“STMicroelectronics NV (STM) fell the most in more than two months in Paris after Europe’s largest semiconductor maker reduced its gross margin forecast because of an arbitration award.
STMicroelectronics declined as much as 5.9 percent to 5.44 euros, the biggest intraday drop since Jan. 24, and was down 5.7 percent at 5.45 euros as of 1:39 p.m.”
Comments »“China reported an unexpected trade surplus last month as import growth trailed forecasts, underscoring risks of a deeper slowdown in the world’s second- largest economy.
Inbound shipments rose 5.3 percent, the customs bureau said today, below the 9 percent median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey. Exports increased 8.9 percent from a year earlier, more than forecast, leaving a trade surplus of $5.35 billion, compared with a median projection for a $3.15 billion trade deficit…”
Comments »“The Bank of Japan (8301) refrained from expanding monetary easing to counter deflation, resisting pressure from lawmakers who five days ago rejected a nominee for the policy board.
The central bank kept the key rate between zero and 0.1 percent in Tokyo today. It left its 30 trillion yen ($368 billion) asset-purchase fund and 35 trillion yen credit-lending program unchanged, in line with the forecasts of 12 of 13 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News.
The yen strengthened and stocks pared gains after the unanimous decision, the first since the upper house of parliament blocked the appointment of BNP Paribas SA economist Ryutaro Kono after some lawmakers said he wouldn’t support stronger measures. The central bank may be preserving its ammunition for later in the month, when its revised price projections are likely to show a goal of 1 percent inflation is not in sight.
“The BOJ held off on additional easing to show it isn’t willing to be pushed around by politicians,” said Junko Nishioka, a Tokyo-based analyst at RBS Securities Japan Ltd. who has worked for the central bank. “The BOJ will be under pressure to ease policy at its next board meeting because of its close-to-zero percent inflation outlook.”
Comments »“Spain’s efforts to calm investors with an additional 10 billion euros ($13 billion) of budget cuts in education and health failed to stem concerns the nation may be the fourth euro member to need a bailout.
The yield on Spain’s 10-year benchmark bond surged nearly 20 basis points to 5.94 percent today as Economy Minister Luis de Guindos declined to rule out a rescue for Spain and Bank of Spain Governor Miguel Angel Fernandez Ordonez said the nation’s lenders may need additional capital if the economy weakens more than expected…”
Comments »Aristolochic acid (AA) is a potent human carcinogen that is found naturally in Aristolochia plants, an ingredient common in botanical Asian remedies for aiding weight loss, easing joint pain and improving stomach ailments.
Comments »
“Gains in U.S. employment last month that were less than economists forecast indicate it’s too early to declare the economy self-sustaining, according to Pacific Investment Management Co.’s Mohamed A. El-Erian.
“We have structural problems all over our economy,” El-Erian, chief executive officer at Pimco in Newport Beach, California, said in an “In the Loop” interview with Betty Liu on Bloomberg Television.
“The duration of unemployment is at record highs. When it comes to hiring for future business, companies are still hesitant.”
Treasurys rallied on April 6 after the Labor Department reported that U.S. employers added 120,000 jobs in March after a revised increase of 240,000 in the previous month. The median forecast of economists in a Bloomberg News survey was for a gain of 205,000. The unemployment rate fell to 8.2 percent, a three-year low, as people left the work force.
Yields on 10-year notes decreased 13 basis points after the payrolls figures in the biggest daily drop since Oct. 31. The yields slid as much as three basis points Monday to 2.02 percent, the lowest level since March 12.
Europe is also a risk to the economic outlook, El-Erian said. Treasurys gained last week partly on concern the debt crisis is worsening as rising borrowing costs make it harder to finance deficits in nations such as Spain.
“No one knows what Europe is going to look like in five years,” El-Erian said. “There’s caution out there, and it’s understandable.”
Pimco lowered its $252 billion Total Return Fund’s proportion of U.S. government securities to 37 percent of assets in February from 38 percent in the prior month, according to a report on the company’s website.”
Comments »Hearing and seeing are two different things. Analyst have stated that they expect profit margins to rise. Here is a graphic of that interpretation that will make your jaw drop.
“Let’s start off with a chart you’ve seen a bunch of times on these pages: It shows the record-high levels of profit margins, and the expectations among analysts that they’ll go even higher.
Click to enlarge.
The basic gist is that current bullish assumptions are based on a trend that at least taken at the simplest face value seems unrealistic.
Well, here’s another similarly jaw-dropping margins chart.
It shows the percentage of stocks that are assumed to be able to produce a margin expansion going into 2013.
Morgan Stanley
89% of companies are expected to expand their margins in 2013.
With fiscal and monetary tightening possible, is that remotely possible?
Perhaps not.”
