SpaceX Just Made A Big Step Towards Cheaper, More Sustainable Space Flight

Elon Musk just announced a significant milestone for SpaceX and, well, humanity. The first live test of a Falcon 9 rocket boost stage landing vertically was a success. The first stage of the rocket returned to Earth and landed vertically in the Atlantic Ocean after boosting the second stage to a resupply mission with the International Space Station.

Sadly, this part of the rocket was lost to sea as SpaceX could not retrieve the rocket until two days after it “landed.”

Musk stated at a press conference today that all telemetry data indicates that the rocket soft-landed in the water with the legs deployed — as if it were landing on land. The end goal is to have a reusable rocket, one that can launch, land, and launch again. Musk says SpaceX foresees being able to land and relaunch a rocket on the same day.

The space transportation company has tried several times to retrieve rocket stages after launching, including using parachutes, but later switched to landing. This Falcon 9 soft landing came after extensive testing that included launching and landing a smaller version of the rocket called the Grasshopper.

According to Musk, the boost stage constitutes 70 percent of the cost of a rocket and by reusing this part of the rocket, it would reduce the cost by at least 70 percent. Plus, as Musk preaches, reusing rockets would reduce the impact on the environment since it would decrease the amount of rockets built. SpaceX charges $60 million to launch a Falcon 9.

SpaceX is currently building out several launch facilities in Texas and Florida. It’s modifying launch pad 39a at NASA’s Cape Canaveral facility which is where Apollo 11 launched from. The company is also fighting the U.S. Air Force over a contract with the Russian space agency. SpaceX has decided to file suit against the U.S. Air Force to get it to open up competition for national security-related rocket launches.

Source: TechCrunch

Xiaomi to Expand to Ten more Countries, Officially Launches Smart WiFi Routers

Source: TechNode

Xiaomi, the Chinese smart device and mobile service provider, has launched a new website, Mi.com, for the company wants to make it easier for non-Chinese to say the company’s name, Lei Jun, CEO of the company, said today at a press event in Beijing. Actually the company was named after MI; abbr. Mobile Internet. The new domain name cost USD3.6 million.

Mr. Lei announced today that Xiaomi will expand to ten more countries in 2014 as the initial expansion to Taiwan, Hong Kong and, more recently, Singapore performed “way better than expected”. The ten are less-developed markets in Asia, Europe and South America, including Malaysia, the Philippines, India, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Russia, Turkey, Brazil and Mexico.

Xiaomi ships products overseas from two warehouses in Shenzhen and Taiwan. It partners with third-party logistics services for product delivery.

MIUI, the customized Android system for smartphone, smart TV and other Xiaomi devices, now has 25 language versions and 2 million users outside China.

Xiaomi’s international business is overseen by Lin Bin, President and co-founder (a former exec at Google China), and Hugo Barra, former Vice President of Android at Google who joined Xiaomi last year.

China posts surplus in Q1 balance of payments

 China reported both current and capital account surpluses from January to March, marking the sixth consecutive quarterly "twin surplus," official data showed on Friday.

The State Administration of Foreign Exchange said China had a surplus of 7.2 billion U.S. dollars in the current account in the first quarter, down sharply from the 47.6-billion surplus seen in the same period in 2013.

The country's surplus in the capital account expanded to 118.3 billion U.S. dollars in the first quarter from 90.1 billion in the first three months of 2013.

Net foreign direct investment stood at 51.2 billion U.S. dollars in the period, 19.3 billion more than the same period last year.

China's foreign exchange reserves increased by 125.8 billion U.S. dollars in the first quarter, 31.3 billion less than in 2013.

Source: Xinhua

China to maintain policy continuity, stability

China's economic growth in the first quarter was generally within expectation, and the country will maintain continuity and stability of its macro policies, the central leadership of the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC) said on Friday.

Fiscal and monetary policies will remain as they are, and the country will nurture good development prospects and a transparent macro policy environment, said a statement released after a meeting of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, chaired by its general secretary Xi Jinping.

While sticking to the basic principles of stable macro and flexible micro policies, timely adjustments should be made in accordance to changing conditions of the economy so as to realize economic and social development goals for the year, said the statement.

It said the fundamentals of the economy remains unchanged, adding that economic growth in the first quarter was generally stable and within the proper range, with positive changes in economic structure.

