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Bernanke Fails to Get Desired Effect, Ira Jersey Says | By Cordell Eddings and Tom Keene | 2012-04-25T18:39:21Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/bernanke-fails-to-get-desired-effect-ira-jersey-says.html | 4 | 25 | 536f0bc1cec001957c07926076db8cc33ec31126 | Federal Reserve monetary measures
to address the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression
have failed to boost the economy as much as Fed Chairman Ben S.
Bernanke would like, according to Ira Jersey, an interest-rate
strategist at Credit Suisse Group AG. The central bank’s policy is “not having the impact that”
Bernanke “hoped, at the speed that he hoped,” said Jersey,
whose company is one of the 21 primary dealers that trade with
the Fed, on Bloomberg Television’s “Surveillance Midday” in an
interview with Tom Keene . “There is a limited amount of usage
for monetary policy, at this point, in the real economy.” The Fed’s polices have held borrowing costs near record-low
levels and helped banks improve their balance sheets. At the
same time, the central bank’s measures aren’t being felt by
consumers, households and businesses in the way the monetary
policy makers had hoped, Jersey said. An April 27 government report may show that gross domestic
product rose at a 2.5 percent annual rate, according to the
median forecast in a Bloomberg News survey of economists, down
from 3 percent last quarter. Bernanke, who cited “green shoots”
of recovery in the U.S. in March 2009 only to see the U.S.
jobless rate reach 10 percent seven months later, has had to
contend with an unemployment rate at 8.2 percent in March. Policy Stance Central bankers, who repeated their view today that
borrowing costs are likely to remain “exceptionally low” at
least through late 2014, said would continue its swap of $400
billion of short-term debt with long-term debt to lengthen the
average maturity of its holdings, a move dubbed Operation Twist.
The Fed is scheduled to complete the program at the end of June. Fed officials forecast the unemployment rate would average
7.8 percent to 8 percent in the final three months of this year
versus a forecast of 8.2 percent to 8.5 percent in January,
according to central tendency estimates. Even as the Fed’s balance sheet hovers at $2.88 trillion as
a part of its efforts to increase the money supply in the U.S.,
the rate of growth in funds in the system has failed to keep up,
Jersey said. “Even though the Fed has put a lot of money into the
system, the actual money supply has not grown that quickly,”
Jersey said. To contact the reporters on this story:
Cordell Eddings in New York at
ceddings@bloomberg.net ;
Tom Keene in New York at
tkeene@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Dave Liedtka at dliedtka@bloomberg.net | 2012 | bernanke-fails-to-get-desired-effect-ira-jersey-says |
Lilly CEO Says Losses Stemmed by Cymbalta, Animal Drug Sales | By Shannon Pettypiece | 2012-04-25T20:37:28Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/lilly-first-quarter-net-tumbles-on-zyprexa-generic-competition.html | 4 | 25 | 6aba43a214dd171e310928c9594366898029b242 | Eli Lilly & Co. (LLY) Chief Executive
Officer John Lechleiter said rising sales of the antidepressant
Cymbalta and animal drugs stemmed losses from generic
competition, helping the company’s earnings beat estimates. Net income declined 4 percent to $1.01 billion, or 91 cents
a share, in the first quarter, the Indianapolis-based company
said today in a statement. Profit excluding one-time items beat
by 13 cents the average estimate of 18 analysts surveyed by
Bloomberg. The company raised its 2012 earnings forecast. Revenue dropped 4 percent to $5.6 billion, hurt by
declining sales for the antipsychotic Zyprexa after copies of
the drug were allowed on the market in the fourth quarter. Lilly
has slashed more than $1 billion in costs and fired 5,500
employees in anticipation of the drop in revenue. The company
doesn’t plan to initiate new cost cuts, and investors should be
prepared for several years of declining sales, Lechleiter said. “This is a company that is facing a period of several
years where we will suffer the loss of several patents,”
Lechleiter said today in a telephone interview. “Buying Lilly
today means you’re investing in our pipeline and that is going
to be the means that we emerge and resume growth.” Lilly has 12 drugs in late-stage testing including an
experimental treatment for Alzheimer’s, which Lilly will report
results on in the second half of the year, Lechleiter said. Lilly gained 2 percent to $40.80 at 4 p.m. New York time.
The stock has risen 13 percent in the past 12 months. Cymbalta, China Sales of Cymbalta increased 23 percent to $1.1 billion.
Lilly also reported revenue growth of 41 percent in China , the
company’s fastest-growing market. Zyprexa sales fell 56 percent
to $563 million. Revenue also benefited from a 33 percent gain in sales from
its Elanco Animal Health unit, the company said. Lechleiter said he has no plans to sell the company’s
animal business. Pfizer Inc. is considering a sale or spinoff of
its animal unit. Lechleiter declined to comment on whether Lilly
would be interested in buying Pfizer’s division. Lilly raised its 2012 adjusted earnings forecast to $3.15
to $3.30 a share from $3.10 and 3.20 a share. Sales are set to
drop as much as 10 percent to $21.8 billion to $22.8 billion,
the company said. To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Reg Gale at rgale5@bloomberg.net . | 2012 | illy-first-quarter-net-tumbles-on-zyprexa-generic-competition |
Is ‘Fiscal Cliff’ a Keynesian Topography Mistake? | By Caroline Baum | 2012-04-25T23:00:59Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/is-fiscal-cliff-a-keynesian-topography-mistake-.html
Never let it be said that the
financial community has a deaf ear for language. The same folks
who saw “green shoots” after the “soft patch” are now
focusing their collective attention on the “ fiscal cliff .” For those of you unfamiliar with this topographical
reference, the fiscal cliff refers not to a physical precipice
but to the metaphorical one off which the U.S. economy will fall
at the start of 2013 unless Congress acts. An array of tax cuts
and transfer payments are scheduled to expire on or about Jan.
1. Among them, the lower marginal income, capital-gains and
dividend tax rates, enacted under President George W. Bush and
already extended twice; the two-percentage-point reduction in
the employee portion of the payroll tax; and extended
unemployment benefits . At the same time, an automatic $1.2 trillion cut in
discretionary spending (both defense and non-defense), as
dictated by the Budget Control Act of 2011 , will kick in because
the supercommittee appointed to find such savings punted. All
told, it’s being advertised as something akin to, well, a “100-
year flood.” By some estimates, the combined force of these tax and
spending measures will slash several percentage points off
growth in 2013 and 2014. Not everyone is buying that analysis. Stephen Stanley ,
chief economist at Pierpont Securities in Stamford , Connecticut ,
says a share of the fiscal-cliff-hanging is based on a flawed
Keynesian perspective that “all austerity is bad for the
economy.” In Name Only Under current law, the Congressional Budget Office projects
a 2013 federal deficit of $585 billion following four years of
trillion-dollar shortfalls. That would shrink federal spending
to 22.5 percent of gross domestic product, hardly draconian and
well above the historical average of about 19.5 percent. To Keynesians, a half-trillion dollars of government
spending may look inadequate to support economic growth. To
followers of Milton Friedman , it’s a half-trillion of resources
freed up to be used more efficiently by the private sector. And as for the $1.2 trillion sequestration , it is over a
10-year period and isn’t really a cut. It’s merely a reduction
in the projected growth of spending. Stanley says he “isn’t
losing sleep over the prospect of modest spending cuts in
2013.” Those who are should forget model-based forecasts using a
large spending multiplier. What we care about are the real-world
effects. If there was little or no impact from the government’s
fiscal initiatives, it’s hard to argue their reversal will send
the economy over the cliff. Stanford University economist John Taylor has looked at the
data on the $831 billion fiscal stimulus enacted under President
Barack Obama in 2009 and found little empirical evidence that
the “temporary and targeted Keynesian packages” of increased
government spending, transfer payments and tax rebates helped
the economy or increased growth in any significant or sustained
way. No surprise there. That’s what Friedman and Franco Modigliani taught us. People make spending and saving decisions
based on their expected income over a lifetime . It turns out that state and local governments used their
grants from the 2009 fiscal stimulus to reduce borrowing and
increase transfer payments, not to invest in infrastructure,
according to Taylor. Ditto the federal government, which boosted
infrastructure investment by only 0.05 percent of GDP and
consumption by 0.14 percent in the peak quarter. Taylor gives a similar thumbs-down to Bush’s 2001 and 2008
tax rebates, which raised disposable personal income without
much of a parallel increase in spending. Obama’s payroll tax
“holiday” | 4 | 25 | e9c62a6bbd294f7eab1db017d1b53982 | Security Trustees report this week was another reminder that the
clock is ticking on entitlement reform. Last year, benefits paid
to retirees exceeded non-interest income for the second
consecutive year. The cash-flow deficit will continue through
the 75-year forecast period, according to the program’s
trustees. The trust fund will be exhausted by 2033, three years
earlier than projected a year ago. Talk about a fiscal cliff. Twenty years may be too long a
period to inspire our short-term-oriented lawmakers to action.
But if you want to worry about a looming rock formation, it
should be the one in 2033, not 2013. ( Caroline Baum , author of “Just What I Said,” is a
Bloomberg View columnist. The opinions expressed are her own.) Read more opinion online from Bloomberg View . Today’s highlights: the View editors on saving Social Security
and dealing with China ; Noah Feldman on Arizona immigration
arguments ; Ezra Klein on money and politics ; Susan Crawford on
cyber protection ; Steven Neil Kaplan on inequality and
unemployment ; Jared Diamond on the roots of Japan’s economic
malaise . To contact the writer of this article:
Caroline Baum in New York at
cabaum@bloomberg.net . To contact the editor responsible for this article:
James Greiff at jgreiff@bloomberg.net | 2012 | is-fiscal-cliff-a-keynesian-topography-mistake- |
USDA Montana Spot Grain Closing Prices for April 25 | By Michael Carone | 2012-04-25T21:01:40Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/usda-montana-spot-grain-closing-prices-for-april-25-table-.html
April 25 (Bloomberg) | 4 | 25 | 657b8fe07ba12670203a05e91565bf0ddbf46ab2 | spot or bid prices for durum wheat. Prices are in dollars a bushel
Information is supplied by the U.S. Department of Agriculture . Prices are determined by a USDA survey of grain purchasers
with elevators located in seven regions of Montana . Prices are
displayed as a "low-high" range, or as a "single" price
depending upon the degree of consensus among the purchasers. Durum wheat is the hardest wheat. The test weight is at least
60 pounds a bushel. Durum averages 15 percent protein and is
mainly used in the making of pasta. | 2012 | usda-montana-spot-grain-closing-prices-for-april-25-table- |
IMF Says Spain May Need to Use More Public Funds for Banks | By Emma Ross-Thomas | 2012-04-25T22:10:46Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/imf-says-spain-may-need-to-use-more-public-funds-for-banks.html | 4 | 25 | 20ed26224e875ef9b2f0ecf87fd3d2c7ef75027d | Spain may need to use more public
money to shore up its banks, the International Monetary Fund
said, as it raised the possibility of lenders offloading toxic
assets into separate vehicles. While the largest banks “appear sufficiently
capitalized,” the capacity to deal with adjustments “differs
significantly across the system,” the Washington-based lender
said in a report yesterday after sending a mission to Spain. “Greater reliance on public funding may be needed” to
avoid the costs of the overhaul becoming too high for the
industry, the IMF said. Spain made legal changes in February to force banks to
recognize deeper real-estate losses. While the state’s bailout
fund can buy securities from banks that need help, an industry-
financed facility is bearing the cost of failed banks. In a new
phase of the overhaul, the government may encourage lenders to
pool assets in jointly owned companies to get them off their
books, an Economy Ministry official said on April 23. The country needs to “further deepen the financial-sector
reform” and make a priority of dealing with so-called legacy
assets, the IMF said. Separating those assets into separate
asset-management companies is an option, according to the
report. Comprehensive Diagnostic “To give guidance on the best possible strategy for the
Spanish banking system going forward, a comprehensive diagnostic
of the impaired assets can be particularly useful,” the IMF
said. The idea of letting banks split off bad assets once losses
are recognized was raised last week by Jose Maria Roldan, head
of regulation at the Bank of Spain. The Madrid-based central
bank gave no more details in the text it published after Roldan
made a presentation to analysts in London on April 19. The Economy Ministry official didn’t say how the program
may be financed, adding that taxpayers’ money wouldn’t be used
as the nation struggles to trim the euro region’s third-largest
budget deficit. Deputy Economy Minister Fernando Jimenez Latorre said
yesterday it’s up to Spanish banks to find the best way to
dispose of bad assets, or assets which take a long time to sell. “Whether they create a vehicle more specialized in the
real estate sector, with independent management, with the
participation of third-party funds, it will be the banks
themselves that do it,” Latorre said in Madrid after the IMF
released the report. The IMF also said bad loans may be higher than data
suggest, amid “lender forbearance.” It said 10 banks were
identified as “vulnerable.” Of those, five have merged, three
are being auctioned and two have submitted business plans to the
central bank. “To preserve financial stability, it is critical that
these banks, especially the largest one, take swift and decisive
measures to strengthen their balance sheets and improve
management and governance practices,” it said, without naming
any of the lenders. To contact the reporter on this story:
Emma Ross-Thomas in Madrid at
erossthomas@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Craig Stirling at
cstirling1@bloomberg.net | 2012 | imf-says-spain-may-need-to-use-more-public-funds-for-banks |
U.S. Companies Reporting Higher Quarterly EPS, April 25 | By Wendy Soong | 2012-04-25T22:15:56Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/u-s-companies-reporting-higher-quarterly-eps-april-25.html | 4 | 25 | 3c483aa71b0e859102c6b31185830158baa94b54 | The following U.S. companies reported higher
earnings per share for their latest quarter (end date of the quarter is
noted in the last column). Earnings estimates provided by Bloomberg.
To contact the reporter on this story:
Wendy Soong in New York at at csoong@Bloomberg.net . To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Alex Tanzi at at
atanzi@Bloomberg.net | 2012 | u-s-companies-reporting-higher-quarterly-eps-april-25 |
Pakistan’s City of Looms Turns Silent as Gas Outages Shut Mills | By Farhan Sharif | 2012-04-25T19:00:01Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/pakistan-s-city-of-looms-turns-silent-as-gas-outages-shut-mills.html | 4 | 25 | d1a1d440551c49619fdfaa4fbbac01be | Chaudhary Maqsood Elahi, a
Pakistani exporter of knitted garments, spent two years trying
to save his factory in the textile hub of Faisalabad . He sold
his house, cut down on staff and switched to air shipments to
meet orders on time. It didn’t work. About six months ago, Elahi, whose Dilkhush Hosiery Mills
Ltd. produced t-shirts for European mega-retailers Carrefour SA
and Metro AG, shut down his 15-year old factory after booking
losses for two straight years. He fired 550 workers, tore down
his plant and divided the land into plots that he put up for
sale to help repay loans, Bloomberg Businessweek reports in its
April 30 issue. “I kept running the factory despite losses in the hope of
finding a way out but the financial burden kept growing,” said
Elahi, 56. Pakistan has one of the largest textile industries in the
world, shipping 1.3 trillion rupees ($13.8 billion) worth of
textiles in the year ended June 30 mostly to the U.S. and
Europe . Textiles account for 63 percent of Pakistan’s exports
and mills employ 20 percent of the nation’s workforce.
Faisalabad , which generates the most tax revenue after Karachi,
accounts for half of all textiles shipped from Pakistan. The Pakistani textile industry has had a golden opportunity
to capture markets lost by Chinese producers because of rising
wage pressures in China and the appreciation of the yuan. But
according to the Pakistan central bank’s annual economic report
for the year ended June 30, 2011, the local industry hasn’t been
able to seize the advantage. Bangladesh, Cambodia Instead, Bangladesh and Cambodia have increased sales of
apparel as Pakistani manufacturers struggle with energy
shortages, the report says. Power blackouts last as long as 20 hours at a stretch in
Faisalabad, while shortages of natural gas, which power the
looms, can go on for six days at a time. Demand for natural gas
exceeds supply by as much as 15 percent in the city. Half the city’s 250,000 power looms have gone out of
business in the past 12 months, 10 percent of the spinning mills
and fabric printing units have shut down and half of the
remaining plants are struggling to survive, says Muzammil
Sultan, president of the Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce and
Industry. At least 200,000 workers have lost their jobs since
last year. “We’re shipping only half the quantity we used to
from this city,” Sultan says. Cotton Belt Faisalabad, a city of 5 million people surrounded by
Pakistan’s biggest cotton belt, was once known for attracting
workers from across the Punjab province to run its weaving
mills, spinning units and garment factories. Now, as the textile business faces its biggest ever crisis,
workers have begun leaving the city for the first time. “I’ve
already moved my family back to Peshawar and if I can’t make
this new tire repair business work, I will also move and try to
find some other work,” says Sher Shah Khattak, who came to
Faisalabad 35 years ago to work in the textile trade and lost
his job as a loom operator last year. In March, thousands of textile workers came out on the
streets of the city, burned tires and shouted slogans against
the government. “The change in the city is visible with just 10
percent of factories closed, and we see rioting by workers
because of the growing frustration,” says Sheikh Abdul Qayyum,
managing partner of Em Que Fabrics in Faisalabad. “We can’t
imagine what would happen if half of all mills stop working.” ‘Turning to Crime’ Omer Nazar Shah, who heads the Industrial Police Liaison
Committee, a nonprofit group working with law enforcement
authorities in Faisalabad, calls the loss of jobs “a very big
threat” to security. “Since October, 2,500 people are losing
jobs every week from various industries in Faisalabad. They’re
either leaving the city or turning to crime,” he says. Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani pledged in February to
install new electricity and gas plants in Faisalabad to help end
the energy crisis. So far little has been done, probably because
this is the last year of Gilani’s term. Elahi isn’t among those
waiting for this to happen. “No matter what happens now,” he
says. “I lost everything that I built.” To contact the reporter on this story:
Farhan Sharif in Karachi, Pakistan at
Fsharif2@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Chris Power at cpower3@bloomberg.net | 2012 | pakistan-s-city-of-looms-turns-silent-as-gas-outages-shut-mills |
European Stocks Advance; Swedbank, Electrolux Rally | By Corinne Gretler | 2012-04-25T16:03:49Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/european-stock-index-futures-little-changed.html | 4 | 25 | ad56101941984e11ac2f5c08b583e642 | European stocks advanced for a
second day as companies from Apple Inc. to Swedbank AB (SWEDA) and
Electrolux AB (ELUXB) reported earnings that beat estimates. A gauge of European bank shares climbed, with Swedbank AB
jumping to its highest price in almost a month. Electrolux AB,
the world’s second-biggest appliance maker, rallied 6.5 percent.
Temenos Group AG (TEMN) soared 19 percent as the Swiss banking-software
maker’s first-quarter sales beat estimates and it confirmed its
full-year outlook. The benchmark Stoxx Europe 600 Index (SXXP) gained 1 percent to
256.96 at the close of trading. The measure has advanced 5.1
percent this year as the European Central Bank disbursed more
than 1 trillion euros ($1.3 trillion) to the region’s lenders to
spur the availability of credit and boost the economy. “Strong results from Apple and other European companies
are helping the market today,” said Otto Waser, chief
investment officer at Research & Asset Management AG in Zurich.
“We’re in an environment where market participants buy and sell
depending on the newsflow, but the market still lacks a clear
trend. We’ve seen stronger moves and bigger changes of direction
lately, leaving some investors nervous.” The Stoxx 600 gained 1 percent yesterday as sales of new
homes in the U.S. exceeded forecasts and company earnings topped
analyst estimates. The volume of shares changing hands in the
gauge’s companies was 4.4 percent higher today than the average
of the last 30 days, according to Bloomberg data. In the U.S., the Federal Reserve will conclude a two-day
meeting today where it will probably leave the benchmark
interest rate in a range of zero to 0.25 percent, according to
the median forecast of 79 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. U.S. Reports The Fed will also release policy makers’ forecasts for
growth, unemployment, inflation and the appropriate path of the
federal funds rate over the next several years. Orders for U.S. durable goods fell in March by the most in
three years, indicating manufacturing will contribute less to
growth this year. Bookings for goods meant to last at least three years
dropped 4.2 percent, the biggest decrease since January 2009,
after a revised 1.9 percent gain the prior month, data from the
Commerce Department showed today in Washington . Economists
forecast a 1.7 percent decline, according to the median estimate
in a Bloomberg News survey. The U.K. economy unexpectedly shrank in the first quarter
as construction output slumped, pushing Britain into its first
double-dip recession since the 1970s. Gross domestic product contracted 0.2 percent from the
fourth quarter of 2011, when it shrank 0.3 percent, the Office
for National Statistics said today in London . The median of 40
estimates in a Bloomberg News survey was for a gain of 0.1
percent. A technical recession is defined as two straight
quarters of contraction. National Indexes National benchmark indexes rose in all of the 19 western
European markets except Iceland. France’s CAC 40 rallied 2
percent, while Germany’s DAX advanced 1.7 percent. The U.K.’s
FTSE 100 rose 0.2 percent. Swedbank, the largest lender in the Baltic states, jumped
3.5 percent to 107.70 kronor after profit in the first quarter
beat estimates as it made more money from its lending business. Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA (BBVA) rose 2.2 percent to 5.26
euros after the Spanish lender reporter first-quarter profit of
1 billion euros, topping the average analyst estimate that
called for 936.7 million euros. BNP Paribas SA (BNP) and Societe Generale SA (GLE) , France’s biggest
banks, rose 5.6 percent to 30.88 euros, and 6.3 percent to 18.26
euros, respectively. UniCredit SpA (UCG) , the largest bank in Italy,
increased 6.8 percent to 3.10 euros, while Banca Popolare di
Milano Scarl (PMI) rallied 9.3 percent to 35.3 euro cents. Electrolux Gains Electrolux gained 6.5 percent to 147.20 kronor after
reporting first-quarter profit of 561 million kronor ($83.3
million), compared with the 483 million-kronor average estimate
in a Bloomberg survey of economists. Temenos jumped 19 percent to 16.85 Swiss francs after the
banking-software maker confirmed its full-year outlook and
reported first-quarter sales of $100.3 million, beating the
average $97.5 million estimate. Barclays Plc raised the stock to overweight, the equivalent
of buy, from equal weight. UBS AG upgraded the shares to buy
from neutral, while Zuercher Kantonalbank AG raised the company
to overweight from market weight. Apple Profit Technology shares were among the best performers of the 19
industry groups in the Stoxx 600 after Apple posted a 94 percent
increase in first-quarter profit. Cap Gemini SA (CAP) and Alcatel-Lucent increased 3.5 percent to
29.68 euros, and 5.2 percent to 1.47 euros, respectively. PSA Peugeot Citroen (UG) , Europe ’s second-largest carmaker,
advanced 4.6 percent to 9.34 euros. First-quarter revenue of
14.3 billion euros topped the 14 billion-euro average of three
estimates compiled by Bloomberg. The company said the
competitive environment remained “difficult” and predicted it
to last through the first half of the year. Valeo SA (FR) , France’s second-largest car-parts maker, rallied
8.7 percent to 37.61 euros, its biggest gain since September, as
Natixis raised the stock to buy from neutral. Glaxo Falls GlaxoSmithKline Plc (GSK) , the U.K.’s largest drugmaker, sank 3
percent to 1,413.5 pence after reporting first-quarter profit
and sales that missed analyst estimates as revenue declined in
Europe. Earnings excluding some items were 27.3 pence a share,
Glaxo said. That missed the average estimate of 29 pence from 11
analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. Sales increased 1 percent to
6.64 billion pounds ($10.7 billion), missing the average analyst
estimate of 6.83 billion pounds. Konecranes Oyj (KCR1V) , the world’s biggest supplier of industrial
cranes, climbed 7.2 percent to 22.70 euros, boosted by a record
order book that rose 12.4 percent to 1.08 billion euros from a
year ago. Galp Energia SGPS SA (GALP) , Portugal’s biggest oil company,
jumped 4.1 percent to 11.30 euros. Amorim Energia BV, a holding
company controlled by Portuguese investor Americo Amorim, plans
to buy a 5 percent stake in the company from Eni SpA for 14.25
euros a share, according to a spokesman for Americo Amorim who
asked not to be identified. Nexans SA (NEX) , the French maker of cables, fell 8.1 percent to
40.15 euros, its biggest drop since September. The company
forecast a decline in the first-half profitability of its
transmission, distribution and operators division. ABB Ltd. (ABBN) , the world’s biggest power-grid supplier,
retreated 3.2 percent to 17.79 francs as it reported net profit
of $685 million in the first quarter, short of the average
$704.8 million analyst estimate. To contact the reporter on this story:
Corinne Gretler in Zurich at
cgretler1@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Andrew Rummer at
arummer@bloomberg.net | 2012 | european-stock-index-futures-little-changed |
Ormat Rises on $61.2 Million Contract for Geothermal Plant | By Ehren Goossens | 2012-04-25T20:12:15Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/ormat-rises-on-61-2-million-contract-for-geothermal-power-plant.html | 4 | 25 | 25fb8d38f877330e791a4e39752ab1a27c872905 | Ormat Technologies Inc. (ORA) , a U.S.
geothermal energy company, rose the most in two months after
receiving a $61.2 million contract to build a power plant in
North America. Ormat rose 2.7 percent to 18.78 at the close in New York ,
the most since Feb. 24. The Reno-based company will provide two
air-cooled converters under an engineering, procurement and
construction contract it announced today in a statement. The plant is expected to be completed in 2013. Smadar Lavi,
Ormat’s vice president of corporate finance and investor
relations, didn’t name the owner or provide additional details
in an e-mail today. The contract will add to Ormat’s backlog, which reached
$240 million in the fourth quarter. Ormat is a unit of Yavne, Israel-based Ormat Industries
Ltd. (ORMT) , which rose 0.65 percent to 18.52 shekels in Tel Aviv
today. To contact the reporter on this story:
Ehren Goossens in New York at
egoossens1@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Reed Landberg at
landberg@bloomberg.net | 2012 | ormat-rises-on-61-2-million-contract-for-geothermal-power-plan |
Bo Says School Paid by Scholarships, Never Drove a Ferrari | By Bloomberg News | 2012-04-25T14:19:24Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/bo-s-son-issues-statement-to-harvard-publication.html
Bo Guagua, the son of ousted
Chinese Politburo member Bo Xilai , said his education was funded
by scholarships and his mother’s savings and denied ever driving
a Ferrari as he sought to dispel speculation of an extravagant
lifestyle supported by ill-gotten wealth. In his first public comments since his father was removed
and his mother arrested on suspicion of murder, the 24-year-old
Harvard Kennedy School student defended his academic record and
said he was “deeply concerned” by the events surrounding his
family, which is at the center of China’s biggest political
upheaval in more than two decades. “Recently, there has been increasing attention from the
press on my private life,” Bo said in a statement in the
Harvard Crimson, the university’s student newspaper. “As a
result of these speculations, I feel responsible to the public
to provide an account of the facts.” Bo Xilai’s ouster and reports that his wife had moved money
abroad have focused attention on how his son’s education was
funded. Along with Harvard, Bo Guagua has attended the exclusive
Harrow School and Oxford University in the U.K. While Bo Xilai’s
salary as Chongqing Communist Party Secretary was about 10,000
yuan ($1,586) a month, his relatives have accumulated wealth of
at least $136 million, according to data compiled by Bloomberg
on the extended family’s business interests. ‘Mother’s Generosity’ “My tuition and living expenses at Harrow School,
University of Oxford and Harvard University were funded
exclusively by two sources | 4 | 25 | 31b196040401400d89741dc3b98dc42d | and my mother’s generosity from the savings she earned from her
years as a successful lawyer and writer,” Bo said. He didn’t
say where the scholarships came from. Harvard said it won’t comment on how many Chinese students
receive financial aid. Bo said he never lent his name to “or participated in any
for-profit business or venture, in China or abroad.” He said he
has been involved in developing a not-for-profit social
networking website in China. Bo Xilai, 62, who was suspended as Chongqing Party chief
last month, has been accused of “serious violations of
discipline,” the Xinhua News Agency said April 10. His wife, Gu
Kailai, and an aide were put in custody for suspicion of
murdering British businessman Neil Heywood. Gu Kailai is Bo
Guagua’s mother. That was after Bo Xilai’s former police chief, Wang Lijun,
had spent a night in February at the U.S. consulate in Chengdu,
an event confirmed by both the U.S. and Chinese governments.
Xinhua reported that Wang disclosed the murder allegations. Academic Defense In the statement, Bo Guagua said he was “deeply concerned
about the events” surrounding his family, though he had no
comment about the investigation of them. The New York Times reported on April 18 that Bo Guagua was
suspended for a year at Oxford after struggling with his
coursework. The report said he liked European sports cars and
enjoyed throwing parties. “It is impossible to address all of the rumours and
allegations about myself, but I will state the facts regarding
some of the most pertinent claims,” Bo said. He defended his academic record and social life while at
Oxford University , saying he debated at the Oxford Union and was
president of the Politics, Philosophy and Economics Society. “Like many other university students, I also devoted time
and energy to extra-curricular activities,” he said. “These
extra-curricular activities enabled me to broaden my
perspective, serve the student community, and experience all
that Oxford has to offer.” No Ferrari Bo said he had never driven a Ferrari and never visited the
U.S. ambassador’s residence in China, contradicting a report in
the Wall Street Journal in November. Speaking March 9 in
Beijing, Bo Xilai denied as “completely rubbish” reports that
his son drives a red Ferrari, and said his son attended Harvard
and Oxford on scholarships. Bo Guagua lives in a two-bedroom luxury apartment in
Cambridge, Massachusetts, while studying at Harvard. Units of
that size start at $3,000 a month, according to a concierge at
the building. Bloomberg News reported April 14 that Gu Kailai’s sisters
controlled an international web of businesses worth at least
$126 million. On April 23, Bloomberg reported that family
members of Bo Xilai have held positions at Citigroup Inc. (C) and
alternative-energy company China Everbright International Ltd. (257) Kennedy School According to its website, the Kennedy School estimates that
the minimum cost, including tuition and living expenses, is
$70,802 for one year of studies. Harvard College has financial aid programs that include
free tuition for families with annual income of less than
$60,000. According to the Kennedy School website, funding for
the graduate school itself “is limited” and students are
encouraged to seek outside aid. China has 582 students at Harvard, more than any other
foreign country, and more than half of them, 288, are in the
Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, according to the
university website. Harvard’s Kennedy School, where Bo Guagua is
enrolled, has 29 Chinese students. The Journal reported April 16 that Bo Guagua had left his
Cambridge apartment escorted by private security guards. U.S.
State Department spokesman Mark Toner told reporters last week
that Bo was still at school at Harvard and wasn’t in custody. Bo’s statement was posted on the Harvard Crimson website.
