Dreamliner Battery Problems are Much Worse Than Official Accounts

“Firefighters and mechanics tried repeatedly to put out a battery fire aboard a Boeing787 Dreamliner through smoke so thick they couldn’t see the battery, according to documents released Thursday that portray the incident as more serious than previously described.

The Jan. 7 fire at Boston’s Logan International Airport is under investigation by the National Transportation Safety board, which released laboratory analyses, interviews and other data it has gathered so far. It still hasn’t been able to pinpoint the cause.

Federal Aviation Administration officials are expected to make a decision in the next few days on whether to approve a plan by Boeing to revamp the 787’s lithium ion batteries to prevent or contain future fires. Once the plan is approved, Boeing hopes to swiftly test the reconfigured batteries and get the planes back in the air.

Dreamliners worldwide have been grounded since a second battery incident led to an emergency landing in Japan nine days after the Boston fire. The incidents have raised questions about the safety of using lithium ion batteries, which are more susceptible to igniting if they short-circuit or overheat than other types of batteries. The episodes also have called into question the FAA’s process for certifying the safety of new aircraft designs….”

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“Today, nonfarm payrolls blew past expectations. Payrolls added in February amounted to 236,000 versus economists’ predictions of a 165,000 gain.

However, the labor force participation rate ticked down slightly to 63.5 percent from 63.6 percent.

It’s not a big drop in the participation rate, but it is notable because it was accompanied by a substantial decline in the overall size of the labor force.

People reported not in the labor force rose to 89.304 million in February from 89.008 million in January….”

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“Today’s jobs report was not all good news.
While the overall unemployment rate for most categories fell, two categories saw their rates rise: teenagers and those with bachelor’s degrees and higher.
To be clear, the unemployment rate is a very low 3.8 percent for the latter category.
But it is nevertheless a concern as student loan delinquency rates continue to surge.
Here’s the table from the BLS…”

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Just remember that how you get from point a to point b is very important and can not be measured by a chart…..

“For a long time, the dollar was highly negatively correlated with “risk,” meaning that when stocks and other risky assets did well, the dollar was usually falling.

That’s because during the crisis years, when people were in panic mode, they would rush to hold safe-haven dollars, dumping everything else. And then when they were panicking less, they would step out of dollars, and buy other stuff.

But the chart above means the crisis is coming to an end, or has come to an end. There’s no longer this phenomenon where the dollar represents something you hold when you’re panicking about everything else. You can buy stocks, and also feel eager to hold dollars.

In addition to the crisis mentality, the dollar just looks a lot better than other currencies. There’s a feeling that Europe is going back into the gutter and the ECB has to do more. Japan is (as everyone knows) doing a lot more easing. Britain is crumbling again. So pretty much the US is the only place where we’re talking about the central bank doing an exit.

This is an important trend that smart folks are picking up on….”

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“LONDON (Reuters) – A unexpectedly sharp rise in hiring by U.S. employers in February sent world shares and the dollar higher on Friday while U.S. Treasuries fell as investors bet on a solid recovery in the world’s largest economy.

U.S. stock index futures pointed to Wall Street gaining on the data with the S&P 500 <.spx> on track for a sixth straight daily gain and the Dow <.dji> set to scale fresh peaks.

Nonfarm payrolls surged by 236,000 jobs last month, the U.S. Labor Department said, easily beating forecasts for a gain of 160,000 and driving the jobless rate down to a four-year low of 7.7 percent.

“This was a strong number and one of those rare cases where we were firing on all cylinders,” said Jacob Oubina, senior U.S. economist at RBC Capital Markets in New York.

“Having said that, this will likely not mean much for Fed policy as they will need to see more than one month of strong numbers and if it is sustained.”

The dollar climbed as high as 96.54 yen after the data, a fresh 3-1/2-year high, and added about 0.6 percent against the euro, sending the single currency down to $1.3030…..”

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“Hong Kong (Reuters) – Bank of America Corp will seek more lending and cash management business with companies in Asia and elsewhere outside its U.S. home turf, Chief Executive Brian Moynihansaid, an area ripe for expansion where it lags its big rivals.

That could mean vying for market share with more entrenched global banks such as Citigroup Incand HSBC Holdings Plc in fast-growing regions like Asia, where Fortune 500 companies and big local corporations demand a full spectrum of banking services from hedging to foreign exchange to cash management.

“Inside the U.S. we’re number one in cash management revenues, but outside it, against some of our competitors, we’re less than we want to be,” Moynihan said in an interview with Reuters on Friday.

“We might get 70 percent of our revenues from a company inside the U.S., when only 50 percent of their revenues are made there, so we’re missing opportunities,” he said.

The U.S.-based lender won’t be jostling with competitors, however, for securities business in China, where most big names in global banking have been eagerly setting up joint ventures.

“It’s not sensible to have a minority stake with no path to control,” said Matthew Koder, Bank of America’s Asia Pacific president. Foreign banks in China are only allowed to offer investment bankingservices through an onshore partner.

“Right now, everyone’s losing money in China,” Koder said….”

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“(Reuters) – Private equity firm KKR & Co LP (KKR.N) will buy industrial machinery maker Gardner Denver Inc (GDI.N) for $3.9 billion including debt.

The offer values Gardner Denver at $76 per share, a premium of 3 percent to the stock’s Thursday closing price.

It is 39 percent above what the stock was trading at in late October when the company said it was exploring a sale.”

“Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS), JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) and Morgan Stanley (MS)lagged behind peers in a key measure of capital strength used by U.S. regulators to stress- test their resiliency in a severe recession.

The three firms submitted more-optimistic estimates of their capital strength and ability to avoid losses on trading and lending than Federal Reserve projections released yesterday for the 18 biggest U.S. banks. Of the three, the gap was widest for Goldman Sachs, which predicted that its Tier 1 common ratio may fall as low as 8.6 percent in a sharp economic downturn, compared with the central bank’s 5.8 percent estimate.

The disparities — including a gap of 1.3 percentage points for JPMorgan — raise the risk that some banks may have been too aggressive while seeking Fed approval to distribute capital to investors through dividends and share repurchases. The companies must maintain Tier 1 common ratios of at least 5 percent under their capital plans. The Fed is set to release the results of those requests next week.

“If you came in with rosier assumptions than the Fed’s own baseline, then you’re definitely at risk of failure” in the capital request, said Christopher Whalen, executive vice president at Carrington Investment Services LLC. “The Fed is going to push back on those banks.”

Spokesmen for JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, all based in New York, declined to comment.

Disputes Fed….”

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“Prices for U.S. commercial property are expected to climb in the next six months, extending a rebound that has sent values close to levels reached at the market’s peak in 2007, according to Green Street Advisors Inc.

There is an 80 percent likelihood that commercial real estate prices will rise over the next six months, the Newport Beach, California-based research firm said in a report yesterday. Prices climbed 1 percent in February and are within 1 percentage point of their August 2007 high, according to the company, which tracks real estate investment trusts.

“We’re effectively back to peak pricing,” Mike Kirby, Green Street’s director of research, said in a phone interview. “We’re fairly confident that the rebound will continue.”

A “renaissance” in the issuance of commercial mortgage- backed securities will help boost prices, particularly for lower-quality properties, because financing will be more available, according to the report. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its 2013 CMBS sales forecast to $70 billion from $45 billion last month as issuance in January and February exceeded expectations.

Green Street’s commercial real estate price index is based on its estimate of the value of portfolios of REITs (BBREIT), which tend to own high-quality properties. Another measure of national values, the Moody’s/RCA Commercial Property Price Index, is 20 percent below its peak in November 2007….”

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“Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis President James Bullard said the central bank probably will press on with its asset purchases as contained inflation expectations give it time to continue the quantitative easing.

“I think it’s going to be a while on the QE program,” Bullard, a voting member of the policy-making Federal Open Market Committee this year, said in a television interview today on “Bloomberg Surveillance” with Tom Keene and Mike McKee. “We’ve got a lot of room to maneuver here.”

Opponents of the unprecedented asset purchase program that aims to boost growth and hiring have said it could spur inflation. Bullard said that a greater concern now, with price increases below the Fed’s target, is that “we need to defend our inflation target from the low side.”

The FOMC is debating how long to continue $85 billion in monthly purchases of Treasuries and mortgage bonds. The committee, which meets March 19-20 in Washington, has said it will keep the main interest rate near zero as long as the unemployment rate remains above 6.5 percent and inflation isn’t projected to exceed 2.5 percent.

Bullard also said today that the most recent drop in new claims for unemployment benefits is an “encouraging” sign for the economic recovery….”

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“Payrolls increased more than forecast in February and the jobless rate unexpectedly fell to a five-year low of 7.7 percent, a sign U.S. employers were undaunted by the budget impasse inWashington.

Employment rose 236,000 last month after a revised 119,000 gain in January that was smaller than first estimated, Labor Department figures showed today in Washington. The median forecast of 90 economists surveyed by Bloomberg projected an advance of 165,000. The jobless rate dropped from 7.9 percent. Hiring in construction jumped by the most in almost six years.

Automakers and home-improvement retailers are among those announcing plans to take on more staff, which will lead to gains in incomes that may help the world’s biggest economy weather federal cutbacks and higher taxes. Today’s data may ratchet up debate among Federal Reserve policy makers, who are looking for “substantial” progress in the labor market to determine whether to maintain record stimulus.

“There’s a lot of dry tinder in the economy,” Robert Dye, chief economist at Comerica Inc. in Dallas, said before the report. “If companies are experiencing growth in orders, they’re going to be able to look past these broader fiscal concerns. We’re still going to need to see ongoing solid gains in employment and steady drops in unemployment before the Fed eases off the gas pedal.”

Employers also boosted hours worked, and earnings picked up for American workers.

Payroll projections ranged from gains of 121,000 to 260,000 following an initially reported 157,000 increase in January, according to the Bloomberg survey.

Payroll Revisions….”

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“McDonald’s Corp. (MCD), the world’s largest restaurant chain, said sales at stores open at least 13 months fell less than analysts estimated in February as low prices kept consumers coming to restaurants amid a weak economy.

Global same-store sales fell 1.5 percent, the Oak Brook, Illinois-based company said today in a statement. Analysts projected a 1.6 percent drop, the average of 13 estimates compiled by Consensus Metrix.

Chief Executive Officer Don Thompson has been pushing value items worldwide in McDonald’s 34,400 locations, including in Asia, where the fast-food chain competes with Yum! Brands Inc. (YUM)’s KFC and Pizza Hut brands. McDonald’s, which has about 9,400 stores in its Asia region, has lured customers in China with delivery service, value dinners and bubble tea.

McDonald’s February sales were helped by “everyday affordable prices,” Thompson said in today’s release….”

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