader Topix index slipped 0.37 percent Friday to 920.62.

“The worse-than-expected U.S. jobless data really dampened sentiment and sparked fresh worries over an economic recovery,” said Masatoshi Sato, market analyst at Mizuho Investors Securities Co.

The Labor Department said Thursday U.S. employers slashed 467,000 jobs in June, far worse than the 363,000 that economists expected. The U.S. jobless rate rose to 9.5 percent in June from 9.4 percent in May.

Wall Street tumbled on the news, with the Dow Jones industrial sinking 2.6 percent Thursday to 8,280.74, the lowest close since May 22. U.S. markets will be closed Friday for Independence Day.

“Although investors agree the worst of the current recession is over, they are worried an economic recovery is going to be very slow,” Sato said.

Investors also stayed on the sidelines ahead of the July 8-10 summit of the G-8 industrialized nations. But Sato said market players expected few concrete steps on the global economy at the summit as the world leaders are likely to focus on issues like climate change, Iran’s postelection turmoil and North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats.

Toyota Motor Corp. rose 0.8 percent to 3,640 yen. Honda Motor Co., Japan’s No. 2 carmaker, was up 1.3 percent at 2,620 yen.

Sony Corp. dipped 1 percent to 2,440 yen. Japanese game maker Nintendo Co. fell 1.1 percent to 26,230 yen.

In currencies, the dollar rose to 96.00 yen from 95.92 yen late Thursday in New York. The euro stood at $1.4006 from $1.3951.

Copyright 2009 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Mizuho to raise up to $7.2 bln from share offer

2009-07-03T01:15:00.000+07:00

Thursday 02nd July, 02:22 PM JST

TOKYO —

Mizuho Financial Group Inc., Japan’s third-biggest bank by market value, will raise up to 693 billion yen ($7.2 billion) from selling new shares to repair its balance sheet after suffering big losses last fiscal year.

Mizuho said Wednesday it is offering 2.8 billion of common stock with an over-allotment option of almost 200 million shares. The price will be set between July 15-17, the Tokyo-based bank said.

The lender joins its bigger rivals in turning to investors for help after bad loans and steep equity losses triggered by the global financial crisis weakened their capital footing. Last month Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc. set pricing levels for its upcoming stock offering, which could bring in more than 920 billion yen.

Mizuho posted a group net loss of 588.8 billion yen ($6.1 billion) in the last fiscal year through March 31.

Capital strength will be a “key issue” for management because “it has become increasingly important for financial institutions to maintain a sufficient capital base amid a prolonged stagnation of both domestic and overseas economies,” Mizuho said in a statement.

In trading Wednesday, shares of Mizuho rose 2.2 percent to 231 yen. Mizuho’s announcement came as no surprise to investors, who had been tipped off by news reports earlier this week.

The offering will increase the number of common shares outstanding by 27 percent.

Copyright 2009 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.>

Morgan Stanley, Mitsubishi UFJ to form finance JV

2009-07-03T01:10:00.000+07:00

TOKYO —

Mitsubishi UFJ, Japan’s largest bank, and Morgan Stanley said Wednesday they will form a joint venture to pursue corporate financing business in the U.S., Canada and Latin America.

Mitsubishi UFJ is eager to expand its reach overseas and took a major step late last year, when it paid $9 billion for a 21 percent stake in Morgan Stanley. The deal was a lifeline for the U.S. bank, which was on the brink of collapse due to the unfolding financial crisis.

The companies said in March they would merge their Japanese brokerage units into a new securities company.

The joint venture annonunced Wednesday, Morgan Stanley MUFG Loan Partners, will be capitalized at $500,000, the companies said in a press release.

They also announced a deal in which MUFJ subsidiary, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, would refer commodities business to Morgan Stanley.

In a separate agreement, MUFG employees will be sent to Morgan Stanley to “maximize the benefits of the strategic alliance.”

Japan’s biggest brokerage Nomura Holdings Inc. also took advantage of the financial crisis to make acquisitions, swooping in to acquire the operations of fallen giant Lehman Brothers in Europe, Asia and the Middle East.

Copyright 2009 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

JAL president vows to compile aggressive new cost-cutting plan soon

2009-07-03T01:07:00.000+07:00

Thursday 02nd July, 02:22 PM JST

TOKYO —

Japan Airlines Corp. President Haruka Nishimatsu promised the government Wednesday to soon present an aggressive cost-cutting plan to turn around its loss-making businesses after inking a deal to receive state-backed emergency loans. ‘‘We hope to announce a plan that will pursue efficiency with no exceptions,’’ Nishimatsu said in a meeting with Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Minister Kazuyoshi Kaneko.

Nishimatsu expressed gratitude to the government after JAL recently signed agreements to borrow 100 billion yen from five lenders; the state-backed Development Bank of Japan, the Japan Bank for International Cooperation and three Japanese megabanks. ‘‘This is an exceptional measure,’’ Kaneko said. ‘‘I hope you will take this matter seriously and implement fundamental reforms even if they are painful. Before the deal on the emergency loans, Kaneko issued a rare comment on June 19, promising to support and oversee the reconstruction of Japan’s largest airline. The government plans to guarantee about 80 percent of the repayment of loans to be extended to JAL by the DBJ. Its effort to restructure flight routes at regional airports is also likely to face opposition from some politicians ahead of an upcoming general election, industry observers said.

Stocks trim early gains, but still end day up

2009-07-02T14:16:00.000+07:00

Manufacturing, pending home reports help lift the markets

NEW YORK - Investors kicked off the stock market’s third quarter with a moderate gain after getting some reassuring data on manufacturing and housing.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose by 0.7 percent Wednesday, rebounding from the previous day’s selloff that was triggered by a drop in consumer confidence. Other indexes made moderate advances as well.

The buying was tempered by caution ahead of Thursday’s June jobs report.

“That’s going to be the big one,” said Chris Johnson, president of Johnson Research Group. “People are keeping their eye on the unemployment figure.”

The Labor Department is expected to report another uptick in the unemployment rate to 9.6 percent, according to economists surveyed by Thomson Reuters. Growing unemployment has been keeping investors nervous about consumer spending — a major driver of growth.

Much of Wednesday’s data was positive, including a report showing more stable manufacturing activity in the United States, and another indicating the fourth straight monthly rise in pending home sales. Stocks also got a boost from European markets, which rose following similarly upbeat manufacturing data in that region.

Not all of the economic news was upbeat, however. Construction spending fell in May by more than the market expected, and according to the ADP National Employment Report, the private sector lost more jobs in June than anticipated.

Some of Wednesday’s bounce may simply have been due to stocks appearing cheaper following Tuesday’s drop and investors looking to put money to work as the new quarter began.

“Some of the buying that wasn’t done yesterday is being done today,” said Richard E. Cripps, chief market strategist for Stifel Nicolaus, adding that he was surprised by Wednesday’s upward move. “There isn’t a lot of convincing volume here to read too much into this.”

The Dow rose 57.06, or 0.7 percent, to 8,504.06. It climbed as high as 8,580.47 in earlier trading, but then pared its gains as the day went on.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose 4.01, or 0.4 percent, to 923.33. The Nasdaq composite index rose 10.68, or 0.6 percent, to 1,845.72.

Scott Fullman, director of derivatives investment strategy for WJB Capital Group, said the employment report — along with thin, pre-holiday trading volumes — could make for a volatile market Thursday. U.S. markets are closed Friday in observance of the July Fourth holiday.

Nonetheless, investors remain optimistic that the economy will be in better shape by the end of the year. “The belief is the worst is behind us,” Fullman said.

About three stocks rose for every one that fell on the New York Stock Exchange, where volume came to a lower-than-usual 951 million shares. At the close Tuesday, NYSE volume was 1.33 billion shares.

Bond prices were little changed. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which moves opposite its price, was flat at 3.54 percent.

In an upbeat earnings report, General Mills Inc. said its fiscal fourth-quarter profit nearly doubled. The maker of Cheerios cereal and Yoplait yogurt also offered earnings guidance for 2010 above analysts’ expectations. Shares rose $2.16, or 3.9 percent, to $58.18.

The biggest gainer among the 30 Dow stocks was Kraft Foods Inc., another food maker. Kraft rose $1.27, or 5 percent, to $26.61.

Analysts say earnings reports coming in the next few weeks will largely determine which way the market heads in the third quarter. Investors are especially eager to hear what companies have to say about business prospects in the second half of the year.

Markets have made a stunning recovery since hitting 12-year lows in early March. All the major indexes rose by double-digit percentage points in the second quarter, while the S&P 500 index and the Nasdaq composite index finished higher for the first six months of 2009.

The major indexes have pulled back from multi-month highs in mid-June amid growing doubts about the strength of the economy’s recovery.

But Eric Ross, director of research at Canaccord Adams, said he doesn’t think investors have fully appreciated how much the economy has stabilized.

“They are waiting for another leg down on the market, and I’m not sure we’re going to see it,” Ross said. “There is too much money on the sidelines.”

The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies rose 9.18, or 1.8 percent, to 517.46.

The dollar was mostly lower against other major currencies, while gold prices rose.

Light, sweet crude fell 58 cents to $69.31 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Overseas, Japan’s Nikkei stock average fell 0.2 percent. Britain’s FTSE 100 rose 2.2 percent, Germany’s DAX index rose 2 percent, and France’s CAC-40 jumped 2.4 percent.

Auto sales in US declines show signs of steadying

2009-07-02T14:03:00.000+07:00

Ford posts smallest decline of 2009; bankrupt GM holding its own

DETROIT - U.S. car and truck sales showed signs of stabilizing in June after a year of sharp declines, but every major automaker except Honda Motor Co. reported lower sales than in May.

Still, year-over-year declines last month slowed for four of the six major carmakers, with Ford Motor Co. reporting the smallest drop in a year at 10.7 percent when compared with June of 2008.

Even Chrysler, which emerged from bankruptcy protection early in June, saw its year-over-year sales decline shrink, and analysts say that’s among the signs that an auto industry slump that began with $4 per gallon gasoline last summer could be leveling off.

“It is unlikely things will get any worse,” said Jesse Toprak, executive director of industry analysis for the auto Web site Edmunds.com.

Factors such as a slowly improving economy and government incentives of up to $4,500 to trade in inefficient clunkers for new vehicles could lead to modest improvements in the second half of the year, he said.

And while Chrysler’s sales results were dismal, the figures were roughly in line with analyst estimates and reflect a company that is in a major transition following bankruptcy protection and new focus on more fuel efficient vehicles.

“At a time when they are emerging from bankruptcy and trying to reinvent themselves, it is not a huge surprise,” Toprak said.

Toprak said affordability and gas prices that rose from $2.28 per gallon in May to $2.64 in June boosted sales of sales of compact cars, hybrids and compact sport utility vehicles.

Families and consumers looking for larger vehicles are also leaning more toward minivans because of the practicality when compared to alternatives like low gas mileage SUVs, he said.

Economists say there are signs that the economy is recovering, with housing starts rising more than expected in May and wholesale prices remaining in check. But the Conference Board reported Wednesday that consumer confidence fell unexpectedly in June.

“We’re making steady progress,” Jim Farley, the company’s group vice president of marketing, said in a statement. “We remain grounded, however, given challenging industry and economic conditions.”

Ford’s year-over-year sales drop was the smallest of the six largest automakers. General Motors Corp. sales slid 33.4 percent despite incentives and discounts on its Pontiac brand, while Toyota Motor Corp. sales were off 32 percent. Honda Motor Co. saw a 30 percent decline because of extremely strong small-car sales last June when gasoline was above $4 per gallon. Nissan Motor Co. reported a narrower decline than in previous months, down only 23 percent.

GM’s decline improved when compared with previous months even though it entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on June 1. GM plans to sell or close Pontiac, Saturn, Hummer and Saab to focus on four core brands — Chevrolet, Cadillac, GMC and Buick.

At Chrysler, though, the company sold only 68,297 cars and trucks last month as it emerged from bankruptcy protection, and many of those were due to strong incentives of more than $4,800 per car, according to Edmunds.

Analysts predict that June sales, adjusted for seasonal variances and multiplied to determine an annual rate, could top the 10 million mark for the first time this year. During several months earlier in 2009, U.S. car and truck sales dropped to a rate of about 9 million vehicles, a huge reduction from more than 16 million as recently as 2007.

But any jump in the annual rate could be fueled by fire-sale prices at 789 Chrysler dealers that were fired by the company during the bankruptcy process and told to get rid of their inventory by June 9. Also, with GM dropping its Pontiac brand, incentives will rise on those models.

Toyota’s top-selling Camry midsize sedan saw sales fall 37 percent while Corolla compact sales plunged 53 percent.

One bright spot for Toyota was its recently released third-generation Prius, which saw sales rise 10 percent. Prius sales had suffered in recent months as gas prices plunged from more than $4 per gallon last summer to below $2 a gallon in the winter.

Nissan’s decline narrowed largely because of stronger sales of its top-selling Altima midsize sedan. The automaker sold 2,137 units of its boxy Nissan Cube in its first month of sales.

Dearborn, Mich.-based Ford 154,873 cars and light trucks last month, with strength in its midsize Fusion and the Flex crossover vehicle. That was still less than the 161,197 sold in May, traditionally a stronger sales month than June.

Chrysler said it sold only 68,297 vehicles last month, despite fire-sale prices at 789 dealerships that the company terminated.

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Ford’s surprisingly low decline came after a string of months in which it and other automakers reported year-over-year drops of more than 40 percent. Ford’s sales were down 24 percent in May and off 37 percent for the first five months of the year.

Ford is the sole U.S. automaker to avoid bankruptcy protection and it’s the only one not receiving government loans to keep from running out of money. GM and Chrysler are receiving billions in loans, and GM inching its way closer to escaping Chapter 11.

In anticipation of increased traffic at dealers and higher sales later in the year, Ford announced Monday that it would boost its third-quarter production by 25,000 vehicles.

Oil Drops on Surprise Inventory Jump

2007-11-16T01:46:00.000+07:00

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Energy futures fell sharply Thursday after the government reported unexpected increases in crude oil and gasoline inventories last week and OPEC forecast fourth-quarter demand for oil would be less than expected.

At the pump, meanwhile, gas prices inched 0.1 cent higher overnight, pulling further above $3 to a national average price of $3.112 a gallon, according to AAA and the Oil Price Information Service. Prices are likely to rise another 10 to 15 cents in coming weeks to catch up with oil prices, which rose 42 percent from August to a record $98.62 a barrel last week. Gas prices peaked at a record $3.227 a gallon in May.

In its weekly inventory report, the Energy Department's Energy Information Administration said oil inventories rose by 2.8 million barrels during the week ended Nov. 9. Analysts surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires, on average, had expected a decline of 300,000 barrels.

Gasoline supplies rose last week by 700,000 barrels, the EIA said. Analysts had expected a 100,000-barrel decline.

Light, sweet crude for December delivery fell $1.32 to $92.77 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Crude prices have been volatile this week, falling more than $3 on Tuesday and rising more than $2 on Wednesday after hitting a record of $98.62 one week ago.

Meanwhile, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries forecast that demand for oil in the fourth quarter would rise 1.97 percent, down from expectations of a 2.1 percent increase a month ago. The revision was due in part to the effect high prices are having on demand.

''Late winter in North America along with the high price of transport fuels appears to be reducing regional oil consumption in the fourth quarter, leading to a downward revision of (100,000) barrels a day for that quarter,'' the group said in its monthly oil market report.

OPEC's revision follows a revised forecast from the International Energy Agency, which earlier this week said demand for oil is slowing and supplies are rising.

Other energy futures also fell Thursday. November gasoline dropped 4.5 cents to $2.3254 a gallon on the Nymex, and November heating oil fell 2.49 cents to $2.5485 a gallon.

December natural gas fell 13.5 cents to $7.70 per 1,000 cubic feet on the Nymex after the EIA, in a separate report, said natural gas inventories fell by 9 billion cubic feet last week, in line with analyst expectations.

Natural gas and heating oil prices were also being pressured by new forecasts calling for a warmer than normal winter.

In London, December Brent crude fell 46 cents to $90.90 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.

The EIA report, delayed by one day this week due to Monday's Veterans Day holiday, also said oil inventories at the closely-watched Nymex delivery terminal in Cushing, Okla., were unchanged at 13.4 million barrels.

Refinery activity rose by 1.5 percentage points last week to 87.7 percent of capacity. Analysts had expected refinery utilization to rise by 0.7 percentage point.

And inventories of distillates, which include heating oil and diesel fuel, fell by 2 million barrels, much more than the 300,000 barrel decline analysts had expected.

Crude imports rose last week by an average of 831,000 barrels a day to 10.5 million barrels a day. Gasoline imports fell last week by 117,000 barrels a day to an average of 1 million barrels a day.

Gasoline demand fell last week by 180,000 barrels, but is up by 0.6 percent over the last four weeks compared to the same period last year, the EIA said.

The report reflects a seasonal shift in refinery activity, said Tim Evans, an analyst at Citigroup Inc., in New York. Refiners are returning from seasonal maintenance and having no trouble finding oil to process, he said.

''There's plenty of crude oil out there in the world,'' Evans said. ''We just have to buy it and have it delivered.''

The EIA report and revised demand forecasts from OPEC and the IEA counter a perception that oil supplies are tight, Evans said. Oil prices have risen this fall in part on perceptions that supplies are not keeping pace with demand.

Also pressuring prices Thursday were new economic data. The Labor Department said its Consumer Price Index rose by 0.3 percent last month, the second straight month with inflation at that level. In a separate report, the Labor Department said the number of laid off workers filing claims for unemployment benefits rose by 20,000 last week to 339,000, the highest level in four weeks.

Business leaders Tips

2007-11-09T14:40:00.001+07:00

Even the most successful business leaders make mistakes, sometimes minor missteps, other times poor judgment which sends a business reeling and forced to play catch-up to recover. Organizational strategist and leading business consultant Steven Feinberg, who has helped major companies such as Wells Fargo, Visa and Sun Microsystems, says mistakes don't 'just happen,' but are the direct result of poor timing, interaction errors, perceptual problems, and organizational deficiencies.

These mistakes are based, in one way or another, on what I call the 5 Laws of Defeat,' says Feinberg. 'Knowing what to avoid when it comes to leading is just as important as knowing what to do.'

Feinberg, author of The Advantage-Makers: How Exceptional Leaders Win by Creating Opportunities Others Don't, identifies the 5 Laws of Defeat as:

1.) Opportunity knocking - do not disturb

'Opportunity myopia,' notes Feinberg, happens when narrow thinking rules behavior.'

'Leaders get so focused on established goals, they often miss opportunities because they don't understand the strategic context in which they can see a way to win.'

Feinberg cites Sears as a classic example. Sears passed on the opportunity to purchase the Home Depot chain because of their own financial problems, without seeing the value of the proposal to acquire Home Depot.

