Alibaba Names Jim Wilkinson Head of International Corporate Communications

         The WSJ reports, "In a sign of its global ambitions, Alibaba Group Holding named Jim Wilkinson, a senior PepsiCo executive who also worked for the U.S. government, as its new head of international corporate communications.

Wilkinson is joining Alibaba at a time when global public relations and the company’s relationship with the U.S. is more important than ever. Alibaba last week filed paperwork to list in New York, in what could be one of the largest initial public offerings in history. In addition to more intense scrutiny from U.S. investors and financial regulators, Alibaba also is getting far more international media coverage.

Alibaba currently does the bulk of its business domestically in China but hopes to expand in the U.S., and faces legal and political challenges, it said its IPO filing. For example, its Taobao marketplace, an online consumer retail market in China, and Alibaba.com, its foreign supplier website, have in the past been on the U.S. Trade Representative’s annual list of “notorious markets” for counterfeit and pirated goods, though neither has been since 2011, according to the filing.

Prior to joining Alibaba, where he will start in the coming weeks, Wilkinson was executive vice president for communications at PepsiCo since 2012, where he oversaw global public relations. He had a number of roles in the George W. Bush administration, including senior adviser on foreign affairs to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. He also served as a spokesman for Gen. Tommy Franks during the Iraq invasion. During the financial crisis, Wilkinson was chief of staff to U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson. (In the film “Too Big to Fail,” he was portrayed by the actor Topher Grace.)

Wilkinson first rose to national prominence as a key spokesman for the Republican Party, both during the 1994 takeover of the House and during the contested Florida recount in the 2000 presidential election. While working as a spokesman for former U.S. Republican House Majority Leader Dick Armey, he publicized Armey’s charge that former Vice President Al Gore claimed to have invented the Internet".

WSJ: Is Alibaba Going Into the Movies?

      The WSJ reports,"early last month, the Chinese e-commerce giant registered a company in Hong Kong under the name Alibaba Films Group. Later in the month, it changed the name to the more slick-sounding Alibaba Pictures Group.

What this mysterious company will do isn’t clear, though hints abound".

The two directors of Alibaba Pictures Group listed in the registry documents — Dong Ping and Zhao Chao — are both executives at ChinaVision Media, a television and film-production company in which Alibaba bought a 60% stake in March for $805 million. At the time, Alibaba didn’t elaborate on its plans, only saying it would team up with ChinaVision to “explore future business opportunities as part of Alibaba’s digital entertainment strategy.”

ChinaVision last year was one of the distributors of the action-comedy movie “Journey to the West: Conquering the Demon,” directed by Hong Kong movie star Stephen Chow. The company’s TV series last year included the drama “Left Hand Joins Right Hand.”

"Dong, ChinaVision’s chairman, co-produced the 2000 international hit “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” which won an Oscar for best foreign-language film. He has also been involved in several other internationally distributed Chinese movies. Dong also co-founded the popular tabloid Beijing Times in cooperation with the People’s Daily, the official mouthpiece of China’s Communist Party.

So, is Alibaba going into the movies? An Alibaba spokeswoman declined to comment on the registration, while a ChinaVision representative in Hong Kong couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.

But since the beginning of this year, Alibaba has been trying to expand into entertainment and digital-media industries through aggressive acquisitions and newly developed services, as part of its attempt to make its e-commerce and other platforms more attractive".

S&P 500, Dow close at record levels

The U.S. stock market ended Monday with best gains in nearly a month that sent both the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average to record levels. Broad-based gains on the S&P 500 were led by technology and industrial sector stocks. The Nasdaq CompositeCOMP +1.77% gained the most in more than three months, adding 72 points, or 1.8% to 4,143.86, led by gains in momentum names. The S&P 500 SPX +0.97% rallied, gaining 18.17 points, or 1%, to 1,896.65, closing at a record level. The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA +0.68% closed near session highs, gaining 112.13 points, or 0.7%, to 16,695.47.

