Santana & Samuel Rosa "Saideira" The Joy of Living...............

                                           E um lugar diferente.............

Mohammed El-Erian. Beware of Complacency, we're seeing a major compression in the equity risk premium.

  Interview on CNBC 09/09/2014

"This market is now settling into the Great Moderation 2.0. This perception—that we are in a range-bound economy and predictable policies and that's going to cause quite a few rotations within the market," said El-Erian said on "Closing Bell."

"The Great Moderation, which stretched from the mid-1980s to 2007, was defined by low interest rates and below-average volatility. Ultimately, it led to a credit crisis.

El-Erian, chief economic advisor at Allianz, is concerned the market could see another credit crunch, at least if a slew of carry trades are any indicator. 

He pointed to Greece issuing bonds at below a 5 percent yield, while yields on Italian and Spanish bonds are at record lows of below 3 percent, as recent examples.

"The minute you tell someone that we're in a Great Moderation, then the temptation to lever any risk element is huge. So He pointed to Greece issuing bonds at below a 5 percent yield, while yields on Italian and Spanish bonds are at record lows of below 3 percent, as recent examples.

"The minute you tell someone that we're in a Great Moderation, then the temptation to lever any risk element is huge. So we're seeing a major compression in the equity risk premium, in the credit risk premium, in the default risk premium, the liquidity and volatility," El-Erian said. "So I worry that people may be getting too comfortable with this notion, especially that the Fed is going into a more uncertain policy environment."

Separately, El-Erian said now is a good time to take profits considering the sluggish U.S. economy and geopolitical concerns around the world, including and especially surrounding Ukraine.

—By CNBC's Drew Sandholm, in the credit risk premium, in the default risk premium, the liquidity and volatility," El-Erian said. "So I worry that people may be getting too comfortable with this notion, especially that the Fed is going into a more uncertain policy environment."

Separately, El-Erian said now is a good time to take profits considering the sluggish U.S. economy and geopolitical concerns around the world, including and especially surrounding Ukraine".

Wheat vs. Rice: How China’s North-South Culinary Divide Shapes Personality

     The WSJ reports,"in China, as in many countries, the north-south divide runs deep. People from the north are seen as hale and hearty, while southerners are often portrayed as cunning, cultured traders. Northerners are taller than southerners. The north eats noodles, while the south eats rice—and according to new research, when it comes to personality, that difference has meant everything.

A study published Friday by a group of psychologists in the journal Science finds that China’s noodle-slurping northerners are more individualistic, show more “analytic thought” and divorce more frequently. By contrast, the authors write, rice-eating southerners show more hallmarks traditionally associated with East Asian culture, including more “holistic thought” and lower divorce rates.

The reason? Cultivating rice, the authors say, is a lot harder. Picture a rice paddy, its delicate seedlings tucked in a bed of water. They require careful tending and many hours of labor—by some estimates, twice as much as wheat—as well as reliance on irrigation systems that require neighborly cooperation. As the authors write, for southerners growing rice, “strict self-reliance might have meant starvation.”

Growing wheat, by contrast, the north’s staple grain, is much simpler. One Chinese farming guide from the 1600s quoted in the study advised aspiring farmers that “if one is short of labor power, it is best to grow wheat.”

To produce their findings, the authors evaluated the attitudes of 1,162 Han Chinese students in Beijing and Liaoning in the north and in Fujian, Guangdong, Yunnan and Sichuan in the south. To control for other factors that distinguish the north and south—such as climate, dialect and contact with herding cultures—the authors also analyzed differences between various neighboring counties in five central provinces along China’s rice-wheat border".

According to the authors, the influence of rice cultivation can help explain East Asia’s “strangely persistent interdependence.” For example, they say South Korea and Japan have remained less individualistic than Western countries, even as they’ve grown more wealthy.

The authors aren’t alone in observing the influence various crops have on shaping culture. Malcolm Gladwell in his 2008 book “Outliers” also drew connections between a hard-working ethic (measured by a willingness to fill out long, tedious questionnaires) to a historical tradition of rice cultivation in places such as South Korea, Taiwan and Japan, given that the farming of such crops is arguably an equally tedious chore.

But what will happen to such differences after people move away from tending such crops, as is now happening across China? The study cites findings that U.S. regions settled by Scottish and Irish herders show more violence even long after most herders’ descendants have found other lines of work as evidence that cultural traits stubbornly resist change, even over time. (Herders, psychologists theorize, are ready to put their lives on the line to protect their animals against thieves or attack.