2.) Perceptual bias - we think we are thinking, but are we?

'One of the easiest mistakes leaders make is confusing perception with reality, they don't see what they don't want to see,' says Feinberg. 'Stepping back, removing oneself to see a true picture of your decision making is difficult to do. In my work, I make leaders aware of perceptual biases and errors that cloud clear, accurate judgment.'

3.) Competing against yourself - at cross purposes

'Businesses shoot themselves in the foot by competing against themselves, and they are rarely aware of it,' adds Feinberg. 'Some examples include: pushing for growth while pushing for cost savings, promoting innovation but punishing mistakes, giving mandates to people in your organization, but not giving them adequate decision-making authority to carry it out.'

4.) Stuck in your persistence - making sticky problems stickier

'The adage: 'If at first you don't succeed, try, try again' isn't always good business,' notes Feinberg. 'We can get stuck in our own persistence, whether repeated interpersonal conflicts or pushing projects we believe in, even though they are not working after multiple attempts. The road to hell is paved with mishandled interactions. Recurrent problems leave clues-the repeated attempted solutions that don't work. Changing the game, by first stopping the game is a good initial move.'

5.) Reactive tendency - playing to avoid losing

'When a leader is outcome-oriented, the emphasis is on achieving the outcome, you play to win rather than complaining or blaming circumstances,' says Feinberg. 'Reactive mishandling of situations almost always guarantees lower outcomes.'

'What I call 'Advantage-Makers' are those rare leaders who win more often because they know how to consistently transform challenging situations into the best possible outcomes,' notes Feinberg. 'They see opportunities where others see problems, influence outcomes where others are stuck, and create advantages where others are challenged. move forward when others are stuck. If you are not an Advantage-Maker you will probably lose to someone who is.'

Dr. Steven Feinberg, author of THE ADVANTAGE-MAKERS: How Exceptional Leaders Win By Creating Opportunities Others Don't, has spent more than thirty years applying the study of human behavior to performance efficacy and has advised senior executives on key leadership, team, and organizational issues, with an emphasis on advantage-making. Clients range from Fortune 500 firms to start-ups including Wells Fargo, Visa, Citibank, Symantec and Sun Microsystems. Dr. Feinberg graduated magna cum laude from the State University of New York at Buffalo, received an MSW at Tulane University, and his PhD from Professional School of Psychology, San Francisco. He is on the faculty of the University of San Francisco's Department of Organizational Behavior and Leadership.

U.S. House approves free trade agreement with Peru

2007-11-09T10:06:00.000+07:00

WASHINGTON, The U.S. House of Representatives voted 285-132 on Thursday to approve a free trade agreement with Peru, the first to incorporate labor and environmental protections as demanded by Democrats for all such deals.

Under the agreement, Peru would eliminate duties immediately on about 80 percent of U.S. industrial goods and two-thirds of agricultural products, while the United States would provide duty-free market access to Peru's exports.

The pact, which is expected to get approval by the Senate by the end of the year and go into effect, could boost American exports by one billion dollars a year. In 2006, U.S.-Peru trade totaled about 8.8 billion dollars.

The agreement requires the parties to abide by International Labor Organization standards and enforce their own environmental standards, participate in international environmental accords.

The U.S.-Peru pact is the first of four free trade agreements that U.S. President George W. Bush wants the Democrats-controlled Congress to approve before he leaves office in early 2009.

On Thursday, Bush welcomed the passage of the U.S.-Peru deal and urged Congress to approve pending three free trade agreements with Colombia, Panama, and South Korea.

"By strengthening our trading relationships with important neighbors -- including through our trade agreements with Colombia and Panama -- we will significantly advance both our economic and national security interests," he said in a statement.

Susan Schwab, U.S. Trade Representative, also hailed the passage and urged quick actions by Congress to approve the other three deals.

Beat the Market by Doing Nothing

2007-10-29T12:52:00.000+07:00

With dreary news coming out of the banking and real estate scenes almost daily, and the dreaded "r" word (as in recession) getting tossed around, roller-coaster madness is the new normal in the stock market.

It's a scary situation. But it doesn't have to wreck your retirement.

The single most important thing you can do in a turbulent market is stick to your 401(k) game plan - that means contributing regularly and definitely not panicking and selling.

In fact, if you had stayed the course when the stock market was tanking in July and August, you actually would have made a far better return on your money than if the stock market had stayed flat - or even increased modestly.

The reason comes down to dollar-cost averaging. Let's say, for example, that you contribute $500 from your paycheck every two weeks to your 401(k). Of that amount, let's further assume that you are allocating 80%, or $400, to a low-cost stock fund, such as Vanguard's S&P 500 index fund.

Looking back at the third quarter, you would have made seven contributions (assuming you get paid every other Thursday). Each $400 allocation to the index fund would have purchased a different number of shares. (see table)

On July 19, for instance, when the fund was trading at $143 per share, you would have bought 2.8 shares. On Aug. 16, when the price had tanked to $130, you would have picked up 3.1 shares. All told, by the end of the quarter you would have purchased 20.46 shares for a total cost of $2,800.

How did the market overall do during that time? By the end of September, it had just barely recovered from the 10% plunge it took in July and August, when the credit crisis was in full swing. As a result, the Vanguard S&P 500 index fund managed to eke out a gain of just 0.8% for the third quarter.

But you would have done much, much better. On Sept. 27, the 20.46 shares you purchased were worth $141 each, for a total of $2,885. That translates into a 3% gain on your 401(k) contributions for the third quarter - a return that most professional money managers would have killed for.

And you would have gotten it because you had the courage to keep buying as the market fell.

By the way, you would had gotten the same type of great returns if you had been buying stocks right after the Crash of 1987 - or after any other big drop. As long as your investing timeframe is long enough to allow the market to climb back from a potentially severe plunge - about 7-10 years - then you will usually be far better off contributing to your 401(k).

That's not to suggest that dollar-cost averaging alone is a panacea for anything that might ail your 401(k). If we get another prolonged bear market and you don't have a lot of time on your side (if you're planning to retire in 5 years' time, for instance), your stock investments are going to take a hit no matter what.

So to be truly shock-resistant, your 401(k) must hold a diversified mix of stocks and bonds. And you have to rebalance every year. I'll get into those issues in future columns.

In the meantime, just remember that if you have a decent time horizon and you're diversified, your best bet in a volatile market is to simply let your 401(k) do its thing. Resist the urge to mess with it. You won't regret it.

Questions or comments about retirement? Send e-mails to jrevell@moneymail.com.
Copyrighted, CNNMoney. All Rights Reserved.

BabyTime Expos May 31-June 1, 2008, Denver Merchandise Mart, June 14-15, 2008, Las Vegas Cashman Center, June 21-22, 2008, Phoenix Convention Center,

2007-10-29T12:47:00.000+07:00

Las Vegas, NV….Babies and those who raise and nurture them are the focus of BabyTime Expo, a new event open to the general public. Launching in 2008 in the Denver, Las Vegas, Phoenix and Seattle Metropolitan Areas, the events are designed to showcase the many suppliers of hard and soft goods, as well as resources for expectant and new-born families.

Produced by ConvExx, an independent show and event organizer in Las Vegas, the shows will be held May 31-June 1, at the Denver Merchandise Mart, June 14-15 at Las Vegas’ Cashman Center, June 21-22 at the Phoenix Convention Center, and June 28-29 at the Greater Tacoma Convention & Trade Center.

“Each city we’ve chosen has shown a recent increase in birth rate and population, and yet there was no event dedicated to new families,” said Mindi Cherry, CEM and Event Manager. “As a recent new mother myself, I know BabyTime Expo will provide families who are expecting and those with new babies the education to help them make decisions about how they want to raise their child, as well as introduce them to the resources available to them in their local area.”

BabyTime Expo will bring together national manufacturers and retail chains, along with the specialty retailers and resources conducting business in each locale.

“BabyTime Expo is also working to involve the local hospitals, women’s centers, and safety agencies”, Cherry mentioned. “We want this to be a resource for everyone.”

Cherry went on to describe the Expo. “Alongside exhibits, BabyTime Expo will feature special areas including a fun zone for toddlers, product demonstrations, and a Diaper Derby. While workshops for expectant and new families on such subjects as breast feeding and safety are taking place on one stage, story telling and interactive children’s activities will be happening elsewhere. It will truly be a family event.”

Materials at WSA Expo & Conference, Feb. 19 - 21, 2008, Sands Expo

2007-10-21T11:13:00.000+07:00

The WSA Show will have a companion event when the Materials at WSA Expo & Conference debuts Feb. 19-21 and runs again July 26-28, at the Sands Expo & Convention Center in Las Vegas. The new show, which will slightly overlap and collocate with the WSA Show, will focus on the supply chain. The WSA Show features finished shoes.

The new show is a result of WSA interviews with decision-makers in footwear design, product development and sourcing about what they wanted to buy. They expressed a desire for materials, components, sourcing and technology from around the world, and for a U.S. show that featured them, according to WSA.

The Materials at WSA Expo & Conference, an invitation-only event, will feature exhibitors of leathers, synthetics and textiles; components such as heels, outsoles and insoles; manufacturing technologies, such as CADCAM and rapid prototyping; and footwear-related production processes. The new materials show will open two days before the WSA Show and overlap it by one day. WSA reported a number of exhibiting companies already confirmed participation.

According to Diane Stone, COO of The WSA Show, combing the world to find the most dynamic people, products and resources in footwear innovation and bringing them to Las Vegas broadens the marketplace. And all footwear companies that participate in the new event, whether wholesalers or retailers, will greatly benefit, said Skip Farber, WSA Show CEO.

London's Bizexpo Returns

2007-10-21T11:07:00.000+07:00

There's more news about international exhibition launches and changes this week, with the focus on items from Europe.

a. The London (Ontario) Chamber of Commerce will revive its Bizexpo tradeshow after a 10-year hiatus. At least 100 exhibitors have signed up for the show, to be held at the London Convention Centre Oct. 23. Chamber Chief Executive Gerry Macartney said it would feature a variety of office equipment, technology and professional services for small- and medium-sized businesses.
b. Held concurrently with Italian menswear show Pitti Uomo, women's outerwear show Pitti W Woman Precollection will debut Jan. 9–12 in Florence. About 40 Italian and international exhibitors will participate in the event, organized by Pitti Immagine. Pitti W will run independently in the Dogana facility opposite the Fortezza da Basso exhibition site.
c. After five editions the Moscow sports fair Ispo Russia is no more. The final show was held Sept. 6–8. Produced by Messe Muenchen and the Russian Sport Communication Group, the show will be replaced Feb. 14–16 by the new national SCG event In Sports, an international sports brand trade fair. Ispo Russia's attendance had reportedly decreased from 8,415 to 4,004 and the number of exhibitors from 284 to 233. The new event will remain part of the Ispo Group's international network.
d. Reed Exhibitions, in cooperation with the Society of Petroleum Engineers, will launch the 2008 Indian Oil & Gas Technical Conference & Exhibition at the Bandra Kurla Complex, MMRDA Ground, in Mumbai, India, March 4–6. The organizers called the event the region's only truly technical conference and exhibition, consisting of an agenda-setting conference featuring technical presentations from leading figures and a major exhibition.
e. Nuremberg show organizer Spielwarenmesse signed an agreement with Nair Expo, a subsidiary of the Russian Natl. Toy Assn., to jointly organize Toy Russia at the Crocus Expo site in Moscow March 18–21. Spielwarenmesse is the organizer of the Intl. Toy Fair Nuremberg.
f. Turoge, a Turkish oil and gas exhibition and conference held in Ankara and organized by ITE of London, has new, earlier dates: March 18–20. Turoge was originally scheduled a week later, March 25–27.
g. The United Kingdom's PLASA Events is buying lighting supplier AC Lighting's AC Lighting North Trade Show. The 2008 event will be the last organized under that name by AC Lighting. Immediately after it closes, PLASA Events will take over the show's management and ownership. The succeeding show will mark the first in a series of regional PLASA lighting events to build on the regional platform established by AC in 1999. PLASA also organizes the PLASA show. The 2008 AC show will again be held in the spring at the Royal Armouries Museum Saviles Hall in Leeds, England, with exact dates to be announced later.
h. Rimini Fiera and Assogemme, a new trade association for companies dealing in raw materials for jewelry, are partnering to launch Gem World, an international business-to-business event focused on precious stones and related products. The show will launch June 7–9 at Rimini Expo Center.
i. MCH Swiss Exhibition will launch Global Energy Basel, a trade congress and exhibition for integrated energy solutions, Nov. 12–14, 2008, at Messe Basel Fairgrounds in Basel, Switzerland. It will focus on business models, technology and political scenarios for integrated energy solutions and a sustainable and secure energy supply. Participants will include international representatives from the business community and politics, municipal and local authorities, and scientific and non-government organizations.
j. Australia-based Baird Publications, publisher of the small-ship trade magazine Work Boat World and organizer of numerous marine trade exhibitions worldwide, will launch Work Boat Gulf 2009 in the Gulf Region. The exhibition and conference will be held in the Bahrain Exhibition and Convention Centre April 6–8, 2009.
k. Canon Communications will launch Medtec Japan, for the Japanese medical manufacturing industry, April 7–8, 2009, at the Pacifico Yokohama Convention Center near Tokyo. It joins Canon's established Medtec events in Europe, the United Kingdom, Ireland and China. The exhibition will showcase 275 U.S., European, Japanese and Pan-Asian medical OEM suppliers and is expected to attract 4,000 Japanese medical OEM design and manufacturing professionals. A technical conference addressing new technology, applications and regulatory issues will run concurrently with the exhibition.

U.S. stocks plunge on anniversary of 1987 crash; Dow down 2.6%

2007-10-20T13:31:00.000+07:00

By Kate Gibson

Black Monday's 20th anniversary marked by anxiety, but drop not comparable
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) - U.S. stocks tanked Friday -- the 20th anniversary of Black Monday -- as panicky investors opted to sell after disappointing earnings from blue chips Honeywell International Inc., 3M Co. and Caterpillar Inc. tipped the delicate balance the street had walked between hard-hit financials and strength in technology.
"We knew financials were terrible, but we didn't know we would receive this kind of guidance from the Heartland," said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at Jefferies & Co.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 369.1 points, or 2.7%, to stand at 13,519.8, giving it a weekly fallback of 4.1% and capping a five-session string of losses.
All 30 of the Dow's components closed in the red, with shares of 3M (MMM) among the hardest hit -- down 8.6%.
The S&P 500 (SPX) shed 39.47 points, or 2.6%, to 1,500.63, for a weekly plunge of 3.9%. The Nasdaq Composite (COMP) lapsed 74.15 points, or 2.7%, to 2,725.16, for a weekly drop of 2.9%, despite a rise in Google shares after the Internet search giant beat earnings expectations.
"We started out the week a real dichotomy, with heavy reporting from financials and technology; tech did great, and financials did terribly, but we knew they were supposed to. Then we heard from another broader-reaching sector, the industrial space," said Hogan.

Fourth-quarter outlooks from Honeywell and Caterpillar shook investors.
"Guidance from Caterpillar was abysmal; during a conference call they were predicting a recession and saying they were seeing a housing market that hasn't been this bad in 50 years."
"We were set for a pullback today, but clearly the news has been no help," said Marc Pado, U.S. market strategist at Cantor Fitzgerald. "Going into the weekend, we don't know what is going to happen."
The declines brought back eerie memories of events in October, 1987, when the stock market plunged on Friday, Oct. 16, before collapsing the following Monday, the 19th. Most traders and strategists said they don't expect the coming Monday will bring a rout like the market saw 20 years ago, though they do believe stocks have further to fall.
Also allaying fears was the fact that the Dow's drop Friday, while large in points, was only 2.6%, compared to a 23% drop on Black Monday 20 years ago.
"It's ironic we're down on the crash of 20 years ago, but putting it in perspective, we would have had to have a 3,000-point sell-off today" to match the drop of two decades ago, said Jefferies' Hogan.
Volume on the New York Stock Exchange hit nearly 1.8 billion shares, with declining stocks topping advancers more than 5 to 1. On the Nasdaq, more than 2.4 billion shares changed hands, with decliners outpacing advancers 5 to 1.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, crude-oil futures hit $90 a barrel for the first time ever, with the November-dated light-crude contract peaking at $90.02 a barrel before slipping to end down 87 cents at $88.60..
"Friday's action was not a one-day event, it was something at work the whole week," said Alexander Paris, analyst at Barrington Research.
Mixed bag
Shares of Google Inc. (GOOG), which vaulted to new highs in recent weeks and hit $600 for the first time earlier this month, climbed even further after the Internet search giant's quarterly results delivered against tall Wall Street expectations after Thursday's close.
Back among the blue chips, shares of Honeywell (HON) fell 3.9%. The company reported 14% growth in third-quarter earnings and raised its outlook for the full year.
Fellow Dow component Caterpillar (CAT) cut its 2007 profit target, citing "severe weakness" in key U.S. markets. The equipment maker reported a 21% rise in third-quarter earnings.

Another blue chip, McDonald's Corp. (MCD), posted a 27% hike in quarterly profits, with the fast-food chain's bottom line supported by strong sales in Asia and the weak dollar.
Outside the Dow, Xerox Corp. (XRX) said third-quarter net income fell 53%, but earnings and sales topped expectations. Its shares were off 3.1%.
Financial fallout

Also, shares of Wachovia Corp. (WB) slipped as the company reported third-quarter earnings that fell 10%. The bank booked a $1.3 billion write-down from disruption in the fixed-income markets..
Capital One Financial Corp. (COF) late Thursday reported that it swung to a third-quarter loss of $81.6 million, or 21 cents a share, from a profit of $750.4 million, or $1.89 a share, a year ago. Shares traded down 5%.
In another bearish development for the beleaguered financial sector, Massachusetts securities regulators are probing whether Bear Stearns Cos. (BSC) improperly traded with two in-house hedge funds, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.
After a week of write-offs from banks, Friday's decline is in part the result of a battle waged since August, pitting credit issues and housing on one side against sectors not directly impacted, such as technology.
But questions linger over the potential for spill-over into the overall economy, traders said.

