Marc Faber on Bloomberg TV on China's Black Swan Scenario

More realistic rate growth for Chinese economy is 4%, he doesn't believes in official statistics.
Investors's have already discounted this growth, China's stock market has had a worse performance relative to other markets since year 2006.
  There has been a huge increase in the amount of debt relative to GDP in the Chinese economy since 2008. This colossal debt is in the order of five trillion dollars.
  If the China's economic crisis unwinds there could be a disaster in the world economy.
  Investors don't realise, how important  China's economy is for other emerging market economies.
  Industrial commodities have already gone down, but prices could face additional downward pressure.
   This downward spiral will affect exports and bite with ripple effects on the growth rate of emerging market economies and global growth.

Schwab's Liz Ann Sonders,it would be no good for the U.S. stock market to get a hyperbolic peak

Schwab's Chief Investment Strategist Liz Ann Sonders notes that although there are differences, ''there are many more similarities between today and the mid-1990s. It's a signal we are likely in the more mature phase of both; a phase when individual investor participation heats up and when the economy more clearly moves from recovery to expansion. But a note of caution: remember that ultimate melt-up did not end well at all. A better scenario this time would be for the market to continue pacing the mid-1990s market, but without the blow-off top in 1999-2000''

Chinese Proverbs: One Happiness.................. a Thousand...................

Chinese Proverbs: If there is............there will be...............

A Bad Word Whispered Will Echo.........

Chines Proverbs: Our Greatest Glory is not In Never Falling But..........

Chinese Proverbs: Knowing is not as Good as................

Chinese Proverbs: Challenge. When anger arises...........

Five of America’s biggest tech companies wouldn’t survive without Asia

Let’s start with Apple In the latest earnings report, the Wall Street Journal notes that China and Japan are Apple’s biggest bright spots for growth. Apple securing a China Mobile deal was was the biggest news for Apple’s potential earnings in 2014. Apple got a whopping $8.8 billion of revenue out of China last quarter, and there is no doubt that this will continue to increase because China is the biggest smartphone market in the world. The Asian markets are saving Apple’s ass in the long run.

Lenovo saves Google the trouble of dealing with Motorola Up next is Google, Apple’s bitter rival in the smartphone market. Just last week it was reported that Lenovo would be acquiring Motorola from Google for $2.91 billion. Lenovo, if you’re not aware, is a Chinese company, which acquired the PC business in 2005 from IBM. Who else is going to buy outdated arms of a business that fail the overall strategy? Asia is leveling up while American companies are shedding what doesn’t look essential to their strategy. Google is lucky someone was even willing to buy Motorola from them. For Google, it was a good strategy to keep the Android-related patents and also muscle Samsung in a strategy to keep Samsung’s hands from overstepping bands in Android. And that’s a battle with a Korean company, which of course is Asian. Lenovo essentially saved Google and IBM’s asses.

Facebook’s biggest growth is Asia While everyone’s talking about the cool new Paper app coming out of Facebook this week, the most significant things for the social network are these numbers. Facebook has over 368 million monthly active users in Asia and that amounts to Facebook’s most populous continent and also Facebook’s fastest growing continent. Facebook is even losing users by the millions in its home markets, but Asian numbers are blooming. And that’s all without the help of China, which is still blocking Facebook.


Yahoo, Alibaba, and Marissa Mayer By far the most revealing of the big tech companies is Yahoo, which has a 20 percent stake in Alibaba, China’s biggest e-commerce company. In fact, Alibaba’s earnings last quarter were double those of Yahoo’s and that has essentially allowed Marissa Mayer to go on an acquiring spree. Alibaba is boosting Yahoo’s valuation and earnings, allowing Yahoo to grab prime internet real estate like Tumblr. It’s safe to say that without Alibaba, Yahoo would be a dead and gone company. Jack Ma saved Yahoo’s ass.

