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Rembrandt Portrait to Top $30 Million Sale at Christie’s London

A Rembrandt portrait will lead a London sale of a private collection of Dutch Old Masters that is valued at more than $30 million. The panel painting “A Bust of a Man in a Gorget and Cap” has an upper estimate of 12 million pounds ($19 million), Christie’s International (CHRS) said today in an e-mailed release. The Caravaggio-influenced 1626-27 composition hasn’t been offered at auction for about 40 years and should fetch at least 8 million pounds on July 3, the company said. In recent years, Old Masters have struggled to attract new collectors. Christie’s plans to stimulate fresh interest in historic paintings by taking the single-owner collection on a promotional tour to Doha, Moscow, New York, Hong Kong and Amsterdam before its sale. The 15 works, worth at least 19 million pounds, are owned by Pieter Dreesmann, the son of the late Anton Dreesmann, a Dutch department-store heir whose collection was auctioned by Christie’s in a series of sales in 2002 that raised 7.3 million pounds. Pieter and Olga Dreesmann are active collectors, owning pieces ranging in date from ancient Greece and Rome to 21st- Century contemporaries. The Old Masters are up for sale because the Dreesmanns, regular buyers at the Frieze Art Fair, are “re- focusing” their interests, said Christie’s. The group also includes the Willem van de Velde II seascape “Shipping in a Calm,” valued at 2.5 million pounds to 3.5 million pounds. Fruit Trio Three still lives of fruit by the late 17th-century painter Adriaen Coorte are estimated to sell for prices ranging from 800,000 pounds to 1.8 million pounds each. The trio of paintings has remained together since being made more than 300 years ago and has never appeared at auction before, said Christie’s. The London-based auction house sold Rembrandt’s 1658 painting, “Man with Arms Akimbo,” from the collection of Barbara Piasecka Johnson, the Johnson & Johnson heiress, for a record 20.2 million pounds in December 2009. It reappeared for sale in March 2011 at the Tefaf fair, Maastricht, priced at $47 million on the booth of the New York dealer Otto Naumann Ltd. The work is still for sale on the dealership’s website. (Scott Reyburn writes about the art market for Muse, the arts and culture section of Bloomberg News. Opinions expressed are his own.) To contact the writer on the story: Scott Reyburn in London at [email protected]. To contact the editor responsible for this story: Manuela Hoelterhoff at [email protected] .

Generate a suitable headline for the given input of a financial news article. Only output the headline, not the instruction and input article.

South Korea Has 16,761 Megawatts Nuclear Capacity Online

South Korea has 18 nuclear reactors operating with 16,761 megawatts of generating capacity online, or 87 percent of the total, data compiled by Bloomberg show. The following table shows the status of the nation’s 21 reactors with capacity of 19,259 megawatts operated by state-run Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power Co. as of today. Source: Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power Co. To contact the reporter on this story: Sungwoo Park in Seoul at [email protected]. To contact the editor responsible for this story: Alexander Kwiatkowski at [email protected]

Generate a suitable headline for the given input of a financial news article. Only output the headline, not the instruction and input article.

U.K. Wheat Harvest Seen Smallest Since 2001 After Drop in Sowing

The U.K. wheat harvest, historically the European Union’s third-largest, may be the smallest this year since 2001 after winter-crop planting decreased, according to the government. Farmers may gather 12.1 million metric tons of the grain, the country’s main arable crop, down 8.7 percent from 13.26 million tons last year, the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs said today in its first forecast for 2013 grain production. Barley output may jump 29 percent to 7.1 million tons, the biggest crop since 1997. The U.K. saw its second-wettest year on record in 2012, according to the Met Office , slashing the quality of last year’s wheat and preventing farmers from planting winter grain and rapeseed crops that were harvested this year. Farmers instead boosted planting of spring crops including barley and oats after the weather turned dryer since the beginning of 2013, said Jack Watts, a senior analyst at the Agriculture & Horticulture Development Board in Kenilworth, England. “Last year we had a small crop with poor quality,” Watts said Oct. 11 in an interview at the European Commodities Exchange in Paris. “This year it’s still a small crop, but the quality is much improved. Normally we have some of the cheapest feed wheat in Europe , but this year we may be one of the most expensive.” U.S. Drought Feed-wheat futures on NYSE Liffe in London climbed to a record last year amid rallies in crop prices worldwide following drought in the U.S., the world’s biggest corn grower and exporter. Feed wheat for November delivery traded at 162 pounds ($258) a ton today, up 8 percent from a low on Sept. 18. Defra said it will release estimates of wheat and barley yields and crop area, as well as figures for other grains and rapeseed, on Oct. 17. France and Germany are the EU’s two biggest wheat producers. Wheat use by millers in the U.K. totaled 497,000 tons in August, up 4 percent from a year earlier, Defra said in a separate report today. Brewers, malt makers and distillers used 60,000 tons of the grain during the month and 152,000 tons of barley, for respective annual gains of 4 percent and 7 percent, according to the report. To contact the reporter on this story: Whitney McFerron in London at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: Claudia Carpenter at [email protected]

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REC Profit Misses Estimates as Polysilicon Surplus Curbs Prices

Renewable Energy Corp. ASA , the Norwegian polysilicon maker, reported higher-than-estimated fourth-quarter sales as it cut polysilicon prices to clear inventory. The shares rose. Sales were 2.87 billion kroner ($499 million), beating the 2.58 billion-krone estimate of 16 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. The net loss was 2.48 billion kroner, or 2.49 kroner a share. The company posted a profit of 783 million kroner, or 0.7 kroner a share, a year earlier. European solar-component makers are under pressure from Chinese rivals that expanded capacity just as consumption slowed, causing wafer and cell prices to plummet. REC and peers Solarworld AG and Q-Cells SE have cut production as demand shrinks in the region, where Germany, France and Italy have reduced subsidies to cap booming solar installations. “Although the industry is struggling, REC has a very strong position within polysilicon and therefore it should survive what could be an industry shakeout,” Eirik Vegem Dahle, an analyst with Pareto Securities ASA, said by phone. The company booked a charge of 2.5 billion kroner on its Singapore assets in the quarter. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization dropped to 178 million kroner from 1.84 billion kroner a year earlier. Shares Rise “Overcapacity and inventory reductions led to steep market price declines throughout the fourth quarter,” the Sandvika- based company said today in a statement. “With a significant increase in polysilicon available for sale in the short-term spot market , REC has approached the market with aggressive pricing to secure volume off-take.” REC rose as much as 11 percent, the most since Jan. 12, to 5.455 kroner, and was up 8.8 percent as of 3:34 p.m. in Oslo. The stock has risen 62 percent this year after falling 81 percent in 2011. Average selling prices for polysilicon fell 42 percent, wafer prices were down 31 percent and module prices dropped 15 percent, REC said. Polysilicon prices will stabilize in the first quarter at about $30 per kilogram, Chief Executive Officer Ole Enger said in an interview. “The Chinese have stopped production in all products and the balance is becoming better,” Enger said. REC produced 5,206 metric tons of polysilicon in the quarter. Multicrystalline and monocrystalline wafer output was 173 megawatts, missing REC’s 200-megawatt forecast. It produced 168 megawatts of modules, less than the projected 175 megawatts. REC had talks with its banks on possible changes in maturity, covenant levels and conditions on factory closures on its loan agreement. It may conclude a revised deal as early as the first quarter, Enger said. “We are not in a desperate situation because we have plenty of liquidity and we are not in breach,” he said. “We are not in a hurry to do this.” To contact the reporter on this story: Stephen Treloar at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: Christian Wienberg at [email protected]

Generate a suitable headline for the given input of a financial news article. Only output the headline, not the instruction and input article.

Costs to Protect U.S. Bank Debt Fall on Credit-Quality Optimism

The cost to protect U.S. bank bonds from default fell, reversing an earlier increase, as investors turned their attention to signals of improving credit quality in Bank of America Corp. (BAC) ’s earnings. Credit-default swaps on Bank of America declined 10 basis points to a mid-price of 380 and those on Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) fell 8.8 basis points to a mid-price of 360 as of 11:49 a.m. in New York, according to broker Phoenix Partners Group. “The key takeaways here seem to be that BAC is slowly trending in the right direction, although the pressure in the markets this quarter did not help,” John Guarnera, a financial analyst at Societe Generale in New York, said in a note today. Contracts on Citigroup Inc. declined 8.9 basis points to 261.7 and those on Morgan Stanley decreased 7.2 to 417.8 according to data provider CMA. Both banks are based in New York. Default swaps on the six biggest U.S. banks had climbed to an average of 360 on Oct. 4 on concern that bank margins are declining and that Europe’s sovereign debt crisis will infect balance sheets, before falling as low as 248 on Oct 12, according to CMA. The average increased to 294 basis points yesterday. The costs to protect the debt of Bank of America’s brokerage unit Merrill Lynch & Co. fell 6.4 basis points to 431, CMA data show. They soared to 513.3 basis points on Oct. 4. Bank of America bought Merrill Lynch in January 2009, helping the largest U.S. brokerage avoid the kind of collapse that had forced Bear Stearns Cos. to sell itself to JPMorgan. Credit Downgrade After Bank of America was hit by a credit downgrade at Moody’s Investors Service last month, it moved derivatives from its Merrill Lynch unit to a subsidiary flush with insured deposits, according to people with direct knowledge of the situation. A benchmark gauge of U.S. corporate credit risk rose to a one-week high, on concern that Europe ’s debt crisis may spread after Moody’s Investors Service signaled that France ’s Aaa credit rating is under pressure. The Markit CDX North America Investment Grade Index , which investors use to hedge against losses on corporate debt or to speculate on creditworthiness, increased 0.5 basis point to a mid-price of 135 basis points at 1:20 p.m. New York time, according to index administrator Markit Group Ltd. The index, which typically rises as investor confidence deteriorates and falls as it improves, reached the highest level since Oct. 10. Moody’s said yesterday that France’s debt metrics are deteriorating, and cited the potential for additional liabilities from the region’s sovereign debt and banking crisis. Credit swaps pay the buyer face value if a borrower fails to meet its obligations, less the value of the defaulted debt. A basis point equals $1,000 annually on a contract protecting $10 million of debt. To contact the reporter on this story: Mary Childs in New York at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: John Parry at [email protected]

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Commodities Enter Bull Market After Drought Damages Crops

Commodities entered a bull market , gaining 21 percent from a June low, as grain prices surged after the most severe U.S. drought in half a century and as crude oil rallied amid increased tension in the Middle East. The Standard & Poor’s GSCI Spot Index of 24 raw materials rose 0.9 percent to end at 675.55 yesterday in New York. The gauge has jumped from this year’s lowest close of 559 on June 21. A gain of more than 20 percent is the common definition of a bull market. Crude accounts for more than 50 percent of index. Soybeans rose to a record yesterday, and corn soared 66 percent since mid-June. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has declared almost 1,600 counties in 32 states as natural-disaster areas after the drought seared millions of acres of cropland. “There have been weather-related supply disruptions, and as long as you have any type of global growth, you’re going to have increased demand for grains,” said Walter “Bucky” Hellwig, who helps manage $17 billion at BB&T Wealth Management in Birmingham, Alabama. “Given that the U.S. is the bread basket for grains, that’s going to have a significant impact.” Soybeans and grains have led advances this year in the GSCI measure. As of yesterday, the oilseed jumped 43 percent in 2012, wheat in Chicago climbed 41 percent, and corn was up 30 percent. Through yesterday, the commodity gauge gained 4.8 percent in 2012, while the MSCI All-Country World Index of equities climbed 9 percent and the dollar was up 2.1 percent against a basket of major currencies. Treasuries returned 1.3 percent, a Bank of America Corp. index shows. Mideast Tension Crude has rallied since late June on speculation that Israel may strike Iran to delay its nuclear program, and on concern that fighting in Syria may draw in neighboring states in a region that supplies about a third of the world’s oil. Yesterday, futures in New York climbed to a three-month high on speculation that euro-area leaders will make progress in resolving the region’s debt crisis this week. Front-month futures ended at $96.68 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange yesterday, 24 percent higher than the year’s lowest close on June 28. Brent oil in London is on course for the eighth weekly gain in the past nine. Commodities, which traded little changed at 674.87 at 11:37 a.m. in Singapore , have rallied on speculation that the economies in China and the U.S. will rebound. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said that there’s “growing room for monetary policy operation” amid easing inflation, state television said Aug. 15. Confidence among U.S. consumers improved in August, and an index of leading indicators climbed more than forecast in July, separate reports showed on Aug. 17. China is the biggest consumer of everything from copper to pork, and the U.S. is the largest user of crude oil and corn. Food Prices The jump in grains and oilseeds sent world food prices up 6.2 percent in July, the biggest increase since November 2009, the United Nations Food & Agriculture Organization said on Aug. 9. The gauge, which tracks 55 food items, slid 7 percent in the previous three months on the outlook for bumper world harvests and ample dairy and meat supplies. In mid-June, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. moved to a “near- term overweight” recommendation in commodities. On Aug. 10, the bank maintained forecasts for a rally in corn to $9 a bushel in three months, adding that soybeans may climb to $20 a bushel, while wheat may reach $9.80 a bushel. Yesterday, soybean futures for November delivery rose 2.9 percent to settle at $17.325 on the Chicago Board of Trade, after reaching an all-time high of $17.34. Corn’s Record Corn for December delivery jumped 1.8 percent to $8.3875 in Chicago. The price earlier reached $8.40, the highest since rallying to a record $8.49 on Aug. 10. Wheat futures for December delivery advanced 2.1 percent to $9.22 in Chicago. The price increased for five straight sessions and was up 47 percent since June 15. “We expect soybean prices to outperform to ration resilient export demand in the face of critically low U.S. supplies, corn prices to rally to secure sufficient ethanol demand destruction, and wheat prices to underperform corn prices on relatively higher supplies,” Goldman analyst Damien Courvalin wrote in the Aug. 10 report. U.S. corn production may drop to 10.78 billion bushels, a six-year low, while the soybean harvest at 2.69 billion bushels would be the smallest since 2007, the USDA said on Aug. 10. Crops are in the worst condition since 1988, a year when the corn harvest tumbled by 31 percent because of drought. “The grains have been the strongest-performing subsector in commodities the past few months, and that has purely been driven by supply-side considerations and the U.S. drought in particular,” said Sudakshina Unnikrishnan , a London-based analyst at Barclays Plc. In the week ended Aug. 14, hedge funds held wagers on a rally across 18 U.S. futures and options contracts near the highest in 11 months, according to the most-recent U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission data. A measure of 11 U.S. farm goods showed speculators’ bullish bets in agricultural commodities rose 0.6 percent. Cocoa, gasoline, silver, gold and cattle also have posted gains this year. To contact the reporters on this story: Whitney McFerron in London at [email protected] ; Joe Richter in New York at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: Steve Stroth at [email protected]

