Investors(shrug) and companies(act) on higher interest rates

According to an article published today in the Wall Street Journal:"The  S&P 500 has risen every day in September and sits only 1.2% off record highs. Yet the rally comes amid the sharp rise in the benchmark 10-year Treasury yield over the past several months. Last week it flirted with 3%, a level not seen in more than two years. On Wednesday the 10-year note yielded 2.920%.
Normally rising rates aren’t an issue for stocks until the 10-year yield gets above 5%,  which tends to coincide with a pickup in inflation.“But the pace at which yields head higher matters at any level,” Mr. Kleintop Chief market strategist at LPL Financial said in a note to clients earlier this week.

The good news: Mr. Kleintop forecasts the recent pickup in rates could be due for a pause, especially as Treasury yields shift to levels that typically coincide with the state of the economy.

For instance, third-quarter GDP is tracking in the range of 1.5% to 2.0%, while inflation is running between 1% and 1.5%. Combine both metrics and the recent rise in yields “places it right in the middle of the range of the ‘normal’ level for the 10-year Treasury, despite the effects of the Federal Reserve’s soon to be wound down bond-buying program,” Mr. Kleintop said.                               As long as interest rates don’t spike significantly from current levels, there’s little reason to think the good times in the stock market won’t continue.

After years of efforts to keep interest rates near zero to help the struggling economy, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke in May telegraphed that the days of cheap and easy long-term credit were potentially numbered. As a result, yields on 10-year Treasury bonds—a benchmark used to set other interest rates—have shot up to 2.92% from 1.63% in four months.

A lot of companies have jumped at the chance to refinance high-interest bonds and other types of loans while the going is still good. So far this year, 54% of leveraged loans made to companies have been used to refinance debt, according to S&P Capital IQ's Leveraged Commentary & Data unit. That's up from 47% in the year-ago period.
Even companies that haven't waded into debt markets in years are jumping in now. Last week, Starbucks Corp. sold $750 million of bonds, its first bond sale in six years. The 10-year bonds carried interest of 3.85%, much lower than the 6.25% the coffee retailer paid on similar bonds it sold in 2007.
At the same time, however, higher rates are also affecting foreign-currency exchange rates in several countries, including India and Brazil. As investors shift their bond holdings to safer and higher-yielding U.S. government debt, the value of the dollar is strengthening against trading partners. 
U.S. companies exporting to Brazil and Japan and India have been hurt by 13% to 25% declines in the value of the local currencies relative to the dollar. As prices of imported goods in those countries rise, that infects the economy with inflation".

Government Bonds Yields

Government Bonds

                                                                                          Price          Yield
                                                                                         Change          %

U.S. 2 Year			-1/32	0.463
U.S. 5 Year			-3/32	1.741
U.S. 10 Year			-7/32	2.938
U.S. 30 Year			-9/32	3.869
Germany 2 Year			0/32	0.231
Germany 10 Year			0/32	1.953
Italy 2 Year			0/32	2.104
Italy 10 Year			0/32	4.526
Japan 2 Year			0/32	0.118
Japan 10 Year			-1/32	0.731
Spain 2 Year			0/32	1.724
Spain 10 Year			0/32	4.460
U.K. 2 Year			0/32	0.448
U.K. 10 Year			0/32	2.770

Alibaba’s Running Out of Time for 2013 Hong Kong IPO

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. is running out of time if it wants to list in Hong Kong this year.
Hong Kong’s amended listing rules, which take effect Oct. 1, stipulate that IPO candidates must appoint sponsor banks at least two months before submitting listing applications to the bourse operator. Alibaba said it hasn’t appointed a sponsor bank.

