Archive for the 'Free blog Tips' Category

08
Mar

The Female Factor: Awareness Rises, but Women Still Lag in Pay

By alfredlester Closed
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PARIS — Companies in the United States, Spain, Canada and Finland lead the world in employing the largest numbers of women from entry level to senior management, according to a report set to be published Monday by the World Economic Forum. Yet the report also found that, despite increasing awareness of gender disparities in the workplace, women at many of the world’s top companies continued to lag behind their male peers in many areas, including pay and opportunities for professional advancement.

Moreover, many of these companies have yet to implement policies to address these gaps, despite pressure from many of their governments to do so.

The forum, based in Switzerland, surveyed 600 heads of human resources offices at the largest employers in 20 countries representing 16 different industries.

The poll assessed companies according to a range of criteria, including rates of female representation, whether the companies measured or set targets for gender balance in pay or promotion, and whether they offered benefits, like paid family leave, to promote work-life balance for their employees.

The findings, which were timed to coincide with the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day, follow the announcement Friday by the European Union of an initiative aimed at significantly narrowing the union’s average 18 percent gender wage gap, which has changed little in the past 15 years.

A study by the 27-member union last year estimated that closing the wage gap could lead to a potential increase of 15 percent to 45 percent in gross domestic product.

A 2009 report by the International Labor Organization found an average 20 percent difference in pay for men and women employed full time in the Group of 20 largest developed and developing economies. Yet the World Economic Forum’s report found that 72 percent of the companies in its survey had no systems to track salary differences by gender.

In addition, 60 percent of the companies said they had no affirmative action policies to promote women within their hierarchies and did not measure women’s participation in their work forces.

Companies in India had the lowest percentage of female employees, 23 percent, just below Japan, with 24 percent, the forum’s report found.

Turkey, Austria and Italy rounded out the bottom five, with women representing just 26 percent, 29 percent and 30 percent of their staffs, respectively instant payday loans.

As its focus was on companies, the forum’s survey did not assess the status of women working in the public sector or in education, areas where female representation is traditionally high and where policies to promote gender balance are often institutionalized by law.

Women remained in the minority of senior corporate managers, representing just 5 percent of the chief executives of the 600 companies surveyed. Finnish companies in the sample had the largest proportion of female chief executives, with 13 percent, followed closely by Norway and Turkey with 12 percent and Italy and Brazil with 11 percent.

The high percentage of female chief executives at Turkish companies, despite having relatively low levels of female employment, was due to the fact that many of the biggest companies were controlled by families where women were at the helm, said Saadia Zahidi, co-author of the report and head of the forum’s Women Leaders and Gender Parity Program. In Italy, which reported similarly large numbers of women at the top, the companies surveyed were mainly large, multinational corporations.

In both countries, Ms. Zahidi said, “there is a real dearth of women elsewhere in the corporate hierarchy.”

The forum’s findings also follow a global study of 4,500 business school graduates published last month by Catalyst, a U.S.-based organization that advocates for women in the workplace.

The Catalyst study found that, even in this high-potential group, women consistently lagged behind men in advancement and compensation from their very first professional job. The differences held even in comparing men and women of equal levels of work experience and professional aspiration and in discounting for whether or not they had children.

Herminia Ibarra, a professor of leadership and organizational behavior at Insead, an international business school, and a co-author of the forum’s report, said of the findings, “Study after study shows that, in most countries and industries, women enter the workplace pipeline in representative numbers. Then, something fails to happen.”

The Female Factor: Awareness Rises, but Women Still Lag in Pay

06
Mar

Funds Tied to Madoff Win a Ruling to Stop Suits

By alfredlester Closed
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UBS and Ernst & Young won a court ruling Thursday in Luxembourg, potentially blocking hundreds of claims by investors who had lost money in funds tied to Bernard L. Madoff’s fraud.

Luxembourg’s commercial court said that investors could not bring individual lawsuits for damages. The court said it was up to the liquidators of the funds that invested with Mr. Madoff to seek the “recovery of the capital assets.”

