03.10.10
Posted in .com, Free blog Tips, hot news, online, world of money tagged All, markets, money, news, reviews at 2:30 pm by carydalton
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Citigroup Inc. shares rallied almost 7% Tuesday on speculation about mergers and acquisitions in the U.S. banking industry and after a bullish research note came out on the bank.
Barclays PLC is considering another major acquisition in the United States, and is hunting for a retail bank that would give it more deposits and extend the presence of its Barclays Capital unit in the country, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday, citing unidentified people familiar with the matter.
Bull-market birthday
As the bull market notches its first year anniversary, the News Hub panel weighs in on whether investors can still make money and how the market will react when the interest rates inevitably adjust.
The bank, in response to potential changes in banking regulation, has designated an internal team to assess possible targets, the newspaper added no teletrack payday loans.
Citigroup is “back from the brink and back in business,” research firm CreditSights wrote in a report released late Monday evening.
“Citi is still a work in progress,” the research firm said, but the bank’s debt and equity should benefit from its branch-light configuration, international consumer exposure, improving liquidity and the fact that the stock “is just plain cheap.”
Citi climbed 6.7% to $3.80 in afternoon action on Tuesday. More than 630 million shares were traded.
Citigroup shares rally on M&A speculation
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03.06.10
Posted in .com, hot news, money, top, world of money tagged All, blogs, events, money, opinion at 3:12 pm by carydalton
LONDON (MarketWatch) — Anglo-Swiss mining firm Xstrata gained ground on Friday after a deal to sell its Prodeco assets in Columbia to shareholder Glencore, a move that helped the metals sector to advance in the British stock market.
Xstrata shares climbed 2.5% after it said Glencore International will exercise its option to acquire its Prodeco coal operations in Columbia.
Under the option agreement, Glencore, which holds more than 34% of Xstrata, will pay Xstrata at least $2.25 billion in cash upon completion of the sale.
“Glencore’s decision to exercise its option provides Xstrata’s shareholders with a robust cash return on the initial purchase price and provides additional financial flexibility as Xstrata’s capital expenditure program ramps up to deliver 50% volume growth by 2014,” said Xstrata CEO Mick Davis.
Analysts at MF Global noted: “Prodeco was Glencore’s asset contribution during the [Xstrata] rights issue last year, when the metals trader did not have the cash to participate.”
They believe that the deal will take Xstrata’s net debt/EBITDA ratio back below 1 times which “should allow the group to spend more on capital expenditure or even mergers and acquisitions.”
They added: “investors in that context could focus on Lonmin once more, of which Xstrata already owns 24.65%.” Platinum miner Lonmin rose 1.8%.
Overall, the FTSE 100 index rose 0.4% to 5,550.99 on Friday and other European shares also advanced. U.S. stock futures were pointing to mild gains ahead of key jobs data due out later. See Europe Markets. Read more on jobs.
“News flow from Japan is overshadowing the final trading session of the week, though we expect that will change in a few hours when the U.S. employment report for February is published,” said Kenneth Broux, economist at Lloyds Corporate Markets.
On Friday, there was speculation that Japan will ease monetary policy through April in order to push down short-term rates. The BOJ’s policy board is expected to discuss such steps at a two-day meeting starting March 16, Japanese business daily Nikkei reported cash advance. Read more on BOJ.
Banks were higher in London trading, with Standard Chartered shares up 2.4% and HSBC Holdings up 1%.
Still, shares of advertising giant WPP / declined 0.7%. Its fiscal-year net profit was broadly flat at 437.7 million pounds, compared to 439.1 million pounds a year ago. Sales rose 16.1 to 8.68 billion pounds.
WPP said that 2010 should be a more stable year although “there is no marked growth as yet.”
Shares of British American Tobacco declined 0.4% to 2,309 pence.