Source: Marketwatch

Brazil's Rousseff drops in new election poll, rivals gain

 May 9 (Reuters) - Support for President Dilma Rousseff among Brazilian voters has fallen and her main rivals have gained ground, reducing her chances of an outright win in the Oct. 5 election, a new poll by Datafolha showed on Friday.

The poll showed support for Rousseff slipped one percentage point to 37 percent, while Aecio Neves added four points to 20 percent and Eduardo Campos increased one point to 11 percent compared with its April poll, Datafolha said.

Rousseff´s comfortable lead at the start of the year has been undermined by concerns over rising inflation in a slow economy and political scandal surrounding management of Brazil´s largest company, state-run Petroleo Brasileiro SA .

Brazil's Congress is expected to open an investigation next week into the controversial purchase of a refinery in Texas and allegations of bribery involving SBM Offshore NV, a Netherlands-based supplier of offshore oil vessels.

Rousseff chaired Petrobras' board at the time and the allegations have hurt her reputation as a good manager. The congressional inquiry is expected to complicate her campaign.

If the vote were held today, Datafolha said, Rousseff´s opponents and other candidates would win enough votes to force a run-off, with a combined voter intention of 38 percent. This outcome is within the poll's margin of error of plus or minus two percentage points.

The left-leaning Rousseff would still win re-election in a second round vote by gaining 47 percent of the votes against 36 percent for Neves, the leader of the main opposition party, the centrist PSDB, the poll showed.

Brazilian stocks, especially shares of state-run companies, have risen in the wake of falling support for Rousseff, as investors critical of heavy-handed government intervention in the private sector hope for a more business-friendly administration in the future.

The decline in support for the president has led factions within the ruling Workers' Party (PT) to call for former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Rousseff's predecessor and mentor, to run in her place to ensure the party stays in power.

Datafolha said 58 percent of those polled thought Lula should be the PT's candidate. Among PT supporters polled, 75 percent want to see Lula run again.

The poll of 2,844 people was conducted on May 7 and 8 and published by the Folha de S.Paulo newspaper.

Source: Reuters

WSJ: Russia Calls for 'Civilized Implementation' of East Ukraine Referendum Results

        The WSJ reports,"the Kremlin said Monday it respects the secession referendum in eastern Ukraine and hopes for a "civilized implementation" of the results through talks between Kiev and representatives in the east.

Pro-Russian separatists declared victory in Sunday's vote, ratcheting up tensions between the West and Moscow. In its first comments since the referendum, the Kremlin appears to challenge the West and Kiev's standpoint that it was illegitimate. (Read the latest updates on the crisis in Ukraine.)

The Kremlin said in a statement that Moscow welcomes all possible efforts to start negotiations between Kiev and separatist regions with the involvement of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe".

"Moscow views with respect the expression of the will of the people of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions and expects that the practical implementation of the outcome of the referendums will be carried out in a civilized manner without any recurrence of violence, through dialogue between representatives of Kiev, Donetsk and Luhansk," the statement said.

Ukraine's acting president Oleksandr Turchynov said that Moscow is aiming to sabotage May 25 presidential elections and accused the Kremlin of supporting the unrest that has swept the eastern region.

EU foreign ministers were set tomodestly expand sanctions on Russiaon Monday. They were united in condemning the referendum, with Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt calling the ballot outcomes "fake figures from a fake referendum" and German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier saying they "can't be taken seriously."

Soon after the Kremlin statement was released, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov read it aloud during a live television broadcast. Mr. Lavrov said that Moscow sees no sense in a new round of four-way meetings akin to the Geneva talks in April between Russia, Ukraine, the U.S. and the EU, saying the Kiev government instead needs to directly negotiate with representatives of its eastern regions.EU diplomats have said in recent days the bloc will add more than a dozen Russian officials and pro-Russia separatists to the bloc's sanctions list and go after several Crimea-based companies that benefited from Moscow's annexation of the region. Speaking on his way into the meeting, U.K. Foreign Secretary William Hague called on the bloc to have ready a new phase of broader economic sanctions on Russia, saying they could be needed after Ukraine's presidential elections.

