U.S. to become top oil producer by 2015.... Start The Research Traders
Register for free to join our community of investors and share your ideas. You will also get access to streaming quotes, interactive charts, trades, portfolio, live options flow and more tools.
Register for free to join our community of investors and share your ideas. You will also get access to streaming quotes, interactive charts, trades, portfolio, live options flow and more tools.
CRWE...CTS Products.com capitalizes on the explosion of internet commerce by offering an online electronic consumer storefront for an ever expanding array of consumer products, currently numbering over two hundred thousand. This site is constantly adding new distributors and manufacturers to its stable of high quality suppliers.
http://www.ctsproducts.com/
CRWE .074 Crown Trading Systems. I would not mind having some monitors like these....:)
Crown Trading Systems delivers powerful and reliable computer systems enabling a person to view data and information from hundreds of sources, move, maximize and manage different applications between monitors with a single click, across a simultaneous panorama view of 2 to 16 computer monitors and 150 plus windows from a single computer. With broadband access to the Internet, this can now be accomplished in any setting from a home, business or government location.
http://www.crowntradingsystems.com/
CRWE and HESG gonna be race horses...:)
Obama Pressed by Companies to Back 10-Year C02 Peak (Update2)
Share Business ExchangeTwitterFacebook| Email | Print | A A A
By Kim Chipman and Todd White
Dec. 7 (Bloomberg) -- Now that U.S. President Barack Obama has given fresh impetus to climate-change negotiations in Copenhagen, corporate leaders supporting an agreement to control greenhouse-gas emissions are pressing anew for action.
Two weeks of talks among 192 nations open today in the Danish capital, and Obama’s decision to show up on the final day helps ensure “an ambitious outcome,” United Nations climate chief Yvo de Boer told reporters in Copenhagen yesterday.
The International Energy Agency, a trade group for the U.S. and 27 more oil-consuming nations, and companies from Allianz SE to Coca-Cola Co. say envoys can agree to halt the growth of emissions within 10 years and keep global temperatures from rising by more than 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit).
“We need a signal at Copenhagen to cap emissions by 2020 and a 2-degree scenario,” Fatih Birol, chief economist for the agency, said in a phone interview. “All the measures we suggest will bring energy security, because we’ll use less oil” and more clean energy, said Birol, who plans to visit Copenhagen for the second of the two weeks of talks.
World leaders already have said the talks will fail to reach the original goal of completing a treaty, a deadline moved to next year. While Obama and de Boer didn’t specify how much can be achieved in Copenhagen, company executives and lobbyists say they want quantifiable goals that have been sought for years by environmentalists and scientific groups.
GE, HSBC, Nike
Supporters of the temperature and 2020 targets include 850 business leaders who signed this year what’s called the Copenhagen communiqué, a project by the University of Cambridge in the U.K. Signatories include General Electric Co. Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Immelt, Coca-Cola CEO Muhtar Kent, BP Plc CEO Tony Hayward, HSBC Holdings Plc Chairman Stephen Green, Nestle SA CEO Paul Bulcke and Nike Inc. CEO Mark Parker.
Executives from many of these companies are joining the 15,000 delegates who will come to the city’s Bella convention center today for talks through Dec. 18.
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs announced on Dec. 4 that Obama will show up for the conclusion of the talks, when most of the 100 or so heads of government will arrive and help guide final decisions. Earlier Obama had planned to stop by on Dec. 9. “There is progress toward a meaningful Copenhagen accord,” Gibbs said.
Obama found after speaking with UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown and other leaders that there’s an “emerging consensus” to provide $10 billion a year by 2012 to help poor countries deal with global warming.
‘Fair Share’
“The United States will pay its fair share of that amount and other countries will make substantial commitments as well,” Gibbs said in the statement. The administration also believes longer-term financing should be considered in Denmark, he said.
Negotiators in the Danish capital must provide companies with the certainty they need to make annual investments that may rise to trillions of dollars, said John Hawksworth, chief of macroeconomics at PricewaterhouseCoopers in London. Businesses need to know the scale of planned carbon cuts in order to gauge how expensive tradable carbon allowances will become, he said.
“The fundamental thing is to come up with a deal on the intermediate targets for 2020,” Hawksworth said in a telephone interview. “Once you’ve got the price on carbon, that sends the signal that businesses need in order to make the long-term investments in low carbon technologies and processes.”
Allianz, Europe’s largest insurer, supports the 2-degree limit as well as financing for developing countries to adapt to climate change, said Nick Tewes, a spokesman. By limiting the risks associated with climate change, the insurer will also minimize its potential claims, he said.
U.S. Chamber Opposition
Those on the other side of the issue also will be in Copenhagen, including representatives of the Washington-based U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the biggest U.S. business-lobbying organization. The group has questioned mandatory emissions cuts as part of an international accord and is calling for an emphasis on clean-energy technology.
The Chamber is fighting against U.S. legislation, which passed the House and is stalled in the Senate, to require a cut in greenhouse-gas pollution. It would cap emissions and set up a market to trade pollution allowances.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued a rule today giving it the power to regulate carbon-dioxide pollution.
Greenpeace, Corporate Link
The Paris-based IEA estimates that efforts to keep warming to less than 2 degrees since industrialization will add $10.5 trillion to the investment needed by 2030 to upgrade power stations, pipelines and refineries. The IEA also backs keeping the concentration of heat-trapping carbon dioxide to 450 parts per million, compared with about 385 now.
Amsterdam-based Greenpeace has called for an increase of no more than 2 degrees for at least seven years, said Kaisa Kosonen, a climate adviser for the environmental group. Greenpeace calls for global emissions to peak by 2015, five years earlier than the corporations.
Enel SpA, Italy’s largest utility, wants competitors around the world to accept CO2 regulations similar to those the Rome- based company already faces in the European Union.
“In order to get these targets, for 2 degrees of 450 parts per million, and emissions cuts, you need private investors like us,” said Simone Mori, head of regulation and environment at Enel, who may travel to Copenhagen.
Opponent Inhofe
The two-degree target has been a goal for the 27-nation European Union since 1996. In July, major greenhouse-gas polluters including the U.S., China, India and Japan signed up to the target, which has also been discussed in the UN negotiations as a possible long-term “shared vision.”
The move marked the first time developing nations had set such a target to fight climate change.
The talk of momentum doesn’t sway one of the U.S. Congress’s biggest climate-change skeptics, Republican Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma, who also will come to Copenhagen. He says the meeting is doomed, even with Obama’s entourage attending on the last day.
“No amount of lofty rhetoric or promises of future commitments can save it,” Inhofe said in a statement. That’s in part because legislation pending in the Senate to cap emissions “is dying on the vine.”
To contact the reporters on this story: Kim Chipman in Copenhagen at KChipman@bloomberg.net; Alex Morales in London at amorales2@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: December 7, 2009 14:07 EST
Gasoline Futures Slip on Speculation Supplies Ample for Demand
Share Business ExchangeTwitterFacebook| Email | Print | A A A
By Barbara Powell and Aaron Clark
Dec. 7 (Bloomberg) -- Gasoline futures declined to a one- week low on speculation that inventories are ample to meet demand.
Stockpiles of the motor fuel as of Nov. 27 were the highest in eight weeks, according to the Energy Department. Demand was the lowest in four weeks.
“The fundamentals are poor and without any demand in sight,” said James Cordier, portfolio manager at OptionSellers.com in Tampa, Florida.
Gasoline for January delivery fell 3.44 cents, or 1.7 percent, to settle at $1.9406 a gallon on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
The crack spread, or the difference between crude oil and gasoline, based on January contracts, widened about 10 cents to $7.58 a barrel.
