The Nightmare Carnival Cruise is Over, Passengers Rejoice on Dry Land

“MOBILE, Ala. (AP) — Passengers who finally escaped the disabledCarnival cruise ship Triumph were checking into hotels early Friday for a hot shower, food and sleep or boarding buses for a long haul home after five numbing days at sea on a ship left powerless by an engine-room fire.

The vacation ship carrying some 4,200 people docked late Thursday in Mobile after a painfully slow approach that took most of the day. Passengers raucously cheered after days of what they described as overflowing toilets, food shortages and foul odors.

“Sweet Home Alabama!” read one of the homemade signs passengers affixed alongside the 14-story ship as many celebrated at deck rails lining several levels of the stricken ship. The ship’s horn loudly blasted several times as four tugboats pulled the crippled ship to shore at about 9:15 p.m. CST. Some gave a thumbs-up sign and flashes from cameras and cellphones lit the night.

Less than four hours later, the last passenger had disembarked.

Some, like 56-year-old Deborah Knight of Houston, had no interest in boarding one of about 100 buses assembled to carry passengersto hotels in New Orleans or Texas. Her husband Seth drove in from Houston and they checked into a downtown Mobile hotel.

“I want a hot shower and a daggum Whataburger,” said Knight, who was wearing a bathrobe over her clothes as her bags were unloaded from her husband’s pickup truck. She said she was afraid to eat the food on board and had gotten sick while on the ship.

At the Mobile airport, a dozen passengers from the Triumph slept on couches for a few hours before catching flights Friday morning….”

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“PARIS (Reuters) – Airbus has dropped lithium-ion batteries of the type that forced the grounding ofBoeing’s 787 Dreamliner and will use traditional nickel-cadmium batteries in its crucially important next passenger jet, the A350.

The European planemaker said on Friday it had taken the decision to adopt the batteries used on existing models such as the A380 superjumbo in order to prevent delays in the A350’s entry to service next year.

Reuters had reported that Airbus was considering such a move to limit the risks surrounding the development of its $15 billion airliner.

“We want to mature the lithium-ion technology but we are making this decision today to protect the A350’s entry-into-service schedule,” an Airbus spokeswoman said.

Industry executives, insurance companies and safety officials had told Reuters the technology’s predictability was being questioned at senior levels as investigators struggle to find the cause of incidents that led to the grounding of Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner.

These included a fire on board a parked 787 in Boston and an in-flight problem on another plane in Japan.

The A350 is due to enter service in the second half of 2014 compared with an initial target of 2012 when it was launched as Europe’s answer to the lightweight 787 Dreamliner.

The industry’s fear is that the failure to identify the “root cause” of the burning battery incidents leaves too much uncertainty over whether regulators will certify planes as safe when relying on the powerful but temperamental power packs….”

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“Wells Fargo & Co., the lender that’s expanding its securities unit to challenge Wall Street competitors, is broadening U.K. commercial property lending as European banks are forced to retreat.

“Coming in now, when there is scarcity of capital, we can start to bank U.K. companies and have a very good chance of developing a long-term relationship,” Chip Fedalen, head of institutional and metro-markets at the bank’s commercial real- estate division, said in a telephone interview. “We want to be there forever.”

Wells Fargo Chief Executive Officer John Stumpf is looking beyond the U.S. after becoming the nation’s leading home-lender, biggest commercial-property servicer and owner of the largest retail-branch network. The bank is searching forrevenue to extend three years of record profits amid weak loan demand and shrinking lending margins, and has purchased debt portfolios from European lenders exiting U.S. markets.

The San Francisco-based bank plans to increase its U.K. business as the amount of real-estate debt maturing in the country this year exceeds available funding by $25 billion, real-estate broker DTZ said in a November report. That funding gap is widening profit margins, attracting debt funds, insurers and other U.S. banks, including Bank of America Corp., who can charge borrowers higher interest rates. It may also help revive the region’s commercial mortgage-backed securities market that’s been largely frozen since 2008.

Luxury Hotels…”

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“West Texas Intermediate oil fell, trimming its ninth weekly gain in 10 weeks. Open interest for the U.S. benchmark grade rose to a record while a report signaled OPEC will cut crude shipments this month.

WTI fell as much 0.7 percent in New York, paring its advance this week to 1.2 percent. Prices gained 0.3 percent yesterday as the number of contracts outstanding rose to the highest level since the futures began trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange in March 1983. OPEC will cut exports by 0.9 percent this month, according to a tanker tracker. Data on U.S. industrial production later today is forecast to show a third- straight month of expansion.

