Alibaba's Jack Ma: Farewell to WeChat, Welcome to Laiwang

"In three days I’ll be closing down [my WeChat] account. Thank you to all my friends on WeChat for giving me so much happiness and inspiration. But now I have no choice but to nurse my own child, Laiwang. I know many people might say this child has no special characteristics, or was born at the wrong time, won’t grow up to be big, or even if he grows up to be big, he won’t have the prospects of his older brother WeChat: (We know, we’ve heard it all. We don’t expect this child to have the same future as WeChat, but we still expect this child to be even more ambitious, have character, and study hard. Today, there’s a gap between him and his brother, but he doesn’t want to surpass his brother, he just wants to realize his own future. We believe this world doesn’t need to have just one child… as we all know, the one-child policy caused us great trouble).

Dear friends, I too work very heard for my red envelope. I also need the help of two hundred brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles. I used to think that having one child – WeChat – was enough. Now I’ve realized that having two children can also be beautiful. That’s right, and our child likes to make friends, sometimes he can make groups of 500 friends at a time. He’s kind of like his Daddy in that way, ha ha ha.

Brothers and sisters, in the next three days, come to Laiwang and find me. Come have a look at my baby. Your care will help him understand the significance of support, and will especially help him build the confidence to challenge his successful older brother… On Laiwang, add your phone number and then you can add me".

WSJ:Apple Finds Surprising Growth Market in Japan

   According to a report from the Wall Street Journal,"in the past two years, Japan has emerged as Apple's fastest-growing region, far outpacing its home market and the booming economies of Greater China and the rest of Asia. Japan is also home to Apple's biggest profit margins, and the only one of Apple's five regions where operating profit grew in the past fiscal year".

"The iPhone has propelled Apple's success in Japan, supported by heavy marketing and rich subsidies from telephone companies. The iPhone's cachet taps Japan's fervor for brand-name goods, similar to how Japanese shoppers once flocked to Louis Vuitton bags and Burberry scarves.
Sales got another boost in late September when NTT DoCoMo Inc., Japan's largest wireless carrier, began offering the iPhone for the first time to its 61.8 million customers. Even before that, the iPhone was Japan's best-sellingsmartphone, with a 37% market share in the six months ended Sept. 30, according to Tokyo's MM Research Institute".
                                           
"Apple's iPad also garnered more than 50% of Japan's tablet-computer market in the fiscal year ended March 2013, said MM Research.

As the last major Japanese operator to offer the iPhone, DoCoMo is aggressively discounting new models to lure users from competitors, while offering incentives to entice existing subscribers to switch from other phones".

Jeff Immelt: I think all of us are going to have a safety cushion, as these things get unwound(tapering of bond buying), just to be careful, because I think we are in kind of unprecedented territory.

Geoff Elliott:      What about the unwinding of stimulus.  What do you think of   the Fed has obviously been printing a lot of money effectively, and clearly with the twin of the gas boom and a low US dollar has really helped spark recovery.

Jeff Immelt:    We're in kind of an unprecedented territory in terms of the amount of leverage on the US balance sheet, so we've never kind of been where we are today, so whether that drives inflation or where it goes, I don't think anybody knows.  I think from a company standpoint, what it just means is that all of us are going to carry more cash.  In other words, I think all of us are going to have a safety cushion, as these things get unwound, just to be careful, because I think we are in kind of unprecedented territory.
    We clearly don't see inflation today.  The capital markets are clearly benign today around the deficit and things like that.  There are no Bond vigilantes, or other external factors that are going to change the game.  So that's what we watch. 

Source: theaustralian

Eike Batista's OSX Files for Bankruptcy Protection

   According to a report from the Wall Street Journal,"OSX Brasil SA the ship building company of troubled tycoon Eike Batista, filed for bankruptcy protection, the second such filing for a commodities empire that crumbled this year as losses piled up and investor confidence plummeted''.
"The move Monday at a Rio de Janeiro court follows a default and bankruptcy filing last month for Mr. Batista's flagship oil firm OGX Petroleo e Gas Participacoes SA.The firm went public in 2008 for $4.1 billion but failed to produce nearly any of the up to 10.8 billion barrels it claimed to have. Recently, OGX declared several of its once promising fields were actually duds".

"OSX had outstanding debts of around $2.2 billion as of June 30, including dollar- and local- currency denominated loans and bonds held by a mix of banks investors and government institutions, such as Brazil's National Bank for Economic and Social Development, or BNDES, and the Merchant Marine Fund.

But the bankruptcy only covers a portion of the debt, as some major assets were excluded from the filing, according to a company spokeswoman.

Three OSX oil platforms set up as separate corporate entities in the Netherlands aren't part of the process, the spokeswoman confirmed. The platforms act as collateral for some $1.4 billion in dollar denominated loans and bonds.