It was downgraded to neutral from outperform at Credit Suisse with the broker saying it sees limited upside to its new target price of 2,350p following a recent strong performance for the firm’s shares. It raised 2010 and 2011 earnings per share forecasts for the firm by 4%, mainly to reflect recent sterling weakness.
“At current levels, we would favor Imperial Tobacco and Philip Morris International , which should also deliver robust earnings growth in 2010 as pricing - the industry’s main P&L lever - remains good,” the broker said.
Outside the top index, United Business Media shares jumped 10%.
The media firm posted 2009 profit after tax of 81.8 million pounds, from 82.7 million pounds last year and also resolved its “decade-long dialogue” with the U.K. tax authorities following the sale of its regional newspapers business in 1998.
“We have agreed to make a payment of 46.5 million pounds in settlement of this and a number of other tax issues. This, together with the resolution of a number of other tax matters, has resulted in a release of 135.2 million pounds of our previous tax creditor,” the firm said.
Michael Page International shares fell 1.7%.
The recruitment firm’s 2009 net profit fell to 12.4 million pounds, from 97.3 million pounds recorded at the same point last year. Revenue declined to 716.7 million pounds, from 972.8 million pounds last year.
London Markets: British shares up as miners, banks rise
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02.15.10
Posted in All, Free blog Tips, economic, hot news, news tagged All, business, money, politics, reviews at 1:42 am by carydalton
ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Rain, low clouds and predicted high winds Sunday grounded searchers seeking the body of a ConocoPhillips Alaska employee missing and presumed dead in an avalanche that killed the head of the company.
The avalanche at around noon Saturday on the Kenai Peninsula buried Jim Bowles, 57, head of ConocoPhillips Alaska, and Alan Gage, 39, part of the company’s capital projects team in Anchorage. Gage remains missing.
“The weather is not cooperating and it’s not conducive to search,” said Megan Peters, a spokeswoman for the Alaska State Troopers.
The men were in a party of 12 snowmobilers in the Grandview wilderness area, part of the Chugach National Forest, between the tiny communities of Moose Pass and Portage.
Bowles was buried for about 45 minutes before companions using avalanche beacons dug him out. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Gage apparently was not wearing an avalanche beacon, troopers said.
Troopers and U.S. Forest Service personnel rode snowmobiles 15 miles to reach the scene. The railroad brought in Girdwood Fire Department personnel and a trooper helicopter flew in from Anchorage.
Ridgetop winds Saturday averaged 10 to 20 mph and mountain temperatures were in the mid-20s to low 30s. Conditions deteriorated overnight, with two inches of new snow falling at Turnagain Pass, about 15 miles north of Grandview.
Ridgetop winds Sunday ramped up, averaging 30 mph with gusts to 40. A strong low pressure area in the Gulf of Alaska was expected to bring gale to storm force easterly winds, rain at sea level, and up to 12 inches of new snow at higher elevations.
The Chugach National Forest Avalanche Information Center said the avalanche danger rose to “considerable” with pockets of “high” hazard as the storm progressed.
“We pretty much hit the tipping point the last few days, and this next storm will just add more stress to a snowpack with significant buried weak layers,” said forecaster Lisa Portune on the center’s Web site free credit scores.
Forecaster Carl Skustad said the snowmobile party was in moderate terrain, with probably a 35 to 40 degree slope. However, with the weak snow layer underneath, that can be enough for snow to let loose, he said.
Emergency officials said a search would resume when weather improved and avalanche danger subsided.
Bowles joined Conoco in 1974. He was named head of Alaska operations, overseeing about 900 employees since in late 2004. Jim Mulva, ConocoPhillips chairman and chief executive officer, said in a statement Sunday that Bowles presided over developments that ensured the company’s place and standing in Alaska.
“On behalf of everyone at ConocoPhillips, including those who had the privilege to know and work with these two gentlemen and those who did not, I want to extend our sincere condolences to the Bowles family and our heartfelt best wishes to the Gage family and make sure they know the high regard in which we hold Jim and Alan, both as co-workers and as friends.”
