Posts Tagged price
Move Over, Apple! My Tablet Cost $200
Posted by Oksana Grebenjuk in Trading Markets on Март 15th, 2011
I didn’t want to spend $500 for a tablet computer. I didn’t even want to spend $400. So instead I went online and bought a brand-new tablet for a bit less. The cost? Less than $200 … and about 20 minutes of my time. No kidding.
It’s hardly a perfect comparison—more on this below—but the tablet is perfect for what I want. I’m not talking about one of those junk tablets from a Chinese website, either.
I bought a Barnes & Noble Nook Color tablet (for $190 plus tax from a temporary online promotion, down from the usual $250). And then I downloaded a very simple, perfectly legal software fix from the Internet that turned it into a fully functioning tablet running on Google’s Android platform. The fix, known as a «rooting,» unlocks Barnes & Noble’s proprietary overlay. The instructions came via Ars Technica, a reputable site devoted to technology, and were pretty easy to follow.
I wasn’t really expecting it to work. I tried it as an experiment. But the results were remarkable.
The Nook Color, which was designed mainly for reading books and magazines, is about half the size of an iPad or a Xoom. It weighs about 30% less. It runs on WiFi, but not 3G. It has an absolutely superb screen. And, once you’ve unlocked the software, it runs many Android applications, from email to news readers TweetDeck to, yes, Angry Birds. Read the rest of this entry »
Food prices hit record high in February
Posted by Oksana Grebenjuk in Trading Markets on Март 9th, 2011
Global food prices have reached their highest point in 20 years and could increase further because of rising oil prices stemming from the unrest in Libya and the Mideast, a U.N. agency warned Thursday.
Skyrocketing food prices have been among the triggers for protests in Egypt, Tunisia and elsewhere, and raised fears of a repeat of the food price crises in 2007 and 2008.
Some experts point to key differences compared to those years: for one, the price of rice, an important food security commodity, is much lower today. Still, Oxfam called the hike «deeply worrying.»
The Food and Agriculture Organization said in a statement that its food price index was up 2.2 percent last month, the highest record in both real, inflation-corrected terms and nominal terms since the agency started monitoring prices two decades ago.
It also was the eighth consecutive month that food prices had risen, the Rome-based agency said. In January, the index had already registered a record peak.
The increase was driven mostly by higher prices of cereals, meat and dairy products, FAO said. Sugar was the only commodity of the groups being monitored whose price hadn’t risen. Read the rest of this entry »
Oil shock could push world food prices higher
Posted by Oksana Grebenjuk in Favourites, Trading Markets on Март 7th, 2011
Food prices worldwide continued to rise in February, and the recent spike in oil prices could push food costs even higher in the months ahead, according to a report from the United Nations.
The food price index, which measures prices for a basket of food commodities, rose 2.2% last month, according to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization. The index has increased for the last eight months in a row, and is at the highest level since it was created in 1990.
Sugar prices were slightly lower in February, compared with the month before. But prices for cereals, dairy products, meats and all other commodities in the index rose.
The FAO said it expects cereal prices to be sharply higher this year, due to shrinking inventories of wheat and coarse grains on top of growing demand. Export prices for major grains were up 70% last month versus February 2010, the report said.
From bad to worse: Global food prices have been moving higher in recent months as demand from emerging nations increases, and bad weather in certain parts of the world has cut the supply of key agricultural commodities.
But the recent run-up in oil prices threatens to make the situation even worse, the FAO warned. Read the rest of this entry »
Retailers report solid gains in February
Posted by Oksana Grebenjuk in Trading Markets on Март 4th, 2011
Shoppers braved February’s chill to hand retailers surprisingly strong sales gains, extending the momentum from a strong holiday season and providing evidence of a strengthening economic recovery. Worries are growing, however, that rising gas prices could sap shoppers’ spending in the spring.
Among major retailers reporting February results Thursday, Limited Brands Inc., J.C. Penney Co. and Macy’s Inc. reported gains that beat Wall Street expectations. Luxury retailers including Saks Inc. saw sales surge as the affluent kept spending.
There were only a few stragglers. Target Corp. announced an increase slightly below analysts’ projections. And Gap reported a bigger-than-expected drop. Stronger sales from a diverse group of retailers showed that a broader range of shoppers are benefiting from the economic recovery, says Michael P. Niemira, chief economist at the International Shopping Centers.