Eduardo Munhoz, a lawyer who is handling OGX and OSX dealings on Mr. Batista's behalf, said OSX has also provided an additional 2.2 billion reais in guarantees for two of the oil platforms.

Company subsidiaries are often excluded from bankruptcy if they are able to pay their debts, said Richard Levin, chair of the restructuring practice at Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP. When subsidiaries are based in other countries, they also may not file for bankruptcy to protect them from potential actions by foreign regulators and suppliers", he added.

Grifols to Buy Novartis Blood-Screening Unit

  According to a report from the Wall Street Journal,"Grifols SA one of the world's top developers of plasma-based medicines, has thrived amid Spain's searing economic crisis by targeting sales abroad and making well-timed acquisitions".

"On Monday, it struck again, agreeing to pay €1.24 billion ($1.66 billion) to buy a diagnostic unit of Novartis AG  . Buying the Swiss company's blood-screening technology will expand Grifols's core business: getting plasma from 150 donor centers in the U.S. to plants in California, North Carolina and Barcelona, where the plasma is converted into an array of sophisticated medicines sold world-wide.

The company's blunt-spoken president and chief executive, Victor Grifols, has raised eyebrows with his criticism of Spain's government.

In an interview last week, he praised the regulatory climate in the U.S., where much of his business is based. "It's a pragmatic country. It's a country where the rules are complied with," said Mr. Grifols, the grandson of the company's founder.

The Spanish government's power to control prices has made business in the country difficult, Mr. Grifols said. "For us, the government comes along and lowers the price 10%, from one year to the next," he said. "And on top of that, since it's the monopolistic client, it doesn't pay you or it pays you in one or two years."

Grifols's best-selling product by volume is albumin, which is used in treating a range of patients, such as burn victims and people undergoing cardiopulmonary bypass surgery. IVIG, which can be used to treat illnesses including leukemia and autoimmune diseases, is the company's best-seller by revenue.

The company's net profit rose 35% for the first nine months of this year to €267 million, led by a strong performance in the U.S. and, to a lesser extent, growth in emerging markets.

he Spanish government banned paid plasma and blood donations in the 1980s, prompting Grifols to expand into the U.S. to get the raw material for plasma products. Grifols expanded its U.S. foothold with the 2011 acquisition of plasma-medicine maker Talecris Biotherapeutics Holdings Corp. for $3.4 billion.

More recently, Grifols has been acquiring small Spanish biotech companies that were strained by the country's economic crisis".

Social Media in China: Sina, Tencent to Report Results. New Entrant Alibaba's Laiwang

  According to a report from the Wall Street Journal,"Beijing-based Sina Corp.runs the country's most popular public microblogging service, the Twitter-like Sina Weibo, which for the past three years has served as the closest thing China has for a national forum. It is facing increasing pressure from Tencent Holdings Ltd.'s WeChat, a mobile app similar to WhatsApp and Line that allows users to post status updates, share photos and even strike up quick romantic encounters".

"When Sina reports its third-quarter financial results after the market closes on Tuesday in New York, investors will watch closely for indications that Weibo is losing eyeballs to WeChat. Last quarter, concerns about a potential decline in use were allayed when Sina executives reported that time spent on the Weibo mobile application went up 15% from the previous quarter, with daily active users growing 8.3% to 54 million".

But Sina faces another challenge, this time from the government. Beijing in recent months has put pressure on some widely followed Weibo users for the sake of—in the words of one official—"the purification of the online environment."

On the positive side, Sina could get a boost from an agreement it struck earlier this year with Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., which took a stake in Weibo and formed a partnership that the companies have said will generate $380 million in advertising revenue for Sina over the next three years. Even so, investors will be watching to see whether piping in new services, like games, will help it become more profitable.

"Sina is expected to post profit of 32 cents a share, up from 17 cents a share a year earlier", according to analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters.

"There is less anxiety over Tencent's WeChat, which as of August boasted 236 million monthly active users. Tencent will post third-quarter earnings on Wednesday in Hong Kong. Because of its less-public nature, WeChat has also skirted most of the attention of authorities, who worry more about Weibo's ability to make complaints about corruption or pollution go viral—though authorities still censor the service and use it to track dissidents. More encouraging, several new mobile games on WeChat have strong download figures, helping Tencent's case that it can eventually make money from virtual products and games fees through the app".

"But over the past two weeks Tencent's stock has fallen, in part because of concerns about competition from a new entrant into the messaging world: Alibaba. 

Alibaba is running a promotion through which it will pay for mobile data consumed by users on its applications. Alibaba founder Jack Ma issued a letter to the company's more than 20,000 employees saying they won't get bonuses if they don't add 100 friends on Laiwang. Alibaba is also running a new campaign that opens the profiles of more than 30,000 young female models who it says will chat with users".