Comments »Instagram was well on its way to becoming a platform claimed to be better than Facebook itself. Good move on Facebook’s part.
BI interviewed some people and here is what they said.
Comments »“Earnings season kicks off tomorrow when aluminum giant Alcoa reports quarterly results.
Although most analysts see Alcoa posting a loss for the period, Bank of America is out with a new list of companies it sees beating both earnings and revenue forecasts.
Current estimates imply earnings growth of 3 percent, and top line growth of 4 percent for the S&P 500.
Lead analyst Dan Suzuki believes extremely low expectations heading into the quarter may give a number of firms a fair runway to beat.
“Tech remains one of our most preferred sectors, and has the highest proportion of stocks on our positive surprise screen for [the first quarter],” Dan Suzuki says.”In terms of growth expectations for the quarter, excluding Financials, Tech and Industrials have the highest year over year earnings growth expectations while Materials, Telecom and Utilities have expected earnings declines.”
Comments »
Facebook has just announced that it will acquire Instagram, the popular mobile photo-sharing service for $1 billion in cash and shares.
The social networking site posted on the acquisition, its biggest yet, on its site, as well as on CEO and co-founder Mark Zuckerberg’s Timeline on Facebook.
Zuckerberg promised that Facebook would keep the company independent and that such an acquisition would be rare for the company, which is set to go public soon.
“This is an important milestone for Facebook because it’s the first time we’ve ever acquired a product and company with so many users,” he wrote. “We don’t plan on doing many more of these, if any at all.”
Here is the full release from Facebook:
Comments »Facebook to Acquire Instagram
MENLO PARK, CALIF. — April 9, 2012 — Facebook announced today that it has reached an agreement to acquire Instagram, a fun, popular photo-sharing app for mobile devices.
The total consideration for San Francisco-based Instagram is approximately $1 billion in a combination of cash and shares of Facebook. The transaction, which is subject to customary closing conditions, is expected to close later this quarter.
Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook, posted about the transaction on his Timeline:
I’m excited to share the news that we’ve agreed to acquire Instagram and that their talented team will be joining Facebook.
For years, we’ve focused on building the best experience for sharing photos with your friends and family. Now, we’ll be able to work even more closely with the Instagram team to also offer the best experiences for sharing beautiful mobile photos with people based on your interests.
We believe these are different experiences that complement each other. But in order to do this well, we need to be mindful about keeping and building on Instagram’s strengths and features rather than just trying to integrate everything into Facebook.
That’s why we’re committed to building and growing Instagram independently. Millions of people around the world love the Instagram app and the brand associated with it, and our goal is to help spread this app and brand to even more people.
We think the fact that Instagram is connected to other services beyond Facebook is an important part of the experience. We plan on keeping features like the ability to post to other social networks, the ability to not share your Instagrams on Facebook if you want, and the ability to have followers and follow people separately from your friends on Facebook.
These and many other features are important parts of the Instagram experience and we understand that. We will try to learn from Instagram’s experience to build similar features into our other products. At the same time, we will try to help Instagram continue to grow by using Facebook’s strong engineering team and infrastructure.
This is an important milestone for Facebook because it’s the first time we’ve ever acquired a product and company with so many users. We don’t plan on doing many more of these, if any at all. But providing the best photo sharing experience is one reason why so many people love Facebook and we knew it would be worth bringing these two companies together.
We’re looking forward to working with the Instagram team and to all of the great new experiences we’re going to be able to build together.
For years, we’ve focused on building the best experience for sharing photos with your friends and family. Now, we’ll be able to work even more closely with the Instagram team to also offer the best experiences for sharing beautiful mobile photos with people based on your interests.
We believe these are different experiences that complement each other. But in order to do this well, we need to be mindful about keeping and building on Instagram’s strengths and features rather than just trying to integrate everything into Facebook.
That’s why we’re committed to building and growing Instagram independently. Millions of people around the world love the Instagram app and the brand associated with it, and our goal is to help spread this app and brand to even more people.
We think the fact that Instagram is connected to other services beyond Facebook is an important part of the experience. We plan on keeping features like the ability to post to other social networks, the ability to not share your Instagrams on Facebook if you want, and the ability to have followers and follow people separately from your friends on Facebook.
These and many other features are important parts of the Instagram experience and we understand that. We will try to learn from Instagram’s experience to build similar features into our other products. At the same time, we will try to help Instagram continue to grow by using Facebook’s strong engineering team and infrastructure.
This is an important milestone for Facebook because it’s the first time we’ve ever acquired a product and company with so many users. We don’t plan on doing many more of these, if any at all. But providing the best photo sharing experience is one reason why so many people love Facebook and we knew it would be worth bringing these two companies together.
We’re looking forward to working with the Instagram team and to all of the great new experiences we’re going to be able to build together.
