Comments »A plastic surgeon has created an app that performs virtual plastic surgery on photos to show women curious about breast implants what it would be like to have a different bra size.
The free iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad app, called iAugment, uses 3D imaging technology to stimulate different implant sizes and allows users to visualize what larger breasts would look like on them in just a few seconds.
The U.S. dollar is going to be a “total disaster” in the long term because of the country’s position as the world’s largest debtor and the policies being pursued by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke, according to investor Jim Rogers.
The Chinese yuan is likely to be a “safe” currency, although it is difficult for investors to buy, Rogers, the chairman of Rogers Holdings, told a conference in Edinburgh.
“The situation is getting worse and I expect to see severe problems in the U.S.,” Rogers said today. “Dr Bernanke doesn’t understand economics, he doesn’t understand finance, he only understands printing money and we can’t quadruple the amount of money in the next slowdown.”
Source: Bloomberg
Comments »Hedge-fund manager Steve Cohen has been “net neutral” on US equities for the past month…
Source: CNBC
Comments »The Heng Seng is down 0.83% and Seoul is leading to the downside, off by 1.36%. Crude is rebounding, following Wednesday’s drubbing, now up 1.3%.
Comments »Spreads are climbing, now up 1.3% to $30.
Comments »Unreal
Comments »Reports Q3 (Apr) earnings of $0.42 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.05 better than the Thomson Reuters consensus of $0.37; revenues rose 4.8% year/year to $10.87 bln vs the $10.86 bln consensus; non-GAAP gross margin of 63.9% vs. the 62.0% consensus. Cash flows from operations were $3.0 billion for the third quarter of fiscal 2011, compared with $2.6 billion for the second quarter of fiscal 2011, and compared with $3.0 billion for the third quarter of fiscal 2010. Cash and cash equivalents and investments were $43.4 billion at the end of the third quarter. Cisco repurchased 54 million shares of common stock under the stock repurchase program at an average price of $18.39 per share for an aggregate purchase price of $1.0 billion in Q3. “This quarter played out as we expected. We have acknowledged our challenges. We know what we have to do. We have a clear game plan, and we are a company with a track record of market-shaping innovation. We thank our shareholders, employees, customers and partners as we transition to the next phase of Cisco.”
Comments »For the year of 2011, costs are up 7.3%. This trend will be continuing in 2012, I can assure you.
Comments »Health care costs for a family of four rose again in 2011, with employees paying a much larger share of the rising expenses, according to a new industry report Wednesday.
American families who are insured through their jobs average health care costs of $19,393 this year, up 7.3%, or $1,319 from last year, according to the seventh-annual Milliman Medical Index from independent actuarial and health care consulting firm Milliman Inc.
More significantly, employers are making workers shoulder an even bigger share of total health care expenses.
Of the $1,319 annual increase, workers’ out-of-pocket costs this year rose 9.2% compared to a 6.6% increase last year and their payroll deductions for insurance coverage rose 9.3% compared to an 8% increase in 2010.
However, employers’ share of workers’ health care costs fell 6% in 2010, compared to 8% the year prior.
Of the $1,319 more that companies and workers are spending on health costs, employers are paying $641.
Employees are shouldering a bigger chunk, paying $403 in payroll contributions and $275 in additional costs.
Of the $19,393 overall annual cost, employees’ share is inching closer to 50%, said Lorraine Mayne, principal and consulting actuary with Milliman.
“Employees are paying $8,000 of the $19,000. That’s a decent amount much larger than other areas of consumer spending,” said Mayne.
“What we’ve observed in the past few years is employers have increasingly been offering health plans with higher deductibles and co-insurance, co-payment limits,” she said.
Companies are doing this in order to control their own costs and to force workers to use medical care more selectively, she said.
Health reform so far has had very limited impact on curtailing these costs, said Mayne.
While reform’s new provisions such as eliminating lifetime benefit limits and removing copays on preventive care have changed rules for who pays for cost of care, they haven’t made any impact on the total costs of care, she said.
Most expensive parts of your health care: The report showed that physician costs represent 33% of a family’s overall health cost.
Elsewhere, hospital inpatient costs account for 31%, out patient costs 17% and pharmacy costs 15% and other expenses such as for medical equipment about 4%.