Inventories have climbed as overseas refineries ship excess stockpiles to the U.S. Imports in the week ended Nov. 27 jumped to a three-month high.
“We are seeing increases of gasoline not only here in the U.S. but overseas,” said Andy Lipow, president of Lipow Oil Associates LLC in Houston. “There is still plenty of inventory.”
Heating oil for January delivery dropped 1.71 cents, or 0.8 percent, to settle at $2.0097 a gallon. The crack spread, based on January contracts, rose about 82 cents to $10.48 a barrel, after touching $10.717, the highest level since Aug. 12.
Regular gasoline at the pump, averaged nationwide, dropped 0.1 cent to $2.632 a gallon, AAA, the nation’s biggest motoring organization, said today on its Web site.
To contact the reporter on this story: Barbara J. Powell in Dallas at bpowell4@bloomberg.net; Aaron Clark in New York at aclark27@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: December 7, 2009 15:43 EST
EPA’s Carbon Decision Gives Obama Copenhagen Tool (Update1)
Share Business ExchangeTwitterFacebook| Email | Print | A A A
By Jim Efstathiou Jr. and Daniel Whitten
Dec. 7 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency declared carbon dioxide a health hazard today, paving the way for new regulation of emissions from sources such as power plants, factories, cars and trucks.
The decision lets the agency develop rules to govern heat- trapping pollution that many scientists say may lead to irreversible climate shifts. EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson said in Washington that the decision is “overwhelmingly” supported by science.
The move, on the opening day of an international climate summit in Copenhagen, arms President Barack Obama with new regulatory powers that could help forge consensus in efforts to curb global warming. Obama also gains standing when asking other nations to make commitments for a new global climate treaty, said Kevin Book, a Washington-based managing director for analysis firm ClearView Energy Partners LLC.
“It’s exactly what you would want to have in your bag on the way to Copenhagen,” Book said in an interview today. “You can’t go and argue for other nations to make changes if you haven’t made any yourself.”
Obama plans to visit Copenhagen at the close of the talks on Dec. 18, when other world leaders will be there, rather than this week as originally planned.
Autos, Factories
The EPA decision puts the U.S. on a path to finding “practical” solutions to climate change and giving businesses and investors certainty in investments geared toward clean- energy technology, Jackson said. The rules won’t burden small businesses, Jackson said.
“It also means that we arrive at the climate talks in Copenhagen with a clear demonstration of our commitment to facing this global challenge,” Jackson said.
The Washington-based America Petroleum Institute, which represents oil companies, said today the EPA rules will be “inefficient and excessively costly.” The National Petrochemical and Refiners Association, also based in Washington, said the proposed new rules are based on “selective science.”
“The implications of today’s action by EPA are far- reaching,” Charles Drevna, president of the refiners group, said in a statement. “This is yet another example of federal policy makers failing to consider the long-term consequences of a regulatory action.”
The first regulations under today’s finding will be made final in March and cover emissions from cars and trucks beginning with model year 2012, said David Doniger, policy director for the climate center of the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental group based in New York. Automakers signed on to that plan, announced in May.
Best Available Controls
Starting “next spring,” stationary pollution sources such as factories and power plants must begin using the best available emissions control technology when they build new facilities or expand existing ones, Jackson said. The agency has said it would regulate only facilities that produce 25,000 tons of CO2 a year or more.
Jackson dismissed claims by skeptics of man’s contribution to global warming that recently disclosed private e-mails among scientists show a conspiracy to manipulate findings about climate change. Phil Jones, a professor and director of the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, where the e-mails were stored on a computer, stepped aside temporarily last week pending a review.
Hacked E-Mails
“There is nothing in the hacked e-mails that undermines the science upon which this decision is based,” Jackson said. “We know that skeptics have and will continue to sow doubt about the science.”
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs announced on Dec. 4 that Obama will show up for the conclusion of the talks in Copenhagen, when about 100 heads of government are going, and help guide decisions. Earlier Obama had planned to stop by on Dec. 9. “There is progress toward a meaningful Copenhagen accord,” Gibbs said.
The U.S., the world’s second-biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, is in the spotlight at the talks in part because lawmakers haven’t approved legislation to set a mandatory limit on carbon-dioxide gas that many scientists say could lead to dangerous climate shifts if left unchecked.
“To have this come out now is another concrete sign that the Obama administration is joining the fight on global warming,” Doniger said of EPA rules.
Chamber of Commerce
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the nation’s biggest business-lobbying group, says EPA regulation of carbon would be “burdensome” to businesses and hurt the economy. Chamber President Tom Donohue has said the Washington-based agency, whose top administrator is chosen by the White House, was basing its proposed finding on “shaky, cherry-picked data.”
The U.S. House passed legislation in June to cap carbon emissions and set up a market for the trading of pollution allowances. The Senate has yet to act.
A climate bill from Congress remains the best way for the U.S. to develop clean energy sources and fight global warming, Jackson said. Rules the EPA can enforce under the Clean Air Act complement Congress’s efforts, Jackson said.
The EPA move “hopefully encourages people in the Senate and House” to move forward with legislation,” U.S. Senator John Kerry, a Democrat from Massachusetts, said in an interview in Copenhagen where he is attending the climate summit. A bill better takes into account the needs of various parties, Kerry said.
Lack of Guidance
Lack of guidance from the Senate, the only U.S. body authorized to ratify treaties, left Obama’s negotiators in Denmark without firm guidelines on how to proceed.
The administration’s use of the EPA to regulate greenhouse gases under existing law provides a “primary catalyst” for Congress to act, Book said.
The EPA’s action today “cites the inevitability that we’ll be living in a carbon constrained world,” Richard Sandor, chairman of Climate Exchange Plc, owner of emissions markets in London and Chicago, said today in an interview.
To contact the reporters on this story: Jim Efstathiou Jr. in New York at jefstathiou@bloomberg.net. Daniel Whitten in Washington at dwhitten2@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: December 7, 2009 15:48 EST
Crude Oil Trades Near $74 as Fed Expects ‘Moderate’ U.S. Growth
Share Business ExchangeTwitterFacebook| Email | Print | A A A
By Paul Burkhardt and Ben Sharples
Dec. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Crude oil traded near $74 a barrel in New York after falling as Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said the U.S. economy will face a weak labor market and tight credit, signaling fuel demand will be slow to recover.
Oil dropped a fourth day yesterday as Bernanke said a “moderate” pace of expansion for the economy is likely. Inflation remains “subdued” and might even move lower, he said. The Energy Department will likely say tomorrow that oil stockpiles rose last week, a Bloomberg News analyst survey shows.
“It’s the fundamentals at the end of the day that are driving crude lower,” said Addison Armstrong, director of market research at Tradition Energy in Stamford, Connecticut.
Crude oil for January delivery traded at $74.16 a barrel, up 23 cents, in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange at 10:16 a.m. Sydney time. Yesterday, the contract fell $1.54, or 2 percent, to $73.93. Prices have climbed 66 percent this year.
U.S. crude inventories probably gained 500,000 barrels last week, according to the median response of nine analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News before an Energy Department report tomorrow in Washington.
The dollar traded at $1.4826 per euro at 10:03 a.m. in Sydney, from $1.4827 yesterday. A stronger dollar limits investors’ need for assets such as oil to hedge against inflation.
Brent crude oil for January settlement dropped $1.09, or 1.4 percent, to end the session at $76.43 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange yesterday.