UBS downgraded banking HSBC Holdings PLC (HBC) to neutral from buy, citing valuation as well as a likely slowdown in European growth in 2008.
In addition, The Wall Street Journal reported the U.K. banking group is being sued by U.S. real-estate fund Luminent Mortgage Capital Inc. (LUM) over allegations the bank's U.S. mortgage-trading operations took advantage of the recent credit crisis to profit at the fund's expense.
Former Federal Reserve chief Alan Greenspan said the "Super SIV" fund could have serious repercussions, according to an interview with the Emerging Market newspaper and posted on its Web site Friday.
In the article, Greenspan said the "Super SIV" -- the $75 billion Master Liquidity Enhancement Conduit proposed by Citigroup Inc. (C), Bank of America Corp. (BAC) and JP Morgan -- runs the risk of further undermining already brittle confidence in besieged credit markets.
The dollar was steady against the euro but slipped against its other major counterparts, as the Group of Seven leading industrial nations' finance ministers met in Washington..
Treasurys continued to rise on increased expectations that the Fed will cut interest rates late this month. The benchmark 10-year Treasury note was up 23/32 at 102 24/32, with a yield (TNX) falling to 4.4.03%..
In action overseas, European shares fell as banking stocks declined following a downgrade of HSBC and investors assessed corporate updates from companies such as advertising giant WPP.
Markets in Asia were mixed and Hong Kong was closed for a holiday.

The risks in Forex trading

2007-10-20T13:25:00.000+07:00

Forex: To trade, or not to trade? Many are reluctant to involve in Forex trading because of its ‘risks’. Generally speaking, there are risks everywhere in our life: Factories may malfunction, customer may not walk-in if you open a shop, stock market may crush, and if you are employed you may get fired during company downsizing. There are risks everywhere! The important issue here is how you learn and maintain your risk. So if you are considering participating in Forex market, you should learn managing the risk involved, instead of being terrified.
Picking up the right Forex dealer

One of the best methods to avoid unnecessary risks is avoid fraud dealer.

Forex is a special trading business with no centralized market. Thus, unlike regulated futures exchanges, there is no central market place for Forex buyers or sellers therefore the price offered by different Forex dealers may vary a lot. When you are trading in Forex market, you are totally relying on the dealer’s integrity for a fair deal.

Further more, you need to select a right Forex dealer to avoid scams. There may be Forex dealers that are not regulated legally and there maybe investment scams, especially on the Internet. Be very careful on who you are dealing with in Forex and always check cautiously on the investment offer.
Stop loss order

The Forex market could move against you. No one can predict with certainty which way exchange rates will go, and the Forex market is volatile. Fluctuations in the foreign exchange rate between the time you place the trade and the time you attempt to liquidate it will affect the price of your Forex contract and the potential profit and losses relating to it. To avoid losing all of your investment capital, you should have a pre-arrangement on your risk profile. A solid risk profile will limit the Forex dealer not to overtake risk that you cannot handle. For example, if you have 100,000 to invest, you can say that you are willing to risk 10,000 of that capital with the potential to gain another 100,000. This can be easily implemented by a fund manager, so your losses can be limited to 10% or 5% of invested capital.
Avoid too high margin trade

Another way to manage your risks well in Forex market is to trade without overleveraged. Forex dealers want you to trade with high leverage values as this means more spread income for them. Also, trading in high leverage may increase your profit or your losing. There are high possibilities that one lose money more than he or she can afford in margin trading.

Forex can be extraordinarily beneficial to a variety of people. It gives huge leverage rates, it gives incompatible liquidity to your money, it gives convenience to trade on the Internet, and it can definitely give you a lot of money if you trade smartly. Like any other trading business, if you are new to it, best advice you can get is to learn and practice more before you test your ‘wings’. Seminars, eBooks, Internet, papers, video courses – all these are handy to get yourself ready. You can also try out your skill on the demo account provided free. After all, Forex trades 24hours a day and there is always money to make in the market, so why not be patience until you are fully ready for it?
Diversification in Forex trading

Diversification is another way to manage risks in Forex market. Trading one currency pair will generate few entry signals. If you wish to lower your risk in Forex market, it would be better to diversify your trades between several currencies.

Try simultaneously trade on different pair of currency. Say you have capital of $1,000, instead of putting all your money to long EUR/USD, you can split the money half to long EUR/USD and GBD/USD ($500 each) as these two currencies are highly correlated and tends to move in the same directions.
Conclusion

Needless to say, knowledge is another key of handling your risks well. Before you get into Forex market, the best thing you should do is educate yourself. What drives currency price movement? How to read analysis data? How to read chart indicators? Learn detail about how currency price move and how to trade foreign currency exchange in order to avoid unnecessary risks.

You come to this article probably because of you are new to FOREX and were looking for some readings on the Internet. To be frank, Forex can be very profitable but the risk lie beneath is equally great. But what else in life does not involve risk? You can be fired from your job, factory may malfunctions, stock market may collapse, your boss may runaway with your wages, and hey! These are all risk. Learning in risk management is the key to handle your life.

7 landscaping tips

2007-10-20T13:20:00.000+07:00

NEW YORK (Money Magazine) -- If prospective buyers looked at your house today, what would they see outside? A giant evergreen that looks as if it might swallow the station wagon, perhaps, scraggly old foundation plants or maybe a kitchen-table view of the neighbors' kids' trampoline?

If so, you have a truly inexpensive opportunity to boost your home's curb appeal By spending $500 to $3,000 on plants and materials and a few hours of time, you can achieve a well-landscaped look without shelling out for professional help.

Besides the personal enjoyment you'll get from a prettier yard, landscaping adds more value than almost any other home renovation.

A recent Michigan State University study found that depending on where the house is located, high-quality landscaping adds 5 percent to 11 percent to its price.

If you have no immediate plans to move, all the better: Landscaping is the one home improvement that actually appreciates over time.

So how do you decide which projects to tackle? That depends on how long you think you'll be around to enjoy the results.
If you're selling in a year or less

Edge the beds Cutting fresh edges where grass meets mulch makes the lawn look well kept. A move as simple as curving the edge of your flower beds could increase the value of your home by 1 percent, says horticulture professor Bridget Behe, the lead researcher on the MSU study.

Also, if your foundation plants are overgrown, widening the beds by two feet will make the shrubs seem smaller.

Nourish the grass For truly lush turf, ideally you should start regular fertilizer treatments a year before listing the house. But you can green up the lawn with just a single application.

Spend $45 on a broadcast spreader, which quickly distributes fertilizer over a lawn, enabling you to nourish a quarter-acre lot in about 10 minutes.

For a yard that size, expect each monthly application to cost about $20 (for straight fertilizer) to $30 (with weed killer).

Scatter color throughout For about $1 a plant, you can blanket your yard with petunias, impatiens and other small annuals that will flower throughout the current growing season.

Also invest a few hundred dollars in some larger perennials and in shrubs that stand at least four feet high.

"A few good-size plants have more sex appeal than 20 little ones," says Chicago landscape architect Douglas Hoerr.
If you're improving for the long-term

Cut back the jungle Many everyday yard plants, such as azaleas, forsythia, hollies and rhododendrons, will fill out with new growth after a season or so even if you hack them down to stumps, says Christopher Valenti, a landscape contractor in Lewes, Del.

Be careful, though, of yews and junipers, which won't grow new leaves on old wood and may need to be removed altogether if they're severely overgrown.

Add drama with foliage A distinctive yard will make your home more appealing to buyers, says Los Angeles realtor Dana Frank. So replace plants that don't flower, or provide interesting foliage with eye-catching alternatives, like a patch of blackeyed Susans, a flowering crabapple or a cutleaf Japanese maple.

If you're planning to stay put, you don't need to spend hundreds of dollars for big plants. You'll save 50 percent or more by buying small ones and waiting a few seasons to get the full visual impact (when planting, make sure to space them based on the mature size listed on the label, not how they look now).

Consider new angles Most yards have almost all the plants along the foundation and the property lines. But if you place yours throughout different parts of the property, you'll create a depth of field that makes your home look farther away from the road, says architect Hoerr.

Try putting some near the house's corners to accentuate its shape, others near the street to define the yard, and some in between, where they can block unfortunate views and be admired from indoors. Many nurseries offer free design help to buyers.

Cover your rear It's nice to wave hello to your neighbors out front, but the backyard should be a private space. If yours feels overexposed, fencing can offer a quick fix.

For each eight-foot section, you'll pay about $100 (for a plain cedar stockade fence) to $300 (for an elaborate Victorian model), plus another $50 to $150 a section for installation.

You can also achieve the same effect at a much lower cost by planting small evergreen shrubs, although you'll have to wait a few seasons for full coverage.

Or, rather than pruning those hulking foundation plants, hire a landscaper to transplant them along the property line. As long as they're healthy and evergreen, it's a great way to maximize the value of the plants you already own.

By Josh Garskof, Money Magazine contributing writer

'Virtual' Panel: Challenges in Mobile Space

2007-10-19T05:55:00.000+07:00

LOS ANGELES With mobile search and advertising expected to be an $11 billion industry by 2011, mobile marketers nonetheless face a challenge from a population that considers advertising in that medium "unacceptable."

That was among the top-line subjects discussed by Kevin Perkins, CEO of Greenlight Wireless, Nicholas Covey, marketing analytics and development manager, Nielsen Mobile, and Brian Morrissey, digital editor of Adweek, during AdweekMedia's Interactive Marketing Virtual Conference and Trade Show yesterday. (The entire presentation is available at www.nielsencast.com under the Virtual Trade Show tab.)

Covey said that Nielsen's acquisition of research company Telephia (which he described as having been "the Nielsen of mobile"), creating Nielsen Mobile, would help marketers make smart decisions in approaching the market. Nielsen Mobile employs techniques such as "scraping" telephone bills to determine the services and downloads for which consumers are really paying.

Though text messaging is still the most popular application, mobile video is growing fastest, Covey said. He said the 97 percent year-over-year growth in mobile downloading should be considered good news to advertisers looking to target popular applications.

Characterizing the resistance to mobile advertising as "staggering," Covey said "it is concerning to us that consumers are so concerned about mobile advertising" and it is "alarming" that consumers will be "blindsided" by advertising, which they overwhelmingly do not expect to see on their phones.

But Covey sees hope in research showing that nearly one-quarter of mobile customers would be willing to receive ads "in exchange for something" and 45 percent said they'd trade ads for video. He evaluated the Hispanic market as particularly strong, a bullish market for Univision and other providers.

Among those video-casting on mobile, Fox News (38 percent), Weather Channel (34 percent) and Comedy Central (33 percent) topped the list of content providers getting reach. He said that 21 percent of ads overall are recalled, with e-mails sent to phones (30 percent) leading WAP banner ads (24 percent), which Covey regarded as an encouraging opportunity for marketers.

In his presentation, Perkins enumerated some of the format differences that make it difficult for marketers to grow mobile marketing. He pointed out that published specifications for mobile marketing include considerable differences in pixel depth, bitmap, character and line limitations. Perkins said the keys to ad adoption include use of push vs. pull techniques, making ads relevant to overcome the latent resistance and making them easy to respond to. He cited as good branding examples Carl's Jr.'s downloadable "hot buns" ringtones. He suggested that the most promising advertising model would involve transactional information putting the user at the center, such as in mobile search.

Citing Airwide Solutions, Morrissey said that fully 89 percent of "major brands" intended to include mobile marketing in their media plans in 2008. He added that many of China's 400 million cell phone users and India's 500 million are more likely to use mobile technology to reach the Internet than via computers.

Morrissey said that in the U.S., however, "marketers are outpacing consumers" in adopting mobile for anything but phone calls (per Harris Interactive), leading to mobile advertising being the least trusted of all media. According to Nielsen, only 19 percent of consumers trust mobile ads and more than half (per Harris) find none of it "acceptable."

Morrissey said the industry should be bracing for the impact of a potential "Gphone" from Google because the company's expressed interest in mobile as a growth area suggests it wants to govern that landscape like Microsoft controlled the computer with Windows.

Elliot Markowitz, Nielsen Business Media's editorial director of Web casts and digital events, moderated the panel. Adweek is a unit of Nielsen Business Media.

BlueStar’s VARTECH2007 Conference & Trade Show is Tremendous Success

2007-10-19T05:51:00.000+07:00

BlueStar recently held its annual VARTECH2007 Conference & Trade Show in Nashville, TN, and the show attracted its largest audience to date.

Florence, KY—October 17, 2007—BlueStar, the leading innovator in solutions-based distribution for Auto ID, Point-of-Sale, Mobility and RFID products, is announcing the tremendous success of its VARTECH2007 Conference & Trade Show in Nashville, TN, September 20-23, 2007.

BlueStar President/CEO Steve Cuntz had this to say about the show: “I continue to be impressed with the passionate interests that our Value-Added Resellers bring to VARTECH.Their responses to the new products and solution sets presented by our suppliers set a high watermark at the Gaylord Opryland this year. It was even more gratifying to see the intense interest in keynote speaker Janet Schijns' presentation on the Reseller Channel’s "SHIFT" opportunities. I have seldom seen such a genuine awakening to the forces of change that technology has placed before us.”

Once again, VARTECH attendance was up significantly. This year’s show boasted more exhibitors of best-of-breed software, hardware, and services solutions for the Point-of Sale, Supply Chain, RFID, Mobility, Government and Security verticals. And with the increase in BlueStar’s Value-Added Reseller traffic at CodeZONE, the show floor became a haven for networking, partnering and informal demonstrations.

Manager for PDI Direct, Charles Conti, expresses his appreciation for VARTECH: “VARTECH was the most useful trade show I have attended this year. Fast, accurate, and direct answers from vendors we are considering purchasing products or service from; presentations targeted at helping me understand how a vendor’s product meets our customers’ needs; and excellent one-on- one with my BlueStar representative to build a better working relationship to determine how BlueStar can provide any additional products or services that our customers need.”

Christophe Naasz, Marketing Director for Star Micronics, adds his take from the vendor perspective: “VARTECH2007 truly topped its predecessors. BlueStar has succeeded in making VARTECH an annual ‘must attend’ event for manufacturers and resellers. The increased attendance at this year’s show brought real qualified traffic to our booth, and the classroom sessions allowed for sponsors and attendees to exchange industry and product insight. As always, the VARTECH team produced a professional event with lots of networking opportunities. We look forward to the 2008 show.”

Also located in CodeZONE was BlueStar’s FUSION booth where BlueStar business development managers explained the enhanced BlueStar FUSION benefits to VARs and ISVs alike. Resellers were able to customize marketing and business-development materials in real time, create demand generation campaigns online, and register to participate in a variety of FUSION vertical initiatives.

In addition, VARTECH2007 featured educational seminars with industry experts in six different verticals to help attendees stay up-to-date on the newest industry trends, solutions, and technologies. A keynote address from channel industry consultant Janet Schijns of The JS Group, illustrated the changes in business that will drive go-to marketing in the next 1 to 5 years, and how Value-Added Resellers can embrace these changes for profit. Ms. Schijns also exemplified how BlueStar’s FUSION program can help VARs save time and money achieving “go-to-market” strategies and tactics.

Janet Schijns says her keynote has received great feedback: “BlueStar was very visionary in encouraging a keynote that helped the attendees understand the major changes in the channel that could affect their business. BlueStar asked me to focus on what would best help the channel—positive or not. The participation, support, and encouragement that we’ve gotten from BlueStar and all attendees has just been overwhelmingly positive. We’ve had so much feedback from participants.”

VARTECH2007’s evening events expanded networking opportunities at the show, and added an entertainment component. These included the Star Micronics-sponsored VAR Idol live band karaoke night, EPSON-sponsored Wildhorse Saloon party, and the Elo-sponsored Closing Reception and Festival de la Rumba salsa-dancing party sponsored by Hand Held Products, EPSON, Star Micronics, Cognitive, Metrologic, Datalogic and LXE.

About VARTECH
BlueStar’s annual VARTECH convention is a combination conference and trade show for those in POS, AIDC, RFID, and Mobility that unites many Value-Added Resellers, industry manufacturers, and BlueStar employees. It's a constructive forum for Value-Added Resellers to get “up-close and personal,” while cultivating rewarding relationships with hardware manufacturers and software solution providers. For more information, please visit: www.bluestarvartech.com.

About BlueStar
BlueStar is a leading solutions-based distributor of Point-of-Sale, Bar Coding, Data Collection, RFID, and Wireless Mobility products. BlueStar works exclusively with VAR Partners, providing them with complete solutions at competitive prices. The companybrings unequaled expertise to the market, offers award-winning technical support and is an authorized service center for a growing number of manufacturers. For more information about BlueStar, please contact a BlueStar Account Executive or log on to www.bluestarinc.com.

Trade show launched for faith tourism industry

2007-10-19T05:49:00.000+07:00

Littleton, CO-based World Religious Travel Association (WRTA) is launching the World Religious Travel Expo & Educational Conference, Oct. 29 to Nov. 1, 2008 at the Gaylord Palms Resort and Convention Center in Orlando. The Expo will include an international trade show and an educational conference.

Exhibitors will include travel wholesalers, suppliers, tourist boards, airlines and cruise lines. Kevin J Wright, WRTA President, says, “All market segments will be represented at the Expo, including pilgrimage, cruising, missions, leisure vacations, attractions, conferences, retreats, Christian camps and volunteer vacations, among others.”

Wright expects the trade show to become an annual gathering for exhibiting, networking and brand building in the faith tourism industry.

The educational conference will feature industry lectures, presentations and panel discussions.

The WRTA brings worldwide trade and North American religious consumers together to promote global travel.

Hanley Wood Exhibitions Launches Green Products and Technology Expo, October 2008

2007-10-19T05:44:00.000+07:00

Hanley Wood, LLC, the leading media and information company serving the residential construction market, announces its entry into the green building market with an integrated Green Products and Technology network of media including a magazine, Web site, trade show and e-Newsletter.

“Green building and sustainable design will represent a $45 billion market by 2010, with 10% of all homes built qualifying as green. This is an important new business opportunity for those who serve the residential construction market,” says Peter Goldstone, President of Hanley Wood Business Media. “Hanley Wood has the editorial strength and depth to reach the key professionals who will build this market with the information they need.”

GREEN PRODUCTS AND TECHNOLOGY will launch in February with:

• GREEN PRODUCTS AND TECHNOLOGY, a magazine published four times in 2008 with product information, case studies on innovative green homes and best practices data for 35,000 builders, remodelers and architects identified as active in green building.

• GREEN PRODUCTS NEWS, a bi-weekly e-Newsletter delivering the latest product information and news to builders, remodelers and residential architects.

• GREENPRODUCTSMAGAZINE.com, a Web site devoted to serving the community of residential construction professionals building and designing green.

To complete the media franchise, Hanley Wood Exhibitions will launch the GREEN PRODUCTS & TECHNOLOGY EXPO in Austin in October 2008. The Expo will feature an extensive conference program coupled with networking offerings and a tradeshow with numerous interactive elements. Like the magazine, the Expo will focus on the residential construction sector.

“The breadth of products and services coming on the market to serve the green home building industry is substantial and we expect GREEN PRODUCTS & TECHNOLOGY EXPO to be a strong launch,” says Galen Poss, President, Hanley Wood Exhibitions. “We’re locating the show in Austin—which is a very “green” city, in a strong custom home market and within driving distance of 3 of the top 10 cities in America.”