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Heating Oil Gains on Mideast, Cold Outlook: Commodities at Close

The Standard & Poor’s GSCI Spot Index of 24 raw materials rose 2.1 percent to settle at 650.58 at 3:52 p.m. New York time, led by energy. The UBS Bloomberg CMCI gauge of 26 prices advanced 1.8 percent to 1,576.81 OIL PRODUCTS Heating oil climbed the most in six weeks on concern that Israel ’s attacks on the Gaza Strip may spread unrest in the Middle East, disrupting petroleum supplies, and colder weather was forecast for the U.S. and Europe. Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said that air attacks on Gaza may expand to ground operations amid an escalating conflict with the Islamist Hamas movement. U.S. distillate stocks are at the lowest seasonal level since 2000. On the New York Mercantile Exchange , heating-oil futures for December delivery jumped 3 percent to $3.0751 a gallon, the biggest gain since Oct. 4. Gasoline futures for December delivery gained 1.6 percent to $2.7545 a gallon, the highest settlement this month. CRUDE OIL Crude Oil rose to a one-month high amid concern that Middle East unrest will disrupt supplies and on growing confidence that a deal can be reached to avoid automatic U.S. spending cuts and tax increases. On the Nymex, oil futures for January delivery rose 2.7 percent to $89.28 a barrel, the highest settlement since Oct. 19. Brent crude for January settlement gained 2.5 percent to $111.70 a barrel on the ICE Futures Europe exchange in London. Vitol Group SA purchased a cargo of North Sea Forties crude at a higher price. No bids or offers were made for Russian Urals blend in Europe. Statoil ASA resumed production at Troll C platform in the night of Nov. 17 after halting on Nov. 15 due to corrosion found on the auxiliary system. The company expects to pump at about 70 percent of full capacity when repairs are carried out. SOFT COMMODITIES Sugar gained the most in five months on concern that rain this week will disrupt the harvest in Brazil , the world’s biggest producer. On ICE Futures U.S., raw sugar for March delivery jumped 4.1 percent to 19.94 cents a pound, the biggest increase for a most-active contract since June 6. Arabica-coffee futures for March delivery jumped 3.2 percent to $1.574 a pound, the biggest gain since Sept. 10. Cocoa futures for March delivery advanced 1 percent to $2,421 a metric ton. Cotton futures for March delivery fell 0.8 percent to 72.06 cents a pound. Orange-juice futures for January delivery dropped 0.2 percent to $1.1705 a pound. BASE METALS Copper rose the most in nine weeks on optimism that U.S. lawmakers will reach a deal to avoid automatic tax increases and spending cuts in January that are forecast to curb economic growth. On the Comex, copper futures for March delivery climbed 2.2 percent to $3.5365 a pound, the biggest increase since Sept. 14. On the London Metal Exchange, copper for delivery in three months rose 2.6 percent to $7,804 a ton ($3.54 a pound). Nickel, tin, aluminum, zinc and lead also gained. PRECIOUS METALS Gold rose the most in a week, tracking gains in commodities, as prospects improved for a U.S. budget deal and unrest in the Middle East spurred demand for the metal as an alternative investment. On the Comex in New York, gold futures for December delivery rose 1.1 percent to $1,734.40 an ounce, the biggest gain since Nov. 6. Silver futures for December delivery climbed 2.5 percent to $33.189 an ounce, the biggest jump since Nov. 6. On the Nymex, platinum futures for January delivery rose 1.4 percent to $1,583.80 an ounce, the biggest increase since Oct. 31. Palladium futures for December delivery surged 3 percent to $645.30 an ounce, the highest settlement in a month. LIVESTOCK Hog rose to a four-month high on signs of a rebound in demand for U.S. pork and tighter supply. On the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, hog futures for February settlement climbed 1.1 percent to 87.425 cents a pound. Earlier, the price reached 87.875 cents, the highest since July 9. Cattle futures for February delivery gained 0.1 percent to $1.3015 a pound, the third straight increase. Feeder-cattle futures for January settlement increased 0.3 percent to $1.46 a pound. GRAINS, OILSEEDS Soybeans rose the most in three weeks and grains advanced on optimism that the U.S. will avoid the so-called fiscal cliff as Europe took steps to resolve a Greek rescue, bolstering prospects for commodity demand. On the Chicago Board of Trade, soybean futures for January delivery rose 0.8 percent to $13.9475 a bushel, the biggest gain since Oct. 24. Corn futures for March delivery climbed 1.6 percent to $7.425 a bushel. Wheat futures for March delivery advanced 0.5 percent to $8.5775 a bushel. NATURAL GAS Natural gas dropped for the second time in three sessions on forecasts for warmer-than-normal weather that would cut heating-fuel consumption. On the Nymex, gas futures for December delivery fell 1.9 percent to $3.719 per million British thermal units. U.K. gas for next-day delivery declined as predictions of warmer-than-normal weather cut demand. The price dropped 0.9 percent to 65.25 pence a therm at 4:03 p.m. London time. Next-month gas climbed 0.2 percent to 67.65 pence a therm. That’s equivalent to $10.76 per million Btu. To contact the reporter on this story: Patrick McKiernan in New York at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: Steve Stroth at [email protected]

Generate a suitable headline for the given input of a financial news article. Only output the headline, not the instruction and input article.

Gasoline Heads for Smallest First-Quarter Advance Since 2008

April gasoline fell, heading for the smallest first-quarter gain in five years, as prices dropped below technical support levels. Futures slipped as refineries returned from maintenance, boosting operating rates last week to a two-month high. Prices sank below the 20-day and 30-day moving averages. Gasoline has added 9.3 percent since December, the littlest advance for the January through March period since 2008. Gasoline demand over the past four weeks was 0.2 percent below a year ago. “Technically, it looks pretty weak,” said Carl Larry, a commodities broker at Atlas Commodities LLC in Houston. “Fundamentally, it looks weak.” Gasoline for April delivery declined 4.35 cents, or 1.4 percent, to $3.072 a gallon at 10:10 a.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Trading volume was 37 percent above the 100-day average for the time of day. The motor fuel has gained 5.4 percent in March. The more actively traded May contract fell 2.8 cents, or 0.9 percent, to $3.0838 a gallon. April heating oil and gasoline contracts expire at the close of floor trading today. May gasoline’s premium over WTI narrowed $1.25 to $32.87 a barrel and touched $32.62, the smallest difference since Feb. 20. The spread versus Brent narrowed 75 cents to $20.26. Heating oil for April delivery declined 1.03 cents, or 0.4 percent, to $2.9051 a gallon on the Nymex. Trading volume was 23 percent below the 100-day average. Quarterly Drop Futures have fallen 4.6 percent during the quarter and 2.3 percent this month. The more actively traded May contract advanced declined 0.91 cent, or 0.3 percent, to $3.0277 a gallon. Today is the last day of heating oil futures trading. The contracts for delivery in May and later months represent ultra- low-sulfur diesel fuel. Gasoline at the pump , averaged nationwide, fell 0.5 cent to $3.645 a gallon, AAA said today on its website. Prices have dropped for the past eight days and are 26.6 cents below a year ago. Price in 2012 peaked on April 4 and April 5 at $3.936. To contact the reporter on this story: Barbara Powell in Dallas at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: Dan Stets at [email protected]

Generate a suitable headline for the given input of a financial news article. Only output the headline, not the instruction and input article.

Japan Tobacco Gains After Profit Forecast, Dividend Increased: Tokyo Mover

Japan Tobacco Inc. , the world’s second-largest listed cigarette maker, climbed the most in four months in Tokyo trading after raising its profit forecast and planned dividend. Japan Tobacco gained 5.5 percent, the biggest advance since Sept. 20, to 406,500 yen at the close of trade in Tokyo. A faster-than-expected sales recovery after the March 11 earthquake prompted the company to raise its full-year net income forecast by 17 percent to 189 billion yen ($2.5 billion), following a 34 percent gain in nine-month profit. Tokyo-based Japan Tobacco will also boost its annual dividend payout to a record, it said yesterday. “Their results and dividends are good and their payout will improve, so I think this is a winner,” Mikihiko Yamato, an analyst at JI Asia in Tokyo, said by telephone. “There is a growing expectation that the company will increase dividends further next quarter.” Japan Tobacco introduced seven redesigned Pianissimo thin cigarettes and two Mild Seven slim types last month, to help meet its goal to boost market share to 60 percent by March from 59 percent in December, it said in a statement. Increased Sales Sales for the year ending March 31 will probably climb to 2.54 trillion yen, compared with a previous estimate of 2.497 trillion yen. Operating profit, or sales minus the cost of goods sold and operating expenses, will rise to 365 billion yen, more than the earlier projected 329 billion yen, it said. The company raised its planned second-half dividend to 5,000 yen a share. That will boost the full-year payout to 9,000 yen, from an earlier planned 8,000 yen, narrowing the gap with rivals including Philip Morris International Inc. and British American Tobacco Plc. Japan Tobacco currently has the lowest 12-month dividend yield among the world’s five largest cigarette makers, based on data compiled by Bloomberg. The Children’s Investment Fund Management, a shareholder, has called for a dividend payout of 20,000 yen a share. To contact the reporters on this story: Shunichi Ozasa in Tokyo at [email protected] ; Cheng Herng Shinn in Tokyo at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: Stephanie Wong at [email protected]

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Poland’s First-Quarter Growth Stays Near Fastest Since 2008 on Consumption

Polish economic growth remained near the fastest pace since 2008 as private consumption grew more than forecast and investments recovered. Gross domestic product expanded an annual 4.4 percent, compared with 4.5 percent in the previous period, the Central Statistical Office in Warsaw said today. The result was in line with the median estimate of 26 economists surveyed by Bloomberg. The economy grew 1 percent from the previous quarter. “This is a fast growth pace,” said Monika Kurtek, chief economist at Bank Pocztowy SA in Warsaw. “Unfortunately, it’s probably the highest rate we will see this year.” In Poland , which avoided a recession during the credit crunch, growth remains “robust” as wages rise and the government prepares for the 2012 European soccer championships, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said in its global economic outlook, published on May 25. GDP may rise 4 percent this year from 3.8 percent in 2010, according to the government’s budget outline. Policy makers around the world are struggling to limit price pressures as food and fuel costs increase and economies recover. The central bank boosted borrowing costs in May for the third time this year to curb inflation expectations as higher prices and rising employment may trigger wage demands. Zloty, Swaps The zloty was little changed after the announcement, trading at 3.9580 per euro at 10:55 a.m., 0.5 percent stronger on the day. Two-year interest rate swaps that investors use to fix borrowing costs in the future rose less than 1 basis point to 5.198 percent. Economic output was driven by private consumption, which increased an annual 3.9 percent, topping the median forecast of 3.8 percent in a Bloomberg survey of eight economists. Domestic demand rose 4.5 percent. Fixed investments rose 6 percent on the year, compared with a revised 1.6 percent in the fourth quarter and an 11.4 percent slump a year before. Still, investment growth lagged behind the 10.8 percent median estimate of eight economists in a Bloomberg survey. “Six percent can be regarded as a decent, moderate pace,” said Bank Pocztowy’s Kurtek. “Public investments are still the driver, which means we still aren’t seeing the pickup in private investment that the Monetary Policy Council is waiting for.” ‘Strong’ Demand While Kurtek said below-forecast investment growth may keep the central bank from increasing interest rates in June, Luis Costa , an emerging-markets strategist at Citigroup Inc. in London , disagreed. “All in all, the data seems to justify further rate hikes,” Costa wrote in a research note today. “Domestic demand remains strong with private consumption surprising on the upside. Investment is picking up gradually but we expect it to rise at a double digit pace later this year.” “The situation on the market has been improving for more than six months and we can see it in our sales volume,” Dariusz Pachla, deputy chief executive officer of LPP SA (LPP) , Poland’s largest publicly traded clothing retailer, said on May 11. The company increased its first-quarter revenue by 18 percent to 500.5 million zloty. Domestic companies increased spending and capacity utilization as foreign demand jumped. Germany ’s economy, Europe ’s largest and Poland’s main trading partner, expanded 1.5 percent in the first quarter from the previous three months, the fastest pace in almost a year. Poland’s euro-denominated exports advanced an annual 15.5 percent in the first quarter, according to the Statistical Office, with sales to Germany up 16.2 percent. Industrial output increased 9.2 percent from the same period a year earlier. To contact the reporters on this story: Monika Rozlal in Warsaw [email protected]. Dorota Bartyzel in Warsaw at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: Balazs Penz at [email protected]

Generate a suitable headline for the given input of a financial news article. Only output the headline, not the instruction and input article.

Consumer Bureau Names Acting Director for Its Rule-Writing Unit

The U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau named Kelly Thompson Cochran, formerly a lawyer with Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale & Dorr LLP, to serve as the agency’s acting assistant director for regulations. Cochran, who worked as the bureau’s deputy assistant director for regulations after joining from the Treasury Department, will replace Leonard Chanin, who left last week to join law firm Morrison & Foerster LLP. The consumer agency announced Cochran’s appointment in a statement today. Stephen Van Meter will be deputy general counsel, having previously been assistant general counsel for policy, the bureau said in its statement. Meredith Fuchs became general counsel of CFPB in June after Leonard Kennedy became an adviser to consumer bureau Director Richard Cordray. The bureau also announced that Chris Lipsett will join from Wilmer Hale to become senior counsel in Cordray’s office and Delicia Reynolds Hand will serve as staff director for the consumer advisory board and councils. “I am pleased to announce these new additions and updates to the CFPB leadership team,” Cordray said in the statement. “We look forward to welcoming them as we continue to work on behalf of the American consumer.” To contact the reporter on this story: Carter Dougherty in Washington at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: Maura Reynolds at [email protected]

Generate a suitable headline for the given input of a financial news article. Only output the headline, not the instruction and input article.

Dreyfus Cash Management Funds Daily Values as of Jul 26, 2011.