To contact the reporter on this story: Paul Burkhardt in New York at pburkhardt@bloomberg.net; Ben Sharples in Melbourne at bsharples@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: December 7, 2009 18:32 EST
Hasbro Wins Right to Sesame Street Characters in Deal (Update1)
Share Business ExchangeTwitterFacebook| Email | Print | A A A
By Inyoung Hwang
Dec. 7 (Bloomberg) -- Hasbro Inc., the world’s second- largest toymaker, won a 10-year contract to manufacture and market toys based on characters from Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit educational organization behind “Sesame Street.”
The new products from Hasbro’s Playskool division will be based on Elmo, Big Bird, Cookie Monster and other mainstays of the television program, according to a statement today. The line of toys and games by Pawtucket, Rhode Island-based Hasbro will be available in stores starting 2011.
Fisher Price, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc., the world’s biggest toymaker, owned the rights for the last 10 years, said Sherrie Westin, chief marketing officer of Sesame Workshop. The switch was made because Hasbro has the right strategy to develop a year-round business, Westin said. More Sesame Street toys will be sold throughout the year going forward, she said.
“Our approach to the consumer is to deliver products throughout the year, not just in the fourth quarter,” John Frascotti, chief marketing officer of Hasbro, said.
He declined to predict how much in sales the Sesame Street toys would generate for Hasbro. The terms of the deal won’t be disclosed, Westin said.
Spokesmen for Mattel didn’t immediately return calls for comment before regular business hours.
Hasbro added 65 cents, or 2.2 percent, to $30.83 at 4 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The shares have gained 5.7 percent this year. Mattel climbed 14 cents to $20.03. The shares have gained 25 percent this year.
To contact the reporter on this story: Inyoung Hwang in New York at ihwang7@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: December 7, 2009 16:21 EST
Branson Collects $42 Million From Would-Be Astronauts (Update2)
Share Business ExchangeTwitterFacebook| Email | Print | A A A
By Steve Rothwell
Dec. 7 (Bloomberg) -- U.K. billionaire Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic Ltd. venture is riding out the recession, with would-be astronauts paying $42 million to book a trip to the edge of space, its chief executive officer said.
Virgin Galactic added $4 million in deposits in the past nine months, CEO Will Whitehorn said in an interview. Fees range from a minimum $20,000 to the full $200,000 fare, with singer Sarah Brightman, physicist Stephen Hawking and X-Men director Bryan Singer among more than 300 clients to sign up. Virgin aims to sell at least 700 tickets by the first commercial launch.
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger will unveil Virgin’s SpaceShipTwo model at a test site in the Mojave Desert today, with the first commercial flight scheduled to take place from Spaceport America, New Mexico, in the next couple of years. A handful of lost contracts included one from a client who invested money through swindler Bernard Madoff, Whitehorn said.
“We’ve had very rapid growth in the past few months because people are seeing something coming to fruition,” Whitehorn said Dec. 3 in London.
Virgin Galactic has spent about $200 million on the project out of a budget of $450 million. Branson, who also owns Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd. and Virgin Trains, sold a 32 percent stake in Virgin Galactic to Aabar Investments PJSC of Abu Dhabi in July, raising $280 million. The purchase valued the venture at $900 million.
Weightlessness
Virgin’s prototype SpaceShipOne flew to the edge of space three times in 2004. SpaceShipTwo will be taken to 50,000 feet by the WhiteKnightTwo carrier aircraft, powered by four Pratt & Whitney PW308 engines, from where it will fire its own rocket motor and climb to 360,000 feet (110 kilometers).
The craft is designed to carry two pilots and six passengers who will experience weightlessness and see the curvature of the earth during a six-minute suborbital flight.
The vehicle creates high drag on reentering the atmosphere, slowing it down sufficiently to guard against burning up without heat shields or tiles and allowing it to glide to earth unaided by sophisticated computers or arduous piloting, Virgin says.
Virgin Galactic has commissioned three carrier planes and five spacecraft from Spaceship Co., its venture with Northrop Grumman Corp.’s Scaled Composites unit. The company was set up so that in future it can take orders from other customers.
‘Happy To Be Back’
“It’s creating a lot of interest and they must believe the technology is ready to roll,” said Professor George Fraser, director of the Space Research Centre at Leicester University, England. “But 700 bookings is only 100 flights, and I suspect this is the sort of thing people will do once and just be happy to be back on the ground safe.”
Fraser said the use of the WhiteKnightTwo aircraft as a platform from which to launch a more powerful rocket able to achieve full earth orbit might have more potential in the longer term. The technology would allow much more affordable deployment of mini satellites weighing tens of kilograms, he said.
“The main challenge, as with any new aircraft, will be to get through the tests with the regulators,” said Pat Norris, Chairman of the Royal Aeronautical Society’s Space Group, by telephone. “It’s hard to tell what might go wrong.”
Starship Enterprise
SpaceShipTwo is designed to carry “many thousands of private astronauts into space,” Virgin said today in a statement prior to the unveiling ceremony, where Schwarzenegger and Governor Bill Richardson of New Mexico are due to name the craft Virgin Space Ship -- or VSS -- Enterprise.
About 600 people are working in positions related to the project, which builds on technology first funded by Microsoft Corp. co-founder Paul Allen in an effort to win the X-Prize contest to develop a non-government reusable space vehicle. That figure will probably rise to more than 1,100 at the peak of infrastructure construction, the statement said.
“It’s momentous,” Whitehorn said. “There is this pent up demand for access to space, and the breakthroughs coming in the next two years are going to game-change that. What we call it internally is the industrial revolution of space.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Steven Rothwell in London at srothwell@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: December 7, 2009 14:02 EST
Woolworths, Tabcorp May Bid for National Leisure, Review Says
Share Business ExchangeTwitterFacebook| Email | Print | A A A
By Rebecca Keenan
Dec. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Woolworths Ltd. and Tabcorp Holdings Ltd. may consider making offers for Australian pub operator National Leisure & Gaming Ltd., the Australian Financial Review reported.
Woolworths is conducting due diligence on the accounts of National Leisure, the newspaper said citing sources close to the transaction. Tabcorp has held talks with National Leisure and its advisers at Andover Group, the newspaper said.
More groups may be interested in making offers for National Leisure including a private equity group, the newspaper said.
National Leisure has more than 900 poker machines at more than 30 pubs in New South Wales and Queensland, the newspaper said. The company has A$180 million ($164 million) in debt provided by National Australia Bank, it said.
To contact the reporters on this story: Rebecca Keenan in Melbourne at rkeenan5@bloomberg.net;
Last Updated: December 7, 2009 15:40 EST
Nestle to Make Fairtrade KitKats in U.K., Ireland (Update1)
Share Business ExchangeTwitterFacebook| Email | Print | A A A
By Thomas Mulier
Dec. 7 (Bloomberg) -- Nestle SA, the world’s biggest food company, will start certifying some KitKat bars in the U.K. and Ireland as Fairtrade, following Cadbury Plc, which started producing mass-market Fairtrade chocolate this year.
KitKat four-finger bars will carry the moniker from January, the Vevey, Switzerland-based company’s U.K. unit said in an e-mailed statement released today. Cadbury switched its Dairy Milk brand to Fairtrade in the U.K. in July.
Chocolate makers in the U.K. sold 28 million pounds ($46 million) of Fairtrade chocolate in the U.K. last year. The share of Fairtrade in that market will rise to 10 percent in 2010 because of Nestle and Cadbury’s changes from 1 percent in 2008, said Eileen Maybin, a spokeswoman for Fairtrade in the U.K. The Fairtrade designation requires chocolate makers pay an extra $150 per ton of cocoa and guarantee a minimum price of $1,600 a ton, she said. The extra money is used for development projects.