However, downward pressure in the economy still exists, some difficulties cannot be underestimated, and a high level of attention should be given to hidden risks, said the statement.

Growth in China stood at 7.4 percent year on year in the Jan.-March period, slowing from 7.7 percent in the fourth quarter of 2013.

Source: Xinhua

Bloomberg: Yandex Sinks as Putin Hints at Stronger Internet Controls

Yandex NV (YNDX), Russia’s largest search-engine company, slumped to an eight-month low after President Vladimir Putin said the government may subject it to more regulation.

Yandex plunged 5.6 percent to $26.69 in New York to the lowest since June 24. Trading volume exceeded the average daily level by 51 percent, data compiled by Bloomberg show. The stock is down 38 percent in 2014, making it the worst performer on the Bloomberg index of the most-traded Russian stocks in the U.S., after doubling last year.

Putin, speaking at a conference in St. Petersburg, said Russia should protect its information in a market dominated by U.S. technology. Yandex, he said, may need to get a media license as it publishes news on its website.

When Yandex started “they were pushed to have a certain number of Americans and Europeans in their management,” Putin said. “Some of their regulation is done abroad, and not only for the purpose of taxation, but for other reasons. That is a complex area.”

Putin’s comments suggest he may try to gain more control of Russia’s online industry as his push into neighboring Ukraine fuels the worst standoff with the U.S. and its allies since the Cold War, said Mansur Mammadov, a money manager at Kazimir Partners in Moscow.

“This was a strong and negative signal,” Mammadov said by phone. “When Putin talks about a private company in such a negative context, that is immediately bad for the stock.”

Yandex, based in The Hague, said its decision to place its headquarters outside of Russia was motivated by corporate law and wasn’t related to its tax structure.

Russian Rate Increase Follows Rating Cut as Ukraine Crisis Deepens

        The WSJ reports,"Russia's central bank boosted interest rates Friday, in a surprise move aimed at reining in inflation while the confrontation with the West over Ukraine escalates.

The decision followed a downgrade of Russia's credit rating to one notch above junk by Standard & Poor's Ratings Services, which turned up the pressure on beleaguered Russian assets".

Russia's already-slowing economy has been hard hit by capital flight during the Ukraine crisis, which continues to intensify.

The Bank of Russia raised its key lending rate by half a percentage point to 7.5%, confounding analysts' expectations for no change. When the central bank lifted rates by 1.5 percentage points in March, it said the move was temporary.

Russia's central bank boosted interest rates Friday, in a surprise move aimed at reining in inflation while the confrontation with the West over Ukraine escalates.

The decision followed a downgrade of Russia's credit rating to one notch above junk by Standard & Poor's Ratings Services, which turned up the pressure on beleaguered Russian assets.

Russia's already-slowing economy has been hard hit by capital flight during the Ukraine crisis, which continues to intensify.

The Bank of Russia raised its key lending rate by half a percentage point to 7.5%, confounding analysts' expectations for no change. When the central bank lifted rates by 1.5 percentage points in March, it said the move was temporary.

The ruble, which dropped after the rating downgrade, found only brief respite before closing in once more on its low of the day. It was 0.5% lower against the dollar at 35.962.

Russian stocks and bonds fell after S&P earlier cut its rating on Russia one level, to triple-B-minus from triple-B, citing large capital outflows in the first quarter. Moscow's RTS index traded down 1.2%, hitting its lowest level since mid-March.

While the price of oil—Russia's main export—stagnates, money is leaving the economy amid feeble economic growth, a lack of reforms and rising political risks from the Ukraine crisis. Capital outflow was more than $60 billion in the first quarter alone, while the ruble has lost more than 10% after Russia's annexation of Crimea. The Russian economy is expected to grow by just 0.5% in 2014, the lowest level since the 2008 crisis, but the Finance Ministry has said it considers even this meager growth outlook to be too optimistic.

The Guardian: Russia offers proposal to resolve Ukraine crisis

The Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, appears to have offered a deal to resolve the crisis in eastern Ukraine, suggesting that if the country's government clears out the nationalist protest camp in Kiev, then pro-Moscow separatists will lay down their arms.