Et tu Microsoft? And finally, possibly the most tenuous but telling ass saving from Asia is Microsoft’s. If you haven’t read already, Microsoft is hunting for a new CEO. Currently, the leading candidate is Satya Nadella, current head of Microsoft’s cloud and enterprise sectors. And yes, as the name indicates, he’s an Indian. Nadella was born in Hyderabad, India. He stayed there long enough to get a bachelor’s degree, no less. And in other news, Sundar Pichai is also another candidate for CEO. Yes, that’s right. That’s the senior vice president at Google, and current king of Android. He also got his Bachelor’s in India, before then moving to the US and getting a Masters and going down a promising career path into one of America’s most important technology companies. These two Indians are the two biggest candidates to turn Microsoft around as Windows 8 disappoints and Windows Phone grows slowly.

Source: TECHINASIA

5 ways China’s WeChat is more innovative than you think

Source: TECHINASIA
Tech in Asia has been covering WeChat, China’s most popular mobile message app, before it even had an English name. Meanwhile, international tech media outlets (including ourselves) have also been following the evolution of other messaging apps such as WhatsApp, Line, Facebook Messenger, and many, many others. Over the past year or so there’s been lots of talk about how these messengers are maturing into “platforms” – or, apps that users will use to buy things, and that business and organizations can use to reach an audience. However, as others have correctly pointed out, it’s not appropriate to lump China’s WeChat alongside these other chat apps. This is in large part because it’s simply far ahead of its like-minded competitors with respect to the “platform” side of things. When a user opens up WeChat in any language other than Chinese, they’ll likely see a messaging app that, for the most part, looks and works just like Line or Viber. But for Chinese speaking users, WeChat is a rabbit hole – full of all sorts of features that apps like Line haven’t even come close to adding. Indeed, Tencent internally continues to refer to “WeChat in China” only as Weixin (its Mandarin name), while its international counterpart is referred to as WeChat.

1. It’s not just a messaging app, it’s a mobile news reading app This is one of WeChat’s most overlooked bright points. Countless Chinese media organizations operate subscription accounts on WeChat, through which they send out daily digests to subscribers. It’s quite easy to keep up with the Chinese news cycle just by following a few choice accounts.

While WeChat doesn’t offer the same degree of customization as apps like Readability or Flipboard, it has many of the functions of those social news-reading apps. It lets users read articles in a visually pleasing format, and users can then share those articles within WeChat and outside of WeChat. While a “read offline” function might not help WeChat earn extra money, the app is just a few lines of code away from turning into an outstanding reading service in the vein of Pocket. It’s worth noting that this feature is also available in WeChat’s international versions. But what’s missing? A diverse range of media outlets that have public accounts on WeChat.

2. It’s not just a messaging app, it’s a blogging platform WeChat’s international versions have thus far been very selective with regard to what entities qualify for a public account. But in China, nearly anyone can register for a public account. As a result, there are many bloggers in China who use WeChat as their primary channel for publishing posts. Much like your average Joe with a WordPress account, some of these bloggers write on specific themes and amass loyal followings, while others publish posts that read like a daily journal.


3. It’s not just a messaging app, it’s your new online storefront Before we dive into this bit, let’s first clarify the different account tiers offered to owners of public accounts on WeChat. Right now, WeChat offers two types of public accounts: “subscription accounts” and “service accounts.” It’s worth noting that WeChat itself is currently in the process of further refining and distinguishing its two different account types, so for now, overlap is quite common. In most cases, users and entities who register for a free subscription account get access to a customizable API which, at its most complex, lets users perform actions using the company’s own internal tools. For example, when I click on a promotional link on 7-11 Taiwan’s subscription page, I’m redirected to a page on 7-11’s website touting a deal on chocolate. All the while, I’m still in WeChat, and don’t have to open a mobile browser.

In China, businesses large and small are opening up public accounts – subscription accounts and service accounts – to sell goods and services. Since WeChat, unlike Line, charges either no fee or a minimal fee for opening a public account, small businesses on shoestring budgets can open accounts. And since the APIs are so deeply customizable, businesses can be sure to find a UI solution that suits their needs. Users, meanwhile, seldom are required to leave WeChat and open a mobile browser to complete payment – this extra step might prove just cumbersome enough to deter a purchase. WeChat is so easy for businesses to use that the even the smallest of small-time entrepreneurs have built makeshift companies around it. A team of college students has opened up a business selling fruit on WeChat, in which users place orders through the official account and pay for the goods upon delivery.