“In the case of China,” the authors conclude, “only time will tell.”

‘Big Bang’ Creator Fires Back at Chinese Regulators

    The WSJ reports,"Mr. Lorre, who also created other well-known shows like “Two and a Half Men” and “Dharma & Greg” has become well known for the “vanity cards” he posts at the end of shows, in which he writes about everything from current events to personal issues. In the most recent card that appeared at the end of an episode of “The Big Bang Theory” that aired on May 1, 2014 he sarcastically lambasted the Chinese government:

CHUCK LORRE PRODUCTIONS, #456

The government of China has decided that “The Big Bang Theory” is not appropriate for viewing. I have to assume there was some sort of formal process involved in this decision. In all likelihood, a gaggle of communists sat in a darkened room and watched a few episodes. I like to think they took notes that were later used to formulate an official document that detailed the corrosive cultural effects caused by the shenanigans of Sheldon, Leonard, Penny, Wolowitz, Koothrappali, Amy and Bernadette. I like to think that during these screenings one of them laughed out loud and was promptly sent to a re-education camp on the outskirts of Urumqi. I like to think one of them was reassured by how often the characters on the show eat Chinese takeout. I like to think there’s a Chinese word for shenanigans. Regardless, the whole affair makes me very happy. The overlords of 1.3 billion people are afraid of our sitcom. Exactly what we were going for!

It’s not clear whether authorities will get Mr. Lorre’s sarcasm, or instead take his note as a confirmation of the devious intent of U.S. screenwriters and the shows and films they produce. Given the opacity of the Chinese government, it isn’t even clear that Mr. Lorre’s show was taken down due to concern about the content within the show.

Instead, what could be happening is a simple land grab by state broadcaster China Central Television, or CCTV. Earlier this month, a company formerly associated with Chinese state-run broadcaster China Radio International said on its website it had been hired by CCTV to create a cleaned up translation of “The Big Bang Theory.”

That could mean that the reason for “The Big Bang Theory” coming down is more commercial than political, as CCTV may simply be using its political connections to ensure it gets the benefits of being the only one to broadcast the massively popular show.

Mr. Lorre didn’t respond to a request for comment. A spokesman for Warner Brothers, which produces the show, declined to comment.

Like his show, Mr. Lorre’s message was a big hit online in China, with many on the Weibo social-media service reposting an image of the text with a translation beneath. Also like his show, the message was blocked by authorities, though users linked to websites with the message and continued to comment on it.

Art Basel Lights Up Hong Kong

    

The WSJ reports"the old adage goes something like this: The best thing about Kowloon is the view of Hong Kong, a smug observation about the urban peninsula that enjoys panoramic views of Hong Kong island’s dramatic skyline.

But for several days this month, the opposite view across Victoria Harbour will be grabbing the attention. Two artists are taking over major landmark buildings in Kowloon, using them as backdrops for large-scale light installations".

"The first began Thursday with British artist Tracy Emin’s work “My Heart Is With You Always” emblazoning the 30-story tower of the Peninsula Hotel, which is sponsoring the piece. Inspired by her series of works rendering her own handwriting in neon, the installation is splashing the title’s words with laser lights on the building for 10 days from 7 p.m. to midnight.

And next week, German artist Carsten Nicolai, whose specialty is light and sound installations, will take control of the International Commerce Centre, the city’s tallest building. About two kilometers from the Peninsula in West Kowloon, it is visible from most points around the harbor. Mr. Nicolai’s work, commissioned by Art Basel Hong Kong, will make use of the lighted facade of the 118-story, 490-meter building—commonly called the ICC—during next week’s fair".

In an interview from his Berlin studio, Mr. Nicolai called the ICC the city’s “most striking and impressive tower.”

While the Peninsula sought out Ms. Emin, Mr. Nicolai and the Art Basel team pitched their art idea to the ICC’s management (the building is owned by Sun Hung Kai Properties ), who proved keen on the idea of surrendering control of the lights that line the tower’s length. Typically, they are programmed with seasonal displays and text to promote the observation deck.

Mr. Nicolai’s installation, “alpha pulse,” will flash for two hours over three nights, starting May 15. Rather than installing his own lights, the artist said he will simply reprogram the existing ones to pulse rhythmically. A student of the effect of frequencies on humans, Mr. Nicolai said the lights are programmed to pulse at a low frequency to elicit “more relaxing stimulations” among viewers.