The editorial content of GREEN PRODUCTS AND TECHNOLOGY will be managed by two award-winning Hanley Wood editors: Jean Dimeo, Editorial Director of ebuild and BUILDING PRODUCTS and Rick Schwolsky, Chief Editor of TOOLS OF THE TRADE and EL NUEVO CONSTRUCTOR, who began his professional life as president of his own building company specializing in energy-efficient homes. He also co-authored The Builder’s Guide to Solar Construction and has been a frequent speaker and consultant on energy-efficient construction.

“Increasingly, consumers are demanding high-performance, energy-efficient, healthy homes,” says Dimeo. “Hanley Wood has traditionally been at the forefront of providing building pros with the latest, most comprehensive information on how to improve their businesses and better serve their customers. GREEN PRODUCTS AND TECHNOLOGY will provide pros with practical advice and best solutions for building and remodeling green and will identify the newest green products, first online and then in the magazine.”

Entering the green construction market represents an important strategic growth initiative for Hanley Wood. The launch of the GREEN PRODUCTS AND TECHNOLOGY media network, coupled with the recent acquisition of ECO-STRUCTURE (www.eco-structure.com), demonstrate Hanley Wood’s strong commitment to the green movement. In addition to these two green-focused brands, numerous other brands in the Hanley Wood portfolio have introduced dedicated green departments or green-themed editorial features to their everyday coverage of the construction industry.

Media sales will be managed by Mark Taussig, publisher of PROSALES, COASTAL CONTRACTOR, TOOLS OF THE TRADE and EL NUEVO CONSTRUCTOR. For more information about media opportunities, contact Mark Taussig at 202-736-3406 or mtaussig@hanleywood.com.

The Conference & Expo will be led by Rick McConnell, Vice President of Hanley Wood Exhibitions with day-to-day operations managed by Amy Allen. For more information regarding the Expo, please call Amy at 972-536-6313 or aallen@hanleywood.com.

About Hanley Wood

Hanley Wood, LLC, is the premier media and information company serving housing and construction. Through four operating divisions, the company produces award-winning magazines and Web sites, marquee trade shows and events, rich data and custom marketing solutions. The company also is North America’s leading publisher of home plans. Hanley Wood Business Media (Washington, D.C.), publishes 36 award-winning residential and commercial construction titles, including BUILDER, REMODELING, CUSTOM HOME, CONCRETE CONSTRUCTION, and RESIDENTIAL ARCHITECT. Hanley Wood Business Media also offers the construction industry’s foremost collection of Web sites, including BUILDER ONLINE, REMODELING ONLINE, and ebuild, the comprehensive online guide to building products, as well as the largest collection of house plans online through eplans.com and DREAM HOME SOURCE.

Founded in 1976, Hanley Wood is a $250 million company owned by affiliates of JPMorgan Partners, LLC. CCMP Capital Advisors manages the Hanley Wood investment for JPMorgan Partners.

Success in Forex trading

2007-10-05T12:12:00.000+07:00

Get success in Forex Trading follow this tips;

1. Implement a trading plan.

"If you fail to plan, you plan to fail". A trading plan is especially crucial in Forex trading to stay ‘in-control’ against the emotional stress in speculative situation. Often, your emotions will blind and lead you to the negative sides: greed causes you to over-ride on a win while fear causes you to cut short in your profits. Hence, a well organized operation has to be predetermined and strictly followed.

2. Trade within your means

If you cannot afford to lose, you cannot afford to win. Losing is a not a must but it is the natural in any trading market. Trading should be always done using excess money in your savings. Before you start to trade in Forex, we suggest you to put aside some of your income to set up your own investment funds and trade only using that funds.

3. Avoid emotion trading

If you do not have a trading plan, make one. If you have a trading plan, follows it strictly! Never ever attempt to hold your weakened position and hope the market will turn back in your favor direction. You might end up losing all your capital if you keep holding. Move on, stay within your trading plan, and admit your mistakes if things do not turn as you want.

4. Ride on a win and cut your losses

Forex trader should always ride till the market turns around whenever a profit is show; while during losing, never hesitate to admit your mistakes and exit the market. It is human nature to stay long on loses and satisfy with small profits – this is why as we mentioned earlier that a strictly followed trading plan is a must-have.

5. Love the trends

Trends are your friends. Although currency values fluctuate but from the big picture it normally goes in a steady direction. If you are not sure on certain moves, the long term trend is always your primary reference. In long run, trading with the trends improves your odds in the Forex market.

6. Stop looking for leading indicators

There aren't any in the Forex market. While some firms make a lot of money selling software that predicts the future, the reality is that if those products really worked, they wouldn't be giving the secret away.

7. Avoid trading in a thin market

Trade on popular currency pairs and avoid thin market. The lack of public participation will cause difficulties in liquidate your positions. If you are beginners, we suggest the big five: USD/EUR, USD/JPY, USD/GBD, USD/CHF, and EUR/JPY.

8. Avoid trading in too many markets

Do not confuse yourself by overtrading in too many markets especially if you are a beginner. Go for the major currency pairs and drill down your studies in it.

9. Implement a proper trading system

There is hundreds of trading systems available on line. Pick one that you are most comfortable with and stick with it. Stay organized in your trades and fully utilized stop-loss or limit functions in your trades.

10. Keep learning

The best investment is always the investment on your brain. Without a doubt, Forex trading needs much more than just a few guidelines or tips to be successful. Experience, knowledge, capital, fortitude, and even some help of luck are all crucial in one’s success in the FX market. if you lose in a trade, do not lose the experience in it. Learn from your mistakes and regain your position in the next trade.

Oracle’s Profit for Quarter Is Up 25%

2007-09-21T13:31:00.000+07:00

By REUTERS

BOSTON, Sept. 20 (Reuters) — Oracle reported a 25 percent rise in its fiscal first-quarter profit Thursday, helped by higher-than-expected sales of new software.

The company’s revenue and earnings per share excluding special items exceeded Wall Street expectations.

“We continue to take applications market share from SAP,” Oracle’s president, Charles E. Phillips Jr., said in a statement, referring to the German maker of business software that is one of its main rivals.

Oracle is the leader in database software, ahead of I.B.M., but it trails SAP in business applications.

Net income increased to $840 million, or 16 cents a share, in the period, which ended Aug. 31, from $670 million, or 13 cents, a year earlier.

Revenue rose 26 percent, to $4.53 billion, surpassing the analyst target of $4.36 billion, according to Reuters Estimates.

Earnings, not counting items including stock-based compensation expenses and acquisition-related charges, were 22 cents a share, a penny above Wall Street expectations.

The results were buoyed by the sales of products that were not in its lineup a year ago. Oracle added them after buying Hyperion Solutions, Stellent, MetaSolv and several other software makers over the last year.

Revenue from new software licenses increased 35 percent from the period a year earlier, to $1.1 billion. Three months ago, Oracle told investors that it expected new-license revenue would increase by 20 to 30 percent from a year earlier.

Oracle reported its results after the stock market closed. In Nasdaq trading Thursday, its shares rose 20 cents, to $21.04; after hours, they rose 11 cents more, to $21.15.

Value of Dollar Falls to New Low Against the Euro

2007-09-21T13:24:00.000+07:00

By VIKAS BAJAJ and IAN AUSTEN

Investors dumped dollars yesterday, sending the euro to a record high and putting the American currency at par with the Canadian dollar for the first time in more than 30 years.

In practical terms, the recent drop in the dollar’s value is making Boeing jetliners and Manhattan pieds-à-terre a lot cheaper for Europeans and Canadians, while Americans will have to pay more while on vacation in Paris or when buying snowmobiles made in Quebec.

While the dollar has generally been drifting down against both currencies, along with the British pound, for much of this decade, its fall has gathered pace in recent weeks as traders foresee a slowing American economy while expecting more robust growth overseas.

The Federal Reserve’s decision this week to cut interest rates put further pressure on the dollar by making investment returns in other countries comparatively more lucrative.

As American assets become cheaper to buyers overseas, foreigners may step up their purchase of businesses and land here, creating political and cultural tensions. Yesterday, a stock exchange from Dubai, on the Persian Gulf, announced plans to take a sizable stake in Nasdaq, drawing a mixed response in Washington. And a prominent private equity firm, the Carlyle Group, sold a minority stake to the Abu Dhabi government.

The impact of the falling dollar is rippling through the world and American economies in numerous ways. It will give an edge to American manufacturers and has already helped lift exports by more than 11 percent in the first eight months of the year. Businesses with large foreign operations can expect a lift in profits when they convert their overseas earnings into dollars.

On the other side of the equation, the decline in the American currency is helping push up commodity prices, most of which are denominated in dollars, and kindling fears that inflation could rise. Crude oil futures surged to $83.32 a barrel yesterday, up 2 percent from the day before and up 37 percent for the year. Long-term bonds fell sharply in value and gold prices were up 1.4 percent, to $733.26 a troy ounce.

One euro now buys $1.4065, the first time in the common European currency’s nine-year history that it has crossed the $1.40 mark. And one dollar now buys $1.0008 Canadian dollars, the first time that the two currencies have traded that closely since late 1976.

The American currency fell nearly 1 percent against a basket of six major world currencies yesterday, and is down 8.4 percent in the last 12 months. The American stock market fell modestly yesterday after posting two days of gains.

Many traders and economists predict that the dollar will weaken further because the American economy is expected to underperform its biggest trading partners for some time. “The market is pricing in a shift in Fed policy downward, and the rest of the world is not matching,” said Carl B. Weinberg, chief global economist at High Frequency Economics. “That can only mean a cheaper dollar.”

In Washington, the administration and Congress were preoccupied with the problems in the housing economy and there was little talk of the dollar. President Bush expressed confidence in the economy. “The fundamentals of our nation’s economy are strong,” he said at a news conference. “There is no question that there is some unsettling times in the housing market.”

Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York, did call on the Bush administration to review the Nasdaq deal closely, but other Democratic leaders, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California and Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts, chairman of the Financial Services Committee, said they were not alarmed by the transaction.

More than a year ago, opposition from lawmakers forced another Dubai-owned company to back out of a plan to manage port operations around the United States and a Chinese firm gave up on a plan to acquire Unocal, an American oil company.

For Canadians, the newfound parity with the American currency has proved to be as much a source of anxiety as pride in a country with an export-dependent economy.

For decades, the Canadian dollar’s anemic state lent it little respect. Although the currency’s popular name, the loonie, comes from the bird depicted on the one-dollar coin, its alternate meaning was not lost on Canadians. In an episode of “The Simpsons” about the animated family’s trip to Toronto shortly after the Canadian currency’s collapse in 2002, Homer Simpson won over a recalcitrant security guard by waving a single American dollar bill in his face.

Building Your Brand

2007-09-20T11:19:00.000+07:00

by Penelope Trunk

In a world where jobs no longer last forever, the only constant in your career is you. So instead of relying on the brand of your company to define who you are, you have to rely on your own brand.

That's not easy, though. Think of all the brand managers who have had their hands on Nike or Apple. The brands people adore and really connect with are brands that are consciously developed and well cared for every day, even in bad times.

Admit It You're Special

That's how you have to treat yourself. It's true that you'll never be as big a brand as Nike or Apple, but your brand is much more important than theirs, because your brand is what will feed you and clothe you and keep your life stable. And just as specialized brands are always the most successful, specialists have the best careers.

Think about it: The people who get the most job offers are the ones known for doing something very well. They have an area of expertise and they have a reputation for being great at it. The stronger your specialty is, the more opportunities you'll have for career moves; and the more opportunities you have, the less likely that the inevitable bumps in the road will throw you off course. That's how branding creates stability.

The way to build a brand is to know what your strengths are, why they're special, and what you like doing with them. If you're unclear of what personal branding is, here's a great definition from personal-branding blogger Dan Schawbel. And if you're unsure of how to build your own brand, here are three steps to follow:

1. Know what you're very good at.

This isn't about what you like to do. We all like to do a lot of things, but that doesn't mean we stand out for them. You also don't need to get paid for what you love to do most. After all, you may love food, but you probably don't get paid to eat, right?

So pick something you love but that makes sense to get paid for, which means it should pay enough to support you and whoever depends on you. Also, pick something in an area you've done work in that people have told you is exceptional.

Each of us can only be fantastic at a few things. One of the big tricks to career success is to find what you do better than almost everyone else, and then let people know that that's what you do. For most people, the search for what makes them special takes years and years, and includes a few wrong turns.

2. Know what people think of you.

This is hard to do. For example, most people think they're more well-liked than they are. And most people think they're more essential to a team than they are. A great way to get an assessment of how people think of you is to ask yourself if you have the five traits of a likable person.

Another approach is to think about traits that likable people have and work on those, because the traits you consciously focus on are ones you can generally improve. Branding blogger Adam Salamon writes that there are some things you should always want to convey, for example that you're interested in other people and that you have a positive attitude. These are things everyone should think about.

But being likable is only part of brand building. You need to be not just liked, but known for what you're good at. Do people know what you're good at, or do they just know that you're nice? You want both.

3. Meet the right people.

Not every brand is relevant to every person. Understand the kind of people who'll connect best with you, and surround yourself with them, at least to get started. That way you can focus on presenting the parts of you that are most relevant to your brand.

This shouldn't seem extreme. The younger the workforce gets, the more mainstream the idea of personal branding becomes. Travis, a blogging entrepreneur at Young Go Getter, describes his community as a place where people write about what they want to be known for and share ideas to connect with people who think like them.

You need a community like that. Because in the new workplace, no one can take care of you but you-not your boss, not your company, not the economy. It's all up to you, and it's hard to do alone, so figure out what you're great at and then let people know. Start with a small community and let it get bigger and bigger. This is where true financial security and job safety come from.

Yahoo Buying Zimbra, an E-Mail Service for Businesses

2007-09-18T14:15:00.000+07:00

By MIGUEL HELFT

Yahoo said yesterday that it was buying Zimbra, a start-up that provides Web-based e-mail to businesses and institutions, as it seeks to extend the reach of its popular e-mail service and better compete with Google.

The deal, for $350 million in cash and stock, is the second sizable acquisition Yahoo has announced this month. A Yahoo executive said the latest deal underscored Yahoo’s decision to continue investing in areas where it is already strong.

“This to me this is a further investment in parts of the Yahoo business that we are most committed to,” said the executive, Brad Garlinghouse, senior vice president for communications and communities at Yahoo. Mr. Garlinghouse said Yahoo Mail’s appeal with consumers and Zimbra’s appeal with businesses were complementary.

Google is expected to unveil today software that, like Microsoft’s PowerPoint, can create slide presentations and will be added to the company’s growing package of Web-based applications aimed at businesses.

Zimbra, a 100-person start-up founded in 2003, specializes in providing e-mail and calendar software to small and medium-size businesses, universities and Internet service providers. The company said it had nine million users.

Businesses typically pay Zimbra $28 a user, though universities pay only $1 for each student and $8 for each faculty member.

“It’s pretty clear that Yahoo is spreading out,” said Jordan Rohan, an analyst with RBC Capital Markets. “The business that they were in before, that of being a portal, is changing rapidly.” In response, Yahoo is trying to become a provider of third-party services not only to advertisers, but also to other Web-based businesses, Mr. Rohan said.

The deal comes just days after Google completed its purchase of the e-mail management company Postini for $625 million, one of a series of moves by the Internet search giant to strengthen its software offerings to businesses.

Google, whose Gmail service has been popular with consumers, has sought to make inroads into the small and medium-size business market, as well as with universities, with a suite of Web-based applications that include e-mail, calendar, word processing and spreadsheets and now slide presentation software.

Microsoft overwhelmingly dominates the market for these products, but its software is typically installed on PCs, rather than delivered as a service across the Web. Some businesses are choosing Web services as a lower-cost alternative to Microsoft’s products.

While Google offers all its business applications free, it has also created a package that includes technical support and additional storage, which businesses can purchase for $50 a user.

By becoming part of Yahoo, Zimbra will be able to offer its products, which will continue to be sold separately, to a greater number of potential customers around the world, said Satish Dharmaraj, Zimbra’s co-founder and chief executive.

Yahoo is the dominant e-mail provider on the Web, and had 181 million visitors in August, according to comScore. By comparison, Google’s Gmail sites had 18 million visitors in August.

The exact terms of the deal were not disclosed, but a Yahoo spokeswoman said the bulk of the purchase would be made with cash, with Yahoo stock making up the difference.

Microsoft Ruling May Bode Ill for Other Companies

2007-09-18T14:08:00.000+07:00

LUXEMBOURG, Sept. 17 — Europe’s second-highest court delivered a stinging rebuke to Microsoft Monday, but the impact of the decision upholding an earlier antitrust ruling may extend well beyond the world’s largest software maker to other high-technology companies.

Software and legal experts said the European ruling might signal problems for companies like Apple, Intel and Qualcomm, whose market dominance in online music downloads, computer chips and mobile phone technology is also being scrutinized by the European Commission.

“The decision is a strong endorsement for what in the United States would be considered aggressive policy on dominant firms,” said Andrew I. Gavil, a law professor at Howard University. “And that’s going to continue to play out in other kinds of cases.”

The 13-member European Court of First Instance, in a starkly worded 244-page summary, reaffirmed that Microsoft had abused its market power by adding a digital media player to Windows, undercutting the early leader, Real Networks.

It also ordered Microsoft to obey a March 2004 commission order to share confidential computer code with competitors. The court also upheld the record fine levied against the company, 497.2 million euros ($689.4 million).

But the court decision comes as the center of gravity in computing is shifting away from the software for personal computers, Microsoft’s stronghold. Increasingly, the e-mailing or word-processing functions of a computer can be performed with software delivered on a Web browser. Other devices like cellphones are now used as alternates to personal computers.

The real challenge to Microsoft, after more than a decade of dominating the technology industry, is coming not from the government, but from the marketplace.

The direct impact on Microsoft is small, said David B. Yoffie, a professor at the Harvard Business School. But there may be a longer-range consequence of having Microsoft under constant, open-ended scrutiny from Europe.

“If you end up handicapping a major player in new markets, you may actually not enhance competition but hinder it, and help create new monopolies,” Mr. Yoffie said. “The obvious example is Google in Internet search and Apple in digital music.”

Indeed, the Justice Department issued a statement expressing its concerns with the European decision, saying that tough restraints on powerful companies can be harmful. Thomas O. Barnett, assistant attorney general for the department’s antitrust division, said that the effect “rather than helping consumers, may have the unfortunate consequence of harming consumers by chilling innovation and discouraging competition.”

Consumer welfare, not protecting competitors, should be the guiding standard in antitrust, Mr. Barnett said.

Antitrust enforcement has often been criticized as too slow to grapple with fast-moving high-technology markets. Indeed, the media player market changed drastically during the years-long investigation in Europe. When the European Commission ordered Microsoft to offer a version of Windows in Europe without its media player, but at no difference in price, few people wanted the stripped-down version of Windows.