4. It’s not just a messaging app, it’s a mobile wallet WeChat remains very advanced as a messaging app and a marketing tool. When it comes to e-commerce, it’s still in its infancy, though it’s maturing quickly. After launching WeChat Payments as part of a v5.0 update for the app last August, Chinese users can bind their bank cards to the app and begin completing monetary transactions. In the five months since that feature was introduced, those transactions have grown increasingly sophisticated. Initially they were limited to stickers, in-game purchases, and deals on Tencent’s 51buy e-store. Now, WeChat users can buy a lot more things, like movie tickets and cab rides. 

5. It’s not just a messaging app, it’s a resume In my anecdotal experience, when it comes to communicating in a professional context, users in the US treat social media differently from users in Asia (or to be specific, in Taiwan and in mainland China). As a writer, when I reach out to US-based contacts for work-related purposes, doing so through Facebook is nothing less than taboo. Outside of media circles, pinging a contact on Twitter for work-related purposes toes the borderline of acceptable professional conduct. Email, it seems, remains the status-quo for connecting with peers. It’s a different story for my Asia-based contacts. In Taiwan, Facebook isn’t just fair game, it’s not unusual to see a barrage of friend requests the day after a networking event. Meanwhile, my colleagues and I will regularly reach out to professional contacts all over mainland China using WeChat. On some occasions, we even receive press releases on WeChat.

Rakuten's CEO Hiroshi Mikitani ambitions with Viber acquisition

Last month, Rakuten acquired Viber messaging app in a $900 million deal as the Japanese ecommerce titan tries to diversify and be more social. Today, Rakuten CEO Hiroshi Mikitani spoke out for the first time about the app, telling Bloomberg that “Viber is one of the most important projects for us.” Mikitani – perhaps after too much caffeine – wheeled out some big numbers for Bloomberg, saying that he wants Viber to reach two billion users. That’s double the target Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg set for its newly acquired WhatsApp. But Mikitani managed to lay out some more realistic numbers by saying that he wants Viber to pick up a million new users per day. It’s currently adding 600,000 new users daily. As the acquisition revealed last month, Viber has 100 million monthly active users from its 280 million global registered users . Rakuten – which has 200 million registered users across its own online marketplaces – will look to more mergers and acquisitions to boost Viber towards Mikitani’s grand goal. Mikitani points to gaming as being a “natural fit with Viber.” Rival messaging apps created in Asia, such as WeChat, Line, and KakaoTalk, have social gaming platforms. No changes at Viber While Rakuten and the Viber team mull new features for the Israeli startup’s app, Viber is going on as normal. A Viber representative tells Tech in Asia that the same management is in place at the same locations. The key is that Rakuten will “accelerate Viber” while its strategy remains the same. Viber won’t detail what it’s working on next, but the first step – before a potential social gaming platform – seems to be integrating some form of online store for Viber (aside from the sticker store it has already). Since that’s Rakuten’s speciality, it’ll likely involve ecommerce in much the same way that Line is being used by some brands to sell products. While WhatsApp has a large lead with 450 million active users, Viber and Line – both closely matched – are chasing hard. China-made WeChat, which is growing slower than its peers outside of China, is playing catch-up.

Source: TECHINASIA

Thailand continues Instagram love affair as it reaches 1.5 million users (INFOGRAPHIC)

We love social media in Thailand. There are 24 million users on Facebook. The country’s Twitter activity increased last year. On Instagram, Thailand hosts one the most Instagramed place in the world. Thailand now has 1.5 million Instagram users, according to data from Zocial Inc. The company behind ZocialRank, which monitors social media trends in the country, has came up with an infographic (embedded below) showing more details about Instagram’s users in Thailand. Here are four highlights: The number of Instagram users in Thailand shot up from 240,000 in 2012 to 1,551,649 in 2013. Fast smartphone uptake will have helped the Facebook-owned photo app. In Thailand, 47.94 percent of Instagram members were active in the past three months. In 2013, there was a total of 36,443,398 photos and videos uploaded on Instagram from Thailand. 96.24 percent were photos. Zocial Inc says that celebrities make up 0.26 percent of the app’s user-base in Thailand. They have an average of 172,013 followers. Meanwhile, 10.48 percent are ‘influencers’ who have an average of 5,636 followers.