Source: WSJ

Alibaba Braces for Mobile Devices

In an article published in the Wall Street Journal Alibaba braces for mobile devices ,
 the Chinese e-commerce giant faces a major challenge: how to cash in on the mobile Internet.
Alibaba's two online marketplaces, Taobao and Tmall, together handle more total dollar transactions than any e-commerce platform including Amazon and eBay.
But more than 90% of those transactions come from PCs. As Chinese consumers increasingly use mobile devices for all kinds of online activities, Alibaba is trying to figure out how to defend its No. 1 position in China's rapidly growing e-commerce market.
Chinese Internet giants Tencent Holdings Inc. and Baidu Inc.  are muscling in to strengthen their own e-commerce and mobile capabilities. These companies all realize that they can no longer specialize in one area, such as e-commerce, social networking or search, as they compete for the limited time and attention of smartphone users.
"In the future, there will be more competition from all areas of the Internet," said Alibaba Chief Executive Jonathan Lu.

Unlike Amazon, Alibaba doesn't sell products but makes money through advertising and other services it offers to millions of merchants using its marketplaces.

To better prepare for the rise of the mobile Internet, Alibaba has been trying to gain control over key mobile services and technologies—be it mapping, social media or operating systems—to lure smartphone users to its marketplaces. It has spent about $1 billion in the past several months to buy stakes in an array of services".

How quickly Alibaba adapts to the shift will be crucial in the next phase of its growth. The company is preparing for an IPO that could happen as early as this year and value the company at $70 billion or more.

Syria applies to join global poison gas ban

Syria applied on Thursday to sign up to the global ban on chemical weapons, as U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov discussed a Russian plan under which Damascus would give up its arsenal of poison gas.
The United Nations said it had received Syria's application to join the Chemical Weapons Convention, shortly after President Bashar al-Assad promised to deliver it within days. Washington immediately warned Syria against stalling tactics to avoid military strikes.

As he began talks in Geneva with Lavrov, Kerry said force might still be needed against Syria if diplomacy over Assad's chemical weapons stockpile fails.

"President Obama has made clear that should diplomacy fail force might be necessary to deter and degrade Assad's capacity to deliver these weapons," Kerry said.

"Expectations are high. They are high for the United States perhaps even more sides for Russia to deliver on the promise of this moment. This is not a game and I said that to my friend Sergei when we talked about it initially," Kerry said.

Source: Reuters

Apple Gets iPhone License for China Mobile Network

 In an article published today in the Wall Street Journal writing about the introduction in China, of its new products iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C, it says:
"Apple Inc on Wednesday hosted its first-ever iPhone product introduction in Beijing and gained approval to offer the device with China's largest carrier, indications of how important the world's largest smartphone market has become for the Cupertino, Calif., company.
But critics were disappointed by the minimal difference in price for the iPhone 5C—the less expensive of the two phones Apple unveiled—signaling that Apple will continue to target the top end of the Chinese market. While that means Apple likely will retain its profit margins here, analysts worried it would come at the expense of gaining ground in a huge market that is shifting toward less-expensive phones.
Priced at 4,488 yuan (US$733) in China for the unsubsidized, 16-gigabyte version, the iPhone 5C is unlikely to attract customers beyond the affluent in China's largest cities. Apple has maintained a strong share of the market for high-end smartphones in China, but its portion of the broader market has dropped as consumers have bought less-expensive devices from Chinese companies and South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co..
China Mobile has more than 700 million users, but its proprietary Chinese standard has prevented the company from offering the iPhone".

Adair Turner:The Failure of Free-Market Finance Part II

"Deleveraging of the private households explains the long way to recovery of the 2008-9 economic recession,accumulated debts have a powerful depressive effect, because over-leveraged businesses and consumers cut investment and consumption in an attempt to pay down their debts. Japan’s lost decades after 1990 were the direct and inevitable consequence of the excessive leverage built up in the 1980’s.

Faced with depressed private investment and consumption, rising fiscal deficits can play a useful role, offsetting the deflationary effects. But that simply shifts leverage to the public sector, with any reduction in the ratio of private debt to GDP more than matched by an increase in the public-debt ratio

Private leverage levels, as much as the public-debt burden, must therefore be treated as crucial economic variables. Ignoring them before the crisis was a profound failure of economic science and policy, one for which many countries’ citizens have suffered dearly.