The ICSC said that its index of 28 retailers rose 4.2 percent for February compared with the same month last year, well above the trade group’s projections for a 2.5 percent to 3 percent increase. The gain, which builds on a 3.7 percent increase last February, follows a revised 4.7 percent increase in January and the best holiday season since 2006. Read the rest of this entry »
Rising Oil Prices Pose New Threat to U.S. Economy
Posted by Oksana Grebenjuk in Favourites, Trading Markets on Март 1st, 2011
The American economy just can’t catch a break. Last year, as things started looking up, the European debt crisis flustered the fragile recovery. Now, under similar economic circumstances, comes the turmoil in the Middle East.
Energy prices have surged in recent days, as a result of the political violence in Libya that has disrupted oil production there. Prices are also climbing because of fears the unrest may continue to spread to other oil-producing countries.
If the recent rise in oil prices sticks, it will most likely slow a growth rate that is already too sluggish to produce many jobs in this country. Some economists are predicting that oil prices, just above $97 a barrel on Thursday, could be sustained well above $100 a barrel, a benchmark.
Even if energy costs don’t rise higher, lingering uncertainty over the stability of the Middle East could drag down growth, not just in the United States but around the world.
“We’ve gone beyond responding to the sort of brutal Technicolor of the crisis in Libya,” said Daniel H. Yergin, the oil historian and chairman of IHS Cambridge Energy Research Associates. “There’s also a strong element of fear of what’s next, and what’s next after next.” Read the rest of this entry »
Chinese police face down Middle East-style protests
Posted by Oksana Grebenjuk in Trading Markets on Февраль 28th, 2011
Police and security officials displayed a massive show of force here and in other Chinese cities Sunday, trying to snuff out any hint of protests modeled on the uprisings in the Middle East. In Shanghai, several hundred people trying to gather were dispersed with a water truck.
Premier Wen Jiabao, meanwhile, used a morning Internet chat to promise to purge senior officials who are corrupt and to rein in inflation and rising home prices, directly addressing some of the most common grievances of ordinary Chinese.
Since the January uprising in Tunisia spurred similar anti-government protests across the Middle East and North Africa, threatening long-entrenched authoritarian regimes, China’s Communist rulers have reacted nervously, with both defensive and aggressive tactics.
Officials have used state-run media outlets to dismiss any comparisons with China while at the same time stepping up public comments on the need to address «social conflict» and to tackle problems such as the growing income disparity between the rich and poor. They have also detained a number of activists and human rights lawyers, blocked Internet search terms considered sensitive, such as «Egypt,» «Tunisia» and even U.S. Ambassador Jon Huntsman Jr.’s Chinese name. And they have issued warnings to foreign journalists to be mindful of reporting restrictions. 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 »
Clothing Prices Rising 10% in Spring
Posted by Oksana Grebenjuk in Budget on Февраль 18th, 2011
The era of falling clothing prices is ending. Clothing prices have dropped for a decade as tame inflation and cheap overseas labor helped hold down costs. Retailers and clothing makers cut frills and experimented with fabric blends to cut prices during the recession.
But as the world economy recovers and demand for goods rises, a surge in labor and raw materials costs is squeezing retailers and manufacturers who have run out of ways to pare costs.
Cotton has more than doubled in price over the past year, hitting all-time highs. The price of other synthetic fabrics has jumped roughly 50 percent as demand for alternatives and blends has risen.
Clothing prices are expected to rise about 10 percent in coming months, with the biggest increases coming in the second half of the year, said Burt Flickinger III president of Strategic Resource Group.
Brooks Brothers’ wrinkle-free men’s dress shirts now cost $88, up from $79.50. Levi Strauss & Co., Wrangler jeans maker VF Corp., J.C. Penney Co., Nike and designer shoe seller Steve Madden also plan increases. 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 »
U.S. housing bottom seen in mid-2011: poll
Posted by Oksana Grebenjuk in Budget on Январь 31st, 2011
U.S. house prices are likely to continue to slide before bottoming out sometime in the middle of this year but will rise just over two percent in 2011 as a whole, according to economists polled by Reuters.
Asked when they see a bottom for U.S. house prices, 14 of 26 economists said they would trough in either the second or third quarter of 2011. Three saw the bottom coming as early as this quarter, while one did not see a bottom until the first three months of 2014.
«A pullback in prices following the expiration of the homebuyers tax credit was not a surprise. Ultimately, a recovery in the housing sector will depend critically on the job market, which should improve over time,» said Scott Brown at Raymond James.
The Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller composite index of 20 metropolitan areas, which has struggled since home-buyer tax credits expired earlier this year, declined 0.5 percent in November from October on a seasonally adjusted basis, the fifth straight monthly decline in home prices.
Asked how much further prices would fall before stabilizing, the median response of 24 economists who answered was another 3.3 percent drop from current levels. Two economists saw a further decline as sharp as 10 percent. Read the rest of this entry »
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