Gazprom says Ukraine has not paid for February gas deliveries,it my halt future deliviries......

Gazprom says Ukraine owes US$ 1.89 billion for gas, has not paid for February deliveries.
 It may halt deliveries of gas to Ukraine as in early 2009.
Source: Dow Jones Wires

U.S. Department of labor Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Situation February 2014 PR

THE EMPLOYMENT SITUATION -- FEBRUARY 2014


Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 175,000 in February, and the 
unemployment rate was little changed at 6.7 percent, the U.S. Bureau of 
Labor Statistics reported today. Employment increased in professional and 
business services and in wholesale trade but declined in information. 



   ------------------------------------------------------------------
  |                                                                  |
  |         Effect of Winter Storms on Employment Estimates          |
  |                                                                  |
  | Severe winter weather occurred in much of the country during the |
  | February reference periods for the establishment and household   |
  | surveys. For information on how weather can affect employment    |
  | and hours data, see Question 8 in the Frequently Asked Questions |
  | section of this release.                                         |
   ------------------------------------------------------------------



Household Survey Data

Both the number of unemployed persons (10.5 million) and the unemployment 
rate (6.7 percent) changed little in February. The jobless rate has shown 
little movement since December. Over the year, the number of unemployed 
persons and the unemployment rate were down by 1.6 million and 1.0 
percentage point, respectively. (See table A-1.) 

Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rates for adult men (6.4 
percent), adult women (5.9 percent), teenagers (21.4 percent), whites (5.8 
percent), blacks (12.0 percent), and Hispanics (8.1 percent) showed little 
or no change in February. The jobless rate for Asians was 6.0 percent (not 
seasonally adjusted), about unchanged over the year. (See tables A-1, A-2, 
and A-3.)

The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) 
increased by 203,000 in February to 3.8 million; these individuals accounted 
for 37.0 percent of the unemployed. The number of long-term unemployed 
was down by 901,000 over the year. (See table A-12.)

Both the civilian labor force participation rate (63.0 percent) and the 
employment-population ratio (58.8 percent) were unchanged in February. The 
labor force participation rate was down 0.5 percentage point from a year 
ago, while the employment-population ratio was little changed over the 
year. 

The number of persons employed part time for economic reasons (sometimes 
referred to as involuntary part-time workers) was little changed at 7.2 
million in February. These individuals were working part time because their 
hours had been cut back or because they were unable to find full-time work. 


In February, 2.3 million persons were marginally attached to the labor 
force, a decline of 285,000 over the year. (The data are not seasonally 
adjusted.) These individuals were not in the labor force, wanted and were 
available for work, and had looked for a job sometime in the prior 12 
months. They were not counted as unemployed because they had not searched 
for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey. 

Among the marginally attached, there were 755,000 discouraged workers in 
February, down by 130,000 from a year earlier. (The data are not seasonally 
adjusted.) Discouraged workers are persons not currently looking for work 
because they believe no jobs are available for them. The remaining 1.5 
million persons marginally attached to the labor force in February had not 
searched for work for reasons such as school attendance or family 
responsibilities. (See table A-16.)

Establishment Survey Data

Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 175,000 in February. Job growth 
averaged 189,000 per month over the prior 12 months. In February, job 
gains occurred in professional and business services and in wholesale 
trade, while information lost jobs. 

Employment in professional and business services increased by 79,000 in 
February. Accounting and bookkeeping services added 16,000 jobs. Employment 
continued to trend up in temporary help services (+24,000) and in services 
to buildings and dwellings (+11,000). Over the prior 12 months, professional 
and business services added an average of 56,000 jobs per month.

In February, wholesale trade added 15,000 jobs, with nearly all of the 
increase occurring in durable goods (+12,000). Over the prior 12 months, 
the employment gain in wholesale trade averaged 9,000 per month. 

Employment in food services and drinking places continued to trend up in 
February (+21,000). Over the prior 12 months, this industry added an 
average of 27,000 jobs per month. 

In February, employment in construction changed little (+15,000). Over the 
past year, construction has added 152,000 jobs. Within the industry, 
employment in heavy and civil engineering construction rose by 12,000 in 
February. 