Gov. Sean Parnell issued a statement saying he and his wife, Sandy, were saddened by Bowles’ death and lauded his work in Alaska.
“Jim brought so much to our state: his love of the great outdoors, his leadership of ConocoPhillips Alaska, and his dedication to making Alaska a better place for all of us to call home,” Parnell said.
U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, said Bowles was a great partner in the responsible development of Alaska’s natural resources.
A third man was caught in another avalanche and killed Saturday near Eagle River on Anchorage’s north side.
William Brasher Schorr, 60, was skiing alone near the top of a ridge while a friend waited near the bottom for his arrival. A witness saw the slide begin from his home. Schorr’s body was recovered about 45 minutes later.
Weather halts Alaska search for avalanche victim
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02.07.10
Posted in Free blog Tips, money, online, shortly, top tagged All, life, money, opinion, personal at 3:00 am by carydalton
SHORTLY after Sept. 11, 2001, a soon-to-be familiar figure appeared in the news media. He was a young Muslim who wanted nothing more than to strap on a belt laden with explosives and blow himself up in an area crowded with infidels. He thought his reward would be eternity in paradise with 72 virgins.
But was he truly the face of Islamic terrorism? Eli Berman, a professor of economics at the University of California, San Diego, says otherwise in “Radical, Religious, and Violent: The New Economics of Terrorism” (M.I.T. Press, 300 pages).
“The pious Jihadist, programmed with an ideology of hate to be a human guided missile, or dreaming of virgins in heaven, makes for compelling news broadcasts and emotional sound bites, but in concept does not stand up to scrutiny,” he says.
Professor Berman has written an engaging book that brings new insight to an extremely polarizing subject. He argues that many terrorists are actually more rational than we might like to think. And that, of course, is a chilling notion.
The author is neither a pacifist nor an apologist for terrorists. He says, however, that if we stop looking at them as cartoon characters, we may do a better job of deterring them. In his view, we need to understand the economic forces that govern their behavior.
Professor Berman says that some of the most effective and resilient groups with terrorist links are in some ways economic clubs, run by “radical altruists.” He puts Hamas, Hezbollah and the Taliban (the United States has tied all three to terrorism) in this category. Some of these militant soldiers of Islam may sometimes commit atrocities. But Professor Berman contends that they genuinely want to help their members. They raise money from foreign governments — or, in the case of the Taliban, by selling opium — and provide social services and jobs to adherents.
The author notes that in South Lebanon, Hezbollah operates two private hospitals and a number of schools. It collects garbage, provides water and even manages an electricity grid. He says the Taliban operate 13 “guerilla law courts” in Afghanistan where locals can have disputes resolved.
Granted, the Taliban’s underground judicial system may not be as expensive to operate as a hospital or a garbage pickup service, but it has the same effect of forging a tighter bond of between the operation and its constituents.
However, Professor Berman writes, radical Islamic groups extract sacrifices from their members that have economic consequences. Families are encouraged to have lots of children, and the women are less likely to get jobs and have money to spend.
Professor Berman says that these organizations also prefer that their members send their children to Islamic schools, whose graduates are less likely to obtain jobs that pay them enough money to explore the market and its temptations cashadvance. Indeed, he says, these are some of the ways that radical believers ensure that their followers remain loyal.
Now there have been many so-called terrorist groups. But most of them don’t last because the authorities find someone who will give them information, which short-circuits the activities of the groups.
Professor Berman points out that Israeli security forces had little trouble shutting down the Jewish Underground, a less tightly organized group linked to terrorist acts, because its members were more willing to become informants than many of their Islamic peers. Al Qaeda does not offer social services, he says, and it has had more trouble historically with disloyal members.
So what does Professor Berman think should be done to put terrorists out of business? He says we need to do more to stop their revenue streams. He recommends that we discourage gulf states from contributing money to Hamas and cut off the Taliban’s inflows of cash from illegal activities.