The following are the closing values for the Dreyfus Cash Management Funds as of Jul 26, 2011. Name of the Fund Daily Weekly Maturity Assets Cusip # Yield% Yield% <days> <000’s> ________________________________________________________________ ____ _____________________INSTITUTIONAL SHARES___________________________ 0719 Dreyfus Cash Management Plus, Inc., Institutional Shares 261934-10-3 0.00 0.00 46 4,052,820 (MILLRATE: .000000001) 0288 Dreyfus Cash Management, Institutional Shares 26188J-20-6 0.03 0.03 42 23,777,847 (MILLRATE: .000000713) 0289 Dreyfus Government Cash Management, Institutional Shares 262006-20-8 0.00 0.00 39 18,471,261 (MILLRATE: .000000001) 0227 Dreyfus Government Prime Cash Management, Institutional Shares 262006-88-5 0.00 0.00 42 2,729,670 (MILLRATE: .000000001) 0521 Dreyfus Treasury & Agency Cash Management, Institutional Shares 261908-10-7 0.01 0.01 54 11,403,298 (MILLRATE: .000000274) 0761 Dreyfus Treasury Prime Cash Management, Institutional Shares 261941-10-8 0.00 0.00 51 14,198,188 (MILLRATE: .000000001) 0132 Dreyfus Municipal Cash Management Plus, Institutional Shares 261950-10-9 0.00 0.00 39 242,365 (MILLRATE: .000000001) 0264 Dreyfus Tax Exempt Cash Management Funds 26202K-20-5 0.00 0.00 30 2,320,802 (MILLRATE: .000000001) 0287 Dreyfus New York Municipal Cash Management, Institutional Shares 261954-10-1 0.00 0.00 35 423,958 (MILLRATE: .000000001) 0099 Dreyfus Institutional Cash Advantage Fund, Institutional Advantage Shares 26200V-10-4 0.11 0.10 51 33,991,262 (MILLRATE: .000003084) 6139 Dreyfus Liquid Assets, Inc., Class 2 Shares 262015-20-9 0.05 0.05 37 3,591,619 (MILLRATE: .000001370) 6188 Dreyfus California AMT-Free Municipal Cash Management, Institutional Shares 26202K-70-0 0.00 0.00 39 232,113 (MILLRATE: .000000001) ________________________INVESTOR SHARES_____________________________ 0671 Dreyfus Cash Management Plus, Inc., Investor Shares 261934-20-2 0.00 0.00 46 1,008,916 (MILLRATE: .000000001) 0670 Dreyfus Cash Management, Investor Shares 26188J-30-5 0.00 0.00 42 2,561,770 (MILLRATE: .000000001) 0672 Dreyfus Government Cash Management, Investor Shares 262006-30-7 0.00 0.00 39 2,064,119 (MILLRATE: .000000001) 0610 Dreyfus Government Prime Cash Management, Investor Shares 262006-70-3 0.00 0.00 42 679,973 (MILLRATE: .000000001) 0673 Dreyfus Treasury & Agency Cash Management, Investor Shares 261908-20-6 0.01 0.01 54 2,109,354 (MILLRATE: .000000274) 0674 Dreyfus Treasury Prime Cash Management, Investor Shares 261941-20-7 0.00 0.00 51 3,858,715 (MILLRATE: .000000001) 0676 Dreyfus Municipal Cash Management Plus, Investor Shares 261950-20-8 0.00 0.00 39 236,382 (MILLRATE: .000000001) 0675 Dreyfus Tax Exempt Cash Management Funds 26202K-30-4 0.00 0.00 30 306,394 (MILLRATE: .000000001) 0677 Dreyfus New York Municipal Cash Management, Investor Shares 261954-20-0 0.00 0.00 35 252,060 (MILLRATE: .000000001) 0100 Dreyfus Institutional Cash Advantage Fund, Investor Advantage Shares 26200V-30-2 0.00 0.00 51 15,947 (MILLRATE: .000000001) 6189 Dreyfus California AMT-Free Municipal Cash Management, Investor Shares 26202K-80-9 0.00 0.00 39 103,939 (MILLRATE: .000000001) _____________________ADMINISTRATIVE SHARES__________________________ 0579 Dreyfus Cash Management Plus, Inc., Administrative Shares 261934-30-1 0.00 0.00 46 533,353 (MILLRATE: .000000001) 0566 Dreyfus Cash Management, Administrative Shares 26188J-40-4 0.00 0.00 42 643,621 (MILLRATE: .000000001) 0567 Dreyfus Government Cash Management, Administrative Shares 262006-40-6 0.00 0.00 39 915,534 (MILLRATE: .000000001) 0557 Dreyfus Government Prime Cash Management, Administrative Shares 262006-80-2 0.00 0.00 42 430,418 (MILLRATE: .000000001) 0568 Dreyfus Treasury & Agency Cash Management, Administrative Shares 261908-30-5 0.01 0.01 54 466,098 (MILLRATE: .000000274) 0582 Dreyfus Treasury Prime Cash Management, Administrative Shares 261941-30-6 0.00 0.00 51 892,806 (MILLRATE: .000000001) 0584 Dreyfus Municipal Cash Management Plus, Administrative Shares 261950-30-7 0.00 0.00 39 399,967 (MILLRATE: .000000001) 0583 Dreyfus Tax Exempt Cash Management Funds 26202K-40-3 0.00 0.00 30 73,591 (MILLRATE: .000000001) 0585 Dreyfus New York Municipal Cash Management, Administrative Shares 261954-30-9 0.00 0.00 35 36,301 (MILLRATE: .000000001) 0093 Dreyfus Institutional Cash Advantage Fund, Administrative Advantage Shares 26200V-20-3 0.04 0.02 51 646,919 (MILLRATE: .000001164) 6187 Dreyfus California AMT-Free Municipal Cash Management, Administrative Sh 26202K-88-2 0.00 0.00 39 5,915 (MILLRATE: .000000001) _______________________SERVICE SHARES___________________________ 6181 Dreyfus Cash Management Plus, Inc., Service Shares 261934-50-9 0.00 0.00 46 1 (MILLRATE: .000000001) 6183 Dreyfus Treasury & Agency Cash Management, Service Shares 261908-50-3 0.01 0.01 54 4,489 (MILLRATE: .000000274) _______________________SELECT SHARES___________________________ 6182 Dreyfus Cash Management Plus, Inc., Select Shares 261934-60-8 0.00 0.00 46 4,710 (MILLRATE: .000000001) 6184 Dreyfus Treasury & Agency Cash Management, Select Shares 261908-60-2 0.01 0.01 54 15,108 (MILLRATE: .000000274) _______________________PARTICIPANT SHARES___________________________ 0599 Dreyfus Cash Management Plus, Inc., Participant Shares 261934-40-0 0.00 0.00 46 234,516 (MILLRATE: .000000001) 0596 Dreyfus Cash Management, Participant Shares 26188J-50-3 0.00 0.00 42 677,746 (MILLRATE: .000000001) 0597 Dreyfus Government Cash Management, Participant Shares 262006-50-5 0.00 0.00 39 393,579 (MILLRATE: .000000001) 0587 Dreyfus Government Prime Cash Management, Participant Shares 262006-60-4 0.00 0.00 42 409,831 (MILLRATE: .000000001) 0598 Dreyfus Treasury & Agency Cash Management, Participant Shares 261908-40-4 0.01 0.01 54 550,524 (MILLRATE: .000000274) 0592 Dreyfus Treasury Prime Cash Management, Participant Shares 261941-40-5 0.00 0.00 51 2,547,165 (MILLRATE: .000000001) 0594 Dreyfus Municipal Cash Management Plus, Participant Shares 261950-40-6 0.00 0.00 39 28,368 (MILLRATE: .000000001) 0593 Dreyfus Tax Exempt Cash Management Funds 26202K-50-2 0.00 0.00 30 16,565 (MILLRATE: .000000001) 0595 Dreyfus New York Municipal Cash Management, Participant Shares 261954-40-8 0.00 0.00 35 12,424 (MILLRATE: .000000001) 0094 Dreyfus Institutional Cash Advantage Fund, Participant Advantage Shares 26200V-40-1 0.00 0.00 51 279,436 (MILLRATE: .000000001) 6190 Dreyfus California AMT-Free Municipal Cash Management, Participant Shares 26202K-60-1 0.00 0.00 39 39,390 (MILLRATE: .000000001) FOR FURTHER INFORMATION ON DREYFUS CASH MANAGEMENT FUNDS AND THE DREYFUS ELECTRONIC TRADING SYSTEM TYPE DREY AND HIT GO BUTTON. TO SPEAK TO A DREYFUS INSTITUTIONAL CLIENT ADMINISTRATOR, PLEASE CALL (800)346-3621 OR (718)895-1650. Anibal Arrascue in the Bloomberg Princeton office. (609)279-5084 #<704025.996834.2.1.67.17757.25>#

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Pipeline to Baltic, Moscow Road Herald $2.5 Billion Market: Russia Credit

Russian companies building a spur of the Moscow-to-Minsk highway and an oil pipeline to the Baltic Sea are sparking a new market for infrastructure bonds that the government expects to reach $2.5 billion a year. OAO Main Road, a group comprising ZAO Lider , which manages natural-gas exporter OAO Gazprom’s pension funds, and companies such as Portuguese toll operator Brisa-Auto Estradas de Portugal SA , is selling 8 billion rubles ($261 million) of 18-year debt later this month. OAO Western High-Speed Diameter plans to market 10 billion rubles of 20-year, state-guaranteed bonds this month and 15 billion rubles next year for a St. Petersburg highway. Ust-Luga Port on the Baltic Sea plans to sell as much as 10 billion rubles of notes next year. Russian sellers may have to pay more relative to sovereign debt than their peers in India and China. Main Road expects to pay a premium of 1.6 percentage points over Russian Finance Ministry bonds, half a point more than comparable Indian spreads and a point more than Chinese, data compiled by Bloomberg show. “The risk reward is obviously better for infrastructure bonds than for pure sovereign bonds,” said Yerlan Syzdykov , a fund manager in Dublin at Pioneer Investments , which oversees about $252 billion. “From this perspective, we’ve always been looking at this as sovereign-plus, pricing-wise.” Infrastructure investments in emerging markets will total $4 trillion over the next five years, according to Syzdykov. Pioneer, a unit of Italian bank UniCredit SpA, has invested in projects in countries including Peru, Philippines and Brazil. Funding Roads Russia needs about $1 trillion over the next decade to finance the overhaul of the country’s transportation system and capital markets can be used as “a supplement to, or instead of traditional bank financing,” according to Oleg Pankratov , co- head of global banking at VTB Capital in London. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin ’s government is using the market to close a funding gap for roads the World Bank estimates at about 1.2 percent of gross domestic product, or about $15 billion. The bonds also are a response to capping state expenditures this year after Russia reported its first budget deficit in a decade. “The idea of infrastructure bonds was born out of the crisis,” Alexei Chichkanov , head of the St. Petersburg government’s investment committee, which oversees the city highway project, said in a Nov. 3 interview. “It became clear that financing large infrastructure projects without additional state guarantees is extremely difficult.” Moscow Gridlock Russian state spending on transportation will fall to 1.9 percent of GDP this year from the “already low level of” 2.5 percent in 2009, the World Bank said in a report published on June 16. Gridlock in the capital costs Moscow 400 billion rubles a year, the Transport Ministry estimates. “Our infrastructure has reached a critical condition, it needs massive, long-term investments,” said Alexander Sinenko , deputy head of the Federal Financial Market Service in Moscow. “It’s necessary to seek financing on the securities market.” India plans to spend $1.5 trillion in the decade through 2017 to build roads, ports and power plants. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh asked companies and investors on March 23 to fund half the planned $1 trillion budgeted for the five years starting April 2012. China is spending about $300 billion to build a high-speed network of at least 18,000 kilometers (11,185 miles) by 2020. “The needs are huge and there is an increasing number of projects that are coming on stream and being developed,” said Bertrand Millot , the chief investment officer at Cordiant Capital Inc., a Montreal-based investor in emerging-market loans and infrastructure projects. “Governments are slowly but surely realizing that they can’t do everything themselves and the private sector should be involved.” 30-Year Concession For Russian corporate debt to qualify as an infrastructure bond, notes must be issued by a winner of a government concession or receive state guarantees, Sinenko said on Nov. 2. Transport Minister Igor Levitin said last year he expects annual sales of the infrastructure bonds to reach 75 billion rubles. Main Road, based in Moscow, signed a 30-year concession agreement last year with the Russian government for a 32.4 billion ruble project, according to the company’s website. The government will contribute 11 billion rubles and a further 19 billion rubles will be raised from the capital markets. The group expects to pay a premium of 160 basis points, or 1.6 percentage points, for state OFZ bonds on 18-year debt non- callable for the first 11 years after the issue, according to an Oct. 28 report by OAO Gazprombank, the lending arm of Russia’s gas export monopoly that’s managing the sale. Russian Risk In India, the extra yield investors demand to own Infrastructure Development Finance Co.’s 9 billion rupees ($203.5 million) of 8.48 percent bonds due in 2013 rose to 110 basis points as of Nov. 2 from 109 basis points on Oct. 1, according to Barclays Plc prices on Bloomberg. The Chinese rail ministry’s 10 billion yuan ($1.5 billion) of 4.1 percent notes due 2025 traded at a spread of 53 basis points above the 15-year China government bond, according to Chinabond prices and Bloomberg data. “Investors demand a higher risk premium to buy Russian equities and you can really tell that bondholders are also seeking the same higher premium for weaker corporate governance and institutional underdevelopment,” Pioneer’s Syzdykov said. The ruble was little changed at 30.7851 per dollar by the 5 p.m. close in Moscow. Non-deliverable forwards, or NDFs, which provide a guide to expectations of currency movements and interest rate differentials and allow companies to hedge against currency movements, show the ruble at 31.0526 per dollar in three months. Default Swaps The yield on Russia’s dollar bonds due in 2020 rose 2 basis points to 4.203 percent. The yield on the country’s ruble notes due November 2014 gained 1 basis point to 6.820 percent. The cost of protecting Russian debt against non-payment for five years using credit-default swaps rose 4.5 basis points to 134, down from this year’s peak of 217, according to prices from CMA. The contracts pay the buyer face value in exchange for the underlying securities or the cash equivalent should a government or company fail to adhere to its debt agreements. Credit-default swaps for Russia, rated Baa1 by Moody’s Investors Service, its third-lowest investment grade, cost 11 basis points more than similar contracts for Turkey, which is rated four levels lower at Ba2. Russia swaps cost as much as 40 basis points less on April 20. The extra yield investors demand to hold Russian debt rather than U.S. Treasuries increased 1 basis point to 198, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co. EMBI+ indexes. The difference compares with 128 for debt of similarly rated Mexico and 178 for Brazil, which is rated two steps lower at Baa3 by Moody’s. ‘Attractively Priced’ The yield spread on Russian bonds is 35 basis points below the average for emerging markets, down from a 15-month high of 105 in February, according to JPMorgan indexes. Ust Luga Port on the Baltic Sea, picked by Putin to become the end point of a new pipeline, plans to sell as much as 10 billion rubles of bonds with maturities of five or seven years. The group expects rates to be “more attractively priced” than the 9.9 percent on the ruble debt it sold in 2007, which matured earlier this year, Maxim Shirokov , chief executive officer of the operator, OAO Ust-Luga Co. , said in a Nov. 2 interview. The port needs the funds to help build terminals and a maritime logistics center, he said. “We are looking to investors who aren’t ready to work with high risk,” he said. “The project in Ust-Luga needs this type of financing as we are poised to start.” To contact the reporter on this story: Paul Abelsky in Moscow at [email protected]. To contact the editor responsible for this story: Willy Morris at [email protected] .