Italy´s No 1 Bank, UniCredit profit falls 40 percent in Q3

Net profit at UniCredit , Italy's No.1 bank by assets, fell 40 percent in the third quarter to 204 million euros ($274 million), buoyed by the sale of insurance operations in Turkey.

Revenues fell 8.5 percent and fees also dropped in what CEO Federico Ghizzoni said in a statement was a "particularly challenging third quarter, not only due to seasonality".

The net profit, which compared with 335 million euros in the same quarter last year, was bang in line with an analyst consensus of 203 million euros, posted on the bank's website.

UniCredit said in a statement it had made a net capital gain of 181 million euros from the sale of Turkish insurance business Yapi Kredi.

The bank said that sale and "a very strong" contribution from its central and eastern European businesses had helped results, while its Italian commercial banking operations had posted a loss of 165 million euros in the quarter.

Highlighting the challenges it faces in its recession-hit home country, UniCredit said that out of 1.6 billion euros of loan loss provisions booked in the three months to September, 1.1 billion euros were in Italy.

However, Ghizzoni reiterated the bank had started to see "some initial encouraging signs of recovery" in the euro zone's third biggest economy.

Despite the weak operating trends, UniCredit - the first top Italian lender to publish third-quarter results this week - managed to strengthen its capital base.

Its Basel III-compliant capital ratio stood at 9.83 percent from 9.72 percent at the end of June.

Source:  Reuters

New phone apps give homeowners smart-home security

   According to a report from the Wall Street Journal,"home owners worried about security while they are at work or on vacation have a range of new smartphone apps to help them remotely monitor their property and to notify them if there is a problem".

"Home owners worried about security while they are at work or on vacation have a range of new smartphone apps to help them remotely monitor their property and to notify them if there is a problem".

In the United States in 2012 there were more than 2 million burglaries, or about one every 15 seconds, according to government crime figures.

Large established companies and startups are offering apps that connect remotely to monitoring systems to help consumers keep their homes and property secure.

Viper Connect, for iPhone and Android, is an app that monitors homes and cars. The company supplies a do-it-yourself security system with motion sensors and video cameras, which can be placed around the home, and watched remotely.

"Traditionally unless a home had already been wired for security and automation, it was difficult and expensive for people to get the advantage of home security," said James Turner, vice president of product development at Viper, which is owned by Directed Electronics, in Vista, California.

Most security systems will notify the homeowners, while others like AT&T Digital Life will call the police if there is a break-in.

Smartphone owners looking for a cheaper solution can turn to apps such as Presence, a free app that lets users turn an old iOS device into a security camera that can be viewed remotely.

"It's an emerging market and I think it will catch on rapidly in the next two to five years," Turner said about security apps.

Jeff Immelt : The Big Surprises of today,the Availabitily of Natural Gas and the Price of Solar.

Jeff Immelt:

"So if you sat back and said, what are the big surprises as we sit here today; the availability of natural gas and the price of solar.  Those are two things that nobody forecast that are going to have massive changes from a stand point of future energy policy and where it goes, and I just think, governments can be   they can provide some clarity, but picking winners and losers like we did with ethanol, and things like that, that in the end   Americans my age learned earning policy in Europe, because basically there's never been kind of, I would say, an energy philosophy in the US.  So if you wanted to see where the world was going, we would go to Europe and study what was going on there.  Today Europe looks perverted, weird.  
    You have these big renewable energy   you've got 50 gigawatts of solar in Germany, all being provided out of China, driving electricity costs up, not down.  You sit there and say, this doesn't look so much fun.  This doesn't look   so now there's   I think in some ways the world of energy is really thrown into flux".  

Geoff Elliott:      Isn't there a policy risk though, here, for GE as well though in that there's a lot of political pressure around electricity prices in part from what we were talking about before, the energy companies are taking the LNG price from the export markets.  Do you worry about that?

Jeff Immelt: Sure.  It's hard for us to influence that, and I think all we can do is provide a range of technical solutions in any country, but including Australia that says, here is a way to think about whether it's wind or gas, or other places.  Everybody's going to work energy efficiency.  I would say with electricity prices growing like they are in Australia right now, energy efficiency's going to be even more important than it's been in the past.   

Carterham e-Bikes and Motorcycles

Since 1957 Caterham Group has been known for its purpose-built sports cars, Formula One entries and overall motorsports shenanigans. This week at the International Motorcycle Exhibition (EICMA) in Milan, however, Caterham announced that it will be expanding its product offerings from four-wheeled machinery to that of the two-wheeled variety. Starting in 2014 Caterham Bikes will introduce three new products: the Brutus 750, the Classic E-Bike and the Carbon E-Bike.

