mai 2014

China factory activity hits five-month high in May, confirming stabilization

samedi 31 mai 2014

Activity in China's vast factory sector increased to a five-month high in May on rising new orders, official data showed on Sunday, reinforcing views that the world's second-largest economy is regaining momentum in the second quarter following Beijing's targeted measures to bolster growth. The official Purchasing Managers' Index rose to 50.8 in May from April's 50.4, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Sunday, beating market expectations of 50.6. "The PMI reading continued to improve in May, indicating that a trend of economic stabilization is becoming more evident," Zhang Liqun, a researcher at the Development Research Centre said in the statement accompanying the data. Beijing has unveiled a slew of targeted measures this year to help shore up the economy, including cutting reserve requirement ratios for rural banks, quickening construction of railways and public housing, and tax cuts for smaller enterprises.

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In China, managers are the new labor activists

Behind China's biggest strike in decades last month was a new player in Chinese labor activism: management. A previously unpublished account from inside the strike at Taiwanese shoe manufacturer Yue Yuen obtained by Reuters shows that supervisors were the first to challenge senior plant leaders about the social insurance contributions that became the focus of the dispute. Yue Yuen Industrial Holdings declined to comment. The involvement of managers underscores the growing complexity and unpredictability of labor relations in China.

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BlackRock's Fink jolts ETF business with 'blow up' warning

Fink, who runs the world's largest asset manager and ETF provider, said structural problems with leveraged ETFs have the potential to "blow up the whole industry one day." Sponsors of leveraged ETFs and related products, which make up only about $60 billion of global industry assets, called his remarks an exaggeration. Leveraged ETFs use derivatives and debt in an attempt to enhance returns - often by two or three times - that an investor would receive from putting money in stocks, bonds or other financial instruments. Fink, who was speaking at a Deutsche Bank conference in New York, drew parallels between the embedded leverage in some ETFs and two obscure Bear Stearns hedge funds that collapsed in 2007. A systemic risk could emerge from packaging inherently hard-to-trade securities, such as leveraged bank loans, into ETFs.

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Europe needs to stick to reform path to secure growth: ECB's Mersch

European policymakers should not give up on efforts to make their economies more efficient and stick to budget rules, despite a strong protest vote in European Parliament elections, the ECB's Yves Mersch said on Saturday. With far-right, anti-EU parties sweeping to unprecedented victories in France, Britain and Denmark and populists gaining ground elsewhere, political leaders face tough questions about the future direction of European integration. Mersch, a member of the European Central Bank's Executive Board, said it was essential to move ahead with structural reforms now, to finish what was started in 1999 and make the euro zone work.

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Fed officials say rates should not be used to fight bubbles

vendredi 30 mai 2014

A trio of Federal Reserve officials who disagree deeply with one another over the appropriate stance of monetary policy on Friday expressed a shared distrust for using interest rates to head off asset bubbles and other forms of financial instability. Both Richmond Fed President Jeffrey Lacker, a policy hawk, and San Francisco Fed President John Williams, a centrist, told reporters after a policy conference here that they would not want to risk unmooring the public's expectation that inflation will rise back to the Fed's 2 percent goal in the next few years. Chicago Fed President Charles Evans, one of the Fed's most ardent doves, echoed those sentiments. The role financial instability concerns should play in Fed policymaking has long been a subject of debate at the U.S. central bank.

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U.S. investigating Icahn, Mickelson in insider trading probe: source

The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Securities and Exchange Commission are investigating possible insider trading involving billionaire investor Carl Icahn, golfer Phil Mickelson and Las Vegas gambler William Walters, a source familiar with the matter said. Federal investigators are looking into whether Mickelson and Walters may have traded illegally on private information provided by Icahn about his investments in public corporations, the source told Reuters, confirming a report by the Wall Street Journal on Friday. Icahn, Mickelson and Walters were not immediately available for comment.

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U.S. bond market faces possible reckoning

The rally in U.S. Treasury bonds surprised many, taking 10-year yields to their lowest levels in 11 months. The bond market's rally is the result of a confluence of factors - falling yields in Europe, extra demand from pension funds, concerns among investors about long-term economic demand and technical factors, including short-covering from those who thought bond yields were headed higher. Since it's far from certain how the jobs data will come in or how forcefully the ECB will act, the bond market is likely to remain on edge. David Keeble, global head of interest rates strategy at Credit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank in New York, said a decent jobs report could "remind us that we have to get back to the reality that the economy is picking up."