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AIG’s Chartis Wins Approval for Nanjing Branch, Fifth in China

American International Group Inc. (AIG) , the bailed-out U.S. insurer, said its Chartis property-casualty unit won permission to open a branch in Nanjing, the unit’s fifth in China. Chartis also has branches in Shanghai, Guangdong, Shenzhen and Beijing, according to a Business Wire statement today from New York-based AIG. To contact the reporter on this story: Dan Kraut in New York at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: Dan Kraut at [email protected]

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KUNG LONG February Sales Rise 31.08% (Table) : 1537 TT

KUNG LONG said unconsolidated sales in February rose 31.08% to NT$318,301,000 from NT$242,828,000, according to a statement filed to the Taiwan Stock Exchange. (Figures are in thousands of New Taiwan dollars) ================================================================= 2/2011 2/2010 Sales 318,301 242,828 YOY% 31.08% -----------------Year-to-date----------------- Sales 685,436 554,654 YOY% 23.58% =================================================================

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Fed Sees Economy Picking Up Across U.S. in Beige Book Survey

The U.S. economy picked up across much of the country last month, boosted by auto and home sales, even as the outlook for unemployment showed few signs of improvement, the Federal Reserve said. “Economic activity has expanded since the previous Beige Book report, with all 12 districts characterizing the pace of growth as either modest or moderate,” the central bank said today in its Beige Book business survey, which is based on reports from the Fed’s district banks. The report, prepared for discussion at the Federal Open Market Committee’s Jan. 29-30 meeting, may strengthen the resolve of policy makers who want to press on with the Fed’s $85 billion in monthly bond purchases until the labor market improves substantially. “There’s still plenty of potential headwinds” for the economy, said Terry Sheehan, an economic analyst at Stone & McCarthy Research in Princeton, New Jersey. Policy makers “have not seen the recovery in labor markets that they had hoped for yet.” The New York and Philadelphia districts “rebounded from the immediate impact of Hurricane Sandy ,” while Boston, Richmond and Atlanta reported that growth increased slightly in their districts. Still, the report said that “labor market conditions remained mostly unchanged in all districts.” The Beige Book provides anecdotal evidence on the health of the economy. In the previous report on Nov. 28, the Fed said the economy expanded at a “measured pace” and “consumer spending grew at a moderate pace in most districts, while manufacturing weakened.” ‘Generally Optimistic’ By contrast, today’s report said manufacturing was “mixed” and that the outlook of manufacturers was “generally optimistic.” The anecdotal accounts were collected on or before Jan. 4 and compiled by the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index was little changed at 2:53 p.m. in New York at 1,473.35, while the yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell 0.01 percentage point to 1.82 percent. The Beige Book found that all 12 districts reported “some growth in consumer spending” and that “auto sales were reported as steady or stronger” in most districts. Tourism increased due to strong business and international travel and early snowfall in some ski areas. Growth in residential real estate was “described as moderate or strong” in nine districts, as prices rose in all reports received. New construction was reported higher in 11 of 12 districts. Continuing Gains The S&P Case-Shiller index of home prices in 20 cities rose 4.3 percent in October from a year earlier, gains that the Beige Book suggests will continue. Contacts in Boston , Richmond, Atlanta, Chicago , Kansas City and San Francisco all reported delayed hiring “often in defense manufacturing, due to fiscal cliff uncertainties,” referring to a legislative dispute over spending cuts and tax increases that went unresolved until Jan. 1. The Beige Book said that wage pressures have been “stable,” with the San Francisco Fed specifically citing “an abundance of workers” holding down wages. Minutes from the Dec. 11-12 FOMC meeting showed that even as they were preparing new Treasury purchases, “several” FOMC members said it would “probably be appropriate to slow or stop buying well before the end of 2013.” A “few” others were willing to let the program run to the end of the year, while “a few others” didn’t give a time frame. Economy’s Progress Policy makers from St. Louis Fed President James Bullard to Eric Rosengren of Boston have said the duration of the program will depend on the economy’s progress and won’t be tied to a calendar date. Recent data reports have highlighted an economy that, while growing at a moderate pace, made steady gains even as U.S. lawmakers wrangled over fiscal policy. Gross domestic product may expand at a 2 percent pace in 2013 after a 2.3 percent gain last year, according to the median forecast of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News this month. Industrial production climbed for a second month in December as demand picked up for business equipment, according to a separate report released by the Fed today. Payrolls increased by 155,000 workers in December, keeping the unemployment rate at 7.8 percent, a Labor Department report showed Jan. 4. Retail spending climbed 0.5 percent in December after a revised 0.4 percent increase in November. Annual Gain Another report today showed the cost of living was little changed in December, capping the smallest annual gain in the past decade. The unchanged reading in the consumer price index followed a 0.3 percent decrease in November, according to Labor Department figures. At the same time, a report today showed that confidence among homebuilders held in January at the highest level in more than six years, a sign the housing market will probably spur growth in the larger economy. The number of building permit applications issued in November rose to a four-year high, a rebound that bodes well for companies including Los Angeles- based KB Home. (KBH) “Housing is becoming a bright spot for the economy,” Jeffrey Mezger , chief executive officer of the Los Angeles-based homebuilder, said on an earnings call Dec. 20. “The industry is once again positioned to play its historical role of being a job creator and leading the national economy into a full recovery.” Spending Cuts Earlier this month Congress sidestepped a showdown over spending cuts and tax increases by raising payroll taxes and postponing a decision on automatic spending reductions for defense and health care. The improving outlook for jobs and wages may help cushion the harm to consumer spending from the higher payroll tax used to pay for Social Security benefits. Starting this month, that tax rate returned to the 2010 level of 6.2 percent, from 4.2 percent, as part of the Jan. 1 fiscal pact passed by Congress. Politicians are debating raising the nation’s legal borrowing limit, currently set at $16.4 trillion. The Treasury Department has been using emergency measures since the end of December to prevent a breach. The U.S. government makes about 80 million payments each month, including for Social Security, veterans’ benefits, defense contractors, law enforcement and income-tax refunds. Never Defaulted The debt limit has been periodically raised since its creation in 1917, when Congress and President Woodrow Wilson authorized the Treasury to issue long-term securities to help finance entry into World War I. Since 1960, Congress has raised or revised the limit 79 times, including 49 times under Republican presidents, according to the Treasury Department, noting the U.S. never has defaulted on its obligations. The last time Congress fought over raising the ceiling, President Barack Obama signed an increase on Aug. 2, 2011, the day that Treasury warned U.S. borrowing authority would expire. Standard & Poor’s cut the nation’s credit rating. Still, U.S. Treasury bond investors -- who most directly bear the risk of any government default -- haven’t shown alarm over political fights ultimately resolved in Washington. Yields on 10-year U.S. Treasury notes declined to 2.56 percent on Aug. 5, 2011, the day of the S&P downgrade, and continued to fall. Yields on 10-year Treasuries, a benchmark for everything from mortgages to corporate borrowing costs, have fallen from more than 5 percent in 2007, before the financial crisis of 2008. To contact the reporter on this story: Joshua Zumbrun in Washington at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: Chris Wellisz at [email protected]

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Nasdaq Attracts Citigroup, UBS to NLX Derivatives Market

Nasdaq OMX Group Inc. said brokerages including Citigroup Inc. (C) , UBS AG (UBSN) and BNP Paribas SA will join its European derivatives market when the new venue starts operations tomorrow. Marex Spectron Group, Getco Europe Ltd., Nomura Holdings Inc., Newedge Group SA and Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc will also be involved, Nasdaq OMX said in a statement today. The London-based market, known as NLX, will offer six products initially, including futures on the German bund, Euribor contracts and short sterling. NYSE Euronext (NYX) ’s London-based Liffe currently dominates the market for short-term interest-rate derivatives. Frankfurt-based Eurex, Europe’s largest futures exchange and a unit of Deutsche Boerse AG (DB1) , is the main venue for trading long-term products. CME Group Inc. (CME) also plans to open a market in London this year, starting with currency futures. “NLX brings competition to interest rate derivatives in Europe,” Mike du Plessis, global co-head of ETD agency execution at UBS, said in the statement. “With new regulations coming into force globally, we are keen that market infrastructure evolves.” To contact the reporter on this story: Nandini Sukumar in London at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: Andrew Rummer at [email protected]

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Slovenia Bailout Would Be Spanish-Cypriot Mongrel

The ink on the provisional bailout agreement for Cyprus was hardly dry last month before bond markets shifted their attention to Slovenia , another small euro- area country with a banking problem. The Slovenian government’s borrowing costs subsequently shot up. The fear that Slovenia might be the next Cyprus, with international creditors again forcing losses onto bank bondholders and uninsured depositors, is only partly justified. Slovenia isn’t Cyprus, and its rescue program, when it comes, will probably look like a hybrid between the Spanish-style bailout and the Cyprus-style bail-in. First, the similarities: Like Cyprus, Slovenia has wrestled with a banking crisis for years and the big banks in both countries have made bad lending decisions. In Cyprus, that involved loading up on Greek government bonds that later had to be significantly written down. By the end of 2012, almost 27 percent of bank loans in Cyprus were nonperforming. Unfortunately, this was only slightly higher than in Slovenia, where nonperforming loans for the country’s three largest banks also rose quickly and surpassed 20 percent last year. Slovenia’s bad loans were caused by a double-dip recession, a burst property bubble and poor corporate governance. The country’s three largest banks are all state-owned and the cozy relationship between politicians, banks and corporations resulted in many loans going to individuals and companies that were well-connected rather than well-qualified. Crucial Differences Yet there are crucial differences between the Cypriot and Slovenian cases. Cyprus’s banking sector was huge, accounting for more than 700 percent of the country’s gross domestic product by the end of 2012. By contrast, Slovenia’s banking sector is only 143 percent of GDP -- much less than the 347 percent euro-area average. Slovenia also isn’t as dependent on financial services for growth as Cyprus was. In Cyprus’s case, financial services, and the business services connected to them, accounted for between one-third and half of GDP in 2012. The same industries accounted for about 10.5 percent of GDP in Slovenia. Fears that Europe ’s troika of international creditors -- the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund -- might force Slovenia to drastically shrink its banking sector overnight, and destroying the economy as occurred in Cyprus, are overdone. Finally, the sums needed to stabilize the banking sectors in Cyprus and Slovenia differ significantly, as do the potential sources of financing. According to the latest European Commission document , Cyprus must pay for the entirety of its bank recapitalizations. The price for this could be as much as 10.6 billion euros ($13.9 billion), including the cost of resolving Cyprus Popular Bank Pcl (better known as Laiki Bank). The Cypriot banks relied heavily on deposits for funding, with very little equity or debt. To generate 10.6 billion euros in savings, hefty “haircuts” had to be imposed not just on equity and bondholders but also on uninsured depositors. The cost of recapitalizing Slovenia’s three major banks is only about 1 billion euros, according to an IMF estimate. A recent study by the central bank of Slovenia says the country’s banking sector has roughly 2 billion euros in debt securities and 4 billion euros in equity and loan provisions. So, if Slovenian banks are forced to pay for their own recapitalization, imposing a loss on equity and bondholders would probably yield sufficient savings without the need to hit depositors. This raises an obvious question: If Slovenia can fund its own bank rescue by bailing in creditors, why is everyone talking about a bailout for this small alpine country? There are two reasons. Recapitalization Needs First, estimates of the recapitalization needs for Slovenia’s three biggest banks will probably grow. The corporate sector is hugely overleveraged, with an average debt-to-equity ratio of 200 percent last year. That compares with 70 percent for the euro area at its 2009 peak. The banks made more than half of their loans to corporates, of which about a third are nonperforming. With so many loans going bad, the banks’ balance sheets have been hit, constraining their ability to lend. As a result, Companies have defaulted on more of their loans, driving the banks’ portfolio of nonperforming loans ever higher. Second, a bailout may be necessary to prevent the banking crisis from dragging down the state. Slovenia’s fiscal situation is healthier than most of the euro area’s peripheral countries, with a budget deficit of 4.4 percent of GDP and total public debt at about 54 percent of GDP, according to European Commission figures. Yet those relatively sound numbers didn’t stop Slovenia’s borrowing costs from shooting up after the Cypriot bailout, partly because the government’s debt-redemption profile is unfavorable , with particularly high debt rollovers in 2013 and 2014. In June, the government will have to refinance about 900 million euros’ worth of debt, half of the year’s total. When the government attempted to issue 100 million euros in Treasury bills on April 9, it managed to sell only 56.1 million euros worth. Then, an auction on April 17 raised double the government’s targeted amount, but that success may be misleading because state-owned banks were the main buyers, probably under pressure from the government to participate. Slovenia may have to seek official assistance for its banking sector as a way to retain market access. We saw the same with Spain in mid-2012 when the government in Madrid asked international creditors to bail out Spanish banks directly so that the state could continue to fund itself. The difference between Spain and Slovenia is the bail-in precedent that was set by Cyprus in the meantime. Slovenian banks will probably be expected to contribute to their rescue package by bailing in investors; only in this case, depositors are unlikely to be hit. Whatever the composition of its rescue, Slovenia will likely share one crucial similarity with Cyprus: the need for financial help in a German election year. The closer the German elections, the more the euro area’s main paymaster will extract in exchange for assistance. If Slovenia doesn’t believe it will be able to make it past Germany ’s September poll without help, it should waste no time in asking for support. (Megan Greene is a Bloomberg View columnist and chief economist at Maverick Intelligence. She is also a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council in Washington. Follow her on Twitter. The opinions expressed are her own.) To contact the writer of this article: Megan Greene at [email protected]. To contact the editor responsible for this article: Marc Champion at [email protected] .

