Posts Tagged dollar
NBC Wins TV Rights to 4 Olympics for $4.38 Billion
Posted by Oksana Grebenjuk in Business on Июнь 8th, 2011
NBC extended its Olympic reign until 2020 as Comcast, its parent company, agreed Tuesday to acquire the rights to the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, Russia; the 2016 Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro; and the next two Olympics, in unspecified cities. NBC bid $4.38 billion for United States broadcast rights for the four Olympics.
It was NBC’s first Olympic deal since 1988 without Dick Ebersol, the head of NBC Sports, who resigned last month after helping to engineer eight winning bids. The victory was a sign that Comcast saw the value of continuing the relationship with the Olympics, with its powerful impact in prime time.
ESPN bid $1.4 billion for the 2014 and 2016 Games; Fox put in bids for two Olympics and for four Olympics.
The auction took place at International Olympic Committee headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland, generally following the same procedure it did eight years ago. At the time, NBC agreed to pay $2 billion to carry last year’s Winter Games in Vancouver and next year’s Summer Games in London. Fox bid $1.3 billion and ESPN offered to share revenues with the I.O.C. but never specified a dollar figure. NBC won easily, and General Electric, then the network’s parent company, added $200 million for a global Olympic sponsorship. Read the rest of this entry »
Stocks Rise on Greek Aid Optimism
Posted by Oksana Grebenjuk in Fund Markets on Май 31st, 2011
Stocks rose worldwide, paring the biggest monthly decline since August, and the euro gained amid speculation nations will pledge more aid to Greece. Commodities advanced, while Treasuries erased losses after U.S. economic reports missed forecasts.
The MSCI All-Country World Index increased 1 percent at 11:57 a.m. in New York, paring this month’s loss to 2.8 percent. The euro climbed to a three-week high of $1.4424, and the yen fell against its 16 major peers. Among 10-year bonds, German bunds added four basis points to 3.02 percent, Greek yields slid 31 basis points to 15.84 percent and Treasuries dropped to 3.05 percent from 3.10 percent. Oil rose, and wheat dropped.
European Union leaders will decide on a new aid package for Greece by the end of next month, Luxembourg’s Jean-Claude Juncker, who leads the group of euro-area finance ministers, said yesterday in Paris. More than $1.8 trillion was erased from the value of stocks worldwide this month through yesterday as evidence mounted that the U.S. economic recovery is slowing and EU officials struggled to contain the region’s debt crisis.
“Markets are focused on the debt crisis,” said Tom Mangan, who helps oversee $2.7 billion at James Investment Research Inc. in Xenia, Ohio. “We have had a pattern where the impact on the dollar is positive, U.S. bonds do better and stocks fade every time the Greek crisis rears its ugly head, and the other way around. This will continue until we get it resolved.” Read the rest of this entry »
If you must buy a car now, here’s what to do
Posted by Oksana Grebenjuk in Budget, Favourites on Май 27th, 2011
Rising prices and a looming vehicle shortage make this summer one of the worst times in years to go car shopping. But if your vehicle is on its last leg or your lease is about to come due, here are some tips on how to navigate through a difficult market.
• Consider cars with incentives: Manufacturers still offer some incentives, especially for cars that are near the end of their model cycle or are slow sellers. Most of the big auto information companies, including Edmunds.com, TrueCar.Com and kbb.com (Kelley Blue Book), offer incentive data on their websites.
• Check supply: While inventories are tightening across the board, some manufacturers will have ample inventory for some vehicles, and these will have the better deals. TrueCar’s TrueTrends report offers a monthly listing of new vehicles with the shortest and longest days’ inventory. This month’s report, for example, will tell you that Hyundai dealers have only an eight-day supply of their hot-selling Elantra sedan. It’s also tough to find a Ford Explorer — only a nine-day inventory. But if you want a BMW Z4, start shopping. The Z4 is about to be replaced with a new-generation model, and BMW dealers have a fat 161-day supply — more than five months’ worth. Similarly, Hyundai dealers are sitting on a 133-day inventory of the automaker’s Azera sedan.