Employment in health care changed little in February (+10,000). This marks 
the third consecutive month of little employment change in this industry. 
Offices of physicians added 8,000 jobs in February. Employment in hospitals 
changed little over the month but is down by 10,000 over the past 3 months.

Retail trade employment changed little in February (-4,000). Among the 
component industries, a job gain in food and beverage stores (+12,000) was 
more than offset by declines in electronics and appliance stores (-12,000); 
sporting goods, hobby, book, and music stores (-9,000); and department 
stores (-7,000). Over the year, retail trade has added 282,000 jobs.

Information lost 16,000 jobs in February. Most of the decline occurred in 
motion picture and sound recording (-14,000); employment in this industry 
can be volatile from month to month. 

Employment in other major industries, including mining and logging, 
manufacturing, transportation and warehousing, financial activities, and 
government, changed little over the month.

The average workweek for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls edged 
down by 0.1 hour to 34.2 hours in February. The manufacturing workweek was 
unchanged at 40.7 hours, and factory overtime edged down by 0.1 hour to 3.3 
hours. The average workweek for production and nonsupervisory employees 
on private nonfarm payrolls declined by 0.2 hour to 33.3 hours. For 
production workers, the manufacturing workweek has declined by 0.6 hour 
over the past 3 months. (See tables B-2 and B-7.)

In February, average hourly earnings for all employees on private nonfarm 
payrolls rose by 9 cents to $24.31. Over the year, average hourly earnings 
have risen by 52 cents, or 2.2 percent. In February, average hourly 
earnings of private-sector production and nonsupervisory employees increased 
by 9 cents to $20.50. (See tables B-3 and B-8.)

The change in total nonfarm payroll employment for December was revised 
from +75,000 to +84,000, and the change for January was revised from 
+113,000 to +129,000. With these revisions, employment gains in December 
and January were 25,000 higher than previously reported. 

_____________

Macro Horizons: Stay Tuned for Jobs Report, But Don’t Read Too Much Into It

""For a few hours on the first Friday of the month, not much else matters in markets than the wait for, followed by the digestion of, the monthly U.S. jobs numbers. And then it all blows over and we’re often left wondering what all the fuss was about. Get ready for more of the same today.

The government’s labor report has been strikingly erratic since October. First it was the government shutdown, which may have confused some respondents in their responses and led to distortions in the unemployment rate, and after that the unseasonably cold winter, which has continued unabated and has interrupted various job-providing projects. So, by all means stay glued to your computer screen for those few hours today but don’t go imagining that this report is the final word on the state of the U.S. labor market. 

UKRAINE: The city council of Crimea’s port city Sevastopol, home of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, voted to join Russia and break links with Ukraine. At the same time Russia’s parliament says it will support Crimea if it seeks to join the Russian Federation.  U.S. and European leaders argue such a referendum would be contrary to international law.

The Ukrainian situation is bound to become more complicated before it’s resolved. It seems likely that Crimea will be absorbed into Russia, reversing a strange piece of administrative boundary shuffling by the Soviets. Will eastern Ukraine follow suit? How will Western governments respond? Will Ukraine make efforts to preserve its sovereign integrity? Unfortunately there aren’t likely to be nice, clear answers to intractable questions. This will rumble for a while"".

Source: WSJ

GLOBAL MARKETS-Buoyant stocks await U.S. payrolls, ECB inaction spurs euro

World shares were at a six-year high and heading for a fifth week of back-to-back gains on Friday as the ongoing tug-of-war over Crimea and uncertainty ahead of U.S. jobs data did little to sap market confidence.

With the tussle between Ukraine and the West and Russia over Crimea expected to drag on, investors turned their focus to non-farm payrolls due at 1330 GMT, though there was a sense they would still be distorted by the recent icy U.S. weather.

European stock markets <.FTEU3> took a step back as they consolidated after a volatile week which nevertheless has left equity markets globally <.MIWD00000PUS> at their highest level in more than six years.