KitKats make up about 23 percent of Nestle’s U.K. confectionery sales. A quarter of that is the four-finger bars, which had U.K. sales of 43 million pounds in 2008, Nestle said. The price of the Fairtrade KitKats will be the same, Andrew Lewin, an external communications official for Nestle, said by phone. Nestle sells about 250 million four-finger KitKats in the U.K. each year, he added.
Nestle plans to provide 12 million stronger, more productive cocoa trees to farmers over the next decade. The company has said it will spend 460 million Swiss francs ($456 million) on cocoa, coffee science and “sustainability” projects over the next decade.
Mars Inc., Cadbury’s largest rival, said in April that all cocoa it uses will be sustainably sourced, with the approval of the Rainforest Alliance, by 2020. The Rainforest Alliance is a U.S.-based group that certifies goods have been produced from farms that meet its social and environmental standards.
Kraft Foods Inc. has bid 10.3 billion pounds ($16.8 billion) for Cadbury.
To contact the reporter on this story: Thomas Mulier in Geneva at tmulier@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: December 7, 2009 03:51 EST
* Business Exchange
* Twitter
* Delicious
* Digg
* Faceb
Cencosud Rises to Six-Week High on Expansion Restart (Update1)
Share Business ExchangeTwitterFacebook| Email | Print | A A A
By James Attwood and Nathan Gill
Dec. 7 (Bloomberg) -- Cencosud SA rose to the highest level in six weeks in Santiago trading after announcing plans to resume expansions in South America including a project to build the region’s tallest building.
Chile’s biggest retailer by sales gained 0.9 percent to 1,684.9 pesos at 8:47 a.m. New York time, heading for the highest closing price since Oct. 26.
The Santiago-based company plans to restart work this month on its Costanera Center real-estate project in Santiago as the economy recovers from its steepest slump in a decade. Cencosud will spend more than $700 million next year in Latin America, Chairman Horst Paulmann told reporters Dec. 4.
“You are starting to see the fruits of the company’s efforts this year,” Alvaro Pipino, head of research at IM Trust, said today in a telephone interview from Santiago. “The company’s shares should have positive momentum today.”
Costanera Center, once a symbol of Chile’s soaring copper- driven economy, became an emblem of its decline as Cencosud halted construction in January amid a global recession that cut prices of Chilean commodity exports and curbed spending.
Chile’s gross domestic product grew 1.1 percent in the third quarter from the previous three months, benefiting from rebounding copper prices, record-low interest rates and government stimulus spending. It’s on course to grow about 5 percent next year, the fastest pace since 2005, Finance Minister Andres Velasco said Nov. 27.
Tallest Building
Costanera was poised to be South America’s tallest building at 300 meters (984 feet) before work halted. The 700,000-square- meter (7.53-million-square-foot) project includes a 12-screen cinema, a five-star hotel and more than 300 retail outlets including department stores and home-improvement centers.
Paulmann, a German-born entrepreneur, spent about $1 billion buying up retailers in Brazil and Peru and expanding the Easy home-improvement chain to Colombia in the year before deciding to wind down work on the tower. Laurence Golborne, the former Cencosud chief executive officer who had guided the acquisition spree, was replaced in January by Daniel Rodriguez. The new chief promised to focus on cost savings and return debt to pre-acquisition levels.
Cencosud plans to fund Costanera Center with its own cash and will continue reducing debt, Rodriguez said. “You’ll see that in our fourth-quarter results,” he said Dec. 4.
Cencosud was retained in BCI Corredor de Bolsa’s portfolio of recommended Chilean stocks in a note to clients today, citing the plan to finance expansions with its own cash rather than with debt. Cencosud will hire 2,000 workers and invest $35 million in road works for Costanera Center, Paulmann said. The project’s shopping center is scheduled to open by mid-2011.
To contact the reporters on this story: James Attwood in Santiago at Jattwood3@bloomberg.netNathan Gill in Santiago at ngill4@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: December 7, 2009 09:06 EST
Walmex to Buy Walmart Centroamerica, Add 519 Stores (Update1)
Share Business ExchangeTwitterFacebook| Email | Print | A A A
By Sarah Shannon and Andres R. Martinez
Dec. 7 (Bloomberg) -- Wal-Mart de Mexico SAB, Latin America’s largest retailer, said it will acquire the operations of Walmart Centroamerica in a transaction that adds stores in five countries and about $3.3 billion of annual sales.
The acquisition will be funded mostly through the issue to Walmart Centroamerica investors of new shares in Walmex, as the company is known. Walmex will also make a cash payment of 1.4 billion pesos ($110.5 million), it said today in a statement.
Bentonville, Arkansas-based Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., the world’s largest retailer, owns 51 percent of Centroamerica and about two-thirds of Walmex. Centroamerica has 519 stores located in Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica and will add “additional growth opportunities,” according to Walmex President and Chief Executive Officer Eduardo Solorzano.
“The support of Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. to this deal is a sign of confidence in the leadership of our company, and in the value creation that this will represent for consumers in Mexico and Central America as well as Walmart de Mexico shareholders,” Solorzano said in the statement.
Walmex will issue 593 million new shares to Walmart Centroamerica shareholders. A further 55 million shares will be held as so-called treasury stock and issued when the company meets unspecified profit targets, according to the statement.
Walmart and a “substantial percentage” of Walmart Centroamerica minority shareholders agreed to receive new Walmex shares, while a smaller portion chose a cash payment.
The Mexico City-based company will present the purchase to shareholders for approval at a Dec. 22 meeting.
Walmex rose 1.05 pesos, or 1.9 percent, to 57.48 pesos at 8:59 a.m. local time on the Mexican Stock Exchange. The shares have risen 67 percent in the past 12 months.
To contact the reporter on this story: Sarah Shannon in London at sshannon4@bloomberg.net; Andres R. Martinez in Mexico City at amartinez28@bloomberg.net;
Last Updated: December 7, 2009 10:05 EST
China to Add Flexibility to Economic Policies, Pare Investment
Share Business ExchangeTwitterFacebook| Email | Print | A A A
By Bloomberg News
Dec. 7 (Bloomberg) -- China will add flexibility to some monetary economic policies next year and rein in new investment projects after a $586 billion economic stimulus package helped growth rebound in the world’s third-largest economy.
China will maintain a “moderately” loose monetary-policy stance and “proactive” fiscal policies as its recovery isn’t yet solid, according to a statement by the annual central economic work conference published by the official Xinhua news agency. Chinese President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao attended the three-day meeting that ended today in Beijing.
The country’s stimulus package and a record surge in bank lending have helped fixed-asset investment accelerate and economic growth rebound from its steepest slump in more than a decade. Still, a credit boom may undermine bank balance sheets and government researchers said today the nation’s industrial over-capacity has worsened.
China will ensure “moderate” growth of investment and focus on finishing existing projects in 2010, the government said. Policies will focus on boosting consumer spending, improving the social safety net and adjusting the nation’s growth models, the government said.
“As China’s economy recovers and is about to meet the government’s target, the government is able to rebalance growth by boosting consumption instead of further spurring investment, which may risk overheating and excess capacity,” said Xing Ziqiang, an economist at China International Capital Corp.
Consumer Spending
China will supply more homes, continue trade-in programs for home appliances and vehicles in rural areas and relax urban residence controls in medium-size and small cities to shore up consumer spending, the government said.
Growth accelerated to 8.9 percent in the third quarter after slipping to 6.1 percent in the first. The government is targeting 8 percent growth for the full year.
Urban fixed-asset investment expanded by 33 percent in the first 10 months from a year earlier and new projects climbed 81 percent.