The Brutus 750 motorcycle,Caterham’s utilitarian off-road bike is less about the pretty and more about pure off-road functionality. Brutus’ most obvious element, those big, fat, chunky 26 x 10 R14 tires are, according to Caterham, designed to give the bike flexibility as a on-road machine, off-road device or even a snowmobile.

Powering the Brutus throughout its various snowy, backwoods adventures will be a 4 valve, DOHC, 750cc single-cylinder liquid-cooled engine. Brutus’ automatic CVT gearbox is designed to give inexperienced riders an easier learning curve and more user friendly experience versus the traditional manual configuration. To keep the ride as polite as possible, Caterham has outfitted Brutus with up-side down 43mm Hydraulic telescopic forks up front and a single shock out back with compression and preload adjustments.

Classic e-Bike

With a wheelbase of 1.46 m (4.8 ft), height of 1.13 m (3.6 ft) and a total length of 2.15 m (7 ft) Brutus 750 weighs out at a hefty 235 kg (518 lb) ... so it's not exactly nimble. To pretty up Brutus' otherwise polarizing aesthetic Caterham chose to strategically splash yellow, white and British Racing Green colors about the bike's chassis. Unlike its hefty big brother, Caterham’s Classic e-bike draws design inspiration from the track-board racers of the 1920s. The e-bike is powered by a 36 V, 250 W, brushless motor mounted in the center with a torque sensor to manage power. A Panasonic 36 V, 12 Ah lithium battery provides the juice and Caterham has designed the bike so an optional second battery pack can be added if desired.

Carbon e-Bike

Last but not least of the bike trifecta is the Carbon e-bike. With an appearance that's neither retro nor utilitarian, Caterham says the Carbon’s design and material choices were inspired by the firm’s Formula One experience. This racing inspiration might explain the bike’s modular carbon-aluminum frame, oversized carbon girder forks, mono-shock rear suspension, lightweight aluminum rims, performance based braking system and carbon-fiber impregnated tires.

Source; Zigmag

Samsung's SAMI project is led by former Siri engineer from Apple

A software engineer formally involved in the development of the Siri voice assistant at Apple has joined Samsung’s new talking internet of things initiative.

Luc Julia, vice president of Samsung’s innovation lab and a former Siri engineer, presented the company’s multi-device data collation initiative, Samsung Architecture for Multimodal Interactions (SAMI), which aims to collect data from devices like fitness trackers and wearable computers and make that data available to other devices and services, including via voice in a very similar manner to Apple’s Siri.

Julia left Apple to join Samsung in 2012, after being part of the developer team responsible for Apple’s voice assistant Siri.

During a presentation in Menlo Park, California last week, Julia demonstrated how SAMI could collect data from a Fitbit fitness tracker, as well as an internet-connected weigh scale and provide a report on your overall activity – something that wasn’t previously possible with the information isolated within each device’s application.

In Siri-like fashion, Julia asked "SAMI, how am I doing?", with the app responding that he had reached his exercise goal for the day.

Forming part of the company’s push for enhanced software development, Samsung hopes that SAMI will be able to unite disparate connected devices, especially with the explosion of wearable devices. It is currently working with around 50 partners to develop and test SAMI, including Fitbit and the Pebble smartwatch, and has a $100m fund for the next three years to support companies developing relevant technology.

Source: Gizmag

China: Alibaba 11.11 Shopping Festival Breaks Record

     According to a report from the Wall Street Journal "the country's biggest online shopping day of the year—also the biggest in the world—just set another record".

"After only about half a day, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. said sales on its shopping sites had topped $3.1 billion—last year's total for the one-day 11.11 Shopping Festival.

By the end of Monday, the company had recorded 35.19 billion yuan ($5.78 billion) in transactions. Last year on Nov. 11, Chinese online shoppers spent more in 24 hours than the $2.5 billion that Americans spent online on Black Friday and Cyber Monday combined.

The Alibaba Nov. 11 sale is a tradition that started in 2009, when 27 merchants on the company's Tmall site offered discounts to perk up sales during an otherwise period.

This year's jump in sales showed the rising power of the Chinese consumer and the increasing presence of e-commerce in a country where the brick-and-mortar retail infrastructure isn't as well-developed as it is in the U.S. It also shows the rising power of Chinese brands, with smartphone maker Xiaomi Inc. and electronics and appliances supplier Haier Electronics Group   Co.  among the top sellers.

In the opening three minutes, Xiaomi said it sold 110,000 of its new Mi 3 phone and another 110,000 of its Hongmi phone, totaling 178 million yuan in transactions. After half an hour, the company's Tmall store had 300 million yuan in transactions, it said.