Investors who lost millions of dollars through Access International Advisors’ LuxAlpha Sicav-American Selection fund had filed more than 100 lawsuits against UBS and Ernst & Young for “seriously neglecting” their fund supervisory duties. Luxembourg’s commercial court in April 2009 decided to hear some of the cases to test whether the claims were admissible.

UBS served as the custodian for LuxAlpha. Custodians are responsible for oversight of funds and manage deposits and payments to investors.

“UBS welcomes the clarification of Luxembourg law as expressed by today’s decisions,” Tatiana Togni, a spokeswoman for the bank, said in an e-mail message.

Spokesmen for Ernst & Young in Luxembourg could not immediately be reached to comment. LuxAlpha, which invested 95 percent of its assets with Mr. Madoff, said it had $1.4 billion in net assets a month before Mr. Madoff’s arrest in December 2008. The fund was dissolved and is being liquidated.

Luxembourg is the second-largest mutual fund market after the United States, with about 3,463 registered funds holding 1.84 trillion euros ($2 business cards.5 trillion) in assets.

François Brouxel, who represented investors in four of the test cases and has more than 60 others pending, said he would appeal the court’s finding. He said the ruling “is in direct contradiction with E.U. rules and will have repercussions for the Luxembourg financial market if investors feel they are not protected.”

Mr. Madoff, 71, pleaded guilty last year in federal court in Manhattan and was sentenced to 150 years in prison for using money from new clients to pay earlier investors.

UBS Settles Auction-Rate Case

The Swiss bank UBS agreed on Thursday to buy back $200 million of auction-rate securities and pay a $6.64 million fine to settle charges it misled investors about the debt’s safety.

The accord, reached with the Texas State Securities Board, covers investors left out of an August 2008 nationwide settlement with several regulators in which UBS agreed to buy back $18.6 billion of auction-rate securities and pay a $150 million fine.

That settlement covered investors who held securities in UBS accounts. The state said UBS has to date agreed to buy back $22 billion of auction-rate debt.

Auction-rate debt has interest payments that reset at periodic auctions. Regulators have accused many broker-dealers of marketing the debt as being as safe as cash.

Reuters

Funds Tied to Madoff Win a Ruling to Stop Suits

26
Feb

A.I.G. Reports a Loss and Increases Its Reserves

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The American International Group, the insurance giant, said Friday that it lost about $11 billion last year, and cited a rebound in annuities sold by its renamed life insurance companies as a bright spot.

The insurer’s year-end result was a small fraction of the record-breaking loss of $61.7 billion that it reported for 2008, when its large derivatives portfolio blew up, leading to a government bailout. Most of the 2009 loss came from a fourth-quarter charge taken to reflect that its bailout had been restructured — a one-time charge that A.I.G. has been warning about for months. The charge was not connected with the company’s core insurance operations.

But a big part of the loss was directly related to its insurance activity — A.I.G. increased its reserves on the advice of its outside actuaries. The move seemed to vindicate a study by the Sanford C. Bernstein research firm last November, which found a big shortfall in A.I.G.’s reserves for its property and casualty businesses. Those businesses have been renamed Chartis and are expected to be A.I.G.’s backbone.

Insurance companies set aside reserves to pay claims that they anticipate, and when they have to strengthen inadequate reserves, they take money from earnings. The Bernstein analyst, Todd R. Bault, had predicted that A.I.G. would have to “take some kind of a reserve charge” before it could offer Chartis’s shares to investors, as part of the company’s plans to restructure and pay back its government bailout.

For the fourth quarter alone, A.I.G. lost $8.87 billion, or $65.51 a share. That compared with a loss of $458.99 a share in the period a year ago. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters forecast a loss of $3.94 a share.

A.I.G. said that $2.7 billion of its loss, on a pretax basis, came from increasing its reserves. Much of the increase took place in the fourth quarter, after an annual study showed a deficit in the amounts needed to pay workers’ compensation and other commercial claims that are gradually coming due on policies sold in 2002 and earlier.