As midday approached futures prices pointing to a steady start on Wall Street later but Europe's benchmark FTSEurofirst 300 index was down 0.4 percent, with Frankfurt <.GDAXI> again leading the falls.

The region's close links to Russia has meant it has significantly underperformed other parts of the world this week. The FTSEurofirst is heading for its first weekly drop since the end of January and some of the big German firms who sell to Russia have fared particularly badly. [.EU]

There were further developments on Friday. Russian President Vladimir Putin rebuffed a warning from Barack Obama over Moscow's military intervention in Crimea, saying he could not ignore calls for help from Russian speakers in Ukraine.

After an hour-long telephone call, Putin said in a statement that Moscow and Washington were still far apart on the situation in the former Soviet republic, where he said the new authorities had taken "absolutely illegitimate decisions on the eastern, southeastern and Crimea regions."

Despite the nervousness around the region's stocks, there appeared to be no stopping the euro however.

It hit a fresh 2014 high of $1.3892 on the dollar as a big repayment of ECB crisis loans came after the European Central Bank on Thursday all but killed off bets of further interest rate cuts in coming months.

"The market was looking for some action from the ECB, yet we got nothing, in fact what Draghi outlined was the improvement in the economic activity," said Jane Foley, senior currency strategist at Rabobank in London.

"It actually gives us the impression that that might be it from the ECB and we have seen everything we are going to see."


U.S. JOBS

With the jobs data later key for the Federal Reserve as it gradually scales back its massive stimulus programme, the figures dominated attention across most assets classes.

The dollar index <.DXY>, which weighs the dollar against a basket of major currencies, was at 79.614, after skidding as low as 79.590, its lowest since late October, in wake of the euro's surge.

A Reuters poll of economists expected around 149,000 jobs to have been added up from the weather-depressed gains of 113,000 in January, though that was taken before Wednesday's soft ADP jobs report.

Speaking in London late on Thursday, Fed policymaker Charles Plosser said he would take the reading "with a pinch of salt" whatever it was, and that it was likely to be "a couple more months before all the noise of the weather gets filtered out." 

Source: Reuters

Xinhua In-Depth: The West's fiasco in Ukraine

For a brief moment, Western leaders might have stopped to congratulate themselves for their "accomplishments" in Ukraine.

With their backing, Ukrainian opposition protesters successfully toppled the pro-Russian government, forcing out the president they loathe and dealing a humiliating blow to the Kremlin.

The West might have scored a major victory in this latest round of goepolitical fight. But things turned out otherwise.

Shortly afterwards, Russia struck back. Now, with Russian military personnel deployed in eastern Ukraine to protect Russia's legitimate interests and pro-Russian regions clamoring for a secession from Kiev, Ukraine is teetering on the brink of total chaos and disintegration.

The West's strategy for installing a so-called democratic and pro-Western Ukrainian government did not get anywhere at all. On the contrary, they have created a mess they do not have the capacity or wisdom to clean.

Their ill-fated plan was fundamentally flawed from the very beginning. First of all, they were destined to shoot their own feet when they, under the cliche pretense of supporting democracy, interfered in Ukrainian domestic affairs by engaging in biased mediation.

Second, they underestimated Russia's will to protect its core interests in Ukraine. Russia may no longer be interested in competing for global preeminence with the West, but when it comes to cleaning a mess the West created in the country's backyard, Russian leaders once again proved their credibility and shrewdness in planning and executing effective counter moves.

Last but not least, Western leaders were delusional when they believed they, with dented moral authority and shrinking financial coffers, could still take up such a grand task of nation-building.

Unfortunately, Ukraine and its people have become a big victim in this grueling process.

The Ukrainian people do not get the democracy or prosperity the West promises. Instead, all they can see in their beloved country now is political confusion and economic depression.

The West itself also becomes a loser as the fiasco in Ukraine will surely erode its credibility.

For the rest of the world, once again, people see another great country torn apart because of a clumsy and selfish West that boasts too many lofty ideals but always comes up short of practical solutions.

But the world does not need to be too pessimistic. The game in Ukraine is far from over. The international community still has the opportunity to salvage the country by working together.