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Exclusive: Intel TV creator leaves Verizon months after deal

SAN FRANCISCO/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Erik Huggers is leaving Verizon Communications Inc (VZ.N) just five months after joining the company via the acquisition of the Intel Corp (INTC.O) “OnCue” streaming service he developed, signaling the communications giant’s waning interest in providing an Internet-delivered TV service. The former BBC executive, who told Reuters on Friday he is departing the company, had worked on OnCue for Intel for more than two years before Verizon bought it in January to accelerate a push into video services, including TV channels delivered over the Internet, known as an "over the top", or OTT, service. While other companies have been talking up their plans to deliver such a service, a source familiar with the matter said that Verizon was now moving away from the OTT strategy and that the departure of Huggers, who was a proponent of an Internet-only service, reflected that. A Verizon spokesman confirmed Huggers' departure and in regards to its strategy said, “We obtained a strong combination of technological and personnel assets from Intel Media.

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This stock has only four down days in May

Shares of Netflix rose almost 30 percent in May, and only experienced four down days for the entire month. But, the magnitude of the move has some sounding the alarm.

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CEO Pay: An embarassement of riches

The median pay for American CEOs hit $11.4 million in 2013, or roughly 257 times the average American worker's income. But there's a widening pay gap even within the 1% and some, like @HiddenCash, are trying to give back.

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A gut check for bonds in the week ahead?

Why the markets may be at a crossroads and bonds could face a gut-check in the week ahead.

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This stock has only four down days in May

Shares of Netflix rose almost 30 percent in May, and only experienced four down days for the entire month. But, the magnitude of the move has some sounding the alarm.

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One option for better yields? Funds that sell options

Meager bond yields have prompted a rush for income investments, driving prices of junk bonds, REITs and other yield plays to expensive levels. Some funds sell stock options in a disciplined way to enhance income without adding much risk.

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Why people aren't buying jeans anymore

The trend toward so-called "athleisure" wear is threatening an American tradition: jeans. And it's not just women who are flocking toward yoga pants. Teens are, too, Levi's CEO Chip Bergh said.

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Bringing million-dollar vacation homes Into the sharing economy

A host of U.S. ventures are gearing up to entice the wealthy to list condos and vacation properties as short-term rentals

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What this unlikely market love affair is telling us

While sliding yields are an indication of investors seeking safety, the VIX hitting a nearly seven-year low tells us that investors aren't willing to pay much at all for downside protection.

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As May ends, Netflix is soaring

Netflix Inc. may not want the month of May to end. After all, the online video-streaming company’s 30% rise in its stock price made it the month’s best performer on the S&P 500 Index

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The latest billionaire collectible: Sports teams

There's a case to be made that sports teams are now valued more like Picassos, rare diamonds and vintage Ferraris than fundamental businesses.

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Valeant again boosts cash in offer for Allergan

Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc said on Friday that it would increase the cash component in its takeover bid for Botox-maker Allergan Inc for the second time this week, contingent on the two ...

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Los Angeles sues JPMorgan over mortgage lending practices

Los Angeles on Friday sued JPMorgan Chase & Co , accusing the largest U.S. bank of engaging in discriminatory mortgage lending practices that drove up foreclosures. The second most populous U.S. city said ...

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Fast food CEO: Minimum wage hikes closing locations

In cities where the minimum wage has gone up considerably, one fast food CEO said 'franchisees are closing locations.'

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Housing on the mend, ever so gradually

Though banks still lead, the gap is narrowing between sales of new homes by builders and of foreclosed houses by banks.

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The higher the market goes, the more skeptical Henry Blodget gets

Stocks set a series of record highs in May but Henry Blodget isn't throwing in the towel on his call about the rising risks of "a sharp and startling pullback."

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Ex-Goldman director Gupta loses bid to stay out of prison

Former Goldman Sachs Group Inc director Rajat Gupta will begin serving a two-year prison term on June 17 after a U.S. federal appeals court rejected his bid to stay free while he appeals his insider trading conviction. In a brief order on Friday, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York rejected a request by Gupta, a former global managing director of consulting firm McKinsey & Co, to delay his surrender and remain free on bail. Gupta, 65, was convicted in June 2012 of feeding tips from Goldman board meetings to longtime friend Raj Rajaratnam, founder of the Galleon Group hedge fund firm. Evidence included a September 2008 phone call, just before Goldman announced a $5 billion investment from Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc, in which Rajaratnam was heard telling a trader that he learned from a source, who prosecutors said was Gupta, that "something good might happen to Goldman."

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Beer giants eye hipster craft brewers

Craft beer has exploded on to the market, but the hop price rise could spell the end of small brewers and make it a ripe sector for acquisitions.

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Apple needs more big products, less big talk

Aaron Pressman peers into the crystal ball and gives us his take on Apple's upcoming WWDC

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Steve Ballmer, the Clippers and the basketball bubble

A $2 billion sale of the Clippers would be a record sale price for a basketball team. Forbes valued the Clippers at $575 million in January.