After last week’s clampdown, China reportedly considering tough regulations on online payments

Late last week, the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) moved to curb the rapid growth of online payments by banning in-person payments made using QR codes, as well as blocking the launch of new ‘virtual’ credit cards. The temporary ban is bad news for Chinese web giants such as Alibaba and Tencent as they battle for dominance in China’s mobile commerce industry. New regulations are now being drafted that will reportedly set significant limits on spending via online payment services, such as Alibaba’s Alipay and Tencent’s Tenpay (inside China’s WeChat messaging app). According to China’s 21st Century Business Herald (translated by Marbridge Daily), citing unnamed insiders, the central bank has produced draft regulations that state single purchases made on epayment services cannot exceed RMB 5,000 (US$815). Monthly purchases cannot exceed RMB 10,000 (US$1,630). Reuters has confirmed these rumored developments. New online funds to die an early death? Any new regulations in this area will severely impact in-store mobile payments, an area where both the Alipay ewallet app and WeChat are fighting to gain an edge. It will also affect ecommerce as a whole in China for consumers who prefer to pay via an online payments platform rather than with a bank or credit card.

China’s new wave of online personal funds will also be hit hard. A number of web companies in the country, such as Alibaba, Tencent, Baidu, and Netease, have started up online fund services as a sort of savings-cum-investment account. These services – such as Alibaba’s Yu’e Bao or Baidu’s Baifa – offer much better interest rates than banks’ timed deposit accounts. A total of RMB 500 billion ($81 billion) has been put into Alibaba’s Yu’e Bao since its launch late last year. But the rumored new regulations will cripple these online funds. The RMB 10,000 limit on online payments also covers the movement of money into these online funds. It will be difficult for people to move their money to these funds with such a low cap. China’s online payments industry saw $1.2 trillion in transactions in 2013, according to Beijing-based iResearch. The PBoC might be trying to stop cross-border money transfers – or even money laundering – via online payment services or online personal funds. Or the central bank might be trying to bolster the traditional banking sector to stop epayment platforms replacing bank and credit cards with in-store mobile payments. After years of fast and largely unhindered growth, China’s web giants are in for a shock.

Source: TECHINASIA

Hugo Barra visits Foxconn, teases Xiaomi launches across Latin America

Hugo Barra, the former Googler who moved to Chinese phone-maker Xiaomi, has just teased Xiaomi’s launch in a whole new area – Latin America. In a message posted to G+, Barra says he visited Foxconn’s base in mainland China. He wrote: Thank you Terry Gou and the Foxconn team for hosting us in Shenzhen today! A solid step towards having Xiaomi even closer to Latin America. That’s all the details so far, but it’s clearly a deliberate pointer to Xiaomi – which so far is selling phones in mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Singapore – expanding to a number of countries in South America. The use of “Latin America” would presumably also include Mexico and Central American countries. 

    Foxconn which assembles products for numerous major gadget brands, has plants in Brazil and Mexico. Either of those could be the basis for Xiaomi phone sales in the region. Foxconn already assembles some Xiaomi products in China. Last month, Barra was in Singapore for the phone-maker’s launch in that country. He indicated that Xiaomi was looking at emerging markets in Asia for expansion, such as India and Indonesia, rather than tougher, developed markets like Europe and the US. Brazil and a handful of other Latin American countries, like Argentina and Mexico, look like a similarly good fit for its gradual growth strategy.

Source: TECHINASIA

China Unicom finally rolls out 4G, but confusion reigns over dual LTE strategy

  China Unicom,punched above its weight in the 3G era, closely challenging the behemoth China Mobile in terms of 3G subscribers, But China Unicom has had a slower start to its 4G operations. Today Unicom rolled out 4G in 25 Chinese cities, a full three months after its rival. China Unicom unveiled its postpaid and prepaid 4G data plans today. Pay-as-you-go subscribers can get a 4G package for as low as RMB 78 (US$12.70) per month, which allows for 400MB of data. The price and (fairly measly) data allowance are in line with its 3G packages. The telco – which has 284.1 million mobile subscribers; 126.5 million of whom are on 3G – is selling LTE phones from 24 manufacturers for those who want an on-contract device. As shown on this new 4G promo page on Unicom’s site, those phones include the Sony Z1, Samsung Galaxy S4, and HTC One Max. Bizarre dual 4G strategy However, China Unicom is set to confuse some of its customers with its 4G strategy. The company is first rolling out a homegrown 4G protocol called TD-LTE – the same one used by China Mobile, explains analyst Doug Young. But China Unicom will later also roll out a FDD-LTE 4G network. No timeframe has been set for that other roll-out, and there’s no explanation of how it’ll deal with customers whose phones support one of those networks but not the other. Young, in his post before the 4G launch, called Unicom’s strategy “half-baked” in the way it risks “wasting billions of dollars” on a hybrid 4G network. Authorities in China have not yet issued FDD-LTE licenses. The on-contract iPhone 5s and 5s are labelled on Unicom’s 4G minisite as dual 3G-4G phones, but it’s not clear which 4G network those models support.