Julie Zauzmer, the Crimson’s managing editor, said the paper’s
reporters spoke with Bo Guagua on the phone and verified that he
sent the e-mail statement. To contact the reporter on this story:
Noah Rayman in Cambridge, Massachusetts To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Peter Hirschberg at
phirschberg@bloomberg.net ;
Lisa Wolfson at
lwolfson@bloomberg.net | 2012 | bo-s-son-issues-statement-to-harvard-publication |
Aeroflot Advances Most in Two Weeks on Belavia Purchase Report | By Denis Maternovsky | 2012-04-25T13:11:11Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/aeroflot-advances-most-in-two-weeks-on-belavia-purchase-report.html | 4 | 25 | ab21b94a78919c0ff84e8e98ff65b392bb075480 | OAO Aeroflot rose the most in
almost two weeks after Kommersant reported Russia’s biggest
airline is considering buying Belarus’s Belavia air carrier. Shares of the Moscow-based company jumped as much as 3.2
percent, the strongest intraday gain since April 13, and were
1.6 percent higher at 47.26 rubles by 5:03 p.m. in Moscow. Aeroflot is examining the possibility of buying the Belarus
government-owned airline and may consider the matter as early as
this week, the Russian newspaper reported today, citing an
unidentified person close the company’s board of directors. To contact the reporter on this story:
Denis Maternovsky in Moscow at
dmaternovsky@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Gavin Serkin at
gserkin@bloomberg.net | 2012 | aeroflot-advances-most-in-two-weeks-on-belavia-purchase-repor |
Mexico Oil Opening First Time Since 1938 Shows Revival: Energy | By Carlos Manuel Rodriguez and Adriana Lopez Caraveo | 2012-04-26T14:32:43Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/mexico-oil-opening-first-time-since-1938-shows-revival-energy.html
For the first time in 74 years,
Mexico may allow private investment in its oil and gas, the
third-largest reserves in Latin America . Enrique Pena Nieto, the leader in all major polls to win the
July 1 presidential election and a member of the party that
nationalized the industry in 1938, said April 12 that Mexico’s
oil production “can outperform and grow” through private
investment. The same day, his closest rival, Josefina Vazquez Mota, proposed to list “a minority stake” in state oil
monopoly Petroleos Mexicanos , which has $126 billion in revenue. Selling shares in the largest oil supplier to the U.S. will
open a Mexican industry experiencing an eighth year of declining
output, hurt by faltering investment and lack of technology and
experience for the deepest offshore wells. The cash can fund
Gulf of Mexico and shale gas production using techniques Brazil
and the U.S. employed to revolutionize their energy markets. “The taboo has been broken” on private investment, Pemex
board member Hector Moreira said in an interview. “People
talking about private stakes | 4 | 25 | bdbf1aae455d4c4ea3d280dbd3ffef97 | Economistas Asociados-ISA shows. ‘Terrible Paradox’ “It’s a terrible paradox, that despite the large size of
the energy sector in Mexico there is not a single energy company
listed at the Bolsa,” Jesus Reyes Heroles, a former chief
executive officer of Pemex, said last month in an interview. Pena met this year with the head of the country’s exchange,
Luis Tellez , said two people familiar with the meeting who asked
not to be identified because they were not authorized to discuss
it. The topic of a Pemex listing was addressed, one of the
people said. Assuming Pemex pension liabilities are not transferred to
the Federal government as some company executives propose, the
equity value of the firm may be about $47.8 billion, according
to data compiled by Bloomberg. If the government takes up some
of the pension liabilities and subsidies currently funded by
Pemex, the value may be higher. Pemex’s challenges are accumulating by the day. The
country’s output is falling to a 12-year low, its previous
quarterly loss was the biggest since 2008. Changing the law to allow the sale of any stake in a crude-
production project or Pemex will require a constitutional
change. Such amendments must be approved by two-thirds of
Congress, by 16 of the 32 Mexican state legislatures and
subsequently signed by the president. ‘Signature Issue’ Changing the rules to open Pemex to more private investment
“would be my signature issue,” Pena said in a Nov. 16
interview. “We can do what Brazil did for its oil company , not
at the beginning but later, if we open shares to the public,”
he said. Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador , the presidential candidate of
the Party of the Democratic Revolution who narrowly lost the
2006 presidential election, opposes most privatizations in the
oil industry. He said that the proposals from his opponents
“will deteriorate the sector in every sense.” Pemex Trading Credit-default swap contracts for Pemex traded at 158 basis
points yesterday, or 23 below those for Brazil’s state-
controlled crude producer, according to data provider CMA. The
gap is the biggest since March 21. Credit-default swaps pay the buyer face value if a borrower
fails to meets its obligations, less the value of the defaulted
debt. A basis point equals $1,000 annually on a contract
protecting $10 million of debt. President Felipe Calderon ’s attempts to open more of the
energy business to private investments, such us breaking Pemex’s
monopoly in refining and pipeline distribution, have been
diluted by opposition led by PRI lawmakers. A comment last year from Calderon that selling shares of
Pemex “could be an alternative” in an upcoming energy bill
prompted demands from Pena Nieto’s party members for a special
hearing with the energy minister to explain the president’s
statement. A new energy bill has so far not been filed. To contact the reporter on this story:
Carlos M. Rodriguez in Mexico City at
carlosmr@bloomberg.net ;
Adriana Lopez Caraveo in Mexico City at
adrianalopez@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Dale Crofts at
dcrofts@bloomberg.net . | 2012 | exico-oil-opening-first-time-since-1938-shows-revival-energy |
International Ferro Metals Rises on Prices Gains, Power Deal | By Jana Marais | 2012-04-25T15:56:18Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/international-ferro-metals-rises-on-prices-gains-power-deal-1-.html | 4 | 25 | 047830c0ad6991be243720c4f0ae8f9628662251 | International Ferro Metals Ltd. (IFL) , a
producer of ferrochrome in South Africa , gained the most in
seven weeks in London trading after higher metal prices and an
electricity buyback deal helped make it profitable last month. The shares jumped 11 percent, the most since March 8, to 17
pence by the close today. The producer said today it would restart in June two
furnaces taken offline in March and April under a financially
beneficial power buyback agreement with utility Eskom Holdings
SOC Ltd. The shutdown of an estimated 24 of 52 furnaces in South
Africa will have a significant effect on the market, the Sydney-
based company said in a statement. “IFM will come out of the Eskom-enforced shutdowns in a
strong position,” Numis Securities Ltd., which recommends
investors buy the stock, said in an e-mailed note to clients.
“There is no change to our positive view that the shares remain
too cheap.” Industry stocks of ferrochrome are expected to drop during
the second quarter and to remain relatively low for the rest of
2012, the company said. International Ferro Metals said it would welcome the
introduction of a chrome-ore export duty in South Africa. Chinese Production “There is significantly more interest from government’s
perspective for looking at and considering a duty,” Chief
Executive Officer Christiaan Jordaan said by phone from London.
“We support the initiative. It would have a significant impact
on the alloy industry.” Ferrochrome production in South Africa, the biggest maker
of the metal used in stainless steel to prevent corrosion, is
being displaced by China , which imports 42 percent of its ore,
according to Merafe Resources Ltd. (MRF) South African chrome-ore
exports to China increased 51 percent to about 4.7 million
metric tons last year. International Ferro sold 52,930 metric tons of ferrochrome
in the quarter ended March 31, an increase of 9 percent from a
year earlier, it said. Chrome ore sales were “substantially
higher” at 59,226 metric tons. To contact the reporter on this story:
Jana Marais in Johannesburg at
jmarais@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
John Viljoen at
jviljoen@bloomberg.net | 2012 | international-ferro-metals-rises-on-prices-gains-power-deal-1- |
Luxcara Closes $172 Million in Financing for German Solar Stakes | By Stefan Nicola | 2012-04-25T12:19:44Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/luxcara-closes-172-million-in-financing-for-german-solar-stakes.html | 4 | 25 | 46fd38fc7dfd63743c4023effe2d173eff999a68 | Luxcara GmbH , a Hamburg-based asset
manager, closed the financing for stakes it bought in Europe ’s
second-biggest solar-power plant last year with funds from HSH
Nordbank AG and Norddeutsche Landesbank Girozentrale. Luxcara secured about 130 million euros ($172 million
euros) of funding for the stakes totalling 60 megawatts of the
200 million-euro, 91-megawatt facility in Brandenburg-Briest,
Johanna Pongratz, a spokeswoman, said by phone today. She
declined to reveal further details of the financing. To contact the reporter on this story:
Stefan Nicola in Berlin at
snicola2@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Reed Landberg at
landberg@bloomberg.net | 2012 | uxcara-closes-172-million-in-financing-for-german-solar-stakes |
Slovenian Banks’ Ratings Cut by Moody’s as Asset Quality Worsens | By Boris Cerni | 2012-04-25T19:03:44Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/slovenian-banks-ratings-cut-by-moody-s-as-asset-quality-worsens.html | 4 | 25 | fc578663277b54522d3c01cc7df5f311e19771d7 | Slovenia’s three largest banks,
including Nova Ljubljanska Banka d.d., had their ratings lowered
one level by Moody’s Investors Service on their deteriorating
asset quality after record losses. NLB and Nova Kreditna Banka Maribor (KBMR) d.d., in which the
government holds an indirect majority, had their deposit ratings
cut to Ba2 from Ba1, while Abanka Vipa (ABKN) d.d. score was lowered to
Ba3 from Ba2. All three lenders may be cut further, the ratings
service said in a statement today. “The downgrades reflect the sharp asset-quality
deterioration in the banks’ loan portfolios and high
provisioning needs that have eroded their capital buffers and
loss-absorption capacity,” Moody’s said. More ratings cuts may
follow after the assessment of the banks’ capital raising plans
and the government’s ability to provide support if needed, it
said. Slovenian banks were hit hard by a 2009 recession when
demand for exports in Europe dried up and the construction
industry collapsed. All three banks last year reported record
losses on increased bad provisions and may struggle further as
the economy enters another recession. NLB reported a third consecutive loss in 2011 of 239
million euros ($316 million), while Nova Kreditna said last
year’s loss was 81 million euros. Abanka announced today it’s seeking to raise 50 million
euros in a share sale. NLB said it wants to raise 400 million
euros by the end of June to improve its capital ratios , while
Nova Kreditna is in talks with the European Investment Bank for
a 100 million-euro loan. To contact the reporter on this story:
Boris Cerni in Ljubljana at
bcerni@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
James M. Gomez at
jagomez@bloomberg.net | 2012 | slovenian-banks-ratings-cut-by-moody-s-as-asset-quality-worsens |
Vietnam Bonds Rise as Faltering Credit Growth Spurs Bank Buying | By Bloomberg News | 2012-04-25T08:56:05Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/vietnam-bonds-rise-as-faltering-credit-growth-spurs-bank-buying.html | 4 | 25 | ea9e1bce67cfa4c745ba9e98cdd37e9abd2f7327 | Vietnam ’s benchmark five-year bonds
rose for an eighth day, the longest run of gains since June 2010,
on speculation banks are buying more government debt as credit
growth falters. The dong weakened. Commercial bank lending in Vietnam fell 1 percent in the
first quarter, according to an April 11 government statement.
Lenders should consider extending debt repayment periods for
borrowers who may miss deadlines but will be able to repay the
debt later, the State Bank of Vietnam said in a statement on its
website late yesterday. “Credit growth is not strong, that’s why most of the banks
want to invest in bonds and keep their money safe,” said Nguyen Duy Phong, a Ho Chi Minh City-based analyst at Viet Capital
Securities Co. Five-year bond yields fell three basis points or 0.03
percentage point, to 10.82 percent, according to a daily fixing
rate from banks compiled by Bloomberg. That’s the lowest level
since November 2010. The dong traded 0.4 percent weaker at 20,853 per dollar as
of 3:54 p.m. in Hanoi, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
The State Bank of Vietnam set its reference rate at 20,828,
unchanged since Dec. 26, according to its website. The currency
is allowed to trade up to 1 percent on either side of the rate. To contact the reporter on this story:
Nick Heath in Hanoi at
nheath2@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Sandy Hendry at
shendry@bloomberg.net | 2012 | vietnam-bonds-rise-as-faltering-credit-growth-spurs-bank-buying |
Firewalls Needed for Euro’s Stability, Solidarity, Cyprus Says | By Stelios Orphanides | 2012-04-25T10:14:29Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/firewalls-needed-for-euro-s-stability-solidarity-cyprus-says.html
Cypriot finance minister Vassos Shiarly said the euro-area countries agree on the need for
institutionalized financial stability and solidarity created by
financial support mechanisms. “Our current position in the euro group on firewalls is
that we believe in this principle because we believe in the
institution of stability,” Shiarly told reporters in Nicosia
today. Firewalls are there to serve the purpose of creating
“stability in the euro-area countries and give some certainty
with respect to the institution of solidarity”. Cyprus will take over the European Union’s presidency on
July 1 and shares the view that the euro-area members should
support each other, no matter which country’s financial
stability is threatened, the Cypriot finance minister said. Shiarly, a former executive of the island’s largest lender,
Bank of Cyprus, said on April 23 that the euro-area’s third-
smallest economy may need to support one of its lenders with as
much as 1.5 billion euros ($2 billion). Andreas Charalambous, director of economic research and
European Union affairs, said that there is consensus among euro-
area members to turn the temporary support mechanism into a
permanent one, expand the funds it can provide to support
countries or banks and expand its tools to make it more
effective. | 4 | 25 | 4e7fe3678c8d4e11fe6fb7faf7f862a20f9e6b79 | Stelios Orphanides in Nicosia at sorphanides@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Craig Stirling at cstirling1@bloomberg.net | 2012 | firewalls-needed-for-euro-s-stability-solidarity-cyprus-says |
Jobs, Not the 1%, Are What Make Americans Fret | By Steven N. Kaplan | 2012-04-25T23:01:50Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/jobs-not-the-1-are-what-make-americans-fret.html
The themes of inequality and the 1
percent dominate the news. Critics deplore that the share of
pretax income accruing to those at the top has increased
markedly over the past 30 years and is now greater than it has
been since the 1920s. It is suggested, too, that growth in income inequality has
been a significant contributor to the current financial crisis
and the slow recovery. President Barack Obama recently took this
position, arguing that this is dragging down the economy. The
Occupy Wall Street movement has been motivated by outrage over
the gains of the top 1 percent and the nefarious consequences of
this imbalance. If those concerns are valid, it would be reasonable to
expect that increased inequality at the top should be associated
with a decline in household well-being. That isn’t the case. In
fact, household well-being is much more closely related to
unemployment than it is to the increase in pretax-income
inequality. This implies that policies that focus on reducing
inequality at the top, but don’t reduce unemployment, aren’t
likely to improve well-being. Happiness Survey Every two years since the early 1970s, the General Social
Survey has solicited the views of 1,000 to 2,000 Americans on a
large number of questions, including happiness and financial
well-being. To gauge happiness, the GSS asks respondents whether
they are very, pretty, or not too happy. On financial well-
being, it asks respondents whether they are pretty well
satisfied, more or less satisfied, or not at all satisfied. The
Nobel prize-winning economists Joseph Stiglitz and Amartya Sen,
among others, have championed the use of such well-being
measures. I used the GSS to calculate two measures of net well-being.
The first subtracts the percentage of people saying they are not
too happy, from the percentage saying they are very happy. The
second subtracts the percentage of people saying they are not at
all satisfied financially from the percentage who say they are
pretty well satisfied. Both measures should increase when
Americans as a group are better off, and decline when they are
worse off. The attached graph plots these two measures of well-being
against inequality (the pretax-income share of the top 1
percent) and the unemployment rate from 1980 to 2010. Over that
period, the share of pretax income held by the top 1 percent
first increased markedly from 10 percent in 1980 to a peak of
23.5 percent in 2007 and then declined to about 20 percent in
2010. The results are clear. Perceived well-being doesn’t decline
as inequality increases. In fact, well-being has tended to
increase with inequality at the top. At the same time, well-
being, particularly financial satisfaction, declines when
unemployment is high and it improves when unemployment is low. During the 1980s, income inequality increased markedly.
Happiness and financial satisfaction also rose. Income
inequality gained markedly from 1994 to 2000, as did happiness
and financial satisfaction. And from 2006 to 2010, inequality
declined markedly and well-being fell, too. These patterns are decidedly inconsistent with the idea
that income inequality damages Americans’ well-being. Instead,
over the last 30 years, perceived well-being has been positively
correlated with inequality at the top. Unemployment Effect That’s not to say all is rosy in these periods. Happiness
and financial satisfaction tend to be negatively related to
unemployment. Well-being increases when unemployment is low and
tends to decrease when unemployment is high. Note the large
increases in happiness and financial satisfaction from 1994 to
2000, a period in which unemployment decreased, but income
inequality increased. Also note the large declines in happiness
and financial satisfaction from 2006 to 2010, a period in which
unemployment increased, but income inequality fell. This suggests that boosting employment and the economy will
do the most to increase perceived well-being. The data also
suggest that well-being will improve with higher employment even
if inequality also increases; similarly, well-being can decline
even when inequality decreases if the economy doesn’t perform
well. Put another way, policies that reduce inequality, but at
the same time hurt economic growth aren’t likely to improve
well-being, especially during a recession or weak recovery, when
growth is more likely to boost employment. These patterns also raise the question of why increases in
pretax-income inequality at the top aren’t associated with
decreases in perceived well-being. One possible answer, as my
University of Chicago colleague Bruce Meyer has pointed out, is
that income inequality isn’t the same as consumption inequality.
Meyer found that consumption inequality | 4 | 25 | 20c4160736c441b88aa08fe56b7dd27c | roughly at the same point it was in the early 1980s. In other words, income taxes are still progressive and
transfers do provide a safety net for those with lower incomes.
Furthermore, when taxes, transfers and inflation are taken into
consideration, after-tax incomes and consumption for the median
family have increased on the order of 50 percent since 1980. Other researchers have reached similar conclusions. Another
related, but less sanguine answer, attributed to Raghuram Rajan ,
also of the University of Chicago, is that the politically
driven availability of credit allowed the less well-off to
maintain their consumption. This may provide part of the
explanation for the patterns in the 2000s, but it seems less
likely to explain those in the 1980s and 1990s. The conclusion, then, isn’t that inequality is good, but
rather, that income inequality hasn’t been related to perceived
well-being. Income inequality at the top (along with consumption
inequality) doesn’t appear to be all that different from the
levels reached in the late 1990s, when there was far less
criticism. Unemployment, of course, was quite a bit lower then. Since the financial crisis, the income share of the top 1
percent has decreased at the same time that perceived well-being
has declined substantially. If this history is a guide, then any
new policies that focus on reducing income inequality without
increasing employment and growth aren’t likely to improve well-
being. In contrast, policies that increase growth and
employment, even if they maintain, or even increase, pretax-
income inequality, seem more likely to be well received by the
public. (Steven N. Kaplan, a professor of entrepreneurship and
finance at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business,
is a contributor to Business Class . The opinions expressed are
his own.) Read more opinion online from Bloomberg View . Today’s highlights: the View editors on saving Social Security
and dealing with China ; Noah Feldman on Arizona immigration
arguments ; Caroline Baum on the fiscal future ; Ezra Klein on
money and politics ; Susan Crawford on cyber protection ; Jared
Diamond on the roots of Japan’s economic malaise . To contact the writer of this column:
Steven N. Kaplan at fskaplan@chicagobooth.edu . To contact the editor responsible for this column:
Max Berley at mberley@bloomberg.net . | 2012 | jobs-not-the-1-are-what-make-americans-fre |
Vietnam Stocks: Bao Viet, Hoa Binh Construction, Tay Ninh | By Bloomberg News | 2012-04-25T05:30:09Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/vietnam-stocks-bao-viet-hoa-binh-construction-tay-ninh.html
April 25 (Bloomberg) | 4 | 25 | a26e6e1e565d825bbbf91262a702c5a7cb000f5c | had unusual moves in Vietnam trading . Stock symbols are in
parentheses and prices are as of the 11:30 a.m. break in Ho Chi
Minh City . The VN Index (VNINDEX) , the benchmark measure of the Ho Chi
Minh City Stock Exchange, rose 1.3 percent to 471.72. Bao Viet Holdings (BVH) , Vietnam ’s biggest insurer,
gained 2.9 percent to 71,500 dong. Net income for 2012 will rise
10 percent to 1.33 trillion dong, Thoi Bao Kinh Te Vietnam
newspaper reported today, citing the company. Hoa Binh Construction & Real Estate Corp. (HBC VN), a
construction services provider, gained by the maximum daily
limit of 5 percent to 39,900 dong. The company expects 2012 net
income to rise to 170 billion dong ($81 million), compared with
149.6 billion dong a year earlier, according to a statement on
its website. The company will pay a 2012 dividend of 3,000 dong
a share, it said. Tay Ninh Rubber Joint-Stock Co. (TRC VN), which produces
and trades latex, rose 5 percent to 44,200 dong. The company
will pay a 2011 dividend of 2,000 dong on May 24, according to a
filing on exchange’s website. To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story:
Nguyen Dieu Tu Uyen in Hanoi at
uyen1@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Darren Boey at
dboey@bloomberg.net | 2012 | vietnam-stocks-bao-viet-hoa-binh-construction-tay-nin |
TomTom Reports Unexpected Quarterly Loss on Sales Decline | By Maaike Noordhuis | 2012-04-25T08:53:56Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/tomtom-reports-unexpected-quarterly-loss-on-sales-decline.html | 4 | 25 | 24b8d2756877428c9424955c3ca6d1d5 | TomTom NV (TOM2) , Europe ’s largest maker
of portable navigation devices, reported an unexpected first-
quarter loss after it took a charge for a software bug and as
sales to carmakers dropped. The net loss was 1.5 million euros ($2 million) compared
with profit of 10.6 million euros a year earlier, Amsterdam-
based TomTom said today in a statement. Analysts surveyed by
Bloomberg this month after the software fault was announced
estimated profit of 450,000 euros. Sales fell 12 percent to 233
million euros. “The economic headwind in southern Europe impacted
consumer and automotive revenue in the quarter,” Chief
Executive Officer Harold Goddijn said in the statement. “We saw
consumer discretionary spending decline,” and car manufacturers
responded by reducing production. TomTom took a provision of 13 million euros in the quarter
related to a “leap-year” bug in the software of a GPS receiver
provided by a third party, Chief Financial Officer Marina Wyatt
said on a conference call. The fault caused some TomTom products
to stop functioning properly after March 31. The charge hurt
adjusted earnings per share by 5 cents. “The costs related to the bug are much higher than I
expected,” said Jos Versteeg, an analyst at Theodoor Gilissen,
who said he had “penciled in a couple of millions” in charges
in his estimate. “If you take out the impact, the results
weren’t that bad at all.” Versteeg recommends holding TomTom
stock. Stock Recovers TomTom rose as much as 3.2 percent to 3.59 euros and was
trading up 2.9 percent at 10:52 a.m. in Amsterdam, reversing a
drop of as much as 6.6 percent earlier today. The stock has
fallen 43 percent in the past 12 months. The company, which once dominated the navigation industry
before Google Inc. (GOOG) and Apple Inc. (AAPL) took market share with similar
services on smartphones, is trying to boost sales of built-in
navigation systems for vehicles as well as electronic maps and
other software. TomTom extended a partnership during the quarter with
Renault SA, France ’s second-biggest carmaker, for a multimedia
system and signed a deal for the Chinese market with Qoros Auto,
which will equip its cars as of 2013 with TomTom products. “We are in talks with more carmakers, from Europe, the
U.S. and China , about products for the Chinese market,” Goddijn
said in an interview by phone. TomTom is unlikely to see a gain
in revenue from the Chinese agreement before 2013. Job Cuts Goddijn initiated an overhaul last year that includes
cutting 457 jobs, or about 10 percent of the workforce , with the
aim of saving 50 million euros in 2012. The company reiterated a forecast today that sales will
fall to about 1.1 billion euros in 2012 from 1.27 billion euros
in 2011 and that adjusted earnings per share will drop to about
35 cents per share from 55 cents. Goddijn declined today to comment on a report by Dutch
magazine Management Team on April 20 that TomTom may delist its
stock as the four founders, including Goddijn, were said to be
considering making an offer for the remaining shares. TomTom
shares jumped as much as 24 percent that day. To contact the reporter on this story:
Maaike Noordhuis in Amsterdam at
mnoordhuis@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Kenneth Wong at
kwong11@bloomberg.net | 2012 | omtom-reports-unexpected-quarterly-loss-on-sales-decline |
Drew & Napier's Singh Says Singapore Law Market Expanding | By Andrea Tan | 2012-04-25T04:54:06Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/drew-napier-s-singh-says-singapore-law-market-expanding.html | 4 | 25 | 7e909bd11baa30c1729bfe2bf82b19d6173ca79e | Davinder Singh , Chief Executive
Officer of Drew & Napier LLC, comments on Singapore’s legal
market. Singapore plans to invite foreign law firms to apply for
a second round of qualifying foreign law practice licenses in
the second half of the year. On Singapore’s further opening of its legal industry: “There is and will always be more than enough to go
around. We welcome liberalization. It has given depth and
breadth to Singapore as an international financial center. As
the market expands, there will be an increasing need for foreign
lawyers who have skills which are not so readily found in
Singapore. ‘‘Drew & Napier and its fees have not felt any negative
impact from the opening up. In fact, it has helped us expand our
network of professional ties, resulting in more and increasingly
challenging work being referred to us. ‘‘It is not a given that we are headed the Hong Kong way.
The history and legal landscape here are different. The large
firms will continue to remain Singaporean and are likely, in the
years to come, to continue to dominate large swathes of
corporate practice, both local and regional. ‘‘International firms have always found Singapore
attractive because of the many and growing opportunities here.
Singapore is racing ahead of others and more and more
international firms realize that they should be a part of that
trajectory of success and promise.’’ On the impact on domestic law firms: ‘‘The next generation of leaders of local firms will remain
Singaporean, and rightly so. As the market continues to open up,
they will have to continually ask themselves what the best model
for their firm is. Today’s solution is unlikely to necessarily
provide tomorrow’s answer.’’ To contact the reporter on this story:
Andrea Tan in Singapore at
atan17@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Douglas Wong at
dwong19@bloomberg.net | 2012 | drew-napier-s-singh-says-singapore-law-market-expanding |
Mauritius to Approve $858 Million Rail Project, Le Matinal Says | By Kamlesh Bhuckory | 2012-04-25T07:07:43Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/mauritius-to-approve-858-million-rail-project-le-matinal-says.html | 4 | 25 | 3a0eb5f6e9ba02f8025d324b681cd9a2e9466f13 | Mauritius’s government will
probably approve a 25 billion-rupee ($858 million) light-rail
transit system on April 27, le Matinal reported, without saying
where it obtained the information. The project, which covers 25 kilometers (16 miles) linking
Curepipe to Port Louis , the capital, will be carried out in
partnership with private companies, the newspaper said. To contact the reporter on this story:
Kamlesh Bhuckory in Port Louis at
kbhuckory@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Antony Sguazzin at
asguazzin@bloomberg.net | 2012 | auritius-to-approve-858-million-rail-project-le-matinal-says |
Surgutneftegas Said to Sell June ESPO to BP, Vitol, Glencore | By Ramsey Al-Rikabi and Jake Rudnitsky | 2012-04-25T11:19:55Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/surgutneftegas-said-to-sell-june-espo-to-bp-vitol-glencore-1-.html | 4 | 25 | 9edc5ed9f7ef06d61c9e2ba962a90e87df21330b | OAO Surgutneftegas (SNGSP) sold five
cargoes of East Siberian Pacific Ocean crude for loading in June
to buyers including BP Plc (BP/) , Vitol Group, and Glencore
International Plc (GLEN) , said six traders who participate in the
market, declining to be identified because the information is
confidential. The shipments traded at premiums of about $3.40 to $3.90 a
barrel to benchmark Dubai oil, according to the people. That’s
higher than a cargo sold to Mitsubishi Corp. (8058) earlier this week.
The Japanese trader paid about $3 above Dubai, said four traders
on April 24. Details of the deals are as follows: To contact the reporters on this story:
Ramsey Al-Rikabi in Singapore at
ralrikabi@bloomberg.net ;
Jake Rudnitsky in Moscow at
jrudnitsky@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Alexander Kwiatkowski at
akwiatkowsk2@bloomberg.net | 2012 | surgutneftegas-said-to-sell-june-espo-to-bp-vitol-glencore-1- |
AutoNation: Carmakers Confirm Production Amid Resin Issue | By Craig Trudell | 2012-04-25T20:18:13Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/autonation-says-carmakers-confirming-output-amid-resin-shortage.html | 4 | 25 | dbf0abbf9f6b4e79ad03fd879f604308 | AutoNation Inc. (AN) , the largest U.S.
retailer of new vehicles, reported quarterly profit that beat
analysts’ estimates and said automakers expect to avoid losing
output amid a shortage of resin used in fuel and brake parts. First-quarter net income rose to $73 million from $69.4
million a year earlier, the Fort Lauderdale , Florida-based
company said today in a statement. Profit from continuing
operations rose to 56 cents a share, topping the 53-cent average
estimate of 13 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. Sales rose 10
percent to $3.66 billion. Automakers see the shortage of the resin PA-12, also called
Nylon-12, as “nothing like” the challenge of last year’s
tsunami in Japan and floods in Thailand that curbed production,
said Mike Jackson , AutoNation’s chief executive officer. The
retailer boosted prices and used-vehicle sales last year as the
natural disasters limited shipments from Toyota Motor Corp. (7203) and
Honda Motor Co. “Production for the next four to six weeks has all been
confirmed by the various manufacturers, and they’ve told us that
they will find solutions for the period beyond that,” Jackson
said today in a phone interview. “Everything’s smooth sailing.
If there’s a moment of truth it would be in four to six weeks
when they can’t confirm production schedules.” Boosting Outlook AutoNation forecasts U.S. light-vehicle sales will be
“mid-14 million units” for the industry this year, according
to today’s statement, up from an estimate of about 14 million
given Jan. 26. Industrywide deliveries were 12.8 million in
2011, according to Autodata Corp., a Woodcliff Lake , New Jersey-
based researcher. Manufacturers including automakers General Motors Co. (GM) ,
Volkswagen AG (VOW) , Ford Motor Co. (F) and Chrysler Group LLC, and
motorcycle maker Harley-Davidson (HOG) Inc. drafted a plan on April 23
to expedite their parts-validation processes to speed the use of
alternatives to counter the resin shortage. A follow-up meeting
to approve the plan is scheduled for April 30, according to the
Automotive Industry Action Group. Harley-Davidson has a few parts that use the nylon in short
supply, Chief Executive Officer Keith Wandell said in an
interview. The Milwaukee-based company doesn’t anticipate cuts
to production, he said. Resin is in short supply after the March 31 explosion at
chemical maker Evonik Industries AG, which halved global
capacity to make Nylon-12. Evonik’s Marl, Germany , factory made
a base ingredient used in the resin called cyclododecatriene, or
CDT, and supplied the material to other makers of Nylon-12
including France’s Arkema SA. (AKE) Switzerland’s Ems-Chemie Holding
AG (EMSN) and Japan’s Ube Industries Ltd. (4208) also produce Nylon-12. AutoNation fell 1 percent to $33.23 at the close in New
York . The shares have slid 9.9 percent this year. To contact the reporter on this story:
Craig Trudell in Southfield, Michigan at
ctrudell1@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Jamie Butters at
jbutters@bloomberg.net | 2012 | autonation-says-carmakers-confirming-output-amid-resin-shortage |
Czech Policy Maker Says Euro Area Crisis Still Risk to Growth | By Peter Laca | 2012-04-25T10:50:48Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/czech-policy-maker-says-euro-area-crisis-still-risk-to-growth.html | 4 | 25 | b6f1c8e2bf0b4b8db77e62d4b99e7baa | The euro area’s debt crisis is
still a risk for Czech economic growth as renewed turbulence may
hurt demand for the country’s exports from its main market,
policy maker Kamil Janacek said. The Czech central bank board member commented on euro-area
risks, the banking industry and outlook for Czech interest rates
in an interview in Prague yesterday. On euro area developments: “Even with the difficult situation in the euro zone as a
whole, the latest data show that the effective euro zone is
developing somewhat more favorably than the entire bloc. ‘‘There is still some nervousness related to developments
in Spain and its debate on the size of the reduction of the
public-finance deficit this year. ‘‘Overly tight fiscal policies and overdone austerity
programs may have a negative impact on economic growth, and can
lead a number of countries into excessive recessions. ‘‘Fiscal consolidation is necessary for sustainable
economic growth, but spreading these programs over time may be
more suitable than trying to fix the problems with shocks.
Pressuring some countries to harshly reduce the deficit may be
counterproductive. On economic growth: ‘‘We cannot rule out more turbulence related mainly to
developments in the southern wing of the euro zone . This
represents an indirect risk for the Czech economy, as the
turbulence may negatively affect economic growth in the euro
zone and thus lower demand for Czech exports. ‘‘Forecasts show that if there is small Czech economic
growth of 0.2 to 0.5 percent this year, it would be solely
driven by exports. ‘‘We can’t expect domestic demand, households, government
and investments, to contribute to gross domestic product growth
this year. ‘‘In uncertain times, households tend to save more, or at
least they don’t reduce the rate of savings in any sizable way.
Government steps to increase indirect taxes, and a plan to
increase some direct taxes as well, are limiting dispensable
income. ‘‘This may cause household consumption to decline, or, at
best, stagnate, which could be probably a too-optimistic
assumption. ‘‘Investment activities will likely resume only at export-
oriented companies that have booked solid orders for their
production. So we can’t expect a significant contribution to
growth either.’’ On the banking industry: ‘‘The positive news is that the Czech banking sector is
robust and there is no spillover of problems from abroad. ‘‘We are rigorously monitoring the situation in the banks,
which have an obligation to report exposure to their parent
groups on a weekly basis. This exposure has held well below the
regulatory limits. ‘‘Should this measure deteriorate, we will act immediately,
and we have the tools to prevent it from happening.’’ On inflation expectations: ‘‘The big question now is how much will a higher headline
inflation rate, above 3 percent, influence wage negotiations for
2013. Whether this may boost inflation expectations and whether
it may spark demand-driven inflationary pressures. ‘‘Nominal wage growth of 4 or 5 percent and more, across
all sectors of the economy, could be risky in the current
situation of anemic economic growth. It would mean a relatively
rapid increase in unit-labor costs, which could negatively
affect competitiveness and create demand-driven pressures. ‘‘There is a prevailing agreement within the bank board
that the domestic demand is not a pro-inflationary risk at the
moment, but the question is how long will this last and how
quickly it can change. ‘‘We could experience, for the first time since the
introduction of inflation targeting, a situation when the value-
added tax rates rise in two years in a row. This would be a new
situation for developments with inflation expectations, and a
new challenge for monetary policy . ‘‘Our analyzes show that inflation expectations, short-term
and long-term, are well-anchored at present. Provided that the
VAT rates rise again at the beginning of 2013, the question is
whether this time it doesn’t push these inflation expectations
up. ‘‘Monetary policy doesn’t react to spikes in the headline
inflation rate caused by increases in indirect taxes, but we
still have to take this into serious consideration because it
affects inflation expectations. ‘‘I’m not sharing the view of most Czech analysts that we
will hold rates unchanged until the first half of 2013.’’ ‘‘I’m not saying we will change rates for sure, but what is
clear is that the discussion about trends in inflation
expectations will be more dominant in the second half of this
year, and mainly in the fourth quarter. And, as a result, there
will be a discussion whether the time has come to react by
increasing interest rates .’’ To contact the reporter on this story:
Peter Laca in Prague at
placa@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Balazs Penz at
bpenz@bloomberg.net | 2012 | czech-policy-maker-says-euro-area-crisis-still-risk-to-grow |
China Auto Scraps IPO After Struggling to Lure Investors | By Lee Spears and Fox Hu | 2012-04-25T09:45:55Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/china-auto-postpones-ipo-after-struggling-to-attract-investors.html | 4 | 25 | 451318b1b03845da876e513d984e78b8 | China Auto Rental Holdings Inc. (CARH)
postponed what would have been the second U.S. initial public
offering by a Chinese company this year after struggling to
attract investors. The IPO was delayed because of “the current capital market
conditions” according to an e-mailed statement from Christensen
Investor Relations Inc., China Auto’s public relations firm.