China’s overcapacity problem is worsening, with 21 of 24 industries facing excess supply in the third quarter, up from 19 in the first quarter, Zhang Tao, a researcher with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said in Beijing today. The government has told companies to halt construction of new cement factories and begun studying ways to tackle a glut in steel production through mergers and the closing of obsolete plants.
Bank Lending
China’s mostly state-owned banks have extended $1.3 trillion of loans this year, helping the Shanghai Composite Index to gain 83 percent. The nation’s lending boom and “excessively loose credit conditions” may erode bank balance sheets, the Bank for International Settlement said in a quarterly report published today.
The government will better manage inflationary expectations next year, according to today’s statement, which made no further mention of inflation or asset prices.
China’s growth may quicken to 9.1 percent next year from an estimated 8.3 percent this year, the government-backed Chinese Academy of Social Sciences said in its economic outlook published today. Consumer prices may rise 2 percent next year after falling 0.5 percent in 2009, government researchers said.
“As inflation may not materialize in the near term, Chinese leaders tend to remain cautious and won’t change the overall policy tone,” said CICC’s Xing. “They are still worried about uncertainties in the global recovery, which may be set back by the Dubai debt crisis.”
Dubai roiled international and regional markets after it announced on Nov. 25 that it was seeking a “standstill” agreement on loans incurred by Dubai World, which has $59 billion in liabilities.
For Related News and Information: Most-read stories on China: MNI CHINA 1W <GO> Most-read China economy stories: TNI CHECO MOSTREAD BN <GO> For top economic news: TOP ECO <GO> For top China news: TOP CHINA <GO> Credit crunch page: WCC <GO> Government relief programs: GGRP <GO>
Last Updated: December 7, 2009 06:58 EST
U.S. Retail Hiring in November Rose to Highest Level in 2009
Share Business ExchangeTwitterFacebook| Email | Print | A A A
By Inyoung Hwang
Dec. 7 (Bloomberg) -- Hiring by U.S. discount, grocery, restaurant and specialty chains in November rose to the highest level in 2009, signaling that retailers may be anticipating a gradual recovery in consumer spending, a monthly survey found.
In November, 3.87 percent of applications resulted in hires, the most this year according to seasonally adjusted figures compiled by software maker Kronos Inc. Job applications last month fell to 1.27 million, the lowest since March, after 10 straight months of increases, the closely held Chelmsford, Massachusetts-based company said today in a statement.
While these are classic signs of a gradual, post-recession recovery, last month’s hiring increase might be a “spill over” from October, as retailers delayed the peak season for taking on employees, Robert Yerex, Kronos’s chief economist, said by telephone Dec. 4 from Beaverton, Oregon.
The U.S. jobless rate decreased to 10 percent in November after reaching a 26-year high of 10.2 percent in October, according to a Dec. 4 report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Retailers “weren’t sure how good or bad this year would be,” Yerex said. “There’s still a little bit of shell shock from 2007 and 2008, when retailers were caught with a lot of people on staff, a lot of product inventory, but a difficult time selling it.”
Kronos’s analysis covers 68 companies with 27,034 U.S. stores. The company makes software that businesses use to process hiring, payroll and scheduling, and manage employees. Chains that use Kronos products account for about 15 percent of U.S. retail jobs, according to the company.
To contact the reporter on this story: Inyoung Hwang in New York at ihwang7@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: December 7, 2009 00:01 EST
Purdey’s $52,000 Entry-Level Gun Helps Richemont Broaden Brand
Share Business ExchangeTwitterFacebook| Email | Print | A A A
By Thomas Mulier
Dec. 7 (Bloomberg) -- James Purdey & Sons, the gunsmith owned by Cie. Financiere Richemont SA, will expand production of its entry-level, 31,625-pound ($52,000) shotguns this fiscal year, broadening the company’s market as the wealthiest luxury- goods shoppers retrench.
Purdey will make about 100 guns in the period, and about 25 of those will be the year-old Sporter model, according to Richard Purdey, a sixth-generation descendant of the founder and a director and former chairman of the brand.
The gunmaker adapted technology that Geneva-based Richemont uses for watches like Cartier to create less expensive parts for the Sporter, he said, reducing the time spent filing metal by hand. Prices for Purdey’s bespoke guns, built by 30 craftsmen over 600 hours, start at 66,125 pounds.
“It’s going to enable us to reach a slightly broader market,” Purdey said at the gunsmith’s sole shop in Mayfair, London, surrounded by heads of wildebeest and buffalo. “We are with our bespoke guns right at the top end of a little market, which is very, very small.”
Sporters are ideal for clay-pigeon shooting and may win new clients who later commission a bespoke gun for game, while their light weight may appeal to female shooters as more women take up the sport, Purdey said.
Risk to Cachet
Purists respond by saying cheaper guns may risk Purdey’s cachet and cannibalize demand for the more expensive guns, according to Florian Thaler, a London-based shooting enthusiast who trades commodities for a living. Other hunters are turning to vintage, restored guns in the current economy rather than shelling out cash for a Sporter.
“There is a real danger of the brand being diluted, pushing established clients towards niche players,” Thaler said. “Winning new clients at the cost of old ones should not be in their interest. I’d rather wait till I can afford the real thing” than buy a Sporter.
Purdey’s rivals making so-called best London guns, an industry founded by exiled French Protestants in the 18th century, include Holland & Holland Ltd., owned by Chanel, and Boss & Co. The industry is worth about 50 million pounds, Purdey estimates.
“The market is definitely growing,” said Gavin Gardiner, an auctioneer who sells vintage sporting guns. “Buyers today are young, fashionable and wealthy, whereas the gun buyers of the past were older gentlemen with less money to spend.” Still, the gunmaker reached peak output in about 1900, producing as many as 350 guns per year at its west London factory.
No Large Numbers
Purdey could eventually raise production of Sporters to about 30 a year, though 100 would be impossible, Richard Purdey said. “We don’t talk large numbers at Purdey,” he said.
Purdey’s annual sales are about 7.5 million pounds. That’s about 1 percent of revenue for Richemont, which is controlled by South African billionaire hunting enthusiast Johann Rupert and bought the brand in 1994. Rupert plans to become Richemont’s chief executive officer in April, the company said last month, after first-half operating profit slumped 39 percent and the current chief developed health problems.
Purdey must “face some pressure, just like the other Richemont brands, despite the fact that they’re smaller and perhaps a hobby of Mr. Rupert’s,” said Rene Weber, an analyst at Bank Vontobel AG in Zurich. “Even the very rich do not go for the real high-end anymore. To broaden its audience, it needs a gun that’s cheaper.”
Scraping Metal
Richard Purdey, who shoots a Purdey gun built in 1899, said his ancestor “would have embraced with open arms” new technology to make the Sporter were he alive. The high-precision “computer numerical control,” or CNC machines, are accurate to less than one thousandth of an inch. They make parts such as screws and winding stems for watches.
“The craftsmen are still able to focus their artistry and their skill,” Purdey said. “They just don’t have to spend as much time as they used to just scraping off metal.”
Purdey was named maker of the best shotgun by Field & Stream magazine in 2007. With Britain’s grouse and partridge seasons more than two months underway, some Purdey enthusiasts stick to 1930s models, saying they’re as usable as newer ones if maintained properly. Vintage Purdeys are also much cheaper to purchase at auction than a new model, and are available without delay, compared with a 3-month wait for a Sporter and much longer for a bespoke gun.
Richard Royden, who runs a special-situations and merger- arbitrage team at GFI in London, inherited his 1930s Purdey from his grandfather, Sir John Royden, the fourth Baronet. “It’s probably as good as it was new” after a recent tuneup, he said by phone after shooting pheasants near Hungerford, England. “If I hadn’t inherited it, I wouldn’t blow 60 grand on a gun.”
