| Andy Murray paired with Robin Haase
Andy Murray probably didn't need to watch Robin Haase yesterday to know what he will be up against when he opens his campaign for back-to-back titles here this morning. John Inverdale: Andy Murray needs PR makeoverThe Scot, whose win in Marseille on Sunday restored him to the world's top 10, plays the Dutch wildcard for the first time, but considering that the players share the same agent, there should be little to surprise the British No 1. .
Pressure mounts for new controls on oil futures speculators
Sean Cota runs a family-owned fuel oil business in Bellows Falls, Vt., and has been active in the futures markets for 20 years, locking in prices to protect both himself and his customers. But over the past five years, he has watched in amazement -- and growing anger -- as speculators flooded into the market. It has created tremendous volatility and, he believes, driven up prices for crude oil, heating oil and a host of other commodities. As prices hover near record levels this year, his customers are bearing the brunt -- turning down their thermostats, taking longer to pay their bills and even using credit cards to pay for home heating. "All of these things are having a huge impact on people for something that is just not justified by supply and demand," Cota said.
Gold hits new high in $A price
The gold price in Australian dollars has hit an all-time high, closing the week at over $A940 per ounce, after the price in US dollars rose on Friday night and the "Aussie" eased. Mining consultants Surbiton Associates Pty Ltd said on Sunday the spot price for gold closed at $US823.75 and the Australian dollar at 87.39 US cents - equivalent to an Australian spot gold price of $A942.61 per ounce and well above the daily high of $A933.20 on May 12, 2006. "This record price may have gone higher, but the Australian dollar strengthened late on Friday, which tended to dampen the upward movement in Aussie dollar terms," Surbiton director Dr Sandra Close said. "At current exchange rates, a half-cent change in the Australian dollar moves the Australian gold price by about $A5 an ounce." Dr Close said that unlike the Australian-dollar gold price, the US-dollar gold price was yet to break its all-time high.
Viewing all entries for: January 2008
I THINK it's safe to say that some aspects of global trade and finance may be in the process of readjusting, perhaps as a result of some sizable imbalances. Not swiftly enough for Atlantic correspondent James Fallows, however, whose latest missive on China misses the mark. It's very fair to harbour concern over China's yuan policy, its massive accrued reserves, and the resulting effects on American consumers, but Mr Fallows mistreats the economics involved in order to spin a potential disaster scenario--a rather nasty hypothetical meltdown, if not outright war. The economic misunderstandings are bothersome. Mr Fallows writes, for example that: For China, [currency manipulation] has helped the regime guide development in the way it would like—and keep the domestic economy’s growth rate from crossing the thin line that separates "unbelievably fast" from "uncontrollably inflationary." This is not at all the case.
Time is better than money
The housing market collapse and subprime mortgage crisis have been weighing heavily on Wall Street. People are not able to use the value of their homes as a supplementary income source a cash machine. Instead of shopping, most Americans were just trying to get the next mortgage payment together.Last Tuesday, after the long Martin Luther King Day weekend, in the hours before the U.S. stock exchanges opened, a selling binge began in far the east markets. Fueled by doubts about the American economy, it spread from Japan to China and wrapped around the world to Europe. .
2007 Wrap-Up
Corporate bond spreads were again mixed, with the spread on an index of junk bonds ending the week about 25 bps narrower. December 24 - Bloomberg (Jeremy R. Cooke): "U.S. state and local government borrowing will drop to about $100 million during this holiday-shortened week...after municipal-bond sales reached an all-time high during 2007... Issuance of state and local bonds due in more than 13 months reached about $428 billion for the year through last week, based on Thomson Financial data... The preliminary total is 5% more than the $408 billion record set in 2005." There were no corporate debt issues this week. December 28 - Bloomberg (Junko Fujita): "Citigroup Inc., Bank of America Corp. and 30 other issuers from Iceland to Australia drove yen-denominated bond sales in Japan to a seven-year high as they took advantage of the lowest rates in the industrialized world.
TJX profit jumps 47 pct on cost controls
Maxx and Marshalls also reduced cash set aside in a legal reserve because of lower-than-expected costs so far from a massive data breach disclosed a year ago. The adjusted results narrowly topped Wall Street estimates, and its shares rose nearly 5 percent. But TJX also forecast a first-quarter profit just below Wall Street expectations. Framingham, Mass.-based TJX said its net income in the three months ended Jan. 26 rose to $301.1 million, or 66 cents per share. That compared with a profit of $205.4 million, or 43 cents per share, in the same quarter a year ago, when earnings were reduced $38 million, or 8 cents per share, from closing 34 A.J. Wright Stores. Not counting the latest quarter's gain of $11 million, or 2 cents per share, from reducing its breach-related legal reserve, TJX's profit was 64 cents per share.
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