Source: TECHINASIA

HalalTrip wants to be every Muslim’s handy travel guide

The Muslim tourism industry is huge. A study estimates that the “global Muslim tourism market in 2011 was US $126.1 billion in outbound expenditure1” or 12.3 percent of the global outbound tourism expenditure in that year. It’s estimated that the Muslim tourism market will grow an average of 4.79 percent year-on-year until 2020. This explains why Crescent Rating, a ratings company for halal friendly travel services behind that study, decided to launch a B2C Muslim tourism service called HalalTrip. Launched in December, HalalTrip will sell three travel services to Muslims online: the booking of flight tickets, hotels, and tour packages (to be launched this week). All three are offered in cooperation with travel companies Wego (flights), Booking.com (hotels), and Kuoni (travel packages). What makes the site special however is that it offers travel recommendations based on the halal friendliness of each product2. The “halal friendliness level” is derived from the parent company’s database of halal tourism ratings. The website also carries a directory of halal friendly restaurants and mosques. In the next two to three weeks, the Singapore-based team would add “major releases” to the site like improved search filters for hotels and flights. HalalTrip’s primary audience are consumers in Southeast Asia, UK, France, and the US. The 10-man member will localize the site by providing Arabic and French content. They also plan to support other markets like Indonesia and Malaysia. Crescent Rating’s iOS app for in-flight prayer times and the qiblah direction called Crescent Trips would also be available on Android and will be integrated inside HalalTrip’s website. COO Dany Bolduc says that there are quite a few Muslim travel services around, but most of them are fragmented as they focus on a specific country or region. HalalTrip, on the other hand, is doing it on a global scale. The team is currently raising a series A funding round. The estimation does not include core religious travel expenditure of Hajj and Umrah, but covers leisure, business, and other tourism segments.  For example, hotels are scored based on halal certified restaurants it has inside, and nearby halal restaurants and mosques.

Source: TECHINASIA

U.S. Senate mortgage fix shows crisis amnesia

The U.S. Senate is displaying crisis amnesia in its attempt at fixing housing finance. The bipartisan bill proposed this week by Democrat Tim Johnson, who heads the chamber's finance committee, and Republican Mike Crapo would – just like the system that existed before 2008 – promote risky lending and leave taxpayers on the hook.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would at least be scrapped. Both government-backed behemoths cooked their books years before the crisis and helped perpetuate the mortgage boom. After the ensuing crash, they required $190 billion of emergency taxpayer funding between them.

Lawmakers, though, want to replace them with a new financing vehicle controlled by Uncle Sam – dubbed the Federal Mortgage Insurance Corp. Johnson and Crapo reckon this new backstop would be fine holding reserves of just 2.5 percent of the loan balances it guarantees.

That would leave FMIC, perhaps eventually nicknamed "Freddie Mike," with a paltry cushion against another housing crisis. The bailout handed to Fannie and Freddie, for example, equates to 5 percent of their combined $3.8 trillion portfolio in mid-2008. True, the new bill envisages the private sector being on the hook for the first 10 percent of any losses. But in a crisis officials would be able to temporarily waive that requirement.

The bill also contains proposals that encourage risky lending. Each year FMIC would have to raise the maximum loan amount it would back, based on average home prices – currently only Congress can change this. And no reduction would be permitted, even after a downturn in home prices.