Bloomberg: Emerging Stocks Rise to Month High on China as India Leads World

Emerging-market stocks rose to a one-month high led by technology shares on bets China will take steps to bolster equities. India’s benchmark gained the most in the world on optimism the main opposition party will win elections.

Samsung Electronics Co. (005930) jumped the most since August in Seoul as its chairman was reported to be stable after surgery. India’s benchmark index rallied to a record as elections drew to a close. Turkish equities gained 0.8 percent on improved earnings. Russia’s stocks fluctuated amid concern the nation will face wider sanctions if it supports secession votes by separatists in eastern Ukraine.

The MSCI Emerging Markets Index climbed 0.6 percent to 1,012.94 at 1:50 p.m. in London, set for the strongest level since April 11. The Sensex has risen 19 percent since Sept. 13, when the Bharatiya Janata Party named Narendra Modi as its prime minister candidate. China will relax foreign-investment limits in listed companies, increase quotas for capital flow, and develop commodities trading tools, the cabinet said May 9.

“Gains in Chinese stocks are being driven by new comments about the further opening up of capital markets,” said Hertta Alava, head of emerging markets at FIM Asset Management Ltd. in Finland, which oversees the equivalent of about $415 million in developing-nation assets.“There are strong hopes that if Modi becomes the next prime minister, he will initiate new reforms to accelerate growth.”

The developing-nation measure has increased 1 percent this year and trades at 10.5 times projected 12-month earnings, data compiled by Bloomberg show. The MSCI World Index has risen 1.5 percent in the period, and is valued at a multiple of 14.8.

All 10 industry groups in the emerging-markets gauge gained today, with technology stocks rallying 1.2 percent and Samsung jumping 4 percent. Chairman Lee Kun Hee was operated on early yesterday after being resuscitated the previous night, Rhee So Eui, a spokeswoman for Samsung Group, said in a statement. Tencent Holdings Ltd., Asia’s largest Internet company, soared 5.3 percent in Hong Kong, trimming its slump since reaching a record on March 6 to 21 percent.

Turkey’s gauge rose to the highest since Dec. 2, led by Akbank TAS. (AKBNK) Of the 51 stocks that have announced first-quarter results, 44 reported stronger revenue for the period, data compiled by Bloomberg show. Shares in Dubai, which will be added to the MSCI emerging-market index at the end of the month, surged 1.5 percent, taking a 2014 rally to 55 percent, the steepest gain among 93 global equity indexes tracked by Bloomberg.

The S&P BSE Sensex jumped 2.4 percent to the strongest level since April 1979, led by Coal India Ltd., the world’s biggest producer of the fuel. Votes will be counted on May 16.

“Markets seem to have made up its mind that a Modi-led government will come to power,” Aneesh Srivastava, chief investment officer at IDBI Federal Life Insurance Co., said by phone from Mumbai. “Traders are positioning for the results day. There’s an expectation that a change in government will lead to improvement in India’s macroeconomic fundamentals.”

The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index (HSCEI) of mainland companies listed in Hong Kong climbed 1.5 percent and the Shanghai Composite Index rallied 2.1 percent, the most since March 21.

Policy makers are seeking to support the stock, bond and commodities markets as growth decelerates. President Xi Jinping said the economy needs to adapt to a “new normal” on growth, according to a state news report.

Lavrov to envoys: watch Russian TV to get truth on Ukraine

 Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov urged Western ambassadors on Monday to base the reports they write for their countries about the crisis in Ukraine on what they see on Russian television.

Lavrov accused Ukraine of blocking Russian television broadcasts onto its territory and, echoing charges by Kiev about Moscow, said the fellow former Soviet republic's media were broadcasting lies about the crisis.

"They are trying to set up an information blockade and, with unbiased information closed off to viewers and radio listeners, run completely shameless lies," Lavrov told a news conference with the visiting Ugandan foreign minister.

"The ambassadors in Moscow obviously see what Russian TV is showing in live broadcasts and I am sure they are obliged to report to their capitals the facts they see live. Otherwise they would be doing a totally unprofessional job."

