“The Canadian dollar fell as crude oil declined, erasing gains in the currency that came after Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservative Party won a majority of seats in Parliament for the first time.
The loonie, as the currency is known, depreciated 0.2 percent to 95.26 cents against the U.S. dollar at 6:21 a.m. in Toronto, from 95.06 yesterday. It earlier advanced as much as 0.5 percent.”
Comments »“The Reserve Bank of Australia left its benchmark interest rate unchanged today for a fifth straight meeting, signaling a record local dollar will help contain consumer prices until late this year.
“The rising exchange rate will be helping to hold down prices for some consumer products over the coming few quarters,” RBA Governor Glenn Stevens said in a statement today after holding the overnight cash rate target at 4.75 percent, as forecast by 21 of 22 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. “Over the longer term, inflation can be expected to increase somewhat if economic conditions evolve broadly as expected.”
“The Australian dollar declined against most of its major counterparts after the central bank left interest rates on hold and traders bet policy makers will extend the pause until the third quarter.
The so-called Aussie fell for a fourth day versus the yen as Governor Glenn Stevens said the recent surge in the currency may “exert additional restraint” on industries related to trade. New Zealand’s dollar dropped after a government report showed private-sector wages grew at a slower pace than some economists forecast. Both currencies extended losses as commodities and Asian equities declined.”
Comments »“Asian stocks declined, with a regional benchmark index falling the most in three weeks, as raw material producers fell andAustralia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. and Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. posted earnings that missed analysts’ estimates.
BHP Billiton Ltd. (BHP), the world’s biggest mining company and Australia’s No. 1 oil and gas producer, and rival Rio TintoGroup fell at least 0.7 percent after crude and copper futures declined. ANZ Bank lost 2.1 percent. Hon Hai, the largest global contract maker of electronics, slipped 2.3 percent in Taipei. HTC Corp. (2498), the Taiwanese smartphone maker, tumbled 6.9 percent after HSBC Holdings Plc and Credit Suisse Group AG cut their ratings on the stock….”
Comments »“Antivirus vendors have spotted multiple threats based on the news, including links that lead to fake security software — dubbed “rogueware” — attack code masquerading as plug-ins that users must supposedly download to view video, and attempts to harvest personal information.
Sunday night, President Obama announced that a special operations team had assaulted the Pakistani compound of Bin Laden, and during a firefight,shot and killed the al-Qaeda leader.
Cyber criminals wasted no time in leveraging the news.”
Comments »“CAIRO (AP/THE BLAZE) — The Obama administration, through counter-terrorism chief John Brennan, took great pains to explain to reporters today that Osama bin Laden was buried at sea in “strict conformance with Islamic precepts and practices.”
But Muslim clerics said Monday that Osama bin Laden’s burial at sea was a violation of Islamic tradition that may further provoke militant calls for revenge attacks against American targets.
Although there appears to be some room for debate over the burial – as with many issues within the faith – a wide range of senior Islamic scholars interpreted it as a humiliating disregard for the standard Muslim practice of placing the body in a grave with the head pointed toward the holy city of Mecca.”
Comments »“TOKYO, May 2 (Xinhua) — Radioactive leakage from fuel rods at a nuclear power plant in the city of Tsuruga in Fukui prefecture on Honshu island of Japan are believed to be the cause of a surge in the density of toxic substances detected in coolant water, the prefectural government said Monday.
Japan Atomic Power Company, owner and operator of the potentially faulty nuclear plant, has said it will attempt to manually override the plant’s No. 2 reactor’s system in an effort to contain the leak and conduct further investigation into its critical cooling systems.
The utility firm operating the 1,160-megawatt No.2 reactor at its Tsuruga nuclear plant cited “technical difficulties” at the reactor and while claiming there had been no radiation leak did confirm a possible leak of iodine from the reactor’s nuclear fuel assemblies into its coolant system, adding a new saga to the nation’s ever-unfolding nuclear crisis.
While intensive fact-finding continues, experts are drawing similarities with leaking fuel assemblies which sparked an ongoing nuclear crisis in Fukushima prefecture, following the partial meltdown of nuclear fuel rods in assemblies at quake and tsunami- damaged reactor buildings at Tokyo Electric Power Company’s No. 1 nuclear plant in Fukushima prefecture.”
Comments »“According to classified information gathered from the interrogation of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay and published by the Daily Telegraph, al-Qaeda is already in possession of a nuclear weapon and is ready to bring it into action in case of capture or killing of Osama bin Laden.
According to the documents, published by the WikiLeaks on Monday, a senior al-Qaeda commander commented on the topic of a nuclear bomb, hidden at the moment in Europe.
According to him, the organization will detonate the bomb if the head of al-Qaida, Osama bin Laden, is captured or assassinated.”
Comments »“Nasdaq OMX Group has officially gone hostile in its effort to acquire the New York Stock Exchange, announcing on Monday plans for an exchange offer for all outstanding shares of NYSE Euronext common stock.”
Comments »“NEWPORT BEACH – It was relegated to the Q&A session, rather than featured prominently in the opening statement, at last week’s first-ever press conference of US Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke. It is an issue that too many in Washington, DC are willing to dismiss as “transitory,” despite visible evidence to the contrary. It is extremely vulnerable to high oil and food prices. And it undermines the operational assumptions that underpin the long-standing characterization of the US economy as vibrant and responsive.
The issue is the scope and composition of unemployment in America – a problem that is yet to be sufficiently recognized for its increasingly detrimental impact on the country’s social fabric, its economic potential, and its already-fragile fiscal position and debt dynamics.
Let us start with the facts:”
Comments »“U.S. stocks erased gains as declines in shares of energy, technology and financial companies led a retreat that wiped out an early rally triggered after the killing of Osama bin Laden.
The S&P 500 lost 0.1 percent to 1,362.29 at 12:42 p.m. in New York, erasing a 0.5 percent advance. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.34 point, or less than 0.1 percent, to 12,810.20 after climbing as much as 65 points earlier. Both are trading near their highest levels since spring of 2008.”
Comments »“BlackBerry developer Research In Motion is definitely on a shopping spree. A week after announcing the acquisition of social calendering application Tungle.me, the company is buying smartphone software security developerUbitexx. Terms of the acquisition, which was announced on Ubitexx’s home page, were not disclosed.”
Comments »“Rather than match demand for gasoline, oil companies are producing less for the U.S. market and exporting more to other countries, while taking increased profits. The result: higher prices at the pump. Allgov.com”
Comments »“Just as America is finally showing signs of digging out of the financial meltdown and the Great Recession of 2008, there are already warning bells being sounded for the next possible scare: government pension programs.
Earlier this week, the Pew Center on the States issued the results of its “fiscal stress test” of the 50 state pension programs, and the results are troubling to say the least.
All told, the Pew center estimates that government pension funds and health care programs are underfunded by more than $1.2 trillion today, a clear sign that something must be done now to avoid a great deal of misery down the road.
Though the Pew study looked at pension funds during 2008 and 2009, the depth of the Great Recession, the results should serve as a wake-up call to political leaders across the nation, including here in theCommonwealth of Virginia.”
Comments »Prices paid 85.5 vs consensus of 82.5 (ISM)
Construction Spending: Prior -1.4%, Mkt Expects 0.0%, Actual +1.4%
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