Two questions follow. The first is how to navigate out of the current overhang of both private and public debt. There are no easy options. Paying down private and public debt simultaneously depresses growth. Rapid fiscal consolidation thus can be self-defeating. But offsetting fiscal austerity with ultra-easy monetary policies risks 
fueling a resurgence of private leverage in advanced economies and already has produced the dangerous spillover of rising leverage in emerging economies.

Both realism and imaginative policy are required. It is obvious that Greece cannot pay back all of its debt. But it should also be obvious that Japan will never be able to generate a primary fiscal surplus large enough to repay its government debt in the normal sense of the word “repay.” Some combination of debt restructuring and permanent debt monetization.
The second question is how to constrain leveraged growth in the future. Fixing the “too big to fail” problem is certainly important, but the direct taxpayer costs of bank rescues were small change compared to the damage wreaked by the financial crisis. And a banking system that never received a taxpayer subsidy could still support excessive private-sector leverage.


What is required is a wide-ranging policy response that combines more powerful countercyclical capital tools than currently planned under Basel 3, the restoration of quantitative reserve requirements to advanced-country central banks’ policy toolkits, and direct borrower constraints, such as maximum loan-to-income or loan-to-value limits, in residential and commercial real-estate lending".

Source:Adair Turner

Environmental Protection Agency Plan to Curb New Coal-Fired Power Plants

According to an article published today in the Wall Street Journal:

"The Obama administration plans to block the construction of new coal-fired power plants unless they are built with novel and expensive technology to capture greenhouse-gas emissions, according to people familiar with a draft proposal.

The administration's rule on emissions from new power plants, a long-awaited measure that is one of the capstones of the administration's climate-change agenda, is set to be formally proposed by the end of next week. While the new rule isn't final yet and is likely to face a legal challenge, it would be another blow to a coal industry already buffeted by a bonanza of cheap natural gas and increasing regulation.

The Environmental Protection Agency first proposed a stringent standard for coal-fired plants last year, prompting an election-year debate about whether President Barack Obama was waging what Republicans called a "war on coal." Mr. Obama has said he supports clean-coal technology but also sees an urgent need to tackle the release of greenhouse gases blamed for climate change. Power-plant emissions account for about a third of U.S. greenhouse-gas emissions".

The Failure of Free-Market Finance Part 1

Five years after the collapse of the US investment bank Lehman Brothers, the world has still not addressed the fundamental cause of the subsequent financial crisis – an excess of debt. And that is why economic recovery has progressed much more slowly than anyone expected (in some countries, it has not come at all).
Most economists, central bankers, and regulators not only failed to foresee the crisis, but also believed that financial stability was assured so long as inflation was low and stable. And, once the immediate crisis had been contained, we failed to foresee how painful its consequences would be.
Official forecasts in the spring of 2009 anticipated neither a slow recovery nor that the initial crisis, which was essentially confined to the United States and the United Kingdom, would soon fuel a knock-on crisis in the eurozone. And market forces did not come close to predicting near-zero interest rates for five years (and countin
One reason for this lack of foresight was uncritical admiration of financial innovation(derivatives of mortgage loans); another was the inherently flawed structure of the eurozone. But the fundamental reason was the failure to understand that high debt burdens, relentlessly rising for several decades – in the private sector even more than in the public sector – were a major threat to economic stability.

In 1960, UK household debt amounted to less than 15% of GDP; by 2008, the ratio was over 90%. In the US, total private credit grew from around 70% of GDP in 1945 to well over 200% in 2008. As long as the debt was in the private sector, most policymakers assumed that its impact was either neutral or benign.

Debt contracts have important implications for economic stability. They are often created in excess, because in the upswing of economic cycles, risky loans look risk-free. And, once created, they introduce the rigidities of default and bankruptcy processes, with their potential for fire sales and business disruptions.
Moreover, debt can drive cycles of over-investment, as described by Friedrich von Hayek. The Irish and Spanish property booms are prime examples of this

When times are good, rising leverage can make underlying problems seem to disappear. 