The artist’s trademark is minimalist plays of light and sound. To accompany his Hong Kong installation, he designed a phone app that acts as the soundtrack. It will allow viewers to synchronize the pulsing lights with Mr. Nicolai’s hourlong electronic track simply by holding their phones up toward the tower. (The app works via the camera.)

Mr. Nicolai said he has never worked with a screen as large as the ICC, but the building—designed by American architecture firm Kohn Pederson Fox—didn’t pose problems. “The biggest challenge was the synchronicity with the sound and light,” he said. “The app was quite technical. We had a long time to brainstorm.”

Magnus Renfrew, the director of Art Basel Hong Kong, said he long thought the tower, with its rectangular face, would be an ideal canvas and targeted Mr. Nicolai as the artist for the gig. “We were looking to use the tower as a platform,” Mr. Renfrew said. “Carsten jumped out as the person for the job.”

Literary Leaders: Why China’s President Is So Fond of Dropping Confucius

        The WSJ reports,"on Thursday, the overseas edition of the People’s Daily devoted itself to cataloging the Chinese leader’s literary references, running a full-page spread dedicated to explaining 13 allusions spanning the later part of Mr. Xi’s career. The aim, it said, was to explain the Chinese leader’s thoughts on “the question of cultivating morality among leading cadres.”

Some analysts have interpreted Mr. Xi’s embrace of the classics as a move akin to Churchill’s borrowing from “Henry V” in his World War II speeches: an effort to use pride in a venerable cultural tradition to rally the nation at a time of crisis.

China is not facing war, but Mr. Xi and other Chinese leaders have portrayed the Communist Party as facing a raft of daunting challenges: endemic corruption, hostility abroad and an exceedingly tricky economic transition opposed by entrenched special interests. Having long ago traded in Marxism for the market, analysts say, the party is now trying to shore up its legitimacy by associating itself with a Confucian tradition it once lambasted as feudal and backwards".

"Some of Mr. Xi’s references cited by the People’s Daily have more obvious resonances with today’s politics than others.

One quote Mr. Xi used from the Confucian “Book of Rites” in a 2007 essay speaks directly to his current efforts to clean up the behavior of China’s wayward bureaucrats: “Nothing is more visible than what is hidden, and nothing is more obvious than what is minute. Therefore a gentleman is careful of himself even when alone.”

In other instances, however, Mr. Xi’s allusions are less pointed, instead evoking an inchoate political anxiety. Such was the case during a 2013 visit to the Central Party School, when he quoted a line from the “Book of Songs,” another Confucian classic: “In fear and trembling, as if walking on thin ice, as if approaching a deep abyss.

Mr. Xi is by no means the first Chinese leader to weave classical literature into his essays and speeches. Nor is he the first to attempt to leaven the Communist Party’s rhetoric with a sprinkling of Confucianism. Mr. Xi’s predecessor Hu Jintao similarly borrowed from Confucius when he introduced the notion of a “harmonious society” more than a decade ago, notes Sam Crane, a professor of Asian Studies at Williams College. But Mr. Xi, Mr. Crane says, “is being more explicit and direct in his classicism.”

The People’s Daily spread, he adds, is “a rather obvious attempt to bolster [Xi’s] image as a proper gentleman in old Confucian terms: well read, morally upright and finding moral inspiration in the classic texts.”

In a country where even mundane conversations are often shot through with pithy aphorisms taken from classical literature, it makes sense for Mr. Xi show off his sophistication. Yet there could be some danger in reviving the classical texts, which are often vague, shot through with allegory and open to a wide range of interpretations.

Take, for example, this famous quote from Confucius’ Analects that appears in an essay by Mr. Xi on poverty alleviation: “It’s easier to rob an army of its general than it is to rob a common man of his purpose and will.”

According the People’s Daily, Mr. Xi intention in evoking the passage was to encourage officials to cultivate the willpower necessary to “push ahead in the face of innumerable challenges.” But Mr. Crane notes that it might be read differently, particularly in light of the upcoming 25th anniversary of the crackdown on student protesters in Tiananmen Square".

“We should not assume that the state is the articulator of those purposes and will,” he says. “And, indeed, 25 years ago there was a rather massive divergence in the expression of popular purposes and state power.”