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U.S. house price gains seen moderating over next few years

U.S. house price rises will likely slow further over the next two years, curbed by tight lending standards, slow wage growth and a lack of first time buyers, a Reuters poll found. The analysts polled did not expect any major pickup in housing market activity, with annual rises in house prices gradually coming down through to 2016. We don't want to go back to stupid money," Mark Goldman, a real estate expert at San Diego State University in California said, referring to the eve of the Great Recession when subprime lending was rampant and home prices sky-rocketed. The housing market lost some momentum toward the end of 2013 and through the first few months of this year, held back by rising mortgage rates and unusually cold weather that caused the economy to contract at an annual rate of 1 percent in the first quarter.

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Could a return to the gold standard bring back balanced budgets?

In War and Gold, British Member of Parliament Kwasi Kwarteng traces the history of debt from 16th century Spain all the way to our post-2008 economy and concludes that tying currency to gold is the best policy. That the gold standard is essential to a strong and prosperous economy.

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Ex-Microsoft CEO Ballmer’s $2 Billion bid wins L.A. Clippers

Donald Sterling's approval wasn't needed as his wife completed the $2 billion sale of the Los Angeles Clippers to former Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer. Shelly Sterling signed a binding contract for the sale of the Clippers to Ballmer, according to a PR Newswire statement today. She was acting under her authority as the sole trustee of The Sterling Family Trust, which owns the Clippers. The sale was agreed upon five days before a vote by National Basketball Association team owners on whether to force a franchise sale.

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Dump gold, buy this instead: Portfolio manager

Gold is at its lowest level in months – and, it may be headed lower. One portfolio manager gives his suggestion on what to buy instead.

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Capital fears hit BNP Paribas after report of $10 billion U.S. fine

PARIS/LONDON (Reuters) - Shares in France's biggest bank BNP Paribas fell sharply on Friday on concerns a possible U.S. fine for alleged sanctions-busting could be big enough to restrict its dividends and force it to raise money to boost its capital. France's central bank said it was following the case "with the utmost attention" after a report in the Wall Street Journal said the U.S. Justice Department wanted $10 billion from the bank - double the amount which had been previously reported. BNP declined to comment on the report. Shares in BNP dropped as much as 6 percent on Friday to their lowest in more than eight months, slashing almost $5 billion off the bank's stock market value.

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Global shares steady after hitting record high; all eyes on ECB

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Pimco may be turning corner on money outflows - CEO

The world's biggest bond fund, Pimco, may be about to end a net outflow of client funds that reached 22 billion euros ($30 billion) in the first quarter, its Chief Executive Douglas Hodge told a German newspaper. Parent company Allianz this month called upon the California-based asset manager to prove it can stem the outflows after they dented its own earnings. Pimco has been an abundant source of cash for Allianz for years but its performance has become a growing problem since the departure of its co-chief investment officer, Mohamed El-Erian, this year following a clash with Pimco founder Bill Gross.

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US companies seek cyber experts for top jobs, board seats

Some of the largest U.S. companies are looking to hire cybersecurity experts in newly elevated positions and bring technologists on to their boards, a sign that corporate America is increasingly worried about hacking threats. JPMorgan Chase & Co, PepsiCo Inc, Cardinal Health Inc, Deere & Co and The United Services Automobile Association (USAA) are among the Fortune 500 companies seeking chief information security officers (CISOs) and other security personnel to shore up their cyber defenses, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

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Google takes steps to comply with EU's "right to be forgotten" ruling

REUTERS - Google Inc has launched a service through which European citizens can request that links to what they deem as objectionable material be taken off search results, the first step to comply with a court ruling affirming the "right to be forgotten." The world's largest Internet search engine, which processes more than 90 percent of all Web searches in Europe, said on Thursday that it has made available a webform through which people can submit their requests, but stopped short of specifying when it would remove links that meet the criteria for being taken down. Google also said it has convened a committee of senior Google executives and independent experts to try and craft a long-term approach to dealing with what's expected to be a barrage of requests from the region's roughly half-billion occupants. “In implementing this decision, we will assess each individual request and attempt to balance the privacy rights of the individual with the public’s right to know and distribute information,” reads the webform that Google made available on Thursday.

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US seeking more than $10 penalty from BNP Paribas

BNP Paribas SA (BNP) fell the most in 15 months in Paris trading after a person familiar with the matter said U.S. authorities are seeking more than $10 billion to settle federal and state investigations into dealings with sanctioned countries including Sudan and Iran. BNP Paribas, the largest French bank, has fallen 12 percent this year, compared with a 3.5 percent increase in the Bloomberg Europe Banks and Financial Services Index. A final deal between BNP and the U.S. is probably weeks away, said the person, who asked not to be identified because the talks aren't public. "Beyond the uncertainty related to the potential financial settlement, the key issues remain the type of potential charges and impact on BNP's operational capability," Kinner Lakhani, a London-based analyst at Citigroup Inc., said in a note.