Mr. Bault had reported that A.I.G.’s reserves seemed inadequate for its workers’ compensation and other types of insurance where claims take a long time to develop. But he said the deficit appeared to be much larger, estimating it at $11.9 billion. A.I.G. said the increase in reserves left Chartis with a surplus of $27 billion, 4 percent more than its surplus in 2008.

The chief executive, Robert Benmosche, said in a statement: “Our team has made great progress during the year in executing our strategic restructuring plan.”

In addition to strengthening the insurance companies, he cited the progress made in winding down A.I.G.’s derivatives business, and “positioning certain businesses for sale.”

A.I.G. has announced that it will sell shares in its biggest international life insurance company, the American International Assurance Company Ltd online pay day loans., on the Hong Kong stock exchange sometime this year. It has also been negotiating the sale of another large international life insurance company, known as Alico, to MetLife. The talks have proceeded slowly because of questions about a possible tax liability and who would pay it.

The first $25 billion in proceeds from those two transactions are to go to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, to pay back part of the cost of rescuing A.I.G.

Already, A.I.G. had replaced $25 billion of rescue debt to the New York Fed with $25 billion of equity, an investment which will pay off when the sales of the two foreign life insurers go through. The debt-for-equity swap lightened A.I.G.’s debt burden, averting a credit downgrade that loomed in the first quarter of 2009, when the company announced its disastrous 2008 results.

The company said $5.2 billion of its year-end pre-tax loss was the result of eliminating the $25 billion of debt to the Fed. It has been carrying the lending commitment as an asset on its balance sheet, but was able to speed up the amortization of the so-called commitment asset, leading to the $5.2 billion pre-tax charge.

In addition, A.I.G. paid the New York Fed $5.2 billion of interest on its rescue loans over the course of 2009.

Another big factor in A.I.G.’s losses for 2009 was the pending sale of yet another foreign life insurance company, the Nan Shan Life Insurance Company, of Taiwan. Although the sale has not yet closed, A.I.G. said it had recognized a $2.8 billion pretax loss on the sale in the fourth quarter.

In his statement, Mr. Benmosche said his team was “increasingly confident in how we see the mix of A.I.G.’s businesses over the long term.”

He said the “nucleus” would consist not only of Chartis but of “a strong U.S. life and annuity operation and several other businesses,” which he did not identify. In the months immediately after A.I.G.’s rescue, its interim chief executive, Edward Liddy, had spoken of selling the company’s domestic life insurance companies.

Since then, the life insurance companies have been renamed and at least some of them have emerged as significant sources of cash for A.I.G. Mr. Benmosche cited in particular a subsidiary once called A.I.G. Annuity, which last year reverted to the name it used before A.I.G. acquired it, Western National.

Under the new name, Western National has reclaimed its former position as the largest seller of single-premium fixed annuities in banks. Some banks had suspended the sales immediately after the bailout, but in the second half of 2009 the sales were resumed. Demand was strong because the annuities, which are not insured by the F.D.I.C., have offered customers more interest than similar bank deposits.

A.I.G. Reports a Loss and Increases Its Reserves

25
Feb

Asian Shares Falter on Concerns About U.S. Economy

By alfredlester Closed
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SINGAPORE — A tepid rally in Asian shares faltered early on Thursday and the dollar rose after the Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke’s reaffirmation of an extended period of low U.S. rates boosted risk-seeking but also raised some concerns about global growth.

The Nikkei 225 average in Japan rose initially, helped by exporters like Canon and as Toyota Motor reversed most of its losses of the past two days after its chief apologized to consumers and pledged reforms to skeptical U.S. lawmakers at Congressional hearings. Toyota’s U.S.-listed shares jumped 3.9 percent.

But a more than 2 percent slide in Denso Corp. weighed on the broader Tokyo market after authorities said the FBI has raided three Detroit-area Japanese auto parts makers for a sealed federal antitrust investigation, including the Toyota suppliers Denso and Tokai Rika.

“The market welcomed a rebound in U.S. stocks after news that the country will continue its low rate policy,” said Yutaka Miura, a senior technical analyst at Mizuho Securities. “But we’ve seen a series of worse-than-expected economic data from America lately and uncertainty about the outlook for the U.S. economy is increasing.”