In Professor Berman’s opinion, the United States needs to compete by offering the same kind of social services in Iraq and Afghanistan, though he concedes that terrorist groups will do everything to stop such efforts. He says aid providers must be protected — and he concedes that this will be expensive. But he points out that we are already spending billions of dollars on domestic security.
“In the long run,” Professor Berman writes, “those constructive approaches may well be cost-effective for the United States and other developed countries that are subject to international terrorism, because they are potentially sustainable.” In other words, they could be good investments.
Professor Berman is shrewd enough not to repeat the left-wing fallacy that terrorism itself is a product of economic deprivation. He seems reluctant, however, to explore why Islam is such a breeding ground for these practices.
He says the rise of militant Islam is just another wave of religious extremism, the likes of which have occurred throughout history. As he points out, the peace-loving Mennonites belong to a branch of Christianity that was once considered radical and dangerous.
Then again, today’s terrorists may soon get their hands on a nuclear device. Would Mennonites of old have detonated it? We don’t know. But Professor Berman’s “radical altruists” might.
Off the Shelf: Terrorism and the Pocketbook
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01.30.10
Posted in All, hot news, news, shortly, top tagged All, money, news, people, world at 12:05 am by carydalton
NEW YORK/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Chevron Corp (CVX.N), the second-largest U.S. oil company, posted a 37 percent drop in quarterly profit, missing analyst forecasts, as steep refinery losses offset gains from higher oil prices and production.
Global refining margins have suffered in recent months as rising crude oil prices have driven up costs even as the weak economy has shrunk demand for gasoline and diesel fuel.
That refinery weakness overshadowed a steep 9 percent rise in oil and gas output in the quarter from new and expanded projects, which lifted proved reserves by 1.1 billion barrels.
"It's like trying to run at 40 miles per hour in a boat while dragging an anchor," said James Halloran, energy advisor at Financial America Securities in Cleveland.
The company will be spending heavily off the coast of Western Australia this year, with $3.5 billion of its $21.6 billion capital spending budget going toward construction of its massive natural gas operations there.
Chevron signed off on the $37 billion Gorgon liquefied natural gas project in September, after hiring a contractor to design the Wheatstone project nearby only weeks earlier.
Chevron's fourth-quarter net profit fell to $3.07 billion, or $1.53 per share, from $4.9 billion, or $2.44 per share, in the same quarter a year before.
That fell far short of analysts' average forecast of $1.70 per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S, largely because of the steeper-than-expected $613 million loss from refining, marketing and transportation.
Chief Executive John Watson, on his first call with analysts since getting the job, said it was "quite premature" to talk of closing refineries, but he would seek cost cuts and aim for a 10 percent-plus downstream return through the cycle.
Chevron will merge its chemicals arm with the rest of the downstream business, and retain a spending bias that will shift its focus over time to exploration and production, he added quick pay day loan.
"We have favored upstream investment for more than the last decade. That has been a pattern I think you will see going forward," Watson said on the conference call.
After outperforming on oil and gas output in 2009, Chevron is looking for modest production growth of about 1 percent this year, to 2.73 million barrels of oil equivalent (boe) per day.
Production at Chevron was 2.78 million boe per day in the fourth quarter, including 135,000 bpd associated with the ramp-up at Agbami in Nigeria, which commenced operations in the third quarter of 2008, and expansion at Tengiz in Kazakhstan.
Overall revenue rose nearly 12 percent to $48 billion.
Chevron said earlier in January that fourth-quarter profit would be hit by the slump in its refining business, which saw margins fall to the lowest levels of the year.
The company's business lost in the quarter versus a year-ago profit of $2.1 billion.
Earlier this week, ConocoPhillips (COP.N) posted better-than-expected earnings as the firmer oil prices offset its weak refinery performance.
Exxon Mobil Corp (XOM.N) reports results on Monday.