“Fundamentals are acceptably balanced for now,” said Michael Poulsen, an analyst at Global Risk Management Ltd. in Middelfart, Denmark.

Crude for March delivery declined as much as 70 cents to $96.61 a barrel in electronic trading in New York and was at $96.83 at 12:52 p.m. London time. The volume of all futures traded was 32 percent above the 100-day average. Prices are 5.5 percent higher this year.

Brent for April settlement fell 38 cents to $117.62 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. The volume of all futures traded was 25 percent below the 100-day average. The European benchmark grade was at a premium of $20.19 to WTI futures for the same month. The difference was $20.10 yesterday, the narrowest since Feb. 5.

OPEC Cuts…”

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“Tiffany & Co. accused Costco Wholesale Corp. in a lawsuit of selling counterfeit Tiffany diamond engagement rings at discount big-box prices not befitting the mystique of its iconic blue-box.

While Costco sells high-end jewelry from Cartier, Breitling, Chanel and Movado, it isn’t authorized to sell Tiffany items, the New York-based jewelry retailer said in a complaint filed yesterday in federal court in Manhattan.

Tiffany said it was alerted by a customer in November who saw signs offering “Tiffany” rings in a Huntington Beach, California, Costco store.

“Costco had apparently been selling different styles of rings for many years that it has falsely identified on in-store signage as ‘Tiffany,’” according to the complaint.

The Issaquah, Washington-based company, which runs more than 600 warehouse stores, has led customers to believe they were buying authentic Tiffany items at discount prices, Tiffany said. The sales “unlawfully trade off Tiffany’s goodwill and brand awareness,” it said.

‘Tiffany, which has sold trademarked luxury items for 175 years, is seeking to prevent further sales of counterfeit diamond engagement rings as well as unspecified damages associated with prior sales, the company said in the complaint…”

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“Feb. 15 (Bloomberg) — U.K. retail sales unexpectedly fell in January for a second consecutive month as cold weather kept consumers at home and incomes remained under pressure, hurting spending on food, household goods and auto fuel.

Sales including fuel fell 0.6 percent from December, when they dropped a revised 0.3 percent, the Office for National Statistics said today in London. The median forecast of 24 economists in a Bloomberg News survey was for a 0.5 percent increase. From a year earlier, sales declined 0.6 percent.

Bank of England Governor Mervyn King said this week that inflation may accelerate in the coming months, intensifying a squeeze on consumers that has curbed spending. With snowfall also likely to have disrupted construction last month, today’s data raise the possibility that the economy will shrink in the first quarter, according to Rob Wood, a London-based economist at Berenberg Bank….”

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“The Moscow Exchange raised $498 million in the biggest initial share sale on Russia’s bourse since 2007, pricing at the bottom of its target range.

The deal values the exchange at 126.9 billion rubles ($4.2 billion), according to an e-mailed statement today. The shares were priced at 55 rubles each, at the lowest end of the Moscow Exchange’s target range of 55 rubles to 63 rubles. The stock, which trades under the MOEX RX ticker, climbed 0.1 percent to 55.05 rubles, according to data from the exchange….”

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“The yen strengthened for a fourth day against the dollar and the euro weakened as Group of 20 finance chiefs and central bankers met in Moscow. U.S. equity- index futures pared declines before reports on manufacturing and consumer confidence.

Japan’s currency gained 0.2 percent versus the dollar at 7:05 a.m. in New York. The euro retreated 0.3 percent to $1.3222. Standard & Poor’s 500 Index futures slid 0.1 percent and the Stoxx Europe 600 Index swung between gains and losses. Yields on Germany’s 10-year bunds fell for a second day, dropping two basis points to 1.62 percent. Oil declined 0.5 percent in New York, while wheat rose 0.7 percent on increased U.S. exports.

“What we’re seeing right now is a bit of a fright with the G-20 meeting happening in Moscow,” said Sonja Marten, a currency strategist at DZ Bank AG in Frankfurt. “The trend is going to resume and dollar-yen is going to go back up quite possibly next week once the G-20 is behind us.”

Japan’s ruling party lawmaker Kozo Yamamoto said that a race to devalue currencies would spur global growth and a rate of 95 yen to 100 yen per dollar would be appropriate. European Central Bank council member Jens Weidmann said an appreciating euro alone won’t trigger a cut in interest rates. Reports today will probably show U.S. industrial output and consumer confidence increased while manufacturing in the New York region contracted for a seventh month, according to economists surveyed by Bloomberg.