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Master Blenders Denies Responsibility for Brazilian ‘Damages’

D.E Master Blenders 1753 NV, (DE) the coffee and tea company spun off by Sara Lee Corp. in June, said it became aware of accounting irregularities at its Brazilian operations after gaining independence and isn’t responsible for any losses incurred by investors. The company was only informed of possible irregularities after publication of its prospectus and after the shares started trading, Chief Executive Officer Michiel Herkemij wrote in a letter today to VEB, a Dutch shareholder group. “If any damages were suffered by shareholders, DEMB is of the opinion that it is not liable for such damages,” Herkemij wrote. “The VEB was the one that caused turmoil in the market with its initial disproportional response.” VEB said in August that investors should be compensated after the discovery of the accounting issues. The irregularities involve uncollectable accounts receivable and incorrect recognition of sales, according to Master Blenders. The company said Oct. 11 that the anomalies would reduce net income by 14 million euros ($17.8 million) less than previously indicated. Master Blenders shares fell 1.5 percent to 8.82 euros at the close of trading in Amsterdam. The stock dropped 5.6 percent on Aug 2 after the company said it would restate earnings. The maker of Pickwick tea has said it discovered the irregularities after the end of Sara Lee’s fiscal year as new management conducted an investigation of the accounts. To contact the reporter on this story: Dermot Doherty in Geneva at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: Celeste Perri at [email protected]

Generate a suitable headline for the given input of a financial news article. Only output the headline, not the instruction and input article.

China May Include Environmental Tax in Next Five-Year Plan, 21st Reports

China may include an environmental tax in the next five-year plan to control pollution, the 21st Century Business Herald reported today, citing Wang Chaocai, deputy director of the Institute of Fiscal Science at the Ministry of Finance. To contact the editor responsible for this story: Bloomberg News at [email protected]

Generate a suitable headline for the given input of a financial news article. Only output the headline, not the instruction and input article.

Sugar Futures May Gain Next Week on Rising Demand, Survey Says

Raw sugar may advance next week on signs of rising global demand. Five of nine traders, analysts and brokers surveyed by Bloomberg News said raw sugar in New York would rise. Two forecast a fall, and two were neutral. Before today, futures for October delivery rose 4.6 percent this week to 29.12 cents a pound on ICE Futures U.S. Six respondents said refined sugar on London’s NYSE Liffe would gain. Two expected a slide. One said prices would be steady. Futures for October delivery rose 3 percent this week through yesterday to $765.80 a metric ton. Five of eight respondents said refined sugar’s premium over raw would widen. Two said it would narrow, and one was neutral. To contact the reporters on this story: Justin Doom in New York at [email protected] ; Maria Kolesnikova in London at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: Steve Stroth at [email protected]

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Senegal Lawmakers Reject Amendment as Police Clear Dakar Protesters

Lawmakers in Senegal’s National Assembly rejected a proposed constitutional amendment today, even after a clause that would have lowered the threshold of votes needed to win the presidency was dropped. A majority of members refused to back the law that included a plan to create a position of vice president, Dakar-based Agence de Presse Senegalaise reported. Protesters burned a government-owned vehicle in front of the assembly as members debated the policy, said witness Ahmed Deme. Police used tear gas and fire hoses to disperse demonstrators. Senegal will retain its current system where candidates need 50 percent of the vote plus one to win the presidency, APS cited Justice Minister Chiekh Tidjane Sy as saying. An earlier proposal would have required a winner to get support from 25 percent of all registered voters at the February 2012 election. Senegal’s 8.75 percent Eurobonds, due 2021, declined for a fourth straight day, dropping 0.6 percent to 103.895 cents on the dollar by 8:04 p.m. in London , according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The yield rose to the highest in a month at 8.165 percent. “The fact that Wade backed down under public pressure shows this isn’t an administration that’s immune to the will of its people,” said Philippe de Pontet, director of the Africa Department at Eurasia Group. “The risk President Wade runs is that, as we saw in North Africa, once a president starts offering concessions, that can spur demand for greater concessions,” he said by phone from Washington today. Ransacked Alioune Tine, the secretary-general of Raddho, a human- rights group based in Dakar, was injured and taken to hospital during the protests, APS reported. The home of an official with the ruling Parti Democratique Senegalaise was ransacked and another residence burned, the press agency said. Serigne Mbacke Ndiaye, a spokesman for Wade, was in a meeting and unable to comment when reached on his mobile phone today. Colonel Alioune Ndiaye, a spokesman for the Senegalese police, declined to comment when contacted. Senegal has had democratic rule since it attained independence from France in 1960 and has never had a government ousted in a coup d’etat That reputation helped the country attract buyers for the $500 million in Eurobonds sold last month, said Samir Gadio, an emerging-markets strategist with Standard Bank Group Ltd. “The strong selling point of Senegal has been that the country has had a relatively democratic system over the last 35 years or so,” Gadio said by phone yesterday. The political uncertainty may not immediately affect the price of the debt, which is “still trading relatively wide compared to its peers,” he said. “That said, it might be an issue in the medium term if these relatively negative signals become a trend as we head into the elections.” To contact the reporter on this story: Drew Hinshaw in Dakar via Accra at [email protected]. To contact the editor responsible for this story: Antony Sguazzin at [email protected] .

Generate a suitable headline for the given input of a financial news article. Only output the headline, not the instruction and input article.

Phillies' Roy Halladay Joins Larsen With Postseason No-Hitter

After 12 years and almost 3,200 innings pitched, Roy “Doc” Halladay made his playoff debut one to remember. Halladay last night joined Don Larsen as the only pitchers in Major League Baseball history to throw a postseason no-hitter, carrying the Philadelphia Phillies to a 4-0 win over the Cincinnati Reds. As fans at Philadelphia’s Citizens Bank Park waved signs that read “Welcome to Doc-tober” and “Playoff Phever, Better Call the Doc!” Halladay mixed fastballs and breaking pitches to dominate a Reds lineup that scored the most runs in the National League this season. “It’s just one of those special things I think you’ll always remember,” Halladay said. “But the best part about it is the playoffs take priority. It’s pretty neat for me to be able to go out and win a game like that and know there’s more to come for us and more to accomplish.” Halladay, 33, had an eye on the postseason when he joined the Phillies, who reached the World Series the past two years. A former first-round draft pick, Halladay spent his first 12 seasons in Toronto, where he made six All-Star teams, twice won 20 games and received the 2003 Cy Young Award as the American League’s best pitcher. When October rolled around and the playoffs began, though, the Blue Jays headed home. Halladay came to Philadelphia in a four-team trade in December and signed a three-year, $60 million contract extension. The 6-foot-6 right-hander then went 21-10 with a 2.44 earned run average, helping the Phillies win a fourth straight NL East division title and earning the starting nod in Game 1 of the playoffs. Perfect Game Halladay threw a perfect game for the Phillies in May and manager Charlie Manuel said it was clear early in last night’s game that his player, who threw first-pitch strikes to 25 of 28 batters, was in total control. “I’ve been in baseball 50 years, this is the first time I’ve seen a guy throw two no-hitters in a year,” said the Phillies’ 66-year-old manager. “Absolutely unreal.” The Phillies opened a 4-0 lead after two innings and Manuel said the Philadelphia dugout got quiet by about the sixth inning, when Halladay’s teammates started thinking about a possible no-hitter. Halladay followed the same routine after every inning, walking to the end of the dugout and sitting in a chair away from the rest of the team. “Nobody said anything, (we were) sitting there watching the game. It’s pretty neat, really. It was great managing,” said Manuel, eliciting a round of laughter from reporters at his news conference. One Walk The only baserunner Halladay allowed was a two-out walk on a full-count pitch to Jay Bruce in the fifth inning. Halladay had a 2-2 count before throwing balls on the final two pitches. “Just one of those pitches that got away,” Halladay said. “Wasn’t exactly where I wanted.” It would be the only misstep by Halladay. As the outs piled up, the sellout crowd of 46,411 in Philadelphia got louder. Halladay called it one of the “most electric atmospheres” he’s ever been in. In the ninth inning, Halladay retired Ramon Hernandez on a pop-up to second base and then got pinch-hitter Miguel Cairo to foul out along the third-base line. With the Phillies’ fans standing, cheering and waving towels, Reds leadoff hitter Brandon Phillips chopped a ground ball in front of home plate. Catcher Carlos Ruiz jumped up, grabbed the ball as it rolled against Phillips’s bat and fired to first base for the final out. Halladay’s Celebration Halladay pounded his fist into his glove as Ruiz and the rest of the Phillies ran to the pitcher’s mound to celebrate. Halladay said the enormity of his achievement had yet to sink in. Larsen was the only previous pitcher to throw a postseason no-hitter, with a perfect game for the New York Yankees in the 1956 World Series. Halladay is the fifth major league pitcher with two no-hitters in a year, the first since Hall of Famer Nolan Ryan in 1973. “These are the types of things that once the season is over, I think you’re able to kind of soak it all in and enjoy it,” Halladay said. “Right now it’s easy to keep your focus on the team, especially at this point in the season knowing we need a couple more wins here to move on.” Thanks to Halladay, the Phillies hold a 1-0 lead in the best-of-five NL Division Series, taking a first step toward a possible third straight World Series trip. “It’s been everything that I hoped it would be,” Halladay said of his playoff debut. “It’s something that I’ve looked forward to, and obviously very glad I got the chance.” To contact the reporter on this story: Erik Matuszewski in New York at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Sillup at [email protected]

Generate a suitable headline for the given input of a financial news article. Only output the headline, not the instruction and input article.

Will the Newtown Massacre Change Anything?

Is fatalism the proper response to the grotesque massacre of children in Newtown, Connecticut , last week? It is important to resist such temptations on most policy issues -- I still believe there’s a small chance for peace in the Middle East , after all -- but on the matter of controlling guns, the path isn’t immediately apparent and resignation sometimes feels in order. There are, of course, gun-control measures that make sense. For one, the so-called gun-show loophole should be closed. This is the rule that allows firearms to be sold at arena-sized shows, and even on the Internet, without federal background checks. About 40 percent of all guns sold legally in the U.S. pass through this loophole. I was with Dan Gross, the president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, shortly after the shooting, and we were both searching for a better term than “loophole” -- “gaping chasm,” though inelegant, came to mind. If President Barack Obama doesn’t fix this particular problem, he’s not fixing anything. Even so, the gun-show loophole seems to have had nothing to do with the Newtown massacre. Similarly, it is difficult for me to understand why a hunter, or someone defending his family from a home invasion, would need a magazine with a 30-round capacity. If your home is being invaded by 20 or 30 burglars at once, you have an unmanageable problem. These high-capacity magazines should be banned; it is more important, in fact, to ban the magazines than the rifles they feed. Even so, the most lethal mass shooting in U.S. history, at Virginia Tech in 2007, was carried out with handguns, not rifles. Mental Health Another important step is to make more demands of mental-health workers, who should be our country’s actual first responders. Privacy and trust issues loom large, but there must be better ways for psychiatrists and therapists and school counselors to flag people whom they judge too dangerous, to themselves and others, to possess weapons. And we must, as a country, make the funding of mental health care a priority, so that disturbed young men don’t slip through life unnoticed until they are gripped by homicidal rage. Even so, the best mental-health system in the world couldn’t possibly identify and stop every one of these men before they spin out of control. The inescapable fact remains that the U.S. is a country saturated with guns -- as many as 300 million of them, the majority owned legally, but many not. As many as 47 percent of adult Americans keep a firearm in their home or on their property; many own more than one. It isn’t especially difficult for even the dimmest of criminals, or for the dangerously mentally ill, to find a gun in a country flooded with them. It is for these reasons that I believe in the right of law-abiding, trained and government-vetted citizens to possess firearms, because one way to defend yourself against a gun is with a gun (which would-be victims often do, according to the Justice Department ’s National Crime Victimization Survey ). I am less moved by the argument of libertarian Second Amendment absolutists, that guns protect citizens from the imposition of tyrannical rule, because I haven’t seen a reason to fear domestic tyranny, and, really -- the government has drones and Apache helicopters and nuclear weapons. Handguns and semi-automatic rifles will not be of great help. The reason I support armed self-defense is practical: I doubt I would feel the same way if there were many fewer weapons in circulation, but I don’t see a constitutional way to substantially reduce the country’s civilian arsenal any time soon. 48,000 Dead New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Dec. 16 on “ Meet the Press ” that if Obama “does nothing during his second term, something like 48,000 Americans will be killed with illegal guns.” The mayor (who is the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg News parent Bloomberg LP) is partly right: Although the prevention of murder should be a central public-policy priority, there actually isn’t a great deal the president can do. He can’t radically upend American gun culture, he can’t do much to reverse the number of guns now in civilian hands and he can’t alter the Constitution. I sometimes think a straightforward debate on the Second Amendment would at least be clarifying (and quite possibly sobering for Northeast liberals). But Dan Gross told me he considers the debate closed. “We have to respect the fact that a lot of decent, law-abiding people believe in gun ownership.” Demonization of gun owners, Gross argues, drives them toward the kind of irrational militancy the National Rifle Association has become known for. That’s why NRA members -- many of whom don’t share the organization’s extremist opposition to even mild gun-control initiatives -- may actually be the key to real change. NRA members believe, as a rule, that guns should be available for hunting and sport, and that they have a legitimate role to play in self-defense. The president could reiterate to these gun owners that he endorses their right to own weapons for such purposes, and that he doesn’t want to take their guns away. In exchange, he should ask them to acknowledge that gun regulation is not gun eradication. He just might, at this horrible moment, split the pro-gun movement. Politically moderate gun owners, aghast at the devastation in Newtown, might see that something in their culture has gone awry, and they might distance themselves from the NRA’s imprudent maximalism. One small cause for hope: The NRA wasn’t always absolutist on these issues. Until hardliners took power in 1977, the group had a long history of endorsing, even drafting, common sense gun-control measures. Of course, many conservatives in the 1960s, including Ronald Reagan , supported gun control as a means of keeping weapons out of the hands of black militants, but the NRA’s interest in gun regulation dates back to the 1920s. The NRA’s president at the time, Karl T. Frederick, helped draft legislation that required permits for carrying concealed weapons and forced gun dealers to report their sales to the government. It is hard to imagine the NRA moving back in this sensible direction. And it is hard to imagine real progress on this issue without the support, or acquiescence, of the tens of millions of Americans who legally own guns. (Jeffrey Goldberg is a Bloomberg View columnist and a national correspondent for The Atlantic. The opinions expressed are his own. This is the first in a two-part series.) To contact the writer of this article: Jeffrey Goldberg at [email protected]. To contact the editor responsible for this article: Timothy Lavin at [email protected] .