But in the post-crisis downswing, accumulated debts have a powerful depressive effect, because over-leveraged businesses and consumers cut investment and consumption in an attempt to pay down their debts. Japan’s lost decades after 1990 were the direct and inevitable consequence of the excessive leverage built up in the 1980’s.

Source: Adair Turner
            Former Chairman of U.K.'s Financial Services Authority 

 Project Syndicate

Les eurodéputés votent en faveur d'une meilleure supervision des banques

Pour se prémunir d'une éventuelle crise bancaire semblable à celle qui a frappé l'Europe en 2008, le Parlement européen a donné son feu vert, jeudi 12 septembre, à la création d'un mécanisme européen de surveillance des banques. Sa supervision sera dévolue à la Banque centrale européenne (BCE) afin de mieux prévenir les risques et défaillances des banques, en amont des pouvoirs nationaux. 

En juin, les eurodéputés s'étaient déjà prononcés pour ce "mécanisme de supervision unique" (MSU), subordonnant leur vote final à un accord avec la BCE. La décision du Parlement de Bruxelles confirme donc le compromis trouvé entre les deux institutions, et la BCE devrait être en mesure d'exercer sa mission àcompter de septembre 2014.

Poutine met en garde Obama avant la rencontre américano-russe à Genève

Les négociations entre Russes et Américains sur le dossier syrien ne passent pas que par la voie diplomatique. Moscou veut aussi en appeler à l'opinion publique. Dans une tribune publiée jeudi 12 septembre dans le New York Times, le président russe, Vladimir Poutine, expose sa vision du conflit syrien : contrairement à ses homologues américains et français, il tient les rebelles pour responsables de l*attaque chimique du 21 aout.

Intitulé "La Russie plaide pour la prudence", ce plaidoyer intervient quelques heures avant une rencontre cruciale entre les ministres des affaires étrangèresrusse et américain à Genève autour du plan russe de démantèlement de l'arsenal chimique syrien.

Bce: «In Italia rischi crescenti per l’obiettivo disavanzo al 2,9% del Pil»

Il forte aumento del fabbisogno finanziario italiano, salito a 51 miliardi a luglio 2013 dai quasi 28 del luglio 2012, «mette in risalto i rischi crescenti per il conseguimento dell’obiettivo di disavanzo delle amministrazioni pubbliche nel 2013 (2,9% del Pil)». È quanto scrive la Banca centrale europea nel suo bollettino mensile, sottolineando che «il peggioramento è dovuto soprattutto all’erogazione di sostegno al settore finanziario e al rimborso di arretrati».
«Al fine di ridurre ulteriormente gli squilibri e di promuovere la competitività, la crescita e la creazione di posti di lavoro — ha scritto la Banca centrale diretta da Mario Draghi — è necessario che i paesi dell’area dell’euro continuino a portare avanti il proprio programma di riforme. I governi non dovrebbero vanificare gli sforzi già compiuti allo scopo di ridurre il disavanzo pubblico e riportare il rapporto debito/pil su un percorso discendente».
 Via libera insomma al risanamento, ma conciliando austerità e crescita. Registrati segnali di miglioramento economico dell’area euro che secondo la Bce va verso «una graduale ripresa dell’economia». Ma Mario Draghi ha avvertito: «I germogli della ripresa sono ancora molto, molto verdi». Per i restanti mesi del 2013 e il prossimo anno ha sottolineato la Banca centrale nel bollettino di settembre «ci si attende, in linea con lo scenario di base, un lento recupero del prodotto, soprattutto sulla scorta di un progressivo miglioramento della domanda interna sostenuta.

GDP GROWTH ACCELERATES IN G20, BUT ITALY AND MEXICO LAG BEHIND

Economic output in the world's 20 largest economies (G20), as measured by gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 0.9 per cent in the three months ended June, compared with 0.6 per cent in the previous quarter, according to preliminary estimates from the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development [OECD]. 

GDP growth accelerated in most of the world's largest economies but slowed marginally in Canada (to 0.4% compared with 0.5%) and Japan (to 0.9%, compared with 1.0% in the previous quarter) and significantly in Mexico, where it contracted by 0.7%.

