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Monday, December 5, 2011
Searching across the Atlantic for clues (Reuters)
NEW YORK (Reuters) ? The euro zone will once again serve as the source of Wall Street's angst, as investors look to a summit of the region's political leaders for decisive solutions for the ballooning debt crisis.
Stocks posted their best week in more than two years this week, driven by central bank efforts to provide cheaper dollar loans to struggling European banks.
In addition, the new head of the European Central Bank said on Thursday the ECB stands ready to act more aggressively to fight Europe's debt crisis if political leaders agree to much tighter budget controls at the December 9 summit.
But Wall Street investors can be forgiven for feeling like they've been in this position before. Markets seesawed throughout the fall, guided by prevailing sentiment out of Europe.
"Next week it will be all focused on the upcoming Friday summit. But don't forget this is the fifteenth summit we've had now during the euro zone crisis, and every one the market gets excited, gets excited and then boom - it gets disappointed," said Ken Polcari, managing director at ICAP Equities in New York.
Until now, the ECB has resisted prodding from markets and world leaders to step in as the lender of last resort. European credit market yields have soared in recent weeks on concerns that the euro zone could break up or one or more countries would default on their debt.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy said he and German Chancellor Angela Merkel would meet next Monday to outline joint proposals for the summit.
Investor optimism over apparent progress by euro zone leaders towards taming their debt problems helped propel the S&P 500 (.SPX)(.INX) 7.4 percent higher for the week, its best weekly performance since March 2009. The best performers in the last week were companies with more international sales, according to Bespoke Investment Group, an investment adviser in Harrison, New York.
While volatility remains high as markets remain susceptible to any negative headlines coming out of the euro zone, investors appear satisfied for the time being that the region's leaders will remain on track in tackling the crisis.
THEIR LEHMAN MOMENT
"We've seen some policy changes which suggest they are finally beginning to understand that they've got a problem," said Phil Orlando, chief equity market strategist at Federated Investors in New York.
"They are finally recognizing that this is their Lehman moment, and they have got to do the same sort of things that we did back in the 2007 to 2009 period."
With markets swings closely tied to sentiment about the progress made in the euro zone, investors have been forced to weigh the region's fiscal stability with U.S. stocks that are seen as cheap by many analysts.
Recent corporate outlooks and analyst projections have been painting a less rosy picture, with estimates for fourth-quarter S&P earnings growth tumbling over the past two months as well as a near-record high ratio of negative corporate preannouncements to positive ones, according to Thomson Reuters Proprietary Research.
Even if European leaders continue on a path that investors have cheered, the difficulty in putting plans in place may throw cold water on investor optimism. Borrowing costs in major nations such as Italy and Spain remain at levels considered unsustainable in Europe's slow-growth economy.
"I don't know that the market just rallies straight through into the end of the year because whatever solution they come up with will be hard to implement," said Nicholas Colas, chief market strategist at the ConvergEx Group in New York.
"It will be politically hard, it will be economically hard and you will be facing the very real threat of a recession -- a pretty deep recession in Europe in the first half of next year -- because of all the uncertainty that is being created right now."
The U.S. economic calendar for next week is light, with the ISM services report, weekly initial jobless claims and the trade balance among the highlights.
(Additional reporting by Ryan Vlastelica; Editing by Kenneth Barry)
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Sunday, December 4, 2011
U.N. urges action in Syria, Russia and China object (Reuters)
GENEVA (Reuters) ? The United Nations' human rights chief urged world powers on Friday to take action to protect civilians in Syria from "ruthless repression," but her call was swiftly criticized by envoys from China and Russia.
More than 4,000 people have been killed during a military crackdown on street protesters that started in March and more than 14,000 people are believed to be in detention, said U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay.
"In light of the manifest failure of the Syrian authorities to protect their citizens, the international community needs to take urgent and effective measures to protect the Syrian people," Pillay told an emergency session of the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva.
She did not spell out what measures world powers should take - Western leaders have in the past shied away from suggestions of military action, along the lines of the NATO campaign that helped rebels unseat Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi in August.
The European Union called for "pro-active action" by the international community, while Kuwait's envoy said that there may be a need for "intervention" to safeguard civilians.
The United States, the EU, members of the Arab League and neighboring Turkey have already imposed sanctions on Syria over Assad's failure to implement commitments to withdraw tanks and troops from restive cities and start talks with his opponents.
After Pillay spoke, envoys from Russia and China, which both have oil projects in Syria, took the floor to warn against foreign interference in Syria in the name of human rights.