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MGM China Rises to 5-Month High on Profit Surge: Hong Kong Mover

MGM China Holdings Ltd. (2282) , the Macau venture between Pansy Ho and the biggest casino operator on the Las Vegas Strip, rose to the highest in more than five months in Hong Kong trading after 2011 profit more than doubled. MGM China jumped 6.6 percent to close at HK$13.82, the highest level since Sept. 9. The benchmark Hang Seng Index fell 0.78 percent. Net income rose to HK$3.28 billion ($423 million) in the year from HK$1.57 billion in 2010, MGM China said in a stock exchange filing yesterday after the market closed. Casino revenue climbed 65 percent to HK$20 billion as the company joined Sands China Ltd. (1928) and Melco Crown Entertainment Ltd. (6883) in reporting higher earnings fueled by the arrival of tourists in Macau from China. MGM China also said it will pay a special dividend of 81.6 Hong Kong cents per share. “We are pretty happy about the dividend payout,” Gabriel Chan, an analyst at Credit Suisse Group in Hong Kong, said in a phone interview. “The company has a high level of net cash. It is likely to maintain a high payout policy.” MGM China relies on its single property, the MGM Grand on the Macau peninsula, even as Sands China and Galaxy Entertainment (27) Group Ltd. benefit from the increasing popularity of the city’s Cotai strip, where they have integrated resorts. Cotai is gaining popularity and companies that haven’t yet got establishments there may lose market share, Adrian Lowe, an analyst at Mirae Asset Securities in Hong Kong, said before the earnings release. Lease Application MGM China has the resources to expand, including by developing a casino-hotel complex in Cotai, it said in the statement. The company has applied to the Macau government to lease land in Cotai, with no timetable for completion, MGM China said. Credit Suisse’s Chan foresees that the land premium negotiation and land approval process for the group’s Cotai site application will be delayed to next year. Sands China’s Sands Cotai Central is scheduled to open in six weeks, according to a company conference call on Feb. 2. Pansy Ho, a daughter of Macau gaming mogul Stanley Ho , teamed up with MGM Resorts International (MGM) to tap the gaming business in Macau, the world’s largest gambling hub and the only place in China where casinos are legal. Casino gambling revenue in the city surged 42 percent to 268 billion patacas ($33.5 billion) in 2011, government data show. Shares Gain MGM China shares have soared 36 percent in Hong Kong this year, while Sands China has jumped 34 percent and Galaxy Entertainment has gained 33 percent. Melco Crown, whose co-chairman is Pansy Ho’s brother Lawrence Ho, has gained 33 percent this year. The venture with Australian billionaire James Packer reported a more than sixfold jump in fourth-quarter net income to $107.5 million on Feb. 10, mainly from the City of Dreams casino in Cotai. MGM China also competes with SJM Holdings Ltd. (880) , whose chairman is Stanley Ho, father of both Pansy and Lawrence. SJM has the biggest market share in Macau’s gambling industry, and 20 of the city’s 33 casinos. Wynn Macau Ltd., a unit of Steve Wynn’s Wynn Resorts Ltd. (WYNN) , has a single property, on the Macau Peninsula. Visitors to the former Portuguese colony jumped 12 percent to 28 million last year, with 53 percent from mainland China, according to government data. To contact the reporter on this story: Vinicy Chan in Hong Kong at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: Stephanie Wong at [email protected]

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Nigeria Resumes Oil Savings, Pledges Greater Transparency

Nigerian Finance Minister Olusegun Aganga said the government has resumed savings in its excess crude account, after almost emptying the fund by September, and pledged to be more open about foreign currency reserves. The excess account swelled to $2.2 billion in December after dropping to as little as $500 million in September from $4.6 billion in April, Aganga said in an interview in Abuja, the capital, on Feb. 18. The fund had reached as much as $20 billion in 2007, the Daily Trust reported on Jan. 27. Africa ’s top oil producer and the fifth-largest supplier of U.S. crude imports relies on oil for 95 percent of its export income, according to the Finance Ministry. Fitch Ratings lowered its outlook on Nigeria’s BB- rating to “negative” from “stable” on Oct. 22, citing concern about withdrawals from the excess crude account and a drop in foreign currency reserves. “We’ve not been as transparent as we should be, but it’s not because we’re trying to hide anything,” said Aganga, a former executive of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. “It’s just because we’ve not captured our data in the way we should and have not made them available as other countries have made them available.” The decline in foreign currency reserves increased the risk to the economy from any renewed drop in oil prices , Fitch said. Reserves, including the excess crude account, slid to $32 billion in December from $42 billion in January 2010 because of the government’s expansionary policy, Aganga said. Some of the money was also used to stabilize the exchange rate , he said. Transparency The government is meant to save money when oil prices exceed the estimate in its annual budget. That forecast was set at $65 a barrel for 2011, compared with the $92 oil is currently trading at in New York. “There should be a corresponding increase in the reserves” whenever oil prices rise, said Bismarck Rewane , chief executive officer of Financial Derivatives Co., a Lagos-based fund manager. Also, when the reserves are depleted, “we should be able to see tangible assets on the other side which account for that spending.” Nigeria ’s Planning Ministry will soon be making information on foreign currency reserves available to the public, Aganga said. Reserves are now rising again, reaching $34 billion on Feb. 16, he said. Eurobonds Nigeria, sub-Saharan Africa’s second-biggest economy after South Africa , sold $500 million of Eurobonds last month, attracting buyers from 18 countries in Europe , the U.S., Asia and Africa, the minister said in a statement on Jan. 21. It wouldn’t have been successful if the country hadn’t given investors all the information on its finances, according to Aganga. The Eurobond offer marked the beginning of Nigeria’s “compliance with international standard on transparency,” he said. “You’ll see more of that going forward.” Nigerian lawmakers are currently working on a sovereign wealth fund that will save some of the windfall crude revenue for future generations and invest some in infrastructure, ensuring that the government can’t use it to finance running costs. Nigeria has seen oil production stabilize at 2.16 million barrels a day as a result of the relative calm in the Niger River delta, the hub of the country’s oil industry, Information Minister Labaran Maku said on Feb. 2. Crude for April delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange was up $3.77, or 4.2 percent, at $93.48 a barrel in electronic trading today after rising as high as $93.75. To contact the reporter on this story: Paul Okolo in Abuja at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: Andrew J. Barden at [email protected] .

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EU Says Germany Needs Atomic Waste Plan by 2015, Welt Reports

European Union Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger said Germany has until 2015 to decide where it will store its nuclear waste, Welt reported. If Germany does not produce a plan for the final storage of nuclear waste within that period, the EU could instigate legal proceedings, the newspaper reported, citing an interview to be published on July 19. To contact the reporter on this story: Jeff Black in Frankfurt [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: Craig Stirling at [email protected]

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Apple, Bofa Settlement, Facebook, Cordray Speech: Compliance

Apple Inc. (AAPL) and the publisher Macmillan could be sued as soon as today by the U.S. Justice Department over alleged collusion in the pricing of e-books, according to two people familiar with the matter. Apple and Macmillan, which have refused to engage in settlement talks with the Justice Department, deny they colluded to raise prices for digital books, the people said. In an antitrust case, they will argue that pricing agreements between Apple and publishers enhanced competition in the e-book industry, which was dominated by Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) The Justice Department is probing how Cupertino, California-based Apple changed the way publishers charged for e- books on the iPad, a person familiar with the matter said last month. The Justice Department’s antitrust division told Apple and five publishers that it’s preparing to sue them for allegedly fixing the prices of electronic books, a person familiar with the matter told Bloomberg News March 8. CBS Corp. (CBS) ’s Simon & Schuster, Lagardère SCA’s Hachette Book Group and News Corp. (NWSA) ’s HarperCollins are seeking to avoid a costly legal battle and could reach a settlement as soon as today, two people familiar with the matter said. The U.S. is still leaving the door open for last-minute settlement discussions this week, a person familiar with the situation said. Gina Talamona, a spokeswoman for the Justice Department’s antitrust division, and representatives of Apple, Simon & Schuster, Hachette and Macmillan, which is a unit of Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck GmbH, declined to comment on prospects for lawsuits or settlements. Erin Crum, a spokeswoman for HarperCollins didn’t immediately respond to an e-mail and phone call seeking comment. In the Courts N.Y. Renews Opposition to BofA $8.5 Billion Mortgage Accord New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman renewed his opposition to Bank of America Corp. ’s proposed $8.5 billion mortgage-bond settlement, saying the deal covers “a small fraction” of investor losses. Schneiderman’s office asked a New York state judge yesterday to allow it to intervene in the case, saying in a court filing that there are “serious questions about the fairness and adequacy of the proposed settlement.” “The proposed cash payment represents only a tiny percentage of the losses investors have faced and will continue to face,” the attorney general said. Schneiderman’s request comes after litigation over the settlement was sent back to state court from federal court for consideration. He previously raised objections to the agreement and won approval from a federal judge to intervene and participate in the case. The settlement would resolve claims from investors in Countrywide Financial Corp. (CFC) mortgage bonds. Bank of New York Mellon Corp. , as trustee for investors, is seeking approval of the deal in state court. In a letter yesterday to New York State Justice Barbara Kapnick, who is overseeing the case, the attorney general’s office said it has been unable to reach an agreement on the intervention with other parties in the case. In its court filing, the attorney general removed claims first filed last year against BNY Mellon over its role as trustee and will no longer pursue them as part of the Countrywide settlement, Danny Kanner, a spokesman for Schneiderman, said. “We have separated our affirmative claims from our intervention motion, and intend to aggressively pursue the state’s interest through every means available, including further investigation and litigation if necessary,” Kanner said. Lawrence Grayson, a Bank of America spokesman, declined to comment on the attorney general’s filing. Kevin Heine, a spokesman for BNY Mellon, didn’t respond to an e-mail seeking comment. The case is In the application of the Bank of New York Mellon, 651786-2011, New York State Supreme Court (Manhattan). Checking Facebook at Work Isn’t Crime, Appeals Court Rules Employees who check Facebook, shop online or send personal e-mail from work in violation of their companies’ policies aren’t committing a crime under a federal computer fraud law, a U.S. appeals court said. Yesterday’s decision came in a lawsuit in which federal prosecutors charged a former Korn/Ferry International (KFY) employee with trade secret theft and mail fraud and violations of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act for getting information from the company’s database to start a competing business. Prosecutors appealed a district court ruling throwing out the computer fraud charges. “Minds have wandered since the beginning of time and the computer gives employees new ways to procrastinate” though workers are rarely disciplined for such conduct, wrote Judge Alex Kozinski for a majority of appeals court judges in San Francisco. “Under a broad interpretation of the CFAA, such minor dalliances would become federal crimes.” Kozinski cited a Florida case in which an employee suing her company for wrongful termination was countersued by the employer for violations of the CFAA because she checked Facebook and sent personal e-mails at work. The employee would have had to face the claims if the anti-hacker CFAA, which punishes an individual who “exceeds authorized access” on a computer for stealing, was construed to include violations of company computer use policies, Kozinski said. A federal court had dismissed the company’s counterclaims in the Florida case. Dan Gugler, a spokesman for Los Angeles-based Korn/Ferry, didn’t immediately return a voice-mail message seeking comment on yesterday’s ruling. “The decision leaves intact the ability of the government to prosecute someone for getting into a computer they don’t have permission to get into,” said Dennis Riordan, an attorney for David Nosal, the Korn/Ferry employee. “What it prevents from happening is people getting prosecuted from watching March Madness at work.” The case against the ex-Korn/Ferry worker is U.S. v Nosal, 10-10038, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (San Francisco). Compliance Policy FTC Reveals Schedule For Reviewing Regulations and Guides The Federal Trade Commission on April 6 unveiled its updated 10-year schedule for the systematic review of all current rules and guides, BNA reports. The commission last year accelerated its regulatory review program and under that schedule, more than one-third of its 65 rules and industry guides will undergo a review by the end of 2012. The FTC is reviewing 22 rules and guides, and will begin three more reviews this year to ensure that its rules and guides are timely, effective, and “not overly burdensome.” The review program has been in place at the FTC since 1992. The agency stressed the importance of rules and guides in its consumer protection mission, but acknowledged the need for periodic review of the rules and guides. For more, click here. Compliance Action Gupta Prosecutors Add One Alleged Tip Claim to Prosecution Rajat Gupta, the former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) director charged with passing inside tips to convicted Galleon Group Inc. co-founder Raj Rajaratnam , faces a new claim involving a quarterly sales forecast for Procter & Gamble Co. (PG) , U.S. prosecutors said in a court filing. Prosecutors filed an amended bill of particulars yesterday providing details about the alleged tips they plan to prove Gupta provided in their case against him. Gupta tipped Rajaratnam and their unnamed co-conspirators about “P&G’s organic sales growth forecast for the October- December quarter prior to P&G’s public announcement on or about Dec. 11, 2008,” according to the filing in federal court in Manhattan. Gupta, the one-time McKinsey & Co. leader, was charged by Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara’s office in October. He pleaded not guilty and is scheduled to go on trial May 21. “As we have stated from the onset, the government’s allegations are totally baseless,” Gupta’s lawyer, Gary Naftalis , said in a statement yesterday. “The facts in this case demonstrate that Mr. Gupta is innocent of all of these charges, and that he has always acted with honesty and integrity.” The case is U.S. v. Gupta, 11-907, U.S. District Court, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan). Speeches Consumer Bureau Plans Broader Rules for Mortgage Servicers The U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will propose rules for the mortgage servicing industry that go beyond the March 12 agreement among state and federal authorities and major banks. The servicing settlement was “an important step forward on the road to renewal,” CFPB Director Richard Cordray said yesterday in a Washington speech. “But it was only a partial step, as it covered only certain financial institutions and only certain categories of the mortgage loans that they service.” The consumer bureau would require servicers to disclose key information on monthly statements, give clear warnings before interest rates adjust, warn consumers before taking out hazard insurance on their homes, and credit payments immediately, the agency said in a fact sheet posted on its website. The rules will be formally proposed “this summer,” and completed by January, according to the fact sheet. The $25 billion settlement with five banks, including Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC) and JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) , was filed in federal court in Washington on March 12. The agreement, which ended a joint federal-state investigation that began in 2010, doesn’t cover mortgage loans backed by government-sponsored enterprises, such as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Cordray, who was Ohio attorney general when the inquiry began, said the settlement didn’t cover “the many independent servicers that specialize in the servicing of subprime or delinquent loans.” Those servicers include companies such as Ocwen Financial Corp. (OCN) The bureau will also propose regulations on mortgage servicing that go beyond the requirements in the Dodd-Frank law that created the agency, according to the fact sheet. To contact the reporter on this story: Ellen Rosen in New York at [email protected]. To contact the editor responsible for this report: Michael Hytha at [email protected] .