Turkey recorded the strongest growth at 2.1%, compared with 1.5% in the previous quarter followed by Korea with a GDP growth of 1.1%, compared with 0.8% in the previous quarter. 

In the UK and the US, GDP growth accelerated to 0.7% and 0.6% respectively, compared with 0.3% in the previous quarter. 

In Germany, GDP increased by 0.7%, compared with the zero growth rate registered in the previous quarter. In France, GDP grew by 0.5%, rebounding from a contraction of 0.2% in the previous quarter. 

Growth accelerated in Brazil (from 0.6% to 1.5%), South Africa (from 0.2% to 0.8%), India (from 0.4% to 0.6%) and China (from 1.6% to 1.7%). Growth remained stable in Indonesia (1.4%). 

Compared with the same quarter of 2012, GDP for the G20 area expanded by 2.6% in the second quarter of 2013, up from 2.2% in the previous quarter. Among G20 economies, China recorded the highest growth rate (7.5%) and Italy the largest contraction (minus 2.1%).

Source: LiveCharts

EUROZONE INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTION FALLS MORE THAN FORECAST

Eurozone industrial production fell more than expected in July on the back of weak domestic demand, Eurostat revealed on Thursday.

Output in the 17-nation region dropped 1.5% month-on-month compared to June's 0.3% increase, missing the consensus estimate for a 0.2% decline.

Production was down 2.1% compared with July 2012. 

In Germany, Europe's largest economy, industrial production was down 2.3% in July from June. 

France, Italy, Ireland, Portugal and the Netherlands also experienced poor performance while Finland and Spain rose.

The report may fuel fears that Eurozone growth will wane during the latest three-month period, after having emerged from an 18-month downturn in the second quarter of the year.

Source: LiveCharts

Precious Metals Prices 8.11 a.m. Eastern Time

Gold Price Futures   3 months     US$   1,330.05

Silver Price Futures  3 months    US$        22.17

U.S. jobless claims fall; reading clouded by problems processing in two States

 The number of new U.S. jobless claims fell sharply last week but much of the decline appeared due to technical problems in claims processing, clouding the last major reading of labor market health before a Federal Reserve meeting.

Initial claims for state unemployment benefits slipped 31,000 to a seasonally adjusted 292,000, the Labor Department said on Thursday.

That was the lowest level of claims since 2006, confounding analysts' expectations for a mild increase.

But a department analyst said the majority of the decline appeared to be because two states were upgrading their computer systems and did not process all the claims they received during the week. One of the states was large and the other small, the analyst said.

While the drop in claims should be taken with a grain of salt, it doesn't change the view that employers appear to have ended a long cycle of elevated layoffs that began around the 2007-09 recession.

The four-week moving average for new claims, which smoothes out volatility,fell by 7,500 to 321,250.

Source: Reuters

France:La Recherche d' une offre industrielle nouvelle, compétitive.

La France va lancer, jeudi 12 septembre, 34 plans visant à préparer l'évolution de son industrie dans la transition énergétique et numérique attendue dans les dix ans et reconquérir des parts de marché dans la compétition mondiale avec à la clé des créations d'emplois.

L'objectif est de "construire une offre industrielle nouvelle, compétitive, capable deregagner les marchés perdus et d'en gagner de nouveaux", selon un document de présentation vu mercredi par l'agence AFP.

Les 34 plans couvrent un vaste éventail de secteurs : transports (voiture à faiblec onsommation ou sans pilote, avion électrique, TGV du futur, dirigeables), textile, bois, chimie verte et biocarburants, énergies renouvelables, réseaux électriques, numérique, robotique, biotechnologies médicales, nano-électronique, objets connectés, réseaux électriques intelligents, usine du futur, etc.

Ces plans ont été élaborés après une analyse approfondie des marchés mondiaux en croissance et un examen de la place de la France pour chacun de ces marchés.