At Thursday's close, Chevron shares had shed 4.5 percent since the start of 2010, against a 3.6 percent decline in the Chicago Board Options Exchange index of oil companies (.OIX).
The stock fell 0.6 percent to $72.82 on Friday, while the Standard & Poor's Energy index (.GSPE) was flat.
(Reporting by Matt Daily in New York and Braden Reddall in San Francisco, editing by Dave Zimmerman and Gunna Dickson)
Chevron Q4 profit tumbles, misses Wall St view
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01.27.10
Posted in .com, economic, news, shortly, world of money tagged economics, financial, money, people, world at 8:00 am by carydalton
SAN FRANCISCO – Williams-Sonoma says its longtime chief, Howard Lester, will retire from the posts of CEO and chairman after 31 years leading kitchenware retailer.
After his retirement in May, Lester will continue to be an adviser to the company until December 2012 as chairman emeritus, Williams-Sonoma Inc. said Tuesday.
Lester has run the San Francisco company since 1978, when he bought it from founder Chuck Williams and it had four retail stores no fax pay day loans. It now has more than 600 stores in the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico; it also owns the upscale Pottery Barn and West Elm housewares chains.
The company’s board plans to appoint Laura Alber its new CEO. She joined the company in 1995 and is now president.
Williams-Sonoma says longtime CEO Lester to retire
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01.25.10
Posted in All, Free blog Tips, money, online, top tagged All, blogs, finance, marketing, money at 5:12 pm by carydalton
WASHINGTON – The top Senate Democrat wants to make it more difficult to run up the deficit with new tax cuts or expansions of federal benefit programs.
Majority Leader Harry Reid’s plan would make it difficult to again extend emergency unemployment benefits or health insurance subsides for laid off workers. It would also make it harder to render new assistance for state Medicaid payments.
The Nevada Democrat is pressing the plan to get legislation passed permitting the government to continue to borrow money to finance its operations no fax cash loans. Under the pay-as-you-go concept, program cuts or revenue increases would be needed to cover the cost of any new policies or programs. If not, across-the-board spending cuts would kick in.
Top Senate Democrat lays out deficit curbs
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01.23.10
Posted in .com, economic, money, news, top tagged All, events, money, opinion, work at 1:29 am by carydalton
ELYRIA, Ohio – A combative President Barack Obama exhorted Congress Friday to pass a new job-creation bill, taking a populist appeal to America’s recession-racked Rust Belt in hopes of recapturing the energy of his campaign and moving his presidency beyond this week’s blows.
Obama weaved angry us-against-them rhetoric throughout the day, telling a town hall audience that he “will never stop fighting” for an economy that works for the hard-working, not just those already well off.
“This isn’t about me. This is about you,” Obama shouted in a rousing defense of his presidency and not-so-subtle slaps at his critics. “I think that I win when you win. That’s how I think about it.”
He said a jobs bill emerging in Congress must include tax breaks for small business hiring and for people trying to make their homes more energy efficient — two proposals he wasn’t able to get into a bill the House passed last month. And he used the word “fight” or some variation of it well over a dozen times. The House-passed $174 billion stimulus package faces a stern test in the Senate, in part because it is financed with deficit spending.
With the town hall meeting, tours of a factory and classroom, an impromptu diner stop and even the lack of a necktie, Obama’s day had the feel of one from his campaign. Followed by campaign videographers, he grinned, bantered and joked through the snowy scenery, a far cry from his more somber demeanor of late.
The upset win by Republican Scott Brown in a special Massachusetts Senate election this week — a victory spurred in large part by an anti-establishment sentiment — badly stung the White House and prompted awareness that neither Obama’s agenda nor the electoral prospects for fellow Democrats this fall can be taken for granted.
So in his at the town hall meeting at Lorain County Community College near Cleveland, the president assailed Washington and Wall Street alike, hoping to connect with public’s frustration and position himself as the solution — not the problem.