Moreover, the new entity would allow first-time buyers to make a down payment as low as 3.5 percent – a subprime mortgage-like feature that the existing Federal Housing Authority is already mandated to offer. And Johnson and Crapo flip prudent pricing on its head by suggesting lower guarantee fees for loans made in areas banks judge to be most risky.

There are bright spots, such as a national mortgage database and a plan to help smaller lenders compete. But all in, the proposal looks politically convenient rather than financially sound. It may still be too controversial to pass in this midterm election year. But it's increasingly likely that eventual reforms to the U.S. mortgage finance system will look like a rebuild of Fannie and Freddie.

Source: Reuters

Contrarian Investments for the Ukraine's Crisis. Your profile of Risk matters.

""On Sunday, Crimeans overwhelming voted to secede from Ukraine and join Russia. The news came as little surprise, and the events have since been criticized by the United States and the European Union, both of which are busy slapping sanctions on Russia.

As one of the biggest events since the Cold War continues, investors are presented with a few ways to buy on the cheap as fear flows in the markets"".

Exchange-traded fundsFor now, there is no Ukraine ETF, but there are plenty of Russia ETFs. One of my favorites is the iShares Russia Capped ETF (NYSEMKT: ERUS  ) which has a 10-day average daily volume of nearly a million shares providing sufficient liquidity. It's also one of the higher-yielding ETFs, yielding around 3%.

Another one of my top ETFs for Russia is the Market Vectors Russia Index ETF . This ETF also yields around 3% but has a 10-day average trading volume of nearly ten million shares.

Both ETFs offer investors a way to gain exposure to Russian stocks across many industries. Although the ETFs do come with expense ratios of around 0.6%, they still remain one of the cheaper ways for retail investors to gain exposure to Russian stocks.

Industry-specific playIf you're looking for a really contrarian pick, Russian energy giant Gazprom  finds itself right in the middle of Russian politics. Formed out of the USSR Gas Industry Ministry in 1989, Gazprom was eventually converted into a joint stock company where the Russian government has a 51% stake.

Being both under control of the Russian government and exporting a product that could see new sanctions, Gazprom may be the most contrarian play in the Ukrainian crisis.

But for the risk Gazprom investors take, they can get an energy giant for less than three times earnings -- a level well below the average of other energy giants, and even below the valuation of the broader Russian market. Although Gazprom has traded at a discount to peers for quite some time, the latest dip in Russian stocks has depressed its valuation even further, and a solution to the crisis could allow Gazprom shares to rebound.

Source: The Motley Fool

WSJ: New York Stock Exchange is Front-Runner to Land Prized Alibaba Listing

      The Wall Street Journal reports,"the New York Stock Exchange is the front-runner to win the high-profile listing for the shares of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., according to people familiar with the matter".

The listing is expected to be the largest ever in the U.S. by a Chinese company and would be a major prize for the iconic exchange—and another setback for its rival, Nasdaq OMX Group Inc. 

A final deal hasn't yet been signed, but Alibaba has indicated to people involved in the competition for the listing that it prefers NYSE Euronext,

Russian President Putin makes Crimea part of Russia but says no plans to seize other regions of Ukraine

Russian President Vladimir Putin, defying Ukrainian protests and Western sanctions, on Tuesday signed a treaty making Crimea part Russia but said he did not plan to seize any other regions of Ukraine.

In a fiercely patriotic address to a joint session of the Russian parliament in the Kremlin, punctuated by standing ovations, cheering and tears, Putin lambasted the West for what he called hypocrisy. Western nations had endorsed Kosovo's independence from Serbia but now denied Crimeans the same right, he said. 

"You cannot call the same thing black today and white tomorrow," he declared to stormy applause, saying Western partners had "crossed the line" over Ukraine and behaved

"irresponsibly".

He said Ukraine's new leaders, in power since the overthrow of pro-Moscow president Viktor Yanukovich last month, included

"neo-Nazis, Russophobes and anti-Semites".

Putin said Crimea's disputed referendum vote on Sunday, held under Russian military occupation, had shown the overwhelming will of the people to be reunited with Russia after 60 years as part of the Ukrainian republic.

To the Russian national anthem, Putin and Crimean leaders signed a treaty on making Crimea part of Russia. During his address, Putin was interrupted by applause at least 30 times.

"In the hearts and minds of people, Crimea has always been and remains an inseparable part of Russia," Putin said.