Les priorités retenues répondent à trois critères : se situer sur un marché en croissance ou présentant des perspectives de croissance forte, se fonder sur destechnologies que la France maîtrise, et occuper une position forte avec desentreprises leader ou disposer d'un écosystème permettant d'occuper une place forte.

Certains des plans, comme la voiture consommant 2 litres aux 100 km, figuraient dans les plans de filières industrielles mis en place depuis un an.

Une part importante des projets concernent la transition énergétique et écologique dans les domaines des transports, du stockage de l'énergie, de la rénovation thermique des bâtiments, du recyclage et des matériaux verts, etc.

Mais une place significative est aussi faite à la transformation technologique et"sociétale" attendue dans les dix ans à venir. Dans ce cadre, sont prévus un plan"hôpital numérique" pour développer l'offre industrielle française dans la e-santé, le plan "e-Education" dans un marché mondial évalué à 91 milliards de dollars, et les"objets connectés" de plus en plus présents dans de nombreux domaines de la vie quotidienne ou encore les "services sans contact" et la "réalité augmentée".

Le Monde

Precious Metals Prices 11.35 p.m. Eastern Time

Gold Price Futures     3 months    US$  1,358.32

Silver Price Futures    3 months    US$      22.97

Efeito Eike faz Bolsa mudar principal índice a partir de 2014

A BM&FBovespa vai mudar a metodologia de cálculo do Ibovespa, principal termômetro do mercado de ações brasileiro, que agora levará em conta o valor de mercado das empresas e o volume de papéis disponíveis para negociação na Bolsa.

É a primeira mudança relevante no índice em 45 anos. O objetivo é tirar ações como as da OGX, petroleira do grupo de Eike Batista, que valem menos de R$ 1, mas têm grande volume de transação.

ambém deve reduzir a participação de empresas grandes, mas que tenham poucas ações no mercado.

As alterações valerão a partir do próximo ano e serão implementadas em duas fases. A primeira, que vai de janeiro a abril, será uma média das metodologias antiga e nova. A partir de maio, de fato, a nova metodologia vigorará sozinha.

Criado em 1968, o Ibovespa refletia uma Bolsa em que poucas ações eram negociadas, independentemente do tamanho e da importância das empresas.

Devido a essa metodologia, a OGX representa hoje 5% do Ibovespa, atrás apenas dos papéis preferenciais (sem voto) da Petrobras (7,7%) e da Vale (8,3%). Isso obriga a maioria dos fundos que seguem o índice a comprarem o papel da petroleira, apesar de dúvidas sobre o futuro da empresa.

Da Fohla de Sao Paulo

Site de namoro na China já tem 100 milhões de usuários

Embora a figura do "casamenteiro" exista há mais de 2 mil anos na China, Gong Haiyan, a "cupido número um" do país transformou a atividade em um negócio surpreendente.

Quando tinha 25 anos, por se achar "encalhada", Haiyan decidiu criar um site de namoro. Uma década depois, a página tem 100 milhões de usuários e já é listada na bolsa de valores eletrônica de Nova York.

"Eu já tinha mais de 25 anos e pelos padrões chineses eu era uma mulher 'encalhada'. Minha mãe e meu pai ficavam insistindo para que eu me casasse", conta

Pressionada, ela decidiu pagar 500 RMB (cerca de R$ 182) para se inscrever em um site de namoros. Mas não recebeu resposta alguma e pouco depois descobriu que a empresa havia roubado perfis de sites concorrentes.

"Eu pedi meu dinheiro de volta. Mas quando pedi para ser reembolsada eles riram da minha cara", relembra.

Funcionários do site de namoro disseram a Gong que ela "não tinha nenhum charme ou beleza" e que "homens bem sucedidos não se interessariam por ela"

"Fiquei com muita raiva, e perguntei a uma amiga minha quanto custaria para criar uma página na internet e abrir meu próprio site de relacionamentos", conta.

Assim como o Facebook, o site de Gong foi criado no quarto de sua residência universitária e a primeira pessoa a criar um perfil foi sua melhor amiga, uma colega de faculdade, ainda em 2003. Quatro dias depois, ela convenceu a segunda pessoa a se inscrever.