The MSCI Asia excluding Japan index fell 0.43 percent by midday, and sectors that fell the most were industrials and technology.

The Nikkei closed 0.95 percent lower.

A report on U.S. new home sales on Wednesday highlighted the Fed’s predicament. Sales slumped more than 11 percent to a record low, suggesting the sector at the center of the financial crisis had yet to fully heal.

Mr. Bernanke’s assessment of the economy was also grim, further curbing the speculation of quicker policy tightening that had been spurred by the Fed’s raising of the discount rate last week.

He also said a weak job market and tame inflation warrant low interest rates for “an extended period,” making clear that policy tightening is some time away, which helped the Dow Jones Industrial average rise 0 best humidifiers.89 percent.

The dollar fell initially in Asia but the trade-weighted index soon recovered to 80.96.

Gold was at $1,096 an ounce, far from a the previous day’s high of #1,107.95.

Oil prices also hovered just above the $80 mark but were also off the previous day’s highs at $80.45, a level hit when stock markets rallied on the back of Mr. Bernanke’s remarks despite a bearish report showing a build up in U.S. crude stockpiles.

The euro stayed weak at $1.3483, paring further the gains it had made soon after Mr. Bernanke’s remarks and heading closer to a nine-month low of $1.3442 struck last week.

Worries about a possible downgrade of Greece weighed on the European single currency, pushing it down from above $1.36 on Wednesday.

Standard and Poor’s said it may cut Greece’s BBB+ rating by one or two notches within a month, citing downside risks to growth that could hinder the country’s deficit-cutting plans.

“The Greek situation remains fluid. So acrimonious discussions between Athens and Brussels could easily result in further near term euro slippage,” Citigroup said in a note.

But Citigroup also said that with euro net short positions at a record high, any positive news from Greece in the coming weeks could lead to a bounce in the single currency.

The euro has lost over 10 percent since late November as fiscal woes in Greece intensified in the past few months leading to a huge sell-off by investors.

Reuters

Asian Shares Falter on Concerns About U.S. Economy

Hot News: Targets 4Q profit rises 53.7 percent

22
Feb

Obama version of health reform expected Monday

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WASHINGTON – The White House readied its last-ditch effort to salvage health care legislation Sunday while the Senate’s Republican leader warned Democrats against the go-it-alone approach.

The White House was expected to post a version of President Barack Obama’s plan for overhauling health care on its Web site on Monday, ahead of his critical and daring summit at Blair House on Thursday. The plan, which was likely to be opposed by the GOP, was expected to require most Americans to carry health insurance coverage, with federal subsidies to help many afford the premiums.

Hewing close to a stalled Senate bill, it would bar insurance companies from denying coverage to people with medical problems or charging them more. The expected price tag is around $1 trillion over 10 years.

The conference at the White House guest residence is to be televised live on C-SPAN and perhaps on cable news networks. It represents a gamble by the administration that Obama can save his embattled overhaul through persuasion — a risky and unusual step.

It was forced on the administration by the Senate special election victory of Massachusetts Republican Scott Brown in January. He captured the seat long held by Democrat Edward M. Kennedy, who died last year. Brown’s victory reduced the Democrats’ majority in the Senate to 59 votes, one shy of the number needed to knock down Republican delaying tactics.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said Sunday he would participate, but that Obama and congressional Democrats would be wrong to push the bills they wrote in the House and Senate.

“The fundamental point I want to make is the arrogance of all of this. You know, they are saying, `Ignore the wishes of the American people. We know more about this than you do. And we’re going to jam it down your throats no matter what.’ That is why the public is so angry at this Congress and this administration over this issue,” said McConnell, R-Ky.

While the House and Senate had passed its own version of a health overhaul, lawmakers had yet to settle their differences and produce a single bill acceptable to both chambers when Brown won.

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, hoped a compromise — “sweet spot,” he called it — was possible No teletrak payday loan.

“If you really want to serve the people and not just your party, I think you will find that sweet spot and you can get it done,” he said.

Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell of Pennsylvania appealed to Republicans to offer their own proposals. “You take some of our ideas. We’ll take some of your ideas. We may not love your ideas, but we’ll take them. If they don’t do that, I think this whole dynamic of this political year could turn around,” he said.

Rendell and Schwarzenegger spoke from the sidelines of the National Governors Association meeting. Four leaders of the group, two Republicans and two Democrats, later summoned the media to a news conference and offered to strike a compromise between the warring factions in Washington.

“We are making an offer to help and are very willing to roll up our sleeves and help if that’s what Congress and the president decided,” said Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen, a Democrat.

The governors’ plea was an implicit acknowledgment that Obama and the Democratic-led Congress have frozen governors out of the process.

The Blair House meeting takes place nearly a year after Obama launched his drive to remake health care — a Democratic agenda item for decades — at an earlier summit he infused with a bipartisan spirit. The president will point out that Republicans have supported individual elements of the Democratic bills.

Under the expected Obama plan, regulators would create a competitive marketplace for small businesses and people buying their own coverage. The plan would be paid for with a mix of Medicare cuts and tax increases. It would also strip out special Medicaid deals for certain states, while moving to close the Medicare prescription coverage gap and making newly available coverage for working families more affordable. The changes would cost about $200 billion over 10 years. It’s unclear what the total price tag for the legislation would be; the Senate bill was originally under $900 billion.

McConnell spoke on “Fox News Sunday.” The governors appeared on ABC’s “This Week.”

Obama version of health reform expected Monday

21
Feb

NAACP elects Brock, 44, as youngest board chairman

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NEW YORK – The NAACP elected a health care executive as its youngest board chairman Saturday, continuing a youth movement for the nation’s oldest civil rights organization.

Roslyn M. Brock, 44, was chosen to succeed Julian Bond. She had been vice chairman since 2001 and a member of the NAACP for 25 years.

Brock works for Bon Secours Health Systems in Maryland as vice president for advocacy and government relations, and spent 10 years working on health issues for the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. She joins Benjamin Todd Jealous, the 37-year-old CEO of the NAACP, as leader of the 500,000-member organization.

Brock said she plans to focus on pushing for policy changes to eliminate inequality, strengthening the relationship between the national and local NAACP branches and holding people accountable.

“It’s not always what someone is doing to us, but what we are doing for ourselves,” Brock said in an interview.

The departure of Bond, 70, after 10 years as board chairman marks a turning point for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored Pepole.

Bond came of age in the segregated South, helped found the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee and was on the front lines of the protests that led to the nation’s landmark civil rights laws. He is a symbol and icon of “the movement,” which was a defining experience for older generations.

In recent years the NAACP has endured criticism that it is old and out of touch. Then Bond brought in Jealous, then 34, as the NAACP’s youngest CEO, and endorsed Brock’s bid for board chairman.

The selection of young leaders “is deliberate, but it’s also fortuitous,” Bond said. “We are lucky to have had this confluence of a young CEO and a young chair. I don’t think we plotted and planned that in 2010 the stars would align this way.”

Jealous said he belongs to a generation “whose greatest accomplishments are in front of them … who are even more hungry for change.”

Bond said the board asked him to run for another one-year term, but he declined.

“Frankly, this is the most difficult nonpaying job I’ve ever had,” said Bond, who has served in the Georgia state legislature, is a member of several corporate boards and a professor at American University and the University of Virginia easy fast payday loans.

Brock was selected in a vote by the 64-person NAACP board. Her opponent was Rev. Wendell Anthony, leader of the NAACP’s Detroit chapter, who withdrew Friday after he was not re-elected to his seat on the board.

Brock graduated from Virginia Union University and has an MBA from Northwestern, as well as master’s degrees in health care administration and divinity.

She described health care as her passion and said the current reform debate hinges on one fundamental question.

“Am I my brother’s and my sister’s keeper?” Brock asked. “That’s the question that we’ve got to ask our legislators. Are we really, really concerned about our neighbors, and about their health, and their children’s health?”