Russia denies accusations by the West that it is fomenting separatist unrest in Ukraine and says its neighbour is in the hands of far-right leaders sponsored by the West. Moscow has urged the West to use its influence with Kiev to stop violence in the east which blames on the government in Kiev.

"I have no doubt that in Washington and Brussels and other European capitals they know perfectly well the crux of what is going on in Ukraine," Lavrov said, suggesting Western powers were trying to shift the blame on to Russia.

Lavrov said no new international talks on Ukraine were planned for the moment, and that such discussions would be of little help in defusing the crisis unless there was direct dialogue between the rival sides in Ukraine.

Source: Reuters

Capital account deficit "good" for China -c.bank research head

 A capital account deficit would be a good thing for China, the head of the central bank's research unit said on Monday, because it could be used to offset the current account surplus and China would not need to accumulate foreign reserves continuously.

Jin Zhongxia, director of the Finance Research Institute of the People's Bank of China, made the comments during a business forum in Beijing.

The previous day, Premier Li Keqiang had said China's war chest of foreign currency reserves had become a headache as its continued rise could stoke inflation in the long term. 

Source: Reuters

POLL-ECB unlikely to cut deposit rate at June meeting: traders

The European Central Bank probably will not cut the deposit rate at its June meeting, despite signals from several ECB policymakers that reducing the rate was their preferred measure to tackle a strong euro, a Reuters poll found on Monday.

ECB President Mario Draghi said at a press conference after last Thursday's policy meeting the bank was 'comfortable' with taking action in June. But he stopped short of just what action it would take. 

Only eight of 23 money market traders in Monday's poll expect the ECB to cut the deposit rate from its current zero percent next month - a move that would effectively charge banks for parking their money with the ECB.

Even if the bank were to cut the deposit rate from zero, it would most likely only cut by 10 to 15 basis points, the poll showed.

That is similar to the findings of a Reuters poll conducted before the ECB meeting last week. Only 6 of 58 economists had penciled in a deposit rate cut in the second quarter of 2014. 

"I think this (the next ECB meeting) will once again be a matter of talking and trying to keep expectations alive without any reaction because ... negative rates are still unlikely," said one money market trader.

Monday's survey of 22 money market traders also found banks will return 3.5 billion euros ($4.8 billion) of the two long-term loans they took from the ECB next week, a tad more than the 3.365 billion they will repay on Wednesday.

With their balance sheets set to be put under the microscope in the upcoming Europe-wide bank stress tests, banks in the region are voluntarily offloading the two crisis loans.

But with excess liquidity  below the 100 billion-euro mark, banks could borrow much more at the ECB's weekly refinancing operation than the mean average over the past two months of 113.2 billion euros per week.

Indeed, medians in the poll showed banks were likely to borrow 135.0 billion euros at the ECB's seven-day tender, more than the 129.1 billion euros maturing this week. 

They will also bid for 28 billion euros at the central bank's one-month operation, roughly the same as the amount they took in April.

Source: Reuters

Greece's top court allows far-right party to contest EU vote

 May 11 (Reuters) - Greece's Supreme Court on Sunday allowed the far-right Golden Dawn party to run in European elections this month, despite calls to ban it as its leader waits in jail to be tried for membership of a criminal organisation.

The court routinely permits parties to take part in elections but a private citizen had asked it to exclude Golden Dawn this time because its leadership is under investigation over a string of attacks against immigrants and opponents.

Golden Dawn is expected to perform well due to a wave of anger against economic austerity - the price Greeks have paid for bailouts totalling 240 billion euros ($330 billion) from the European Union and International Monetary Fund to save the country from a debt crisis.

The party is running between third and fifth in opinion polls, and a strong showing would pose a challenge to the fragile coalition government.

Golden Dawn was among a list of 43 parties formally allowed by the court to stand in the May 25 vote, which coincides with Greek municipal elections.

The party sports a swastika-like symbol and its members have been seen giving Nazi-style salutes. Golden Dawn, which rejects the label neo-Nazi, entered parliament for the first time in 2012, tapping into resentment against illegal immigrants and mass unemployment. The jobless rate still stands at nearly 28 percent.