But "the numbers aren't what we care about today. What we care about today is what is behind the numbers," Alibaba Chairman Jack Ma told reporters at the company's headquarters. "Behind the numbers we can see the power of the market." He said more competition and diversity in e-commerce would help strengthen what remains a burgeoning industry in China.

General Electric and Quirky Partnership. Innovation & Crowdsourcing.

Sometimes the key to creativity is a fresh perspective. That seems to have been General Electric’s motivation when it opened its patent vault to the crowdsourcing company Quirky in April. On Monday, the fruits of that partnership were apparent as the first four products under the joint Wink brand were unveiled.

The usual image of patents is a lock box of secrets that companies never want to loosen their iron grip on. However, though patents can be abused, their actual function is to encourage innovation. With this in mind, GE made thousands of its patents available to Quirky, a design shop specializing in creating consumer products through crowdsourcing.

The aim of the partnership is to produce a co-branded line called Wink: Instantly Connected, by combining Quirky’s crowdsourcing flexibility and creativity with GE’s marketing, manufacturing, and commercial expertise.

“We admire Quirky’s speed, collaboration and inventiveness and by opening up lab-proven technology and patents to everyday inventors we can help inspire new ideas and accelerate advanced manufacturing innovation,” says Beth Comstock, GE’s chief marketing officer.

The first Wink products concentrate on connecting consumer goods in what GE calls the “Industrial internet.” According to Kaufman, “Our future will be driven by access to things via our smartphones there is a ton of invention to be done in this area and no one owns this category.”

The Egg Minder is an oddity in our multifunction digital age. It does one thing, and that’s to mind your eggs. Invented by Rafael I Hwang, it has enough room to hold 14 eggs, and tracks their freshness in the fridge by monitoring when an egg is added or removed and thus how long it's been kept.

From the mind of Jake Zien, Pivot Power Genius is a bendy power strip that twists and bends to accommodate bulky adapters. It uses an app to independently control each outlet from a mobile device, allowing users to switch on or off two outlets either manually or by means of a timer.

The fourth Wink product was invented by Denny Fong and is called the Spotter. It’s a sensor pack that measures temperature, humidity, vibration, light or sound. Powered by two AA batteries, it can be programmed to send scheduled updates on the status of whatever room you've left it in, to your mobile device.

Source: Gizmag

US courts see rise in defendants blaming their brains for criminal acts

Criminal courts in the United States are facing a surge in the number of defendants arguing that their brains were to blame for their crimes and relying on questionable scans and other controversial, unprovenneuroscience, a legal expert who has advised the president has warned.

Nita Farahany, a professor of law who sits on Barack Obama's bioethics advisory panel, told a Society for Neuroscience meeting in San Diego that those on trial were mounting ever more sophisticated defences that drew on neurological evidence in an effort to show they were not fully responsible for murderous or other criminal actions.

Lawyers typically drew on brain scans and neuropsychological tests to reduce defendants' sentences, but in a substantial number of cases the evidence was used to try to clear defendants of all culpability. "What is novel is the use by criminal defendants to say, essentially, that my brain made me do it," Farahany said following an analysis of more than 1,500 judicial opinions from 2005 to 2012.

The rise of so-called neurolaw cases has caused serious concerns in the country where brain science first appeared in murder cases. The supreme court has begun a review of how such evidence can be used in criminal cases. But legal and scientific experts nevertheless foresee the trend spreading to other countries, including the UK, and Farahany said she was expanding her work abroad.

Source: theguardian

«Più industria e tecnologia, così Pirelli resterà protagonista»

Ha già immaginato come andrà. Tra quattro anni, quando per la Pirelli si aprirà la strada di un nuovo azionariato, e per lui quella delle 70 primavere, vorrebbe «vedere volare l’azienda, anche senza di me. Magari guardandola dalla barca a vela». Chissà se Marco Tronchetti Provera pensa davvero di cambiare timone e lasciare i panni del capitano d’impresa. «L’anagrafe dice questo. Poi vedremo» risponde sorridendo il presidente della Pirelli. Giovedì scorso Tronchetti ha riunito a Londra gli analisti finanziari per illustrare il tragitto che da qui al 2017 proietterà la Bicocca verso il futuro. Un percorso iniziato con il riassetto della filiera di controllo del gruppo, tutt’ora in corso, e lo scioglimento, la scorsa settimana, del patto di sindacato della Pirelli. Adesso è arrivata la parte industriale del programma. Che è un’accelerazione verso «margini e profittabilità», dove continua a essere privilegiata la produzione «alto di gamma» a tecnologia avanzata, che garantisce i rendimenti e i tassi di crescita più alti della media di mercato. E’ la ricetta già sperimentata negli anni della crisi, in cui la Bicocca ha stretto la cinghia per continuare a investire e crescere. Ora può allentarla un po’ e iniziare a capitalizzare il lavoro fatto. 