Both countries blocked international efforts to condemn the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad by vetoing a U.N. Security Council resolution in October.
The Russian-Chinese stance, in turn, drew fierce criticism.
"In the face of brutal repression occurring in Syria, it is outrageous that some governments continue to obstruct efforts here and elsewhere in the United Nations to bring an end to these crimes against humanity," Peter Splinter of Amnesty International told the talks, singling out "permanent members of the Security Council," an allusion to Russia and China.
"It is now time for the U.N., including the Security Council, to deliver an effective international response to Syria's human rights crisis," he said.
CHINA, RUSSIA WARNING
"We would like to warn against illegal interference by outside forces even under the pretext of protecting human rights," said Russia's envoy Valery Loshchinin. "This will have serious and unforeseen consequences."
Loshchinin called on all sides in Syria to halt violence. "We hear that the conflict in Syria continues to be fueled by outside forces, armed and terrorist groups being organized and supplied with weapons and money from abroad."
Russia, a longstanding arms supplier to Assad, has now delivered anti-ship cruise missiles to Syria, the Interfax news agency cited an unnamed military source as saying on Thursday.
This was shortly after a U.N. commission of inquiry called for an arms embargo against Damascus.
China's envoy He Yafei said that although China was deeply concerned, views on how to resolve the situation differed widely. "Member states of the United Nations should follow the principles and purposes of the U.N. and refrain from resolving differences through force or threat of force," he said.
"CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY"
Pillay said 307 children had died in the conflict, up from an estimate of 256 that was released earlier this week.
"The Syrian authorities' continual ruthless repression, if not stopped now, can drive the country into a full-fledged civil war ... All acts of murder, torture and other forms of violence must be immediately stopped," she added.
A U.N. commission of inquiry said this week it had found solid evidence of crimes against humanity by security forces, including executions, torture and rapes.
U.S. human rights ambassador Eileen Chamberlain Donahoe told reporters there was "evidence of the complicity in these atrocities" by Syrian authorities and said there was no doubt the violence was intentional.
Syria, which bars access to most foreign journalists, says it is fighting an insurgency by armed groups supported from abroad, who have attacked its troops trying to defend the peace.
At the U.N. Human Rights Council meeting, Syrian Ambassador Faysal Khabbaz Hamoui gave an angry speech that won support from Russia, China and Cuba.
"The Syrian problem is one that can be resolved only by Syrians...Only a domestic, national solution ... is possible," Syrian Ambassador Faysal Khabbaz Hamoui told the rights council meeting, referring to reforms Assad has promised for 2012.
"The solution cannot come from the corridors of the international community," he said. "(This) is only resolutions trying to put more oil on the fire."
(Editing by Mark Heinrich)
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Saturday, December 3, 2011
Wall St. caps stellar week on drop in jobless rate (Reuters)
NEW YORK (Reuters) ? Stocks ended flat on Friday but capped the best week for Wall Street bulls in almost three years after data showed the U.S. unemployment rate dropped to a 2-1/2 year low.
The market gave back a 1 percent gain earlier in the session as traders booked profits after the S&P 500 failed to break through technical resistance near its 200-day moving average.
The retreat also came on caution before key events in Europe next week, including a European Union summit aimed at solving the two-year old euro zone debt crisis.
While traders were heartened by the drop in the unemployment rate, they were aware of Europe's ability to disappoint investors, especially after a more than 7 percent gain in the S&P 500 this week.
"We've been led down the aisle so many times we're afraid the groom's not going to show up again," said Nicholas Colas, chief market strategist at the ConvergEx Group in New York.
"There's an increasing expectation that when leaders meet next week they will have the framework of a resolution that will allow greater fiscal unity and some beginnings of a resolution to the European debt crisis."
Recent U.S. economic data has heartened investors. U.S. companies stepped up hiring and the jobless rate dropped to 8.6 percent from 9 percent, further evidence the recovery was gaining momentum.
The unemployment rate drop was "the single most surprising number in employment data this year," Colas said.
The lowest estimate on a Reuters poll of 67 economists was 8.9 percent.
The S&P 500 came within striking distance of its 200-day moving average, a breach of which could signal more gains, and briefly turned positive for the year.
Financial shares were the biggest gainers on the day with the S&P financial index up 1.4 percent. JPMorgan Chase gained 6.1 percent to $32.33.