The investigation against Golden Dawn was triggered by the arrest in September of a party supporter who confessed to the fatal stabbing of an anti-fascist Greek musician.

Party leader Nikolaos Mihaloliakos and five other lawmakers have been jailed awaiting trial so far. Party spokesman Ilias Kasidiaris, who is running for Athens mayor, is free on bail pending trial on charges of participating in a criminal group. All have denied any wrongdoing.

The government has resisted calls to ban Golden Dawn outright, which would require a constitutional amendment. Having lived through decades of authoritarian government after World War Two, including a seven-year military dictatorship, Greece now bars only convicted criminals from contesting elections.

Reuters: Rallying miners hoist European shares to six-year high

LONDON, May 12 (Reuters) - European stocks scaled new six-year highs on Monday, boosted by miners on a bullish note from JPMorgan, while investors also welcomed dovish comments from European Central Bank policymaker Ewald Nowotny.

Miners <.SXPP> were the best performers across Europe after JPMorgan upgraded them to "overweight" from "underweight", saying it was shifting funds into the beaten-down mining sector from autos, which have seen strong share price gains.

Rio Tinto <RIO.L> and BHP Billiton <BLT.L>, which the investment bank viewed as the most attractive stocks in the sector, climbed 4 percent and 2.4 percent respectively, against a 2.3 percent rise for the sector as a whole.

"We believe the risk-reward for miners is improving ... We are taking funds from autos, moving them from OW ('overweight') to N ('neutral'). The sector valuations do not look as attractive any more due to exceptional past performance," JPMorgan said in a note.

In the last 12 months, miners have risen about 5 percent, contrasting with a near 40 percent gain for autos.

The mining sector accounted for around a fifth of the FTSEurofirst 300's <.FTEU3> rise on Monday.

The index was up 0.5 percent at 1,362.49 points by 1054 GMT, a whisker away from a fresh six-year high reached earlier on Monday, at 1,363.05. The euro zone's blue-chip Euro STOXX 50 index <.STOXX50E> also rose 0.5 percent, to 3,199.22.

Comments from ECB policymaker Nowotny also underpinned equity markets, traders said. An interest rate cut alone would probably not be enough to combat low inflation in the euro zone, he said, adding he would favour a "package" of measures.

M&A BOOST

A burst of dealmaking and bids alongside some good news on earnings and the possibility of more stimulus steps from the ECB in June has bolstered European equities in recent weeks.

On Monday, France's Alstom <ALSO.PA> rallied after Germany said it would support a takeover by Siemens <SIEGn.DE>.

Alstom - which is reviewing a bid by U.S. giant General Electric <GE.N> for its energy businesses - climbed 2.7 percent after Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Saturday the German government would support a tie-up between Siemens and Alstom if the companies decide that it would make sense. [ID:nL6N0NW08K]

But the market might have reached a ceiling, for now.

Lofty valuations are preventing investors from putting more money to work in equities. The rebound in corporate dealmaking could go some way to offset this situation, but some analysts are taking a bearish short-term view on markets.

The STOXX Europe 600 trades on a 12-month forward price/earnings ratio of about 14 times, against its 10-year average of around 12 times, Thomson Reuters Datastream shows.

China Stocks Lead Emerging Shares Higher

"The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index (HSCEI) jumped 1.4 percent by 12:04 p.m. inTokyo, while the Shanghai Composite Index climbed 1.7 percent. The MSCI Emerging Markets Index added 0.3 percent. Standard & Poor’s 500 Index futures added 0.2 percent after the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed to a record May 9. Nickel jumped 3.9 percent, headed for its highest close since 2012, and brent added 0.3 percent. Wheat futures slumped 1.9 percent amid increasing inventories.

China’s government will relax foreign-investment limits in listed companies, increase quotas for capital flow, and develop commodities trading tools, according to a May 9 statement that didn’t include details. Chinese President Xi Jinping said Asia’s largest economy needs to adapt to a “new normal” on growth, according to a state news report. About 90 percent of voters in Donetsk backed a plan to break away from Ukraine, RIA Novosti reported. European Central Bank Vice President Vitor Constancio and other officials speak today in Vienna".