Corriere della Sera

Abu Dhabi's Etihad Airways is in talks to buy jets from Airbus

Abu Dhabi's Etihad Airways is in talks to buy jets from Airbus  even as it puts the finishing touches to a reported deal with rival Boeing , people familiar with the matter said.

Reuters reported last month Etihad was close to ordering Boeing jets including 25 to 30 777X mini-jumbos, the new 777 version which is expected to be launched at next week's air show, and a repeat order for about 30 787 Dreamliners.

"I have made no comment on that at all; that is Reuters speculating ... I think you should wait until we make an announcement," Etihad's chief executive James Hogan told Dubai-based Arabian Business magazine last week.

An announcement of Etihad's 777X order could pre-empt a widely expected blockbuster deal for 100 or more 777X jets from Emirates airline EMIRA.UL, which has said it may announce a large Boeing order when it hosts the November 17-21 air show.

Word of parallel talks between Etihad and Airbus came on the eve of the 10th anniversary of the airline's first commercial flight linking Abu Dhabi and Beirut on Nov 12, 2003.

Boeing and Airbus officials have set up camp in the Gulf as they look to solidify plane orders with Etihad and other fast-growing carriers including Emirates and Qatar Airways that are buying more planes to expand their global reach.

Taking advantage of deep pockets and a geographically strategic position between East and West, Gulf airlines are expanding rapidly and diverting long-haul traffic from airlines in Europe, the United States and parts of Asia.

Source: Reuters

Latin American*s key stocks Indexes

Brazilian stocks were little
changed on Monday as investors awaited the outcome of an
economic policy-setting meeting in top trade partner China,
while shares of shipbuilder OSX were suspended from trading
until its bankruptcy filing is made official.
    Mexico's IPC index snapped a five-session decline,
while Chile's bourse fell slightly.
    China's Communist Party leaders gathered over the weekend
for a landmark conclave, due to end on Tuesday, that will set
the economic agenda for the next decade. 
    China is Brazil's No. 1 trading partner and a top purchaser
of Latin American commodities exports such as iron-ore, soy,
copper and petroleum. Changes in the outlook for the world's
second-largest economy tend to move shares of raw materials
exporters such as Vale SA and state-run oil company
Petroleo Brasileiro SA, known as Petrobras. 
    "We could see some type of (market) catalyst if something
noteworthy comes out of the statement linked to reforms in the
financial system," said Gustavo Mendonca, an economist with Saga
Capital in Rio de Janeiro.
    Mendonca said trading volumes in the Bovespa should be
reduced due to the Veteran's Day holiday in the United States. 
    Brazil's benchmark Bovespa stock index hovered near
52,295 points, little changed from Friday's close.
    Shares of shipbuilder OSX Brasil SA were
suspended from trading on Monday after the company said on
Friday it will file for bankruptcy protection. 
    While its shareholders approved the bankruptcy protection
request, it has not yet been filed to a Rio de Janeiro court.
    Exchange operator BM&F Bovespa halted trading in the shares
pending the official filing, according to a statement Monday.

Latin America's key stock indexes at 1448 GMT:
     Stock indexes                   daily %   YTD %
                      Latest         change    change
 MSCI LatAm           3,254.09       0.74      -14.94
                                               
 Brazil Bovespa       52,295.79      0.09      -14.20
                                               
 Mexico IPC           39,932.06      0.17      -8.63
                                               
 Chile IPSA           3,819.37       -0.48     -11.21
                                               
 Chile IGPA           18,851.75      -0.4      -10.53
                                               
 Argentina MerVal     5,323.09       0.54      86.49
                                               
 Colombia IGBC        13,478.88      -1.78     -8.41
                                               
 Peru IGRA            15,943.62      0.16      -22.71
                                               
 Venezuela IBC        2,655,762.22   -0.53     463.33

 Source: Reuters

Analysts remain Bullish on European Stocks

"European stocks remain a buy ... Even though the fundamentals remain weak there is not much to stop them from rallying into year-end, including a supportive Fed which might well not start tapering until March next year," said Lex van Dam, hedge fund manager at Hampstead Capital.

Technical analysts were bullish on the Euro STOXX 50, trading just above its 20-day moving average, at 3,036.

Craig Erlam, analyst at Alpari, said this helped build a picture of the bullish trend for the index remaining intact, and targeted 3,106, the five-year high hit last week".

Source: Reuters

For many Fukushima evacuees, the truth is they won't be going home

For many of Japan's oldest nuclear refugees, all they want is to be allowed back to the homes they were forced to abandon. Others are ready to move away, severing ties to the ghost towns that remain in the shadow of the wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant.