• Be a contrarian: For now, that means bigger. With many buyers gravitating to smaller, fuel-efficient vehicles, consider buying something that drinks a bit more gas. Yes, it will cost you more each time you go to the pump, but with small-car prices going up rapidly you might find that the price gap between a compact vehicle and something larger has narrowed considerably. Large cars and trucks have the biggest discounts this month, and that’s likely to be the case throughout the summer. Read the rest of this entry »
Two Charged in Insider Trading Scheme Linked to Law Firms
Posted by Oksana Grebenjuk in Favourites, Fund Markets on Апрель 8th, 2011
Federal prosecutors have charged a corporate lawyer and a trader with operating a decades-long insider trading scheme that earned the men $32 million.
Matthew Kluger, who until February was a lawyer in the mergers and acquisitions department of the California law firm Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, is accused of “stealing” material nonpublic information about deals that his firm was working on, according to federal prosecutors in New Jersey.
Mr. Kluger, the government’s complaint said, shared the information with Garrett Bauer, a trader who then used the tidbits to place bets on certain firms involved in the deals.
In April 2009, for instance, Mr. Kluger tapped Sonsini’s computer system to gather information about the Oracle Corporation’s proposed bid for Sun Microsystems. Shortly thereafter, Mr. Bauer purchased more than four million shares of Sun Micro. The deal closed in early 2010.
The scheme, according to the government, dates back to the 1990s when Mr. Kluger was a lawyer at two of the biggest Wall Street law firms, Cravath Swaine & Moore and Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom. Mr. Kluger left Sonsini’s Washington office in March. Read the rest of this entry »
Gold ticks lower on lack of safe-haven buying
Posted by Oksana Grebenjuk in Banks on Март 28th, 2011
Gold futures dipped below $1,420 an ounce Monday as investors shied away from the metal, lacking a fresh reason on the geopolitical front to turn their attention to gold.
Gold for April delivery (GCJ11 1,421, -5.70, -0.40%) declined $11,
or 0.8%, to $1,415.20 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. A close around these levels would be the lowest in a little more than a week.
Gains for the dollar, albeit modest, have “given the bear camp the initial edge this morning,” analysts at MS Futures said in a note to clients Monday. A “lack of significant fresh developments from current geopolitical issues has resulted in some anxiety draining out of markets like gold,” they added.
Hawkish comments from a U.S. Federal Reserve official over the weekend also appeared to influence gold negatively, the analysts said.
On Saturday in France, nonvoting member St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank President James Bullard said policy makers should review the quantitative-easing plan as the U.S. economy may not need all the stimulus.
As the geopolitical tensions around the globe are not going away any time soon, however, they continue “to suggest a rise in the price of gold, which should therefore resume its uptrend soon,” analysts at Commerzbank said in a note to clients. Read the rest of this entry »
Vodka: Quality Without the Cost?
Posted by Oksana Grebenjuk in Budget on Март 25th, 2011
Let’s talk alcohol: After all, it’s 5 p.m. somewhere, right? Over the past decade, the popularity of super-premium spirits has exploded, catering to a new breed of high-end cocktails in many watering holes.
“There has been a significant increase in consumers buying better quality products, almost across the board in all the various categories of spirits,” says Frank Coleman senior vice president of Distilled Spirits Council of the United States (DISCUS).
As the sting of the recession dulls, demand for top-of-the-line goods is increasing to pre-crisis levels. For spirits, super premium categories have experienced double-digit growth in 2010 — Irish whiskey sales rose 30% from the previous year, while scotch single malt was up 17.8% and vodka rose 13.8%, according to DISCUS data.
“There’s an overall trend in consumer consumption patterns for all types of products, whether you’re talking about coffee, spirits or women’s purses. In general, in the mature markets around the world, the consumer demand is for luxury goods,” says Coleman.
But is that $22 martini featuring your favorite luxe-grade vodka worth the price? Can consumers get quality vodka without the cost? Read the rest of this entry »
Gold posts best weekly performance
Posted by Oksana Grebenjuk in Banks on Февраль 24th, 2011
Gold futures on the COMEX Division of the New York Mercantile Exchange further hiked on Friday, registering the strongest weekly rally so far this year, underpinned by continued unrest in the Middle East.
The most active gold contract for February delivery rose 3.5 dollars per ounce, or 0.25 percent, to settle at 1,388.6 dollars.
Market traders noted that gold prices finished the week higher as investors resorted to gold as safe-haven investment in the wake of growing turmoil in such Mideast countries as Bahrain and Libya.