The Dow Jones industrial average dipped 0.61 point, or 0.01 percent, to 12,019.42. The S&P 500 shed 0.30 point, or 0.02 percent, to 1,244.28. The Nasdaq Composite edged up 0.73 points, or 0.03 percent, to 2,626.93.
For the week, the Dow rose 7 percent, the S&P 500 added 7.4 percent and the Nasdaq rose 7.6 percent. It was their largest weekly percentage advance since mid-March 2009.
"If you had a good week, there's a very strong temptation to take everything off of your portfolio and wait for the next drop down," Colas said of the rally fade-out into the close.
U.S.-listed shares of Research in Motion Ltd dropped 9.7 percent to $16.77 after the BlackBerry maker said it will write down the value of its poorly received PlayBook tablet computer.
About 7 billion shares traded on the New York Stock Exchange, NYSE Amex and Nasdaq, below the current daily average for the year of 7.96 billion.
Advancing stocks outnumbered declining ones by more than three to two on both the NYSE and Nasdaq.
(Reporting by Rodrigo Campos; Editing by Kenneth Barry)
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Elderly woman pleads guilty in suicide kit case (AP)
EL CAJON, Calif. ? A 91-year-old woman pleaded guilty Friday to failing to file federal tax returns for her company that made and sold suicide kits.
Sharlotte Hydorn entered the plea in federal court to the tax charge dating back to 2007 and acknowledged she made more than $150,000 in income from various sources during that period, including from the sale of helium kits that people could use to kill themselves.
During a May raid on her home in El Cajon, east of San Diego, federal agents seized kits that sold for $40 each and essentially consisted of a plastic bag and clear tubing.
Hydorn said she sold the kits under the name "GLADD Group." Court documents say she sold more than 1,300 kits to people across the United States and abroad. Most of them contacted her by mail or phone.
In court, she admitted she made $66,717 in 2010 and paid no taxes on that.
"This prosecution puts an end to the defendant's trafficking in these dangerous, unregulated devices," U.S. Attorney Laura E. Duffy said.
Hydorn, a retired school teacher, told authorities she knew the kits were intended to be used to commit suicide but she said she thought they would be used by the terminally ill.
Prosecutors, however, said she took no steps to verify the physical condition, age, identity or mental state of her customers and therefore had no idea whether her kits were being bought by people suffering from depression or by minors acting without the consent of an adult.
Prosecutors said Hydorn also tried to hide the true purpose of her kits on U.S. Customs forms by listing them as an "orchid humidifier," or "beauty bonnet" and "plastic rain hood."
They said a document seized at her home during the raid stated that the GLADD Group preferred customers to pay with money orders because they "don't leave a paper trail." It also stated she would prefer to not have her name in the check registers of those who "have hastened their deaths."
After the raid on her home, Hydorn told The Associated Press that she wasn't responsible for who uses the kit and was only trying to help people in pain. She said she had been in business for three years and sold up to 60 kits a month.
According to court documents, Hydorn's helium hood kits consisted of medical-grade tubing, a plastic bag with an elastic collar, or "hood," and a diagram on how to use the kit. The kits caused death by helium asphyxiation once the hood was attached to a helium gas source ? which was not part of the kits.
Investigators determined that the kits were sold to at least 50 people in San Diego County since 2007 and that four of those people last year used the kits to commit suicide. None was terminally ill, according to investigators.
As part of her plea deal, Hydorn agreed to pay $26,000 in outstanding taxes.
A judge ordered her released on $10,000 bond on the condition she not assist any suicides. She was scheduled to be sentenced Feb. 16.
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Cobra Tool Takes Tires Off in Seconds
Yes, you can rip a bike tire from a rim with nothing but your bare, gnarled hands, but a lever makes things a lot easier. I use two (from a set of three) and keep them in my toolbag at all times. If even that is too much for you (and you haven’t yet mastered [...]
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GearFactor/~3/vpMyIdBH96o/
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Friday, December 2, 2011
UN scientist: fighting climate change saves costs (AP)
DURBAN, South Africa ? The U.N.'s top climate scientist says global warming will lead to human dangers and soaring financial costs and that containing carbon emissions will have a host of benefits.
Rajendra Pachauri, head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, told a U.N. climate conference Wednesday that heat waves experienced once every few decades will happen every other year by mid-century.
Coastal areas and islands are threatened with inundation by global warming, rain-reliant agriculture in Africa will shrink by half and many species will disappear.
But Pachauri said "many impacts can be avoided, reduced or delayed" by reducing emissions.
He said the costs of action would be offset by improved health, greater energy security and more secure food supplies.
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