Still, the Luxembourg court’s ruling poses a threat to Microsoft’s traditional way of doing business by bundling new features and products into its Windows operating system. The court decision sets a precedent, at least from Europe. For example, if Microsoft wants to put handwriting- and speech-recognition features or stronger security software into Windows, European authorities might listen to competitors’ complaints.

In the United States, the Justice Department chose to settle the Microsoft antitrust case in 2001 without challenging the company’s freedom to put whatever it wants in its operating system.

Microsoft’s allies said the court’s decision would have a chilling effect on the business strategies of many global technology companies.

“This ruling is certainly going to introduce a lot of uncertainty,” said Jonathan Zuck, president of the Association for Competitive Technology, a Washington-based group that supported Microsoft in its legal case in Europe. “What the court is basically saying is that if you develop a successful product and get too big, the European Commission is going to force you to give away your intellectual property.”

The European ruling’s widest impact on technology companies, legal and industry experts say, will probably be on Microsoft’s ability to guard some of its intellectual property in software for servers. Server software, running on data center computers, powers corporate networks and the Web.

The court upheld the commission’s order that Microsoft must share technical information with competitors so their server software works smoothly with Microsoft’s Windows desktop.

The order applies only to Europe, but Microsoft may have a difficult time containing the impact to the European market only.

Because the Internet runs on server software, industry analysts say the court’s ruling could have a lasting impact.

“The Internet has opened a really good door for the industry and society to walk through to enjoy a far more rapid pace of innovation and growth than in personal computing, where Microsoft controls things,” said Timothy F. Bresnahan, an economist at Stanford University and a senior official in the Justice Department’s antitrust division during the Clinton administration. “Europe is pushing to ensure that the higher pace of innovation on the server is allowed to continue.”

Bradford L. Smith, the general counsel for Microsoft, who was present for the reading, said the company would follow the ruling but did not say specifically whether the company would appeal it. In a statement issued by the company, Mr. Smith said: “I would note that a lot has changed since this case started in 1998. The world has changed, the industry has changed, and our company has changed.”

The decision followed a five-day hearing on the issues under appeal in April 2006. Microsoft had indicated in the past that it would appeal any negative ruling to the European Court of Justice, the highest court in Europe. But an appeal by the company, a process likely to take at least two years, would focus only on whether the appellate court erred in procedure and points of law in reaching its decision, not on the facts in the case.

Neelie Kroes, the European Union competition commissioner, said at a news conference in Brussels that while the decision set an “important precedent,” the judgment “is bittersweet because the court has confirmed the commission’s view that consumers are suffering at the hands of Microsoft.”

In the course of the case, which began with a complaint in 1998, Ms. Kroes noted that Microsoft’s share of the market in server software has risen sharply and that Windows Media Player has come to dominate the market.

She highlighted the fact that Microsoft has 95 percent of the world market for desktop operating systems and said she would like to see this shrink. “You can’t draw a line and say exactly 50 percent is correct, but a significant drop in market share is what we would like to see,” she said. “Microsoft cannot regulate the market by imposing its products and its services on people.”

Kevin J. O’Brien reported from Luxembourg and Steve Lohr from New York.

Chevron's 2Q Profit Soars to New High

2007-07-29T11:16:00.001+07:00

By MICHAEL LIEDTKE
AP Business Writer

SAN RAMON, Calif. (AP) -- Chevron Corp.'s profits soared to new heights in the second quarter, capping another round of astounding oil industry earnings that have piled up as high gasoline prices squeeze household budgets.

The San Ramon-based company said Friday that it made $5.38 billion, or $2.52 per share, during the three months ended June 30. That represented a 24 percent increase from net income of $4.35 billion, or $1.97 per share, a year earlier.

The performance by the nation's second largest oil company outstripped the second-quarter showings of four other industry leaders that released their results earlier this week.

Exxon Mobil Corp. and ConocoPhillips each reported a lower profit, while BP PLC posted a modest earnings increase. Royal Dutch Shell PLC reported an 18 percent earnings increase that was largely propelled by asset sales.

Combined, the five oil companies earned $32 billion during the second quarter. That represented a 7 percent decrease from the same time last year, but this year's results were dragged down by a $4.5 billion charge absorbed by ConocoPhillips to account for a dispute over its oil holdings in Venezuela. ConocoPhillips' operating profit for the period increased.

For Chevron, the latest profit represents the most money that the company has made in any three-month period during its 128-year history, smashing its previous record of $5.02 billion set in last year's third quarter.

What's more, Chevron is on a pace to register a record annual profit for the fourth consecutive year. Chevron has already earned $10.1 billion through the first six months of this year, up 21 percent from last year's record.

Exxon Mobil, which is nearly two times larger than Chevron, remains on track to surpass its 2006 profit of $39.5 billion - the highest ever reported by a U.S. company.

But there are indications the industry might not be quite as prosperous in the second half of the year, with gasoline prices dropping from their recent highs as more refineries boost production after a wave of outages earlier this year.

The upturn in refinery output has trimmed the fat profit margins that propelled the industry's second-quarter earnings, said Oppenheimer & Co. analyst Fadel Gheit. "The runaway margins are not here to stay."

The companies' crude oil production also has been flat or down, limiting their ability to capitalize on the high prices for the commodity.

Chevron's crude oil production, for instance, averaged 2.63 million barrels per day in the second quarter, down 1 percent from last year.

Management told analysts during a Friday conference call that oil production will hover in the same range during the final half of the year, a projection that appeared to disappoint investors. Chevron shares slid $2.26, or 2.6 percent, to $85.20 Friday. The company's stock price still remains up by about 16 percent so far this year.

Chevron's second-quarter results were boosted by a $680 million gain from the company's sale of its holdings in power wholesaler Dynegy Inc. If not for that windfall and a $160 million setback on loss on items unrelated to its ongoing business, Chevron would have earned $2.27 per share.

That figure lagged the average earnings estimate of $2.30 per share among analysts polled by Thomson Financial.

Revenue rose 5 percent to $56.1 billion, above the $50.35 billion projected by analysts.

Like its industry peers, Chevron benefited from a confluence of trouble that has plagued refineries this year. About one-third of the nation's 150 refineries have been out of commission at some point this year, an unusually large number that has strained the industry's ability to produce enough gasoline to keep up with the nation's seemingly insatiable demand.

The imbalance helped push gasoline prices well beyond $3 per gallon through most of the country during the spring, prompting some industry critics to suggest the refinery problems were part of a conspiracy to gouge motorists.

Oil industry executives and analysts say there is nothing sinister about what happened. They attribute the refinery disruptions to unforeseen circumstances, such as fires and floods, and the need to catch up on long-delayed repairs and upgrades to prevent equipment from breaking down even more in the future.

A fire curtailed production at Chevron's northern California refinery during the first quarter while construction at its southern California refinery lowered output there in the second quarter.

Chevron earned $1.3 billion from its refining and marketing operations in the second quarter, a 30 percent improvement from $998 million last year.

Now that more refineries are running at full speed, motorists are getting some relief at the pump with the average price of gasoline nationwide back below $3 per gallon.

Nevertheless, gasoline costs threaten to siphon money away from stores, restaurants, movie theaters and other businesses dependent on discretionary spending, creating a scenario in which much of the economy suffers while the oil industry thrives.

China trade outpost may join Pabst site

2007-07-12T10:53:00.000+07:00

An office building, aimed at housing Chinese businesses that would sell their products to U.S. companies, has been proposed for a site within downtown's former Pabst brewery complex.

The Milwaukee International Trade Center would be converted from what's now a 180,000-square-foot warehouse west of N. 8th St., between W. Highland and W. Juneau avenues.

Construction work could begin by the end of this year - around the same time basketball fans hope to see the 7-foot Yi making monster dunks at the nearby Bradley Center.

The two-story trade center would provide space to as many as 100 Chinese businesses seeking to sell their products directly to wholesale buyers for distribution throughout the United States, said Michael Mervis, a spokesman for the project.

The development also would provide consulting services to U.S. companies seeking to export their goods to China, said Mervis, assistant to Joseph Zilber, a Milwaukee real estate investor who's a partner in the trade center proposal.

Mervis said Wednesday that the project's partners are "guardedly optimistic" about its prospects. But, he said, there's still much work to be done, including the need to secure commitments from Chinese companies interested in the trade center.

Many of the Chinese prospects are companies based in Ningbo, a port city near Shanghai that in 2006 created a "sister city" relationship with Milwaukee. The prospects include companies that make consumer products, as well as firms that provide building supplies, Mervis said.

Chinese companies interested in the trade center see it as an opportunity to establish direct sales relationships with U.S. customers, Mervis said.

Also, U.S. companies could use the trade center to shop for Chinese companies that would do contract manufacturing work in their home country, said Peter Beitzel, vice president of business development at the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce.

"They could showcase what they do to a multitude of clients," Beitzel said about the Chinese firms.

The Milwaukee facility could take advantage of the recent designation of a federal economic development zone in southeastern Wisconsin that seeks to attract foreign investment. The Immigrant Investor Pilot Program offers visas to foreigners who invest at least $500,000 and create at least 10 jobs within the seven-county region.

The Milwaukee area is among only about 15 Immigrant Investor Pilot Program zones. The Department of Homeland Security in May approved the zone for southeastern Wisconsin.

The trade center also got another recent boost: the Bucks' decision to draft Yi.

Within a few days of that June 28 announcement, the trade center's promoters saw a significant increase in inquiries from Chinese companies, Mervis said.

The possibility of Yi playing for the Bucks raises "the comfort factor" for Chinese investors who previously might have never heard of Milwaukee, Mervis said.

Yi was selected sixth in the National Basketball Association draft but has been cool to the Bucks' overtures. Yi's U.S. agent, Dan Fegan, was disappointed that Yi was not taken by a team in a city that would provide him potentially more marketing opportunities.

In addition to Zilber, who owns the former Pabst brewery complex and is leading its redevelopment, the proposed trade center's partners include Francis Yip, a Chinese-American real estate developer from Chicago.

Yip is a co-founder and president of Richland Group Enterprises Inc. A Richland subsidiary builds around 100 homes yearly, mainly in Chicago's Chinatown and Bridgeport neighborhoods, according to the firm's Web site. The company also has developed commercial space, and has other subsidiaries that operate real estate brokerage and home mortgage lending services.

The trade center's other partner is Chicago attorney Robert K. Feldman, whose specialties include real estate.

The office spaces within the trade center would be sold as commercial condominiums. The condos would range from around 1,400 square feet to just more than 2,100 square feet. The trade center would total 185,000 square feet, including an addition to the building's north end.

The trade center would be a major project at the 21-acre Pabst site, where Zilber began doing environmental cleanup work in January.

Other developments include Madison-based Gorman & Co.'s plans to convert the 138,000-square-foot former keg house into the 92-unit Blue Ribbon Loft Apartments.

Also, local investors Charles Trainer and Max Dermond have agreed to buy the 55,000-square-foot former boiler house, which they plan to convert into street-level retail space and upper level offices.

Other possible uses at the former brewery include an international corporate training site operated by Johnson Controls Inc., and a brew pub developed by local investor Jim Haertel and his partners, who own the former Blue Ribbon Hall, gift shop and offices.

Paychecks in 2008

2007-07-08T13:33:00.000+07:00

By Jeanne Sahadi, CNNMoney.com senior writer

Compensation experts are predicting average base pay increases below 4 percent next year - and a lot of that may go to higher health insurance costs, according to early estimates.

If you want to fatten your paycheck in 2008 without changing jobs, your best bet rides on the bonus. And now is the time to shine on the job if you want to secure a big one on top of your annual pay raise.

Managers will make their pay decisions for next year sometime between September and November, said Ken Abosch, the head of human resource consulting firm Hewitt Associate's compensation practice. "Experience tells us there's a 'What have you done for me lately?' effect. It never hurts to finish strong," he said.

Base pay increases are expected to be modest at best, even for star players. Since base pay is one of a company's largest expenses, there's a big push to keep a lid on fixed costs, Abosch said.

Hewitt and Mercer Human Resource Consulting each are surveying up to 1,000 companies, and their preliminary findings suggest base pay will increase by an average of 3.8 percent

In theory, managers may give more to their best performers and less to their worst performers, so long as their department's average raise doesn't exceed the company's. "But the reality is companies don't do a good job taking money away from average or below average employees. The net result is like spreading peanut butter across the organization," Abosch said.

But even if companies were better at apportioning pay increases to better reflect performance, the increase isn't likely to rock your world. "Frankly, 4.2 percent versus 3.8 percent is not a real reinforcement of the message for you to spend that extra energy. The real action is in variable pay," Abosch said, noting that last year companies budgeted three times as much for bonus pay as they did for base pay increases.

Typically, Abosch sees bonuses ranging from 5 percent of pay up to 40 percent, and not just in sales jobs. The lower end of the range is usually reserved for entry-level employees, the mid-level range (15 percent to 20 percent) for middle managers and professionals, and the high end (30 percent to 40 percent) for upper-level management.

Of course, not every company makes their bonus program transparent. They just announce what you got when they pay it out, as if they just discovered an extra pot of money and decided to dole it out. That doesn't do a very good job of communicating the tie between your performance and your pay.

If at this point in the year, you're not clear what is expected of you to earn the maximum base pay increase and bonus, talk to your manager about it.

Here's to your health

If you need added incentive, consider this: Your share of health care costs at work very likely will rise and eat up a significant portion of your base pay bump.

"In general we're still seeing double-digit increases in healthcare costs. And most employers are passing the majority of that increased cost directly to employees," Abosch said.

Last year, for instance, premium costs grew at more than twice the level of wage growth and inflation - and that was the slowest rate of growth since 2000, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Looking ahead, a Hewitt analysis of HMO rates at 160 large companies found that initial 2008 rate increases for HMOs were averaging 14.1 percent - though that may come down a bit after negotiations.

Finance Advice

2007-07-08T13:28:00.000+07:00

By Jonathan Clements

If you're in your 20s, the world may not throw money at you -- but you'll get plenty of free financial advice.

For instance, you have no doubt been told to save diligently, fully fund your employer's 401(k) plan and avoid credit-card debt. And those are all good suggestions.

But there are other suggestions that aren't quite so good -- including these four popular pieces of advice.

1. AMASS CASH

If you are just out of school, you probably have all kinds of financial ambitions, including buying a car, purchasing a home and trying your hand at stock-market investing. But according to some financial experts, your top financial priority should be amassing an emergency reserve equal to six months of living expenses, with this cash tucked away in conservative investments like money-market funds and certificates of deposit.

Let's be honest: This is dull, unrealistic and -- I would argue -- not all that sensible. Even if you regularly sock away 10% of your after-tax income, it might take four years or so to amass six months of living expenses. At that juncture, you are supposed to leave this money in low-risk investments, where it will earn modest returns for the rest of your life.

Sound bad? It gets worse. While you were building up your emergency reserve, you were likely neglecting important goals like funding your 401(k) plan, which might earn you a matching employer contribution, and saving for a house down payment.

My advice: Forget the emergency reserve. Instead, stick at least enough in your 401(k) to get the full company match. Next, fund a Roth individual retirement account. If you still have extra money to save each year, by all means stash it in conservative investments in a regular taxable account.

If you get hit with a financial emergency, tap the money in your regular taxable account first. But you could also borrow from your 401(k). In addition, at any time, you can pull out your Roth contributions -- but not the account's investment earnings -- without paying taxes or penalties.

You could also use your taxable account and Roth for a house down payment. Once you have bought the house, set up a home-equity line of credit, which you can then use as an emergency reserve.

2. BUY BIG

That brings me to another piece of conventional wisdom that's often doled out to folks in their 20s: Buy the biggest house possible.

I have some sympathy with this suggestion. If you are early in your career and you expect sizable pay increases in the years ahead, you may want to stretch to buy a somewhat larger house.

After all, if you purchase a place that you quickly become dissatisfied with, you could soon find yourself trading up to a better home. That will mean forking over a 5% or 6% selling commission, mortgage-application costs, lawyer's fees, moving expenses and more.

Don't, however, misconstrue what I am saying. I am not endorsing the contention that real estate is the best investment you can make, that you should buy the largest house possible or that you should take out the largest mortgage possible.

Borrowing a huge sum to purchase an unnecessarily large house is financial foolishness. You will saddle yourself with hefty monthly mortgage payments and a lifetime of large utility bills, maintenance costs, property-tax payments and home-insurance premiums. Rather, when buying that first home, you should strive to purchase a place that's the right size for you and your family -- and that you can see living in for a good long time.

3. GET A LIFE

Insurance agents often push folks in their 20s to buy cash-value life insurance, arguing that it's far cheaper to purchase these policies when you are young.

Don't do it. To be sure, under the right circumstances and with the right policy from the right company, cash-value life insurance can be a decent investment. But for those in their 20s, these policies are unlikely to make sense.

Remember, the principal reason to buy life insurance is to protect your family -- and you may not even have a spouse, let alone kids. And if you are married with young kids, you no doubt need a heap of coverage. The cheapest way to get that coverage is with term life insurance, which offers a death benefit and nothing more.

Cash-value life insurance, by contrast, combines a death benefit with an investment account. Because the premiums on these policies are so high, you will likely skimp on coverage, which means your young family won't be fully protected. Moreover, if you buy a cash-value policy, you probably won't have the spare cash for other, better investment opportunities, such as funding a Roth IRA and your employer's 401(k).

4. GO FOR GROWTH

Those in their 20s are encouraged to invest heavily in stocks, because they have decades until retirement and thus plenty of time to ride out market declines. This is good advice -- in theory.

In practice, I would be a little cautious. You don't want to invest heavily in stocks and then panic and sell during the next market plunge. Yet that's a real danger if you are new to the market and you have never lived through a market decline.

My suggestion: Start with 60% stocks and 40% bonds. If you find yourself unperturbed by market swings, move your stock allocation up to 85% or 90% after a year or two.

Younger investors are often also told to favor highflying growth stocks. Growth stocks can be wild short-term performers -- but the hope is that they will deliver superior long-run returns.

Unfortunately, there's a good chance this hope won't be fulfilled. Academic studies suggest the highest returns are earned not by growth companies, but by prosaic bargain-priced value stocks.

I am not, however, suggesting you load up on value. Instead, start by building a well-diversified portfolio that includes both growth and value stocks, as well as offering exposure to the broad U.S. market and to foreign markets. If you later want to add a tilt toward value stocks, be my guest. But your top priority should be broad diversification.

Microsoft tries evading new GPL grasp

2007-07-08T13:18:00.000+07:00

The Redmond, Wash.-based company long has objected to the GPL and generally prefers its secretive, proprietary software development practice. But a November partnership with Linux seller Novell, under which Microsoft sells certificates entitling customers to Novell's Suse Linux Enterprise Server support subscriptions and guarantees it won't sue those customers for patent infringement, brought Microsoft into closer contact with the GPL.