He strongly defended unpopular actions he has taken to bail out banks and insurers and to rescue automakers from collapse. Such measures have not gone over well in many quarters, derided as expanding government and swelling the deficit while many on Main Street still walk unemployment lines.
Obama said propping up the financial industry was as much about regular Americans as wealthy bankers. “If the financial system had gone down, it would have taken the entire economy and millions more families and businesses with it,” he argued on line pay day loans.
Similarly, allowing GM and Chrysler to go under might have satisfied calls to force businesses to reap the consequences of bad decisions.
But he also said, “Hundreds of thousands of Americans would have been hurt, not just at those companies, but at auto suppliers and other companies and dealers here in Michigan — here in Ohio — up in Michigan and all across this country.”
Obama made a repeated point of criticizing Washington, too — saying that one can get a “pretty warped view of things” from inside the capital city, targeting special interest power and mocking the popular parlor game of handicapping his presidency.
“Is he weakened? Oh, how is he going to survive this?” he joked. “That’s what they do.”
He sought to demonstrate understanding for the economic uncertainty that lingers in many American homes and businesses despite some economic improvements.
“Folks have seen jobs you thought would last forever disappear. You’ve seen plants close and businesses shut down,” Obama said.
He promised to help. “I won’t stop fighting for you,” he said. “I’ll take my lumps.”
He acknowledged “we got a little bit of a buzz saw” on health care overhaul. But he said his pursuit of sweeping overhaul was — and still is — the right thing to do even amid war and economic crisis. “I am not going to walk away just because it’s hard.”
The choice of Ohio was no accident.
It has unemployment slightly higher than the national average, with the state reporting before Obama landed in Cleveland that its rate had ticked upward in December, to 10.9 percent from 10.6 percent the month before. The national rate was 10 percent in December.
Ohio is also a political must-win — a state Obama won in 2008 and probably must win again if he is to get a second White House term.
Across the street from the community college were groups of anti-Obama protesters.
“He’s done a lot, but they are all negative things,” said Ray Angell, 65, of Twinsburg, Ohio, a conservative active in the anti-tax Tea Party movement, mentioning the stimulus package and climate change proposals.
___
Associated Press writer Thomas J. Sheeran contributed to this story.
Defiant Obama urges Congress to pass jobs bill
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01.17.10
Posted in .com, business, economic, online, shortly tagged economics, finance, money, political, politics at 10:48 pm by carydalton
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Some banking analysts are bullish on U.S. regional banks as they expect fourth-quarter results to bring improved earnings per share and capital-ratio visibility, Barron's reported on Sunday.
Credit Suisse analyst Craig Siegenthalter says that while some regional banks will probably miss earnings estimates when results are announced in coming weeks, he believes the rate of change in non-performing assets and earnings charge-offs will move close to zero, Barron's reported.
Loan-loss provisions should peak in the fourth quarter, Siegenthalter said.
"If problem loans don't grow as much as expected and the deceleration is bigger than expected, that will cause a lot of buying of these stocks," Barron's quoted Siegenthalter as saying quick cash advance.
Stocks he rates as "outperform" include Bank of Hawaii Corp (BOH.N), Fifth Third Bancorp (FITB.O), First Horizon National Corp (FHN.N) and SunTrust Banks Inc (STI.N), the newspaper said.
David Kovacs, a chief investment officer at Turner Investment Partners, told Barron's his favorites include Regions Financial (RF.N), Huntington Bancshares Inc (HBAN.O), Marshall & Ilsley Corp (MI.N) and Susquehanna Bancshares (SUSQ.O).
(Editing by Leslie Adler)
Outlook better for some regional banks
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01.12.10
Posted in All, Free blog Tips, business, shortly, top tagged economics, events, life, money, writing at 8:54 pm by carydalton
LONDON (AFP) – The leading stock exchange fell on Tuesday as investors reacted to weak earnings data from US aluminium producer Alcoa, which kicked off the latest results season in the world's biggest economy.