“The announcement is good for the market in the medium and long term and raises the government’s attention to the stock market to the state level,” said Wu Kan, a fund manager at Shanghai-based Dragon Life Insurance Co., which oversees about $3.3 billion. “This will boost the confidence of the market.”

Source: Blomberg

Xinhua: China's housing sector to enter "autumn season": expert

 China's property market is entering an "autumn season" marked by a reasonable drop in house prices, an expert said Sunday.

"The property industry is indeed experiencing a turning point at present, but there will not be a sharp decline like the one that appeared in the United States in 2007 and 2008," Li Daokui, professor with Tsinghua University and a former advisor to China's central bank, said at a forum.

The market will enter an "autumn," but not a "winter," Li said.

Chinese homeowners are not likely to sell off their property as many Americans did ahead of the financial crisis, he said.

Since the beginning of this year, the country's formerly red-hot property market showed increasing signs of cooling down, igniting worries about a plunge in home prices this year.

Figures from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed the total area of commercial property sold in the first quarter dropped 3.8 percent year on year, and combined sales revenue dropped 5.2 percent.

Home prices in major Chinese cities grew at a slower pace in March, with fewer cities reporting month-on-month price gains, according to the NBS.

Source: XINhua

China establishes new financial think tank

China has set up a state finance institute, expected to become the country's leading financial think tank, to address increasing complexity and the country's progress in opening-up and reform.

The institute, to be operated by the PBC School of Finance under Tsinghua University, was co-founded by the university and China's major financial regulators, including the People's Bank of China and three top watchdogs for the banking, stock and insurance sectors.

Liu Hongru, former deputy governor of the central bank and the first chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, said on Saturday that the country's financial reform has entered a new phase to build an internationalized and market-based sector.

He said he hopes the institute will strengthen research efforts and produce concrete results to tackle the complicated circumstances confronting the country's financial development.

Source: Xinhua

More lock-up Chinese shares eligible for trade

The total value of lock-up shares becoming eligible for trade on China's stock market this week will rise slightly from the previous week, according to the country's two stock exchanges.

From Monday to Friday, 25 listed companies on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges will see shares worth 19.4 billion yuan (3.15 billion U.S. dollars) released to the market after lock-up agreements expire.

The amount is slightly higher than the total value of 18.3 billion yuan that became tradable during the previous week.

Under China's market rules, major shareholders of non-tradable stocks are subject to a lock-up period of one or two years before they are permitted to sell their shares.

A rise in newly unlocked shares will put some downward pressure on the market as it means an increase in stock supply.

Source: Xinhua

Xinhua: Company's drilling activities are within Chinese waters: official

The drilling activities of China Oilfield Services Limited (COSL) are located only 17 nautical miles (some 31 kilometers) from China's Zhongjian Island, completely within the country's territorial waters, an official has said.

Yi Xianliang, Deputy Director-General of the Department of Boundary and Ocean Affairs of the Foreign Ministry of China, told reporters on Friday that the Chinese side was "deeply surprised and shocked" by Vietnam's intensive attempts since May 2 to disrupt the Chinese company's normal drilling activities in the waters off China's Xisha Islands.

The Xisha Islands are an inherent part of China's territory and there is not any dispute about it, said the official.

The operations undertaken by COSL are only 17 nautical miles from Zhongjian Island, while they are as far as 130-150 nautical miles (241-278 kilometers) from Vietnam's coastline, he said.

Yi said Chinese enterprises started operations in the area ten years ago and in the time period from May to June 2013, a Chinese company carried out three-dimensional seismic operations there as well.

The ongoing operations are a normal follow-up to those past operations, he added.

Yi said the Chinese company's operations are completely within the mandate of China's sovereignty, sovereign rights and jurisdiction, and that Vietnam's harassment of the company's normal activities has seriously violated China's sovereignty, sovereign rights and jurisdiction, and gravely affected the production and safety of China's drilling rig.