Corn Futures Slump as USDA Projects Bigger Crop, Supplies

       The WSJ reports,"corn prices fell Friday after the U.S. Department of Agriculture forecast a record crop this autumn and said global supplies next year would be higher than analysts’ expectations.

Wheat prices also declined, while soybean futures rose.

Farmers will harvest 13.935 billion bushels of corn this year, slightly higher than last year’s record crop, the government estimated in a closely watched monthly supply-and-demand report. The forecast assumes that weather will be normal this summer in the Farm Belt, the agency said.

U.S. corn stockpiles will swell to 1.726 billion bushels before the harvest in 2015, higher than analysts had expected, the USDA said. Global stockpiles in the 2014-15 season will jump 8% to 181.7 million metric tons, the government said, reflecting, in part, big crops this year in Ukraine and Brazil.

Corn futures tumbled 40% last year as U.S. growers produced the biggest crop in history only one year after severe drought battered the Midwest and pushed prices to records. The downdraft in corn prices will lead to lower plantings of the grain this spring than last year, the USDA has said. But the government projected Friday that lower seedings would be offset by higher average yields, resulting in a larger crop overall.

Analysts said they were surprised by the higher corn-output estimate because growers are expected to plant 4 million fewer acres of the grain than they did last year.

“These are big, bearish numbers” for the corn market, said Brian Hoops, president of futures brokerage Midwest Market Solutions in Springfield, Mo. However, he said, it is early in the season and “we still have to go out and produce the crop.”

Corn futures for July delivery, the most actively traded contract, fell 7 cents, or 1.4%, to $5.09 ½ per bushel at the Chicago Board of Trade. May futures, the front-month contract, dropped 6 ½ cents, or 1.3%, to $5.06 ¾ a bushel.

The USDA estimated that the average corn yield this autumn will rise to 165.3 bushels per acre, up 6.5 bushels from last year".

Nickel Prices Close at Two-Year High

      The WSJ reports,"nickel prices soared above $20,000 a metric ton for the first time in over two years as worries about reduced supply bolstered investor appetite Friday for the industrial metal.

Nickel for three-month delivery on the London Metal Exchange traded as high as $20,500 a ton, closing up 2.6% at $19,905 a ton. Prices are up 43% this year and ended the week at a two-year high".

"Nickel’s latest surge came after Vale SA suspended production at its Goro nickel processing plant and mine in New Caledonia due to an acid leak that reached a nearby river. The spill prompted an intervention by local authorities, who described the incident as “serious” and called for “emergency” measures. Vale, which is the world’s No. 2 nickel producer, is waiting to hear from the local government before it can restart operations", a spokeswoman said late Thursday.

Vale’s Goro mine doesn’t account for a significant slice of global production, said Leon Westgate, analyst with Standard Bank in London. Goro is capable of producing 60,000 metric tons of nickel, versus about 2 million tons of global output.

However, the shutdown comes after Indonesia, the world’s largest producer of the metal, banned exports of nickel ore in January with the aim of germinating a domestic metals refining industry. Metals traders have also worried that international trade sanctions against Russia, the world’s second-largest nickel producer, could further restrict supply of the key ingredient in stainless steel.

Indonesia, which accounts for 28% of global nickel supply, has surprised some traders with its firm stance on the export ban. Many had expected authorities to relent as reduced export revenues hurt Indonesia’s economy.

Indonesia’s processed nickel production is likely to grow roughly tenfold over the next five years to 260,000 metric tons by 2018, from about 21,000 tons in 2013, as it attracts investment in nickel processing plants, said David Wilson, director of metals research and strategy with Citigroup.

But that won’t help supplies in the short term, and will lead to higher prices when even a small amount of production goes down elsewhere, traders said.

WSJ: Petrobras Profit Falls 30% on Employee Buyout Charge

09/05/2014

SÃO PAULO—Brazil’s Petroleo Brasileiro SA said Friday profit declined in the first quarter as it took a one-time charge for an early-retirement incentive program.

Net profit fell 30% to 5.39 billion Brazilian reais ($2.43 billion) in the quarter from the same period a year earlier, the third consecutive decline. The early-retirement program slashed profit for the quarter by 1.6 billion Brazilian reais, Chief Executive Graça Foster said in a letter to shareholders.

Petrobras, as the company is known, has been struggling to cut costs and boost profit. The heavily indebted company has been borrowing to fund a massive investment program to develop Brazil’s offshore oil fields while losing money on fuel sales because of a government mandate to sell gasoline and diesel fuel at subsidized prices.