A new provision in version 3 of the General Public License (GPL), released last week, is designed to turn such patent-protection deals to the advantage of GPL software. But Microsoft said it's not affected and is steering clear of involvement with the license.

"Microsoft is not a party to the GPLv3 license and none of its actions are to be misinterpreted as accepting status as a contracting party of GPLv3 or assuming any legal obligations under such license," the company said in a statement. "To avoid any doubt or legal debate on this issue, Microsoft has decided that the Novell support certificates that we distribute to customers will not entitle the recipient to receive from Novell, or any other party, any subscription for support and updates relating to any code licensed under GPLv3."

Novell, meanwhile, said the software is still supported. "Independent of Microsoft's position, we would like to make clear our commitment to our customers that Novell will continue to distribute Suse Linux Enterprise Server with its full set of functionality and features, including those components that are licensed under GPLv3," it said in a statement.

The Free Software Foundation said that despite Microsoft's assertions, its behavior suggests the company is party to GPLv3.

"If they truly believe that GPLv3 presents no obstacle to their patent arrangements with free software distributors, why won't their coupons be good for GPLv3-covered programs?" said Brett Smith, the foundation's licensing compliance engineer. "It looks like they're spooked to me."

A variety of licenses govern the many components of Suse Linux Enterprise Server, and none in the existing product uses GPLv3. But one widely used utility, the "tar" command for compressing and decompressing files, already is under GPLv3, and Novell said it intends to incorporate GPLv3 components in updates

Microsoft's pre-emptive move highlights how seriously it takes the GPL since the free and open-source software movement has grown from an academic curiosity to a powerful force in the software industry. And it shows the complicated intellectual property questions software users must reckon with as proprietary and free software worlds collide.

Novell is at the center of this particular fracas. It sells both types of software; it has a controversial partnership with Microsoft that's providing much-needed revenue; and it has publicly disagreed with Microsoft's assertion that Linux and other free and open-source software infringe its patents.

"The question now for customers is what are they to make of the relationship, at this point, given that (Microsoft and Novell) differ on support, patents and the implications," said RedMonk analyst Stephen O'Grady.

Two major customers who bought the certificates, American International Group and Deutsche Bank, didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.

The Microsoft-Novell partnership threw a wrench in the GPLv3 works, but the Free Software Foundation threw one right back by adding new language to the new GPL.

"If you arrange to provide patent protection to some of the people who get the software from you, that protection is automatically extended to everyone who receives the software, no matter how they get it," Smith said in a statement. "This means that the patent protection Microsoft has extended to Novell's customers would be extended to everyone who uses any software Novell distributes under GPLv3."

Microsoft sees things differently.

"While there have been some claims that Microsoft's distribution of certificates for Novell support services, under our interoperability collaboration with Novell, constitutes acceptance of the GPLv3 license, we do not believe that such claims have a valid legal basis under contract, intellectual property, or any other law," Microsoft said in its statement. "Microsoft does not grant any implied or express patent rights under or as a result of GPLv3, and GPLv3 licensors have no authority to represent or bind Microsoft in any way."

Novell declined to say whether it agrees with Microsoft or the foundation about the patent issue. "We won't be making public legal interpretations," spokesman Bruce Lowry said.

An abstract debate becomes real when it comes to Microsoft's certificates for Novell SLES support. Open-source fan and Groklaw author Pamela Jones criticized Microsoft for backing out of its commitments, but Microsoft said its actions only apply to future certificates.

"There is no impact with respect to customers who have already consumed Novell certificates from Microsoft. These certificates were fully delivered by Novell and redeemed by customers prior to the existence of the GPLv3 license," Horacio Gutierrez, Microsoft's vice president of intellectual property and licensing, said in a statement. "These certificates are now part of a direct support relationship between Novell and its customers, to which Microsoft is not a party."

AMD invests $7.5 million in Transmeta

2007-07-08T13:11:00.000+07:00

Advanced Micro Devices announced Friday a $7.5 million investment in chip designer Transmeta, strengthening the bond between the two chip companies.

As part of the investment, AMD will receive preferred shares of Transmeta. After the announcement, Transmeta shares rose 24 cents, or 34 percent, to 94 cents in late trading. Shares of AMD rose 20 cents, or 1.4 percent, to $14.39.

The investment bodes well for Transmeta, whose share price has slipped from the $2 range early last year. Transmeta has seen its financial performance squeezed as it has transitioned from a chip designer and manufacturer to one that focuses on licensing its technology.

"Transmeta was a key ally in helping to bring our highly successful AMD64 technology to market and has supported the widespread industry adoption of both AMD64 and AMD's HyperTransport technology," Dirk Meyer, AMD chief operating officer, said in a statement. He noted that AMD plans to further use Transmeta's energy-efficient technologies in its chips.

Last year, AMD announced that it planned to sell Transmeta's Efficeon chips under the AMD brand. The AMD-branded chips would go in PCs, as part of Microsoft's FlexGo project.

With the restructuring to an intellectual property licensing company, Transmeta in October filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Intel, which then countersued in January.

In May, the company reported first-quarter revenue of $2.1 million, versus $19.5 million a year ago. The chip company also noted a first-quarter net loss of $18.7 million, compared with a loss of $1.6 million the previous year.

The company also announced, as part of its first-quarter earnings, it would reduce its workforce by 15 percent to 20 percent in the second quarter.

By Dawn Kawamoto
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
Published: July 6, 2007, 12:31 PM PDT

Get ready for the summer of Apple

2007-06-09T08:26:00.000+07:00

By Tom Krazit
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
Published: June 8, 2007, 4:00 AM PDT

On June 29, the company is expected to release the iPhone, perhaps one of the most hyped gadgets in history and a clear sign of where CEO Steve Jobs is placing his bets. At Apple--in case anyone still needed reminding after Jobs & Co. dropped "computer" from the company name--people are thinking about a lot more than laptops and desktops.

"Apple isn't just a hardware company, and they aren't just a software company," said Stephen Baker, an analyst with NPD Group. "I think that's what's enabled them to be more successful in endeavors that are away from their core business."

The touch-screen phone has been the talk of both the cellular and PC industries since Jobs unveiled it on stage at Macworld in January, and competitors are likely to respond later this year. But before it gets to the iPhone launch, Apple will pause next week to shift the spotlight back to its core Macintosh business.

On Monday, Jobs is scheduled to give the keynote at the Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco. Events such as WWDC are extremely important to Apple's developers, but tend to be overshadowed by the more consumer-oriented Macworld and other special product shindigs, such as last year's "showtime" event.

Indeed, WWDC is expected to be dominated by Apple's Leopard OS,just like last year's event. Developers will walk away with a near-final copy of Leopard, and Jobs is expected to provide further details on some of the features inside the new release. Apple does not plan to ship the final version until October.

While Leopard is certainly important to Apple's developers, the rest of the world is likely to be looking for any new nuggets Jobs reveals about the iPhone. The iPhone, analysts argue, is more than just a new product for Apple. It's an entirely new business that, if successful, will give the company three distinct product lines--Macintosh computers, iPods and the iPhone (not to mention a smaller fourth line, the Apple TV)--to maintain Apple's strong growth.

The attraction of the phone market to Apple is clear: mobile phone makers are shipping more than a billion units a year, and that figure keeps growing. Jobs has said he'll be satisfied if the iPhone has 1 percent of the market by the end of next year, somewhere around 10 million units.

The smart phone market, in which the iPhone will compete, however, is considerably smaller than the overall market. About 81.3 million smart phones shipped last year, according to iSuppli, which defines smart phones as "handsets with an open OS (like Windows CE, Symbian, Linux), which allow functional expansion of the device through sophisticated add-on applications such as personal information management."

The iPhone runs Mac OS X and Jobs promises it will deliver the "full Internet" to a mobile phone. Moreover, he said, at the January Macworld conference: "We have reinvented the phone."

It's a bold claim, and iPhone's success is not a slam dunk. Unlike the iPod's introduction in 2001 when other companies were shipping MP3 players but no one company had strong control of the market, the smart phone business is served by well-established, deep-pocketed players such as Nokia, Research In Motion and Samsung. And unlike the PC industry, it's also controlled by the companies that provide the pipe to the Internet, like Verizon, T-Mobile and AT&T, Apple's partner for the iPhone launch.

This is also a market where design has been essential from the beginning, potentially dulling Apple's usual competitive edge. Apple's reputation in both the MP3 and PC markets has been made on cutting-edge design, though competing on design with some of the products trotted out by the PC industry over the past five or six years hasn't exactly been like facing the 1927 New York Yankees. Still, Jobs appears to believe the iPhone's simple user interface, with its single button and multifaceted display, is a significant improvement over the QWERTY keyboards on Samsung's Blackjack or Palm's Treo, or the numeric keypads found on other smart phones. Reviewers have yet to give the iPhone a thorough test, so it's hard to know whether concerns about typing and screen smudges--not to mention the slow EDGE network it uses--will prove to be problems for the iPhone.

Apple's main advantage in the mobile phone industry could be the same thing that has attracted computer users: the complete control of both hardware and software development that the company has over its products, said Baker.

Apple already has a leg up on the rest of the PC industry in its transition to becoming a broader consumer electronics company with the success of the iPod and the power of the iTunes store. No PC company has managed to enter another consumer category this decade with even half the success of Apple's move into digital music.

Even though Apple's Mac shipments are growing faster than the rest of the industry's, the PC market as a whole is expected to slow over time as PCs become more like kitchen appliances rather than tech gadgets. And in shifting to the consumer electronics world in search of faster growth, Apple will have to avoid alienating its core audience, the die-hard loyalists who have supported the company for years through a myriad changes.

Jobs' decision to delay the release of Leopard in order to get the iPhone out on time underscores a change in priorities at Apple that's been under way since the iPod exploded. Of course, if the iPhone is a hit, and Mac OS X continues to evolve, no one will care.

"To some extent, they can't lose sight of those people because OS X is central to other products that they are doing, and that connects them back into the core of Mac users," said Baker. "Wherever they go with the iPhone, Mac OS X is going to follow them."

MySpace seeks advice in sex offender investigation

2007-06-05T06:38:00.000+07:00

MySpace.com filed a request Monday in a Pennsylvania state court asking for guidance as the social-networking service responds to demands for information about convicted sex offenders using the site.

In the request, which was filed in the Court of Common Pleas in Dauphin County, home to the state capital of Harrisburg, MySpace said it is actively seeking advice on how it can legally provide authorities with registered sex offenders' contact information.

MySpace came under fire last month when a group of state attorneys general, including Tom Corbett of Pennsylvania, wrote an open letter to the social-networking site demanding that it turn over data pertaining to registered sex offenders who have profiles on the site. MySpace initially refused, citing federal and state privacy laws, including the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) of 1986, that the company said prevented it from releasing such information.

But two weeks ago, MySpace announced that it planned to comply with the request to provide the states with sex offender data, acknowledging that it would have to deal with varying legal requirements in each state. The request filed in Pennsylvania of that ongoing plan.

"We're very pleased with how this process is working but our desire to provide certain information, such as the content of e-mail messages, is proving complicated under applicable law," the social network's executive vice president and general counsel, Michael Angus, said in a statement on Monday.

"Attorney General Corbett has requested we provide the content of e-mail messages of specific registered sex offenders identified by Sentinel Safe," Angus said, referring to the database that MySpace has developed through a partnership with identity verification firm Sentinel Tech Holding. "We want to provide those messages and today have filed a request with the state court in Pennsylvania, asking a judge for guidance on how best to provide the e-mail content without tainting any potential evidence that could help put a registered sex offender behind bars."

MySpace members can privately message each others' profiles through an e-mail system within the site.

According to MySpace, a federal court determined that the ECPA requires that a search warrant be issued before the social-networking service turns over the content of e-mail messages sent through the site, and that a positive identification through the Sentinel Safe database would not by itself suffice.

Yahoo opens Panama search ad platform

2007-06-05T06:36:00.000+07:00

Yahoo announced Monday that its Panama search advertising platform is now open to third parties.

Under Panama, which was launched in February, sponsored search results are based on items such as relevancy and not just on the advertiser's bid price.

Through its new Yahoo Search Marketing Commercial API Program, both businesses and individual developers have access to a series of application program interfaces (APIs) so that they can tweak the Panama platform to suit their individual needs.

The company is offering three levels of partnership, ranging from a free "basic" deal for small advertising agencies and technology companies, to "advanced" and "elite" levels with varying subscription rates.

All participants in the Panama APIs, regardless of partnership level, have access to the software platform and any related technical support. Advanced partners also have account management support and a listing in Yahoo's partner directory.

By Caroline McCarthy

Battle of the business plans

2007-05-31T02:37:00.000+07:00

Founders: Rodrigo Alvarez, 31; Howard Katzenberg, 28; Rahul Kothari, 30
Date launched: April 2006
Startup capital: $26,000 in prizes from business plan contests
School: The Wharton School, University of PA
Product or service: A muscle-like device to replace traditional motors in prosthetic and orthopedic limbs, providing a quieter, less bulky and less expensive alternative, according to its founders.

Chief scientist Rodrigo Alvarez (left), created a new kind of flexible artificial muscle made of plastic. With two MBA students from the Wharton School, Rahul Kothari (right) and Howard Katzenberg, Alvarez launched MuscleMorph (www.musclemorphco.com), which aims to use that artificial muscle to transform the prosthetics industry by providing a new way to move artificial limbs. Much like a human muscle, Alvarez's device is composed of thousands of strands of microfibers, which respond to electrical charges from a battery by contracting smoothly and silently. In the lab, the founders claim, MuscleMorph's prototype has proved as strong and as responsive as human muscle. The company holds two provisional patents on the technology.

MuscleMorph's device comes at a critical time for the prosthetics industry. There are about 1.8 million amputees in the U.S., and their numbers are expected to increase because of a rising incidence of heart disease and diabetes. Several motorized prosthetics have come on the market in the past year, but they are bulky, noisy and power-hungry machines that cost between $50,000 and $100,000. Limbs using MuscleMorph's technology will have more lifelike motion, could cost significantly less - and will be completely silent, claims Kothari.

To speed its path to market, MuscleMorph is seeking $1.5 million from angel investors. It already faces some brawny competition. Artificial Muscle in Menlo Park, Calif., was spun off in 2004 from SRI International, one of the world's largest contract research institutes, and has attracted about $10 million in venture capital. Last January, Artificial Muscle introduced its first "muscle," using technology similar to MuscleMorph's. However, this rival says it does not intend to focus initially on the prosthetics market, but on the consumer electronics, automotive, and industrial markets, leaving MuscleMorph with a good shot at putting millions of amputees back on their feet. Patricia B. Gray

Google Maps takes it to the streets

2007-05-30T09:05:00.000+07:00

By Elinor Mills
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
Published: May 29, 2007, 12:44 PM PDT
Last modified: May 29, 2007, 1:01 PM PDT

SAN JOSE, Calif.Google launched a new feature on its mapping service on Tuesday that allows people to see panoramic views of streets and buildings.

Google Maps now offers a 360-degree view of many streets in the San Francisco Bay Area, New York, Las Vegas, Denver and Miami, with other cities to roll out later, John Hanke, director of Google Maps and Google Earth, said in a session at the Where 2.0 Conference here.

If the street-level view feature is available, a button will show up on the maps page for the location entered. Clicking on it brings up a window with the view and directional arrows that can be clicked on to proceed in that direction. The window can be made full screen as well, and users can zoom in on street signs, bus stops and other details in the Bay Area. In the company's first foray into image gathering for maps, Google workers drove vans around the Bay Area for about a year and took pictures for the service, a Google spokeswoman said. Google partnered with Immersive Media for the images in the other cities, she said.
Google's street view

Google also launched Mapplets, a tool that enables developers to create mini applications to be displayed on Google Maps. Developers can combine information such as real estate listings and crime data with distance measurement and other tools to create their own embeddable mashups directly on the Google Maps site.

"One day we were looking at two of the original Google Maps mashups, HousingMaps.com and ChicagoCrime.org, and we realized it would be even more useful if they could be combined because most people wouldn't want to live near high crime areas," Thai Tran, Google Maps product manager, wrote on the Google Maps blog.

One analyst said Google is playing catch-up with its street-level view, but is pushing it further than competitors.

"It's a valuable addition to maps and complements the satellite view," said Greg Sterling, founder of consultancy Sterling Market Intelligence. "Microsoft has had this for over a year but hasn't rolled it out beyond Seattle and San Francisco. (Amazon.com's) A-9 also had it, but shut it down."

Also on Tuesday, Microsoft launched a three-dimensional version of New York at Live.com Maps and said it would roll out 3D views of Austin, Texas; Cape Coral, Fla.; Cincinnati; Indianapolis; Northampton, England; Ottawa; Savannah, Ga.; and Tampa, Fla., throughout the day. The maps show aerial views of Times Square, Central Park, Wall Street and other spots and include maps and driving directions, as well as yellow-page listings, consumer ratings and reviews for businesses.

Meanwhile, a start-up called EveryScape unveiled a preview of an interactive "eye-level" maps search site that is designed to show streets and points of interest, as well as the insides of buildings. Users will be able to contribute text and links to the site, which will launch with views of San Francisco in September.

21st-century guide to indoor lighting

2007-05-30T09:00:00.000+07:00

By Elsa Wenzel
Associate editor, CNET
Published: May 28, 2007, 4:00 AM PDT

FAQ Thomas Edison's lightbulb has been lighting the world for more than a century, but its predominance is beginning to fade.

A new era of lighting is dawning, designed to meet the needs of a power-hungry and resource-challenged 21st century. There have never been so many options for illuminating the indoors.

"My crystal ball says that in five years, the home is going to be a mix of incandescents, LEDs and fluorescents," said Michael Siminovitch, director of the California Lighting Technology Center at the University of California at Davis.

As prices drop for alternative lighting in the coming years, consumer options will proliferate. Today's technological innovations make Edison's work look like the stuff of a middle-school science fair. Compact fluorescents are looking lovelier, white LEDs last a decade, organic LEDs make ceilings and countertops glow, and fiber-optic tubes can pipe true sunshine from roof to cellar.

"The lamp aisle in stores is already a mile long," said Siminovitch. "It's gonna be confusing."

n sunny climates, next-generation daylighting systems could save a business or household many thousands of dollars in energy costs per year. Daylighting may also lead to better health. Various studies connect natural sunlight with mood boosts, higher test scores in schools, increased productivity in offices and better sales in stores.

Cons: Fiber-optic daylighting isn't yet widely available for homes, and despite the long-term utilities savings, installation costs are prohibitive. For instance, Solatube charges a household $200 and up per 200 square feet.