Major powers should set their animosity aside and start working for a compromise. The Ukrainians should abandon their political infighting and work to restore law and order in their country as soon as possible.

After all, an independent, complete and stable Ukraine best serves the interests of all, including China.

China eyes top FDI host economy globally

Despite rising labor costs, China's allure for foreign companies is increasing due to the growing market, high return on investment and government efforts to improve the business environment.

TOP FDI CHOICE

"We will continue to utilize foreign investment actively and efficiently, open up more service sectors to foreign capital, and level the playing field for domestic and foreign enterprises to compete on fair terms so as to ensure that China remains a top choice for foreign investment," Premier Li Keqiangsaid earlier this week in his government work report delivered to the nation's top legislature.

A combination of rising labor costs and a slowdown of economic growth from the past double-digit economic expansion rate seems to have created a perception that China has lost its allure for foreign companies. In fact, the truth is quite the opposite.

The Chinese mainland registered 127 billion U.S. dollars of foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows in 2013, closing the gap with the United States to about 32 billion dollars, according to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).

Despite signs of recovery in some developed countries, FDI flows to the United States failed to reverse their decline, contrary to other signs of economic recovery over the past year. FDI flows to developed countries remained at a historically low share (39 percent) of total global FDI flows for the second consecutive year in 2013, the UNCTAD said earlier this year in a report.

BIG MARKET, HIGH RETURN

"Foreign investors are still very interested in China. In the past, many came because of low wages and the opportunity to export. Now investors are more interested in the domestic market," contended David Dollar, a senior fellow at Washington's Brookings Institution.

"Higher wages are good for stimulating domestic demand, so higher wages are not an impediment to the new kind of investment coming to China," Dollar told Xinhua.

Dollar's view is echoed by Ryan Rutkowski, a China Research Analyst with Washington's Peterson Institute for International Economics, who believes that it still makes sense that multinationals continue to invest in China.

"China is a leading global consumer of many goods and services with strong growth prospects. The middle class in China's wealthiest provinces are already major global consumers of goods and increasingly services, while many markets in the interior are only just beginning to catch up. Manufacturers in China can now count on selling more goods to the Chinese market whereas before they focused primarily on exporting to advanced economies," Rutkowski told Xinhua.

Foreign companies remain attracted to China because it still offers superior returns. The income generated by foreign enterprises in China is among the highest in the world. The returns generated by FDI stock in China averaged 9.4 percent between 2002 and 2012, compared with only 5.8 percent for investment in the United States, he said in a recent analysis article.

Moreover, foreign companies can now invest in more diverse businesses in China. In the past, the vast majority of investments were confined to the export manufacturing sector, but today manufacturing represents only two fifths of foreign investment inflow, while the service sector share is now over half of new FDI inflow.

The recent string of reforms - the Shanghai pilot free trade zone (FTZ), experimenting with the "negative list" approach, opening up more service sectors and reducing government approval requirements - has helped bolster investor confidence and improved the business environment.

Lured by better trade, investment and administrative rules, about 100 companies have registered in the FTZ every day since September, according to the FTZ managers.

Yang Xiong, mayor of Shanghai, said earlier this week that the "negative list" identifying bans or restrictions on foreign investment in the FTZ will be shorter in its 2014 incarnation.

Nationwide, newly registered businesses increased by 27.6 percent last year, and private investment was up to 63 percent of total investment.

"We are all sharing the fruits of fast economic growth," commented Bian Chenggang, General Manager of Intel Products (Chengdu) Ltd..

By the end of December 2013, 252 Fortune 500 companies had set up branches in Chengdu, capital of southwest China's Sichuan Province. Last year alone, an additional 22 Fortune 500 companies settled in the city.

Source: Xinhua

Putin rebuffs Obama as Ukraine crisis escalates

President Vladimir Putin rebuffed a warning from U.S. President Barack Obama over Moscow's military intervention in Crimea, saying on Friday that Russia could not ignore calls for help from Russian speakers in Ukraine.