Brazil’s refineries don’t have the production capacity to meet demand for those fuels, forcing Petrobras to buy supplies abroad and resell at home at prices controlled by the government, which is trying to keep inflation under control.

The company’s cash flow should improve in coming months because of rising production, less dependence on imported fuels and gradual increases to fuel prices, Ms. Foster said in the  letter.

Ms. Foster pointed out that the company still has easy access to capital markets and raised a total of 53.9 billion Brazilian reais in the first quarter, mostly through bond sales in Europe and the U.S. Petrobras ended the quarter with 78.5 billion Brazilian reais in cash and cash equivalents, giving it enough cash to finance the company’s investments in 2014.

Petrobras said earlier this week that it cut its workforce by 12.4% through a voluntary separation program launched in January to save costs. The company, which bought out 8,298 employees, expects to save at least 13 billion Brazilian reais in the 2014-18 period thanks to the program.

Singapore Airlines will add more premium-economy cabins

WSJ: Could Pornography Crackdown Make China's Momo IPO a No-No?

        The WSJ reports,"Alibaba Group Holdings’ planned multibillion-dollar IPO in the U.S. should be a hot deal, say investors, as long as the price is right. The possible U.S. IPO of a Chinese dating and chat app designer in which Alibaba has invested may also be hot, but in a different way.

Beijing Momo Technology Co., whose Momo app resembles the U.S.’s Tinder in helping users find prospective dates and friends located close to them, is planning a U.S. IPO this year, according to people familiar with the matter. A recent round of private fundraising valued the company at $2 billion, people familiar with the matter said.

The app, launched in 2011, claims nearly 120 million registered users, according to its website".

"But an ongoing Chinese government campaign against sexual content online, which has helped slash stock prices for sanctioned Chinese internet firms such as Sina Corp., means Momo’s IPO would face headwinds.

The company itself is eager to shed its reputation as a hormonal hotbed. A spokeswoman acknowledged in an email that “an extremely small number of sex worker gangs” have used Momo to solicit customers. However, Momo “is determined to resist the use of the Internet to create and disseminate pornographic content” using “the strictest methods in the industry.”

“We sincerely welcome the 2014 anti-pornography campaign,” the spokeswoman wrote. “This is not just talk; our future and our commercial interests are totally incompatible with lewd and sexual content.”

A team of Momo employees reviewing content will expand to around 100 people by the end of this year from its current headcount of about 60, and the company is seeking to filter and censor user profiles containing words like “club,” “hotel” and “health protection,” a euphemism often used to indicate sex services, from user profiles, according to the spokeswoman.

Despite Momo’s vigilant stance–or perhaps because of it–the company hasn’t faced anything approaching the state media and regulatory censure that web companies like Sohu.com Inc. or Sina have. Sina was stripped of two online publication and distribution licenses for hosting lewd articles and videos last month.

But the uncertainly cast by the government anti-pornography campaign could still give investors pause".

Source: Xinhua

And The Winner Of TechCrunch Disrupt NY 2014 Is… Vurb

Vurb is a web and mobile contextual search engine. When you type a query in Vurb, you get everything you need without having to leave the search engine. The company is rolling out search for Places, Movies, and Media. It will soon launch search for add People, Startups, and others. For example, if you search for a film, you get a trailer, showtimes, reviews, a link to watch the movie on Netflix, the IMDb score and more.

Fred Wilson made some heated comments on stage. “This problem is a bitch, you won’t solve it, and it will kill you,” he said. But it looks like the company managed to convince the other judges.
"Search is outdated. Google steers you to right section of the library, but doesn’t answer your question or compile that answer with others to help you make a decision. Luckily, today Vurb is launching its reinvention of search results in the form of a web and mobilecontextual search engine. Rather than forcing you to do multiple searches in different tabs, Vurb collects all the relevant info on one page and preserves your path in a saveable, sharable stream.

Vurb is rolling out search for Places, Movies, and Media today, but soon plans to add People, Startups, and many more verticals. The best way to convey everything Vurb can do is to just walk you through a chain of searches, so let’s take a look at trying to plan a night out.