Dez anos depois, o site Jiayuan.com , que em tradução livre significa "Lindo Destino", tornou-se uma empresa de grande sucesso, com escritórios em diversas cidades chinesas e mais de 100 milhões de usuários inscritos.

DA BBC Brasil

MPX muduo de nome hoje pra desvincular a companhia do empresário Eike Batista

Em meio à crise que atinge o grupo EBX, de Eike Batista, a MPX anunciou nesta quarta-feira (11) que mudou o nome para Eneva. O movimento é uma tentativa de desvincular a companhia do empresário e dar uma nova marca para a controladora.

A companhia de energia tem desde maio o controle compartilhado entre a alemã E.ON e Eike. A alteração foi aprovada hoje em assembleia geral extraordinária.

Venda da MPX baixa Rs 4 bilhoes de dívida de Eike com o BNDES.

"A mudança de nome representa a significativa reestruturação que estamos conduzindo na companhia. Será uma motivação para os desafios e oportunidades que virão", disse em comunicado Frank Possmeier, diretor vice-presidente da Eneva.

Ontem, a companhia informou que o empresário está negociando a venda de suas ações. A E.ON já era sócia de Eike e acertou o aumento de sua participação neste ano para 38%.

O empresário possui atualmente 24% de participação na companhia. Em julho, Eike deixou a presidência do conselho da MPX.

Em maio, a E.ON adquiriu 24,5% das ações da companhia pertencentes ao empresário, alcançando uma participação de 36,2%. O percentual subiu para os 38% após um aumento de capital.

Fohla de Sao Paulo

TV Oled e Ultra HD,confronto ravvicinato

Dopo alcuni anni caratterizzati dalla convergenza del mondo della rete con quello della tv, (vi dice niente la sigla smart tv?) la nascita di un nuovo formato, il cosiddetto Ultra Hd, sta riportando a focalizzare il mondo dei televisori sul loro compito principale: far vedere sempre meglio lo spettatore. 
La sigla Oled sta per Organic light emitting diode ovvero diodo organico a emissione di luce. Si tratta di una tecnologia che permette di realizzare schermi con la capacità di emettere luce propria. A differenza dei display a cristalli liquidi, gli schermi Oled non richiedono componenti aggiuntivi per essere illuminati (i display a cristalli liquidi vengono illuminati da una fonte di luce esterna lampade o led), ma producono luce propria; questo permette di realizzare display molto più sottili e addirittura pieghevoli e che richiedono minori quantità di energia per funzionare. Inoltre proprio il fatto che il pannello sia attivo garantisce una maggiore profondità del nero e quindi una più ampia scala cromatica. L’immagine finale è al momento quanto più vicino esista all’immagine cinematografica.

Ma il presente (e il futuro) della tv non è solo Oled. Quanto, e soprattutto, è costituito dalle tv Ultra Hd, vale a dire con una definizione 4 volte superiore al classico Full Hd. E qui all’Ifa sono entrati in gioco oltre ai due produttori coreani anche i giapponesi Panasonic e Sony. In particolare Panasonic ha presentato un nuovo modello il WT600 da 65 pollici che è il primo ad essere dotato di una connessione 50/60p hdmi 2.oltre che di una display port  1.2a che ne garantisce il funzionamento con i futuri dispositivi 4K-compatibili (lettori, set-top box e consolle di giochi). Per gli appassionati di giochi su pc sarà così più facile collegare il computer al WT600 proprio grazie alla display port. Sony ha invece ripresentato il già straordinario modello X9 fatto vedere qualche mese fa, con la felice sorpresa di prezzi ribassati (ora 5500 euro per il 65 pollici e 4000 per il 55) oltre ad un bellissimo videoproiettore Ultra Hd dal prezzo che sfiora i 10.000 euro. In particolare Sony faceva vedere con chiarezza perché anche in assenza di contenuti  Ultra Hd nativi acquistare un tv Ultra Hd può avere senso: l’upscaling dell’immagine Full Hd fatta da questo tipo di televisori la migliora di parecchio. 
Questo mese Sony metterà in vendita negli Usa una top box con precaricati 10 film in Ultra Hd e che attraverso un collegamento ad internet potrà consentire la visione in streaming di altri film in Ultra Hd. Se l’esperimento andrà bene lo replicheremo in altri Paesi. Quanto alle trasmissioni tv in Giappone la Nhk è già in fase sperimentale.

