06.18.09
Posted in All, Free blog Tips, hot news, money, world of money tagged campaign, finance, life, markets, reviews at 11:29 pm by carydalton
Iraq’s UN Ambassador Hamid al-Bayati (undated photo)Iraq’s U.N. Ambassador told the Security Council Thursday that his government hopes to reduce or cancel the remaining $25.5 billion it owes Kuwait in compensation for Saddam Hussein’s 1990 invasion. Ambassador Hamid al-Bayati says his government has already paid more than $27 billion in compensation and needs the remaining funds owed to rebuild the war-torn country. Ambassador Bayati told reporters that his government has sent a letter to both the U.N. secretary-general and the Security Council requesting a reduction in compensation costs owed to Kuwait. “The letter of our minister to the Security Council and to the secretary-general requests a decrease in the percentage of five percent,” said Hamid al-Bayati.The five percent refers to the portion of Iraq’s proceeds from the export sales of all oil and gas products that must be deposited into a compensation fund set up by the Security Council in 1991. The fund is used to process claims and pay compensation to Kuwaitis as a result of the invasion and occupation of their country. Iraq holds the world’s third largest oil reserves, but sharply declining oil prices have cut the government’s income drastically. Ambassador Bayati says the remaining debt would hurt Iraq’s own reconstruction.”Up until April 2009, Iraq has paid $27.1 billion of the total compensation for the invasion of Kuwait,” he said. “However, there are $25.5 billion still due, which is a heavy burden on Iraq, which needs the money for services, reconstruction and development.” Ambassador Bayati said he has met with Kuwaiti officials about the issue, and they agreed the two sides would start bilateral meetings and negotiations. The envoy also told the council that he hopes they will assist in lifting resolutions imposed in the wake of the 1990 invasion. Bayati added that Iraq has met many obligations to Kuwait, including returning the remains of missing Kuwaitis found in Iraq.
Iraq Seeks to Reduce Debt to Kuwait for 1990 Invasion
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Posted in .com, All, news, online, shortly tagged business, campaign, finance, money, world at 8:06 am by carydalton
Investors took in economic information from all sides on Wednesday, and traders found new reasons to worry in a warning from FedEx and a downgrade of 22 banks. Trading reflected those concerns, with shares moving in a narrow range.
FedEx said its fourth-quarter loss widened because of hefty one-time charges and lower revenue, though its results, stripping out those costs, came in above expectations. The company warned that it expected “extremely difficult” conditions in the next two quarters.
Financial stocks experienced some losses after Standard & Poor’s cut ratings and revised outlooks on 22 banks. S.& P. said the changes reflected its assessment that volatility would remain in the financial sector and the industry is expected to face tighter regulatory oversight. The agency also said loan losses, which have plagued the industry for more than a year, would probably continue to increase and could grow beyond expectations.
The BB&T Corporation, Capital One Financial, the Regions Financial Corporation and Wells Fargo & Company were among the largest banks whose ratings were cut.
At the same time, 10 large banks — including JPMorgan Chase, the Goldman Sachs Group and Morgan Stanley — began to repay the government about $68 billion in bailout money.
In another bright spot, consumer prices rose less than expected in May. The Labor Department said that the Consumer Price Index rose a seasonally adjusted 0.1 percent last month, below analysts’ expectations of a 0.3 percent rise. Excluding volatile food and energy costs, core prices rose 0.1 percent, as expected.
Stocks have fallen this week after making only modest gains last week. The selling has caused a break in a three-month rally that carried the S.& P. 500-stock index up 40 percent from 12-year lows. Many traders say expectations for an economic recovery had been too rosy.
Richard Hughes, co-president of Portfolio Management Consultants, said that the market had gotten ahead of itself in the spring rally and that the economy remained weak. “People are taking a pause and it makes sense,” he said.
At the close, the three major exchanges were mixed. The Dow was 7.49 points lower, at 8,497.18, while the S.& P. was 1.26 points lower at 910.71. The Nasdaq was 11.88 points higher, at 1,808.06.
Beyond the economic data, President Obama offered a broad overhaulof the financial system, saying hard times struck largely because a post-Depression-era business regulatory scheme could not keep up with an increasingly global economy.
In his remarks, Mr. Obama attributed much of the country’s current problems to “a cascade of mistakes and missed opportunities” that happened over several decades. His plan would bestow vast new powers on the Federal Reserve, authorizing it to oversee the entire financial system. It also would create a new consumer protection agency to guard against the types of abuses that played a big role in the current crisis.
Elsewhere in the market, bond prices dropped, pushing yields higher. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note rose to 3.69 percent from 3.66 percent late Tuesday. The price, which moves in the opposite direction from the yield, fell 8/32, to 95 11/32.
The dollar was mixed against other major currencies, while gold prices rose.
Major markets overseas mostly fell sharply. Britain’s FTSE 100 fell 1.2 percent, Germany’s DAX index lost 1.9 percent and France’s CAC-40 fell 1.6 percent. Japan’s Nikkei stock average rose 0.9 percent.
In the energy market, retail gasoline prices climbed for the 50th consecutive day Wednesday, the longest streak in records dating to 1996, even as benchmark crude fell for the fourth day in a row.
Pump prices added a half cent overnight to a new national average of $2.679 a gallon, according to the auto club AAA, Wright Express and Oil Price Information Service. A gallon of regular gas has jumped nearly 37 cents in a month.
Oil rose 56 cents to settle at $71.03 a barrel after a government report said crude held in storage fell for a third week.
Stocks & Bonds: Wall Street Takes in Mixed Messages About Banks, Prices and FedEx
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