SOurce: TechCrunch

Indonesia will let kids study online instead

While there are a lot of concerns about Indonesia’s IT teaching in schools, today there’s some good news about the Indonesian government embracing technology in the public education system. Starting from the next school year in July, five high schools in the country will implement a full online learning program. The objective of this new program is to try stop so many teenagers dropping out of Indonesia’s upper high school system. Over five million middle and high school graduates do not continue their education every year. The new program means that some students can get their high school degree without ever setting foot on campus. Indonesian schools face many issues in getting students to continue their education, due to things like financial problems, long distances between school and home, or because of a lack of parental support. The government will offer a number of incentives to students participating in the new program, such as a scholarship, pocket money, a tablet, and a laptop. The government will also put operational money into the participating schools.

At the moment, authorities have only released details about the new program as it relates to one school, SMA Negeri 1 Kepanjen. The other four schools are expected to be implementing their own online programs in similar ways. SMA Negeri 1 Kepanjen wil receive IDR 400 million (US$35,000) for operational costs and IDR 200 million (US$17,500) to build infrastructure to support online learning, such as a place where the program’s students could come and learn. That school is allocating scholarships and facilities to 200 students, but it’s open to receive 800 more students who are willing to pay for the program. The SMA Negeri 1 Kepanjen school has prepared 51 tutors for the new program. The school headmaster says that while most of the learning process takes place online, there is still the likelihood that students need to meet tutors from time to time. As with normal, classroom-bound students, there will be regular exams each semester for the online students – and they’ll even have to sit the nationals. The online graduates will receive certification equivalent to regular graduating students. It’ll be for the schools to make sure the students really spend time studying in this new system. The headmaster says that they will record and monitor all online learning activities. Students who are slacking will be kicked out of the program and substituted with somebody else.

Source: TECHINASIA

Twitter adds photo sharing

"Oh Twitter. Time was when you championed the written word. And more than that; the mot juste, as the French say. Papa Hemingway would have been proud of your focus on 140 carefully chosen characters.

Not any more. Not now your stock price is tanking. Now it’s photos you are pinning your hopes on – since photo-sharing continues eating the digital services world.

Facebook is predominantly a place where people share photos now. Instagram always was a photo-focused community. Users of the messaging service WhatsApp, which Facebook also now owns, share more than 600 million photos per day.

And now Twitter is now sending email blasts to its users with the subject line urge to: “Share your best photos on Twitter” — and describing its offering in  broad-brush strokes as being “beyond words”.

It’s not that the ability to share photos on Twitter is new of course, but this initiative is about educating users what Twitter is for. So basically Twitter is shouting out that it’s FOR all the SAME THINGS you’re already doing on Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp.

Emphasizing its photo sharing (and messaging) abilities is one way for Twitter to try to ignite a more mainstream user-base, since picture-based communications are such an established digital habit now. Twitter forcing media previews on web users last October was an earlier step in this strategy".

Source: TechCrunch

Alibaba-backed Cainiao Becomes Second Largest Shareholder of Logistics Platform KXTX

Alibaba is the biggest share holder, holding 43% of it with 2.15 billion yuan in investment, and Yintai takes 32%, as reported. Fosun and Forchn each take 10%; the five delivery companies each take 1%.

Cainiao Network Technology has completed investment in logistics platform KXTX, becoming the second-biggest shareholder of the latter. This is the first external investment launched by Cainiao Network since its establishment one year ago. Both sides confirmed the investment, but declined to reveal the details. It is reported that the investment was several hundreds of millions yuan.

Cainiao has purchased large numbers of land plots in cities of Tianjin, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Wuhan Chengdu and Jinhua for warehouse. Cainiao plans to invest overall 300 billion yuan ($48 billion) in establishing central warehouses in nine core cities and transit ones in over 20 cities, according to plan of Jack Ma.

KXTX is a supply chain and logistics platform focused on road transportation. It has logistic centers in 11 cities countrywide, including Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Hangzhou, Nanjing, Wuhan, etc. The company claimed that more than 1,000 medium and small logistics companies have been integrated in its platform.

Under the deal, Cainiao and KXTX will open logistic parks and transit centers to each other, saving costs in establishing transit hubs in the same cities. The parcels generated from Tmall is expected to be delivered by KXTX in the future.

Logistics companies benefited from the expansion of e-commerce market. The daily parcels generated from Taobao and Tmall are over 12 million. At peak, more than 80 million parcels were generated within 13 hours on the annual promotion day of 11th November, 2013.