At least five people have been killed since demonstration against Bahrain’s ruling family began on Feb. 14. Demonstrators in Libya also demanded the government’s overthrow. Besides, it is reported that Egypt has agreed to allow the passage of Iranian naval ships through the Suez Canal.
Buoyed up by concerns over inflation and political situation in the Middle East, gold prices have enjoyed a nonstop hike of 2.1 percent this week, the biggest weekly rise since the beginning of this year. Read the rest of this entry »
A new global food crisis looms
Posted by Oksana Grebenjuk in Budget on Февраль 23rd, 2011
Soaring food prices, which the World Bank says have hit «dangerous levels,» have thrust the issue of food security sharply into the global spotlight over the past week.
From Asia to the Middle East and to Latin America, the trends of food prices have aroused widespread public concerns globally and in the developing world in particular.
World Bank Group President Robert B. Zoellick warned on Tuesday: «Global food prices are rising to dangerous levels and threaten tens of millions of poor people around the world.»
Rising food prices have driven an estimated 44 million people into poverty in developing countries since last June, as food costs continue to rise to near 2008 levels.
The latest edition of Food Price Watch, a research publication by the World Bank, showed that its food price index rose by 15 percent between October 2010 and January 2011. It is 29 percent above its level a year earlier and only 3 percent below its 2008 peak.
Then what are the main factors behind the food price spikes?
The answer lies in the ultra-loose monetary policy of the United States, the financialization of the global farm produce market, the development of biofuels and the extreme weather events affecting harvests in the world’s main grain-producing areas. Read the rest of this entry »
Baghdad wants U.S. to pay $1 billion for damage to city
Posted by Oksana Grebenjuk in Favourites, Trading Markets on Февраль 22nd, 2011
Iraq’s capital wants the United States to apologize and pay $1 billion for the damage done to the city not by bombs but by blast walls and Humvees since the U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.
The city’s government issued its demands in a statement on Wednesday that said Baghdad’s infrastructure and aesthetics have been seriously damaged by the American military.
«The U.S. forces changed this beautiful city to a camp in an ugly and destructive way, which reflected deliberate ignorance and carelessness about the simplest forms of public taste,» the statement said.
«Due to the huge damage, leading to a loss the Baghdad municipality cannot afford…we demand the American side apologize to Baghdad’s people and pay back these expenses.»
The statement made no mention of damage caused by bombing.
Baghdad’s neighborhoods have been sealed off by miles of concrete blast walls, transforming the city into a tangled maze that contributes to massive traffic jams. Despite a sharp reduction in overall violence in recent years only 5 percent of the walls have been removed, officials said.
The heavy blast walls have damaged sewer and water systems, pavement and parks, said Hakeem Abdul Zahra, the city spokesman. Read the rest of this entry »
The Market Is In Bubble Mode Again
Posted by Oksana Grebenjuk in Favourites, Fund Markets on Февраль 17th, 2011
The market is sending investors the wrong message. The more I watch it rise, the more concerned I get. While others applaud the market’s gains as a sporting event I think this is a new bubble pumped up by Federal Reserve policy and it’s destined to destroy investors’ savings again.
I think it is reckless and irresponsible and somewhat surprising given the recent memory of other disastrous bubbles in our economy. I am not a “perma-bear” as some of my brethren like to term anyone that doesn’t believe Apple is going to reach a $1 trillion market valuation. I am simply a realist that values equities more highly when the risk reward dynamic appears favorable. I think the notion of being “perma” anything is idiotic, as you should be a situational opportunist not a partisan market participant. I believe the market has moved heavily towards risk and I am moving into cash and shorting technology momentum stocks.
We have yet to accept the losses from the first Nasdaq technology bubble that ended in 2002. To make up for that disaster we have circulated through a series of asset bubbles in an attempt to avoid, or, at least, defer the inevitable pain.
Stock prices in the 90s rose to ridiculous levels as investor margin levels expanded dramatically driving stock prices higher. Along the way analysts found new and creative ways to value stocks to try to justify a “new paradigm” of the digital economy. Remember Dow 36,000? The Federal Reserve supported these efforts, at least tacitly, with accommodative policy until everything blew around 2001. Read the rest of this entry »
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