When the sun goes down, so do the lights. Since sunlight can't be stored well, electricity is needed at night and even on gray days. Although filters can adjust the color temperature of the incoming lighting, the rays may look redder in the mornings and evenings along with the sun's cycles.

The reach of daylighting systems is limited as well. Solatube's systems can extend 50 feet, but that's not enough to keep a skyscraper from going dark. Daylighting companies are racing to compete with more reflective tubes, precision dimmers and other innovations.

Lighting controls

As bulb alternatives put a slew of new choices into consumers' hands, new lighting controls offer additional options for conserving money and power. Dimmer switches, timers and occupancy sensors can save a household hundreds of dollars a year--especially in kitchens and bathrooms, where people tend to leave the lights on during the day.

And aside from changing bulbs or splurging on next-generation technologies, quick fixes such as hanging mirrors and cleaning windows can maximize indoor lighting, said architect Freed. More architects are following his path of designing buildings that maximize available natural light instead of relying upon electricity to supply it.

"If we can crawl before we walk, we'll be fine," said Siminovitch of UC Davis.

Incandescent lightbulbs

What: Since General Electric patented tungsten bulbs in 1906, the core technology hasn't changed much. Incandescent lightbulbs exclude oxygen from a soft glass chamber, in which an energized tungsten wire releases photons, or light. Halogen lights work similarly, but a halogen gas keeps them burning brighter, hotter and longer.

To environmentalists, incandescent lightbulbs are looking less like the bright idea they have come to symbolize. Traditional bulbs could be phased out in the United States over the next decade. Australia and the Canadian province of Ontario are set to ban them.

"In 10 years you won't be able to buy energy-wasteful incandescent bulbs," said Eric Corey Freed, architect and founder of Organic Architect, in San Francisco. "It'll get to the point where we'll each be responsible for the energy we consume because it leads to carbon emissions and global warming."

Pros: Old-school lightbulbs are cheap, easy to find, and come in an array of shapes and sizes that fit most light fixtures. They turn on instantly and emit a full spectrum of light to mimic the sun's rays.

General Electric is designing incandescent bulbs to be as efficient as compact fluorescents by 2010.

Cons: Antiquated incandescents waste 90 percent of their energy as heat and burn out in as little as 750 hours. This energy inefficiency can cause painful utility bills for individuals while demanding more production from power plants, one-third of which are coal-fired.

Lighting makes up as much as 20 percent of power consumption in U.S. households, according to the Department of Energy. The Natural Resources Defense Council estimates that switching every home to compact fluorescent bulbs would prevent the release of 1 trillion pounds of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

In addition to ecological and economic concerns, the heat given off by incandescent bulbs can make it hard to keep a house cool on hot summer days, leading to higher air conditioning costs.

Even worse, halogen bulbs pose dangerous fire hazards and are too hot to handle. Merely touching quartz halogens leaves bodily oils on the surface of the lamp that can lead to an explosion.

Compact fluorescent lightbulbs

What: Fluorescent lighting involves chemical reactions in which phosphor powder glows when energized by gases that include mercury.

Pros: Fluorescent lights have come a long way since the 4-foot tubes common in industrial ceiling fixtures. Compact fluorescents, or CFLs, come in an array of colors, sizes and shapes and at prices low enough for big-box stores like Wal-Mart and Target to give them prominent shelf space.

"Fluorescents coming onto the market in the next year to five years are going to be incandescent-like," said Siminovitch.

Compact fluorescent bulbs in corkscrew, globe and spotlight designs fit into most light sockets, and many now work with dimmer switches. More CFL-friendly lamp and chandelier styles are also coming onto the market as bulb makers reduce the bulbs' telltale buzz and flicker.

CFLs fade gradually when they die, indicating when a replacement is due. Because fluorescents last at least 10 times longer than tungsten bulbs, however, a replacement might be necessary only every few months or even years.

Fluorescent bulbs are 90 percent energy efficient, nearly the reverse of incandescents. Although CFLs contain poisonous methylmercury, environmental groups contend that the energy efficiency reduces pollution by letting polluting power plants relax.

Cons: It's illegal in seven states to dump mercury-laden fluorescent bulbs with the regular trash. Yet lightbulb recycling options are hard to find. Mercury-free alternatives include ceramic metal halide or xenon fluorescents, but these remain rare and less efficient. However, members of the National Electrical Manufacturers Association have pledged to cap the amount of mercury in CFLs at 6 milligrams per bulb. Wal-Mart is planning to reduce the amount of mercury in its compact fluorescents by 30 percent.

Siminovitch recommends buying Energy Star-rated bulbs for the best quality. "We devalue this technology by going into the store and buying the three-pack for two dollars," he said.

Some fluorescent bulbs can take several minutes to warm up and don't operate well in freezing or very hot temperatures. Their cool, narrow-frequency light doesn't appear warmer when dimmed. And without ultraviolet filters, fluorescent bulbs can damage colors in artwork and fabrics.

Many CFLs cost twice to three times more than their incandescent counterparts, a barrier for bargain shoppers. Broader-spectrum CFLs may be more expensive. But these bulbs recoup their cost over the long-term through reducing electrical consumption.

LEDs

What: Light-emitting diodes are solid-state semiconductors. In LEDs, light shines from a chip rather than passing through a bulb or tube. OLEDs, on the other hand, are made with an organic laminate that glows when energized.

Alarm clock LED displays are the grandparent of today's multipurpose LEDs. After the blue variety came along in the 1990s, engineers were able to combine them with red, green and yellow LEDs to create a beam of white light with potential beyond their use in a host of electronic gadgets. Even more recently, quantum dot nanotechnology is helping to create broader-spectrum LEDs with less of a blue hue.

Pros: LEDs turn on instantly, dim easily, and deliver a focused light ideal for a precise space, such as a desk. Because LEDs come in many colors, filters are unnecessary. The small size makes LEDs ideal for creative uses, such as lining bar counters and staircases. Ultra-durable LEDs are increasingly common in flashlights and traffic lights and will be found increasingly inside of household appliances. And rather than burning out instantly, LEDs dim gradually.

LED lights generally use one-tenth the energy of an incandescent bulb and can last a decade or longer, but without the poisonous mercury found in fluorescents. Prices will likely drop and availability will increase as solid-state lighting becomes cheaper to manufacture. The nanocrystals that make up the newest white LEDs can be grown chemically in a lab, and organic LEDs can be printed.

OLEDs could be used to create phosphorescent ceiling tiles, furniture, curtains and more. Tech manufacturers currently use OLEDs in MP3 players, mobile phones, monitors and printer displays. Unlike LCDs, they don't require backlighting and they demand little energy.
Cons: For now, few people are willing to spend upwards of $15 on an LED lightbulb or to track them down in specialty stores.

LEDs waste less energy than incandescents but more than CFLs. That's why leaving a microwave plugged over its lifespan can eat up more power than it uses to cook.

LEDs also contain inorganic compounds such as toxic gallium arsenide, which hasn't been thoroughly studied.

OLEDs are still being perfected in laboratories and are likely to reach a broad market within a decade.

Daylighting

What: Many lightbulbs are designed to mimic the sun's glow, but daylighting pipes in real sunlight from the outdoors. Hybrid solar lighting technology collects sunshine from a rooftop and channels it indoors through reflective fiber-optic tubes. On the roof, mirrored domes may shift according to the sun's location in the sky.

Less complex daylighting systems are also available. Architect Freed, for instance, creates sun tunnels by connecting a skylight to a tinfoil hose that snakes into a dark corner. The result looks like a light fixture, but it dims when clouds or birds pass overhead.

Pros: Daylighting is attractive for spaces that lack windows. Unlike skylights, fiber-optic solar lighting directs beams to specific locations in a room, and the flip of a switch can cut off the flow.

Such a setup delivers the equivalent light of 17 fluorescent lamps, according to manufacturer Sunlight Direct.

Evraz agrees to buy stricken Russian coal miner

2007-05-29T14:02:00.000+07:00

Russian steel maker Evraz Group said on Friday, it has agreed to acquire the 50% of Yuzhkuzbassugol it does not already own, a day after the coal miner suffered its second fatal mining accident this year.

Evraz said in a statement it had reached a deal to acquire the shares from the management of Yuzhkuzbassugol, which also owns 50% and exercises operational control of the firm.

"The deal is subject to regulatory permissions and the Evraz board of directors` approval," Evraz said in a statement.

It did not say how much it would pay for the stake.

Thirty eight people died at an explosion on Thursday at the Yubileynaya mine. In March, 110 miners died in an explosion at another of the company`s mines, Ulyanovskaya.

Yuzhkuzbassugol`s general director is Georgy Lavrik.

A spokesman for the coal company said: "Our management don`t have any comment to make at this time".

Evraz board member Alexander Abramov earlier told a briefing in Kemerovo region, where both mines are located, that the company was prepared to buy out the management`s stake, a spokesman for Evraz confirmed.

Abranov is one of the largest shareholders in Evraz, along with Chairman and chief executive Alexander Frolov.

Russia`s richest man, Roman Abramovich, owns a 41% stake in the steel maker through his Millhouse investment vehicle.

Yuzhkuzbassugol produced over 16 Mt of coal last year and had planned to increase output to 19.5 Mt in 2007.

Evraz is Russia`s largest steel maker by domestic volume.

(May 25 Reuters)

Interior Alaska's Gold

2007-05-29T13:45:00.000+07:00

Mining Companies Renew Their Interest in Interior Alaska's Gold

Interior Alaska saw a surge of new mining claims last year with prospects north of Big Delta near the Pogo Gold Mine leading the way.

New mining claims around Fairbanks increased 53% last year, according to state figures gathered by the Fairbanks North Star Borough. Of the 3,140 new claims filed in 2006, more than 70% were in the Big Delta quadrangle, a parcel 70 miles by 90 miles that runs approximately from Harding Lake to the eastern boundary of the Fairbanks North Star Borough, and from Chena Hot Springs Road to Delta Junction.

Areas near the Pogo Mine were especially attractive, inspiring exploration after the mine began full production last year. The new claims do not necessarily represent drilling but show an interest in exploration, said Dave Szumigala of the state Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys.

"Active mining claims overall kind of show the health of the industry and the new mining claims show where people are going that year," Szumigala said.

Each potential property contains multiple mining claims. For example, the LMS project near Pogo, discovered in 2004 by AngloGold Ashanti (USA) Exploration Inc. and explored through a joint venture with International Tower Hill Mines Ltd., contains 92 state mining claims.

New claims in other areas around Fairbanks have shown a cyclical pattern over five years, rising and falling as certain areas show more or less promise.

Batu Hijau Copper-Gold Mine, Indonesia

2007-05-29T13:39:00.000+07:00

Batu Hijau copper-gold mine is located on the Indonesian island of Sumbawa in the province of West Nusa Tenggara, 1,530km east of Jakarta. The Contract of Work for the project is held by PT Newmont Nusa Tenggara (PTNNT), a company owned by Newmont Indonesia Ltd (USA, 45%); Nusa Tenggara Mining Corporation (Japan, 35%) and PT Pukuafu Indah (Indonesia, 20%). Newmont is the project operator and has a 52.875% equity stake.

Construction of the mine and its associated infrastructure was completed in 1999, after PTNNT had spent ten years exploring the resource, with commercial production beginning in 2000. The operation continues to be one of Newmont’s lowest cost assets. In 2005, copper sales fell 16.2% to 259,780t (2004= 310,000t) at an applicable cost of $0.53/lb and an average realised price before TRCs of $1.45/lb. However, consolidated gold sales rose to 720,500oz at applicable costs of $152/oz, as compared with 715,000oz in 2004.

Power for the project is supplied by a 120MW coal-fired plant supported by nine diesel generators.

GEOLOGY AND RESOURCES

"During 2005, Batu Hijau produced and shipped 1.1Mt of copper concentrate containing 325,500t of copper and 719,000oz of gold."

Batu Hijau is a major gold-rich porphyry copper deposit typical of the islands of southeast Asia. These gold-rich porphyries are overwhelmingly hosted by composite stocks of diorite to quartz-diorite and, to a much lesser degree, more felsic compositions such as tonalite and monzogranite. The deposits tend to be characterised by a strong correlation between the distribution of copper sulphides (chalcopyrite and bornite) and gold as the native metal in addition to having a notably higher magnetite content. Gold typically occurs as minute (<10-15 micron) inclusions in the copper sulphides.

As of the end of 2005, Batu Hijau had an ore reserve containing 2.77Mt copper with 0.69g/t gold. At current production rates, mining should continue until 2025.

MINING AND MILLING

Batu Hijau is an open-pit mine. Ore is transported to the primary crushers using P&H 4100 electric mining shovels and a fleet of 220t-capacity Caterpillar 793C mechanical-drive haul trucks. The mine typically handles around 600,000t/d of ore and waste, the ore grading an average 0.49% copper and 0.39g/t gold.

Following primary crushing, the ore is transported to the concentrator by an overland conveyor, 1.8m wide and 6.8km long. The concentrator circuit consists of two-train SAG and ball mills, followed by primary and scavenger flotation cells, vertical regrind mills and cleaning flotation cells to produce a copper-gold concentrate grading 32% copper and 19.9g/t gold. Counter-current decantation thickeners are used to dewater the concentrate to a slurry, which is pipelined 17.6km from the plant to the port at Benete. Here it is dewatered further, then stocked in an 80,000t-capacity storage area prior to shipment by sea.

PRODUCTION

During 2005, Batu Hijau produced and shipped 1.1Mt of copper concentrate containing 325,500t of copper and 719,000oz of gold.

TAILINGS DEPOSITION

The tailings from the operation flow by gravity from the process plant to the ocean where they are deposited 3km from the coast at a depth of about 108m. From there, the tailings, which are non-toxic and non-hazardous, migrate towards the Java Trench and are ultimately deposited at depths in excess of 4,000m.

ENVIRONMENT

There are considerable environmental challenges at Bata Hijau, including steep terrain and widely dispersed facilities stretching over 40km. The site has a tropical monsoonal climate with high rainfall, and an extended arid season with almost no rainfall. Other environmental considerations include significant seismic activity, with the associated risk of tsunamis, and acid rock drainage, not to mention the existence on site of an endangered species, the yellow-crested cockatoo.

Considerable environmental controls are in place, and Newmont reported the operation improved its ‘five-star’ environment rating to four stars in 2005.

Paradigm Releases Sysdrill v2.5

2007-05-29T13:34:00.000+07:00

A leading provider of enterprise software solutions to the global oil and natural gas exploration and production industry, announced today at the Society of Petroleum Engineer's (SPE) Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition the release of Sysdrill version 2.5. Sysdrill v2.5 is the latest version of Paradigm's software solution for drilling engineers and asset teams to plan well paths and reduce drilling risk and optimize wellbore placement by integrating engineering and well planning disciplines into multi-disciplinary workflows.

Sysdrill(TM) merges the macro realm of geology and geophysics with the micro realm of petrophysics, delivering Paradigm Rock and Fluid Solutions by uniting widely-recognized geophysical and petrophysical applications and sharing data attributes for a more complete and accurate well plan. Among the software's many enhancements, Sysdrill v2.5 provides:

o Support for geological surfaces: formations, faults, oil-water contacts, and more
o Enhanced geosteering workflows with Paradigm Geolog(R)
o WITSML Real-time survey updates, during drilling
o Ability to share data with third-party applications, including WITSML and DEX trajectories
o Improved target selection
o Copy and paste well plans
o Import planned trajectories
o BHA string constructor support for connection details
o Advanced T H Hill DS-1(TM) compliance module

"The release of Sysdrill v2.5 is consistent with our commitment to increasing the usability of our applications and working with our customers to continue to meet the increasing drilling challenges they face every day," said John Gibson, President and CEO of Paradigm. "We believe that this updated version of Sysdrill will benefit our customers around the world as it helps drilling engineers and asset teams plan all phases of wellbore construction, while simultaneously assisting to reduce drilling risk and well costs."

About Paradigm
Paradigm(TM) software enables customers to locate new oil and natural gas reservoirs, optimize production from new and existing reservoirs and create dynamic digital models of the Earth's subsurface. Paradigm software solutions include Seismic Data Processing and Imaging, Visualization, Interpretation, Modeling, Reservoir Characterization, Petrophysical Analysis, Well Planning, and Drilling. Paradigm also provides strategic consulting services to enhance customer workflows and assist in realizing greater returns on exploration and production activities. You can learn more about Paradigm software and strategic consulting offerings by visiting their website at http://www.paradigmgeo.com/ .

The following are trademarks or registered trademarks of Paradigm Geotechnology B.V. or any of its affiliates (collectively, "Paradigm"): Paradigm(TM), Paradigm logo, and/or other Paradigm products referenced herein. DS-1. is a trademark of T H Hill Associates Inc. All other trademarks are owned by their respective owners.

Universal Helmet Lighting System

2007-05-29T13:30:00.000+07:00

TORRANCE, CA - March 9, 2007 - Pelican Products, Inc. has bundled two of its top-selling first responder products to create the Universal Helmet Lighting System.

The kit which includes either the PM6 LED or Incandescent and their innovative Universal Helmet Bracket, fits all models of industrial and fire helmets and as many as 27 other Pelican flashlights.

Assembling in seconds with the help of a single flat-head screw driver, the Universal Helmet Light Bracket can be configured into an incredibly wide variety of angles and positions. Three styles of bracket attachment are included.

Constructed of nearly-indestructible, engineering-grade, polymer, the PM6 weighs in at a scant 3.45 ounces so it won't weigh helmets down.

As the first of its kind on the market, the PM6 LED utilizes a one watt Luxeon® LED (good for 10,000 hours of life) to produce 41 lumens of brilliant light for up to 20 hours of peak performance. The PM6 Incandescent is engineered with a high-intensity Xenon bulb that produces 74 lumens of fierce light for up to 1 hour of continuous use.

CR123 lithium batteries, which power both lights, are known for their exceptionally long burn-time, shelf life and excellent performance in extreme conditions.

Additional features include a sturdy, detachable phosphate coated steel clip for easy transport; a no-slip textured grip and a tail switch (on/off and momentary function) for easy one-handed operation.

Like all Pelican products, the kit (light and bracket) is backed by the legendary Lifetime Guarantee of Excellence: "You break it, we replace it... forever."(TM)

About Pelican Products
Pelican Products is a leading manufacturer of technically advanced flashlights and high-impact, watertight equipment Protector(TM) Cases. For more information contact the company at 23215 Early Ave., Torrance, CA 90505. Phone: (310) 326-4700 or (800) 473-5422 (Outside CA), Fax: (310) 326-3311, www.pelican.com, sales@pelican.com.

Keystone Automotive Posts 51 Percent Jump

2007-05-29T06:01:00.000+07:00

POMONA, Calif. (AP) -- Keystone Automotive Industries Inc., a distributor of unbranded auto parts, said Thursday its fiscal fourth-quarter profit jumped 51 percent on higher sales and one-time gains.