China Auto had considered reducing the offering price after only
about half the order book for the IPO was covered by early this
week, according to people with knowledge of the matter. China Auto, which calls itself the country’s biggest car-
rental provider, pulled the offering as U.S. investors’ appetite
for mainland Chinese companies evaporated since 2010 amid
accounting scandals and share declines. Guangzhou, China-based
online retailer Vipshop Holdings Ltd. (VIPS) slashed its IPO by 39
percent last month and slid by as much as a third once it
started trading. “People are concerned about corporate governance issues
and bad press surrounding Chinese companies,” said Nicholas
Yeo, head of China and Hong Kong equities at Aberdeen Asset
Management, which oversees $295 billion globally. “China is
still compelling in the long term, but how to get access to its
growth is challenging.” China Auto was seeking to raise as much as $137.5 million
by offering 11 million American depositary receipts for $10.50
to $12.50 each, according to regulatory filings. Valuation Premium The midpoint of the offering range would have valued China
Auto at $847 million, or about 7 times last year’s sales. Lentuo
International Inc., the Chinese car retailer that completed a
U.S. IPO in December 2010, trades at 0.6 times revenue after
losing half its value since the sale, data compiled by Bloomberg
show. China Auto, whose customers include General Motors Co. and
China Telecom Corp., initially filed for a $300 million IPO on
Jan. 18. The company was founded in 2007 and has reported net
losses every year since at least 2009, its filings show. The loss widened to 151 million yuan ($24 million) last
year as revenue jumped fivefold to $123 million, filings show.
While mainland China’s securities regulator requires three
continuous years of profitability for new listings on its main
board, the U.S. has no such rule. China Auto planned to use proceeds from the offering for
fleet expansion and other working capital needs. Founder and
Chief Executive Officer Charles Zhengyao Lu was set to own 25
percent after the IPO, and Legend Holdings Ltd., parent of
Lenovo Group Ltd., would retain 55 percent, filings show. Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Bank of America
Corp. were managing the deal. Dating Website The number of new listings by mainland China-based
companies on the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq Stock Market
peaked in 2010, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The 13 Chinese companies that debuted in the U.S. last year
include traditional medicine maker Tibet Pharmaceuticals Inc. (TBET) ,
which has declined 77 percent, and dating website Jiayuan.com
International Ltd., which has slid by more than half. Vipshop, which fell 33 percent in its first five days of
trading, has recovered to close yesterday at $6.02, down from
its $6.50 offer price. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Deutsche
Bank AG were lead managers on the IPO. Chinese companies attempting IPOs in foreign markets are
encountering heightened scrutiny from investors after others
that had gone public through reverse mergers were later revealed
to be misreporting financial information. One such company, Sino-Forest Corp., lost C$3.3 billion
($3.3 billion) of its market value after Carson Block, founder
of research firm Muddy Waters LLC, accused the company of
overstating its timber holdings last June. In a reverse merger,
a closely held firm buys a publicly traded shell company and
retains its listing. To contact the reporters on this story:
Lee Spears in New York at
lspears3@bloomberg.net ;
Fox Hu in Hong Kong at
fhu7@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Philip Lagerkranser at
lagerkranser@bloomberg.net ;
Jennifer Sondag at
jsondag@bloomberg.net | 2012 | china-auto-postpones-ipo-after-struggling-to-attract-investors |
Pakistan Follows India With Test of Nuclear-Capable Missile | By Haris Anwar and Andrew MacAskill | 2012-04-25T10:03:42Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/pakistan-test-fires-hatf-ballistic-missile-army-says.html | 4 | 25 | 845acfd1d7c8355f7fc807d0046a005671a11373 | Pakistan successfully test fired an
intermediate range ballistic missile capable of carrying a
nuclear warhead, six days after India announced a breakthrough
in its missile program. The Hatf-4 Shaheen-1A weapon tested today had “improved
technical parameters” compared to earlier versions, Pakistan’s
army said in a statement. The Shaheen missile series, adapted
from Chinese designs, are the flagships of Pakistan’s current
deployments and are able to strike most of India, according to
the Nuclear Threat Initiative , a Washington-based policy group
founded by Ted Turner and former Republican Senator Sam Nunn. “This is not just a coincidence coming after the India
test,” said Gareth Price, London-based head of the Asia Program
at foreign affairs institute Chatham House . “There has been a
big increase in India’s defense spending and this is Pakistan’s
way of saying we are not that far behind.” India on April 19 launched its Agni-V missile, with a range
of 5,000 kilometers, for the first time taking the country a
step closer to joining an exclusive club of five nations known
to possess intercontinental ballistic weapons and allowing it to
target parts of northern China previously beyond its capability. India is ramping up defense spending while seeking to
resolve territorial disputes through talks with its archrivals
in the region. India briefly went to war with China in 1962,
while it has clashed with Pakistan at least three times. Pakistan Spend The five permanent members of the United Nations Security
Council are the only countries that have deployed missiles that
can reach beyond 5,500 kilometers, according to the
International Institute for Strategic Studies based in London . Pakistan, with which India has fought three wars, two over
the divided mountainous region of Kashmir, raised its military
spending by 11 percent to about $5.5 billion in the year ending
June 30. India and Pakistan have this year announced a series of
measures to boost bilateral trade, raising hopes of a broader
improvement in ties. “If history is any measure, Pakistan’s test is related to
India’s missile launch as this kind of tit-for-tat testing is
not unusual in the subcontinent,” Poornima Subramaniam, Asia-
Pacific armed forces analyst at IHS Jane’s, said in an e-mailed
response to questions. Still, the test is “largely only a display of equivalent
retaliation because strategically, Pakistan already had a
similar capability to strike India,” Subramaniam said. To contact the reporters on this story:
Haris Anwar in Islamabad at
hanwar2@bloomberg.net ;
Andrew MacAskill in New Delhi at
amacaskill@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Peter Hirschberg at
phirschberg@bloomberg.net | 2012 | pakistan-test-fires-hatf-ballistic-missile-army-says |
Bernanke Says ‘We Remain Prepared to Do More’ | By Caroline Salas Gage | 2012-04-25T18:26:06Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/bernanke-says-we-remain-prepared-to-do-more-.html | 4 | 25 | d954192fc3b7d6101fb9a8be24ff2f5e67f830e8 | Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S.
Bernanke said the central bank remains prepared to take
additional action if needed to boost the economy. “We remain entirely prepared to take additional balance
sheet actions if necessary,” he said at a press conference
today following a meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee
in Washington. “Those tools remain very much on the table.” To contact the reporter on this story:
Caroline Salas Gage in New York at
csalas1@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Chris Wellisz at
cwellisz@bloomberg.net | 2012 | bernanke-says-we-remain-prepared-to-do-more- |
Erste Group Bank Leads Czech Stock Index Higher for Second Day | By Krystof Chamonikolas | 2012-04-25T08:33:34Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/erste-group-bank-leads-czech-stock-index-higher-for-second-day.html | 4 | 25 | 46f22f2ee53ec0589f01136f43fd1ecdc150cb72 | Erste Group Bank AG (RBAG) jumped, leading
Czech shares higher for a second day as better-than-expected
earnings at companies including Apple Inc. and Credit Suisse
Group AG boosted demand for stocks worldwide. The Austrian lender gained 3.4 percent to 429 koruna as of
10:18 a.m. in Prague , its highest intraday level in three weeks.
The 14-member PX (PX) equity index, where Erste has a 20 percent
weighting, advanced 1.2 percent. To contact the reporter on this story:
Krystof Chamonikolas in Prague at
kchamonikola@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Gavin Serkin at gserkin@bloomberg.net | 2012 | erste-group-bank-leads-czech-stock-index-higher-for-second-day |
ABB Declines on Slowdown in Chinese Construction, Transport | By Patrick Winters | 2012-04-25T12:50:28Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/abb-declines-on-slowdown-in-chinese-construction-transport-2-.html | 4 | 25 | c45dab18656db4012577ed412a919c3e36a52dbb | ABB Ltd. (ABBN) shares fell as much as
4.2 percent after the world’s largest supplier of power grids
said it sees no immediate recovery in Chinese demand in
construction and transportation. First-quarter Asian orders declined, led by China , Zurich-
based ABB said today. The Swiss maker of transformers and
substations said it sees clearer signs of recovery in North
America . Cost cuts and price increases were “not enough to cover
the incredible slowdown seen in China,” Chief Executive Officer
Joe Hogan said on a media conference call. The slowdown in the country hit revenue from China’s
transportation, construction industries. ABB saw weaker demand
in that market for low-voltage products like circuit- and
switch-breakers, and some medium-voltage products. “It’s difficult to see when we can see a rebound in
construction and transportation” Chief Financial Officer Michel Demare said. “The outlook statement looks more guarded with expectation
of flat or low single-digit revenue growth in early-cycle
businesses compared to the previous expectation of low single-
digit growth,” said Panagiotis Spiliopoulos, an analyst at Bank
Vontobel. ‘Unfavorable Product Mix’ ABB said it needs China and southern Europe to recover in
order to improve the current “unfavorable product mix” that
has hampered margins. More than half of ABB’s profitability
decline from the first quarter of 2011 was attributable to the
challenging environment in China, the company said. China made up 14 percent of revenue at the end of the
fourth quarter of 2011, said Thomas Schmidt, an ABB spokesman. Part of ABB’s business in Europe and China is generated by
lower-margin products such as connectors and low-voltage gear
that are shipped in large volumes. These products generally
contribute about 20 percent to 25 percent of revenue,
Spiliopoulos said. Shares of ABB traded 3.1 percent lower at 17.81 francs as
of 2:22 p.m. in Zurich. First-quarter profit matched analysts’ estimates after the
company cut costs to counter weaker pricing. Earnings before
interest and taxes rose to $1.05 billion from $1.01 billion a
year earlier. Orders increased 2 percent in local currencies. To contact the reporter on this story:
Patrick Winters in Zurich at
pwinters3@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Benedikt Kammel at
bkammel@bloomberg.net | 2012 | abb-declines-on-slowdown-in-chinese-construction-transport-2- |
Taiwan Equity Movers: Foxconn Technology, Hon Hai Precision, HTC | By Weiyi Lim | 2012-04-25T05:41:38Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/taiwan-stocks-movers-foxconn-technology-hon-hai-precision-htc.html | 4 | 25 | f24a56408bd7f9b7b79f99fb4aed5af961c8f3f7 | Shares of the following companies
had unusual moves in Taiwan trading . Stock symbols are in
parentheses and prices are as of the close in Taipei. The
benchmark Taiex Index gained 0.9 percent to 7,563.18. Apple Inc.-related companies: Hon Hai Precision Industry
Co. (2317) (2317 TT), an assembler for Apple products which derives 37
percent of its revenue from the Cupertino, California-based
company, gained 2.4 percent to NT$106. Foxconn Technology Co. (2354)
(2354 TT), a casing maker for Apple, advanced 2.5 percent to
NT$103.50. Net income in the fiscal second quarter climbed 94 percent
to $11.6 billion, or $12.30 a share, as sales rose 59 percent to
$39.2 billion, Apple said yesterday in a statement. Analysts had
predicted profit of $10.02 a share on revenue of $36.9 billion,
data compiled by Bloomberg show. HTC Corp. (2498) (2498 TT) dropped 1.7 percent to NT$470.50, the
lowest close since April 20. Second-quarter sales will be about
NT$105 billion ($3.6 billion), the company said in a statement.
Revenue was expected to be NT$106 billion, according to the
average of 22 analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg. “We are worried that HTC’s U.S. sales decline could not be
compensated by its growth in Asia ,” said Laura Chen, an analyst
at BNP Paribas SA. “We think it is still too early to revisit
the stock and its dividend yield may not provide enough downside
support.” Radiant Opto-Electronics Corp. (6176) (6176 TT) jumped 5.8 percent
to NT$127, the biggest advance since March 14. The liquid-
crystal-display product maker said first-quarter net income was
NT$1.2 billion, compared with NT$991 million in the same period
a year earlier. To contact the reporter on this story:
Weiyi Lim in Singapore at
wlim26@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Darren Boey at
dboey@bloomberg.net | 2012 | aiwan-stocks-movers-foxconn-technology-hon-hai-precision-htc |
Russia May Unify Billing for Retail Utilities, Vedomosti Says | By Stephen Bierman | 2012-04-25T04:31:55Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/russia-may-unify-billing-for-retail-utilities-vedomosti-says.html | 4 | 25 | a2788bac3b71a189b9f8247ee43236b622bf1cfd | A Russian government commission led
by Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin has decided to bar consumer
and management companies from collecting retail electricity
payments in favor of a group of banks, Vedomosti said, citing
three unidentified people present at the meeting. A payment center will be created using several banks as a
foundation to handle annual fees of 2 trillion rubles ($68
billion), Vedomosti said, citing a presentation to the
commission. To contact the reporter on this story:
Stephen Bierman in Moscow at
sbierman1@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Will Kennedy at
wkennedy3@bloomberg.net | 2012 | russia-may-unify-billing-for-retail-utilities-vedomosti-says |
U.S. Companies Reporting Negative EPS Surprises, April 25 | By Wendy Soong | 2012-04-25T22:15:56Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/u-s-companies-reporting-negative-eps-surprises-april-25.html | 4 | 25 | 90813283cabd57237b04d52fb28490f4b5a5b614 | The following U.S. companies reported negative
earnings surprises today. This list ranks percent surprises of actual
earnings to earnings estimates. Earnings estimates provided by Bloomberg.
To contact the reporter on this story:
Wendy Soong in New York at at csoong@Bloomberg.net . To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Alex Tanzi at at
atanzi@Bloomberg.net | 2012 | u-s-companies-reporting-negative-eps-surprises-april-25 |
USDA Boxed Beef Cutout Closing Prices for April 25 | By Michael Carone | 2012-04-25T20:22:43Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/usda-boxed-beef-cutout-closing-prices-for-april-25-table-.html
April 25 (Bloomberg) | 4 | 25 | f7949653ee51400c930d66ce8e78cb7a | from cattle carcasses weighing 550-850 pounds. Cutout values are
separated into three main product types. Fabricated loads are beef cuts
taken from an animal's ribs, chuck, round, loin, brisket, short plate
and flank; 50 percent loads are 50 percent lean beef trimmings. Ground
loads may contain 73, 75, or 80 percent ground beef. A typical
refrigerated truckload carries 40,000 pounds. Choice 1-3 grade is a better grade than Select 1-3, partly because
Choice cuts have more fat, or marbling, than Select cuts. Grade quality is determined using a 1-5 yield grade scale. A rating
of 1 is the highest ratio of muscle to fat, while 5 is the lowest.
Marbling is an important flavor factor. | 2012 | usda-boxed-beef-cutout-closing-prices-for-april-25-table- |
Lufthansa Finance Chief Quits After 22 Years for Haniel | By Alex Webb and Julie Cruz | 2012-04-25T13:44:22Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/lufthansa-finance-head-gemkow-to-leave-after-22-years-for-haniel.html | 4 | 25 | 05ef1e237a142d769c502e1e19e1141ee19d5d9a | Deutsche Lufthansa AG (LHA) Chief
Financial Officer Stephan Gemkow will leave the airline to take
over as chief executive officer of Franz Haniel & Cie GmbH,
ending a 22-year career at Europe ’s second-biggest airline. Gemkow’s appointment at Haniel must still be approved by
the company’s supervisory board, Haniel spokesman Dietmar
Bochert said by telephone. Lufthansa’s supervisory board will
meet May 7 to discuss Gemkow’s departure and consider potential
replacements, the Cologne, Germany-based carrier said in a
separate statement today. Since becoming CFO in June 2006, Gemkow administered a
cost-saving program between 2008 and 2011 that eliminated 1
billion euros ($1.3 billion) in expenses. Another 1.5
billion-euro profit improvement plan was announced in February. “It’s clearly a loss, he’s a very good manager,” said
Juergen Pieper , a Frankfurt-based Bankhaus Metzler analyst.
“Conversely, the big theme at the moment is the restructuring
program, and we all know that it’s the chief executive officer
who’s in the driving seat there.” After spells as area sales chief in the U.S., head of
investor relations and senior vice president of corporate
finance, the 52 year old served as finance head at the cargo
unit for two years before assuming his current role. Making Decisions Current Haniel CEO Juergen Kluge said in November that he
will not extend his contract at the company when it expires in
December. It is as yet undecided when Gemkow will leave
Lufthansa, Claudia Lange, a Frankfurt-based spokeswoman for the
carrier, said by telephone. “He might not always have made the right decisions, but
many of them were good,” said Frankfurt-based Equinet analyst
Jochen Rothenbacher , who has a “hold” rating on Lufthansa
shares. “When the CFO leaves a DAX company because he has found
something better, it clearly demonstrates that something is not
going quite right with the development of the business.” Haniel is a holding company whose investments include 50.01
percent of Metro AG (MEO) , Germany ’s biggest retailer, and 54.6
percent of Celesio AG, Europe’s largest drug wholesaler,
according to data compiled by Bloomberg. To contact the reporters on this story:
Alex Webb in Frankfurt at
awebb25@bloomberg.net ;
Julie Cruz in Frankfurt at
jcruz6@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Chad Thomas at
cthomas16@bloomberg.net ;
Sara Marley at
smarley1@bloomberg.net | 2012 | ufthansa-finance-head-gemkow-to-leave-after-22-years-for-hanie |
Former UBS Executive Rasmussen Forms Private-Equity Firm | By Sean B. Pasternak | 2012-04-25T21:01:25Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/former-ubs-executive-rasmussen-forms-private-equity-firm.html | 4 | 25 | 027ddf96ca90cb9bb7ce50cdc1aa90da75438eb1 | Grant Rasmussen, the former
president and chief executive officer at UBS AG (UBSN) ’s Canadian
wealth-management unit, has formed a private-equity firm called
GreatWave Capital. Rasmussen, 46, also a former CEO of Royal Bank of Canada (RY) ’s
RBC Direct Investing business, will be chairman of the new
company, he said in an interview today. The Toronto-based firm will invest in Ontario companies
that are at least three years old and have gross revenue of more
than C$1 million ($1.02 million), GreatWave said on its website .
Companies must also be willing to give up control of their
business. GreatWave is looking for businesses “who have already got
past proof of concept, and they’ve got clients and sales, but
they haven’t figured out how to really leverage the model,”
Rasmussen said. GreatWave made an investment in February in Barrie,
Ontario-based automated-teller machine provider ViaCash . Terms
weren’t disclosed, Rasmussen said. “We love the space,” Rasmussen said. “They’ve really
cornered a niche in mobile ATM’s for concerts, events,
festivals, those kinds of things.” To contact the reporter on this story:
Sean B. Pasternak in Toronto at
spasternak@bloomberg.net . To contact the editors responsible for this story:
David Scanlan at
dscanlan@bloomberg.net ;
David Scheer at dscheer@bloomberg.net . | 2012 | former-ubs-executive-rasmussen-forms-private-equity-fir |
Secret Service Agent Selection Tougher Than Harvard | By Jeff Bliss | 2012-04-25T04:00:01Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/secret-service-agent-selection-toughter-than-harvard.html | 4 | 25 | a671383d1cbd4a4880ead7754a77a70e | U.S. Secret Service agents, whose
work protecting presidents has inspired myth and movies, are
supposed to live by the adage “Worthy of Trust and
Confidence.” Getting a job with the agency is one of the more difficult
in law enforcement, with fewer than 1 percent of 15,600 special-
agent applicants selected last year. Harvard College admits 5.9
percent. Many speak multiple languages, hold advanced degrees
and take agency classes in ethics and “interpersonal
awareness.” Now the Secret Service finds its reputation and its ranks
diminished by a scandal involving prostitutes in Cartagena,
Colombia, in the days before President Barack Obama attended a
summit there. Nine have either left the agency or are in the
process of being dismissed, and congressional hearings are
planned to shine a light on agent misconduct. The episode has
sparked the agency’s worst crisis outside of an assassination. Former agents said they can’t fathom employees consorting
with prostitutes. “The agency requires you to dress a certain way, speak a
certain way, deal with people a certain way,” said Dave
Wilkinson, 51, a 22-year veteran of the Secret Service who
retired in 2005. Any behavior that would cause people “to feel
Secret Service agents are not the best of the best or brings
into question their honor or integrity is as bad as it gets.” ‘Knuckleheads’ Involved Obama said yesterday he didn’t believe the allegations
reflected widespread shortcomings. “A couple of knuckleheads
shouldn’t detract from what they do,” he said during a taping
of NBC’s “Late Night With Jimmy Fallon” program. The Secret Service, created in 1865 to suppress
counterfeiting of U.S. currency at the end of the Civil War,
describes itself as “one of the most elite law enforcement
organizations in the world.” The agency began guarding
presidents full time in 1902, the year after President William McKinley’s assassination, and its responsibilities now also
include guarding embassies and fighting financial crimes. The last scandal that embroiled the service involved Tareq
and Michaele Salahi, a Virginia couple who slipped uninvited
into a 2009 state dinner at the White House. The agency took the
blame for the lapse, saying its officers didn’t follow
procedures. Past Encounters A 2002 U.S. News and World Report article described how
strippers were brought into Secret Service field offices, an
alleged affair between an agent and a cousin of President Bill Clinton , and a sexual encounter between an agent and his
informant that ended with her dead on his bathroom floor from
cocaine abuse. The ranks of agents are dominated by men. There were no
women until 1971. Today, about 400, or 11 percent, are women,
according to the agency. Agents sometimes work 20-hour days, spend weeks at a time
on the road, and earn starting salaries from $43,964 to $74,891. Job candidates are tested for intelligence and physical
endurance and also undergo background investigations. Former
agents said their backgrounds before joining the agency included
sales, accounting, law enforcement and military. The 3,500
agents are issued guns and badges. Recruits are sent to a Georgia training center to learn
investigative techniques, and a Maryland facility to learn how
to guard top officials, investigate crimes, fire weapons and
arrest suspects. The mandatory retirement age is 57. Payment Dispute The agency is investigating allegations that employees
hired prostitutes and took them back to their hotel rooms in
advance of the summit in Cartagena, which ended on April 15. The
allegations came to light after a dispute erupted between an
agent and a prostitute who said she hadn’t been paid the agreed-
upon fee. The majority of those under investigation were agents,
according to Representative Peter King , Chairman of the House
Homeland Security Committee, said in an interview. King, a
Republican from New York , was briefed by the agency. Senator Joe Lieberman , an independent from Connecticut who
is chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
Committee, said he’ll hold hearings next month on the agents’
behavior. The hearing will examine where there’s other evidence
of misconduct by agents, he said in an interview. Ed Donovan, an agent and spokesman for the Secret Service,
called the Colombia incident “an anomaly.” “We don’t think this is a cultural thing,” he said. Movie Portrayal Agents’ work was spotlighted in the 1993 Clint Eastwood
movie “In the Line of Fire,” which features an agent who
couldn’t protect President John F. Kennedy and is determined to
save another president. The episode in Colombia may reflect a cultural shift, said
Frank Ochberg, a psychiatrist who did a 1978 study on agents’
job stresses that was commissioned by the Secret Service. He
said he saw no indication of behavior comparable to the
prostitution allegations. The allegations suggest those involved lacked “the
maturity, the dignity” that agents exhibited 30 years ago, he
said. To add agents skilled at preventing terrorist attacks, the
agency may have brought in recruits who are more aggressive and
reckless, he said. “I don’t think that what went on” in Colombia “is simply
a couple of rogues,” Ochberg said. A former White House aide, who worked with agents in
planning dozens of presidential events and spoke on condition of
anonymity, said some would hang out in hotel bars and pick up
women. The aide said he never saw evidence they were interested
in prostitutes. Agency Moved The agency’s quality has diminished since it was moved in
2003 from the Treasury Department to the Homeland Security
Department, said Ronald Kessler, the author of 2009’s “In the
President’s Secret Service: Behind the Scenes with Agents in the
Line of Fire and the Presidents They Protect.” The Secret Service has become less vigilant in screening
the crowds at public events, Kessler said. The agency has been
given more people to protect at more events since the Sept. 11
attacks, on top of their existing duties, Kessler said. “The agents are totally overworked, overwhelmed,” Kessler
said. Since 2002, the agency has added 500 agents and 400
uniformed officers. Some are assigned to the president, vice president and
their families. Others are tapped for so-called jump teams, like
the one that went to Colombia, to set up security before a U.S.
dignitary’s visit. The job can be thrilling and heartbreaking, former agents
said. Kennedy Horror Clint Hill, who became an icon of agent dedication when he
vaulted onto the presidential limousine and flattened his body
over a mortally wounded Kennedy, said he never shook the horror
of that moment, or of the president’s wife racing toward him. Only after publishing the book “Mrs. Kennedy and Me” this
month has he been able to absorb what happened, he said. “I’ve had a difficult time,” Hill said. He said he was
“shocked” by the Colombia incident. “I don’t recall ever a situation like I’ve been reading
about,” said Hill, 80, who retired from the agency in 1975. Stress is a job hazard. During a presidential campaign,
agents work 21 days on the protective details and then get 21
days off, Wilkinson said. Long absences lead to missed dinner parties and resentful
spouses, wrote Philip H. Melanson and Peter F. Stevens in their
2002 book, “The Secret Service: The Hidden History of an
Enigmatic Agency.” Counting the Tiles Monotony was almost as big a threat to an agent’s sanity as
the thought of getting killed, former agent Gerald Blaine wrote
in his 2010 book, “The Kennedy Detail.” As he stood post outside the Oval Office’s closed door, his
back to Kennedy’s muffled voice discussing civil rights
legislation, Blaine said he couldn’t resist counting the squares
on the black-and-white checkerboard floor. “Everybody hated the damn tiles,” he said. Some agents found solace in alcohol, others in women they
met in their travels. One flight attendant on a George McGovern
campaign plane in 1972 “entertained no less than 18” Secret
Service men, according to the book “The Boys on the Bus” by
Timothy Crouse. The question now is why agents appear to be going further,
Kessler said. “I’m sure those things happened” in the past, “but they
were not at this proportion,” he said. To contact the reporter on this story:
Jeff Bliss in Washington at
jbliss@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Steven Komarow at
skomarow1@bloomberg.net | 2012 | secret-service-agent-selection-toughter-than-harvard |
ICE Futures Uses Circuit Breaker to Slow Coffee Declines | By Marvin G. Perez | 2012-04-25T22:16:42Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/ice-futures-uses-circuit-breaker-to-slow-coffee-declines.html | 4 | 25 | 0127199a0dc2804e46ecae8e371f2ad70036a880 | ICE Futures U.S. today for the
first time used a “circuit breaker” to halt trading after a
rapid price drop, the exchange said. The market feature, which was implemented to prevent short-
term aberrant price moves, was triggered when coffee futures
dropped 400 points, or 4 cents, within 15 seconds to $1.758 a
pound, Lee Underwood , an ICE spokesman said in an e-mailed
statement. Trading was stopped for 30 seconds, ICE said. “During the 30-second hold, trading continued at $1.758
and above in the July contract, and the market traded up
following the expiration of the hold,” Underwood said. July
futures fell 3.7 percent to settle at $1.7675 a pound today. ICE said in a statement on March 20 that the use of the
“circuit breakers” would start on April 9 in markets for
sugar, coffee and other agricultural futures to curb price
swings. To contact the reporter on this story:
Marvin G. Perez in New York at
mperez71@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Steve Stroth at
sstroth@bloomberg.net | 2012 | ice-futures-uses-circuit-breaker-to-slow-coffee-declines |
Mine Setbacks Mean ‘Disappointing’ Production of Copper | By Joe Richter | 2012-04-25T23:00:00Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/mine-setbacks-mean-disappointing-copper-output-barclays-says.html | 4 | 25 | 57173c5ea791681729e0d5b1df458fa11e7daf8e | Copper supplies relative to demand
will fall to a four-year low as operating glitches, labor
shortages and declining ore-grade quality cut mine supplies,
boosting prospects for a price rebound, Barclays Capital said. Stockpiles will be sufficient to last for 2.7 weeks by the
end of the year at projected demand, down from 3.2 weeks at the
end of 2011 and 3.6 weeks at the end of 2010, Gayle Berry and
Nicholas Snowdon, analysts at Barclays Capital, said in a
telephone interview. Copper will average $9,300 a metric ton in
the fourth quarter, the bank said in a report on April 12. The
commodity has averaged $8,300 so far this year. Prices have more than doubled since the end of 2008 as
miners struggled to keep pace with rising demand. Freeport-
McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc., the world’s top publicly traded
copper producer, cut its 2012 sales forecasts last week after
violence among employees halted output at its Grasberg mine in
Indonesia for more than two weeks in February and March. Rio
Tinto Group said on April 17 that production of the metal
dropped 18 percent in the first quarter because of lower ore
grades at its Kennecott Utah operation. “All of these issues are going to keep the level of
disruptions elevated,” Snowdon said. “There are new projects
hitting the market, but it’s a relatively disappointing
outlook” for supply, he said. Copper for delivery in three months climbed 0.7 percent to
$8,205 a ton yesterday on the London Metal Exchange. Supply Shortage The last time the stocks-to-consumption ratio was below 2.7
weeks was in 2008, when it fell to 2.3, Snowdon and Berry said.
Supplies will fall short of demand by 278,000 tons this year,
Barclays said. The bank expects mine output to climb by 350,000
tons, compared with a “consensus view” among traders and
analysts of 600,000 tons to 800,000 tons, Barclays said in a
report on April 23. Rebounding economic growth in countries including China in
the second half of the year will also help support the metal,
Berry said. Prices in London have dropped 2.8 percent this month
after reports showed swollen Chinese inventories and a decline
in copper shipments to the Asian nation, the world’s biggest
consumer. World copper supply may exceed demand by 2017 as Chile and
Peru lift their output of the metal and companies invest in new
mines, Diego Hernandez , the chief executive officer of Chile’s
state-owned Codelco, said in a presentation in Santiago on April
17. The company is the largest producer. “You never know what technological innovations there will
be to let you get more, and more quickly,” said Adrian Day, who
manages about $170 million as the president of Adrian Day Asset
Management in Annapolis, Maryland . “But nothing is really on
the horizon that we can see.” Production shortfalls “are
happening now, and it’s going to be an increasing story,” he
said. To contact the reporter on this story:
Joe Richter in New York at
jrichter1@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Steve Stroth at
sstroth@bloomberg.net | 2012 | ine-setbacks-mean-disappointing-copper-output-barclays-says |
Mini Nude, Plucked Chicken Star in Ron Mueck London Show | By Martin Gayford | 2012-04-25T23:00:01Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/mini-nude-plucked-chicken-star-in-ron-mueck-london-show.html
A middle-aged woman carries a huge
bundle of rough, scratchy-looking twigs clasped close to her
naked body. Every detail | 4 | 25 | 8aab4c13573c409f8f4e1172e35ae71d | almost subliminal thread of symbolism running through the show. “Youth” has been stabbed just as Christ was on the cross;
the man on his sun bed lies arms outstretched as if crucified;
so too does the chicken, only like St. Peter upside down.
“Woman With Sticks” could be carrying material for her
martyrdom by fire. Hirst, too, has toyed with pious imagery. Is this what
happens to YBAs when they grow middle-aged? Do they get
religion? Information: http://hauserwirth.com . (Martin Gayford is chief art critic for Muse, the arts and
leisure section of Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are
his own.) Today’s Muse highlights include: Rich Jaroslovsky on
Kindle ; Jason Harper on the Ford Taurus SHO . To contact the writer on the story:
Martin Gayford, in London, at martin.gayford@googlemail.com or
http://twitter.com/martingayford . To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Manuela Hoelterhoff at
mhoelterhoff@bloomberg.net . | 2012 | ini-nude-plucked-chicken-star-in-ron-mueck-london-show |
Sterlite Profit Misses Estimates on Lower Metal Prices | By Abhishek Shanker | 2012-04-25T14:24:59Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/sterlite-profit-misses-estimates-on-lower-metal-prices.html | 4 | 25 | 984812f297be4197983a70724069eb46 | Sterlite Industries (India) Ltd. (STLT) ,
the nation’s biggest copper producer, missed analysts’ profit
estimates for a third straight quarter as prices fell and it
paid damages to Asarco LLC for failing to buy the company. Group net income fell 34 percent to 12.8 billion rupees
($244 million) in the three months ended March 31 from 19.3
billion rupees a year earlier, the unit of Vedanta Resources Plc (VED)
said today in a statement to the stock exchanges . The median
profit of 24 analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg was 13.3
billion rupees. Sales rose 8 percent to 107.6 billion rupees. The price of aluminum, used to make products from aircrafts
to beverage cans, averaged 13 percent lower, while copper fell
14 percent in the last quarter on the London Metal Exchange. The
Indian rupee averaged 10 percent lower in the period. Grupo Mexico SAB’s Asarco on Feb. 13 won $82.8 million in a
lawsuit against Sterlite for walking away from an agreement to
buy the company out of bankruptcy. Sterlite blamed a drop in
copper prices for failing to complete the deal. The demand for metals will improve this fiscal year because
of growth in emerging markets like China and India , Vice
Chairman Navin Agarwal said in an analyst call after the
results. Chinese growth is expected to continue, while Indian
growth may have bottomed out, he said. Rising Expenses Sterlite’s total expenses gained 13 percent to 8.3 billion
rupees in the period. The cost of power and fuel jumped 46
percent to 9.9 billion rupees. Shares of Mumbai-based Sterlite rose 2.1 percent to 107.95
rupees at close of trading in Mumbai. The stock has risen 20
percent this year, compared with an 11 percent increase in the
key Sensitive Index. The results were announced after market
hours. Losses from exceptional items, including the payout to
Asarco, surged more than 13 times to 4.32 billion rupees in the
quarter, compared with 315.6 million rupees a year earlier.