While acknowledging the need to “retool our front line” and develop young civil rights activists, Brock said the wisdom of the older generation is still needed.

“If it were not for that ‘aging’ membership, the NAACP would not be who it is and what it is today,” she said.

Many conservatives question the need for an NAACP and say that an association for the advancement of white people would be considered racist.

Brock said the NAACP has erroneously been classified as a black group: “We are not. We are a multiracial, multiethnic organization. So as we move into our second century, our desire is to cast our net broader.”

“‘People of color’ or ‘colored people’ really speaks to those who are falling through the cracks … who feel locked out,” she said.

She said the nation was at a pivotal moment after electing the first black president.

“I’d be the first to say that at the NAACP we have to acknowledge how far we’ve come as a nation in terms of race relations, but also in that acknowledgment, understanding that we’re not where we ought to be, but we thank God we’re not what we used to be.

“We need to draw a line in the sand and say thank you, America … but also challenge America that we still have much more work to do.”

___

Jesse Washington covers race and ethnicity for The Associated Press. He is reachable at jwashington(at)ap.org or http://www.twitter.com/jessewashington.

NAACP elects Brock, 44, as youngest board chairman

Hot News: Is it time to give up your adjustable-rate loan?

19
Feb

Fed’s Move Prompts Drop in Asian Stocks, but Dollar Rises

By alfredlester Closed
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HONG KONG — Stock markets in the Asia-Pacific region fell on Friday after the U.S. Federal Reserve increased the rate on loans made directly to banks, as the move reminded global investors that the era of cheap money was gradually drawing to a close.

The U.S. currency continued its recent rise against the euro, trading at around $1.35 by mid-morning in Asia, its strongest level against the European single currency in nice months.

Oil and other commodities fell because they are sensitive to higher interest rates, which can tame economic growth. Crude oil prices were down 1 percent at around $78.20 per barrel.

Gold, which tends to sag when the dollar rises and inflation threats recede, eased to $1,107 an ounce.

The Fed’s move, announced after the close of trade in the United States was seen as the first significant step by the Fed to start exiting some of the extraordinary stimulus measures that were announced as the global financial crisis began to escalate in late 2008. It does not affect the benchmark fed funds rate — the rate at which banks lend to each other overnight that determines the cost of borrowing for normal consumers and businesses. That rate remains at a record low.

However, Thursday’s announcement by the Fed prompted investors to focus on an eventual rise in the fed funds rate as confidence in the U.S. economy’s gradual recovery takes hold.

“The move indicates confidence in market stability and economic recovery and will make it easier to raise the Fed funds rate target,” said Dariusz Kowalczyk, chief investment strategist at SJS Markets in Hong Kong in a note no faxing pay day loans.

The Nikkei 225 index in Tokyo eased 0.7 percent by late morning, with the Japanese Finance minister, Naoto Kan, saying the Fed’s move was unlikely to hurt the Japanese economy.

The benchmark Kospi index in Seoul fell 1 percent, and in Hong Kong the Hang Seng index dropped 2.0 percent.

In Singapore, the Straits Times index in Singapore was 0.5 percent lower in morning trade. In a sign that the Asian region is recovering more quickly than the United States and Europe, the Singapore authorities on Friday said they expected the country’s economy to expand by between 4.5 percent and 6.5 percent this year, more than previously forecast. Last year, Singapore’s economy shrank by 2 percent.

The stock market in Australia, whose economy has been powering ahead thanks in large part to voracious appetite for its natural resources from China, slipped 0.3 percent, amid indications that the central bank there will continue to raise interest rates as economic conditions improve.

The markets in mainland China, Taiwan and Vietnam are closed all week for the Lunar New Year holiday.

The Fed’s increase in its so-called discount rate was by a quarter of a percentage point, to 0.75 percent from 0.50 percent, and is effective Friday.

Fed’s Move Prompts Drop in Asian Stocks, but Dollar Rises

Hot News: Case Is Said to Link HSBC to U.S. Tax Evasion Inquiry

14
Feb

Insider Trading Charge in China

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HONG KONG — The former chairman of one of China’s largest electronics companies has been charged with insider trading, offering bribes and running illegal operations, the state-run China News Service said.