About 480,000 people in the U.K. hunt game, spending 2 billion pounds a year, according to a 2006 study by Pacec, a consultancy.
Hip Flasks
Besides guns, the Purdey store near Park Lane in London’s Mayfair district sells hunting clothes in waterproof tweed and hand-knitted socks emblazoned with flags. The building, called Audley House, dates from 1882 and bears the scars of 1940’s German bombs on its exterior marble. Shoppers can admire the animal scenes on the scroll engraving of the guns, and peruse Purdey cigar cases, hip flasks and cufflinks in the shape of lions, elephants and buffalo.
“They’ve got a pretty good brand, and I think they could exploit it more,” GFI’s Royden said. He said he’s bought shooting socks, gun sleeves and a coat at the Purdey store.
Purdey, who retired as chairman of the business in 2007, says a second shop is unlikely after the company closed outlets in Paris and in New York in the past decade. “Part of the fun of ordering a Purdey is coming here.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Thomas Mulier in Geneva at tmulier@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: December 6, 2009 19:01 EST
Consumer Credit in U.S. Declined Less Than Forecast (Update1)
Share Business ExchangeTwitterFacebook| Email | Print | A A A
By Vincent Del Giudice
Dec. 7 (Bloomberg) -- Consumer credit in the U.S. declined less than forecast in October, a sign the financial crisis is easing and households are gaining confidence the economic expansion will take hold.
Credit fell by $3.51 billion, or 1.7 percent at an annual rate, to $2.48 trillion, according to a Federal Reserve report released today in Washington. Borrowing dropped by $8.77 billion in September, less than previously estimated.
The worst recession since the 1930s eased at mid-year with the help of government spending programs. The recovery will get more of a lift from consumer purchases, which account for about 70 percent of the economy, as the labor market improves.
“It’s reflective of improved consumer activity, clearly more so with vehicle sales,” said Maxwell Clarke, chief U.S. economist at IDEAglobal in New York, whose forecast a $4 billion drop, the smallest in a Bloomberg survey. “The concern is for revolving credit, where banks are pulling lines of credit.”
Revolving debt, such as credit cards, fell by $6.95 billion in October, according to the Fed’s statistics. Non- revolving debt, including auto and mobile-home loans, increased by $3.44 billion. The Fed’s report doesn’t cover borrowing secured by real estate.
Economists forecast consumer credit would drop by $9.4 billion in October, according to the median of 34 estimates in a Bloomberg News survey. Projections ranged from declines of $4 billion to $15 billion. The Fed previously reported that consumer credit declined in September by $14.8 billion.
Market Reaction
Stocks remained lower after the report, with the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index declining 0.4 percent to 1,101.85 at 3:01 p.m. in New York.
Consumer credit peaked at $2.6 trillion in July 2008, and fell as the recession deepened. Credit has declined for nine straight months, the longest stretch on record.
The economy has lost 7.2 million jobs since the recession started in December 2007, and the unemployment rate for October reached 10.2 percent, the highest since 1983, according to the Labor Department. Data released last week showed the jobless rate fell to 10 percent as employers shed 11,000 workers, the fewest since the recession began.
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said the labor market is moving closer to a period of job creation, which may give the economy a boost in early 2010.
Jobs Are ‘Key’
“The key test is when you see companies across the country starting to create jobs and add to payrolls,” Geithner said in a Dec. 4 interview for Bloomberg Television’s “Political Capital With Al Hunt” that aired during the weekend.
Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said today that “despite the general improvement in financial conditions, credit remains tight for many borrowers,” and the job market “remains weak.”
“We still have some way to go before we can be assured that the recovery will be self-sustaining,” the Fed Chairman said in a speech to the Economic Club of Washington. “My best guess at this point is that we will continue to see modest economic growth next year -- sufficient to bring down the unemployment rate, but at a pace slower than we would like.”
Credit-card defaults may match a record reached earlier this year as more consumers fell behind on payments in October and unemployment surged above 10 percent, Fitch Ratings said Dec. 2.
More Delinquencies
JPMorgan Chase & Co., the biggest U.S. card lender, as well as Capital One Financial Corp. and Discover Financial Services posted October data that included their highest delinquency rates for 2009.
Consumer spending has stabilized as Americans searched for bargains. Purchases rebounded in October, rising 0.7 percent after a 0.6 percent decline a month earlier, the Commerce Department said on Nov. 25. Incomes also increased, rising 0.2 percent in October.
Uneven gains in spending are hurting some companies, such as Target Corp., that appeal to bargain shoppers. Minneapolis- based Target is the second-largest U.S. discount chain after Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
No ‘Lift’
“We haven’t seen that rebound or that lift yet,” Gregg Steinhafel, the company’s chairman and chief executive officer, said in a Nov. 17 interview. Target’s November same-store sales fell 1.5 percent from a year earlier.
TJX Corporation Inc. reported sales up 15 percent in the four weeks ended Nov. 28 from a year earlier. The operator of T.J. Maxx and other low-priced apparel retailers forecasts strong sales through the end of the year.
“We are confident in our momentum,” said Carol Meyrowitz, chief executive officer of TJX, said in a Dec. 3 statement.
Auto sales were climbed in October as General Motors Co. and Ford Motor Co. reported their first combined gain in three years, helping the industry rebound from a drop in demand after the so-called cash for clunkers program.
Sales last month increased to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 10.93 million, up from 10.41 million in November 2008, industry researcher Autodata Corp. said.
To contact the reporter on this story: Vincent Del Giudice in Washington vdelgiudice@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: December 7, 2009 15:57 EST
I found a list of companies here that are part of CRWE.
http://www.crownequityholdings.com/
http://www.crowntradingsystems.com/
http://www.ctsproducts.com/
http://www.crwenews.com/
I seen that at the EOD. This sure looks like it moves easy..imo.. This is a low floater by the way...lol.
BiomedReports: News and FDA Updates for Health Sciences Group (OTC:HESG), Hospira (NYSE:HSP), ICON (NASDAQ:ICLR)
Pasadena, CA, Dec 07, 2009 (M2 PRESSWIRE via COMTEX) -- BioMedReports.Com, the news portal which covers Wall Street's biomedical sector and delivers financial and investment intelligence to a community of highly informed investors has Healthcare stock news and updates to its calendar database of Clinical Trials and upcoming FDA approvals & decisions.
A complete list of all headlines and biomedical stock developments can be found on BioMedReports.Com
On 04/12/09, Health Sciences Group, Inc. (OTC:HESG) would like to announce that it is in strong negotiations to acquire a minority stake in two separate Montana-based marijuana growing, distribution and care giving operations.
On 04/12/09, Hospira, Inc. (NYSE:HSP), a leading global specialty pharmaceutical and medication delivery company, announced the launch of its next-generation 50 mL and 100 mL VisIV(TM) containers for intravenous (I.V.) medications and solutions, and now offers a complete size range (50 mL to 1 L) of the award-winning, environmentally responsible VisIV product.
On 04/12/09, ICON plc, (NASDAQ:ICLR) announced it has received a warning letter from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regarding clinical study management services provided by the company to one of its clients in relation to two studies conducted between 2004 and 2006.
Biotech investors interested in seeing more details about these stories and accessing the complete database of clinical trials and upcoming FDA decisions can access that information here:
http://biomedreports.com/fda-calendar/fda-calendar.html
Disclosure: No positions.