Income from sources other than its main business fell to 7
billion rupees from 7.46 billion rupees, according to the
statement. Hindustan Zinc Ltd. (HZ) , the nation’s largest producer of the
metal and a unit of Sterlite, reported a 20 percent decline in
fourth-quarter profit on April 19 because of lower prices. Zinc,
required to rust-proof steel, averaged 16 percent lower in the
last quarter. Billionaire Anil Agarwal , who owns the Vedanta group,
offered 170 billion rupees to buy the Indian government’s
remaining stakes in Hindustan Zinc and Bharat Aluminium Co., a
mines ministry official said March 22. Buying the stakes will
give Sterlite control over a combined 964,000 tons of zinc and
lead-producing capacity and a 2 million-ton bauxite mine. Vedanta Resources plans to combine its publicly traded
Indian units into a new company, the London-based company said
on Feb. 25. Unit Sesa Goa Ltd. (SESA) will absorb Sterlite in an all-
stock deal. To contact the reporter on this story:
Abhishek Shanker in Mumbai at
ashanker1@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Rebecca Keenan at
rkeenan5@bloomberg.net | 2012 | sterlite-profit-misses-estimates-on-lower-metal-prices |
Wal-Mart Licenses to Be Examined by Mexico Federal Agency | By Nacha Cattan and Crayton Harrison | 2012-04-25T21:12:36Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/wal-mart-licenses-to-be-examined-by-mexico-federal-agency-1-.html | 4 | 25 | d42a62bee4ef886f726145c3c81c9ddc37a8cfc9 | Mexico ’s federal government will
investigate how Wal-Mart de Mexico SAB obtained federal permits
for any possible “irregular conduct,” the nation’s anti-
corruption agency said. The Public Administration Ministry will examine the permits
and approvals Wal-Mart obtained from federal agencies to open
and operate its stores in Mexico, it said today on its website .
It will also solicit information from the U.S. government, it
said. Wal-Mart de Mexico is facing government scrutiny on both
sides of the border after it disclosed it was looking into
allegations that it spent more than $24 million to bribe local
officials to get stores opened faster. The U.S. Justice
Department is also investigating the payments detailed in an
April 21 New York Times story. The Mexican probe’s focus will be narrow because the
federal government doesn’t have authority over most permits Wal-
Mart obtained to run its stores, said Arturo Pueblita, a Mexico
City lawyer whose clients include international pharmacies and
local retailers. Some health and environmental permission may
cross into federal jurisdiction, he said. “The results will be very limited because of their
jurisdiction,” said Pueblita, of the law firm Cuevas y Pueblita
Abogados in Mexico City. “I don’t think they’ll have any
definitive results. I think this is nothing more than a public
spectacle.” If the Public Administration Ministry uncovers evidence
that local officials accepted bribes, it will pass the
information to authorities with jurisdiction, it said. Wal-Mart de Mexico gained 3.7 percent to 37.55 pesos at the
close in Mexico City, where it is based. Bentonville, Arkansas-
based Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT) , which owns 69 percent of the Mexican
unit, fell 0.7 percent to $57.36 in New York. To contact the reporters on this story:
Nacha Cattan in Mexico City at
ncattan@bloomberg.net ;
Crayton Harrison in Mexico City at
tharrison5@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Joshua Goodman at
jgoodman19@bloomberg.net | 2012 | wal-mart-licenses-to-be-examined-by-mexico-federal-agency-1- |
Endesa Drops as Profit Misses Analyst Estimates: Santiago Mover | By Eduardo Thomson | 2012-04-25T18:58:36Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/endesa-drops-as-profit-misses-analyst-estimates-santiago-mover.html | 4 | 25 | b83a63358c186f9c8df07f02747a1630e7d34d58 | Empresa Nacional de Electricidad
SA, Chile ’s largest power generator, declined in Santiago
trading after first-quarter profit trailed estimates on higher
costs and lower prices. Endesa slid 0.5 percent to 890 pesos at 3:54 p.m. Santiago
time after gaining as much as 0.6 percent. Net income fell to 66.2 billion pesos ($136 million) from
96.9 billion pesos a year earlier, according to a statement
posted on the website of Chile’s securities regulator. The
average estimate of three analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News
was 73.5 billion pesos. Endesa Chile’s controlling shareholder Enersis SA (ENERSIS) reported
first-quarter profit of 101 billion pesos. To contact the reporter on this story:
Eduardo Thomson in Santiago at
ethomson1@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
James Attwood at
jattwood3@bloomberg.net | 2012 | endesa-drops-as-profit-misses-analyst-estimates-santiago-mover |
U.S. Should Weigh Changes to Muni Bond Tax, Senator Says | By William Selway | 2012-04-25T17:00:04Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/u-s-should-explore-changes-to-muni-bond-tax-break-senator-says.html | 4 | 25 | aafe7f97094b4a2db6819e2a62b2b394 | Congress should consider changing
the subsidies awarded to the $3.7 trillion municipal bond market
to ensure that all taxpayers receive the same benefit, said the
U.S. Senate Finance Committee chairman. Twenty cents of every $1 spent on the tax-exemption for
municipal bonds benefits higher-income investors, said the
chairman, Democrat Max Baucus , of Montana , at a hearing today.
Because income from state and local debt isn’t taxed, those in
higher federal tax breaks receive the greatest benefit. Lawmakers should “consider providing a uniform subsidy for
bondholders,” Baucus said at the hearing in Washington. “A
uniform subsidy would mean each taxpayer receives the same
subsidy regardless of tax bracket.” State and local-government leaders have pleaded with
Congress to keep the tax-exemption as the federal government
seeks ways to narrow its budget deficit . Investors are willing
to accept lower returns on municipal bonds because of the tax
break, which holds down the cost of public works projects. Today’s hearing focused on how an overhaul of the federal
tax code could affect state and local governments. Lawmakers
discussed the potential need for Internet companies to collect
sales taxes from customers. Build America Bonds Baucus cited the Build America Bonds program, which
provided direct subsidies instead of tax breaks before it
expired at the end of 2010, as an example of how the federal
cost could be spread more evenly. Baucus and other lawmakers at
the hearing didn’t endorse specific changes. President Barack Obama has proposed reviving Build America
Bonds, along with changes to tax breaks for traditional
municipal debt. Top Democratic tax writers in the House have
said Republicans are unfairly excluding Build America Bonds and
benefits for energy manufacturing from a debate over reviving
expired tax provisions. The potential threat to the tax-exemption given to
investors in state and local-government bonds has been a subject
of speculation on Wall Street since 2010, when a commission
appointed by Obama proposed ending it as a way to help cut the
deficit. Obama has also proposed curbing the tax break for top-
earners to limit their ability to push down their overall tax
rate . Municipal bond rates have dropped to their lowest in half a
century as the Federal Reserve holds down interest rates , new
bond sales have ebbed, and investors have shifted money to safe
havens. Bond Yields Yields on 20-year general-obligation bonds fell to 3.9
percent the week ended April 19, near the lowest since the
1960s, according to a Bond Buyer index . Senator Maria Cantwell , a Democrat from Washington, said
she is concerned that changes to the tax treatment of bonds
could affect utility customers in her region. Senator Orrin Hatch , the top Republican on the panel, said the president’s
proposal to limit the value of the municipal bond tax break for
those in the top tax bracket would penalize cities and states
with higher interest bills. “The president’s proposal would increase borrowing costs
for state and local governments,” he said. Frank Sammartino, the assistant director of tax analysis
for the Congressional Budget Office , said Obama’s plan would
still leave municipal bonds attractive to top-earners compared
to corporate bonds. “For most taxpayers, we think it’s not going to have a
very big effect,” he said at the hearing. Congressional Action No curbs to the tax break have advanced in Congress, where
there is broad disagreement between Democrats and Republicans
over taxes. No Senators endorsed the outright repeal or proposed
specific curbs at today’s hearing, either. Any changes to the federal government’s treatment may
influence the municipal bond market , which is dominated by
individuals seeking tax-free income. The prospect of eliminating the tax-break has drawn
opposition from groups including the National League of Cities
and the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association,
which lobbies for Wall Street banks and investment firms. More than two dozen groups representing public officials,
bond lawyers, and finance companies sent a letter to the Senate
Finance Committee this week to leave municipal bond income
untaxed. The groups, which included the National League of
Cities and the National Association of State Treasurers, said
the tax break supports state and local governments that oversee
three-quarters of the nation’s infrastructure spending. “Maintaining the tax-exempt status of municipal bonds is
essential to help our national economy grow, create jobs, and
best serve the constituencies of every community,” the groups
wrote in the April 23 letter in advance of the hearing. To contact the reporter on this story:
William Selway in Washington at
wselway@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Stephen Merelman at
smerelman@bloomberg.net | 2012 | u-s-should-explore-changes-to-muni-bond-tax-break-senator-says |
Kenya Reinsurance Jumps to 10-Month High on Property Report | By Eric Ombok | 2012-04-25T13:14:00Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/kenya-reinsurance-jumps-to-10-month-high-on-property-report.html | 4 | 25 | 9f5e332d36418c5440cd26a2666013294db743b6 | Kenya Reinsurance Corp. (KNRE) , the state-
owned reinsurer, jumped to its highest in more than 10 months
after Business Daily reported it will increase its investment
in the property industry. Kenya Re, as the company is known, gained 8.3 percent to
9.80 shillings at the 3 p.m. close in Nairobi, the highest since
June 8. The company is planning to build a 1.5 billion-shilling
($18 million) office in the capital’s Upper Hill business
district, the Nairobi-based newspaper reported, citing Managing
Director Jadiah Mwarania. The plan marks “a return to property development as it
eyes bigger returns from the real estate sector,” Nairobi-based
Old Mutual Securities Ltd. said in an e-mailed note to clients. Full-year profit climbed 24 percent to 1.91 billion
shillings, Kenya Re said April 23. To contact the reporter on this story:
Eric Ombok in Nairobi at
eombok@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Shaji Mathew at
shajimathew@bloomberg.net | 2012 | kenya-reinsurance-jumps-to-10-month-high-on-property-repor |
Oil Near One-Week High as Fed Sees U.S. Economy Growing | By Ben Sharples | 2012-04-26T07:08:30Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/oil-trades-near-weekly-high-on-demand-outlook-after-fed.html | 4 | 25 | 73b34638b56841d6a8190b00d63393f1 | Oil traded near the highest level
in a week after Federal Reserve policy makers said they expect
growth to accelerate, boosting speculation fuel demand will
rise. Iran said it may halt its nuclear expansion. Futures were little changed in New York after gaining 0.6
percent yesterday. Economic growth is expected to “remain
moderate over coming quarters and then to pick up gradually,”
the Federal Open Market Committee said in a statement. Prices
declined earlier after U.S. supplies gained more than forecast
and Iran’s envoy in Moscow said his country may halt the
expansion of its atomic program to avert new Western sanctions. “The FOMC moderately upgraded their growth estimates which
reinforced the general view the market is operating on, that you
will see a solid demand outlook from the U.S.,” said Ric Spooner, a chief market analyst at CMC Markets in Sydney. The
reaction to the Iran report “reflects the fact that traders and
investors putting their money on the line want to see far more
compelling evidence that it was actually happening,” he said. Crude for June delivery was at $104.11 a barrel, down 1
cent, in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange
at 3:06 p.m. Singapore time. The contract yesterday rose 57
cents to $104.12, the highest close since April 17. Front-month
futures have climbed for four days, the longest winning streak
in two months. Prices are 5.3 percent higher this year. Brent oil for June settlement was at $118.87 a barrel, down
25 cents, on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. The
European benchmark contract’s front month premium to West Texas
Intermediate was at $14.76, from $15 yesterday. Technical Resistance Oil’s gain in New York is stalling as futures approach
technical resistance along the top of a downtrend channel going
back about two months, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
This level is around $104.23 a barrel today. Sell orders tend to
be clustered near chart-resistance levels. Prices will stay above $100 a barrel even as economic
growth slows, according to Mirae Asset Securities Ltd. “While we still expect oil prices to soften, we don’t see
a collapse scenario,” Gordon Kwan , head of regional energy
research at Mirae Asset in Hong Kong , said in a report e-mailed
today. “Mirae continues to believe that the $100 a barrel oil
price is here to stay.” Crude has climbed this year amid speculation that tension
with Iran over its nuclear program may disrupt Middle East
supplies. The Islamic Republic is considering a Russian proposal
to stop building centrifuges, or machines used to enrich
uranium, and mothball ones that haven’t been put into use yet,
Iranian Ambassador Mahmoud-Reza Sajjadi said in Moscow
yesterday. Japan Crude Imports Efforts to resolve the dispute will be complicated if the
European Union goes ahead with an embargo on the nation’s
petroleum exports from July 1, Sajjadi said. Separately, Japan said its crude imports from Iran fell 6.3
percent in March from a year ago. Purchases were 1.8 million
kiloliters, compared with 1.9 million kiloliters in March 2011,
according to data today from the Ministry of Finance. Imports
climbed from 1.2 million kiloliters in February. U.S. crude inventories rose 3.98 million barrels to 373
million last week as output climbed to a 12-year high, according
to the Energy Department. They were projected to increase 2.8
million barrels , according to the median of 11 analyst estimates
in a Bloomberg survey. Stockpiles of gasoline decreased 2.2 million barrels,
Energy Department data showed. They were forecast to fall 1.5
million barrels, the survey shows. Distillate supplies, a
category that includes heating oil and diesel, dropped 3.1
million compared with an estimated 500,000 barrel gain. Gasoline slid for the eighth time in nine days after the
report showed deliveries to wholesalers dropped 3.2 percent to a
five-week low. Prices for May delivery fell 0.36 cent to $3.1557
a gallon on the New York Mercantile Exchange yesterday. To contact the reporter on this story:
Ben Sharples in Melbourne at
bsharples@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Alexander Kwiatkowski at
akwiatkowsk2@bloomberg.net | 2012 | oil-trades-near-weekly-high-on-demand-outlook-after-fed |
U.K. Top Court Rejects Lawyer’s Age Discrimination Appeal | By Kit Chellel | 2012-04-25T10:55:22Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/u-k-top-court-rejects-lawyer-s-age-discrimination-appeal.html | 4 | 25 | e62a07f3a80b1480aad67a6ee5b92ea36289f8f9 | The U.K. Supreme Court dismissed an
appeal by a lawyer who claimed age discrimination when his law
firm forced him to retire on his 65th birthday. Judge Brenda Hale ruled the partnership contract that
mandated retirement at 65 was justified in this case. “All businesses will now have to give careful
consideration to what, if any, mandatory retirement rules can be
justified,” she said in a written judgment . The case was brought by Leslie Seldon, a partner at
Clarkson Wright & Jakes Ltd, forced to retire in 2006. Seldon
sued the firm for age discrimination before an employment
tribunal, which ruled the partnership deed imposing a mandatory
retirement age was legitimate. Seldon’s lawyer Robin Allen didn’t immediately respond to a
call requesting comment. While rejecting Seldon’s bid for a declaration that he had
been discriminated against, the Supreme Court did send the case
back to the employment tribunal to reconsider whether the law
firm’s reasons for requiring retirement at 65 in the partnership
deed were appropriate. “Seldon is one of the most important cases in employment
law in recent years,” Claire Dawson, a partner at law firm
Russell Jones & Walker, said before the ruling. “If forcing a
partner to retire is justifiable, then employers may use similar
arguments to attempt to justify” forcing workers out even
though the government has decided to abolish mandatory
retirement at 65. End Stereotypes Age UK , a charity that was a party in the case, said in a
statement the judgment provided new guidance on the way older
employees should be treated. “One of the things Age UK set out to achieve was to end
the reliance on stereotyping of older workers, conflating age
with declining ability,” Declan O’Dempsey, the charity’s
lawyer, said in a phone interview. “This firmly establishes
that reliance of such stereotypes is not allowed.” In another Supreme Court ruling on a retirement-related
matter handed down today, a former police employee was found to
have been been indirectly discriminated against when he didn’t
qualify for a promotion because he didn’t have time to complete
the necessary training before he retired. Terence Homer sued the West Yorkshire police because it
brought in new rules requiring a four-year law degree when he
was three years from retirement. To contact the reporter on this story:
Kit Chellel in London at
cchellel@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Anthony Aarons at
aaarons@bloomberg.net | 2012 | u-k-top-court-rejects-lawyer-s-age-discrimination-appea |
Motorola Mobility, MacroSolve, Google: Intellectual Property | By Victoria Slind-Flor | 2012-04-25T11:01:01Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/motorola-mobility-macrosolve-google-intellectual-property.html
Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. (MMI) won
a partial victory from a U.S. International Trade Commission
judge in its bid to block imports of Apple Inc. (AAPL) ’s devices
including the iPhone and iPad tablet computer. Apple violated one of four Motorola Mobility patent rights
being contested, ITC Judge Thomas Pender said in a notice posted
yesterday. The patent relates to 3G technology. The other three
patents weren’t violated, according to the notice. The judge’s findings are subject to review by the six-
member commission, which has the power to block imports that
infringe U.S. patents. “A court in Germany has already ruled that Apple did not
infringe on this patent, so we believe we will have a very
strong case on appeal,” Kristin Huguet , an Apple spokeswoman,
said in a telephone interview, referring to the one patent Apple
was found to have violated. “We are pleased that the ALJ’s initial determination finds
Apple to be in violation of Motorola Mobility’s intellectual
property, and look forward to the full commission’s ruling in
August,” Becki Leonard, a spokeswoman for Motorola Mobility,
said in an e-mailed statement. The six-member commission is scheduled to complete the
investigation by Aug. 23. Should it decide an import ban is
warranted, that decision is subject to review by both President
Barack Obama and an appeals court that specializes in patent
law. Motorola Mobility filed the complaint Oct. 1, 2010, amid
statements by Apple that phones running on Google Inc. (GOOG) ’s Android
operating system copied the iPhone. Google, which is buying
Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion, has cited the handset
maker’s patent portfolio as a possible bulwark against patent
litigation by Android rivals like Apple. Apple, which had $108.2 billion in sales last year, has
denied infringing Motorola Mobility patents and challenged their
validity. Apple lost its own ITC case, filed Oct. 29, 2010, in which
it sought to block imports of Motorola Mobility’s Android
phones. Apple is appealing the decision. Google, based in Mountain View, California , agreed to buy
Motorola Mobility after the case was filed and will inherit the
dispute once the deal is completed. European and U.S. regulators
have approved the acquisition, which is under review by Chinese
authorities. Pender’s full decision will be posted after both sides get
a chance to redact confidential information. The case against Apple is In the Matter of Wireless
Communication Devices, Portable Music and Data Processing
Devices, Computers and Components Thereof, 337-745, and Apple’s
case against Motorola Mobility is In the Matter of Mobile
Devices and Related Software, 337-750, both U.S. International
Trade. MacroSolve Settles Patent Cases Against AOL, Bank of America MacroSolve Inc. (MCVE) , the Tulsa, Oklahoma-based company that has
filed more than 25 patent infringement cases since March 2011,
has resolved disputes with Bank of American Corp. , and AOL Inc.,
the company said in a statement yesterday. The company had accused the defendants of infringing patent
7,822,816, which was issued in October 2010. The patent covered
mobile information collection systems used in wireless networks. The suits against AOL and Bank of America were filed Feb.
27 and March 23, respectively. They were both filed in federal
court in the Eastern District of Texas , which is a venue where
jurors are believed to be more favorable to patent owners, and
has been MacroSolve’s choice for all the patent-infringement
cases it has filed. Terms of the settlements weren’t disclosed. In both cases MacroSolve was represented by Zachariah
Harrington , Matthew J. Antonelli , Kris Yue Teng and Larry Dean
Thompson Jr. of Antonelli Harrington & Thompson LLP of Houston. The case against AOL is MacroSolve Inc. v. AOL Inc. (AOL) , 6:12-
cv-00091-LED, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Texas
(Tyler). The case against Bank of America is MacroSolve Inc., v.
Bank of American Corp., 6:12-cv-00193-LED, U.S. District Court,
Eastern District of Texas (Tyler). Vodafone Loses Patent Ruling Over Sales of HTC, Nokia Devices Vodafone Group Plc (VOD) , alongside Deutsche Telekom AG (DTE) , lost a
patent case brought by IPCom GmbH in a Dusseldorf court over the
distribution of certain mobile phones made by Nokia OYJ (NOK1V) and HTC
Corp. (2498) Vodafone can’t comment on the impact of yesterday’s ruling
before reviewing the written judgment, company spokesman Kuzey
Esener said in an e-mailed statement. The patent at issue is
currently under review and may still be declared invalid, he
said. For more patent news, click here. Trademark Barr Trademark Challenge to Be Heard in Russian Court May 29 A.G. Barr Plc (BAG) ’s trademarks are being challenged in a
Russian court, the Russian Legal Information Agency reported . The case, to be heard at the Moscow Commercial Court, pits
Business Invest Group Holdings against Barr, according to the
news agency . Business Invest Group has filed more than 10 similar suits
against other companies, seeking to terminate their trademarks,
the news agency reported. Barr, maker of Orangina, has been in business since 1875,
and has produced Irm-Bru since 1901, according to the news
agency. IP Office Says No Sale to Foreigners of Regional Coffee Marks Vietnam’s National Office for Intellectual Property has
said trademarks for Vietnamese coffee may not be sold to a
Chinese company, according to VietNam Net. Trademarks that include the name of localities can’t be
sold without the permission of local authorities, the office
said and VietNam Net reported. Another possible bar to a sale would be collective
ownership of the trademark, according to VietNam Net. As a means of protecting the marks and preventing their
sale, the local department of agriculture and rural development
has asked that it be transferred the trademarks, VietNam Net
reported. Live Nation Files Suit to Seize Fake Coldplay Merchandise A Live Nation Entertainment Inc. unit filed a trademark
infringement suit related to merchandise that it said is likely
to be sold near a Los Angeles-area venue where the British band
Coldplay is scheduled to perform May 1 and 2. The suit is against nine unidentified defendants and one
unnamed company. According to the complaint filed in federal
court in Los Angeles yesterday, Live Nation anticipates that the
defendants will attempt to sell unauthorized merchandise bearing
the band’s trademarks in the vicinity of the Hollywood Bowl on
that weekend. Live Nation said merchandise | 4 | 25 | 4697e74c42814567ab1b01e05219b5dc | patents. Schmidt said Java, a free programming language, is useless
without the APIs, which are used to tell computers how to print,
sort and perform other applications. Google implemented the Java
language and APIs, not Java source code, which would require a
license, he told the jury. U.S. District Judge William Alsup, who is presiding over
the trial, said Schmidt’s answer wasn’t responsive to the
question and ordered jurors to disregard it. Schmidt said that Sun co-founder Scott McNealy, who
preceded Schwartz as CEO, saw the Android partnership with
Google as a way to boost revenue. The trial, expected to last eight weeks, is divided into
three phases. Oracle rested its case yesterday for the first
phase, which deals with copyright infringement. Google began its
defense of those claims yesterday, and the jury is expected to
deliberate on those claims as early as next week. The next phases of the trial will be patent claims and
damage claims. The case is Oracle America Inc. v. Google Inc., 10-03561,
U.S. District Court, Northern District of California (San
Francisco). For more copyright news, click here. IP Moves Davis Wright Tremaine Hires Litigator from Morrison & Foerster Davis Wright Tremaine LLP hired Eric Walters for its IP
practice group, the Seattle-based firm said in a statement . Walters , a litigator, joins from San Francisco’s Morrison &
Foerster LLP. He has represented clients in the biotechnology,
pharmaceutical, software, semiconductor, medical device and
cleantech industries in patent, trade secret, copyright,
trademark and licensing disputes. He has an undergraduate degree in chemical engineering and
a law degree from the University of Michigan. To contact the reporter on this story:
Victoria Slind-Flor in Oakland, California, at vslindflor@bloomberg.net . To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Michael Hytha at mhytha@bloomberg.net . | 2012 | otorola-mobility-macrosolve-google-intellectual-property |
Iberdrola Names Jose Luis San Pedro General Director | By Angeline Benoit | 2012-04-25T05:46:11Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/iberdrola-names-jose-luis-san-pedro-general-director.html | 4 | 25 | bf1edd01b50e929e1fc00491cf56c24391a7578d | Iberdrola SA (IBE) yesterday named Jose Luis San Pedro Guerenabarrena general director alongside
Chairman Ignacio Galan , according to a filing with the stock
market regulator CNMV. The board also named Angel Acebes, both members replacing
Jose Ignacio Berroeta Echevarria and Ricardo Alvarez Isasi, the
filing said. To contact the reporter on this story:
Angeline Benoit in Madrid at
abenoit4@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Craig Stirling at
cstirling1@bloomberg.net | 2012 | iberdrola-names-jose-luis-san-pedro-general-director |
Express Scripts Judge Denies Bid to Freeze Takeover of Medco | By Sophia Pearson and Tom Schoenberg | 2012-04-25T18:56:05Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/express-scripts-judge-denies-bid-to-freeze-takeover-of-medco-1-.html | 4 | 25 | 7c7d2713122b4682998246099beb344a | Express Scripts Holding Co. (ESRX)
defeated a bid by retail drugstores to suspend its $29.1 billion
purchase of Medco Health Solutions Inc. while a lawsuit
challenging the takeover is pending. U.S. District Judge Cathy Bissoon in Pittsburgh today said
she will rule on the company’s request to dismiss the case
before considering the bid for a permanent injunction sought by
retail pharmacy groups. Bissoon didn’t say when she’d make
either ruling. The groups didn’t present enough evidence to
warrant freezing the deal, the judge said. “Because plaintiffs have not met their burden to establish
the likelihood of immediate, irreparable harm that could be
alleviated by the issuance of a preliminary injunction, their
motion must be denied,” Bissoon said in the ruling. The National Association of Chain Drug Stores, the National
Community Pharmacists Association and independent pharmacies
sued St. Louis-based Express Scripts and Medco on March 29,
arguing that the combination of the pharmacy-benefit management
companies would reduce competition and make fewer services
available to retail customers. Express Scripts completed its purchase on April 2 after
receiving approval from the Federal Trade Commission. Brian Henry , a spokesman Express Scripts, said the company
was pleased with the ruling. J. Robert Robertson, a lawyer for
the trade groups, didn’t immediately respond to a phone call and
an e-mail messages seeking comment on the ruling. Fears Realized The deal creates the largest pharmacy benefits manager in
the U.S. Express Scripts and Franklin Lakes , New Jersey-based
Medco act as middlemen among drugmakers, pharmacies and health-
plan sponsors to manage patients’ benefits. The FTC approved the purchase by a 3-1 vote. Clearance was
unconditional, with the majority of the commissioners saying
their eight-month review of the deal found “a competitive
market for pharmacy benefit management services.” The groups claim the Medco acquisition will force pharmacy
customers into filling prescriptions by mail and result in the
loss of “face-to-face pharmacy services that patients prefer,”
Steven C. Anderson, president of the National Association of
Chain Drug Stores, said in the conference call with reporters
when the lawsuit was filed. ‘Hold Separate’ Hours after the deal closed, the groups filed an emergency
request seeking an order to “hold separate Medco’s assets and
operations” while the lawsuit is pending. At an April 10 hearing, Clifford Aronson, a lawyer for
Express Scripts, said more than $230 million had already been
spent on integration, and competitive information had already
been shared. Halting the acquisition would lead to a loss of
employees and customers as health plan managers wouldn’t want to
sign on companies with such uncertainty, he said. “The injury to Express Scripts would be huge,” Aronson of
Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom told Bissoon. Bissoon asked Robertson at that hearing how “rolling
back” the deal would work, noting that top Medco executives had
already been terminated. “Who would be running the show over Medco,” she asked? Robertson, of Hogan Lovells LLP in Washington , said Express
Scripts would have administrative control the merged company
while it wouldn’t be allowed to change the rates for drugs
reimbursed by Medco. Displaced Management Bissoon, in her ruling today, said the retailers’ fears
about displaced management and the exchange of confidential
information and trade secrets between the two companies have
already been realized because Express Scripts and Medco began
setting a detailed integration plan as early as July 2011. By the time the merger closed, virtually all of Medco’s
senior management was terminated, including the majority of its
sales leadership and senior supply-chain management team,
Bissoon said. Express Scripts demonstrated that a temporary injunction
“would result in a headless organization that would likely be
unable to survive on its own, much less compete” against
Express Scripts, Bissoon said. “This, ironically, is exactly
the harm that plaintiffs seek to prevent.” The case is National Association of Chain Drug Stores v.
Express Scripts, 2:12-cv-00395, U.S. District Court, Western
District of Pennsylvania (Pittsburgh). To contact the reporters on this story:
Sophia Pearson in Philadelphia at
spearson3@bloomberg.net ;
Tom Schoenberg in Washington at
tschoenberg@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Michael Hytha at mhytha@bloomberg.net | 2012 | express-scripts-judge-denies-bid-to-freeze-takeover-of-medco-1- |
HeartWare Implantable Pump Wins U.S. FDA Panel’s Backing | By Anna Edney | 2012-04-26T04:01:00Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/heartware-implantable-pump-wins-fda-advisory-panel-backing-1-.html | 4 | 25 | 2994bbfcd74f4d589b53c0fc89520f24 | HeartWare International Inc. (HTWR) ’s
implantable pump for heart-transplant candidates won the backing
of U.S. advisory panel members who said the device would provide
dying patients a lifeline. The Food and Drug Administration panel of academics and
physicians voted 9-2 that the benefits outweigh the product’s
risks at a meeting yesterday in Gaithersburg, Maryland . The FDA
isn’t required to follow the group’s recommendations. The U.S. market for left ventricular pumps may pass
$750 million in 2015, said Jason Mills , an analyst with
Canaccord Adams Inc. in San Francisco . If the HeartWare
Ventricular Assist System also is approved for patients who
aren’t eligible for a transplant, the Framingham, Massachusetts-
based company may split the U.S. market with Thoratec Corp.’s
HeartMate II by 2015, Mills said in a telephone interview before
the vote. The HeartWare and Thoratec devices are intended to take
over for a failing heart, extending patients’ lives or gaining
time to find a donor for transplant. FDA staff said in an April
23 report that they were concerned about stroke rates and
missing data for 80 percent of patients that tested the
HeartWare system. “Lack of data really means nothing to a patient that is
dying, and this pump is a good alternative,” said Joseph Amato,
a panel member and a doctor at Rush University Medical Center in
Chicago . The panel also voted 8-3 that the pump is safe and 11-0
that it’s effective. Failing Hearts Heart failure is a progressive disease that strikes 1 in 5
Americans older than 40. It occurs when a damaged organ can’t
supply enough oxygen-rich blood to keep other organs, such as
the lungs, working. There are few treatments and no cure. HeartWare was supposed to collect central venous pressure
or right atrial pressure of patients using the company’s device
and of those in a registry who were considered the control
group. The company gathered the data for 51 percent of patients
and for the rest replaced the missing value with the treatment
group median, the FDA staff said. While panel members said they wanted to have the data, it
likely isn’t a “fatal flaw” in the study, Richard Page,
chairman of the panel, said during the meeting. Page is with the
University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health . Stroke Rates Fifteen patients on the HeartWare device experienced
strokes about six months into testing, according to the staff
report. This data “suggest a trend toward higher stroke rates”
with the pump compared to other devices, the staff wrote. “The stroke rate given the alternative these patients are
facing, which is certain or imminent death, I think it’s
acceptable,” David Slotwiner, with the Long Island Jewish
Medical Center and a panel member, said during the meeting. Thoratec dominates the worldwide ventricular assist device
market with about 68 percent of the market share, according to
data compiled by a Bloomberg analyst, Michael Manns. The
Pleasanton, California-based company’s HeartMate had $366
million (THOR) in revenue last year. HeartWare’s device is sold in Europe . It’s implanted next
to the heart, avoiding the abdominal surgery required by
competing devices, the company said. Thoratec’s HeartMate II is
placed below the diaphragm in the abdomen. HeartMate II is
approved for heart-failure patients whether they are eligible
for transplantation. HeartWare is recruiting patients for a study on the
device’s use in patients who aren’t eligible for heart
transplant, according to the National Institutes of Health
website clinicaltrials.gov. To contact the reporter on this story:
Anna Edney in Washington at
aedney@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Reg Gale at
rgale5@bloomberg.net | 2012 | eartware-implantable-pump-wins-fda-advisory-panel-backing-1- |
PGE Says Court Rejects Regulator Appeal on Contracts | By David McQuaid | 2012-04-25T07:10:15Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/pge-says-court-rejects-regulator-appeal-on-contracts-correct-.html | 4 | 25 | 860c3fc77f15f53129251cc9aae12d5175441ebe | (Corrects April 24 story to show that the energy regulator
lost the appeal.) The Warsaw Appeals court yesterday
rejected an appeal by Poland ’s energy regulator to prevent PGE
SA (PGE) from recovering 164.5 million zloty ($51.7 million) in costs
incurred in 2008 due to the winding down of long-term power
supply contracts for the utility’s Elektrownia Turow unit, PGE
said in a regulatory statement. Poland’s biggest power utility said the verdict may be
appealed by the head of the Energy Regulatory Office. To contact the reporter on this story:
David McQuaid in Warsaw at
dmcquaid1@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Hellmuth Tromm at
htromm@bloomberg.net | 2012 | pge-says-court-rejects-regulator-appeal-on-contracts-correct- |
South Korea, U.K. to Collaborate on Nuclear, Renewable Energy | By Sangim Han | 2012-04-25T02:00:03Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/south-korea-u-k-to-collaborate-on-nuclear-renewable-energy.html | 4 | 25 | f0937ba43a082b8d4a62f8189937d8bdaa5a4345 | South Korea and the U.K. plan to
exchange technology and develop expertise in nuclear, wind and
other renewable energy, the South Korean government said. South Korea’s Knowledge Economy Ministry will sign an
initial agreement with its U.K. counterpart for nuclear and
renewable energy technology in London on April 27, the ministry
said in an e-mailed statement. The Korea Wind Energy Industry
Association will sign a similar accord with the U.K. Renewable
Energy Association for wind energy . South Korea, which operates 21 nuclear reactors at home,
expects the collaboration will encourage local companies to
invest in the renewable energy industry in the U.K., the
ministry said. For the U.K. to meet its binding European Union target of
deriving 15 percent of energy from renewable energy by 2020,
sales from the industry would need to be closer to 50 billion
pounds ($81 billion), the U.K. Renewable Energy Association said
on April 23. To contact the reporter on this story:
Sangim Han in Seoul at sihan@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Amit Prakash at aprakash1@bloomberg.net | 2012 | south-korea-u-k-to-collaborate-on-nuclear-renewable-energy |
Kenya’s Benchmark Coffee Price Rose 8.9% at Auction | By Fred Ojambo | 2012-04-25T07:44:17Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/kenya-s-benchmark-coffee-price-rose-8-9-at-auction.html | 4 | 25 | 559ca0952a392d81306ecf6156b5091b2c03ef99 | Kenya ’s benchmark coffee price rose
8.9 percent to $305.44 a 50-kilogram (110-pound) bag at a weekly
auction yesterday in Nairobi, the capital. The average price for all coffee sold dropped 2 percent to
$199.13 a bag as supplies increased, the Nairobi Coffee Exchange
said in an e-mailed statement today. The benchmark AA grade sold for as much as $415 a bag
compared with $322 a bag last week, while supplies declined 15
percent to 2,189 bags, it said. “Prices didn’t show marked changes for some grades as
conditions at global markets remain unchanged,” Mansukh Shah, a
coffee trader with the Nairobi-based Alanwood Ltd., said by
phone. “The quality remained good like last week.” Sales at the auction rose 42 percent to 7,562 bags worth
$1.83 million from 5,317 bags valued at $1.32 million last week,
the exchange said. Supplies of all beans dropped 5.6 percent to
20,655 bags, according to the data. The following are details of yesterday’s auction in dollars
for a 50-kilogram bag: To contact the reporter on this story:
Fred Ojambo in Kampala at
fojambo@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Hilton Shone at
hshone@bloomberg.net | 2012 | kenya-s-benchmark-coffee-price-rose-8-9-at-auction |
Spanish Notes Rise on Company Profits; German Bunds Drop | By Lukanyo Mnyanda and Emma Charlton | 2012-04-25T15:48:39Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/german-bonds-drop-before-auction-as-spanish-debt-rallies.html | 4 | 25 | 3021275436c24c06abf9fa5c526bbcbb | Spanish and Italian bonds rose for
a second day as larger-than-estimated earnings from companies
such as Apple Inc. (AAPL) and Electrolux AB (ELUXB) boosted demand for higher-
yielding assets. Spain’s 10-year yields dropped to the lowest in almost
three weeks as European stocks rallied after Apple reported a 94
percent surge in quarterly profit and China ’s Premier Wen Jiabao
said the world’s second-largest economy will maintain “steady
and robust growth.” German bunds fell after a 30-year auction
attracted bids for less than the maximum sales target. “There’s a bit of risk back on after some positive company
numbers helped stocks and improved the tone of the markets,”
said Eric Wand, a fixed-income strategist at Lloyds Banking
Group Plc in London. “There’s a continuation of what we had
yesterday with Italy and Spain rising.” Spain’s two-year yield fell 17 basis points, or 0.17
percentage point, to 3.27 percent at 4:38 p.m. London time,
after declining 14 basis points yesterday. The 3.4 percent note
due April 2014 gained 0.315, or 3.15 euros per 1,000-euro
($1,319) face amount, to 100.25. Two-year Italian yields dropped seven basis points to 3.25
percent, and Belgium’s fell six basis points to 1.17 percent. Apple posted earnings yesterday that almost doubled last
quarter, reflecting demand for the iPhone in China. Electrolux
shares climbed as the world’s second-biggest appliance maker
reported first-quarter earnings that beat analysts’ estimates.
Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA rose as the Spanish lender
also had higher-than-forecast profits. Shares Rise The Stoxx Europe 600 Index (SXXP) of shares gained 1 percent, and
the euro was little changed at $1.3211. Spain’s benchmark 10-year bond yield declined six basis
points to 5.80 percent after falling to 5.71 percent, the lowest
level since April 25. The extra yield investors demand to hold
the securities instead of similar-maturity bunds dropped 11
basis points to 406 basis points. Wen said at a press conference in Stockholm yesterday that
China “remains committed to reform and opening up.” The
Federal Reserve will announce its policy statement today.
Chairman Ben S. Bernanke will later hold a press conference. “Market sentiment is starting to improve again,” said
Anders Moeller Lumholtz, an analyst at Danske Bank A/S (DANSKE) in
Copenhagen. “Now the market is looking ahead to the Federal
Open Market Committee tonight.” Any mention of the Fed’s bond-
purchase program will be a “hot topic,” he said. Bunds Decline ECB President Mario Draghi called for a “growth compact”
in the euro area, telling lawmakers in Brussels today that risks
to the economic outlook remain on the downside. Chancellor
Angela Merkel said she backed the call to focus on spurring
growth, as German officials rejected charges they are fixated on
austerity to fight the crisis. German bunds underperformed all their euro-area peers, with
the 10-year yield climbing four basis points to 1.74 percent. The nation received bids for 2.75 billion euros of bonds
due in July 2044 at the auction, compared with a maximum sales
target of 3 billion euros. Germany sold the securities at a
record-low yield of 2.41 percent. “The very low yield in the secondary market and the days
before was a hint, that it could be a tricky one,” Carl Heinz Daube, managing director of Germany ’s Federal Finance Agency
said in an interview in Berlin today. “Overall it was OK. The
result has nothing to do with the credit worthiness of
Germany.” French Debt The French 10-year yield dropped three basis points to
2.998 percent, falling below 3 percent for the first time since
April 18. The extra yield investors get for holding France ’s
bonds instead of bunds narrowed eight basis points to 124 basis
points. Volatility in Spanish government bonds was the highest of
24 developed-nation markets, followed by Germany and the U.K.,
according to measures of 10-year bonds, two- and 10-year yield
spreads and credit-default swaps compiled by Bloomberg. Ten-year German yields remain in a downtrend, and are
heading toward their record low of 1.633 percent set on the
April 23, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. German bonds returned 1.1 percent this year, according to
indexes compiled by Bloomberg and the European Federation of
Financial Analysts Societies. French securities rose 1.6
percent, the indexes show. To contact the reporters on this story:
Lukanyo Mnyanda in Edinburgh at
lmnyanda@bloomberg.net ;
Emma Charlton in London at
echarlton1@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Daniel Tilles at
dtilles@bloomberg.net | 2012 | german-bonds-drop-before-auction-as-spanish-debt-rallies |
Build America Bonds Merit Tax Panel's Time, Democrats Say | By Richard Rubin | 2012-04-25T04:01:23Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/build-america-bonds-merit-tax-panel-s-time-democrats-say.html
Top Democratic tax writers in the
U.S. House said Republicans are unfairly excluding Build America
Bonds and benefits for energy manufacturing from a debate over
reviving expired tax provisions. Those tax breaks and others that expired at the end of 2010
were effective and should be considered along with provisions
that lapsed in December 2011, Democrats Sander Levin and Richard Neal said in a letter to Republican Dave Camp , chairman of the
House Ways and Means Committee. “The majority’s approach fails to recognize the importance
of tax provisions in promoting job creation , investment and
economic growth,” Levin and Neal wrote in a letter delivered
yesterday. A Ways and Means subcommittee plans to meet tomorrow to
discuss expired tax breaks, such as the deduction for state and
local sales taxes, the research and development tax credit and
multinational companies’ ability to defer U.S. taxes on
financial services income earned outside the country. Republicans, who are working on a tax-code overhaul that
would eliminate targeted breaks and reduce rates, have said they
want to review the effectiveness of various provisions before
deciding whether to extend them. The panel will hear testimony only from House members who
introduced bills on a list of tax breaks that mostly expired at
the end of 2011 or are scheduled to expire in December. Formal Opportunity “This hearing provides a formal opportunity for the
subcommittee to hear from our House colleagues about the merits
of extending | 4 | 25 | 3e7bd6214c2849fb01e2132939ccc805d5acc12a | policies,” Republican Representative Pat Tiberi of Ohio ,
chairman of the tax subcommittee, said in a statement. Levin, of Michigan , and Neal, of Massachusetts , wrote that
they were “troubled by the tone and substance” of the
announcement of the hearing because it didn’t distinguish
between provisions designed to be temporary and others that they
said merit extension. “This is an extenders hearing, and, since Democrats failed
to extend these stimulus provisions in 2010 when they controlled
the House, the Senate and the White House, it seems obvious that
they do not fit the parameters for this hearing,” said Michelle
Dimarob, a spokeswoman for the Ways and Means Committee. The definition of tax extender for the hearing excludes
broader fiscal issues such as income tax rate cuts that expire
at the end of this year. It doesn’t allow discussion of tax
provisions that Congress let lapse in 2010 as part of a
bipartisan deal that extended income tax rate cuts. After that agreement, Republicans took credit for allowing
Build America Bonds and energy manufacturing incentives created
in the 2009 stimulus law to expire. ‘Tax Subsidies’ “Republicans were able to prevent a long list of existing
tax subsidies (estimated at over $100 billion) from being
extended,” said a Ways and Means Republican press release in
2010 that cited 73 provisions that were allowed to expire. Build America Bonds were created in 2009 to reduce
borrowing costs for municipalities as banks remained cautious
about extending credit after the financial crisis. The Treasury
paid 35 percent of the interest on the securities while the
interest on the bonds was taxable, in contrast to the income-tax
exemption for buyers of traditional municipal bonds. Democrats, including the Obama administration, have
unsuccessfully tried to revive the stimulus tax breaks.
Republicans said Build America Bonds generated high fees for
Wall Street underwriters. To contact the reporter on this story:
Richard Rubin in Washington at
rrubin12@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Jodi Schneider at
jschneider50@bloomberg.net | 2012 | build-america-bonds-merit-tax-panel-s-time-democrats-say |
Exxon Becomes World’s Largest Dividend Payer With 21% Increase | By Edward Klump | 2012-04-25T23:00:29Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/exxon-becomes-world-s-largest-dividend-payer-with-21-increase.html | 4 | 25 | 67fa9857ca02d58587a042029dd88afc707b79a1 | Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) increased its
quarterly distribution to shareholders by 21 percent as oil
prices remain above $100 a barrel, making the energy company the
world’s biggest dividend payer. Exxon, based in Irving, Texas, boosted its quarterly
dividend to 57 cents a share from 47 cents, according to a
statement yesterday. That means the company will pay $10.7
billion a year to shareholders, more than any other corporation,
according to Howard Silverblatt , senior index analyst at
Standard & Poor’s. Exxon Chief Executive Officer Rex Tillerson told analysts
at a meeting last month the company would listen to shareholders
as it evaluated the payout. The company now is set to pay an
annual dividend of $2.28 a share for a yield of 2.6 percent,
less than Chevron Corp. (CVX) ’s 3.5 percent. Brent crude prices, a
benchmark in much of the world, climbed 12 percent in the first
quarter from a year earlier to average $118.45. Exxon’s annual spending on dividends is set to surpass such
companies as AT&T Inc. (T) , Apple Inc. (AAPL) and General Electric Co. (GE) ,
according to Silverblatt. “I think they’re realizing that we’re in a higher oil-
price environment going forward,” said Brian Youngberg, an
analyst at Edward Jones in St. Louis who has a “hold” rating
on Exxon shares and doesn’t own any. “The feedback they’ve been
getting is that the company needs to have a more competitive
dividend yield to attract more investors.” Chevron raised its quarterly dividend 11 percent to 90
cents a share from 81 cents, according to a statement yesterday.
That gives Chevron a potential annual dividend of $3.60 a share. Youngberg said Exxon has relied on stock buybacks to boost
shareholder value , while he’d like to see the company raise the
dividend further. “Dividends allow the investor to decide how to reinvest
the cash,” he said in an interview yesterday. Exxon rose 0.6 percent to $86.85 at the close yesterday in
New York. To contact the reporter on this story:
Edward Klump in Houston at
eklump@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Susan Warren at
susanwarren@bloomberg.net | 2012 | exxon-becomes-world-s-largest-dividend-payer-with-21-increase |
Putin’s Reversal of Democracy Pledge Risks New Protest Wave | By Stepan Kravchenko and Henry Meyer | 2012-04-26T09:57:50Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/putin-s-reversal-of-democracy-pledge-risks-new-wave-of-protests.html | 4 | 25 | 89b0523e47654735858bc664c20cf7f5 | Vladimir Putin risks reigniting the
unrest that gripped Russia last year as opponents accuse him of
backtracking on pledges to make the political process more
democratic, investors from Frankfurt to Moscow said. Four months after President Dmitry Medvedev promised to
restore direct elections for regional governorships, Putin’s
lawmakers are introducing measures that make it harder for
candidates to run, a move criticized by former Finance Minister
Alexei Kudrin . The Kremlin is also racing to appoint governors
before the law takes effect. That’s sparking complaints that Putin, 59, tricked the
opposition to quell the protests that brought tens of thousands
to the streets of Moscow and other cities. Putin’s actions may
test whether Russians are prepared to go back on the streets to
challenge his authority, with the risk for investors being a new
round of the market turmoil that wiped out 7.3 percent of the
value of companies in Russia’s benchmark stock index in a week. “There is still significant risk of opposition protests,
both in Moscow and further afield,” Roland Nash , chief
investment strategist at Verno Capital in Moscow, which manages
$200 million in assets, said by e-mail. “The political genie is
out of the bottle, and if the government doesn’t react, then
protests will continue.” Re-pricing of Risk Renewed political unrest, particularly if it affects
Moscow, “will definitely lead to a re-pricing of Russian
risk,” said Sergey Dergachev, who helps oversee $8.5 billion in
emerging-market funds at Union Investment Privatfonds in
Frankfurt. The dollar-denominated RTS stock index lost more than 13
percent of its value and the ruble had its longest losing streak
since January 2009 in the 10 days after the disputed Dec. 4
parliamentary vote as tens of thousands of people protested in
Russia ’s largest cities against what they said was fraud during
the election. Russia’s 83 regions will be the focus of political
competition as Putin, who’ll be inaugurated on May 7 for a six-
year Kremlin term, ruled out any national challenge to his power
by refusing to hold new parliamentary elections after fraud
claims. The opposition, which mounted a hunger strike in the
southern city of Astrakhan after a disputed mayoral vote, is
vowing to escalate its campaign. Right to Veto Putin will probably have the right to veto candidates.
Aspiring governors must be vetted to protect Russia from the
threat of “nationalism and separatism,” he said on April 11.
The country fought two wars in the 1990s against breakaway
rebels in the mainly Muslim region of Chechnya. “There won’t be any stability in the regions anymore,”
said Gleb Pavlovsky , a former Kremlin adviser who heads the
Moscow-based Effective Policy Foundation. “A new life is
starting there and this law is going to provoke a growing number
of conflicts.” As the unrest escalated, Medvedev announced the return to
direct elections for governors, who have been appointed by the
president since 2005, along with measures to make it easier to
register parties and run for president. Political Stagnation Medvedev on April 24 trumpeted the changes as
“unprecedented for the past 20 years,” while saying that
Russia’s political system is showing signs of “stagnation”
after stabilizing. The president denied today that the law restoring the
direct election of governors approved yesterday by the lower
house of parliament created “obstacles” to political
competition. The measure won’t remove the threat of regional authorities
bullying opposition candidates, according to Kudrin, who left
the government last year after clashing with Medvedev. “We have ended up with an imitation of competition, which
is even worse than the absence of any elections,” Kudrin said
on his website . “This has discredited the whole process of
political reform.” With the last major protest having taken place in Moscow on
March 10, attended by about 10,000 people according to police,
the unrest has petered out since Putin’s re-election to the
presidency with 64 percent of the vote. ‘Strong Leader’ “Russians want democracy with a strong leader,” Ivan Tchakarov , chief economist for Russia and the Commonwealth of
Independent States at Renaissance Capital in Moscow, said by e-
mail, adding that he doesn’t see any appetite left for protests. Regional elections now are the “main instrument for
change,” according to billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov , who ran in
the presidential race as a pro-business candidate with Putin’s
blessing, picking up 8 percent of the vote. “The return of elections for governor and the continued
election of mayors gives us the chance to bring to power new,
outstanding and effective people,” he wrote last month in an
article in his RBC Daily newspaper. Vladimir Artyakov, the governor of the Volga region of
Samara whose five-year term expires in August, said he’s
confident of re-election even after United Russia got only 39
percent of the vote in the December parliamentary elections. Ending the practice of appointing governors will
“stimulate the development of political competition and help
build civil society,” Artyakov said in an e-mail. No Election Guarantee Mikhail Matveyev, an independent lawmaker in Samara, says
the political changes “don’t guarantee honest elections” and
won’t result in “big competition.” Challengers will need the approval of as many as 10 percent
of municipal lawmakers in the region. That may make it difficult
to challenge Putin’s ruling party, said Rostislav Turovsky, who
studies regional politics at the Moscow-based Center of
Political Technologies, Most regional parliaments are controlled by United Russia
and will decide individually whether independent candidates are
allowed to run. If a region permits them to, non-party
challengers would have to gather between 0.5 percent and 2
percent of voters’ signatures in addition to the municipal
approval. “The problem here is not only the dominance of Putin’s
United Russia party in the parliaments, but the municipalities’
financial dependence on governors,” Turovsky said by phone.
“Governors seeking re-election can easily put pressure on
them.” Opposition Victories Opposition candidates prevailed in mayoral votes in the
regional capitals of Yaroslavl, Oryol, Naryan-Mar, as well as in
Togliatti, where Russia’s largest carmaker, OAO AvtoVAZ, is
based. Togliatti’s new mayor Sergei Andreyev was barred from the
2008 election because of a complaint about the unauthorized use
of a photograph of a building on his campaign literature. Still,
the mayor’s freedom of action is limited because the city is
running a budget deficit and depends on the regional authorities
for financing. The new process may end up hurting Putin rather than
fostering competition as the administrative hurdles give people
more opportunities to “show their discontent,” said Turovsky. Public anger may also be stoked by municipal tariffs rising
in July as well as plans to make Russians pay more for state
medicine and education from July 1, said Dmitry Orlov, an
analyst at the Moscow-based Agency for Political and Economic
Communications, which advises the government. Putin will face a “zone of maximum risk” in 2015, half-
way through his six-year term, when about a third of Russia’s
regions will hold gubernatorial races, said Pavlovsky. “Regional protests will definitely exist, but their
severity and their transmission and ability to mobilize more
protesters in Moscow will be key to watch,” said Dergachev at
Union Investment. “If public discontent grows further and
mobilizes people in the capital, I regard the risk of tougher
and more populous protests in Moscow as a real possibility.” To contact the reporters on this story:
Stepan Kravchenko in Moscow at
skravchenko@bloomberg.net ;
Henry Meyer in Moscow at
hmeyer4@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Balazs Penz at
bpenz@bloomberg.net | 2012 | putin-s-reversal-of-democracy-pledge-risks-new-wave-of-protests |
Peru Yields Fall as Mining Investment Fuels Currency Gains | By John Quigley | 2012-04-25T17:05:26Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/peru-yields-fall-as-mining-investment-fuels-currency-gains.html | 4 | 25 | 7cd2c151996054aba092c19b912fb0b2ab0b2293 | Peruvian bonds rose, pushing down
yields for a second day, on demand for sol-denominated assets as
mining investment drives the currency to a 15-year high. The yield on the nation’s benchmark 7.84 percent sol-
denominated bond due August 2020 fell two basis points, or 0.02
percentage point, to 5.27 percent at 12:02 p.m. in Lima ,
according to prices compiled by Bloomberg. The price rose 0.11
centimo to 116.96 centimos per sol. Rising foreign direct investment has helped fuel a 1.8
percent advance in the Peruvian sol this year, leading the
nation’s central bank to purchase $7.5 billion in the spot
market to stem the gains. “The outlook for FDI is pretty strong,” said Bret Rosen,
a Latin America strategist at Standard Chartered Bank in New
York . “It’s a driver and rationale for money to be flowing into
the country.” Mining and energy projects will account for 60 percent of
the $35 billion in investment expected through 2013, the central
bank said March 23. The sol was little changed at 2.65 per U.S. dollar , from
2.6510 yesterday, according to Deutsche Bank AG’s local unit.
That’s the sol’s strongest level since 1997, data from Peru’s
financial regulator show. To contact the reporter on this story:
John Quigley in Lima at
jquigley8@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
David Papadopoulos at
papadopoulos@bloomberg.net | 2012 | peru-yields-fall-as-mining-investment-fuels-currency-gains |
Germany May Boost $6.6 Billion Wind Loan Program With KfW | By Stefan Nicola | 2012-04-25T13:10:34Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/germany-may-increase-support-for-offshore-wind-roettgen-says.html | 4 | 25 | daa52512ba6b865a107066975ed8b207fc0ebd12 | Germany may expand a 5 billion euro
($6.6 billion) program by state-owned KfW Group to boost lending
to the offshore wind industry, part of an effort to combat
delays in connecting turbines to the power grid . The government is in talks to increase support for mid-
sized grid operators including Tennet TSO GmbH that are
commissioning connections, Environment Minister Norbert Roettgen
said in Berlin today. He said the aim is “to strengthen the
capital market , possibly with the help of the KfW” because the
grid companies don’t have the scale to finance multi-billion-
dollar projects alone. KfW said its talks with the government could result in
opening the fund for grid projects by boosting its value or
using the existing amount, according to Wolfram Schweickhardt, a
spokesman for the bank. “While no decision has been made,
nothing is being ruled out,” he said. Roettgen said the government is considering “possibly
expanding the 5 billion-euro program,” opened by the KfW last
year . He didn’t specify whether this meant increasing the fund’s
size or whether it would be opened to cover grid projects, which
currently aren’t covered. The government will make a decision
this summer. Germany seeks to have 25 gigawatts of turbines in its
waters by 2030, up from about 0.2 gigawatts at the end of last
year. The grid delays have been a setback for Chancellor Angela
Merkel’s plan to shift to a nuclear-free energy mix based on 80
percent renewable sources by 2050. Siemens AG (SIE) today cut its annual profit forecast for the
third time in five years after it booked 481 million euros in
extra costs this year from delays in hooking up marine wind
farms to the grid. EON AG and RWE AG (RWE) , the country’s biggest
utilities, have threatened to halt investment in wind projects
until obstacles are removed. To contact the reporter on this story:
Stefan Nicola in Berlin at
snicola2@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Reed Landberg at
landberg@bloomberg.net | 2012 | germany-may-increase-support-for-offshore-wind-roettgen-says |
Goldcorp Profit Misses Estimates as Canada Output Slows | By Liezel Hill | 2012-04-26T20:23:41Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/goldcorp-profit-misses-estimates-as-canada-output-slows.html | 4 | 25 | 579818ed427649978b1f30fbecb6464d | Goldcorp Inc. (G) , the second-largest
gold producer by market value, reported first-quarter earnings
that trailed analysts’ estimates as production declined at a
Canadian mine. The shares fell the most in more than two years. Net income fell 26 percent to $479 million, or 51 cents a
share, from $651 million, or 81 cents, a year earlier, the
Vancouver-based company said yesterday in a statement. Profit
excluding mark-to-market gains on securities and other one-time
items was 50 cents a share, less than the 53-cent average of 18
estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Sales climbed 11 percent to
$1.35 billion. The company said gold output dropped 39 percent at Red Lake
in Ontario, its top producer, because of difficult ground
conditions and lower-than-expected grades. The company produced
524,700 ounces of gold at all its mines in the first quarter,
compared with 637,600 ounces a year earlier. George Topping , a
Toronto-based analyst at Stifel Nicolaus & Co., had estimated
production of 572,400 ounces. The company will complete a review of the production plan
at Red Lake by midyear, Chief Executive Officer Chuck Jeannes
said yesterday in a telephone interview. He said it’s too early
to say whether the company will need to revise its output and
cost forecasts. The ground problems probably aren’t “very
serious,” he said. “We’ve experienced these kinds of things in the past,”
Jeannes said. “We’ll have a much better sense by the end of the
second quarter where we stand.” Shares Drop Goldcorp dropped 6 percent to C$38.02 at the close in
Toronto, the biggest decline since July 28, 2009. The 64-company
S&P/TSX Global Gold Index (SPTSGD) fell less than 0.1 percent. Goldcorp said in January it expected to produce 2.6 million
ounces of gold this year at costs of $550 to $600 an ounce. The
company plans to boost annual production by about 70 percent to
4.2 million ounces by 2016, as new mines start up in the
Dominican Republic , Argentina and Canada . All the projects are still on schedule, Jeannes said. Goldcorp said its average cost to produce and sell gold
increased in the first quarter, primarily because of lower gold
production. So-called co-product cash costs were $648 an ounce
in the quarter compared with $504 a year earlier, the company
said. Brian Yu, an analyst at Citigroup Inc. in San Francisco ,
had estimated average costs of $571 an ounce. Stifel’s Topping
estimated $628. ‘Dragged Down’ Goldcorp’s results were “dragged down by poor production
at Red Lake,” Topping said in a telephone interview yesterday. Red Lake is the “cornerstone on which the company has been
built,” Topping said. “It’s very important, it is their high-
grade, low-cost operation.” Jeannes said mergers and acquisitions in the gold sector
may accelerate as potential targets look cheaper. “With the valuations having come down, it’s probably more
likely that you will see activity in the sector,” he said. “We’re not stressed to go out and buy anything, but we
always keep our eyes open,” he said. Gold, which has risen for 11 straight years, averaged
$1,694 in the first quarter in New York , 22 percent more than a
year earlier. Futures for June delivery rose 0.9 percent to
$1,657.80 an ounce at 10:38 a.m. on the Comex. Barrick Gold Corp. (ABX) , based in Toronto, is the world’s
largest producer of the metal. To contact the reporter on this story:
Liezel Hill in Toronto at
lhill30@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Simon Casey at
scasey4@bloomberg.net | 2012 | goldcorp-profit-misses-estimates-as-canada-output-slows |
REC Rises on Industry Beating Polysilicon Costs: Oslo Mover | By Stephen Treloar | 2012-04-25T11:07:31Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/rec-reports-loss-as-it-closes-wafer-production-in-norway.html | 4 | 25 | f3e5c06fd7c366a35083e6b5acb9ddab353089f1 | Renewable Energy Corp. ASA (REC) , the
Norwegian maker of solar-energy components, rose the most in
more than a month as it met cost targets for polysilicon
production and closed a wafer plant. REC rose as much as 8.4 percent, the most since March 15,
and was up 6.8 percent at 3.21 kroner as of 12:57 p.m. in the
Norwegian capital, making it the second- biggest gainer in the
Bloomberg Global Leaders Solar Index. “The cash costs in the polysilicon division were very
strong,” Eirik Vegem Dahle, an analyst at Pareto Securities
ASA, said by phone. REC is industry leading in its production
cost for polysilicon and will survive an industry shakeout,
Dahle wrote in a note to clients. European solar-component makers are under pressure from
Chinese rivals that expanded capacity just as consumption
slowed, causing wafer and cell prices to plummet. REC,
Solarworld AG and Q-Cells SE have cut production as demand
shrinks in the region, where Germany, France and Italy have
reduced subsidies to cap booming solar installations. REC’s cash cost of producing a metric ton of polysilicon
fell to $12.50 in the first quarter from $14 the fourth quarter,
achieving a target set for the end of 2012, the company said. Price Pressure REC produced 5,672 metric tons of polysilicon in the
quarter. Multicrystalline and monocrystalline wafer output was
84 megawatts. It produced 157 megawatts of modules, in line with
the projected 160 megawatts. First-quarter earnings before interest, tax, depreciation
and amortization were 455 million kroner ($79.6 million),
beating the 436 million-krone estimate of 11 analysts surveyed
by Bloomberg. It posted a net loss of 209 million kroner. “Industry wide overcapacity continued to put pressure on
market prices throughout the quarter,” the Sandvika-based
company said in a statement. Low prices are “putting a severe
margin pressure on most market participants and production
capacity continues to be adjusted down throughout the industry” REC decided to close its remaining wafer production in
Norway as cost cuts at the Heroeya plant were unable to keep
pace with falling wafer prices, the company said yesterday. It’s not considering any asset sales in its polysilicon or
module divisions following the halt in Norway, Chief Executive
Officer Ole Enger said today in an interview. Average selling prices for polysilicon fell 15 percent in
the quarter, wafer prices were down 24 percent and module prices
dropped 18 percent, REC said. While low product prices will force more solar producers
into insolvency, low valuations and a positive outlook for solar
energy will lead to more consolidation, Enger said. “We will see more restructuring,” he said. “We see
activity both among the industry and also among private equity
or others.” To contact the reporter on this story:
Stephen Treloar at
streloar1@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Christian Wienberg at
cwienberg@bloomberg.net | 2012 | rec-reports-loss-as-it-closes-wafer-production-in-norway |
HMS Group Says Full-Year Profit Doubled to 3.22 Billion Rubles | By Brad Cook | 2012-04-25T08:52:06Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/hms-group-says-full-year-profit-doubled-to-3-22-billion-rubles.html | 4 | 25 | 2dfdb410ea0640302a5a598084f3ade294ace8d0 | HMS Group Plc, a Russian pump maker
for the oil and gas industry, said 2011 profit more than doubled
from a year earlier to 3.22 billion rubles ($110 million). Revenue gained to 27.5 billion rubles from 23 billion
rubles, HMS said in a statement today. To contact the reporter on this story:
Brad Cook in Moscow at
bcook7@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Brad Cook at
bcook7@bloomberg.net | 2012 | s-group-says-full-year-profit-doubled-to-3-22-billion-rubles |
Watson to Buy Actavis for $5.6 Billion in Generics Deal | By Alex Nussbaum and Naomi Kresge | 2012-04-25T21:49:06Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/watson-to-buy-actavis-for-5-6-billion-in-generics-deal.html | 4 | 25 | c7da08dbaa1a4af1b7e43777c6afa46c | Watson Pharmaceuticals Inc. (WPI) , maker
of the generic version of Lipitor cholesterol pills, agreed to
buy closely held drugmaker Actavis Group hf for 4.25 billion
euros ($5.6 billion), expanding its reach in Europe and Asia . The deal will create the third-largest global generic-drug
maker with $8 billion anticipated in 2012 revenue, Parsippany,
New Jersey-based Watson said today in a statement. Watson will
add 5.5 million shares, valued at $330 million, to the deal in
2013 if Actavis hits certain performance milestones this year. “The transaction itself is commercially compelling, it’s
financially compelling, and it expands our team,” Watson Chief
Executive Officer Paul Bisaro said today in a conference call.
“The combination of all of those things, I think, is going to
make an extremely powerful global company.” Actavis would boost Watson’s presence in central and
Eastern Europe , China and India , said Michael Faerm, a Credit
Suisse analyst in New York. Actavis said Dec. 21 it’s also
developing its own pain medications. Actavis’s “mix of higher-value, non-commodity products
fits Watson’s strategy and enhances this strength,” Faerm said
in a March 21 note to clients. Watson, which makes the authorized copy of Pfizer Inc. (PFE) ’s
Lipitor, gained 1.6 percent to close at $69.69 at the close in
New York before the deal was announced. The shares rose 19
percent in the past 12 months, compared with an 11 percent
return for the S&P 500 Health Care Index. Sales Growth Actavis’s sales rose 9 percent last year to almost 1.9
billion euros, spokesman Frank Staud said in a March 22 e-mail.
The company, based in Zug, Switzerland , makes generic versions
of the attention-deficit treatment Ritalin and the sedative
Ambien, among other products. In a Dec. 21 statement, Actavis
announced a partnership with QRxPharma Ltd. (QRX) , of North Sydney,
Australia, to introduce pain medication MoxDuo IR in the U.S. The Swiss drugmaker saw MoxDuo as “a flagship product in
the company’s growing pain management franchise,” Actavis said.
In all, Actavis has about 850 products on the market, according
to its website. It makes injectable drugs and creams as well as
tablets and capsules. The companies overlap on about 10 percent of their
products, giving Watson access to many new compounds in the
deal, said Asthika Goonewardene, a Bloomberg Industries analyst. Actavis has more than 10,000 employees worldwide, a sales
presences in more than 40 countries and about 300 projects in
development, Watson said in the statement. Industry Deals There have been have been almost 120 generic-drugs
takeovers worldwide over the past decade, according to data
compiled by Bloomberg. Watson is paying about 14 times earnings
before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization for
Actavis, in line with the median that buyers paid in 10 deals
over that period, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Watson reported sales of $4.58 billion last year. Actavis, backed by Deutsche Bank AG (DBK) , overhauled its
business after billionaire owner Bjorgolfur Thor Bjorgolfsson
lost money in the financial crisis, leaving the Frankfurt-based
lender with as much as 5 billion euros of debt, people familiar
with the company said in 2009. The drugmaker refinanced its debt
in 2010. Actavis Chief Executive Officer Claudio Albrecht said in an
interview last June that he was weighing an initial public
offering or merger for the company within three years. Albrecht
said he would prefer for Actavis to be about three times its
current size. He moved the company from Iceland to Zug in May. Bank of America Corp. served as sole financial adviser to
Watson, while Latham & Watkins LLP provided legal counsel.