Yen Gains…”

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“New Zealand’s dollar touched a 2 1/2-year high against Australia’s as the smaller nation’s retail sales grew faster than economists predicted, boosting bets its central bank will raise interest rates.

The so-called kiwi climbed to its strongest in 17 months against the greenback as non-resident holdings of the nation’s sovereign debt rose to the most since October 2009. The Australian and New Zealand dollars are both poised to gain against the U.S. currency this week as speculation global growth will quicken boosts demand for higher-yielding assets.

“The New Zealand economy is in recovery and outperforming its peers, and the kiwi dollar is likely to push higher,” said Mike Jones, a currency strategist at Bank of New Zealand in Wellington. “The Reserve Bank has a mild tightening bias, and in a world of easy policy and quantitative easing, a tightening bias is all you need to stand out from the pack.”

New Zealand’s currency traded at NZ$1.2180 per Aussie dollar at 4:52 p.m. in Sydney, after climbing to NZ$1.2143, the highest since July 2010. It added 0.1 percent to 85.12 U.S. cents after touching 85.34, the most since September 2011. The kiwi advanced 1.9 percent against the greenback this week. It lost 0.3 percent to 78.81 yen today.

Australia’s dollar rose 0.1 percent to $1.0366, poised for a 0.5 percent weekly advance. It slid 0.2 percent to 95.98 yen and has gained 0.4 percent this week.

The New Zealand dollar’s trade-weighted index rose as much as 0.5 percent to 77.50, the highest since it was freely floated in 1985.

Swap Rates…”

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“Emerging-market stock volatility fell to the lowest level since 1997 as the benchmark index headed for the biggest weekly gain in a month. Indonesian stocks rose to a record, while shares in Russia fell.

Geely Automobile Holdings Ltd. advanced to the highest level in more than two years in Hong Kong, extending yesterday’s gain after January sales jumped to a record. PT Bank Rakyat Indonesia led gains in the nation’s benchmark index in Jakarta. Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd.slumped as Bank of America-Merrill Lynch downgraded the stock. OAO Sberbank dropped by the most in three months in Moscow.

The MSCI Emerging Markets Index climbed for a fourth day, adding 0.1 percent to 1,066.53 at 4:55 p.m. in Hong Kong, poised for the longest winning streak since Jan. 3. The measure’s 50- day volatility sank to 8.06 today, the lowest level since July 15, 1997, data compiled by Bloomberg show. The gauge has increased 0.5 percent this week, heading for its biggest weekly gain since the five days ended Jan. 18. About five stocks dropped for every four that increased.

“The market is very quiet and will have to be driven by earnings,” Vivien Loh, who helps manage the equivalent of $420 million at Phillip Capital Management Sdn., said by phone from Kuala Lumpur.

About 60 percent of companies in the emerging-stocks gauge that have reported earnings for the quarter ended Dec. 31 have missed estimates, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Trading Volumes…”

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“Japanese ruling party lawmaker Kozo Yamamoto said a race to devalue currencies would spark global growth, dismissing German criticism of Prime MinisterShinzo Abe’s plans for monetary easing which have weakened the yen.

Yamamoto, a member of the Liberal Democratic Party who is close to Abe, said in an interview yesterday that an exchange rate of 95-100 yen to the dollar would be appropriate. The yen has fallen almost 10 percent against its U.S. counterpart since Abe’s LDP won a landslide victory on Dec. 16.

Abe has pushed the Bank of Japan to increase monetary stimulus to overcome more than a decade of deflation. While his administration argues the yen’s fall is a consequence, not a target of his policies, the decline has sparked criticism from German officials including Michael Meister, the parliamentary finance spokesman for Chancellor Angela Merkel’s party.

There is “no problem at all” with the yen falling because of monetary easing, Yamamoto said, citing the research of Columbia University professor Jeffrey Sachs and Koichi Hamada, an emeritus professor at Yale who is an economic adviser to Abe. “It contributes to the stability of the entire economy and to growth,” he said.

The yen weakened after publication of Yamamoto’s comments, before resuming gains to trade 0.4 percent higher at 92.46 per dollar as of 1:11 p.m. in Tokyo.

Germany’s Meister expressed concern in a Jan. 22 interview, saying that competitive devaluation could “create a spiral that hurts us all.” Finance MinisterWolfgang Schaeuble and Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann have also criticized Abe’s policies.