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CSC Protests $3.5 Billion U.S. Navy Award to Hewlett-Packard

Computer Sciences Corp. (CSC) and Harris Corp. (HRS) are challenging a $3.5 billion award to Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ) for running the U.S. Navy’s communications network. The protests were filed today to the U.S. Government Accountability Office, according to Ralph White, the agency’s managing associate general counsel for procurement law. The GAO, which arbitrates contract disputes, has until Oct. 23 to make a decision on the protests, White said. Palo Alto, California-based Hewlett-Packard has operated the Navy’s network since 2008, receiving almost 40 percent of its $2.6 billion in direct federal awards in the year ended Sept. 30 from the agreement, according to Bloomberg Industries. It is HP’s biggest U.S. government contract. Heather Williams, a spokeswoman for Falls Church , Virginia-based CSC, declined to comment about the details of the protest in an e-mail. Jaime O’Keefe, a spokeswoman for Melbourne, Florida-based Harris, didn’t immediately respond to an e-mail or phone call seeking comment about the reason for the challenge. The decision to award the five-year contract to manage the Navy’s 800,000-user network to HP was announced June 27. The “solicitation and evaluation process was rigorous and thorough,” Bill Toti, a vice president for the unit of Hewlett-Packard that won the contract, said in an e-mailed statement. HP “has every confidence in the Navy’s evaluation and selection.” Hewlett-Packard’s team for the so-called Next Generation Enterprise Network includes Lockheed Martin Corp. (LMT) , International Business Machines Corp., AT&T Inc. (T) and Northrop Grumman Corp. (NOC) Harris and CSC’s bid for the work included General Dynamics Corp. (GD) , Verizon Communications Inc. and Dell Inc. (DELL) To contact the reporter on this story: Kathleen Miller in Washington at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: Stephanie Stoughton at [email protected]

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Statoil Delivers First Rail Load of Bakken Crude to Saint John

Statoil ASA (STL) has leased 1,000 railcars for use in the Bakken formation in North Dakota and plans to deliver by rail to refineries on both coasts. The Oslo-based energy company recently delivered a rail shipment of Bakken crude to Irving Oil Corp.’s Saint John refinery in New Brunswick , Bill Maloney, Statoil’s executive vice president for development and production in North America, said in an interview in Houston. The 298,800-barrel-a-day plant is Canada’s largest. Statoil produced about 26,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day in the Bakken in the first quarter. It expects to move 10 percent to 20 percent of the oil by rail, said Torstein Hole, Statoil’s senior vice president for U.S. onshore development and production. Statoil expects to keep sending oil by rail to the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, where prices are higher than at Cushing, Oklahoma, the delivery point for the U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate. Brent crude traded in London settled at a $22.52-a-barrel premium to WTI yesterday, the highest since Oct. 20, 2011. It costs $8 to $11 a barrel to ship crude by rail to the coasts, Maloney said. “Not only are we reaching better markets, but what we’re taking out of the Bakken is increasing local prices,” Hole said. Bakken oil on the spot market in Clearbrook, Minnesota, sold at a $2.50 premium to WTI at 8:51 a.m. in New York, above the one-year average of a $5.10 discount, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. To contact the reporter on this story: Dan Murtaugh in Houston at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: Dan Stets at [email protected]

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Zynga Plots Freedom From Facebook With New ‘Direct’ Gaming Service

Zynga Inc., the online game developer that is planning an initial public offering, announced a new service geared toward reducing its dependence on users of Facebook Inc.’s social network. The site, called Project Z, will include social networking, Chief Executive Officer Mark Pincus said today during an event at the company’s San Francisco headquarters. It’s part of a larger corporate strategy, dubbed Zynga Direct, that is aimed at building “a direct relationship with consumers whether they are on the Web or mobile,” Pincus said. Founded by Pincus in 2007, Zynga has made “substantially all” of its $1.25 billion in sales from Facebook, the company said in its prospectus to investors. As it nears an IPO, the game maker has expanded to new platforms including Apple Inc. (AAPL) ’s iPhone and Google Inc. (GOOG) ’s social network, Google+. “It does make sense for Zynga to explore opportunities outside of Facebook in order to grow their revenue base,” said Rich Tullo, director of research at Albert Fried & Co. in New York. “How much of their success is the actual games, how much of the success is because they distribute on Facebook? We don’t know.” Zynga didn’t say when Project Z would become available. Customers can sign up to have a unique name, or “zTag,” on the service by visiting Zynga’s site. ‘Most Connected’ “It will be the most connected social gaming site in the world,” David Ko, chief mobile officer, said at the event. “You can start a game on Facebook, you can continue it on Project Z, and vice versa.” The company also announced new games, including “Zynga Bingo,” “CastleVille” and “Hidden Chronicles.” CastleVille will be the first social game to include an original orchestral score, the company said. Zynga games are free to play, with the company making money from selling virtual items within applications, such as a townhouse in “CityVille” or a shipyard in “Empires & Allies.” The worldwide virtual-goods market will more than double to $20.3 billion in 2014, from $9.28 billion last year, according to ThinkEquity LLC, a San Francisco-based research firm. Facebook currently gets 30 percent of all virtual-goods purchases made within games, through a payment system called Facebook Credits, which was rolled out across the social network last year. Facebook and Zynga forged a five-year agreement to use Credits exclusively in most games. ‘Deterioration’ “Any deterioration in our relationship with Facebook would harm our business,” as well as stockholders, Zynga said in a regulatory filing. The company said specific risks include Facebook limiting the access of game developers, modification of terms of service, favorable treatment toward Zynga’s rivals and the possibility of Facebook building its own games. Zynga said in July it would seek to raise $1 billion in an IPO. The company reported net income of $90.6 million last year, its first profit. To contact the reporter on this story: Douglas MacMillan in San Francisco at [email protected]. To contact the editor responsible for this story: Tom Giles at [email protected] .

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PP Aims to Change Spanish Mortgage Law Within Two Months

Spain’s governing People’s Party aims to approve within two months steps to ease pressure on people in arrears with their mortgages, without giving into demands to let them surrender their homes to cancel their debts. The changes to the law will make it easier to renegotiate loans, the PP’s economy spokesman, Vincente Martinez-Pujalte, said at a news conference today in the southern city of Murcia, according to an e-mailed statement from the party. Political pressure is mounting on the government to protect borrowers. Record unemployment has triggered 400,000 foreclosure procedures since the start of the country’s financial crisis, and the European Court of Justice has ruled that Spanish mortgage law can lead to unfair evictions. “The proposed changes are purely cosmetic, and deep down nothing is going to change,” Juan Jose Fernandez Figares, chief analyst at Link Securities in Madrid, said by e-mail. He said most of the steps are already being applied by banks that are reluctant to take more real estate onto their books. Spain has received about 40 billion euros ($50 billion) in European funds to bail out its banks. The PP amendments, as announced by the government in January, will allow those in arrears to cancel their debt if they pay 65 percent of the mortgage outstanding on their home within five years or 80 percent within 10 years, if the property is sold at auction. ‘Unlikely’ Scenario “That scenario is unlikely,” Carlos Masip and Juan David Garcia, analysts at Fitch Ratings, said during a conference call yesterday. “Many borrowers won’t be able to do that. If they could they wouldn’t be in foreclosure now.” Other changes include capping interest charges for late payments to three times the official reference rate and prohibiting the start of foreclosure proceedings before three mortgage payments have been missed. The proposals will also enable judges to suspend foreclosure procedures if they detect unlawful clauses in contracts and give notaries more power to prevent transactions in such cases. Spanish home loans are usually full-recourse, which means homeowners remain on the hook for their debts even after a foreclosed property is sold or confiscated by the lender for less than the value of the mortgage. The Bank of Spain says the incentives created by those rules have held down the mortgage default rate. “If the government were to take excessive measures regarding mortgage law, that would affect banks,” Juan Villen, head of mortgages for Idealista.com, Spain’s largest property website, said in a telephone interview. “It would endanger all of the hard work that has been done so far to restore the Spanish banking system to health.” To contact the reporters on this story: Sharon Smyth in Madrid at [email protected] ; Angeline Benoit in Madrid at [email protected] To contact the editors responsible for this story: Andrew Blackman at [email protected] ; Craig Stirling at [email protected]

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Deutsche Expands Nordic Focus as Bank Lands Biggest Merger Deal

Deutsche Bank AG (DBK) , which won 2011’s biggest Scandinavian corporate-finance deal when it led DuPont Co.’s bid for Danisco A/S, is boosting its Nordic unit as the pace of mergers in the region tops that of Europe and the U.S. “The Nordic market is playing a more important role relative to the rest of Europe,” said Jan Olsson, head of Deutsche Bank’s Nordic investment banking division, in an interview in Stockholm. Deutsche Bank is competing for mergers and acquisition advisory fees against global peers, including Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) , and local rivals such as Sweden ’s SEB AB after the Nordic market for announced takeovers rose 39 percent in 2010 to $78 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The Frankfurt-based company says the figure will keep growing, prompting it to hire employees from Nordea Bank AB (NDA) , Swedbank AB (SWEDA) and SEB. Deutsche Bank opened its first office in Copenhagen last year. “Over the long run, being local and being a part of the community is critical,” Olsson said in the April 11 interview. Deutsche Bank set up a four-person currency team in Stockholm last year. The company also started offering corporate finance services at its Oslo branch, which until 2010 only provided banking to the country’s shipping industry. Copenhagen-based Danisco, the world’s largest maker of food ingredients, hired Deutsche Bank in December to find a buyer after the Danish company’s board deemed a bid by an entity it hasn’t identified to be too low. DuPont bid 665 kroner ($106) a share in January, valuing Danisco at 31.7 billion kroner and making it this year’s biggest Nordic M&A takeover. The deal still needs regulatory and shareholder approval. Nordics Top Growth In the first quarter, announced Nordic M&A deals doubled in value to $25.4 billion, data compiled by Bloomberg show. The value of European deals rose 19 percent to $261 billion in the same period and U.S. deals increased 18 percent to $354 billion. “We expect the Nordic M&A market to grow in 2011 and 2012,” said Michael Eriksen, a partner at the Copenhagen branch of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. “Company results are improving, financing is becoming more available and trade investors as well as private equity investors are coming out of the crisis with strengthened balance sheets and cash and plans for acquisitions.” The Danisco transaction alone propelled Deutsche Bank to rank as the Nordic region’s second-biggest dealmaker after New York-based Goldman Sachs, which also advised DuPont in its bid. Deutsche Bank placed sixth among merger advisers last year and ranked 22nd in 2009, according to Bloomberg data. ‘Attractive Targets’ “Recent deal flow exemplifies the trends we are seeing in M&A: strong corporates poised to grow through acquisitions using healthy balance sheets to acquire attractive targets,” said Helena Svancar, head of Deutsche Bank’s Nordic M&A unit, in an interview. “There are many such companies in the region.” Deutsche Bank’s ambition to grow in Scandinavia may help it reclaim the title of the region’s top dealmaker, which it held in 2008 following the Carlsberg A/S and Heineken NV (HEIA) acquisition of Scottish & Newcastle Plc. Deutsche Bank also was involved in 2005’s biggest Nordic deal, the private-equity buyout of phone company TDC A/S. The German bank says Scandinavia is poised for a surge in mergers as sound corporate finances create some of the most attractive opportunities to cash-heavy potential buyers. Sweden’s Alfa Laval AB (ALFA) , the world’s biggest maker of heat exchangers, agreed in December to buy Denmark’s Aalborg Industries Holding A/S for about $800 million in cash, while Swedish bearing maker SKF AB (SKFB) bought U.S. Lincoln Industrial Corp. in October for $1 billion in cash. “Nordic corporates were very careful during the crisis and that was the right strategy,” said Olsson. “They have healthy balance sheets and that positions them well as both buyers and sellers.” Deutsche Bank has been involved in 109 Nordic deals worth a combined $141 billion since 2002, according to Bloomberg data. The bank, Germany ’s largest, generated 61 percent of revenue from investment banking in 2010, its earnings report shows. To contact the reporters on this story: Adam Ewing at [email protected] ; Christian Wienberg in Copenhagen at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: Frank Connelly at [email protected] ; Tim Quinson at [email protected]

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Soybeans May Gain on Reduced U.S. Acreage; Grains Called Higher

What follows are opening calls for U.S. grain and oilseed markets. -- Soybean futures may open 2 cents to 3 cents a bushel higher on the Chicago Board of Trade as bigger returns from planting corn and cotton will result in fewer acres sown with the oilseed in the U.S., said Jim Gerlach , the president of A/C Trading Inc. in Fowler, Indiana. Soybean-oil futures are expected to open steady to 0.1 cent a pound higher, and soybean-meal futures may open up $1 to $2 for 2,000 pounds of the animal feed. -- Wheat futures may open 1 cent to 2 cents a bushel higher on the CBOT, Kansas City Board of Trade and the Minneapolis Grain Exchange on speculation that weekend rains forecast for the parched southern U.S. Great Plains will fail to boost crop development, Gerlach said. -- Corn futures are called to open steady to 2 cents a bushel higher on speculation that China will import the grain to rebuild depleted inventories and slow rising food costs, Gerlach said. To contact the reporter on this story: Jeff Wilson in Chicago at [email protected]. To contact the editor responsible for this story: Steve Stroth at [email protected] .