Source: TechNode

Petrobras Último poço exploratório da Cessão Onerosa comprova a existência do volume contratado de 5 bilhões de barris

09.05.2014
A Petrobras informa que concluiu a perfuração do último poço exploratório em áreas previstas no contrato de Cessão Onerosa, no pré-sal da Bacia de Santos.

O poço 4-BRSA1226-RJS (4-RJS-728), o terceiro perfurado no bloco denominado Entorno de Iara, comprovou a descoberta de petróleo de boa qualidade nos reservatórios do pré-sal.

Conhecido como Entorno de Iara 3, o poço localiza-se em profundidade de água de 2.244 metros, a cerca de 241 km da costa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro.

O poço comprovou a descoberta de petróleo de boa qualidade (27º API) em reservatórios carbonáticos de excelente qualidade, situados logo abaixo da camada de sal, a partir da profundidade de 5.548 metros, e atingiu a profundidade final de 5.875 metros.

Com a conclusão desse poço, a Petrobras cumpriu as atividades de perfuração exploratória previstas no Plano Exploratório Obrigatório (PEO). Foram perfurados 16 poços exploratórios distribuídos nas seis áreas da Cessão Onerosa com índice de sucesso de 100%.

Os dados obtidos até o momento já permitem comprovar a existência da totalidade do volume contratado pela Petrobras com a União, que é de 5 bilhões de barris de óleo equivalente (boe).

Contrato de Cessão Onerosa

No final do ano passado, a companhia já havia declarado a comercialidade de parte dos volumes contratados, referentes à área de Franco (atual campo de Búzios) com 3,058 bilhões de boe e à área de sul de Tupi (atual campo Sul de Lula) com 128 milhões de boe.

Os demais volumes que completam o total de 5 bilhões de boe são provenientes de áreas da Cessão Onerosa que terão a suas declarações de comercialidade encaminhadas à Agência Nacional de Petróleo, Gás Natural e Biocombustíveis (ANP) até o final de 2014.

LATAM AIRLINES MONTHLY STATISTICS FOR APRIL 2014

Bloomberg:Giant Alibaba Sale Grew Out of ’80s IPO Chaos and a Guy From Goldman

"In 1984, Eric Dobkin was working for Goldman Sachs Group Inc., selling large blocks of stocks to fund managers, when he was handed an assignment: The bank ranked ninth in equity underwriting. Fix it.

Dobkin, then 41, spent a few sleepless nights mulling the problem. At the time, initial public offerings were a scattered affair, as thousands of regional brokers hawked the paper to retail investors.

It finally hit him one morning in the shower, he said. If Goldman Sachs could sell equities to institutions, it could surely sell more initial offerings to them as well. Thus was born Wall Street’s new model for IPOs, earning Dobkin credit as the father of the modern-day way companies raise capital. By tapping money managers like Fidelity Investments, the change vastly broadened the pool of investors, while enhancing banks’ role as middlemen in pricing and stock allocation.

“I almost kick myself -- it became too obvious,” Dobkin, now 71, said in a rare interview at Goldman Sachs’s Manhattan headquarters. The new model “created a long-term relationship between companies and investors that really was the secret sauce of what this turned out to be.”

Almost 30 years later, IPOs are soaring -- topped by Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.’s proposed share sale -- revealing the transformation that has taken place since 1985. Companies globally raised $150 billion last year, up from $1.3 billion in 1980, adjusted for inflation, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Alibaba’s IPO, expected to raise at least another $20 billion, shows how they’ve become global affairs that depend on the deep pockets of professional money managers and pension funds".

Source: Bloomberg

Completion of the international book-building and proposed pricing for the €2.5bn capital increase of NBG

Press release

Completion of the international book-building and proposed pricing for the €2.5bn capital increase of National Bank of Greece

Further to the launch of international book-building on 6 May 2014 and the public announcement on 16 April 2014 of the calling of an Extraordinary General Meeting scheduled for 10 May 2014 (“EGM”) to resolve on a share capital increase through a non pre-emptive issue of new ordinary shares (the “Equity Issue”), National Bank of Greece (“NBG” or the “Bank”) announces the successful completion of the book-building process outside of Greece to institutional and other eligible investors by way of a private placement. The Bank has placed and intends to issue 1,136,363,637 new ordinary shares, at a price of €2.20 per share, for total gross proceeds of €2,500 million. The subscription price of €2.20 per share corresponds to approximately 122% of the Bank’s tangible shareholders’ equity per share as at 31 December 2013, as adjusted for the Equity Issue. The subscription price represents a 14.7% discount to the closing price of €2.58 on the Athens Exchange on 8 May 2014.