Huang Guangyu’s case was sent to the Beijing Municipal Second Intermediate People’s Court for trial, and the people accused of being his accomplices have also been indicted, China News Service said Saturday without identifying those people.

The charges against Mr. Huang had long been expected. He has been in detention since November 2008, and Chinese officials subsequently took the uncommon step of publicly confirming that he was under investigation by the Ministry of Public Security.

He resigned as chairman of the electronics company, Gome, two months after his detention.

He has been held incommunicado, as is common in China during investigations, and could not be reached Sunday for comment.

Sunday marks the first day of the Lunar New Year holiday, with government and corporate offices closed across China and tens of millions of people going to their hometowns to celebrate.

The long-running scandal over Mr no fax payday loans. Huang’s alleged activities has already tarnished the careers of a series of Chinese officials. Zhu Ying, the former deputy director of the Shanghai Municipal Public Security Bureau, was expelled from the municipal discipline inspection committee of the Communist Party last December. The committee issued a statement at the time saying, without providing details, that he had been stripped of his membership in connection with the investigation of Mr. Huang.

The investigation of Mr. Huang has also resulted in further reviews at the Ministry of Public Security of how the ministry’s economic crimes section had handled the affair, according to the state-run news agency Xinhua, which is larger than China News Service.

Before his arrest, Mr. Huang had been one of the wealthiest people in China, with Forbes magazine estimating his wealth then at $2.7 billion and the Hurun Report, which also keeps track of the wealth of Chinese business leaders, estimating that he was worth $6.3 billion.

Insider Trading Charge in China

13
Feb

Euro Hovers Near Nine-Month Lows

By alfredlester Closed
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HONG KONG — European leaders’ declaration of support for Greece may have helped ease global worries of a debt default, but it did little to lift the euro, which hovered around nine month lows against the dollar on Friday.

Any gains in the currency shared by 16 European countries were undermined by lingering concerns about the fragile finances of several nations in the euro zone, analysts said.

The euro has sagged sharply against the dollar and the yen since January, as worries about a potential debt default by Greece began to surface.

At the start of this year, a euro bought around $1.45 and 133 yen; by midday in Asia on Friday, it bought only $1.37, and 122.5 yen.

Friday’s levels were a touch lower than Thursday’s — despite the European support for Greece — meaning the single currency remains around its weakest level against the U.S. currency since May last year. The last time the euro was at such levels against the yen was a year ago.

Stock markets, too, took only limited comfort from Thursday’s news out of Brussels, which was little more than a statement from European leaders to aid Greece during its debt crisis, if needed. Leaders offered no details on what that support would entail.

The main stock market indexes in the Asia-Pacific region were mixed, with muted rises in Japan, Hong Kong and Australia, and equally limited falls in South Korea.

The Nikkei 225 index in Tokyo was 0.9 percent higher by early afternoon. The Hang Seng in Hong Kong and the Straits Times index in Singapore gained about 0.3 percent, and the benchmark index in Australia edged up 0.1 percent In South Korea, the Kospi index slipped 0 free credit scores.3 percent by around noon.

On Thursday, the Dow Jones industrial average gained 105.81 points, or 1.05 percent, to close the day at 10,144.19. European markets ended Thursday mixed.

“Yesterday’s news on Greece did not actually provide much more than had been widely expected. The market was hoping for more specifics, so the reaction is now quite muted,” said Dariusz Kowalczyk, chief investment strategist at SJS Markets in Hong Kong.

Activity across much of the region was also dampened ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday, which will shut much of the region — notably China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan — on Monday.

“Risk appetite should gradually resume — unless we get massive violence in the streets of Greece,” Mr. Kowalczyk added, referring to worries that the Greek government’s efforts to reduce its deficit will be constrained by mass popular opposition.

Striking civil servants brought public services to a halt across Greece on Wednesday, in a largely peaceful one-day protest against the tough austerity measures that officials have said are necessary to stave off a mounting financial crisis. A much broader strike is planned for Feb. 24. “Feb. 24 will be a day to watch,” Mr. Kowalczyk said.