Actavis received financial advice from Blackstone Group LP and
Deutsche Bank AG, with Clifford Chance LLP acting as legal
adviser. To contact the reporters on this story:
Alex Nussbaum in New York at
anussbaum1@bloomberg.net ;
Naomi Kresge in Berlin at
nkresge@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Reg Gale at
rgale5@bloomberg.net ;
Phil Serafino at
pserafino@bloomberg.net | 2012 | watson-to-buy-actavis-for-5-6-billion-in-generics-dea |
Matthew Broderick Lumbers Through Gershwins’ ‘Nice Work’ | By Jeremy Gerard | 2012-04-25T02:00:00Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/matthew-broderick-lumbers-through-gershwins-nice-work-.html
“Nice Work If You Can Get It,”
which stars Matthew Broderick and Kelli O’Hara, isn’t nearly as
self-important and ambitious a disappointment as “The
Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess.” The show, drawing hither and yon from the Gershwin
songbook, demonstrates how hard it is to create the illusion of
effortless whimsy. A new book by Joe DiPietro pays heavy-handed tribute to the
flimsy plots that Guy Bolton and P.G. Wodehouse once devised for
George and Ira to showcase their sublime ditties. The result is mostly a flop-sweat inducing affair. However
appealing Broderick and O’Hara are individually, as romantic
leads, they’re weak sparks on damp leaves. Fortunately, a pair of first-rate second bananas | 4 | 25 | 703e888c12bd4a13b42e8d17f10feb83 | enterprise. Set during the Prohibition, “Nice Work” has the requisite
elements: Jimmy Winter, an aimless scion under the thumb of his
tyrannical mother and betrothed to a society girl, falls for
Billie Bendix, a spirited working-class girl. A Greek chorus of statuesque chorines streams out of
cramped places to serenade them as they court. This will all be
familiar from more successful Broadway “revisals” like “Crazy
for You” and “My One and Only.” Beach Cottage The action unfolds primarily in Jimmy’s 47-room Long Island
“beach cottage,” where Billie and her gang of bootleggers have
stashed their contraband. Jimmy (Broderick) shows up unexpectedly with soon-to-be
wife number four (Jennifer Laura Thompson), an Isadora Duncan-
like dancer whose father is a senator. But Billie (O’Hara)
catches his eye and soon they’re crooning the title song (far
too early in the show, by the way). There will of course be plenty of silly obstacles along
their way to matrimonial bliss. Most of the fun is provided by McGrath, as a snappish gang-
member unhappily put to work as a butler on the estate, and Kaye
as the senator’s Temperance-spouting sister. They do a divine
duet that pairs “By Strauss” and “Sweet and Lowdown.” The
unsinkable Estelle Parsons makes a delightful last-minute
appearance as Jimmy’s mother. Earthbound Broderick is too long in the tooth to be relying on the
boyishness that once was his signature quality, and too
earthbound in his dancing and singing to put an audience, let
alone his partner, at ease. Thus abandoned, O’Hara can do little more than plaster a
smile on her face and plow on through. They do well by “Will You Remember Me?” from 1924’s
“Lady Be Good,” though less so by such standards as “Let’s
Call the Whole Thing Off” and “But Not For Me.” In such a show nearly everyone’s work is seen in an
unflattering light. Martin Pakledinaz’s costumes are unpretty;
Derek McLane’s sets are just serviceable; only Peter Kaczorowski’s lighting is better than that. I did enjoy Bill Elliott’s brisk, brassy orchestrations. In the end, though, director/choreographer Kathleen
Marshall couldn’t overcome the fatal combination of ill-matched
lovers and creaky machinery. George and Ira will undoubtedly
survive. At the Imperial Theatre, 249 W. 45th St. Information: +1-
212-239-6200; http://www.telecharge.com . Rating: *1/2 (Jeremy Gerard is the chief U.S. drama critic for Muse, the
arts and leisure section of Bloomberg News. The opinions
expressed are his own.) Today’s Muse highlights include Greg Evans on television
and Ryan Sutton on restaurants . To contact the writer of this column:
Jeremy Gerard in New York at
jgerard2@bloomberg.net . To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Manuela Hoelterhoff at
mhoelterhoff@bloomberg.net . | 2012 | atthew-broderick-lumbers-through-gershwins-nice-work- |
Mobius Says His Funds Buy More Europe Stock Amid Debt Crisis | By Andra Timu | 2012-04-25T14:49:08Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/mobius-says-his-funds-buy-more-europe-stock-amid-debt-crisis-1-.html | 4 | 25 | d4601eb150d3292cc664250eda18b6c9bf2bb25f | Templeton Emerging Markets Group’s
Mark Mobius said that his funds are buying more European stocks
amid the debt crisis. “The stocks in the European countries have gone down
excessively as a result of the bad news emanating from this
crisis and we find good investment opportunities at bargain
price and we are increasing the purchases of these stocks,”
Mobius, who oversees more than $40 billion as executive chairman
of Templeton Emerging, said in Bucharest today. Central and eastern European shares are cheaper than in
other developing nations, with the MSCI Emerging Markets Europe
Index trading at six times estimated earnings, compared with
10.5 times for the MSCI Emerging Markets Index and 12.4 times
for the MSCI World Index, according to data compiled by
Bloomberg. “We don’t think the crisis will last forever and the
European economies will recover nicely, there will be much more
fiscal disciple in one year or two,” Mobius said, adding that
he was buying shares in consumer-oriented companies and was
focusing on eastern Europe . To contact the reporter on this story:
Andra Timu in Bucharest at
atimu@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
James M. Gomez at
jagomez@bloomberg.net | 2012 | obius-says-his-funds-buy-more-europe-stock-amid-debt-crisis-1- |
EU to Delay Insurance Oversight Regulations, FTD Reports | By Patrick Donahue | 2012-04-25T18:32:32Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/eu-to-delay-insurance-oversight-regulations-ftd-reports.html | 4 | 25 | f063d7e94ab01f09e821fab1c3260454d8b2637a | The European Commission will delay
the implementation of insurance-oversight regulations by half a
year as officials debate the structure of the new rules,
Financial Times Deutschland reported. Legislation is under way to push the date of implementation
of the so-called solvency II rules, which entail oversight on
insurers’ capital position and reporting systems, to June 30 of
next year from Dec. 31, 2012, the newspaper cited the office of
EU Commissioner Michel Barnier as saying. The new rules will be binding for all the region’s insurers
from Jan. 1, 2014 To contact the reporter on this story:
Patrick Donahue in Berlin at
pdonahue1@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
James Hertling at
jhertling@bloomberg.net | 2012 | eu-to-delay-insurance-oversight-regulations-ftd-reports |
Arizona Immigration Argument May Lead to National ID | By Noah Feldman | 2012-04-25T20:49:45Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/arizona-immigration-argument-may-lead-to-national-id.html
Can the police stop you and make
you show your papers? In Europe , the answer has long been yes. On Wednesday, the U.S. Supreme Court took up the issue | 4 | 25 | a040c11cc5374a34a57190eb9d011348 | issue when the government didn’t raise it in the first place.
But if the court holds that Arizona can experiment with
“papers, please,” you should consider renewing your passport
before bringing the family to the Grand Canyon. ( Noah Feldman , a law professor at Harvard University and
the author of “Scorpions: The Battles and Triumphs of FDR’s
Great Supreme Court Justices,” is a Bloomberg View columnist.
The opinions expressed are his own.) Read more opinion online from Bloomberg View. To contact the writer of this article:
Noah Feldman in Cambridge, Massachusetts, at
noah_feldman@harvard.edu . To contact the editor responsible for this article:
Tobin Harshaw at tharshaw@bloomberg.net . | 2012 | arizona-immigration-argument-may-lead-to-national-id |
Empellon Serves Sublime Glands, No Tacos: Ryan Sutton | By Ryan Sutton | 2012-04-25T04:01:00Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/empellon-serves-sublime-glands-no-tacos-ryan-sutton.html
Empellon Cocina, a modern Mexican
spot in Manhattan , doesn’t serve tacos. The policy is clearly
stated in a 400 word essay on the website. Here’s an excerpt: “We are avoiding tacos altogether at
this restaurant because we feel that tacos would make our lives
too easy, mentally.” Get your No. 2 pencils, everyone. It’s time for dinner with
chef Alex Stupak. The 32-year-old Stupak bathes squid in an immersion
circulator at 59 degrees Celsius for 30 minutes, after which
it’s seared and paired with a chilhuacle chile and “29 other
ingredients.” Let me simplify: The calamari is mind-numbingly good. The
tender spirals of white squid are the correct counterpoint to
black mole sauce and seriously smoky chorizo mayonnaise. That’s the fun part. Stupak’s food is only complicated
until you start eating, at which point it becomes delicious. Empellon’s dark dining room sports a candlelit statue of
the Virgin Mary, standing atop “The Big Fat Duck Cookbook ,” a
culinary Bible that explains how rotary evaporators and liquid
nitrogen make everything taste better. Perhaps she is meant to
be blessing the food. A plate of Empellon ’s lamb sweetbreads is cooked so soft
they’re like a carnivore’s panna cotta, trembling until they
burst into a musky bliss. Masa Crisps Stupak used to be the sweets guy at Alinea and WD-50
turning out bendable chocolate and other chemistry experiments
disguised as food. Then he gave up his candy credentials to serve fried pork
rinds. Stupak and his wife, pastry chef Lauren Resler, opened
their first Empellon in the West Village last year. It serves
excellent tacos. Then in February they gave birth to Empellon Cocina in the
East Village. It serves everything else. Sort of. Can I get some tortilla chips? Nope. Out come masa crisps in their place. They pack the robust
flavor of corn with the unique crunch of Kix breakfast cereal.
They’re paired with pistachio-studded guacamole ($12). Heat comes in many forms. Gentle is the ocean trout, topped
with oily roe here, cream cheese there. And just when you think
Stupak is deconstructing a bagel, you detect the soft pinch of
sal de gusano | 4 | 25 | a07002ca29ce4117a7549779a7b65615 | like the Chatham cod with chilaquiles verdes. Advanced imbibers will order the Fidencio Tobala ($16). The
mezcal’s spice cuts through the creamy fat of shellfish flan,
while the tobacco notes of a Fidencio Madrecuixe ($20) work with
lobster covered in tetilla cheese ($19). The latter dish comes with a side of house made tortillas,
and so does the Wagyu tartare ($16). The meat, a bit bland at
first, becomes gently more flavorful as it warms up in the
tortilla. It’s all quite brilliant. Stupak is still learning his Mexican ways. His menudo ($14)
tastes more like clams than tripe, though some won’t object to
that. Skip the spongy rabbit and order the duck with tinga
poblana ($24), a spicy tomato sauce that caused me to devour the
dish in five minutes flat, to the horror of my date. Finish with rice pudding, as airy as foam, or frozen mango
mousse, wearing a sexy lime perfume. Modern Mexican indeed. Rating: *** The Bloomberg Questions Price: Most small plates under $20. Sound Level: Sometimes over 80, but open-air windows and
soundproofing keep the acoustics in check. Inside Tip: Go with a group and share everything. Special Feature: Over 100 tequilas and mezcals. Back on My Own Dime: Frequently. Empellon Cocina is at 105 First Avenue. Information: +1-
212-780-0999 or http://www.empellon.com .
Sound-Level (in decibels): 51 to 55: Quiet enough to converse.
56 to 60: Speak up. 61 to 65: Lean in if you want to hear your
date. 66 to 70: You’re reading one another’s lips. 71 to 75:
You’re yelling. 76 to 85: Ear-splitting din. (Ryan Sutton writes about New York City restaurants for
Muse, the arts and leisure section of Bloomberg News. The
opinions expressed are his own.) Muse highlights include Jeremy Gerard on Broadway and Greg
Evans on film. To contact the writer of this column:
Ryan Sutton in New York at rsutton1@bloomberg.net or
qualityrye on http://twitter.com/qualityrye To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Manuela Hoelterhoff at
mhoelterhoff@bloomberg.net . | 2012 | empellon-serves-sublime-glands-no-tacos-ryan-sutton |
Blackstone’s GSO Plans to Raise $3.25 Billion for Rescue Fund | By Sabrina Willmer | 2012-04-25T15:00:00Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/blackstone-s-gso-plans-to-raise-3-25-billion-for-rescue-fund.html | 4 | 25 | 1c237623e15b9d24f6785f292389577a75c4a005 | GSO Capital Partners LP, the credit
investment arm of Blackstone Group LP (BX) , expects to raise about
$3.25 billion for its second company rescue fund, according to
two people briefed on the plans. GSO, based in New York , is discussing the offering with
investors and marketing materials haven’t yet been sent, said
the people, who asked not to be named because the information is
private. The first fund, Blackstone/GSO Capital Solutions Fund,
closed in July 2010 with $3.25 billion as well. Heather Lucania, a spokeswoman for Blackstone Group,
declined to comment. The new fund will adopt a strategy similar to the debut
fund, which provides capital to companies in need of liquidity
or changes to their capital structure stemming from covenant
violations, debt maturities, or downturns in their business. The
first fund produced a 13.7 percent net internal rate of return
and a 1.1 times multiple as of Sept. 30, according to
performance data from California Public Employees’ Retirement
System , which invested $250 million. In March, GSO wrapped up its second mezzanine fund focused
on middle-market companies, GSO Capital Opportunities II LP, at
$4 billion, twice the amount it raised for its first mezzanine
fund. GSO, which was purchased by Blackstone in 2008, managed
$47 billion in assets, primarily debt, as of Dec. 31. GSO was
founded in 2005 by Bennett Goodman , Douglas Ostrover and
J. Albert Smith. All three previously worked at Credit Suisse
Group AG. To contact the reporter on this story:
Sabrina Willmer in New York at
swillmer2@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Christian Baumgaertel at
cbaumgaertel@bloomberg.net | 2012 | blackstone-s-gso-plans-to-raise-3-25-billion-for-rescue-fund |
US Airways Loss Unexpectedly Shrinks on Traffic, Fares | By Mary Schlangenstein | 2012-04-25T12:28:13Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/us-airways-loss-unexpectedly-shrinks-on-traffic-fares.html | 4 | 25 | a32de67e531cec54f69347b89c103acde3572222 | US Airways Group Inc. (LCC) , a potential
merger partner for American Airlines , said its first-quarter
loss narrowed more than analysts expected to $22 million, as the
carrier flew more passengers and collected higher fares. The loss of 13 cents a share, excluding gains on an asset
swap, shrank from $110 million, or 68 cents, on that basis a
year earlier, the Tempe, Arizona-based company said in a
statement today. The loss was narrower than the 23-cent average
of 12 analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg. US Airways ’ 5.4 percent growth in passenger traffic in the
carrier’s main jet operations and 5.7 percent increase in
average fares helped diminish the effect of higher jet-fuel
costs. Sales rose 10 percent to $3.27 billion. Since the start
of 2010, US Airways has reported losses in only the first
quarter of each year. “Consumer demand for our product remains very high,”
Chief Executive Officer Doug Parker said in the statement. “We
continue to be encouraged with the overall strength in passenger
demand” heading into the busy summer travel season. US Airways, the smallest of the major U.S. full-service
carriers, has reached agreements with each of American’s major
unions on contract terms, contingent on a successful takeover of
the bankrupt airline. AMR Corp. (AAMRQ) ’s American this week began
trying to persuade a bankruptcy court to let it replace existing
contracts with new concessionary terms after failing to
negotiate accords with its unions. Airline Consolidation Parker long has backed consolidation among U.S. airlines.
He oversaw the 2005 combination of America West Holdings Corp.
and US Airways, and since has failed in attempted mergers with
Delta Air Lines Inc. and United Airlines parent UAL Corp. US Airways’ results included a $73 million gain from the
December swap of landing and takeoff slots with Delta at New
York’s LaGuardia and Washington ’s Reagan National airports and a
$3 million special operating charge. Including those items, US
Airways had a net profit of $48 million, or 28 cents a share,
compared with a net loss of $114 million, or 71 cents, a year
earlier. US Airways gained 4.2 percent to $9.70 at 8.21 a.m. in New
York . The shares have risen 84 percent this year before today. To contact the reporter on this story:
Mary Schlangenstein in Dallas at
{ maryc.s@bloomberg.net } To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Ed Dufner at { edufner@bloomberg.net } | 2012 | us-airways-loss-unexpectedly-shrinks-on-traffic-fares |
Gingrich Said to Suspend Presidential Campaign Next Week | By Jeanne Cummings | 2012-04-25T14:59:35Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/gingrich-said-to-suspend-presidential-campaign-next-week.html | 4 | 25 | 5b891312d33776baf382ebeff257607daa9e4054 | Former U.S. House Speaker Newt
Gingrich will suspend his presidential candidacy next week,
according to a person familiar with Gingrich’s plans. Gingrich has won just two Republican primaries and fell far
behind in the delegate count to his party’s presumptive
nominee, Mitt Romney. To contact the reporter on this story:
Jeanne Cummings in Washington at
jcummings21@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Robin Meszoly at
rmeszoly@bloomberg.net | 2012 | gingrich-said-to-suspend-presidential-campaign-next-week |
Porsches, Peacocks and Taxing Luxury in Russia and Ukraine | By Leonid Bershidsky | 2012-04-25T15:02:26Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/porsches-peacocks-and-taxing-luxury-in-russia-and-ukraine.html
Post-Soviet voters are jealous folk who like the idea of soaking the rich. So when the leaders of Russia and Ukraine were looking for a crowd pleaser in an election year, they both made the obvious choice: Introduce a luxury tax. Now, both look likely to botch it. Russian president-elect Vladimir Putin 's proposal emerged amid the mass protests of the past winter, when he was seeking a way to win the allegiance of poorer Russians as a counterbalance to middle-class discontent. As he put it in a campaign speech , Russia's luxury tax would "be a publicly recognized form of payment for sacrificing investment in growth in favor of overconsumption and vanity." Putin's rhetoric worked, and might have contributed to an election victory wrought largely in the country's poorer regions. According to the All-Russian Center for the Study of Public Opinion , the tax was his best-remembered campaign promise, with 74 percent of Russians polled saying they heard about it, and 80 percent saying they supported it. Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich still has reason to be insecure as he prepares for parliamentary elections in October. His Regions Party, with only 19.5 percent popular support, lags behind its major rival, a bloc of opposition parties called the Front for Change and Fatherland. As a result, Yanukovich could end up with a hostile legislature, which in Ukraine plays a rather more important role than it does in Russia . Hence, Yanukovich is taking aim at the rich with his own luxury-tax proposal. In Ukraine, the idea is about as popular as in Russia: 47 percent of Ukrainians support it unconditionally and another 36 percent are for it if it really falls only on the rich, according to a poll by RosBusinessConsulting Ukraine. With the promises already made, it is up to financial and fiscal officials in both countries to work out the execution. Their distinct approaches highlight the differences between resource-rich Russia and largely agricultural Ukraine, and also between a politician who has already won and one who is still struggling. In Russia, with Putin safely elected, the finance ministry has chosen a very forgiving definition of luxury. The additional tax would fall on real estate worth more than 300 million rubles ($10 million), and on cars with engines yielding more than 300 horsepower. This will not go a long way toward alleviating a situation in which the income of the top 10 percent of the nation's population exceeds that of the bottom 10 percent by a factor of 16. “This is a proposal that makes sure no one will actually pay luxury tax,” moderate leftist legislator Oxana Dmitrieva told the daily Izvestia. Blogger odissey_77 pointed ou t that a Porsche Panamera would escape the extra taxation because it yielded exactly 300 horsepower, and that a house near Moscow, complete with tennis court, wine cellar, grottoed swimming pool and enclosure for peacocks would not be subject to the tax since it only sold for $8 million. “If the owner of these things can consider himself a member of the middle class, what about the 99 percent of Russia's population who do not even have one hundredth of this wealth? What class do they belong to?” the blogger asked. The parameters of the tax may yet change, but it is clear that only a very small number of people will ever pay it and its fiscal impact will be close to zero. Ukrainians took a different approach, using square footage and engine size to define luxury. Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Tigipko initially suggested imposing the tax on apartments larger than 200 square meters, houses of more than 400 square meters and cars with engine volumes exceeding 3.4 liters. But Ukraine, which lacks Russia's oil wealth, actually needs the tax to produce some revenue. So the finance ministry later lowered the thresholds to 120 square meters for apartments, 250 square meters for houses, and 3 liters for car engines | 4 | 25 | a5952d86efb04086b0ffd1626abeada9 | 2012 | porsches-peacocks-and-taxing-luxury-in-russia-and-ukraine |
|
Bank of Cyprus Reports 2011 Loss After Writing Down Greek Bonds | By Natalie Weeks | 2012-04-25T08:41:16Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/bank-of-cyprus-reports-2011-loss-after-writing-down-greek-bonds.html | 4 | 25 | 31d0f9aeb7347f1f6b6dbcb58ce40865a1ec8083 | Bank of Cyprus Pcl , the country’s
biggest lender, reported a revised loss of 1.37 billion euros
($1.81 billion) last year after a deeper writedown of its Greek
government bonds . The net loss compares with a year-earlier profit of 306
million euros, the Nicosia-based lender said in a statement late
yesterday. In preliminary earnings released on Feb. 21, the bank
reported a 1.01 billion-euro loss in 2011 based on a 60 percent
writedown of the debt. The lender said today it reduced the book value of its
Greek government bonds to 74 percent of their nominal value,
which led to a writedown of 1.73 billion euros, including
hedging costs. Including the impairment on Greek bonds, the bank reported
a pro-forma core Tier 1 ratio, a measure of financial strength,
of 3.6 percent for 2011. The level should reach 6.9 percent by
June 18 after the completion of a capital-increase plan, the
lender estimated. Central Bank of Cyprus Governor Athanasios Orphanides said
on Feb. 29 that Bank of Cyprus needs 400 million euros to reach
the European Banking Authority’s core Tier 1 capital target of 9
percent. Orphanides said losses for the east Mediterranean
country’s banks from the Greek debt swap were “manageable.” Bank of Cyprus’s deposits dropped 10 percent to 29.7
billion euros last year and non-performing loans stood at 10.2
percent, the lender said. The shares advanced 4.2 percent to 45 euro cents at 11:38
a.m. in Athens trading today, on course to snap a four-day
decline. To contact the reporter on this story:
Natalie Weeks in Athens at
nweeks2@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Jerrold Colten at
jcolten@bloomberg.net | 2012 | bank-of-cyprus-reports-2011-loss-after-writing-down-greek-bonds |
Equity Bank Gains Most in Nine Months on Profit: Nairobi Mover | By Eric Ombok | 2012-04-25T12:41:15Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/equity-bank-gains-most-in-nine-months-on-profit-nairobi-mover.html | 4 | 25 | 124fb1d88de7a794cb50080d4b43bda1490b35e5 | Equity Bank Ltd. (EQBNK) , Kenya ’s biggest
lender by customers, headed for the highest level in almost nine
months on first quarter earnings. The stock advanced 4.9 percent to 21.25 shillings by 3:10
p.m. in Nairobi, the capital, the strongest finish since Aug. 8.
The volume of shares traded was more than double the stock’s
three-month average, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. “We expect a bit of growth, but not to the same level as
last year because of the high interest rates which have slowed
down lending,” Kuria Kamau, a research analyst at Nairobi-based
Old Mutual Securities Ltd., said in a phone interview today. Equity Bank will announce tomorrow earnings for the three
months through to March, it said in an emailed statement
yesterday. In the 12 months to December, the lender’s net income
surged 44 percent to 10.3 billion shillings ($124 million) on
higher lending, especially to small- and medium-size companies.
Net interest income climbed to 19.3 billion shillings from 13.8
billion shillings, according to the bank. To contact the reporter on this story:
Eric Ombok in Nairobi at
eombok@bloomberg.net . To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Shaji Mathew at
shajimathew@bloomberg.net | 2012 | equity-bank-gains-most-in-nine-months-on-profit-nairobi-mover |
Antarctic Ice Loss Mainly From Warm Ocean Currents, Study Shows | By Alex Morales | 2012-04-25T17:00:00Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/antarctic-ice-loss-mainly-from-warm-ocean-currents-study-shows.html | 4 | 25 | 243f8ad25dcc2f728a072b1703b8e0a93dd8d69f | The loss of Antarctic ice is mainly
caused by warm ocean currents, according to a finding by British
Antarctic Survey-led researchers that will help gauge how much
the continent will contribute to rising sea levels. Upwellings of warm water are melting the base of 20 of the
54 ice shelves surrounding the southern continent that were
studied, according to a paper led by the Cambridge-based group
in the journal Nature today. The phenomenon is causing thinning
and acceleration of glaciers, the researchers said. The shelves
are ice masses resting on the sea that are attached to land. “We’ve looked all around the Antarctic coast and we see a
clear pattern: in all the cases where ice shelves are being
melted by the ocean, the inland glaciers are speeding up,”
Hamish Pritchard, lead author of the paper, said in an e-mailed
statement. “It’s this glacier acceleration that’s responsible
for most of the increase in ice loss from the continent and this
is contributing to sea-level rise.” Scientists are seeking to quantify how much the ice may
contribute to higher sea-levels after the United Nations in 2007
predicted water will rise 18 to 59 centimeters (7 to 23 inches)
this century. Ice in parts of the southern continent is growing
thicker after higher snowfall, while glaciers and ice shelves on
the Antarctic Peninsula, a northerly region pointing toward
South America , have retreated or broken up in recent years. Antarctica holds enough ice to raise sea levels by about 57
meters (187 feet), though melting isn’t likely for thousands of
years, according to the UN. Some ice shelves are thinning by a
few meters a year, and glaciers in response are draining
billions of tons of ice into the sea, Pritchard said. “Most profound contemporary changes to the ice sheets and
their contribution to sea level rise can be attributed to ocean
thermal forcing that is sustained over decades and may already
have triggered a period of unstable glacier retreat,” the
researchers wrote. They used a laser instrument aboard NASA ’s ICESat satellite
to gauge the changing ice thickness between October 2003 and
November 2008, taking 4.5 million measurements. The Netherlands’
Utrecht University, the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at
the University of California in San Diego , and Corvallis,
Oregon-based Earth & Space Research contributed to the study. To contact the reporter on this story:
Alex Morales in London at
amorales2@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Reed Landberg at
landberg@bloomberg.net | 2012 | antarctic-ice-loss-mainly-from-warm-ocean-currents-study-shows |
Imax Tests Laser Projector Built With Kodak Patents | By Anthony Palazzo | 2012-04-25T20:55:41Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/imax-tests-laser-projector-built-with-kodak-patents.html | 4 | 25 | 3975027b9ed81b42caa505fd4c8524be4fc96a21 | Imax Corp. (IMAX) , the pioneer of large-
screen cinema, has begun testing a prototype laser-projection
system, based on patents licensed from Eastman Kodak Co. (EKDKQ) , that
improves picture quality with brighter light. The system, which uses two projectors and incorporates
Mississauga, Ontario-based Imax’s image-enhancing technology,
will allow movies to be shown on screens 120 feet wide or more.
It will be available in the fourth quarter of 2013, said Greg Foster, chairman and president of filmed entertainment. The
company demonstrated the prototype to studios last week, using
clips including Warner Bros .’ “The Dark Knight Rises,” the
final Batman movie from director Christopher Nolan . The new system gives Hollywood studios and cinema chains
another potential tool to keep moviegoers in theaters as
competition mounts from large-screen televisions and Web-based
options. With the additional “horsepower” provided by laser’s
focused light, theaters can improve the picture quality,
including in newer formats such as 3-D. “We’re very pleased with where we are at this point, and
pleased with the reaction from our key partners,” Foster said
in an interview. Nolan showed clips from “The Dark Knight Rises,” at the
exhibitors’ Cinemacon trade show yesterday in Las Vegas . One-
third of the movie was shot using Imax cameras, he told the
audience there. Imax licensed the patents in October, paying Rochester, New
York-based Kodak $10 million upfront plus ongoing royalties and
a milestone payment, a person with knowledge of the matter said
then. Kodak filed for bankruptcy in January after digital camera
technology surpassed the film-based photography market the
company pioneered. Imax rose 3.4 percent to $24.38 at the close in New York
trading. The shares have added 33 percent this year. Warner Bros., owned by Time Warner Inc. (TWX) , also showed early
clips yesterday of Peter Jackson’s “The Hobbit: An Unexpected
Journey,” filmed at the faster rate of 48 frames per second,
which makes the image clearer and easier on the eyes. The movie
will be released in December with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios
Inc. To contact the reporter on this story:
Anthony Palazzo in Los Angeles at
apalazzo@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Anthony Palazzo at
apalazzo@bloomberg.net | 2012 | imax-tests-laser-projector-built-with-kodak-patents |
Canada to Introduce Budget Bill That May Alter CMHC Rules | By Andrew Mayeda | 2012-04-25T18:57:04Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/canada-to-introduce-budget-bill-that-may-alter-cmhc-rules.html | 4 | 25 | cb1e6a14e4dadbb5658fdb43803413c4bc71c758 | Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty plans to introduce legislation as early as tomorrow
that may contain changes to the oversight of Canada Mortgage &
Housing Corp. and rules governing covered bonds. The government said yesterday it plans to introduce a law
“to implement certain provisions of the budget,” according to
a document known as the Notice Paper. Under parliamentary rules,
the legislation can be introduced in the House of Commons as
early as tomorrow. In his March 29 budget, Flaherty said the government will
introduce “enhancements to the governance and oversight
framework” for CMHC, which insures mortgages and guarantees
mortgage-backed securities issued by banks. Asked about the potential role of the Office of the
Superintendent of Financial Institutions in overseeing CMHC,
Flaherty told reporters “I’ll talk to you about that tomorrow.
Tomorrow’s Thursday, right?” The International Monetary Fund has called on the federal
government to review the agency’s governance and oversight, and
assess whether the agency needs to do more to protect itself
against housing market risks. The government is considering whether OSFI, the banking
regulator, can play a role in “strengthening the oversight of
CMHC’s commercial operations,” Chisholm Pothier , Flaherty’s
chief spokesman, said in an e-mail April 3. Pothier declined to
comment today on the government’s plans. Covered Bond Legislation Flaherty also said in the budget that he would introduce
legislation to govern covered bonds, fixed-income securities
sold by banks using pools of mortgages as collateral. The
federal government guarantees the full value of mortgages
insured by CMHC and 90 percent of loans insured by private
firms. The Finance Department said in a May consultation paper it
was considering whether the law should encourage banks to secure
covered bonds with uninsured mortgages. If Canada barred banks
from securing covered bonds with government-insured loans, it
would raise costs for covered bonds because issuers would need
to pledge more collateral to gain AAA ratings. Canadian banks increased issuance of covered bonds this
year before Flaherty’s fiscal plan. The lenders sold $12.6
billion in covered bonds in the December-March period, compared
with $6.6 billion in the same period a year earlier, according
to data compiled by Bloomberg. To contact the reporter on this story:
Andrew Mayeda in Ottawa at
amayeda@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Chris Wellisz at
cwellisz@bloomberg.net | 2012 | canada-to-introduce-budget-bill-that-may-alter-cmhc-rules |
Coca-Cola Board Recommends 2-for-1 Stock Split | By Will Daley | 2012-04-25T13:13:00Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/coca-cola-board-recommends-2-for-1-stock-split.html | 4 | 25 | 32fc7c55fc19095dfe08cd7072d4c42d93716d03 | Coca-Cola Co. (KO) said its board voted
to recommend a two-for-one stock split to shareholders and said
the split will be the first in 16 years. The split will mark the eleventh in the stock’s 92-year
history, the Atlanta-based company said today in a statement. To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Will Daley at
wdaley2@bloomberg.net | 2012 | coca-cola-board-recommends-2-for-1-stock-spli |
Chained CPI Switch Is a Slam Dunk, Even in Election Year | By the Editors | 2012-04-25T23:01:41Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/chained-cpi-switch-is-a-slam-dunk-even-in-election-year.html
Sadly, Congress and the White House
seem incapable of agreeing on substantive measures to tackle the
$10.4 trillion mountain of U.S. debt . But there is one long-overdue piece of important business
that can and should get done: The adoption of a more accurate
gauge of U.S. inflation that would yield immediate savings and
help put the economy on firmer ground. The fix has already been
endorsed by lawmakers in both parties, the Obama administration,
many economists and a series of bipartisan deficit-reduction
panels. Best of all, it would help shore up Social Security.