He thanked China for what he called its support, even though Beijing abstained on a U.N. resolution on Crimea that Moscow had to veto on its own, and said he was sure Germans would support the Russian people's quest for reunification, just as Russia had supported German reunification in 1990.

And he sought to reassure Ukrainians that Russia did not seek any further division of their country. Fears have been expressed in Kiev that Russia might move on the Russian-speaking eastern parts of Ukraine.

"Don't believe those who try to frighten you with Russia and who scream that other regions will follow after Crimea," Putin said. "We do not want a partition of Ukraine. We do not need this."

Setting out Moscow's view of the events that led to the overthrow of Yanukovich in a popular uprising last month, Putin said the "so-called authorities" in Kiev had stolen power in a coup and opened the way for extremists who would stop at nothing.

Making clear Russia's concern at the possibility of the U.S.-led NATO military alliance expanding into Ukraine, he declared: "I do not want to be welcomed in Sevastopol (Crimean home of Russia's Black Sea fleet) by NATO sailors."

Moscow's seizure of Crimea, denounced by the West as illegal and in breach of Ukraine's constitutions, has caused the most serious East-West crisis since the end of the Cold War.

Before Putin's speech, Ukraine's interim prime minister, Arseniy Yatseniuk, sought to reassure Moscow on two key areas of concern, saying in a televised address delivered in Russian that Kiev was not seeking to join NATO, the U.S.-led military alliance, and would act to disarm Ukrainian nationalist militias. [ID:nL3N0MF1TZ]


MILD SANCTIONS

On Monday, the United States and the European Union imposed personal sanctions on a handful of officials from Russia and Ukraine accused of involvement in Moscow's military seizure of the Black Sea peninsula, most of whose 2 million residents are ethnic Russians.

Russian politicians dismissed the sanctions as insignificant and a badge of honour. The State Duma, or lower house, adopted a statement urging Washington and Brussels to extend the visa ban and asset freeze to all its members. 

Japan joined the mild Western sanctions on Tuesday, announcing the suspension of talks with Russia on investment promotion and visa liberalisation.

Russian forces took control of Crimea in late February following the toppling of Yanukovich after deadly clashes between riot police and protesters trying to overturn his decision to spurn a trade and cooperation deal with the EU and seek closer ties with Russia.

Despite strongly worded condemnations of the Crimean referendum, Western nations were cautious in their first practical steps against Moscow, seeking to leave the door open for a diplomatic solution.

Russian stocks gained another 2 percent after rallying strongly on Monday as investors noted the initial sanctions did not target businesses or executives. But the rouble fell 0.6 percent against the dollar and the euro.

In a sign of the negative impact of the crisis on the investment climate, Russia's state property agency said it may postpone major privatisation deals until the second half of the year.

U.S. President Barack Obama imposed sanctions on 11 Russians and Ukrainians blamed for the military seizure of Crimea, including Yanukovich, and two aides to Putin.

Putin himself, suspected in the West of trying to resurrect as much as possible of the former Soviet Union under Russian leadership, was not on the blacklist.

EU foreign ministers agreed to subject 21 Russian and Ukrainian officials to visa restrictions and asset freezes.

The U.S. list targeted higher-profile Russian officials close to Putin while the EU went for mid-ranking officials and military commanders more directly involved on the ground.

Washington and Brussels said more measures could follow in the coming days if Russia formally annexes Crimea.

The EU also said its leaders would sign the political part of an association agreement with Ukraine on Friday, in a gesture of support for the fragile coalition in Kiev.

Highlighting rifts in the EU, member state Austria offered on Tuesday to mediate between Moscow and the West.


MOSCOW TIME

Putin has declared that Russia has the right to defend, by military force if necessary, Russian citizens and Russian speakers living in former Soviet republics, raising concerns that Moscow may intervene elsewhere.

Putin has repeatedly accused the new leadership in Kiev of failing to protect Russian-speakers from violent Ukrainian nationalists. Ukraine's government has accused Moscow of staging provocations in Russian-speaking regions of eastern Ukraine to justify military intervention.

In a symbolic gesture, Askyonov announced on Twitter that Crimea would switch to Moscow time from March 30, putting it two hours ahead of the rest of Ukraine.