About BiomedReports.Com
BioMedReports.com is a news portal covering the biomedical news and financial sector. It features its own blog, discussion forum, stock research reports, news feeds, videos, press release capability, stock commentaries, and other unique content - including FDA and Clinical Trial Calendars plus a database that includes about 1,000 stocks and exchange-traded funds from the healthcare sector which are organized into various new healthcare stock indexes.
For more biomedical sector and investment news, go to www.BioMedReports.com
Certain sections of this report contain forward-looking statements that are based on our reporters' expectations, estimates, projections and assumptions. Words such as "expects" "anticipates" "plans" "believes" "scheduled" "estimates" and variations of these words and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements, which include but are not limited to projections of revenues, earnings, segment performance, cash flows, contract awards, FDA announcements, trial and drug approvals, and company stability. Forward-looking statements are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, as amended. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve certain risks and uncertainties, which are difficult to predict. Therefore, actual future results and trends may differ materially from what is forecast in forward-looking statements due to a variety of factors including but not limited to the status or outcome of legal and/or regulatory proceedings.
All forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this report or, in the case of any document incorporated by reference, the date of that document. All subsequent written and oral forward-looking statements attributable to the company or any person acting on the company's behalf are qualified by the cautionary statements in this section. BioMedReports.Com does not undertake any obligation to update or publicly release any revisions to forward-looking statements to reflect events, circumstances or changes in expectations after the date of this report.
CONTACT: M. Davila, Editor, BioMedReports.Com e-mail: support@biomedreports.com Tel: +1 323 472 4480 Fax: +1 888 210 3556
((M2 Communications disclaims all liability for information provided within M2 PressWIRE. Data supplied by named party/parties. Further information on M2 PressWIRE can be obtained at http://www.presswire.net on the world wide web. Inquiries to info@m2.com.
(C)1994-2009 M2 COMMUNICATIONS
**********************************************************************
As of Thursday, 12-03-2009 23:59, the latest Comtex SmarTrend? Alert, an automated pattern recognition system, indicated an UPTREND on 03-16-2009 for HSP @ $25.10.
For more information on SmarTrend, contact your market data provider or go to www.mysmartrend.com
SmarTrend is a registered trademark of Comtex News Network, Inc. Copyright ? 2004-2009 Comtex News Network, Inc. All rights reserved.
-0-
BiomedReports: News and FDA Updates for Health Sciences Group (OTC:HESG), Hospira (NYSE:HSP), ICON (NASDAQ:ICLR)
Pasadena, CA, Dec 07, 2009 (M2 PRESSWIRE via COMTEX) -- BioMedReports.Com, the news portal which covers Wall Street's biomedical sector and delivers financial and investment intelligence to a community of highly informed investors has Healthcare stock news and updates to its calendar database of Clinical Trials and upcoming FDA approvals & decisions.
A complete list of all headlines and biomedical stock developments can be found on BioMedReports.Com
On 04/12/09, Health Sciences Group, Inc. (OTC:HESG) would like to announce that it is in strong negotiations to acquire a minority stake in two separate Montana-based marijuana growing, distribution and care giving operations.
On 04/12/09, Hospira, Inc. (NYSE:HSP), a leading global specialty pharmaceutical and medication delivery company, announced the launch of its next-generation 50 mL and 100 mL VisIV(TM) containers for intravenous (I.V.) medications and solutions, and now offers a complete size range (50 mL to 1 L) of the award-winning, environmentally responsible VisIV product.
On 04/12/09, ICON plc, (NASDAQ:ICLR) announced it has received a warning letter from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regarding clinical study management services provided by the company to one of its clients in relation to two studies conducted between 2004 and 2006.
Biotech investors interested in seeing more details about these stories and accessing the complete database of clinical trials and upcoming FDA decisions can access that information here:
http://biomedreports.com/fda-calendar/fda-calendar.html
Disclosure: No positions.
About BiomedReports.Com
BioMedReports.com is a news portal covering the biomedical news and financial sector. It features its own blog, discussion forum, stock research reports, news feeds, videos, press release capability, stock commentaries, and other unique content - including FDA and Clinical Trial Calendars plus a database that includes about 1,000 stocks and exchange-traded funds from the healthcare sector which are organized into various new healthcare stock indexes.
For more biomedical sector and investment news, go to www.BioMedReports.com
Certain sections of this report contain forward-looking statements that are based on our reporters' expectations, estimates, projections and assumptions. Words such as "expects" "anticipates" "plans" "believes" "scheduled" "estimates" and variations of these words and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements, which include but are not limited to projections of revenues, earnings, segment performance, cash flows, contract awards, FDA announcements, trial and drug approvals, and company stability. Forward-looking statements are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, as amended. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve certain risks and uncertainties, which are difficult to predict. Therefore, actual future results and trends may differ materially from what is forecast in forward-looking statements due to a variety of factors including but not limited to the status or outcome of legal and/or regulatory proceedings.
All forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this report or, in the case of any document incorporated by reference, the date of that document. All subsequent written and oral forward-looking statements attributable to the company or any person acting on the company's behalf are qualified by the cautionary statements in this section. BioMedReports.Com does not undertake any obligation to update or publicly release any revisions to forward-looking statements to reflect events, circumstances or changes in expectations after the date of this report.
CONTACT: M. Davila, Editor, BioMedReports.Com e-mail: support@biomedreports.com Tel: +1 323 472 4480 Fax: +1 888 210 3556
((M2 Communications disclaims all liability for information provided within M2 PressWIRE. Data supplied by named party/parties. Further information on M2 PressWIRE can be obtained at http://www.presswire.net on the world wide web. Inquiries to info@m2.com.
(C)1994-2009 M2 COMMUNICATIONS
**********************************************************************
As of Thursday, 12-03-2009 23:59, the latest Comtex SmarTrend? Alert, an automated pattern recognition system, indicated an UPTREND on 03-16-2009 for HSP @ $25.10.
For more information on SmarTrend, contact your market data provider or go to www.mysmartrend.com
SmarTrend is a registered trademark of Comtex News Network, Inc. Copyright ? 2004-2009 Comtex News Network, Inc. All rights reserved.
-0-
Terra Industries Inc. (TRA:US) jumped 8.2 percent to $42.25. CF Industries Holdings Inc. (CF:US) increased its offer to acquire rival Terra Industries Inc. to about $4.58 billion as it seeks to increase output of nitrogen fertilizer. CF Industries Holdings fell 5.1 percent to $84.
SunPower Corp (SPWRA:US) rose 4.5 percent to $23.31. The second-biggest U.S. supplier of solar modules was raised to “overweight/neutral” from “equal-weight/neutral” at Barclays Capital by equity analyst Vishal Shah. The price estimate is $35 a share.
Sprint Nextel Corp. (S:US) added 4.9 percent to $3.87. The third-largest U.S. wireless carrier may rise as much as 50 percent on its purchase of Virgin Mobile USA Inc. and as the number of its prepaid subscriptions increases, Barron’s reported, without citing anyone.
Office Depot Inc. (ODP:US): The second-largest office- supply retailer said it reached a proposed settlement with the staff of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to resolve a previously disclosed SEC inquiry that commenced in July 2007 and a formal investigation disclosed in January 2008.
Newmont Mining Corp. (NEM:US) lost 1.4 percent to $51.33. The largest U.S. gold producer fell as the metal extended a retreat from a record in London, heading for the biggest three- day drop since April, after a stronger dollar curbed its appeal as an alternative asset.
McDermott International Inc. (MDR:US) surged 9.9 percent to $22.70. The offshore oil and gas contractor said it will spin off its nuclear-equipment unit to keep the business eligible for U.S. government contracts.