It has caused unnecessary trouble for the China-Vietnam relationship, he added.

Faced with the harassment, the Chinese side had to strengthen security on the spot to stop the Vietnamese side's behavior and ensure the operations as well as navigation security.

"We demand the Vietnamese side sincerely respect China's legitimate rights, return to a rational track, immediately stop all forms of harassment and withdraw all its vessels and personnel from the area," said the Chinese official.

Source: Xinhua

China should adapt to new norm of growth: Xi

- Chinese President Xi Jinping said Saturday that the country should adapt to new norm for its economic growth and be cool-minded amid slowdown in the world's second-largest economy.

Xi made the remark during his inspection tour to central China's Henan Province from Friday to Saturday.

"China is still in a significant period of strategic opportunity. We must boost our confidence, adapt to the new normal condition based on the characteristics of China's economic growth in the current phase and stay cool-minded," Xi said.

The country's economy has gradually slowed since the international financial crisis in 2008. Its economy expanded by 7.7 percent in both 2012 and 2013, the slowest pace since 1999.

However, China should also attach great significance to preventing diversified risks for its economy and take timely countermeasures to reduce potential negative effects, Xi said.

"The basic conditions for sustaining the country's growth have not changed, so we should stick to the fundamental principle of seeking progresses while maintaining stability in economic work," he said.

The government must continue to coordinate the relations of stabilizing growth, promoting reforms, adjusting structure, improving people's livelihood and preventing risks so as to ensure sound economic growth and social stability, according to Xi.

Xi's words are in line with recent message from some other senior officials concerning the direction of China's economic policies.

Premier Li Keqiang said at a forum in Hainan Province last month that China will not resort to strong short-term stimulus policies just because of temporary economic fluctuations, but rather pay more attention to sound development in the medium and long run.

China will seek growth impetus from deepening reforms, adjusting economic structure and improving people's livelihood, the premier said.

On Saturday, China's central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan reaffirmed the stance at a conference in Beijing, saying that macroeconomic policies should be stable and no massive stimulus should be taken at present.

Zhou urged for more accurate judgment about the present economic situation, arguing that short-term economic figures may not be sufficient to help come to conclusions.

China's economic growth slowed to a six-quarter low of 7.4 percent in the first quarter of the year, down from a growth of 7.7 percent in the final quarter of 2013.

In spite of the slowdown, the pace was within a reasonable range, as the government has set the annual growth target for this year at about 7.5 percent.

During the two-day inspection, Xi visited rural areas, companies and the inland port in Zhengzhou, one of the terminals for a railway connecting the city with Europe to facilitate cargo transportation.

He stressed the significance of agriculture after inspecting a pilot area for high-standard grain production in the city of Kaifeng, saying that grain safety and the work of agriculture, farmers and rural areas are important foundation for all other government work.

Xi lauded the independent innovation at the China Railway Engineering Equipment Group Co., Ltd. after visiting an assembly plant of the company.

"Equipment manufacturing is the backbone of a country's manufacturing industry, but weakness still exists in many aspects of China's equipment manufacturing," Xi said.

China needs to boost investment, enhance research and development efforts to accelerate the development of the sector and gain a say in terms of advanced technology in the world, he said.

Through innovation and technological development, the country should push for the transformation from "Made in China" to "Created in China," from "China speed" to "China quality" and from "Chinese products" to "Chinese brands," according to Xi.

Source: Xinhua

WSJ: Jim O'Neill on EM January "mass crisis", China,Next Eleven,Russia and indifference on US markets

   Interview in the WSJ:
 "It was more than amusing when there was this crazy view around some mass crisis in the emerging world in January which turned out to be, surprise surprise, nonsense.
   In fact in 8 of the Next Eleven Countries*, their stock markets have had double digits returns since the beginning of the year.
  He is very positive on Chinese consumer related stocks and global consumer stocks
  He considers the Russian stock market very interesting because it is so cheap , where he is personally staying away till Putin makes clear his intentions on Ukraine, although these events have made him very popular in Russia. He will be looking closely to the Russian market and see when the fundamentals prevail.
  He is positive on Indonesia and India.
  And in Africa he is positive on Nigeria
   He like China's consumer related stocks and likes peripheral Europe
   He's indifferent to the U.S. Stock market. He sticks with the five day rule for the S&P, whenever the stock market goes down for the first five days of a year, which the S&P did this year it will be a down year for the year as a whole. The U.S. market could go up or down".