Trustees for the retirement fund on April 23 projected it would
run dry in 2033, three years earlier than last year’s forecast. It has been widely recognized for almost two decades that
the current measure, the consumer price index , contains several
biases that cause it to overstate inflation anywhere from 0.3
percentage point to 0.8 percentage point , depending on which
expert you talk to. The miscalculation has damaging consequences
for the U.S. economy . The CPI is the benchmark that determines
cost-of-living adjustments for a wide range of government
programs, including Social Security and federal employee
pensions. It also is used to peg income-tax brackets,
exemptions, deductions and credits. Consumer Behavior A more accurate measure has long been available in the form
of the chained CPI, which corrects for one of the most prominent
distortions | 4 | 25 | 8750fe15c06f40adba9e6d8906cc07d2 | desirable or tolerable in our economy. But that discussion is
entirely separate from the important step we are recommending:
Let’s make sure the measure we use is accurate. Read more opinion online from Bloomberg View . Today’s highlights: the View editors on dealing with China ; Noah
Feldman on Arizona immigration arguments ; Caroline Baum on the
fiscal future ; Ezra Klein on money and politics ; Susan Crawford
on cyber protection ; Steven Neil Kaplan on inequality and
unemployment ; Jared Diamond on the roots of Japan’s economic
malaise . To contact the Bloomberg View editorial board:
view@bloomberg.net | 2012 | chained-cpi-switch-is-a-slam-dunk-even-in-election-year |
India’s Investment Grade Rating at Risk as S&P Cuts Outlook | By Kartik Goyal and Unni Krishnan | 2012-04-25T11:22:57Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/india-investment-grade-rating-at-risk-as-s-p-cuts-outlook-1-.html | 4 | 25 | 0914feefc2344090b96ccff1891821e2 | India ’s sovereign credit outlook
was lowered to negative from stable by Standard & Poor’s , taking
the nation a step closer to junk status and dealing a further
blow to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh ’s economic agenda. “India’s investment and economic growth have slowed, and
its current-account deficit has widened,” S&P said in a
statement today, reaffirming its BBB- long-term India rating,
the lowest investment grade. “We are revising the outlook on
the long-term ratings on India to negative to reflect at least a
one-in-three likelihood of a downgrade.” Bonds fell, stocks declined and the rupee pared gains as
S&P’s decision underscored rising concern that Asia ’s third-
largest economy will fail to stem a growth slowdown and widening
budget and current-account deficits. Singh’s push to lure
investment has been hurt by corruption scandals, inflation and
political opposition to steps such as opening the retail
industry to foreign companies. “This just lengthens the shadow that has been cast over the
India story,” said Vishnu Varathan , an economist at Mizuho
Corporate Bank Ltd. in Singapore. “It raises the big fear of
losing the investment grade rating, and what that means for
financing costs and the efforts for fiscal consolidation.” Bonds, Stocks and Rupee The yield on the 8.79 percent note due November 2021 rose
seven basis points, or 0.07 percentage point, to 8.64 percent as
of 3:32 p.m. local time. The BSE India Sensitive Index declined
0.2 percent. The rupee pared earlier gains and was up 0.3
percent to 52.52 per dollar. It slumped 16 percent last year,
the most in Asia. S&P said diminishing growth prospects, a deterioration in
trade performance or slow progress on fiscal reforms could lead
to a ratings cut. It expects the government “to face headwind in
implementing policy measures to improve its fiscal and
macroeconomic parameters in the near future, given the current
unfavorable political environment.” There is no need to panic following S&P’s move, Finance
Minister Pranab Mukherjee said in New Delhi today, adding
reforms will be on track and that he is confident India’s
economy will expand about 7 percent in the fiscal year through
March 31, 2013. In last month’s annual budget, Mukherjee estimated India’s
fiscal deficit at 5.9 percent of gross domestic product in 2011-
2012, the widest in the so-called BRIC group of biggest emerging
markets that also includes Brazil, Russia and China . Record Borrowing He proposed a cap on a subsidy program ranging from diesel
to fertilizers and raised service and excise taxes, seeking to
pare the gap to 5.1 percent of GDP this financial year. Funding
the shortfall requires record borrowing of 5.69 trillion rupees
($108 billion) in 2012-2013, the government estimates. Fitch Ratings and Moody’s Investors Service also grade
India one step above so-called junk status. Fitch yesterday
declined to comment on whether it plans to review or revise
India’s rating anytime soon and reiterated its BBB- grade, with
a stable outlook, on the nation’s long-term debt. India’s economic expansion moderated to 6.1 percent in the
quarter ended Dec. 31, the slowest pace in almost three years,
as costlier credit hurt consumer spending and dented investment.
The slowdown sapped tax receipts even as subsidies and a job-
guarantee program for rural workers fanned spending. Reserve Bank of India Governor Duvvuri Subbarao cut the
benchmark interest rate by a greater-than-forecast half a
percentage point on April 17, to 8 percent, seeking to bolster
growth with the first reduction since 2009. Lingering Price Pressures At the same time, the Reserve Bank signaled that price
pressures might limit room for further cuts. India’s wholesale
prices rose 6.89 percent in March from a year earlier, giving it
the fastest BRIC inflation. Indian companies seeking credit overseas may face higher
borrowing costs after S&P’s move, said Madan Sabnavis , chief
economist at Credit Analysis & Research Ltd. in Mumbai. At the
same time, the nation’s long-term growth outlook should help
underpin investment flows, he said. The Reserve Bank predicts Indian economic expansion of 7.3
percent in 2012-2013. The chance of a cut in India’s sovereign
rating is low partly because its economy is set to rebound in
the near term and given that the fiscal deficit is unlikely to
worsen substantially, said Sonal Varma , an economist at Nomura
Holdings Inc. in Mumbai. S&P said it may change India’s outlook or credit ratings
anytime in the next 24 months. The company said the ratings may
stabilize if the government takes steps to “reduce structural
fiscal deficits and to improve its investment climate.” Challenging Period Ratings changes aren’t necessarily accompanied by
corresponding moves in bond prices. Instead of falling in value
after S&P stripped the U.S. of the top AAA sovereign rating,
Treasuries rallied and the government’s borrowing costs fell to
record lows. Singh’s administration is facing one of the most
challenging periods since taking office in 2004. Among the
setbacks was the suspension in December of plans to open India’s
retail industry to foreign companies such as Wal-Mart Stores
Inc. Trade organizations have also said that businesses around
the world are re-evaluating investments in India because of
uncertainty over the nation’s tax laws following changes
proposed in the March 16 budget. Today’s action by S&P “is a negative move and further
solidifies the macroeconomic risks India is facing,” said
Rajeev Malik , senior economist at CLSA Asia-Pacific Markets in
Singapore . “Coming from the most conservative of the rating
agencies, it’s a wake-up call for the government to do something
meaningful soon.” To contact the reporter on this story:
Kartik Goyal in New Delhi at
kgoyal@bloomberg.net ;
Unni Krishnan at
ukrishnan2@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Stephanie Phang at
sphang@bloomberg.net | 2012 | india-investment-grade-rating-at-risk-as-s-p-cuts-outlook-1- |
U.S. Repo Close: Current 5-, Old 7-Year Notes at Low Rate, 0.03% | By Cordell Eddings | 2012-04-25T14:53:22Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/u-s-repo-close-current-5-old-7-year-notes-at-low-rate-0-03-.html | 4 | 25 | d4dc4528b5f74d31ae88f0f19c8dc8cb | The following is a summary of
closing rates in the market for U.S. repurchase agreements, or
repos, in New York . All repo rates are for overnight transactions at the bid
side of the market as reported by GovPX Inc., a unit of ICAP
Plc, the world’s largest inter-dealer broker. Lowest Repo Rate as of 10 a.m. New York time: The current 5- and old 7-year notes closed at the lowest
repo rate: 0.03 percent, down from 0.07 percent and unchanged,
respectively. Other Rates: Old 2-year note: 0.2 percent, down from 0.21 percent. Current 2-year note: 0.21 percent, unchanged. Old 3-year note: 0.23 percent, up from 0.21 percent. Current 3-year note: 0.23 percent, up from 0.2 percent. Old 5-year note: 0.04 percent, down from 0.06 percent. Current 7-year note: 0.23 percent, up from 0.2 percent. Old 10-year note: 0.21 percent, up from 0.2 percent. Current 10-year note: 0.22 percent, up from 0.21 percent. Old 30-year bond: 0.23 percent, up from 0.2 percent. Current 30-year bond: 0.2 percent, down from 0.21 percent. The bid for a security is the price that is quoted and
available for immediate sale of an asset. The offer is the price
available for immediate purchase of an asset. Current issues are the most recently issued securities, and
old issues are those sold previously with the same maturity. Specific Treasury securities in the greatest demand are
considered to be “on special.” Firms that want to borrow them
are willing to lend money overnight at rates below those on
general collateral or other Treasuries in exchange for them. Behind the Numbers Securities firms use repos to borrow money to finance
positions in Treasury, corporate and mortgage-backed securities.
They also borrow securities on reverse repos to make deliveries
of sales of securities the dealers don’t own, and engage in
speculative repo trading based on expectations for the future
direction of interest rates . Current 5- and 10-year notes often trade at the lowest repo
rates because they are widely used as hedges against positions
in corporate, mortgage and global debt. General Collateral Delivery repos: 0.25 percent, unchanged. The collateral is
sent to an investor’s bank against receipt of funds. Triparty repos: 0.28 percent, unchanged. A clearing bank
acts as a third party to make sure there’s adequate collateral
behind the repo and that it conforms throughout the life of the
transaction to the investor’s requirements, providing the
customer with an additional layer of safety. Securities firms are willing to pay higher rates to borrow
money through triparty repos because they can allocate leftover
collateral remaining at their clearing bank late in the day as
backing for the transactions, saving on delivery costs. Rates on general repos, or those backed by non-specific
collateral, are usually set slightly below federal funds levels. Treasury Bills The three- and six-month Treasury bills closed at 0.25
percent, unchanged. Federal Funds Federal funds, the overnight interbank lending rate, was at
0.15 percent, within the Federal Reserve ’s target range of zero
to 0.25 percent, according to ICAP. To contact the reporter on this story:
Cordell Eddings in New York at
ceddings@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Dave Liedtka at dliedtka@bloomberg.net | 2012 | u-s-repo-close-current-5-old-7-year-notes-at-low-rate-0-03- |
South Africa’s Transnet to Buy Site of Former Durban Airport | By Mike Cohen | 2012-04-25T14:12:25Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/south-africa-s-transnet-to-buy-site-of-former-durban-airport-1-.html | 4 | 25 | a44bda3408093cde080691c0489636a90f0458b1 | Transnet SOC Ltd., operator of
South Africa ’s ports and railways, will acquire the site of the
former Durban International Airport to build a new port,
Transport Minister Sibusiso Ndebele said. The project forms part of a government plan to improve
transport links between the eastern port city and Gauteng, the
country’s central industrial area, by 2050. Other key
initiatives announced by Ndebele today include the construction
of a dry port at Cato Ridge near Durban and the extension of
commuter rail services to the town of Pietermaritzburg some 68
kilometers (42 miles) east of the city. The government is prioritizing “the Durban-Johannesburg
corridor transport improvements,” Ndebele told lawmakers in
Cape Town. Preliminary estimates so far indicate that 100
billion rand ($12.9 billion) would be needed for the port-
development precinct and a half-trillion rand for the entire
corridor, he said. Ndebele didn’t provide details on how projects would be
financed or give time frames for their completion. To contact the reporter on this story:
Mike Cohen in Cape Town at
mcohen21@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Andrew J. Barden at
barden@bloomberg.net | 2012 | south-africa-s-transnet-to-buy-site-of-former-durban-airport-1- |
Dollar Falls as Bernanke Says He’s Prepared to Add More Stimulus | By Catarina Saraiva | 2012-04-25T22:58:13Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/dollar-falls-as-bernanke-says-he-s-prepared-to-add-more-stimulus.html | 4 | 25 | cf144cef8b1f43ef9427b5c86a0ebfcd | The dollar fell against most of its
major peers after comments by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S.
Bernanke that he’s prepared to “do more” to boost the economy
raised concern more monetary stimulus will debase the greenback. Bernanke commented at a press conference after the central
bank left borrowing rates unchanged while saying economic growth
will accelerate. South Africa’s rand and the Australian and
Canadian dollars climbed as stocks rallied. “Bernanke is definitely providing additional color to the
Federal Reserve’s forecast,” said Nick Bennenbroek , head of
currency strategy at Wells Fargo & Co . in New York. “The Fed
chairman is perceived by the market as someone who is willing to
be patient and cautious in terms of making any policy moves.” The dollar fell 0.2 percent to $1.3217 per euro at 5 p.m.
in New York . It touched $1.3237 earlier, the weakest level since
April 4. The greenback was little changed at 81.34 yen after
rising earlier as much as 0.5 percent. Japan ’s currency fell 0.2
percent versus the euro to 107.52. The rand climbed 0.6 percent to 7.7493 per dollar, and the
Aussie, as Australia ’s currency is nicknamed, added 0.4 percent
to $1.0353. Canada ’s dollar strengthened 0.4 percent to 98.34
cents to the greenback. Riskier assets traditionally benefit from stimulus programs
as investors search for higher returns, shunning the low yields
of nations such as the U.S. and Japan. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index of shares rallied 1.4
percent. ‘More as Needed’ “We remain prepared to do more as needed to make sure that
this recovery continues and that inflation stays close to
target,” Bernanke said at a press conference following a two-
day meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee in Washington . Fed policy makers upgraded their forecasts for growth and
unemployment this year while repeating their view that borrowing
costs are likely to remain “exceptionally low” at least
through late 2014. They now see the jobless rate averaging between 7.8 percent
and 8 percent in the fourth quarter, compared with estimates in
January of 8.2 percent to 8.5 percent. The economy is forecast
to grow 2.4 percent to 2.9 percent, versus 2.2 percent to 2.7
percent. “There’s a very muted market reaction,” said Mark McCormick , a currency strategist at Brown Brothers Harriman &
Co. in New York. “Right now, the U.S. economy appears to be
moderating, and we’re stuck in this zone of inaction where the
Fed is in a wait-and-see mode.” Low-Rate View Policy makers led by Bernanke are holding off on additional
steps to boost the economy amid signs the more than two-year
expansion is gaining strength. Still, the jobless rate isn’t
declining fast enough to satisfy central bankers, who repeated
their view today that borrowing costs are likely to remain
“exceptionally low” at least through late 2014. The central bank bought $2.3 trillion of assets in two
rounds of stimulus known as quantitative easing between December
2008 and June 2011. The Dollar Index (DXY) , which Intercontinental
Exchange Inc. uses to track the greenback against the currencies
of six major U.S. trading partners, lost 14 percent during that
period. The Fed has also kept its benchmark interest rate at zero
to 0.25 percent since December 2008. The greenback dropped earlier versus most major peers as
Commerce Department data showed U.S. durable goods orders slid
4.2 percent in March, the biggest decrease since January 2009,
after a revised 1.9 percent gain the prior month. Economists
forecast a 1.7 percent decrease, according to the median
estimate in a Bloomberg News survey. Worst Performers The dollar has weakened 2.6 percent this year, the second-
worst performance among the 10 developed-nation currencies
tracked by Bloomberg Correlation Weighted Indexes. The yen has
tumbled 8.5 percent. The pound fell today from a seven-month high versus the
dollar after a government report showed the U.K. slipped back
into recession, backing the case for the Bank of England to
extend its asset-purchase program. The British currency dropped as much as 0.4 percent to
$1.6082 was little changed at 81.78 pence per euro after gaining
to 81.44 pence yesterday, the strongest since August 2010. Hungary’s forint was the best-performing currency after a
government official said the country can start financial-aid
talks with the International Monetary Fund and the European
Union as soon as it passes legislation required by the EU. The currency rose 2.2 percent to 217.53 per dollar and
added 2.1 percent to 287.56 per euro. Won’t Ratify Pact The euro weakened earlier versus the dollar after Francois
Hollande , the leading candidate to become France ’s next
president, said the country won’t ratify the euro fiscal pact in
its current form if he is elected. He spoke at a press
conference in Paris. Hollande, a Socialist, has also criticized austerity
measures imposed throughout the euro region, saying he’ll
refocus the economy on growth if he wins. The euro zone’s
economy is forecast to contract 0.4 percent this year. “Some of the Hollande comments have really had an
impact,” said Mary Nicola , a currency strategist at BNP Paribas
SA in New York. “The candidates have a week to go and elections
are tight. It’s still a nervous point for investors.” To contact the reporter on this story:
Catarina Saraiva in New York at
asaraiva5@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Dave Liedtka at dliedtka@bloomberg.net | 2012 | dollar-falls-as-bernanke-says-he-s-prepared-to-add-more-stimulus |
ECB Says Banks Tightened Credit Standards Less in First Quarter | By Jana Randow | 2012-04-25T08:00:02Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/ecb-says-banks-tightened-credit-standards-less-in-first-quarter.html | 4 | 25 | 8adebeb68178835a52138222cf7cd74839e83f14 | The European Central Bank said
banks tightened credit standards much less in the first quarter
than in the previous three months and expect more demand for
corporate loans in the second quarter. “The net tightening of credit standards by euro area banks
declined substantially in the first quarter of 2012” and banks
anticipate “a further decline” of credit standards for loans
to non-financial corporations and housing loans in the second
quarter, the ECB said in its quarterly Bank Lending Survey
published today in Frankfurt. “For the second quarter of 2012,
banks expect much less negative net demand for loans to
households and a rise in demand for corporate loans.” The ECB has flooded financial markets with more than 1
trillion euros ($1.3 trillion) of cheap three-year cash to ease
banks’ funding pressures and unlock credit. The ECB said today
that banks’ access to retail and wholesale funding improved
across all funding categories in the first quarter, “but
particularly for debt securities and money markets.” “These developments attest to a substantial positive
impact” of the ECB’s two three-year longer-term refinancing
operations on banks’ funding conditions, the central bank said
in the report. Banks also indicated that sovereign debt-market tensions
“had a substantially smaller impact on funding conditions
through balance sheet and liquidity management constraints and
other more indirect channels” in the first three months of the
year, the ECB said. To contact the reporter on this story:
Jana Randow in Frankfurt at
jrandow@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Craig Stirling at
cstirling1@bloomberg.net | 2012 | ecb-says-banks-tightened-credit-standards-less-in-first-quarter |
Fed Officials Weigh Rules-Based Policy That Stay Flexible | By Steve Matthews and Jeff Kearns | 2012-04-25T04:00:01Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/fed-officials-weigh-rules-based-policy-that-stay-flexible.html | 4 | 25 | bd5f07f0d86f4cf5b9c23254ea35399f | Federal Reserve officials are
struggling to find consensus on a policy rule that’s predictable
to investors yet flexible enough to adjust to shifts in the
economy or markets. Vice Chairman Janet Yellen and Philadelphia Fed President
Charles Plosser this month said rules like one created by
Stanford University ’s John B. Taylor may help central bankers
avoid the impression that they are improvising. “Setting
monetary policy in a systematic or rule-like manner leads to
better economic outcomes,” Plosser said in an April 12 speech. Fed officials can’t afford to surprise investors and cause
a market disruption that impedes growth or spurs inflation, said
former St. Louis Fed President William Poole . At the same time,
any policy rule risks tying the hands of Fed officials should
the economy suddenly veer from their forecasts. “The trade-off is between the ideal of rules-based policy
and the reality of a messy world,” said Michael Feroli , chief
U.S. economist for JPMorgan Chase & Co. in New York and a former
Fed economist. The Federal Open Market Committee “appears to be
groping its way toward finding the right trade-off.” The policy-setting panel will probably repeat in a
statement today that subdued inflation and economic slack will
result in “exceptionally low” interest rates through at least
late 2014, economists said. The statement is due around 12:30
p.m. in Washington. The Fed at 2 p.m. will release policy makers’ forecasts for
growth, unemployment, inflation and the appropriate path of the
federal funds rate over the next several years. Chairman Ben S. Bernanke plans to hold a press conference at 2:15 p.m. Systematic Approach Taylor argued that the economy fares better when policy
makers pursue a systematic approach that reduces the chances of
error. His rule, developed in 1993, sets the main interest rate
based on the rate of inflation and the gap between the economy’s
potential and actual level of output. Poole favors such a rule because it would make policy more
predictable. He said repairing damage from a miscommunication
would be particularly challenging after the Fed cut its main
interest rate to zero and expanded its balance sheet to $2.88
trillion. “It ought not to appear that policy comes from a coin flip,
or is chosen from a table of random numbers,” Poole, senior
economic adviser to Merk Investments LLC in Palo Alto ,
California , said in an interview. An unpredictable approach
leads to “economic inefficiencies and more market volatility,”
he said. “That is the way it appears today.” August Statement Poole cited the Fed’s Aug. 9 statement that it would keep
its main interest rate low through mid-2013, a date that has
since been pushed back by the committee. The yield on the 10-
year Treasury note fell to 2.11 percent on the day after the
statement from 2.32 percent the day before. In an April 20 speech, Poole said the announcement “seemed
to come out of left” field. Plosser, who backs the idea of a
policy rule, said that with 17 members, the FOMC may not be
ready to reach a consensus. “I suspect that the FOMC participants are not ready to
agree on a specific policy rule or reaction function because
they use different models,” Plosser said in an April 12 speech. Until they adopt a rule, Fed officials should agree on a
set of economic variables that they would observe when setting
policy, Plosser said. “If we choose a consistent set of variables and
systematically use them to describe our policy choices, the
public will form more accurate judgments about the likely course
of policy, thereby reducing uncertainty and promoting
stability,” Plosser said. ‘Suite’ of Rules James Bullard , president of the Fed bank of St. Louis , told
reporters after an April 16 speech that he determines the FOMC’s
best way forward by reviewing “a suite of policy rules” while
focusing on the rate of economic growth. The Chicago Fed’s Charles Evans has suggested the Fed
refrain from tightening policy until unemployment falls below 7
percent or inflation exceeds 3 percent. “The Fed uses rules to provide a benchmark for policy
discussions as opposed to a mechanical formula to run policy,”
said Mark Gertler , an economics professor at New York University
who has co-written research with Bernanke. “There are too many factors unknowable in advance to turn
policy over to a mechanical rule,” he said. “At the same time,
I think laying out the basic criteria for when the Fed is likely
to add or withdraw stimulus is useful.” Inflation Target Plosser joined Bernanke in calling on the Fed to create an
inflation target, which the FOMC adopted in January by setting a
2 percent objective for price increases. “Plosser has been effective in pushing his agenda toward
at least getting more rules,” said Robert Brusca , chief
economist at Fact & Opinion Economics in New York . Fed Vice Chairman Yellen, in an April 11 speech, said that
while rules are “helpful in evaluating the stance of policy ,”
it would be “imprudent to adhere mechanistically to the
prescription of any single policy rule.” She said that applying the Taylor rule today would mean the
Fed should raise its benchmark interest rate, now close to zero,
in 2013. That’s in contrast to the Fed’s view that rates should
stay low at least through late 2014. Yellen said she favors a variant of the Taylor rule
focusing on growth and indicating rates should remain near zero
until early 2015. She said the variant “is more consistent with
following a balanced approach to promoting our dual mandate”
for price stability and maximum employment. Calculations Disputed Taylor disputed Yellen’s calculations in a commentary on
his website, saying the rule currently implies a federal funds
rate of 1 percent or higher. He also disassociated himself from
Yellen’s variation of his model, saying her approach focuses too
much on economic slack and could be used to support more asset
purchases by the central bank. Regardless of their differences over a policy rule, Fed
officials probably won’t shift much today from their prior
statement on March 13, economists said. Yields on benchmark 10-
year Treasury notes were at 1.97 percent yesterday, close to an
eight-week low, amid speculation the FOMC will keep borrowing
rates at record lows. Policy makers will probably revise down their forecasts for
unemployment following a drop in the jobless rate, and growth
may show “a small tick up,” Feroli said. To contact the reporters on this story:
Steve Matthews in Atlanta at
smatthews@bloomberg.net ; Jeff Kearns in Washington at
jkearns3@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Christopher Wellisz in Washington at
cwellisz@bloomberg.net | 2012 | fed-officials-weigh-rules-based-policy-that-stay-flexible |
Ethanol Output in U.S. Fell to 865,000 Barrels a Day, DOE Says | By Mario Parker | 2012-04-25T14:42:42Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/ethanol-output-in-u-s-fell-to-865-000-barrels-a-day-doe-says.html | 4 | 25 | 904d9b3258c120983426a9fdc0666087fb814307 | Ethanol production in the U.S. sank
the most in eight weeks to 865,000 barrels a day last week,
according to the Energy Department. Output sank 2.1 percent, the most since Feb. 24, to the
lowest level since Oct. 7, the department said in a report
released in Washington today. Stockpiles decreased 0.5 percent
to 21.9 million barrels, the report showed. Production of conventional gasoline blended with ethanol
tumbled 5.4 percent to 5.11 million barrels a day, the
department said, the lowest amount since March 2. Denatured ethanol for May delivery climbed 1.9 cents, or
0.9 percent, to $2.185 a gallon at 10:35 a.m. New York time on
the Chicago Board of Trade. To contact the reporter on this story:
Mario Parker in Chicago at
mparker22@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Dan Stets at dstets@bloomberg.net . | 2012 | ethanol-output-in-u-s-fell-to-865-000-barrels-a-day-doe-says |
Three Reasons Japan’s Economic Pain Is Getting Worse | By Jared Diamond | 2012-04-25T23:00:02Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/three-reasons-japan-s-economic-pain-is-getting-worse.html
Japan ’s economic problems are
serious and getting worse. Foremost among them is the crushing
burden of government debt. Japan’s ratio of government debt to gross domestic product ,
currently about 2.28, is by far the highest in the industrial
world, almost double that of even Greece and Italy , and steadily
growing. Already, the combined costs of interest on that debt
and social security are approximately equal to total government
tax revenue. Japan’s trade balance is about to go negative for the first
time since 1980. Land values and Nikkei stock values have fallen
to about 30 percent of 1989 levels. Now, educated young Japanese
women are emigrating, Japanese companies are shifting production
overseas (even to the U.S.), national politics are in gridlock
(six prime ministers in the past five years), and last year
Japan experienced its first mass street protests in decades. The economic troubles are symptoms of at least three sets
of deeper social problems. Regardless of what policies Japan now
adopts, its troubles can only increase unless those social
problems are solved. While all three of these also beset other
industrial societies, certain local attitudes make them more
severe in Japan. Marriage and Babies Throughout the industrial world, birth rates are falling,
and fewer people are marrying. Japan’s rate (7.31 births per
year per 1,000 people), already the world’s lowest, is still
dropping. If its rate of decrease over the past two years is
extrapolated, it reaches zero by 2017. Naturally, this dire
outcome won’t actually happen, but the calculation does
emphasize that the problem is increasing. In the U.S. and most European countries, in contrast, birth
rates are still more than 10 per year per 1,000 people, and in
Nigeria and Tanzania, they are more than 40. Japan’s marriage rate is low, too, even by industrial-world
standards: 5.8 marriages per year per 1,000 people, compared
with 9.8 in the U.S. The average age of marriage in Japan is now
31, and 18 percent of Japanese women 35 to 39 have never been
married. These numbers don’t reveal whether the reluctance to marry
and to have children is on the part of men, women or both. In
the absence of rigorous sociological polling, I’ll summarize
interviews that Japanese friends have conducted for me. They
report that most single adult Japanese still live with their
parents, because it’s comfortable to live at home and expensive
to leave. Young Japanese feel more comfortable communicating with
each other electronically than by phone or in person. “Over the
years that the formerly widespread practice of arranged marriage
almost completely disappeared,” one person explained to me, “the
digital revolution made it increasingly difficult for Japanese
to develop the social skills necessary to woo a potential spouse
themselves.” Among men, the biggest reasons given for not
marrying are worries about their economic future and their
ability to bear the responsibility for a family. Married women tend to manage the household finances and
take care of both their own and their husbands’ parents, and
many of them now swear they will be the last generation to be
saddled with those burdens. Career women, who find strength in
their education, jobs and earning power, are capable of
supporting themselves in the style to which they aspire, and are
buying condominiums and planning for their own retirements. If
they do want to marry, they find that their age is an obstacle,
because Japanese men over the age of 40 want much younger women.
If they do want children, Japanese societal support for working
mothers is low. Hence they either forgo children, or leave the
workforce or even leave Japan, and that represents a big loss of
human capital for the country. Much of what I have just said about marriage and babies
applies to some degree around the industrial world. Why should
these issues be acute in Japan? In most other countries, women’s
new opportunities are creating tension between men and women,
but it has been manageable because male society has made some
accommodation. Japan is the industrial country where women’s
roles were, until recently, most stereotyped; hence male
resistance to women’s expectations is still the greatest there. Old People, Immigrants Again throughout the industrial world, falling birth rates
and improved medical care have resulted in aging populations ,
making it harder to fund retirement systems over the long term.
Those trends reach their extreme in Japan because of its record-
low birth rate and relatively healthy lifestyles. It is the
country with the largest share of population (22 percent) over
65 years of age. Except for Monaco , it also has the longest life
expectancy , 84 years. But numbers alone don’t indicate the extent of the
problems. After all, the percentage of the population over 65 in
other First World countries is between 14 percent and 20
percent. What makes the problem so serious in Japan is the
country’s refusal to do what other countries have done: admit
massive immigration of younger people from overseas. It is very
difficult to immigrate to Japan, and (having immigrated) even
harder to obtain citizenship. Japan is the world’s most
homogeneous large country. This rejection of immigration not only bodes ill for the
future of Japan’s retirement system, but also deprives the
country of the pool of workers, artists, scientists and
inventors that immigrants represent for the U.S., Western Europe
and Australia . Many notable Americans have been immigrants or
their children. The long list includes, in recent times, Albert Einstein , Sergei Rachmaninoff, Vladimir Nabokov, Wernher von
Braun, Henry Kissinger and our current president. Differences in
immigration policies contribute directly to the big gap between
the U.S. and Japan in Nobel Prizes. The U.S. leads the world in
those awards, while Japan wins few despite high government
outlays for science. Scientific advances are essential to a technology-based
economy. Thus, while immigration creates big problems, lack of
it creates bigger ones. Non-Sustainable Resources No industrialized country is self-sufficient in renewable
natural resources, especially forest products and seafood. Some
must be imported. If the world’s forests and fisheries were well managed,
forest products and seafood could be harvested sustainably in
perpetuity. Unfortunately, most harvesting is destructive and
non-sustainable. Most of the world’s major fisheries are
declining or have already collapsed. Hence many government agencies and nongovernmental
organizations around the world are working toward
sustainability. One might naively predict that Japan, a small
country that is one of the most dependent on resource imports ,
would be the world’s leading promoter of sustainability. But the
reverse is true: Japan may be the First World country most
opposed to sustainable policies. Its imports of illegally
sourced and unsustainably harvested forest products are much
higher than those of the U.S. or European Union countries,
whether calculated on a per-capita basis or as a percentage of
total forest product imports. And Japan is a world leader in opposing prudent regulation
of fishing and whaling. Incredibly, in 2010, Japan saw it as a
great diplomatic triumph that it blocked international
protection for Atlantic/Mediterranean bluefin tuna | 4 | 25 | 32b6f5c098c145f8ad7094740f90a670 | exhaustion of both renewable and nonrenewable natural resources.
If I were the evil dictator of another country who hated Japan
and wanted to ruin it without resort to war, I would do exactly
what Japan is now doing to itself: destroy the overseas resource
bases on which it depends. The Future Since Japan’s economic problems result from its social
problems, their solution will require changes in Japanese
attitudes toward women’s roles, immigration and sustainable
resource use. Can Japan undertake the painful reappraisals this
will require? One cause for cautious optimism is the country’s history.
Twice in modern times, Japan has accomplished selective change.
The most drastic example came with the Meiji Restoration that
began in 1868. The forced opening of ports by Commodore Perry in
1853-54 raised the specter that Japan might be taken over by
Western powers. But the country saved itself with a crash
program: It ended its isolation from the outside world and
jettisoned its shogun leader, its samurai class, its feudal land
system and its ban on guns. It adopted a constitution, a cabinet
government, a national army, industrialization, a European-style
banking system, a new school system and much Western clothing,
food and music. At the same time, it retained its emperor, language,
writing system and most of its culture. Japan thereby not only
preserved its independence, but also became the first non-
Western country to rival the West in wealth and power. Again, after World War II, Japan made drastic selective
changes, abandoning its military tradition and its notion of a
divine emperor in favor of adopting democracy and developing an
export economy. Once again, Japan can selectively reappraise its core
values, let go of those that no longer make sense, and retain
the ones that still do and that give the country strength. So far, however, this doesn’t seem to be happening. (Jared Diamond, a professor of geography at the University
of California , Los Angeles , is the author of “Guns, Germs and
Steel” and “Collapse.” The opinions expressed are his own.) Read more opinion online from Bloomberg View . Today’s highlights: the View editors on saving Social Security
and dealing with China ; Noah Feldman on Arizona immigration
arguments ; Caroline Baum on the fiscal future ; Ezra Klein on
money and politics ; Susan Crawford on cyber protection ; Steven
Neil Kaplan on inequality and unemployment . To contact the writer of this article:
Jared Diamond at JDiamond@geog.ucla.edu To contact the editor responsible for this article:
Mary Duenwald at mduenwald@bloomberg.net | 2012 | ree-reasons-japan-s-economic-pain-is-getting-worse |
Draghi Says Crisis Boosted Financial Stability Risks in 2011 | By Jana Randow | 2012-04-25T09:30:00Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/draghi-says-crisis-boosted-financial-stability-risks-in-2011.html | 4 | 25 | 1e8c018c34e8ee4b014feee82af6f10fd8e1aaba | European Central Bank President
Mario Draghi said the region’s sovereign debt crisis
“considerably” boosted risks to financial stability last year. “Particularly in the second half of the year, contagion
effects in larger euro-area countries gathered strength amid
rising headwinds from the interplay between vulnerable public
finances and the financial sector,” Draghi said in the foreword
of the ECB’s 2011 Annual Report published today. “This was
accompanied by weakening macroeconomic growth prospects,
especially toward the end of the year.” The economy of the 17 euro nations contracted 0.3 percent
in the fourth quarter as budget cuts and surging unemployment
damped investment and consumption. The ECB cut its benchmark
interest rate to a record low of 1 percent in December and began
to flood markets with more than 1 trillion euros ($1.3 trillion)
in cheap three-year loans to unlock credit. While debt markets rallied after the tenders in December
and February as banks used some of the liquidity to buy
government bonds , that effect is waning. Spanish Prime Minister
Mariano Rajoy said in March the country will miss a 2012 deficit
goal set by the European Union. That pushed Spanish 10-year
yields above 6 percent last week while the cost of insuring the
country’s bonds against default advanced to a record. “The crisis has shown that ensuring sound public finances
is a prerequisite for overall macroeconomic and financial
stability, as well as for the smooth functioning of Monetary
Union,” the ECB said in the annual report. “The adoption of
the new governance reform package following intense negotiations
on the reform of the European Union framework of economic
governance was a step in the right direction, but does not
constitute the required ‘quantum leap’.” The ECB also said governments’ fiscal policies must
“adhere strictly” to provisions in the Stability and Growth
Pact. Greece, Ireland and Portugal “need to fully comply with
their program commitments” and “all countries subject to an
excessive deficit procedure need to ensure full compliance with
their budgetary targets,” the ECB said. To contact the reporter on this story:
Jana Randow in Frankfurt at
jrandow@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Craig Stirling at
cstirling1@bloomberg.net | 2012 | draghi-says-crisis-boosted-financial-stability-risks-in-2011 |
Oil Pares Gains in New York as Iran Comments on Sanctions | By Grant Smith | 2012-04-25T13:06:18Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/oil-pares-gains-in-new-york-as-iran-comments-on-sanctions.html | 4 | 25 | 39bb070db2e958a05a50fb24fb0c47226d67387d | Oil declined from a one-week high
in New York after Iran said it's considering a Russian plan to
halt the expansion of its nuclear program. The Islamic Republic, facing a European Union ban on
imports of its crude from July, will study a Russian proposal
made last week, Ambassador Mahmoud-Reza Sajjadi said in an
interview at the Iranian embassy in Moscow today. “A delay of the import ban is likely following the
beginning of talks with Iran,” said Eugen Weinberg , head of
commodities research at Commerzbank AG in Frankfurt, who last
month correctly predicted prices had peaked in the short-term.