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China bank watchdog says property loan risk under control but steps up oversight

China's banking regulator said on Friday it was stepping up oversight to prevent risks from some failed property developers from spreading into the broader financial system, but said overall risk from property loans was controllable. The China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) also urged commercial banks to work out emergency plans to mitigate risks stemming from the property sector, in a bid to ease investors' worries that the cooling real estate market could fuel an increase in bad loans. "The overall risk of loans to the property sector is under control, as the proportion of property loans in total bank lending is not very high," Wang Junshou, a deputy director at the general office of CBRC, told reporters at a news conference to present its annual report.

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Shares steady after hitting record high; all eyes on ECB

Global shares steadied on Friday after hitting record highs as investors positioned cautiously on the last trading day of the month, with the market's focus on next week's European Central Bank policy meeting. The MSCI world equity index .MIWD00000PUS, which tracks shares in 45 countries, was down 0.04 percent after scaling a new lifetime high earlier in the session as investors positioned to shield themselves from any disappointment from the ECB, which is widely expected to ease policy significantly on June 5. "The market will hold at current levels until the ECB meeting next week. Should the ECB disappoint the market, then I expect a negative reaction and equities will run into a consolidation that could hold in the summer months," Christian Stocker, equity strategist at UniCredit in Munich, said.

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Higher crude, global demand could drive gas prices higher

Will you be paying more to fill up your tank for that summer drive? LPL Financial's Jeff Kleintop things you might.

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30% of world is now fat, no country immune

Almost a third of the world is now fat, and no country has been able to curb obesity rates in the last three decades, according to a new global analysis. Researchers found more than 2 billion people worldwide ...

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Don't assume newest Fed policymaker is a look-alike hawk

The newest Federal Reserve policymaker is probably not as hawkish as her background suggests, and Loretta Mester's expertise in financial markets and inflation could make a splash as the U.S. central bank reverses its most accommodative policy experiment ever. Mester, a Fed veteran of nearly three decades, becomes president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland on Sunday after stepping down as head of research at the central bank's Philadelphia branch. A review of her past research and interviews with colleagues leave several questions on monetary policy unanswered. They show, however, that she has not clearly staked out positions alongside that of Charles Plosser, her boss at the Philadelphia Fed who has long criticized the central bank's aggressive crisis-era stimulus.

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Exclusive: U.S. companies seek cyber experts for top jobs, board seats

jeudi 29 mai 2014

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Fed's George wants rate hikes soon, and not too gradual

Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank President Esther George said Thursday she is open to leaving the U.S. central bank's balance sheet big even as it withdraws accommodation, a comment that reveals the extent of uncertainty at the Fed over future policy. The Fed's balance sheet now tops $4 trillion after years of buying bonds to boost the economy, a policy that George has opposed for years. At Stanford University's Hoover Institution conference on central banking, she reiterated her view that the Fed should start to raise rates "shortly after" it ends its current round of bond-buying, and that rate rises should be steeper than many now expect. Then she was asked how she feels about keeping the Fed's balance sheet big once rates start to rise.

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Asian shares higher in early trade, dollar inches lower

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan added about 0.2 percent, on track for a modest weekly rise, after hitting one-year highs for the fifth time in the last six sessions. Japan's Nikkei stock average (.N225) edged up 0.1 percent.

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Japan April core CPI rises to 23-year high after sales tax hike

Japan's core consumer prices jumped 3.2 percent in April from a year earlier, government data showed on Friday, the fastest gain since February 1991 as an increase in Japan's national sales tax boosted prices across the board. The increase in the core consumer price index, which excludes volatile fresh food prices but includes oil products, compared with economists' median estimate for a 3.1 percent rise, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications said. The Bank of Japan estimates that the sales tax hike - to 8 percent from 5 percent that took effect on April 1 - will add 1.7 percentage points to Japan's annual consumer inflation in April, and 2.0 points from the following month.

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Ford recalls nearly 1.4 million vehicles in North America

Ford Motor Co (F.N) said on Thursday it is recalling 1.39 million SUVs and sedans in North America, most for the possible loss of power steering. About 1.186 million of the vehicles Ford said it is recalling are in the United States. That figure is only 2,200 shy of the total number of vehicles that Ford recalled in the United States during all of last year. So far this year, GM has recalled 15.8 million vehicles worldwide.

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