In the Crimean capital Simferopol, the local government and businesses set about preparing for the switch to Russian rule.

Banks scrambled to introduce the rouble as an official currency alongside the Ukrainian hryvnia, although the switch could take place at the end of the month after March pensions and salaries are cleared, banking sources said.

The pan-European Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe cancelled a meeting to discuss sending a monitoring mission to Ukraine because the 57 members are deadlocked.

Source:  Reuters

Yandex buys Israel's KitLocate

Russia’s search giant Yandex, which is increasingly rolling into new areas as a way to continue expanding its business, has made a small acquisition — to the tune of “several million euros” — focused on mobile location services. It’s picking up Israel’s Kitlocate, a maker of low-power mobile geolocation technology.

KitLocate, which was founded back in 2011, offers an SDK for iOS and Android developers to make their apps location aware. Location capabilities provided by the SDK include geo-fencing, motion detection and social location.

KitLocate’s flagship feature is reduced battery consumption — squeezed down to less than 1% per hour during use — thanks to its proprietary algorithms which allow location-based apps to request the device’s geographic coordinates less frequently without losing too much precision.

Source: TechCrunch

U.S. New Residential Construction

Building permits in February 2014 were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR) of 1,018,000, up 7.7 percent from the January rate and up 6.9 percent from February 2013.

Housing starts in February 2014 were at a SAAR of 907,000, down 0.2 percent from January and down 6.4 percent from February 2013.

WSJ: Putin Takes Step Forward to Annex Crimea

          The Wall Street Journal reports,"russian President Vladimir Putin brushed off an initial round of Western sanctions over the Ukraine crisis and defied warnings of stiffer punishment to come by taking another step toward annexing Crimea".
 Mr. Putin is scheduled to speak Tuesday to the Russian parliament, and was widely expected to announce Moscow would formally absorb Crimea.

Undeterred by the mounting pressure, the Kremlin said late Monday that Mr. Putin had signed a decree recognizing Crimea as an independent state—a necessary step before Russia can proceed with annexation, in what would be the most significant land seizure in Europe in decades.

On Tuesday, Mr. Putin ordered the approval of a draft agreement on Russia's annexation of Crimea, according to an official Kremlin document.

The developments left Russia on the brink of absorbing a portion of another country while the West grasped for leverage to contain Mr. Putin and prevent further Russian incursions into Ukraine or elsewhere.

Germany March Zew economic expectation fell to 46.6

"GERMANY: March ZEW economic expectations was 46.6 against forecasts of 52.0 and 55.7 in February; current conditions were 51.3 against a forecast of 52.4 and from 50.0 in February.

German businesses have turned surprisingly gloomy about the economy’s outlook with a sharp drop in the ZEW economic expectations index. This probably reflects the development of the Ukrainian crisis, as Germany relies heavily on Russian natural gas. As the heat turns down in Ukraine, German sentiment should pick up". 

WSJ Macro Horizons: Ukraine and China Cloud the Outlook

"Crimea continues to make the headlines but is having an increasingly smaller impact on markets, though Germany remains sensitive to its dependence on Russian gas and there remains potential for further upheavals. Meanwhile attention is turning to China’s decision to allow the yuan to depreciate.

Russia’s impending annexation of Crimea may have echoes of Soviet hegemony, but the markets are coming to realize this issue will probably be allowed to fade quietly—though the ZEW sentiment survey shows it’s having an impact on German businesses. Ultimately, more important will be the Chinese government’s decision to allow the yuan to depreciate. This should help reinforce an otherwise slowing economy, but it raises concerns about competitive devaluation across Asia, especially with the Japanese making it clear that much more quantitative easing and yen weakness is a policy option. (AM)

UKRAINE: Russia’s annexation of Crimea draws closer after President Vladimir Putin signed a decree recognizing Crimea’s independence from Ukraine.

There is plenty of jaw-jaw from the West about Russia’s impending absorption of Ukraine’s Crimea province, but there is little appetite to do anything more than to make hollow gestures in what is ultimately a regional issue and probably reflects the will of the Crimean people more fairly than any other election in the past century".

Chinese Proverb: If you walk on snow you..........

Chinese Proverb: Courage

Chinese Proverb: Art