The results beat Wall Street predictions, sending Keystone shares up $1.29, or 3.4 percent, to $39.35 in morning trading.

For the quarter ended March 30, Keystone earned $11.4 million, or 69 cents per share, compared with $7.6 million, or 46 cents per share, for the same quarter in 2006.

Latest results included one-time gains of about $886,000, or 5 cents per share, related to insurance recoveries for prior-year property loss claims and the company's portion of an antitrust lawsuit settlement.

Revenue rose 11 percent to $200.2 million from $179.9 million in the year-ago period.

Analysts polled by Thomson Financial had expected a profit of 60 cents per share on $197.6 million in revenue.

Keystone credited the results to continued market share growth for generic vehicle replacement parts.

Same-store sales increased 11.2 percent. Same-store sales -- or sales at stores open at least a year -- is an important measure of retailer health, because it measures growth at existing locations rather than growth from expansion.

For the full-year 2007, Keystone earned $30.3 million, or $1.84 per share, compared with $22.3 million, or $1.38 per share, for 2006. Revenue increased to $714 million from $628.3 million the year before.

Pro-Market Sarkozy in No Rush to Sell Off French Industrial Jewels

2007-05-29T05:58:00.000+07:00

By Emma Vandore, AP Business Writer

PARIS (AP)French President Nicolas Sarkozy is keeping his country's business elite waiting.

Sarkozy vowed to return Airbus, Europe's struggling planemaker, to its former glory, but other, less glamorous industrial dossiers are piling up on his desk.

How he handles them will be a litmus test of Sarkozy's proclaimed pro-market tendencies in a country suspicious of capitalism and with deep traditions of state involvement in the economy. The most prickly plans include privatizations of major French companies that could help finance Sarkozy's tax cuts and other reforms -- and would almost certainly incite mass protests and strikes.

Since Sarkozy needs to stay popular to win a parliamentary majority, he is putting off the sensitive questions until after the June 10 and 17 parliamentary elections, said Aurore Wanlin, a researcher at the Centre for European Reform. "After that, we will see."

Sarkozy's new staff is largely mum about the biggest dossiers: a long-stalled merger between national gas company Gaz de France and utility giant Suez, and the selloffs of state stakes in Electricite de France, nuclear engineering giant Areva and airport operator Aeroports de Paris, known as ADP.

Investors and big businesses, meanwhile, are eager to uncover Sarkozy's plans for the state's 170 billion euro ($228.5 billion) in assets of traded companies.

French power company EDF is "ready" to put more shares on the market if the government decides to do so, Chairman Pierre Gadonneix said at the company's annual shareholders' meeting in Paris last week. Under French law, the state could sell an additional 17 percent of the company, lowering its stake to 70 percent.

Areva President Anne Lauvergeon may be hope to realize her ambition of an exchange listing for the company. In 2005, Areva's initial public offering plan was blocked by then-Finance Minister Thierry Breton amid opposition to relinquishing control of such a strategic industry.

Sarkozy is thought to favor a partial privatization of Areva.

Yet he has made clear the priority of his "ambitious industrial policy" is Airbus, and he has vowed to seek new investors or inject new cash in the European planemaker. It became a major French campaign issue after massive layoffs combined with an enormous severance package for the ousted chief executive.

Airbus was a high-profile stop during Sarkozy's first overseas visit, to see German Chancellor Angela Merkel. He picked an Airbus factory near Toulouse to talk with unions and management.

Airbus has suffered from a falling U.S. dollar -- the currency in which it sells planes -- and two years of delays to the 555-seater A380, which have wiped more than 5 billion euros ($6.6 billion) off Airbus' profit forecasts for 2006-2010.

The French government currently owns 15 percent of Airbus parent company European Aeronautic Defense & Space Co. NV. Stuttgart, Germany-based DaimlerChrysler AG, holds 22.5 percent of voting rights in the defense group.

As finance minister, Sarkozy engineered a 2.5 billion euros, state-orchestrated bailout to steer Alstom, a train and power-plant builder, away from bankruptcy.

"Alstom was much simpler," said Pierre Boucheny, an analyst at Kepler Equities in Paris. "With EADS, Daimler and the Germans have always said that the state doesn't have a role in managing companies."

Der Spiegel reported last week that Merkel was cool about Sarkozy's plans to raise the state's stake in EADS. "The German government's position on EADS is to pursue a private investors' solution and to reduce public stakes in the company," government spokesman Thomas Steg told reporters in Berlin.

Analysts said Sarkozy's handling of the dossier will speak volumes about his diplomatic skills and free-market tendencies.

"He's first and foremost pragmatic," said Boucheny. "He's someone who believes in the market but who also believes the state has a role to play."

Associated Press writer Matt Moore contributed to this article from Frankfurt, Germany.

Messages on online discussion boards

2007-05-29T04:26:00.000+07:00

Posting messages on online discussion boards is a great way to get free advertising for your home business. When you post a message include your signature file at the end. Your signature file should be no more than 5 to 6 lines. Include an attention-getting sentence why they should visit your web site or e-mail your auto responder.

Creating A Signature Line
A signature line is a few sentences inserted with every post you make. It is another form of online business card. Most online discussion boards will let you set up a signature of about six lines. Some will allow full messages. Include your URL, a short description, phone number, address, whatever may be relevant. If html formatting is allowed you may want to add a clickable link to your site with the anchor text containing your sites main subject, coupled within a phrase that gets people clicking.

Some online discussion boards allow you to leave text and graphic links at the end of your messages. You will get a better click-through rate with links than just a normal signature file.

Below are three types of messages you could post to onlinediscussion boards:

1. Informative Comments
Post information that would be informative to the people who participate on the discussion board. It could be an article or a study you've completed. Here s where your personal experiences could come in handy. Making real connections and sharing experiences is a great way to earn trust, so that when somebody reading your post clicks through to your signature link trust won't be an issue and they are more receptive to your message.

2. Ask Questions
Post a question on the discussion board you would like answered. This will give you a chance to meet other experts and it could lead to a profitable joint venture.

3. Answer Questions
Post the answer to another person's question on the discussion board. When you answer questions you will get known as an
expert on the subject.

Before posting to any online discussion board read the FAQ or rules first. They will tell you what kinds of posts are allowed. Read the board for a few days before posting your message to see what type of messages are being posted. Never post messages on a board that are unrelated to the subject because that could get you banned.

Remember also that the habit of posting on message boards can become addictive. The best thing to do is to pick a time during the day that you schedule for this type of advertising. Also choose and how long you want to spend on the message boards, and stick it. Use of this method overtime can produce tons of backlinks to your home business website, resulting in more traffic and more sales.

Japan consumer prices down 0.1 percent

2007-05-27T12:31:00.000+07:00

TOKYO - Japan's most-watched consumer price index fell for a third month in April, edging down 0.1 percent, the government said Friday, raising doubts that deflation was really a thing of the past.

The core CPI, excluding volatile food prices, dropped 0.3 percent on year in March after slipping 0.1 percent in February — the first drop in 10 months.

The figures, released by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, matched the forecasts of economists polled by Dow Jones Newswires and the Japanese business daily Nikkei.

The figures raise the possibility that deflation, a state of falling prices that gripped Japan for years and exacerbated the economy's slump, may be re-emerging, although the decline has shrunk. Most nations have to be on guard against the opposite problem — accelerating inflation.

Still, analysts said the report wouldn't likely have a major impact on the Bank of Japan's interest rate policy. BOJ Gov. Toshihiko Fukui recently said rates can be lifted even when the CPI is falling, indicating that the central bank may be paying greater attention to other indicators that show steady growth.

"It will be difficult to overcome deflation with this weakness in CPI," said Kenichi Kawasaki, an economist at Lehman Brothers in Tokyo. "Fukui has said he will raise interest rates even if the CPI is in the negative. The CPI's drop in April will not have any impact."

The bank last raised the benchmark interest rate in February, doubling it from 0.25 percent.

Many analysts foresee healthy growth to continue, buoyed by business investments and consumer spending. Japan's economy expanded at a 2.4 percent annual pace in the first quarter .

Although the central bank is in principle independent from the government, some analysts believe the bank is facing political pressure to not increase interest rates until after parliamentary elections scheduled for July.

Noriaki Haseyama, an economist at Dai-Ichi Life Research Institute, said the market consensus is for a rate hike to come sometime between August and November.

The chief government spokesman played down the price report.

"Looking at price moves overall, the end of deflation continues to be in sight," said Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki.

He also said the government will leave the decision on interest rates to the Bank of Japan.

"Since the central bank will make a comprehensive decision on financial policy, we would like to leave it up to them," he told reporters.

The preliminary May core CPI for the Tokyo metropolitan area, considered a leading indicator for nationwide consumer prices, was flat from a year earlier, the ministry said Friday.

The
International Monetary Fund said Thursday it expects Japan's economy to grow 2.3 percent this year and 1.9 percent in 2008, but warned against raising interest rates too quickly and advised that prices be watched closely.

The IMF said it projects healthy consumer spending in Japan, although a slowdown in the U.S. economy — a major export market for Japan — and rising oil prices remain risks.

Separately Thursday, the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said it expects Japan's economy to grow 2.4 percent this year.

Macquarie economist Richard Jerram said the Bank of Japan is nevertheless expected to raise rates again this year, even though the CPI is set to stay in negative territory for most of 2007.

"History suggests that the chance of the BOJ paying any attention to the IMF or OECD is very low," Jerram said.

home sales fall in April

2007-05-27T12:27:00.000+07:00

By MARTIN CRUTSINGER, AP Economics Writer

WASHINGTON - Sales of existing homes fell more than expected in April while prices slid for a record ninth consecutive month, indicating further troubles ahead for the housing market.

The National Association of Realtors reported Friday that sales of existing homes dropped by 2.6 percent last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.99 million units, the slowest sales pace in nearly four years.

The median price of a home fell to $220,900, an 0.8 percent decline from the median price a year ago. The median is the point where half the homes sold for more and half for less.

The slide in existing home sales came after a report Thursday that showed a big 16.2 percent surge in sales of new homes in April that occurred as the median price of a new home fell by a record 11.1 percent from the previous month.

Analysts said the disparity in sales of new and existing homes for April reflected in part the decision by builders to aggressively cut prices to unload inventory while homeowners are still reluctant to lower their asking prices.

"It is only a matter of time before homeowners realize that the dream is over and that price cuts are now necessary to sell their homes," said Peter Schiff, president of Euro Pacific Capital, a Darien, Conn., investment firm.

The supply of existing homes for sale shot up to a record total of 4.2 million in April, an increase of 394,000 from the March supply. Analysts predicted that this big inventory surge would act to further depress prices.

"We're swimming in supply," said Mike Larson, a real estate analyst with Weiss Research, who cited a number of factors for the unsold homes.

"Unrealistic sellers, stuck flippers, stretched borrowers, foreclosures. They're all contributing to a surge in homes on the market," he said. Flippers are investors who bought homes during the boom hoping to resell them for a quick profit only to be caught as the market softened.

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrial average rose 66.15 points to close at 13,507.28 in a quiet trading session ahead of the long Memorial Day weekend. The Dow had fallen in the previous four sessions.

Housing enjoyed an extended surge in which sales of both new and existing homes set records for five straight years until 2006. The Realtors are forecasting that existing home prices could decline by around 2 percent this year, which would be the first setback for an entire year on records that go back four decades.

But Lawrence Yun, senior economist for the Realtors, noted that the expected price decline would still be modest in comparison to the 50 percent appreciation in home prices that occurred during the boom period.

It had appeared that housing sales might be hitting a bottom at the end of last year. However, since that time, the troubles in the mortgage market, which has seen many subprime lenders forced to stop operations, has worsened the housing downturn. Subprime mortgages were made available to borrowers with weak credit histories.

"We've been anticipating slower home sales because many subprime loan products are no longer available," Yun said. "Fortunately, a wide availability of conventional mortgage products ... will help stabilize the market going forward."

Yun said the big rise in unsold homes on the market could be an indication that sellers are testing the market in the early spring in hopes of selling their homes and moving up to larger units, which he said would be a positive sign of a rebound in housing.

But other analysts were not as optimistic, expressing concerns that housing could remain under downward pressure for the rest of this year and stage only a modest recovery in 2008.

"The continued decline in existing home sales and the huge rise in inventories put in doubt the hopes that the housing market is stabilizing," said Joel Naroff, chief economist at Naroff Economic Advisors.

The troubles in housing have acted to depress overall economic activity which slowed to a growth rate of just 1.3 percent in the first three months of this year, the slowest economic growth rate in four years.

For April, sales of existing homes were weak in all parts of the country. The Northeast experienced the biggest decline, a fall of 8.8 percent in April from the March sales pace. Sales were down 1.7 percent in the West, 1.2 percent in the South and 0.7 percent in the Midwest.

Make money online: affiliate marketing

2007-05-27T12:16:00.000+07:00

Affiliate marketing is a performance based internet marketing program in which affiliates are paid for sending customers or traffic to a website. Affiliates are paid on a per click, lead or sale basis. All affiliate marketing programs are different. An affiliate marketing partner program is easy to join and most often you can find the best affiliate programs on trusted affiliate marketing program directories online and by joining major affiliate networks. Affiliate programs are driven by affiliate marketing software which tracks and logs your commission for promoting the partner's website. Commissions can be paid weekly, monthly and quarterly - some are even paid instantly.

Internet affiliate marketing is a great way to earn income from your home. You get to be your own boss, while working in the fast paced internet marketing world. You can join multiple internet affiliate programs and build websites focused on areas of your own interest. There are thousands of active and successful internet marketing company affiliates worldwide, most working from home. Affiliates do not need to store inventory, ship items or take payments, that is all handled by the affiliate program partner on their website.

To be a successful affiliate marketer you must have a love or understanding of online marketing including an eye for web design and the persistence to grow a business. It is not required that you are super technical to succeed, but affiliate marketing does require that you make an investment to grow traffic. An understanding of paid search, search engine optimization and html are all very helpful tools for affiliate marketing professionals. Affiliate marketing training is available online and you can gain additional insight from other successful affiliate marketing company affiliates via forums and chat rooms.

Internet affiliate marketing is a non multi level marketing, as it is free to join internet affiliate programs and you are not required to recruit other affiliates to make money. However, some affiliate programs are tiered so that you can recruit other affiliates and get paid a flat fee or percentage of the 2nd tier affiliates sales. Some successful internet affiliates work primarily as doorway affiliates, helping and welcoming new affiliates into programs and then taking a cut of their commission. This process is typically automated and requires no accounting management by the primary affiliate. Affiliate marketing programs are partnerships with retailers and online businesses. Work closely with your affiliate program manager and try to deeply understand the affiliate marketing software that runs your favorite affiliate programs.

For websites affiliate marketing is a viable solution in which you only have to pay when an action or sale is made. You determine the parameters to your affiliate marketing program. The only real investment is in managing your affiliates, learning the affiliate marketing software and continuously pushing out compelling offers that affiliates want to promote. Affiliates will promote your website via banners, e-mail, paid search and more. Many affiliates have internet marketing channels and reach eyeballs not available to you otherwise. Overall, affiliates become strong business partners that are invested in your success.

Make money online: pay per click

2007-05-27T12:03:00.000+07:00

A pay-per-click campaign involves bidding for the rights to specific keywords or phrases that you think your ideal consumer will type into a search engine. For example, let's say your company sells brass instruments. It's probably your goal to come up high in the search results when customers type in words such as brass, band instruments, trumpets, trombones, etc.

However, there are probably many companies out there bidding on the same words, which can get costly. An average price for a keyword will work out to about $1-$2 per click. Although, niche-market companies may only pay .5-.10¢ per click. To keep your budget under control, you will want to bid on words you think you can win.

Trumpet will probably be expensive, so maybe you bid on Bach Stradivarius or Selmer. You can combine strategies by trying to outbid your competitors on certain words and also placing minimum bids on minor keyword phrases. When you "win" a bid, your site will appear higher in search result listings and your ads will generally get top billing over your competitors.

Appearing in the top four results from a keyword search is ideal since most consumers don't tend to scroll and click through pages and pages of results to get what they want. Every time someone clicks on your ad, you pay the amount you bid. The beauty of keyword ads is that they give your potential customers what they're looking for, and in turn give you a more relevant customer.

The two major companies offering PPC services are AdWords by Google and Overture by Yahoo. Google ads appear on search engines such as Google, AOL, Askjeeves, Earthlink and AT&T, for example. Overture ads appear on search engines such as Yahoo, MSN, Alta Vista, Hot Bot, Lycos and Webcrawler.

Both companies give you support and guidance on managing your keyword campaigns. Google also gives you support through a program called Google Analytics, which is a free service. It allows you to track detailed activity on any of your Web pages so you can see how visitors are coming in, what they're doing once they get there, and in some cases where they're going when they leave. It helps you track the ROI of your PPC and other Web marketing campaigns.

Another form of PPC – Contextual Advertising Have you ever been reading an article on your favorite news site, perhaps it's a story about how big snow storms will be hitting your part of the country soon, and at the bottom of the article there's an advertisement for winter boots? Coincidence? Of course not! Just savvy advertising. Contextual advertising has been around forever. For example, watch closely to the commercials that appear during your favorite television programs. During a Lifetime movie marathon, there probably aren't any commercials for Ford Trucks and riding lawnmowers. Instead, you'll see ads for feminine products, greeting cards or weight loss solutions. This is contextual advertising – you carefully target the customers you think will be most interested in your product. You pay good money for this “prime real estate,” because the odds of it paying off are high. It was only time until this concept was introduced into virtual reality. The first company to develop a system of contextual advertising on the Web was Google through it's program AdSense.

Here's how it works:
Webmasters will sign up to allow contextual advertising on their sites and Google AdSense will provide them with a JavaScript code that will bring up ads from its inventory of advertisers relevant to the content on the page as well as other factors such as the Web user's geographic location. Contextual ads can appear in several forms, such as standard ads at the bottom of a content block, pop-ups (which most advertisers are moving away from) and even video or Flash ads. Just like commercials during primetime television, this very targeted form of advertising can be very successful. And even better, it benefits both the hosting Website by generating revenue for the site owner since a more targeted ad has a better chance of being clicked, as well as the advertiser who knows he or she is paying for "prime real estate." Just like keyword campaigns, the advertiser also pays-per-click for an AdSense ad, although the process for determining this price is slightly more complicated. They also have the option of paying per-thousand-impressions.

That being said, Website owners will really optimize their sites to draw people to the AdSense ads. They, of course, cannot place copy on their site that says – "Hey, click on this ad," but they can use other techniques like increasing the content of their site to draw more AdSense Ads, or by increasing their own online advertising.

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