The FTSE 100 index slumped 0.71 percent to 5,498.71 points, dragged down by heavyweight mining groups whose share prices suffered after Alcoa's earnings missed analyst expectations.
Lloyds was the most traded stock, seeing 187 million units change hands, followed by telecom giant Vodafone, which saw 128 million shares switch owners.
Land Securities topped the leader board, gaining 10.50 pence — or 1.54 percent — to finish at 693.50.
The day's second-best performer was wholesale firm Wolseley, up 21 instant payday loan.00 pence — or 1.47 percent — to stand at 1,447.
The session's biggest loser was silver miner Fresnillo, which lost 44.00 pence — or 5.16 percent — to close at 808, as metal prices tumbled.
It was followed by peer Lonmin, which shed 88.00 pence — or 4.08 percent — to finish at 2,069.
Sterling gained ground against the euro and the dollar.
At 17:06, the pound was trading at $1.6181, up from $1.6115 at Monday's close. Against the euro, the pound stood at 0.8975 euros, up from 0.8962 over the same period.
FTSE 100 closes lower
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01.02.10
Posted in .com, Free blog Tips, hot news, news, shortly tagged All, economy, money, political, writing at 9:30 am by carydalton
by Yang Lei
NEW YORK, Jan. 1 (Xinhua) — When investors open their books for a new year, without doubt that China will be a hot spot that they can’t afford to miss. And for many who have closely followed the country’s rise from economic slowdown, there are still uncovered opportunities lying in this vastly diversified market.
“We believe that there’s a lot of momentum in the market,” Matt Comyns, CEO of JLM Pacific Epoch, told reporters. Comyns has compiled a list of 60 reasons to be bullish about China, one of which is the great potential in many cities whose names most westerners haven’t even heard of.
“China has more than 100 cities with more than 1,000,000 people in (each),” he said. “The story of the recovery has been in the second and the third-tier cities.”
To explore business opportunities in less known Chinese cities has become more appealing. In late September, 2009, world’s leading mail system provider Pitney Bowes inked a deal with Digital China, in a bid to expand its business to small- and medium-size companies across China.
The Stamford, Connecticut based company entered Chinese market more than a decade ago, but its high-end hardware and software tools and services that support effective customer communications have been only available to large companies in cities like Beijing and Shanghai.
“With the tremendous growth of the Chinese economy, (there are) more and more opportunities for small and medium sized companies to do mailings for both transaction purposes and marketing purposes,” Michael Monahan, CFO of Pitney Bowes told Xinhua.
Digital China appears to be a perfect partner. As China’s largest information technology distribution and service company, Digital China has a presence in six hundred Chinese cities and a network of more than five thousand resellers and system integration partners.
Many U.S. investors have noticed that the Chinese government’s vast efforts on inland/western development have led to GDP gains in inland provinces that have significantly outstripped traditional coastal counterparts.
Comyns gave an example that 13 provincial level regions reported double-digit GDP growth in 2008, with Inner Mongolia region leading with 16.2 percent GDP growth compared to 7 percent for the coastal Shanghai region.
One Chinese company which is rooted in the Inner Mongolia region has made it to the Nasdaq Global Select Market in 2009.
Zishen Wu, CEO of Yongye International, Inc., didn’t impress Wall Street investment bankers when he showed up in old worn shoes covered with dust. But when he told them his company’s patented plant nutrient would boost production by 10 to 30 percent and has been popular among Chinese farmers, he finally went home with the largest investment a Chinese agriculture technology company has obtained in 2008.
Just a year later, Yongye successfully switched from OTC board.
More and more companies like Yongye have attracted U emergency cash loans.S. investors. By December, 2009, Nasdaq has had 32 new listings from China, including 9 initial public offerings (IPOs), Robert McCooey, senior vice president of New Listings and Capital Markets of the NASDAQ OMX Group, told Xinhua.
One highlight of this year’s new listings from China, McCooey pointed out, is the “great geographic diversity.”