.*The Next Eleven (known also by the numeronym N-11) are the eleven countries – Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Mexico,Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines, Turkey, South Korea, and Vietnam – identified by Goldman Sachs investment bank and economistJim O'Neill in a research paper as having a high potential of becoming, along with the BRICs, the world's largest economies in the 21st century. 

WSJ: The Market’s Rough Rotation.

       The WSJ reports,"former market leaders such as biotechnology and Internet-related stocks have fallen 25% and more from early-year highs. Many once-strong small stocks have taken hits, too. Money is shifting to safer, dividend-paying stocks such as utilities and telecom stocks.

Broad indexes, meanwhile, have been in a rut all year. The Dow Jones Industrial Average hit a record 16583.34 Friday, but it is up just seven points, or 0.04%, since the end of December.

The big question: How bad can the selling get? In some past rotations, trouble for the highflyers brought down the broad market. In others, the broad market held up well. After studying the historical data, many analysts and money managers think this rotation still could damage the broad market, but not as badly as in some past cases".

“I think it is going to be one of the headwinds that prevent us from motoring higher from here,” said Leo Grohowski, chief investment officer at BNY Mellon Wealth Management, which oversees $185 billion in New York. He says stocks can rise a modest 4% this year and continue rising next year, but like many people, he worries that the process could be bumpy.

Ned Davis Research in Venice, Fla., has conducted several studies of past market rotations and found two varieties: the really nasty and the merely difficult.

"Since 1989, the bad ones were in times of economic trouble, meaning the early 2000s and 2008. Then, each sharp decline by market leaders led a drop of 27% to 48% in the S&P 500 Index. But from 1989 to 1999, when the economy was more stable, rotations away from market leaders led to more-modest broad-market declines: 5% to 12%, with one of 17%".

"Bank of America Merrill Lynch, meanwhile, found stocks, commodities, interest-rates and the dollar are acting much as in 2005 and 2006. Back then, stock indexes didn’t peak until October 2007. If the comparison proves accurate, trouble could lurk, but not immediately.

Of course, sifting through market history is an inexact science at best. The analysts who do these studies all warn that they offer reference points, not predictions".

"No one knows how much pressure investors will feel to sell in coming months. If some widely held stocks fall heavily and investors using borrowed money get demands for more collateral, they could be forced to sell other holdings, provoking a broader decline".
 
   No one has said there won't be a correction this time.
     Too much complacency, is a bad omen.

Ukraine: pro-Russia separatists set for victory in eastern region referendum

"There were no international observers, no up-to-date electoral lists, and the ballot papers were photocopies. With heavily armed men keeping watch, ambiguous wording on the ballot slip and a bungled Ukrainian attempt to stop voting in one town that ended with one dead, it was clear that this was no ordinary referendum.

But as pro-Russia separatists announced a landslide victory for the proposition that called for the creation of two new, quasi-independent entities in eastern Ukraine, it was equally clear that Sunday's voting marked a new watershed in the country's crisis.

One of the separatist leaders promptly served warning that all Ukrainian troops on his territory would become illegal.

"All military troops on our territory after the official announcement of referendum results will be considered illegal and declared occupiers," Denis Pushilin said. "It is necessary to form state bodies and military authorities as soon as possible."

The head of the de facto electoral commission said on Sunday night that nearly 90% of voters in the eastern Ukrainian region of Donetsk voted for self-rule. "89%, that's it," Roman Lyagin said"

Source: theguardian.

Projections of U.S. Natural gas Use in Transportation and Manufacturing

U.S. Shale Gas Production Growth Projection through 2040

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US Growth in Natural Gas and Oil Production from Shale and Other Tight Resources

Jack White "Lazaretto"

John Lennon "Instant Karma"