But among the thousands of evacuees stuck in temporary housing more than two and a half years after the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl, there is a shared understanding on one point - Japan's government is unable to deliver on its ambitious initial goals for cleaning up the areas that had to be evacuated after the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami disaster.

Lawmakers from Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's coalition parties on Monday recommended the government step back from the most ambitious Fukushima clean-up goals, and begin telling evacuees that a $30 billion clean-up will not achieve the long-term radiation reduction goal set by the previous administration. "The government and ruling party will act as one and deal with this firmly," said Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, adding that Abe would consider the proposal seriously.

The government is also considering a proposal floated earlier this month to offer new compensation to residents in the areas of highest radiation who have no prospect of returning home, officials involved have said.

"There will come a time when someone has to say, 'You won't be able to live here any more, but we will make up for it'," the secretary general of the LDP, Shigeru Ishiba, said in a speech earlier this month.

Source:  Reuters

WSJ :Worries about a Trigger for Market Correction

"Economic information from China and Japan over the last couple of days helped maintain the impression of stabilization in Asia. Even though Italian industrial production numbers offered further evidence the euro zone’s recovery will be sluggish, on balance this all provides a positive backdrop for markets. One question weighing on policy makers’ minds, however, is whether the highly accommodative monetary policies of the past year are starting to overheat certain asset markets. There is little sign of consumer inflation in the world’s biggest economies, but housing markets in lots of places are showing worrying signs of excess–the latest being Australia, which reported a pickup in speculative investment home lending. Meanwhile, various measures, including the return of retail investors to the market, have some calling for a correction in the U.S. stock market following a relentless rally over the summer and the first half of the fall.

There is no mystery about the trigger that analysts most worry about for a downturn in investor sentiment: all eyes are on the U.S. Federal Reserve and its plans to taper bond buying. Friday’s sharp rally in U.S. stocks suggested investors think the Fed is restrained from acting until about March, even if the economy warrants a reduction in bond buying. (Hence the glass-half-full read of the stronger-than-expected jobs report.) Any signal to the contrary–during Thursday’s Senate hearings into Fed Vice Chair Janet Yellen’s nomination to take over as Chair of the central bank, for example–and the party could be over."

Source: the Wall Street Journal

Syrian Kurds' military gains stir unease

With a string of military gains across northeastern Syria, a Kurdish militia is solidifying a geographic and political presence in the war-torn country, posing a dilemma for regional powers.

Long oppressed under Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his father before him, Kurds view the civil war as an opportunity to gain the kind of autonomy enjoyed by their ethnic kin in neighboring Iraq.

But their offensive has stirred mixed feelings, globally, regionally and locally, even among some fellow Kurds, who say the Kurdish fighters have drifted into a regional axis supporting Assad, something they deny.

To Assad and his Shi'ite allies, their gains mean more territory out of Sunni rebel hands two and a half years into a revolt against his rule.

Foreign powers supporting the opposition, meanwhile, hope they will deliver a blow to al Qaeda-linked fighters, whose rising power in northern Syria had gone unchecked for months.

"The advance has basically been accepted by all," said Piroz Perik, a Kurdish activist from the town of Qamishli.

Such statements overlook widespread concerns over the impact of the Kurdish militia gains in a conflict that not only threatens Syria's unity, but the stability of neighboring countries with similar ethnic and sectarian divisions.

Numbering more than 25 million, non-Arab Kurds are often described as the world's largest ethnic group without a state. Territories where they predominate, which they call Kurdistan, span parts of Turkey and Iran as well as Syria and Iraq.

Source: Reuters

Beijing sees lung cancer cases soar

The number of lung cancer cases in the Chinese capital Beijing has soared over the last decade.

According to figures published by the state-run Xinhua news agency, they have increased by more than 50%.

Beijing health officials say smoking is still the number one cause of lung cancer, but they admit air pollution is also a factor.

The World Health Organization (WHO) recently estimated that polluted air kills millions of people every year.

Pollution kills millions

Xinhua said the latest figures - which are for only one city and one disease - were issued by Beijing municipal health bureau.

They show the number of lung cancer patients per 100,000 people was 39.56 in 2002, but had jumped to 63.09 by 2011.

The article gave no reason for the increase in patients.

Beijing health officials said lung cancer was linked to lifestyle choices, with smoking still the top cause. But they said passive smoking and air pollution could also be a factor.

Last month the WHO issued a scientific report detailing the link between air pollution and a number of different diseases and illness.

It estimated that breathing in fine particles contributed to 3.2 million premature deaths a year across the world and killed more than 200,000 from lung cancer.

"More than half of the lung cancer deaths attributable to ambient fine particles were projected to have been in China and other East Asian countries," said the WHO.