Milliman also looked at 14 cities across the United States where health care expenses are substantially higher than the national average.
Among them, Miami, New York City, Chicago and Boston ranked as the top four where health care costs for an insured family of four is more than 100% higher than the national average of $19,393.
But those same costs in Phoenix, Atlanta, and Seattle are under $19,000, the report said.
The Milliman Index is based on industry data and a survey of more than 4,000 employers.
“For weeks, South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley has been relentlessly trying to draw attention to what is arguably the biggest business story of the year – the fight between the federal government and Boeing.
The South Carolina Republican was in Washington yesterday, where Republican senators joined her in calling on the Obama administration to take a position on the National Labor Relations Board’s complaint against the airline manufacturer.
The NLRB suit claims that Boeing’s decision to build its 787 Dreamliner plant in South Carolina was retaliation against the unionized workforce in Washington state. Labor officials say the move amounts to unfair bargaining and illegal retaliation against worker strikes.”
Comments »Facebook had a leak…ideud
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B37wW9CGWyY 450 300] Comments »An excerpt from the full conversation is below:
Comments »Fearing runaway inflation and a much higher than expected trade surplus in March, China is changing its tune on currency appreciation. Chinese officials won’t make any official statement changes but “there was a marked change in the tenor of conversations over China’s yuan policy from previous negotiations” at this week’s high-level talks between China and the U.S., reports the Wall Street Journal.
China’s enormous trade surplus raised eyebrows on Tuesday after it grew dramatically in April to $11.4 billion from only $139 million in March, according to data from the General Administration of Customs. The wide spread is likely the result of China’s policies to curb “domestic overheating and what they saw as excessive credit growth,” says Martin Wolf, Financial Times economics commentator, in the accompanying video.
In the interview with the Daily Ticker’s Aaron Task, Wolf notes China will likely allow the yuan to appreciate at a much faster clip, but that’s not because of U.S. pressure. “In the end, the Chinese do what is convenient and appropriate for them and they don’t pay much attention to the rest of the world,” he says. So far, China has stuck to the plan it laid out last year to boost the value of the currency by about 0.5% a month. That may soon change as Beijing policymakers do what they can to battle inflation.
Due to big drops in the underlying commodities, equities inside the basic materials sector are being dismantled.
This is where some of the damage can be found:
No. Ticker % Change Sector
2 SSRI -11.64 BASIC MATERIALS
3 HDY -11.28 BASIC MATERIALS
4 ALJ -11.16 BASIC MATERIALS
5 UXG -10.94 BASIC MATERIALS
6 SUF -10.89 BASIC MATERIALS
7 EXK -9.97 BASIC MATERIALS
8 AG -9.03 BASIC MATERIALS
9 WTI -8.87 BASIC MATERIALS
10 GMO -8.56 BASIC MATERIALS
11 PQ -8.34 BASIC MATERIALS
12 CWEI -8.24 BASIC MATERIALS
13 TRGL -7.87 BASIC MATERIALS
14 COIN -7.39 BASIC MATERIALS
15 QMM -7.02 BASIC MATERIALS
16 BAS -6.94 BASIC MATERIALS
17 GPL -6.86 BASIC MATERIALS
18 HNR -6.83 BASIC MATERIALS
19 BOOM -6.79 BASIC MATERIALS
20 SLW -6.77 BASIC MATERIALS
21 AXAS -6.68 BASIC MATERIALS
22 REE -6.66 BASIC MATERIALS
23 AAU -6.64 BASIC MATERIALS
24 FXEN -6.39 BASIC MATERIALS
25 BAA -6.33 BASIC MATERIALS
26 MHR -6.31 BASIC MATERIALS
“In his new note, GMO’s Jeremy Grantham starts out pretty blunt:
Lighten up on risk-taking now and don’t wait for October 1 as previously recommended. But, as always, if you listen to my advice, be prepared to be early!
Grantham notes an assortment of challenges: Geopolitical stress, long-term impact of the Japanese earthquake, the oil shock, and general commodity increases dragging down economic growth. etc.
He even introduces his own version of the “Sell In May” idea:….”
Comments »Gasoline -6%
Silver -6%
Corn -4%
Sugar -3%
Lithium -3%
Oil -2.7%
Coffee -2.5%
Losing control of Alibaba.
Full article