Yen’s Equilibrium…”

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“Group of 20 governments disagreed over the strength of new fiscal goals as they risk missing the targets set three years ago.

After committing at a Toronto summit in 2010 to halve budget deficits by this year, most advanced nations are now facing failure on that score and on a related pledge to stabilize their debt by 2016.

As G-20 finance chiefs meet in Moscow, the challenge now is to find a replacement for the Toronto goals after weak economic growth hamstrung fiscal consolidation worldwide. While German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeubleadvocated “concrete” targets, Russian official Ksenia Yudaevasaid formal commitments would be “counterproductive.”

“We might want to have long-term principles and particular strategies for countries with high deficit levels,” Yudaeva, Russia’s G-20 sherpa, said in an interview. “But I don’t think we need any precise commitments like during Toronto. It should be much more flexible.”

The G-20 will discuss adopting a new deadline for deficit goals and may set 2016 as the new target date, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said today. Given the debt burden of industrial nations, “a credible path of debt reduction is really essential and the positive environment should be used by the G-20 countries,” Schaeuble said.

Fiscal Stance…”

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“A meteor exploded in the skies above Russia’s Urals region, sending shock waves that smashed windows, injuring hundreds of people as an asteroid half the size of a football field approached the Earth.

More than 725 people in the city of Chelyabinsk alone sought attention for injuries, mostly from glass shards, according to the municipal administration. Across the Urals region, 112 were hospitalized after today’s event, Emergencies Minister Vladimir Puchkov told President Vladimir Putin in a televised meeting.

“It’s very much a reminder that we live sometimes in a cosmic shooting gallery,” Alan Fitzsimmons, a professor of astrophysics at Queen’s University in Belfast, Northern Ireland, said by phone from Hawaii, where he is working on the Pan-STARRS project to detect so-called near-Earth objects. “These are natural phenomena that can have dramatic effects.”

Debris hit Earth at three points in the Chelyabinsk region, Vadim Kolesnik, an Interior Ministry official, said by phone. The meteor was at least 1 cubic meter (35 cubic feet), which if made of pure iron could weigh 8 tons, Sergei Lamzin, deputy head of the Sternberg State Astronomical Institute in Moscow, said by phone.

Burning Streaks…”

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World Markets

Currencies

Commodities

USD Libor

Euribor

Yields for Italy, Spain, France,  and Germany …

Carl Icahn bought 14 million shares of Herbalife for a 12.98 percent stake. $HLF is up 20% in after hours. Let the mother of all short squeezes begin.

[youtube://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkionqWPc-Q 450 300]

Link for iPhone users: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkionqWPc-Q

• “…..*SEC SAID TO REVIEW POSSIBLE INSIDER TRADING IN HJ HEINZ :HNZ US

But, of course, this is the SEC…

• *SEC HEINZ REVIEW MAY NOT LEAD TO INVESTIGATION, THE PERSON SAID….”
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“………Here’s the rundown:

• “Tiger Cub” Stephen Mandel dropped his entire Apple stake in the fourth quarter. Lone Pine held more than 805,000 shares at the end of Q3, according to a 13F.
• Dan Loeb’s Third Point LLC also sold its Apple stake in Q4.  Third Point had 710,000 shares at the end of Q3, according to a 13F filing.
• “Tiger Cub” Andreas Halvorsen’s Viking Global dumped its entire Apple stake in Q4, the filing shows.  The hedge fund owned 1,094,000 shares at the end of Q3.
• John Burbank’s Passport Capital sold all its stake in the fourth quarter, according to a 13F. The fund owned 60,736 shares for the quarter ended 9/30/2012, according to a 13F.
• Eric Mindich’s Eton Park Capital Management sold all of its Apple stake in the fourth quarter, according to a 13F filing with the SEC.  The hedge fund had 250,000 shares at the end of the third-quarter, according to that 13F.
• Barry Rosenstein’s JANA Partners sold its stake in Q4. At the end of Q3, the hedge fund held 143,148 shares of the tech giant, the Q3 13F filing shows.
• Leon Cooperman’s Omega Advisors dumped its stake. He previously had 266,404 shares of the tech giant’s stock at the end of the third quarter, according to a filing.

We’re going to keep updating this post as the filings come out….”

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“Daniel S. Loeb, the founder of Third Point LLC, has sold his entire Apple stake during the fourth quarter, according to an 13F filing with the SEC.

At the end of the third quarter, Third Point owned 710,000 shares. …”
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