Source: BBC

U.K. Press Round-Up

Britain's big energy companies will offer to cut bills by up to 7% if the Government removes costly green schemes, the Sunday Telegraph reported. One proposal would scrap costs from the Energy Companies Obligation, causing bills to fall between 6% and 7%. The second would delay implementation of the plan by 18 months and allow a wider range of cheaper energy efficiency measures. The paper said the proposals could seize back the initiative for the energy companies, which include Centrica and SSE. They have been attacked for price rises. The Chancellor could announce a deal in his Autumn Statement, set for early December. 

The Bank of England (BoE) is likely to raise its growth and employment forecasts when it releases its quarterly inflation report on November 13th, the Sunday Times said. Growth could reach 3% next year, a rate unseen since before the credit crunch and above the long-term average. The BoE is also set to bring forward its forecast for when unemployment will fall to its 7% threshold for beginning to consider an increase in interest rates. Economists expect the BoE to move the date from mid- 2016 to early 2016 or late 2015. 

BT's Chief Executive told the Sunday Telegraph he had not overpaid for exclusive rights to show the UEFA Champions League. Gavin Patterson said the £900m price of the three-year deal was "what it was worth to us". The paper said BT's bid was almost twice that of BSkyB, which pulled out when it saw BT's offer. Patterson said claims by BSkyB and ITV, which also lost out on the rights, were to be expected after they failed to win. He added that shareholders approved of the deal, which was supported by a "business case".

Lloyds Banking Group could make a one-off gain of £400m in the first half of 2014 from a change to employees' pensions, the Sunday Times said. Pay rises will no longer mean bigger pensions at retirement and instead staff will be paid using their current salary, the paper said. Analysts at Investec calculated the potential gain for Lloyds and said it was an important reason for them upgrading the bank to "buy".

Consumers tightened their belts in October as the bad weather deterred shoppers from visiting high streets, the Mail on Sunday reported, citing Barclaycard figures. Total spending in real terms fell for the first time since March and was a contrast to September, when buoyant spending raised hopes of a consumer boom. In October, total spending rose by only 1.9% compared with 12 months ago - lower than the 3.2% rise in the Retail Prices Index. Some sectors did well. Restaurants had a strong month and DIY stores enjoyed double-digit percentage rises in spending. 
Vodafone will increase its capital investment in the UK to more than £1bn to upgrade its mobile network across London, the Sunday Telegraph said. The Project Metropolis plan will extend 4G coverage to Vodafone's London customers. The paper said Vodafone is likely to outline the Metropolis project as part of its £6bn additional spending plan, called Project Spring, at its half-year results on November 12th. The £150m is on top of Vodafone's annual £900m UK capital spending. 

Just one in ten people in Britain believe they are benefiting from the economic recovery, the Mail on Sunday reported, citing a survey. A third of people think the economy is recovering, but far less feel they are part of the upturn, the survey by accountants KPMG and housing charity Shelter said. Half said they would only start to feel that conditions were improving when their salaries began to rise. The paper said the poll of more than 4,000 British adults exposed the fragility of consumer confidence.

Barclays exoects Fed to start taper of Quantative Easing on March 2014

Economists at Barclays Research , explained to clients that they continue to see March 2014 as the most likely date for the Fed to initiate the tapering of its quantitative easing (QE). 

In their opinion the Fed wants to see some combination of stronger payroll growth, an acceleration in economic activity, and some indication that inflation is returning towards its long-run goal before it begins the tapering process. 

"We believe the November report will be an important determining factor in the committee's assessment of recent employment trends," they wrote.

Source: LiveCharts

Asia,Nikkei leds Gains

Stocks in Tokyo led gains among Asian markets on Monday after sentiment was boosted by a surprisingly strong US jobs report on Friday.

The Labor Department reported an unexpected acceleration in US job creation in October. The economy added 204,000 non-farm payrolls, ahead of a revised 163,000 increase the month before. October's figure was also well above the 120,000 expected by most analysts.

While the data lifted confidence about the underlying health of the US economy, it also increased expectations that the Federal Reserve could start tapering its $85bn bond-buying programme before the end of 2013.

The Nikkei 225 index advanced 183 points at 14,269 in Tokyo while the Hang Seng rallied 1.43% or 325 points at 23,069 in Hong Kong, its first gain in six sessions. 

Renewed confidence in the pace of the US economic recovery boosted the dollaragainst the Japanese yen and, in turn, increased demand for Japanese exporters. The Japanese currency was trading at its lowest level against the dollar since mid September.

Meanwhile investors mulled a string of Chinese data over the weekend including consumer price inflation for October. It came in a touch below expectations at 3.2% year-on-year. However, producer prices declined 1.5% year-on-year last month compared to forecasts for a 1.4% drop.

Industrial production data came in stronger than expected for October, rising 10.3% year-on-year.

Source: LiveCharts