The Equity Issue and its specific terms are subject to approval by the shareholders of the Bank.

The New Shares are expected to be listed and traded on the Athens Exchange by 20 May 2014.

Incorporating the capital actions of €1.04bn approved by the Bank of Greece and the Equity Issue, NBG would have a pro forma adjusted Core Tier 1 ratio of 18.2% and a pro forma EBA Basel III Common Equity Tier 1 ratio of 11.7% (based on CRD IV) as at 31 December 2013.

The Equity Issue presents the following additional strategic benefits for NBG:

·    Increases NBG’s private shareholder base by increasing its free float from 16% to 43%, representing a first and decisive step towards expanded private ownership;

·    Improves funding capacity, facilitating NBG’s access to debt markets on more favorable terms;

·    Reinforces NBG’s position in supporting the recovery of the Greek economy, and

·    Provides further capital flexibility, including the option to repay the €1.35bn of Greek Preference shares, when appropriate (subject to regulatory approval).

Athens, 9 May 2014

  of National Bank of Greece

Further to the launch of international book-building on 6 May 2014 and the public announcement on 16 April 2014 of the calling of an Extraordinary General Meeting scheduled for 10 May 2014 (“EGM”) to resolve on a share capital increase through a non pre-emptive issue of new ordinary shares (the “Equity Issue”), National Bank of Greece (“NBG” or the “Bank”) announces the successful completion of the book-building process outside of Greece to institutional and other eligible investors by way of a private placement. The Bank has placed and intends to issue 1,136,363,637 new ordinary shares, at a price of €2.20 per share, for total gross proceeds of €2,500 million. The subscription price of €2.20 per share corresponds to approximately 122% of the Bank’s tangible shareholders’ equity per share as at 31 December 2013, as adjusted for the Equity Issue. The subscription price represents a 14.7% discount to the closing price of €2.58 on the Athens Exchange on 8 May 2014.

The Equity Issue and its specific terms are subject to approval by the shareholders of the Bank.

The New Shares are expected to be listed and traded on the Athens Exchange by 20 May 2014.

Incorporating the capital actions of €1.04bn approved by the Bank of Greece and the Equity Issue, NBG would have a pro forma adjusted Core Tier 1 ratio of 18.2% and a pro forma EBA Basel III Common Equity Tier 1 ratio of 11.7% (based on CRD IV) as at 31 December 2013.

The Equity Issue presents the following additional strategic benefits for NBG:

·    Increases NBG’s private shareholder base by increasing its free float from 16% to 43%, representing a first and decisive step towards expanded private ownership;

·    Improves funding capacity, facilitating NBG’s access to debt markets on more favorable terms;

·    Reinforces NBG’s position in supporting the recovery of the Greek economy, and

·    Provides further capital flexibility, including the option to repay the €1.35bn of Greek Preference shares, when appropriate (subject to regulatory approval).

Athens, 9 May 2014

WSJ: Brazil’s Central Bank Doesn’t Think Helping the Poor Will Drive Up Inflation

       the WSJ reports,"some Brazilians have been wondering whether helping the poor could stoke an already irked beast: inflation.

The central bank seems to think the answer is no.

Brazil’s President, Dilma Rousseff, announced last month that a key income-distribution program will increase by 10% the monthly payments it grants to the extremely poor.

The program, known as Bolsa Familia, is prized by advocates for reducing Brazil’s infamous social gap and for bringing millions out of poverty and into a new consumer class".

"But critics say it creates new demand in the economy, which could fuel inflation. The increase in the monthly stipend was quickly seen as a possible reason for the central bank to step up borrowing costs, right when Brazilian consumers were hoping for a break".

“Our hypothesis is that the government’s fiscal performance will be neutral regarding its impact on prices,” central bank Economy Director Carlos Hamilton Araújo said Thursday, meaning that public spending is unlikely to get in the way of fighting inflation this year.

Mr. Araújo avoided any comments specifically about Bolsa Familia. He said his remarks were about fiscal policy overall, in a possible nod to government promises that any increase in public spending will be matched by either tax increases or cost cuts, so that fiscal targets are met.

His comments come at a time when most analysts expect the central bank to stop raising its basic interest rate known as Selic