Better-than-expected news Thursday from the closely-watched U.S. jobs market failed to set spark strong gains. The number of Americans filing first-time unemployment claims fell by more than expected last week.

Euro Hovers Near Nine-Month Lows

12
Feb

Michelin posts 71 pct drop in 2009 profit

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PARIS – French tire maker Michelin on Friday reported a 71 percent drop in earnings last year as auto markets slumped, and said it is “vigilant” for the year ahead.

Michelin posted a net profit of euro104 million ($143 million), less than the euro357 million earned last year. Revenues declined 9.8 percent to euro14.8 billion.

Like auto maker Renault SA, Michelin, which is based in Clermont-Ferrand, France, achieved its aim of generating positive free cash flow at the year end to help it ride out the crisis.

Michelin had a positive free cash flow — the funds a company is able to generate after maintaining or expanding assets — of euro1.4 billion compared to a negative euro359 million in 2008 after it ran down inventories and reduced capital expenditure.

In 2010, Michelin is again targeting positive free cash flow.

Chief Executive Officer Michel Rollier said Michelin has “improved its major financial metrics, the foundations of its future growth” as it responded to a “historic decline in tire demand, especially in mature economies paydayloan.”

Looking ahead, he said Michelin is exercising “extreme vigilance.”

Michelin said markets for car and light truck tires fell sharply in the first half as carmakers slashed production and cut inventories, but lifted in the second half thanks to government scrappage schemes.

The exception was China, were demand surged 65 percent, making the country the largest market ahead of the United States for the first time.

Demand for truck tires remained low, the company said.

Michelin posts 71 pct drop in 2009 profit

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10
Feb

Earnings Preview: PepsiCo Inc.

By alfredlester Closed
Categories: Free blog Tips, life, market, power and world
Tags: , , , ,

NEW YORK – PepsiCo Inc., maker of soft drinks and snacks, reports its fourth-quarter results before the market opens Thursday.

WHAT TO WATCH FOR: Changes in the way consumers are buying snacks and soft drinks as they continue watching their wallets. PepsiCo Inc.’s beverage sales have fallen in North America as people either cut out the expense or started switching to healthier juices and teas. Snack sales have held up better as people buy more food at grocery stores and eat out less often.

Analysts expect PepsiCo to report that its beverage sales remained soft in the fourth quarter. They will focus on the company’s snack division, Frito-Lay, maker of brands like Doritos, where growth could slow in the quarter.

Competition in the snack business is intense, wrote Bill Pecoriello, an analyst who heads ConsumerEdge Research LLC.

“Frito has been losing share even as year-over-year price increases and promotional intensity come more in line with historical norms,” he said short term personal loan.

He said international growth trends need to hold up as well because they have been driving the company’s growth.

WHY IT MATTERS: PepsiCo makes products that people at varying income levels buy, so its results offer a window into how shoppers are spending their money.

WHAT’S EXPECTED: Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expect PepsiCo to earn 90 cents per share on revenue of $13.27 billion.

LAST YEAR’S QUARTER: PepsiCo reported profit of $719 million, or 46 cents per share a year earlier. Excluding restructuring and other one-time items, the company earned $1.39 billion, or 88 cents per share.

Earnings Preview: PepsiCo Inc.

02
Feb

Geithner says economy improved from year ago

By alfredlester Closed
Categories: Free blog Tips, economic, life, money and news
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WASHINGTON – Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner (GYT’-nur) says the nation’s economy is stronger than it was a year ago, yet the government must continue to act to stimulate job growth.

Geithner told the Senate Finance Committee Tuesday that the Obama administration is trying to balance the desire to add jobs with the need to rein in ballooning budget deficits.

President Barack Obama has proposed giving companies a $5,000 tax credit for each new worker they hire in 2010 no credit check payday loan. Businesses that increase wages or hours for their current workers in 2010 would be reimbursed for the extra Social Security payroll taxes they would pay.

Geithner says economy improved from year ago

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