“We have companies from all different industries and provinces. We have our first listing from Tianjin; we went from no listing in Henan Province to 4 listings,” McCooey said, “And now we have listings from 11 to 12 different provinces in China.”
McCooey had traveled three times to China since May 2009 and planned to visit more. “There are tens of thousands enterprises in China with global aspirations, and Nasdaq is expecting more of them in the future,” he added.
Global aspirations are not unique to large brands. Overseas investors have become aware of the less known small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) in China, which have constituted an essential part of the national GDP as the government establishes policies and funds aimed at promoting innovation and entrepreneurship.
Statistics indicate that over 60 percent of GDP, half of collected taxes, and 70 percent of the import and export value had been contributed by SMEs by the end of 2008.
U.S. capital market more frequently opened arms to these Chinese SMEs. In April 2009, Changyou.com Ltd marked the first IPO on Nasdaq and was the largest Chinese IPO on a U.S. exchange since December 2007.
Less than six months later, another Chinese online video games operator Shanda Games became the third largest IPO in the U.S. market in 2009 with 1 billion U.S. dollars it has raised.
Another area that Chinese companies have submitted great performances in 2009 is the green energy. New York-listed solar companies like Suntech and Yingli Green Energy have far outperformed the big board.
For foreign investors, Chinese government’s policy and measuresto spur the SMEs have been another huge plus.
“China is a green tech leader,” Comyns said, “China is spending30 billion dollars on green technology as part of its current stimulus plan. An example of a new policy recently unveiled is the ‘Golden Sun’ initiative, which aims to achieve solar power generation by 2011.”
In 2009, China decide to launch venture capital foundation for small businesses, to issue first batch of pool bills to help small firms raise funds, and the Nasdaq-style board ChiNext started trading by the end of October.
Looking ahead, China’s growing story will involve more cities with potential and more companies with entrepreneur spirit in a government-backed environment. U.S. investors will set to explore new territories of prosperity as to benefit from the rising economy.
Feature: U.S. investors eye new frontier in Chinese market
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12.17.09
Posted in .com, All, money, shortly, world of money tagged finance, money, newsreports, people, work at 2:18 am by carydalton
SHANGHAI, Dec. 16 (Xinhua) — All the gold mined so far totaled163,000 tonnes across the world, an official with the World Gold Council (WGC) said here Wednesday.
Albert L.H. Cheng, managing director of WGC’s fareast area, said in a lecture about this year’s gold market that 83,600 tonnes of the total amount had been used in making jewelries, while individual investment activities accounted for 27,300 tonnes.
Gold reserves held by countries occupied 28,700 tonnes and 19,700 tonnes went to industrial production or other uses, he cited statistics from WGC as saying online payday loans.
An estimated of 26,000 tonnes of gold deposit remained undeveloped, and the resource will run out for 10 years based on the current mining speed, he said.
Mined gold totals 163,000 tonnes worldwide: WGC
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12.14.09
Posted in All, Free blog Tips, economic, online, top tagged economics, finance, money, politics, writing at 4:37 am by carydalton
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Privately-held real estate company Fairfield Residential LLC filed for bankruptcy protection on Sunday, saying that the collapse of the U.S. real estate and capital markets has made it difficult to continue without restructuring.
The company, which filed a voluntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy petition in Delaware, said it has agreed with its significant lenders on the framework of a plan of reorganization that would allow it to continue its property management, asset management, construction services and general partner functions.
Fairfield said in a statement that the plan maintains the company's existing infrastructure in a new operating company, but that some assets not assigned to the new operating company will be assigned to a liquidating trust free credit report without a credit card.
Fairfield specializes in multifamily housing and is based in San Diego, Calif.
The case is In re: Fairfield Residential LLC, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, District of Delaware, No. 09-14378.
(Reporting by Michael Erman; Editing by Diane Craft)
Real estate firm Fairfield files for bankruptcy
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