“We may see more easing of the supply situation following it.” Crude for June delivery fell as much as 24 cents, or 0.2
percent to $103.31 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange ,
trading for $103.72 at 9:04 a.m. local time. Prices rose as much
as 94 cents earlier to $104.49 a barrel. To contact the reporter on this story:
Grant Smith in London at
gsmith52@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Stephen Voss at
sev@bloomberg.net | 2012 | oil-pares-gains-in-new-york-as-iran-comments-on-sanctions |
Drop in U.S. Durables Orders Masks Investment Gain: Economy | By Timothy R. Homan | 2012-04-25T20:24:06Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/orders-for-u-s-durable-goods-drop-by-the-most-in-three-years.html | 4 | 25 | 4d38e41f847645059e44cf5d7d7de710 | Orders for U.S. durable goods fell
in March by the most in three years, depressed by a pullback in
demand for aircraft that masked gains in business investment. Bookings for goods meant to last at least three years
dropped 4.2 percent, more than forecast and the biggest decrease
since January 2009, Commerce Department data showed today in
Washington . Sales of non-military capital equipment excluding
planes climbed for a second month, prompting some economists to
raise first-quarter forecasts for gross domestic product. Demand for cars and auto supplies is supporting companies
from 3M Co. (MMM) to Texas Instruments Inc., showing manufacturing
will underpin the world’s largest economy. At the same time,
factories may give way to service industries as a pillar of the
expansion as a slowdown in global growth curbs exports . “There’s some caution looking ahead,” said Tom Porcelli ,
chief U.S. economist at RBC Capital Markets LLC in New York .
“The new orders would suggest that there’s perhaps a modest
reassessment taking place.” The shipments figure “actually
bodes well for GDP” in the first quarter, he said. Federal Reserve policy makers said at the conclusion today
of their meeting that they expect the economy to expand
gradually, refraining from new actions to lower borrowing costs. The central bank “expects economic growth to remain
moderate over coming quarters and then to pick up gradually,”
the Federal Open Market Committee said in a statement after the
two-day meeting in Washington. Unemployment has fallen, “but
remains elevated,” policy makers said. Stocks Higher Stocks rose, sending benchmark indexes higher for a second
day, after better-than-estimated earnings from Apple Inc. to
Boeing Co. (BA) The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index climbed 1.4 percent,
the most in almost two weeks, to 1,390.69 at the close in New
York. Elsewhere today, a report showed the U.K. economy shrank
0.2 percent in the first quarter after contracting 0.3 percent
in the prior three months as Britain slid into its first double-
dip recession since the 1970s. Estimates of 81 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News
projected U.S. durable goods orders would fall 1.7 percent last
month. Projections ranged from a drop of 4 percent to a gain of
2.2 percent. Demand for transportation equipment dropped 12.5 percent,
the most since November 2010, led by a 48 percent plunge in
civilian aircraft bookings. Boeing said it received orders for
53 planes last month after demand surged to 237 in February. Boeing Profit Chicago-based Boeing today posted a first-quarter profit
that beat analysts’ estimates and raised its 2012 forecast as it
delivered more commercial jets while pushing production to
record levels. The world’s biggest aerospace company is boosting
output by more than 60 percent in the four years through 2014 to
pare a record order backlog. Bookings for automobiles and parts increased 0.1 percent
after a 2 percent rise the previous month, today’s durable goods
report showed. Auto manufacturing has been bolstering factory growth. Cars
last quarter sold at the fastest pace in four years, according
to industry data. 3M, the maker of fuel system tuneup kits and Post-it Notes,
yesterday jumped the most since January after posting a first-
quarter profit that beat analysts’ estimates because of rising
U.S. auto and industrial demand. The St. Paul , Minnesota-based
company’s industrial and transportation unit posted sales of
$2.66 billion, an 8.6 percent increase. Business Equipment Today’s report showed shipments of non-defense capital
goods excluding aircraft, used in calculating GDP, increased 2.6
percent in March after rising 1.4 percent the previous month. Bookings for such goods, a proxy for future business
investment in items like computers, engines and communications
gear, decreased 0.8 percent after a revised 2.8 percent increase
the prior month. The February gain was previously estimated at
1.7 percent. The gain in shipments prompted economists at Morgan Stanley
in New York to raise their tracking estimate for growth in the
first quarter to 2.9 percent from 2.7 percent before the data
were released. At the same time, the drop in orders is
“pointing to softer investment spending going forward,” Morgan
Stanley economist Ted Wieseman said in a note to clients. A Commerce Department report in two days will show the
economy grew at a 2.5 percent annual rate from January through
March after expanding at a 3 percent pace in the previous three
months, according to the median forecast of economists surveyed
by Bloomberg. The strongest gain in consumer spending in more
than a year will probably be offset by a smaller contribution
from inventory restocking, economists said. Caterpillar Caterpillar Inc. (CAT) , the world’s largest maker of construction
and mining equipment, is among companies still seeing gains in
demand. The Peoria, Illinois-based company today raised its
earnings forecast and posted first-quarter profit that topped
analysts’ estimates. Manufacturers mentioned gains in automotive and high-
technology industries, the Fed said in its Beige Book business
survey, published two weeks before today’s meeting in
Washington. The firms “expressed optimism about near-term
growth prospects, but they are somewhat concerned about rising
petroleum prices,” the Fed said in the report. To contact the reporter on this story:
Timothy R. Homan in Washington at
thoman1@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Christopher Wellisz at cwellisz@bloomberg.net | 2012 | orders-for-u-s-durable-goods-drop-by-the-most-in-three-years |
China’s Stocks Gain on Wen’s Economy Pledge, U.S. Data | By Bloomberg News | 2012-04-25T07:45:25Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/china-s-stocks-swing-between-gains-losses-on-earnings-economy.html
China’s stocks rose for the third
time in four days after Premier Wen Jiabao pledged to maintain
steady economic growth and U.S. housing data bolstered the
outlook for exports to the world’s biggest economy. China Vanke Co. (000002) and Poly Real Estate Co. led gains for real
estate companies after the China Securities Journal reported
investment funds bought more shares of developers in the first
quarter. Jiangxi Copper Co., the biggest producer of the metal,
gained 1.8 percent on speculation an improving global economy
will spur demand. Xinjiang Goldwind Science & Technology Co.,
the second-biggest maker of wind turbines , advanced 2.4 percent
after profit beat the company’s projection. “The government has the tools to stem a decline in
economic growth and they will act when the situation worsens,”
said Li Jun , a strategist at Central China Securities Co. in
Shanghai. “Earnings are still a major concern and will limit a
rebound. Trading will be range-bound for the time being.” The Shanghai Composite Index (SHCOMP) rose 18 points, or 0.8
percent, to 2,406.81 at the close. The CSI 300 Index (SHSZ300) added 0.8
percent to 2,625.99. The Bloomberg China-US 55 Index (CH55BN) , the
measure of the most-traded U.S.-listed Chinese companies,
retreated 0.4 percent in New York yesterday. Thirty-day volatility in the Shanghai Composite was at 18.7
today, near the lowest in a week. About 13.4 billion shares
changed hands in the Shanghai Stock Exchange yesterday, or 51
percent higher than the daily average this year. Maintain Growth The Shanghai index has climbed 9.4 percent this year amid
speculation the government will take measures to boost the
economy. Stocks in the Shanghai gauge are valued at 10.2 times
estimated earnings, compared with a record low of 8.9 times on
Jan. 6, according to weekly data compiled by Bloomberg. Premier Wen said the country will maintain steady growth
even amid signs the world’s second-largest economy is slowing.
The government in March lowered its annual economic growth
target to 7.5 percent from an 8 percent goal in place since
2005. “ China has confidence that it will sustain steady and
robust economic growth,” Wen said yesterday at a press
conference in Stockholm with Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik
Reinfeldt , according to an English translation of his remarks.
“China will remain committed to reform and opening up.” The growth rate of industrial production will be slightly
higher in the second quarter than in the previous three months,
Zhu Hongren , a spokesman for the Ministry of Industry and
Information Technology , said at a briefing in Beijing today.
Industrial output rose 11.6 percent in the first quarter. Mutual Fund Holdings Jiangxi Copper rose 1.8 percent to 25.59 yuan. Tongling
Nonferrous Metals Group Co. jumped 3 percent to 20.95 yuan. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index (MXAP) rose 0.2 percent today amid
better-than-estimated earnings at companies from AT&T Inc. to 3M
Co. and as data indicated the U.S. housing market is
stabilizing. The U.S. is China’s second-largest export market,
making up about 17 percent of the nation’s overseas shipments,
according to Shenyin & Wanguo Securities Co. Chinese mutual funds increased their average stock holdings
by 0.52 percentage point to 78.8 percent in the first quarter
from the end of 2011, the China Securities Journal reported
today, citing TX Investment Consulting Co. Mutual funds bought more shares of real estate developers,
banks and insurers in the first quarter, while selling shares of
information technology companies and drugmakers, according to
the report. A gauge of developers in the Shanghai Composite jumped 3.4
percent, the most among the five industry groups. Vanke, the
biggest developer, climbed 2.9 percent to 8.88 yuan. Poly Real
Estate advanced 2.5 percent to 12.31 yuan. Xinjiang Goldwind climbed 2.4 percent to 7.66 yuan. First-
quarter profit fell 97 percent from a year earlier, the company
said in a statement yesterday. That compared with an April 13
projection that profit may have been wiped out. Earnings Outlook Eight hundred and thirty-two companies in the Shanghai
Composite have released annual earnings. They posted profit
growth of 14 percent on average, trailing analyst estimates by
2.2 percent, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That
compared with an increase of 38 percent in the previous year. Chinese Internet stocks slumped in the U.S. on speculation
declining profit for Facebook Inc. and Apple Inc.’s drop to a
six-week low signal that the information technology sector is
faltering. Baidu Inc. (BIDU) , the nation’s biggest online search
engine, slid to the lowest since March 7 after forecasting
second-quarter sales growth below analysts’ estimates. The IShares FTSE China 25 Index Fund (FXI) , the biggest Chinese
exchange-traded fund in the U.S. rose for the fifth time in six
days, climbing 0.5 percent to $37.19 yesterday. | 4 | 25 | 5742d4fa06e44a50b600cd16e9b365ca | Zhang Shidong in Shanghai at
szhang5@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Darren Boey at dboey@bloomberg.net | 2012 | china-s-stocks-swing-between-gains-losses-on-earnings-economy |
A Pair of Kindle-Killers Surpass Amazon: Rich Jaroslovsky | By Rich Jaroslovsky | 2012-04-25T20:00:01Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/a-pair-of-kindle-killers-surpass-amazon-rich-jaroslovsky.html
Success breeds competition, a
lesson Apple (AAPL) knows well from its iPhones and iPads. Now
Amazon.com (AMZN) is learning it from two new devices that take dead
aim at its Kindle tablet-and-e-reader business. Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 is a low-cost, color-tablet
alternative to the Kindle Fire. Taking on the traditional
monochrome Kindle is Barnes & Noble’s Nook Simple Touch with
GlowLight. Each has features that surpass Amazon’s current
offerings. Of all the tablets launched in the iPad’s wake, the Kindle
Fire has fared the best, thanks to its low $199 price and easy
access to Amazon’s vast collection of books, movies and music.
But with chunky hardware and sluggish software, the Fire itself
is no great shakes. At $249, the Galaxy Tab 2 is $50 more expensive. But you
get your money’s worth in features missing from the Fire,
including front and rear-facing cameras and a remote-control
zapper for your home-entertainment gear. There’s also a more
elegant design and more-up-to-date software. The Galaxy, like the Kindle, operates only over a Wi-Fi
Internet connection. Both are based on Google’s Android
operating system. But while the Kindle runs a heavily modified
version that requires you to get apps only from Amazon, the
Samsung uses the latest tablet-friendly flavor, known as “Ice
Cream Sandwich,” that allows apps from multiple sources. Minimal Storage Like the Kindle, the Galaxy features a seven-inch backlit
color screen with 1024-by-600 resolution and a minimalist eight
gigabytes of onboard storage | 4 | 25 | 1cb1bd11b8744d5a9cd18bb9aa8694e9 | than other solutions. Little Imposition Aside from the $40 premium over the standard Nook, Barnes &
Noble says using the light doubles the Nook’s power consumption.
But battery life is already so great with E Ink (8069) devices that
having to charge the Nook once a month instead of every two
months doesn’t seem an undue imposition. At less than seven ounces, the new model weighs even less
than the already featherweight unlit version, and B&N has also
added a new anti-reflective screen protector. Amazon’s devices have so much momentum it’s unlikely that
the Galaxy Tab or Nook will dethrone them, and no doubt future
Kindles will quickly adopt the more compelling new features.
Still, the Galaxy Tab 2 and Nook with GlowLight provide
worthwhile alternatives. (Rich Jaroslovsky is a Bloomberg News columnist. The
opinions expressed are his own.) Muse highlights include Jeremy Gerard on Broadway and Jason
Harper on autos. To contact the reporter on this story:
Rich Jaroslovsky in San Francisco at
rjaroslovsky@bloomberg.net . To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Manuela Hoelterhoff at
mhoelterhoff@bloomberg.net . | 2012 | a-pair-of-kindle-killers-surpass-amazon-rich-jaroslovsky |
Germany ’Very Concerned’ on Reports on Ukraine’s Tymoshenko | By Patrick Donahue and Daryna Krasnolutska | 2012-04-25T18:25:36Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/germany-very-concerned-about-reports-on-ukraine-s-tymoshenko-1-.html | 4 | 25 | 707d486a0c68b5000a5d217fd1b2f97117d9704c | The German government is “very
concerned” about reports of mistreatment and abuse against
jailed Ukrainian opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko and restated
its offer to host her for medical treatment. “If these reports are true, then this action would be
considered completely unacceptable,” German government
spokesman Steffen Seibert told reporters today in Berlin.
President Joachim Gauck canceled a trip to Ukraine in mid-May
over the issue, Sueddeutsche Zeitung reported today. Tymoshenko, who has back problems, began a hunger strike
April 20 after she said she was attacked by three men who pulled
her out of bed, hit her in the stomach and forced her to be
hospitalized near the eastern city of Kharkiv without her
consent. Kharkiv Prosecutor Hennadiy Turin denied Tymoshenko was
beaten while being transported to the hospital, according to a
statement on the Prosecutor General’s Office website . Tymoshenko, a 51-year-old former prime minister, was
sentenced in October to seven years in jail for abuse of office
in signing a natural-gas pact with Russia in 2009. Her
imprisonment has drawn criticism from the European Union and the
U.S and has indefinitely delayed an Association Agreement with
the 27-member bloc. She says Viktor Yanukovych , who defeated her
to become president in a 2010 vote, engineered the case to
exclude her from this year’s parliamentary elections. Curtailing Democracy The targeting of members of the previous government “is
incompatible with the values that we hold high and feel
obligated to in Europe ,” said Seibert. “The legal system
cannot be used to curtail democracy and to block the opposition.
The Ukrainian leadership under President Yanukovych must find a
way out of this situation very quickly and once again allow free
political competition.” The cancellation of the German president’s trip to the
Ukrainian resort of Yalta for a meeting with regional leaders
was made in agreement with Chancellor Angela Merkel ,
Sueddeutsche Zeitung said, citing the president’s office. Tymoshenko said she refused to be transferred to a hospital
before talking to her lawyer, Serhiy Vlasenko, on April 23. She
was returned to her jail cell the next day. “Considering the poor state of her health, one can expect
that the possible consequences of this hunger strike would be
especially grave,” said Seibert. “Therefore in our view it is
all the more urgent that Ms Tymoshenko undergo appropriate
medical treatment. The offer of the government to allow Ms
Tymoshenko to undergo such treatment here stands.” Lawmakers from Tymoshenko’s party blocked access to
Ukraine’s parliament in the capital, Kiev, for a second day
today, demanding to be granted access to her. To contact the reporters on this story:
Patrick Donahue at
pdonahue1@bloomberg.net ;
Daryna Krasnolutska in Kiev at
dkrasnolutsk@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Balazs Penz at
bpenz@bloomberg.net | 2012 | germany-very-concerned-about-reports-on-ukraine-s-tymoshenko-1- |
General Dynamics Says Profit Fell 8.7% on Combat Unit Sales | By Gopal Ratnam | 2012-04-25T14:07:25Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/general-dynamics-says-profit-fell-8-7-on-combat-unit-sales-1-.html | 4 | 25 | 508be03f2fe54df7bcb78ba026a3c461 | General Dynamics Corp. (GD) said first-
quarter profit fell 8.7 percent, because of a decline in sales
and profit at its combat systems unit. Net income declined $564 million, or $1.57 a share, from
$618 million, or $1.64 a share, a year earlier, the maker of
Abrams battle tanks and Gulfstream jets, said today in a
statement. General Dynamics fell 1.2 percent to $69.19 at 10:04
a.m. in New York trading. After adjusting for a non-cash charge of 13 cents a share,
profit was $1.70 compared with the average estimate of $1.69 a
share by 20 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. Sales declined 2.8
percent to $7.58 billion. Jay Johnson, the company’s chairman and chief executive
officer, sees international and domestic demand for Gulfstream
jets offsetting weak orders for some of the company’s defense
products this year. The Gulfstream G650, a large-cabin, long-range business jet
that’s in development, already has a backlog of more than 200
orders and “it’s a very, very well-received airplane before it
ever even hits the market,” Johnson has said. Defense Cuts The company’s first quarter result “reflects continued
growth in our aerospace segment as well as the challenges
presented” by slow defense orders, Johnson said in the
statement today. The threat of automatic defense budget cuts, known as
sequestration, is slowing orders for General Dynamics’ military
radios, satellites, and information-technology systems, Johnson
said Feb. 23. General Dynamics, based in Falls Church , Virginia , said the
European operations of its Combat Systems unit had a $67 million
non-cash charge during the first quarter. The company reaffirmed
today its forecast for 2012 profit of $7.10 to $7.20 a share
made in January, less than the $7.33 a share estimate of 22
analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. General Dynamics rose 79 cents or 1.14 percent to $70.06
yesterday in New York trading. They have gained 5.5 percent
before today. Sales at the company’s Aerospace unit, maker of Gulfstream
jets, rose 20 percent to $1.62 billion, and profit gained 18
percent to $271 million, the company said. Gulfstream Demand Demand for Gulfstream jets was “healthy” in the quarter
with “particularly strong interest from North American
customers,” General Dynamics said in the statement. The Aerospace unit had a funded backlog of $16.7 billion at
the end of the first quarter, the company said. In its defense business, the company’s “high exposure to
Army spend is a concern,” Douglas Harned , an analyst at Sanford
C. Bernstein LLC in New York, wrote in an April 23 note to
clients. In addition to the Abrams tanks, the company makes
Stryker combat vehicles for the U.S. Army. Harned rates the
stock market-perform. The Pentagon plans to cut about $490 billion from its
planned spending over the next 10 years under budget-reduction
legislation, with an additional $500 billion if the automatic
cuts take effect starting in January. Revenue at the Combat Systems unit, maker of Abrams and
Stryker vehicles, fell 2.3 percent to $1.91 billion and unit
income declined 27 percent to $203 million, the company said. Sales at the Marine Systems unit, maker of the Navy’s
destroyers and nuclear-powered submarines, fell 4.2 percent to
$1.61 billion and profit gained 11 percent to $185 million. Information Systems and Technology sales fell 13.3 percent
to $2.44 billion and profit declined 21 percent to $218 million,
the company said. To contact the reporter on this story:
Gopal Ratnam in Washington at
gratnam1@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
John Walcott at
jwalcott9@bloomberg.net | 2012 | general-dynamics-says-profit-fell-8-7-on-combat-unit-sales-1- |
Icahn Drops Amylin Suit After Talks With Drugmaker’s CEO | By Jef Feeley and Meg Tirrell | 2012-04-25T19:49:27Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/icahn-drops-amylin-suit-after-talks-with-drugmaker-s-ceo-1-.html | 4 | 25 | 8d3706f7fe3bcd286328fed159e9553d4875dada | Billionaire Carl Icahn dropped a
lawsuit against Amylin Pharmaceuticals Inc. over a corporate
bylaw that blocked investors from ousting directors who rejected
a Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. takeover offer. Icahn, Amylin’s third-largest investor, withdrew the
complaint after meeting with Amylin Chief Executive Officer
Daniel Bradbury, Icahn said today in an e-mailed statement.
Icahn, who criticized Amylin officials for rejecting the $22-a-
share bid, didn’t disclose the subject of the talks. “I continue to strongly believe this company should be
sold at this time,” Icahn said in a telephone interview. “It
would be a great acquisition for a number of big pharma
companies.” Icahn, who has threatened proxy fights against at least
seven drug companies in the past five years, sued Amylin in
Delaware Chancery Court over a rule requiring advance notice of
candidates for board seats after the board rejected Bristol-
Myers’s $3.5 billion buyout bid. A separate Icahn suit pending in state court in Delaware
seeks records about Amylin’s consideration of the offer. Officials of San Diego-based Amylin, make of the diabetes
drugs Bydureon and Byetta , said they were pleased with Icahn’s
decision to drop the bylaw suit. ‘Greatest Value’ The company’s board “continually considers all options
available and is relentlessly focused on creating the greatest
value for our stockholders,” Alice Izzo, an Amylin spokeswoman,
said in an e-mailed statement. Amylin rose 2.9 percent to $26.28 at 3:32 p.m. New York
time in Nasdaq Stock Market trading. Before today, the shares
had gained 66 percent since March 27, the day before the
Bristol-Myers bid was reported. Icahn, who held 14.4 million Amylin shares as of April 4,
gained board representation in 2009 after running a proxy
contest in which he criticized the company’s ability to return
value to shareholders. In the bylaw suit, Icahn alleged that Amylin officials set
a Jan. 25 cutoff for submitting names of potential candidates
for company board seats. The deadline expired before the
disclosure of the Bristol-Myers offer, the billionaire said. The case was Icahn Partners LP v. Amylin Pharmaceuticals
Inc. (AMLN) , CA 7404, Delaware Chancery Court (Wilmington). To contact the reporters on this story:
Jef Feeley in Wilmington, Delaware at
jfeeley@bloomberg.net ;
Meg Tirrell in New York at
mtirrell@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Michael Hytha at
mhytha@bloomberg.net | 2012 | icahn-drops-amylin-suit-after-talks-with-drugmaker-s-ceo-1- |
Kenyan Shilling Gains First Day in Five on Higher Coffee Sales | By Bloomberg News | 2012-04-25T10:34:33Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/kenyan-shilling-gains-first-day-in-five-on-higher-coffee-sales.html | 4 | 25 | 4653718d18da4f0c0433303357c660f0bc10ce40 | Kenya ’s shilling strengthened for
the first time in five days, reversing an earlier decline,
helped by inflows of the U.S. currency from coffee sales. The currency of East Africa ’s largest economy appreciated
0.2 percent to 83.15 per dollar by 12:40 p.m. in Nairobi, the
capital, after earlier dropping as much as 0.2 percent. “In the morning, the currency had weakened on demand from
oil importers for month-end payments and corporates for salary
payments,” John Muli, a currency trader with Nairobi-based
African Banking Corp., said in a phone interview. “That’s since
turned around with dollar inflows from coffee and
horticulture.” Sales at Kenya’s weekly coffee auction rose 42 percent to
7,562 bags valued at $1.83 million, from 5,317 bags for $1.32
million last week, the Nairobi Coffee Exchange said today. The Ugandan shilling gained for a second day, advancing
less than 0.1 percent to 2,507.50 per dollar, while Tanzania’s
shilling climbed 0.1 percent to 1,584. To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Andrew J. Barden at barden@bloomberg.net | 2012 | kenyan-shilling-gains-first-day-in-five-on-higher-coffee-sales |
U.S. REIT Loans Surge on Volatile Bond Market, CreditSights says | By Christine Idzelis | 2012-04-25T17:11:06Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/u-s-reit-loans-surge-on-volatile-bond-market-creditsights-says.html | 4 | 25 | 0b8fb8903421ad04d6abd83d9cb9951410f854b2 | Banks seeking high-quality
commercial loans and a volatile bond market have driven a surge
in lending to U.S. real estate investment trusts, according to
CreditSights Inc. “The volume of new REIT unsecured term loans originated
through mid-April this year has already surpassed all of last
year’s record,” Craig Guttenplan, an analyst with New York-
based CreditSights, said in a research note today. The pace of borrowing among REITs has picked up since last
summer as investors are more comfortable lending to a portfolio
of assets rather than against individual properties, according
to the report. CreditSights sees unsecured loans becoming a more
prevalent source of financing for smaller trusts and weaker
credits because the debt is cheaper than bonds and has more
flexible terms. “The flexibility around a repayment date and ability to
extend loans are particularly important since the bond market
can be fickle and borrowers can potentially be shut out for more
than just a brief period,” Guttenplan said. The liquidity “crunch” after the failure of Lehman
Brothers Holdings Inc. in September 2008 underscored the risk
REITs face refinancing bonds, and the importance of maintaining
liquidity because their dividend requirements limit ability to
retain cash flow , according to CreditSights. General Growth
Properties Inc. (GGP) , the Chicago-based shopping mall owner, went
bankrupt in April 2009 after it failed to refinance debt. Volatile Bond Market A volatile bond market in the third quarter drove the
recent rise in term loan lending to REITs, along with their
“steady need for capital” to make new investments and fund
debt refinancing, according to the report. Bank demand for
“high quality commercial loans” is also behind the increased
pace of borrowing among REITs, even as commercial real estate
loans for individual properties continue to shrink, according to
the report. “Weaker credits have generally seen a significant
borrowing cost advantage in the bank loan market versus the bond
market in the current environment,” Guttenplan wrote in the
report. He cautioned that “one disadvantage” for REIT bondholders
is that loan covenants are typically tighter than in bond
indentures and may be more easily beached. To contact the reporter on this story:
Christine Idzelis in New York at
cidzelis@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Faris Khan at
fkhan33@bloomberg.net | 2012 | u-s-reit-loans-surge-on-volatile-bond-market-creditsights-says |
South African Unsecured Credit Growth Too Fast, SARB Says | By Andres R. Martinez | 2012-04-25T08:48:41Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/south-african-unsecured-credit-growth-too-fast-sarb-says.html | 4 | 25 | bf324f4d5ad8a90df15217c9066d7d8538caa638 | South African lending remains
“risk-averse” and consumers are reducing debt, the Reserve
Bank said, indicating growth in Africa ’s largest economy may
remain moderate. “None of the retail banks surveyed had loosened lending
standards in the fourth quarter,” the Reserve Bank said in its
half-yearly Financial Stability Review released in Pretoria, the
capital, today. “These results could be an indication that
banks still remain risk-averse.” Consumer spending and lending have been slow to recover
from recession in 2009, even as the central bank kept its
benchmark rate unchanged at 5.5 percent, the lowest level in
more than three decades, since November 2010. Rising oil and
electricity prices and new road tolls in Johannesburg may add to
inflation, eroding consumer demand, the Reserve Bank said. “Lower household demand will likely have a negative impact
on corporate-sector earnings,” the Reserve Bank said. Household debt as a percentage of disposable income dropped
to 74.6 percent in the fourth quarter from 77.3 percent a year
earlier, the central bank said. Total compensation rose an
annualized 8.1 percent in the fourth quarter, faster than
inflation, which was 6.1 percent in December. The report covers
the last six months of 2011. Commercial bank’s haven’t been tightening credit principles
and are lending responsibly, Rene van Wyk, the banking
regulator, said in Pretoria . No Systemic Risk While the bank is monitoring a surge in unsecured lending,
the increase doesn’t pose a “ systemic risk ” to the banking
system, the report said. “At these levels unsecured lending does not constitute a
bubble and the bank will continue to monitor developments
closely,” the Reserve Bank said. The value of unsecured loans in the third quarter of 2011
rose 53 percent from a year earlier to 101.1 billion rand ($13
billion), representing 8 percent of all lending, according to
South Africa ’s National Credit Regulator. The debt was less than
1 percent of total commercial-bank assets, Lesetja Kganyago,
deputy governor of the Reserve Bank, said today. South African banks may face “challenges” to meet
liquidity requirements under Basel III regulations, the central
bank said. The nation’s banks are stable and already satisfy
Basel III requirements for capital adequacy, it said. The rand strengthened 0.4 percent to 7.7625 against the
dollar by 10:30 a.m. in Johannesburg, the strongest level in
three weeks, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. To contact the reporters on this story:
Andres R. Martinez in Johannesburg at
amartinez28@bloomberg.net ; To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Andres R. Martinez in Johannesburg at
amartinez28@bloomberg.net | 2012 | south-african-unsecured-credit-growth-too-fast-sarb-says |
Bovespa Declines as Brazilian Banks Drop on Delinquency Concern | By Denyse Godoy | 2012-04-25T20:42:04Z | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/bovespa-declines-as-brazilian-banks-drop-on-delinquency-concern.html | 4 | 25 | 1efbd9188d5049cd9afa8237bc13370b | The Bovespa stock index declined as
Itau Unibanco SA (ITUB) led Brazilian banks lower after it said it
expects losses from bad loans to rise in the second quarter. Itau, Latin America’s biggest bank by market value, was the
worst performer on the MSCI Brazil/Financials Index, which fell
the most among 10 industry groups. OGX Petroleo (OGXP3) & Gas
Participacoes SA gained the most in four months after it said an
oil field off the coast of Rio de Janeiro was declared
commercially viable. The Bovespa dropped 0.4 percent to 61,750.38 at the close
in Sao Paulo. The real weakened 0.1 percent to 1.8800 per U.S.
dollar at 5:32 p.m. local time. Itau expects to spend as much as 6.4 billion reais in bad-
loan provisions in the second quarter, up from 6 billion reais
in the first three months of 2012, according to a regulatory
filing today. Banco Bradesco SA (BBDC4) ’s delinquency rate may rise 10
basis points in the second quarter, executive director Luiz Carlos Angelotti said in a conference call yesterday. “These alerts from banks regarding expectations of rising
delinquency rates really scared investors,” Pedro Paulo Silveira, chief economist at TOV Corretora, said by telephone
from Sao Paulo. “Considering interest rates are decreasing and
the economy is slowing down, banks may see their revenue fall as
well.” Economic Growth Brazil’s gross domestic product is expected to grow 3.21
percent this year, according to a weekly central bank survey
released April 23, down from a 3.30 percent projection March 16.
Policy makers lowered the benchmark lending rate last week by 75
basis points to 9 percent, near the record low of 8.75 percent. Itau fell 5.9 percent to 29.60 reais. Bradesco dropped 2.6
percent to 29.85 reais. The MSCI Brazil/Financials Index
declined 3.2 percent. OGX advanced 6.3 percent to 13.83 reais. The oil company
controlled by billionaire Eike Batista said its Waikiki field
has 285 million barrels of estimated recoverable oil reserves. Fibria Celulose SA (FIBR3) , the world’s largest pulp producer, fell
5.3 percent to 15.15 reais after selling 91.2 million shares for
15.83 reais each, a 1.1 percent discount from yesterday’s
closing price. Banco BTG Pactual SA (BBTG11) is raising as much as 3.66
billion reais in the biggest initial public offering for an
investment bank in two years, according to a regulatory filing
yesterday. Bovespa Year-to-Date Brazil’s benchmark equity measure has gained 8.8 percent in
2012, buoyed by local interest-rate cuts, signs of expansion in
the U.S. and speculation Europe may be closer to resolving its
sovereign-debt crisis. The gauge has fallen 9.7 percent since
this year’s high on March 13 as signs of a slowdown in China
spurred speculation that demand for commodities exports may
falter. The Bovespa trades at 10.4 times analysts’ earnings
estimates, in line with the 10.4 ratio for MSCI Inc.’s measure
of 21 developing nations’ equities, weekly data compiled by
Bloomberg show. Traders moved 7.7 billion reais in stocks in Sao Paulo
today, data compiled by Bloomberg show. That compares with a
daily average of 7.27 billion reais this year through April 19,
according to data from the exchange. To contact the reporter on this story:
Denyse Godoy in Sao Paulo at
dgodoy2@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
David Papadopoulos at
papadopoulos@bloomberg.net | 2012 | bovespa-declines-as-brazilian-banks-drop-on-delinquency-concern |