Bill to regulate fracking passes California state Assembly

A hotly contested bill that would impose California's first regulations on fracking and other oil production practices passed the state Assembly on Wednesday, despite opposition from environmentalists and oil companies.
Fracking is the practice of injecting water, sand and chemicals underground to crack rock formations and free up oil and natural gas. The technology makes it possible for oil companies to unlock California's vast Monterey Shale deposit, which is estimated to hold 15.4 billion barrels of recoverable oil.
Under the bill, passed by a vote of 47-17, companies would be required to obtain permits for fracking as well as acidizing, the use of hydrofluoric acid and other chemicals to dissolve shale rock.

The bill was opposed by environmental groups that wanted to see an outright ban on fracking in the state.

They were especially critical of amendments added to the bill late last week that they said would cut some existing requirements for environmental review.

The new language would also make it more difficult for the governor or regulators to deny a fracking permit until the state finalizes fracking regulations it is currently developing on a separate track. They are not expected to be completed until 2015.

Source: Reuters

Summer Davos:Innovation Imperative

The Annual Meeting of the New Champions 2013, also known as Summer Davos, opened Wednesday in northeast China's port city of Dalian.

This year's forum, themed "Meeting the Innovation Imperative," will feature interactive discussions on issues such as sustainable growth, energy security, trade and investment.

"Reform and innovation provide an inexhaustible driving force for a country's development," said Chinese Premier Li Keqiang in his keynote speech at the opening ceremony.

The premier said that China's modernization will not be accomplished without reform, nor will it be achieved without opening up.

He said that since the beginning of the year, China has been successful in coordinating efforts to seek steady growth, conduct structural readjustment and deepen reform, and this is mainly due to "innovation in macro-management."

He said China has kept macroeconomic policy stable, with consideration given to both immediate and long-term needs in the face of economic downturn.

China is implementing an innovation-driven development strategy at a faster pace, aggressively promoting technological innovation and integration of science and technology with the economy, and the country is building a social environment friendly to innovation and business start-ups, said Li.

Chinese Premier: China has entered a phase of medium and high rate growth

 Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said Wednesday that the country's economy has entered a phase of medium and high rate growth, striking an optimistic tone of keeping stable and sustainable development.

During his speech at the opening ceremony of the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting of the New Champions 2013 in northeast China's Dalian, Li said a growth of around 7.5 percent is still considered high for any major economy in the world, although it is slower than the double-digit growth in the past.

China's economy had kept growing by nearly 10 percent annually in the past three decades until the global financial crisis snapped the red-hot speed four years ago.

Since then, the world's second largest economy has prioritized quality over speed in a bid to inject more sustainable and vigorous power to guarantee future growth.

The government targets an annual GDP growth of 7.5 percent for 2013.

"As the economy enters a phase of transformation, the slowdown of its prospective growth and moderation of the Chinese economy from a high speed to a medium to high speed are only natural." Li told the meeting.

"Now the new season of the Chinese economic miracle, one of better quality and higher efficiency, is unveiled," he noted.

China's future growth must be bolstered by resource conservation and environment protection, and driven by technological innovation and advance.

It has to be a growth with sufficient employment and growing household income, he added.

"Looking ahead, I see bright prospects for China's development," Li said.

The process of industrialization and urbanization is far from being completed in China, which promises a big room for regional development and huge market potential. Reform is bound to unleash fresh institutional vitality.

"We are well placed to sustain a healthy economic growth in the long run...And we will achieve the sustained and sound growth of the Chinese economy," he said.

Source: Xinhua