Western officials greeted the proposal with scepticism, noting that such confidence-building measures were at the heart of an international agreement reached last week, but which failed to end the separatists' occupation of public buildings in eastern Ukraine. They said the protest camp in Independence Square in Kiev, erected in February during the uprising that toppled the Russian-backed president, Viktor Yanukovych, was already being dismantled.

The Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe, which is monitoring the situation in Ukraine, reported that its team in the capital "observed the ongoing clearing of barricades in the Maidan square".

"The situation in the capital city was calm," the report added.

One western official raised the possibility that Lavrov might be seeking to use the dismantling of the camp as a face-saving way out of the crisis, but cautioned that there were few other signs of compromise from Moscow.

Lavrov's comments came as the Ukrainian government launched further military operations against some of the pro-Russian separatists who have seized government buildings across eastern Ukraine, having killed up to five rebels on Thursday.

BPZ Conference Call May 9th, 2014

Houston, April 24, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- BPZ Energy, (NYSE: BPZ) (BVL: BPZ) today announced that it will host a conference call and live webcast to discuss financial and operational results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2014.  The event is scheduled for Friday, May 9, 2014, at 10:00 a.m. CDT (11:00 a.m. EDT)

U.S. Demand for Home Loans Plunges

  The WSJ reports,"mortgage lending declined to the lowest level in 14 years in the first quarter as homeowners pulled back sharply from refinancing and house hunters showed little appetite for new loans, the latest sign of how rising interest rates have dented the housing recovery.

Lenders originated $235 billion in mortgage loans during the January-March quarter, down 58% from the same period a year ago and down 23% from the fourth quarter of 2013, according to industry newsletter Inside Mortgage Finance''.

The decline shows how the mortgage market is experiencing its largest shift in more than a decade as an era of generally falling interest rates that began in 2000 appears to have run its course. The average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage stood at 4.5% last week, up from 3.6% last May, when interest rates shot up in reaction to the Federal Reserve's initial indication that it might reduce a bond-buying campaign that was, in part, designed to keep a lid on long-term rates like mortgages.

The decline in mortgage lending last quarter stemmed almost entirely from the slide in refinancing. Loans for home purchases were basically flat from a year earlier and down from the fourth quarter.

"A strong housing rebound is an important component of most forecasts that suggest that GDP growth will be stronger than the economy's 'potential' rate over the next two years," Eric Rosengren, president of the Boston Fed, said in a speech last week.

Softness in the housing market, if it deepens and undermines the broader economic outlook, could complicate the Fed's efforts to dial back easy-money policies designed to support the recovery. Applications for purchase mortgages last week ran nearly 18% below the level of a year ago, even as the average loan amount on new applications hit a record of $280,500, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

The numbers raise questions over whether wage and job growth is strong enough for American consumers to shift the housing rebound that began two years ago into second gear. Some investors, who have played an outsize role whittling down an oversupply of homes, have begun to retreat from certain markets where prices have risen sharply. The degree to which traditional buyers, especially at the entry level, are able to pick up the baton could determine the shape of the recovery going forward.

Reuters: US STOCKS-Futures point to lower open

U.S. stock index futures pointed to a lower open on Friday as a number of bellwether names, including Amazon and Ford, fell following their quarterly results, overshadowing positive numbers from Microsoft.

* Investors also continued to pay attention to intensifying geopolitical strife after Ukrainian forces killed up to five pro-Moscow rebels and Russia launched army drills near the border. The actions raised fears Russian troops would invade. Separately, local police said seven people were injured overnight at a pro-Ukrainian checkpoint near the Black Sea port of Odessa when an explosive device blew up.

* While the situation has taken a backseat to corporate earnings in recent weeks, investors remain on edge over what the potential fallout could be to any prolonged tension or violence. Visa Inc late Thursday said U.S. sanctions on Russia were hurting its card transaction volumes and that revenue growth would slow further this quarter, sending shares down 3.7 percent to $200.50 in premarket trading.

* Amazon fell 5 percent to $320 after posting a jump in revenue, offset by sharp increases in spending. Ford Motor Co fell 2.1 percent to $15.98 in premarket trading after first-quarter earnings missed expectations, hurt by higher warranty costs in North America.

On the upside, Microsoft Corp's earnings topped analyst forecasts, while investors were cheered by the software giant's new emphasis on mobile and cloud computing. Shares rose 1.5 percent to $40.46.