After an hour-long telephone call, Putin said in a statement that Moscow and Washington were still far apart on the situation in the former Soviet republic, where he said the new authorities had taken "absolutely illegitimate decisions on the eastern, southeastern and Crimea regions.

"Russia cannot ignore calls for help and it acts accordingly, in full compliance with international law," Putin said.

The head of Russia's upper house of parliament said after meeting visiting Crimean lawmakers on Friday that Crimea had a right to self-determination, and ruled out any risk of war between "the two brotherly nations".

Japan endorsed the Western position that the actions of Russia, whose forces have seized control of the Crimean peninsula, constitute "a threat to international peace and security", after Obama spoke to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

China, often a Russian ally in blocking Western moves in the U.N. Security Council, was more cautious, saying that economic sanctions were not the best way to solve the crisis and avoiding comment on the legality of a Crimean referendum on secession.

The EU, Russia's biggest economic partner and energy customer, adopted a three-stage plan to try to force a negotiated solution but stopped short of immediate sanctions.

Brussels and Washington also rushed to strengthen the new authorities in economically shattered Ukraine, announcing both political and financial assistance.

Promises of billions of dollars in Western aid for the Kiev government, and the perception that Russian troops are not likely to go beyond Crimea into other parts of Ukraine, have helped reverse a rout in the local hryvnia currency.

In the past two days it has traded above 9.0 to the dollar for the first time since the Crimea crisis began last week. Local dealers said emergency currency restrictions imposed last week were also supporting the hryvnia.

IMPORTANT DIFFERENCES

In their telephone call, Obama said he urged Putin to accept the terms of a potential diplomatic solution to the dispute over Crimea that would take account of Russia's legitimate interests in the region.

Putin was defiant on Ukraine, where he said the pro-Russian Yanukovich had been ousted in an "anti-constitutional coup". But he underlined what he called "the paramount important of Russian-American relations to ensure stability and security in the world", the Kremlin said.

"These relations should not be sacrificed for individual differences, albeit very important ones, over international problems," Putin said.

He maintained Moscow was not behind the seizure of Crimea, home of Russia's Black Sea Fleet. Russia says the troops without insignia that have surround Ukrainian bases are "local self-defence units". The West has ridiculed this argument.

The 28-nation EU welcomed Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk to an emergency summit, even though Kiev is neither a member nor a recognised candidate to join the bloc, and agreed to bring forward the signing of the political parts of an agreement on closer ties before Ukraine's May 25 elections.

Yatseniuk said after returning to Ukraine that no one in the civilised world would recognise the result of the "so-called referendum" in Crimea. He repeated Kiev's willingness to negotiate with Russia and said he had requested a telephone call with Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.

The European Commission said Ukraine could receive up to 11 billion euros ($15 billion) in the next couple of years provided it reaches agreement with the International Monetary Fund, which requires painful economic reforms like ending gas subsidies.

UKRAINIANS CONFIDENT

Despite Putin's tough words, demonstrators who have remained encamped in Kiev's central Independence Square to defend the revolution that ousted Yanukovich said they did not believe Crimea would be allowed to secede.

Some said they were willing to go to war with Russia, despite the mismatch between the two countries' armed forces.

On the ground in Crimea, the situation was calm although 35 unarmed military observers dispatched by the pan-European Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe were denied entry into the peninsula on Thursday after landing in the southern Ukrainian port of Odessa.

A U.N. special envoy who travelled to the regional capital Simferopol on Tuesday was surrounded by pro-Russian protesters, some of them armed, and forced to leave on Tuesday. The United Nations said it had sent its assistant secretary-general for human rights, Ivan Simonovic, to Kiev to conduct a preliminary humans rights assessment.

Ukrainian television was switched off in Crimea on Thursday and replaced with Russian state channels.

The streets largely belong to people who support Moscow's rule, some of whom have become increasingly aggressive in the past week, harassing journalists and occasional pro-Kiev protesters.

Part of the Crimea's 2 million population opposes Moscow's rule, including members of the region's ethnic Russian majority. The last time Crimeans were asked, in 1991, they voted narrowly for independence along with the rest of Ukraine.

Source  REUTERS   10.51 a.m. GMT