Eli Lilly & Co. (LLY:US): The Indianapolis-based drugmaker won approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to broaden use of its top-selling antipsychotic medicine, Zyprexa, to teenagers with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder.
Dow Chemical Co. (DOW:US) added 1.5 percent to $27.90. The largest U.S. chemicals maker may rise to $40 or more in the next two years as its Rohm & Haas Co. purchase and its expansion in emerging markets boost earnings, Barron’s reported.
Barrick Gold Corp. (ABX:US) slid 1.4 percent to $42.10. The largest gold miner was cut to “neutral” from “outperform” by analysts at Credit Suisse Group AG. A ruling by the U.S. Appeals Court in San Francisco that additional environmental analysis is required at the company’s Cortez Hills project in Nevada creates uncertainty that will weigh on the shares, Credit Suisse analysts said.
Akamai Technologies Inc. (AKAM:US) jumped 5.1 percent to $26.16. The largest supplier of software and services to make Web sites load faster increased its fourth quarter forecasts for revenue and earnings, projecting more sales and profit than analysts estimate.
Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD:US) rose 3.7 percent to $8.15. The world’s second-largest maker of personal computers was raised to “outperform” from “underperform” at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. by analyst Stacy Rasgon. The 12-month price estimate is $12 a share.
Acer Inc. (ASIYF:US): The world’s second-largest personal computer maker after Hewlett-Packard Co. may rise as it works to double its profit margins and expand in emerging markets, Barron’s reported.
HESG ....is a Battle Tank this A.M......looking good...:)
Brevan Howard Said to Restrict Investor Inflows to Three Funds
Share Business ExchangeTwitterFacebook| Email | Print | A A A
By Tom Cahill
Dec. 7 (Bloomberg) -- Brevan Howard Asset Management LLP, Europe’s largest hedge-fund firm, limited the flow of money into three funds as client assets approached last year’s high, according to people familiar with matter.
The firm closed its $2 billion Asia Fund and $2.5 billion Emerging Market Strategies Fund to new investors as of Nov. 1, according to three people, who asked not to be identified because the information is private. In October, the London-based firm raised the minimum investment in Brevan Howard Master Fund Ltd., its largest, to $20 million from $1 million.
Brevan Howard may consider shutting the $21.3 billion master fund, whose assets are almost back to last year’s peak, said the people. The firm said in November that some clients had raised concerns that the fund was getting too big to effectively run. Brevan Howard managed $25.7 billion as of Sept. 30, compared with $27 billion last December.
“It’s a good sign that people who were sitting on their hands and waiting for things to happen are acting, writing checks and investing again,” said Jerome Lussan, founder of hedge-fund consultants Laven Partners LLP in London. “As they go back to hedge funds, people are going back to the most recognizable and comfortable names because they can’t afford to make mistakes again.”
Tudor, Odey
Paul Tudor Jones’s Tudor BVI and Lansdowne Partners LP’s $9.3 billion Lansdowne UK funds restricted inflows this year after replacing money pulled by investors in 2008. London-based hedge-fund managers near or above firm records for client assets include Crispin Odey’s Odey Asset Management LLP and Michael Platt’s BlueCrest Capital Management LLP.
James Vernon, a Brevan Howard founding partner who handles investor relations, didn’t return calls seeking comment.
“If and when we sense that a fund cannot deliver an attractive return because of the size of its assets relative to market opportunities, we intend to recommend to that fund’s board to return capital to investors,” the firm said in a Nov. 4 statement. “For the time being however, we remain sanguine about the size of our assets under management and confident that we can continue to generate attractive returns.”
Brevan Howard didn’t restrict investor withdrawals in 2008 when more than 59 percent of investors faced limits on pulling money from hedge funds, according to an April survey by investment advisory firm Casey, Quirk & Associates LLC of Darien, Connecticut. About $5 billion was removed from the master fund in 2008.
Master Fund Returns
The master fund, which trades fixed-income securities and currencies based on macroeconomic developments, returned 20 percent in 2008, when hedge funds on average lost 19 percent and the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index dropped 37 percent. It rose 18 percent this year through November, compared with the 13 percent gain by the HFR Global Hedge Fund Index.
Brevan Howard started BH Macro Ltd., a closed-end fund listed on the London Stock Exchange, in March 2007. BH Macro invests in the master fund, an alternative for investors seeking to mirror the original fund’s performance.
The firm was founded in 2002 by Alan Howard and four other traders from Credit Suisse First Boston’s proprietary fixed- income trading desk. The master fund is managed by Howard and a team of traders.
The Asia fund, which rose 5.5 percent through Sept. 30, is run from Hong Kong by Kaspar Ernst. The emerging-markets fund is managed by Geraldine Sundstrom in London and rose 27 percent through Sept. 30, according to a Nov. 4 statement from the company. Both remain open to existing investors.
To contact the reporter on this story: Tom Cahill in London at tcahill@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: December 6, 2009 19:01 EST
Dubai World May Sell Assets to Repay Debt, Government Says
Share Business ExchangeTwitterFacebook| Email | Print | A A A
By Arif Sharif and Zahraa Alkhalisi
Dec. 7 (Bloomberg) -- Dubai World, the state-owned holding company that’s in talks to renegotiate $26 billion of debt, may sell assets in the United Arab Emirates and abroad to repay its borrowings, a government official said.
Asset sales are normal to shore up finances in such circumstances, Abdulrahman Al Saleh, director general of Dubai’s Department of Finance and head of the government fund that’s leading the restructuring of Dubai World, said yesterday in an interview with Al Jazeera television.
Dubai World’s announcement last week that it would seek to restructure $26 billion of debt, including a $3.5 billion Islamic bond sold by property unit Nakheel PJSC, sparked a 16 percent decline in the country’s benchmark stock index.
“There are a lot of assets that could be liquidated at Dubai World to raise much-needed cash,” said Fahd Iqbal, a Dubai-based Persian Gulf equities strategist at Egyptian investment bank EFG-Hermes Holding SAE. “The priority would be to dispose of some of the international assets.”
Dubai World owns 80 percent of DP World Ltd., the world’s fourth-biggest port operator and the Jebel Ali Free Zone, a business park adjoining its flagship Jebel Ali port in Dubai. Its Istithmar division bought New York luxury retailer Barneys in 2007 for $942.3 million, while Dubai World itself acquired a $5.1 billion stake in U.S. casino company MGM Mirage in 2008.
The aim of Dubai World’s restructuring is to ensure it survives in the new environment, Al Saleh said, according to Al Jazeera. Dubai World will delay projects it hasn’t started because of the credit crisis, Al Saleh told the broadcaster.
Building Boom
Dubai World, one of the emirate’s three main state-related holding companies, is one of two groups that have led a building boom in Dubai alongside Emaar Properties PJSC.
Nakheel is building palm tree-shaped islands off the coast while Limitless LLC, its other property unit, is building the Downtown Jebel Ali residential project in Dubai and has planned urban developments in Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Russia.
Nakheel’s two malls in Dubai, Ibn Battuta and DragonMart, may be valuable since they yield regular revenue, Hermes analysts led by Fahd Iqbal said in a Dec. 3 report. The group’s most valuable asset would be Istithmar’s stake in London-based Standard Chartered Plc, the analysts said. The 2.2 percent holding is valued at about $1.07 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
“The restructuring process will obviously include discussion over the sale of assets,” Farouk Soussa, a Standard & Poor’s credit analyst said today at a conference in Dubai. “Nothing can be excluded.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Arif Sharif in Dubai at asharif2@bloomberg.netZahraa Alkhalisi in Dubai at zalkhalisi@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: December 7, 2009 07:42 EST