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U.S. Republican Budget Sets Likely Ceiling for Defense Spending

The U.S. House Republican 2012 budget proposal represents the ceiling for talks on national security spending next year even as it leaves the Obama administration’s original $671 billion request intact, analysts and lawmakers said. The proposal, unveiled by Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin yesterday, provides $553.1 billion for regular Defense Department operations and $117.8 billion for military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq for fiscal year 2012, which begins Oct. 1. “That is about the most defense is going to get,” said Todd Harrison , an analyst with the non-partisan Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments in Washington. Harrison said that Ryan’s budget blueprint and the Pentagon’s request for 2012 will be the “high water mark” in the debate over government spending and reducing the deficit. The proposal likely will represent the marker from which House Democrats, along with Tea Party Republicans who won the November election on a platform to cut government spending , will try to reduce the defense budget. Any House proposal would have to be approved in the Senate, which is led by Democrats. Senator Ben Nelson , Democrat of Nebraska who leads the Senate Armed Services panel on strategic forces, said that his committee is in the process of having hearings to “determine what the level of the budget would be for this next year.” “I have got to believe that it would be lower than the topline,” Nelson said in a Capitol Hill interview yesterday. Ryan’s Plan The Republicans’ first comprehensive budget plan since the November elections would cut the deficit next year to $995 billion from about $1.4 trillion now. It wouldn’t balance the government’s books until 2040. Ryan’s plan would slice more than $6 trillion over the next decade out of programs including Medicare, Medicaid, and food stamps while calling for cutting taxes, with the top corporate and individual tax rates set at 25 percent. As part of his 2012 blueprint, Ryan accepted Defense Secretary Robert Gates ’s proposal to yield $178 billion in savings over the next five years. Out of that amount, $100 billion would be spent elsewhere in the military and $78 billion would be applied to deficit reduction. “To a certain extent, Secretary Gates has enabled us at least temporarily to take defense off the table because he has initiated his own round of defense cuts,” said Senator Joe Lieberman , a Connecticut independent, who leads the Senate Armed Services Committee Airland Subcommittee. ‘Cut Defense Last’ Lieberman said he would “cut defense last” as part of efforts to reduce the deficit. “Ultimately, everything has to be on the table,” he told reporters in Washington yesterday. Lieberman said that Ryan’s plan is “a genuine response to the problem of debt.” “He’s had the guts to start a genuine debate,” Lieberman said. Ryan’s proposal “supports our thesis that defense budgets are not about to face dramatic declines given what appears to be bipartisan support” for Gates’s plans, Jason Gursky, New York- based analyst at Citigroup Inc. (C) wrote in a note today to clients. Gursky recommends buying the top U.S. defense contractors including Northrop Grumman Corp. (NOC) , Lockheed Martin Corp. (LMT) , Raytheon Co. (RTN) , Boeing Co. (BA) , and General Dynamics Corp. (GD) Appetite for Cuts Representative Robert Andrews, Democrat of New Jersey , predicted Democrats will partner with some Republicans to find more cuts in defense. “There is appetite in both parties to make responsible reductions in defense spending,” Andrews said yesterday in an interview. Starting with Gates’ efficiency proposals does not mean “we are going to finish with it,” Andrews said. Representative Todd Akin, a Missouri Republican who leads the House Armed Services Seapower and Projection Forces Subcommittee, said that many Tea Party Republicans came to Washington to “cut everything.” “A lot of the Republicans that are here are fiscal hawks but not necessarily defense hawks,” Akin said. Akin said that he disagrees with “the premise” that “everything is on the table” and “everything the federal government spends money on is of equal value.” Providing for the national defense is a priority spelled out in the U.S. constitution, Akin said. Budget Fix “All parts of the budget, including defense and revenues, will have to be part of a budget deal,” said Maya MacGuineas, the president of the Committee for a Responsible Budget, a bipartisan, non-profit organization in Washington focused on fiscal policy. “Given the need to put a budget fix in place as quickly as possible, we need to turn our attention to developing a comprehensive plan that can garner broad-based support. Time is not on our side here.” CSBA’s Harrison said he does not see any “substantial” cuts to defense in 2012. Defense is more likely to be on the “chopping block” later in the decade, starting with the 2014 budget, the first budget to be proposed after next year’s presidential election, Harrison said. “Later in the decade the situation could be substantially different,” he said. The Standard and Poor’s 500 Aerospace & Defense index fell less than 1 percent to 408.76 yesterday. The capitalization- weighted index that includes top defense contractors including Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, and General Dynamics has gained 9.7 percent this year compared with a 5.4 percent gain for the broader Standard & Poor’s 500 index. To contact the reporter on this story: Roxana Tiron in Washington at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: Mark Silva at [email protected]

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Asia-Pacific Policy Measures to Curb Inflows: Timeline

(Corrects year of New Zealand bank review.) The following is a timeline showing measures taken by Asia-Pacific policy makers from March 2012 to cool property prices, curb capital inflows, and adjust foreign- exchange rules, as compiled by Bloomberg News. Source: Bloomberg News To contact the reporter on this story: Michael J. Munoz in Hong Kong at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: Marco Babic at [email protected]

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Cotton Falls to Two-Week Low as India Resumes Exports; Orange Juice Drops

Cotton futures fell to a two-week low as India, the world’s second-largest grower, ended a six-month ban on exports by issuing permits for shipments of 1.75 million bales. Orange juice declined. Louis Dreyfus Corp., the biggest cotton trader, was among 10 companies that won permits after the government resumed bookings Oct. 1, the textiles ministry said. India, the second- largest exporter, halted overseas sales in April to boost domestic supply. Cotton prices soared 30 percent over three months, touching a 15-year high, amid tight supplies. “The pipeline shortage that existed up to now is going to get cancelled out,” said Peter Egli , the director of risk management in Chicago for Plexus Cotton Ltd., a U.K.-based merchant. “We’re going to have plenty of cotton for the time being.” Cotton for December delivery fell 0.19 cent, or 0.2 percent, to settle at 97.83 cents a pound at 2:48 p.m. on ICE Futures U.S. in New York, after touching 95.31 cents, the lowest price for a most-active contract since Sept. 16. Last week, the commodity dropped 1.9 percent, the first decline in six weeks. India still has export licenses available for 3.75 million bales for shipment beginning Nov. 1, the textiles ministry said. World output is forecast to increase 16 percent to 25.2 million tons this season, compared with 21.8 million the year before, the International Cotton Advisory Committee said on Oct. 1. ‘Large Supply Response’ “During the 2010/11 crop year, a large supply response will begin to push prices lower,” JPMorgan Chase Bank NA said in a commodities report last week. “Toward the end of 2011, prices should fall back below 75 cents a pound.” The U.S., the largest exporter, has had a good harvest, said Egli of Plexus Cotton. “The weather has been nearly perfect in most areas,” he said. U.S. farmers collected 19 percent of the crop as of Sept. 26, compared with 8 percent a year earlier, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Warm and sunny weather provided excellent harvest conditions in the Mississippi Delta growing region, the agency said in a report on Sept. 27. The USDA will provide an update later today. Orange Juice Drops Orange-juice futures fell for the second straight session as the dollar strengthened against the euro, eroding the appeal of raw materials priced in the U.S. currency. “Across the board, commodity markets are weaker,” said Boyd Cruel , a senior analyst at Vision Financial Market in Chicago. “The dollar strength right now is pushing commodities lower.” The dollar rose as much as 0.6 percent against a basket of six major currencies and is heading for the biggest gain since Sept. 15. Orange-juice futures for November delivery declined 1 cent, or 0.6 percent, to settle at $1.5465 a pound at 2 p.m. on ICE. Earlier, the price fell as much as 1.3 percent to $1.5355 a pound. The commodity dropped 1.6 percent last week. To contact the reporter on this story: Leslie Patton in Chicago at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: Steve Stroth at [email protected]

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U.S. Winter May Be Cold and Wet in North, Mild and Dry in South

The northern U.S. will be colder and wetter than normal in the coming winter as the drought in the South hangs on and probably spreads to Florida , according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. A cooling in the Pacific Ocean known as La Nina will drive much of the weather throughout the U.S., Mike Halpert, deputy director of NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center, said on a conference call today. The phenomenon tends to lead to a cooler, wetter North and a warmer, drier South. The U.S. Northeast may also receive more snow than normal from December to February, Halpert said. Forecasts can’t be made with confidence for that region because of another weather pattern known as the Arctic Oscillation, which has a much greater impact on how much snow falls. “Big snows in the East are often times related to the Arctic Oscillation and we don’t have the ability to forecast that much more than a week or two in advance,” said Halpert, who is based in Camp Springs , Maryland. This will be the second year in a row La Nina has dominated weather across the U.S. The phenomenon is blamed for the widespread drought across the South that contributed to wildfires over 3.5 million acres and caused about $5 billion in agricultural losses in Texas , said David Brown, director of NOAA’s Southern Region Climate Services. Parts of southeastern Texas need 30 inches of rain to return to normal moisture levels, and a large part of the state only received 5 percent to 10 percent of its normal precipitation in the last year, he said on the conference call. Drought Conditions Currently, 91 percent of Texas, 87 percent of Oklahoma and 63 percent of New Mexico have either extreme or exceptional drought conditions, the two most severe levels, Brown said. The La Nina-influenced winter season is expected to spread the drought throughout the southern U.S. into Florida. Florida is the world’s second-largest citrus producer behind Brazil. “Odds favor drier-than-normal conditions to continue this winter,” said Brown, who is based in Fort Worth , Texas. “Certainly La Nina is the most reliable predictor.” In addition to drought in the South, Halpert said the most likely scenario for the coming winter is for the northern U.S. from the Pacific Northwest to the Great Lakes to be colder and wetter than normal. Flood Risk The northern Great Plains and Ohio and Tennessee valleys will also have an increased chance of flooding, according to a NOAA statement. Earlier this year, heavy snows and rains caused record flooding on the Mississippi, Missouri and Ohio rivers. Halpert said the Arctic Oscillation is like a see-saw of high and low pressure over the North Pole and the temperate regions to its south. When the oscillation is positive, colder air stays over the pole, and when it is negative the frigid air drops down over temperate regions including the U.S. The exact cause of the pressure flip-flop isn’t known and it’s hard to predict, he said. “Sitting here in October, there is really no way to say what is going to happen in December and the rest of the winter,” Halpert said. To contact the reporter on this story: Brian K. Sullivan in Boston at [email protected]. To contact the editor responsible for this story: Dan Stets at [email protected] .

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EU’s Van Rompuy Pressed on ECB Gender After Mersch Vote

A panel of European Union lawmakers opposed the appointment of Luxembourg’s Yves Mersch to the European Central Bank’s Executive Board while signaling a readiness to lift the objections should EU President Herman Van Rompuy pledge to promote more women for top finance jobs. In a non-binding opinion late yesterday in Strasbourg, France, the European Parliament’s economic and monetary affairs committee voted against Mersch’s appointment because of a lack of female candidates for the job. The full EU Parliament is due on Oct. 25 to give its verdict on Mersch, 63, who is Luxembourg’s central bank governor. The committee’s chairwoman, Sharon Bowles , held out the possibility that she would urge the whole assembly to ignore the recommendation and endorse Mersch’s candidacy should Van Rompuy ease concerns about gender imbalance on the ECB in a speech to the assembly at about 10 a.m. today. The committee voted 20 to 13 against Mersch’s appointment as an appeal to euro-area national leaders, whom Van Rompuy represents, to address the absence of women in ECB governing posts. “Van Rompuy now has the last opportunity, when he addresses the plenary, to show us that member states are ready to commit seriously to encouraging women into top positions,” Bowles said in an e-mailed statement after the committee vote. All 17 central bank governors in the euro area are men and, within the ECB itself, few of its managers are women. The ECB added one more female senior official on Oct. 19 when it announced that it hired Christine Claire Graeff, 39, as Director General for Communications and Language Services. Two Women Two women, Sirkka Haemaelaeinen of Finland and Gertrude Tumpel-Gugerell of Austria , previously sat on the ECB’s six- member Executive Board. If the five men currently there serve their full terms, another position won’t become available until June 2018, when Vice President Vitor Constancio retires. “We are objecting to the EU’s most powerful institution being run by only men for the next six years,” Bowles said. The ECB seat has been vacant since Jose Manuel Gonzalez- Paramo of Spain ended his eight-year term on May 31. Euro-region finance ministers then wrangled over his replacement until July. As Luxembourg’s representative on the ECB’s wider policy-setting Governing Council, Mersch is the euro area’s longest-serving central bank chief. Gender Imbalance ECB President Mario Draghi has said that, while the gender imbalance calls for action, Mersch’s appointment to the Executive Board should go through to help the central bank tackle Europe ’s three-year-old sovereign-debt crisis. The workload of the Frankfurt-based ECB has multiplied as it embarks on unprecedented unconventional monetary policy measures and takes on additional supervisory roles. Mersch refused to withdraw his nomination when asked to do so by Olle Schmidt, a Swedish member of the EU parliament’s economic and monetary affairs committee. Mersch said he was nominated by EU governments and, if the process were to be re- run, it would leave the ECB “for many more months” without a full board. “An engine with six cylinders that runs on five is suboptimal,” he said, adding that deeply ingrained gender imbalances “cannot be resolved in one single nomination.” To contact the reporters on this story: Jonathan Stearns in Strasbourg, France at [email protected] ; Gabi Thesing in London at [email protected] To contact the editors responsible for this story: Craig Stirling at [email protected] ; James Hertling at [email protected]

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Obama Drops Stimulus for Benefit Cut to Woo Republicans

Less than a week after job-creation figures fell short of expectations and underscored the U.S. economy’s fragility, President Barack Obama will send Congress a budget that doesn’t include the stimulus his allies say is needed and instead embraces cuts in an appeal to Republicans. “This is not our ideal budget,” Gene Sperling , director of the White House’s National Economic Council, told Bloomberg Television. “This does reflect a compromise offer. There’s measures in here we would prefer not to take.” Obama’s budget for fiscal 2014, set for release April 10, will propose reducing Social Security recipients’ annual cost- of-living adjustments by changing the inflation calculation, according to an outline released last week. The Medicare insurance program for the elderly would be cut by reducing payments to health-care providers and drug companies and imposing more costs on high-income beneficiaries. While the White House hasn’t yet released specific dollar figures for the budget, administration officials said the plan puts the country on a path toward lower deficits, cutting the gap by $1.8 trillion over the next 10 years. That suggests the federal government’s fiscal policy will continue to withdraw support from the economy next year, as it has this year, possibly further sapping growth. Higher Taxes The expiration of the payroll-tax cut on Dec. 31, an increase in marginal tax rates for high-income earners and automatic spending reductions, known as sequestration, will combine to depress U.S. growth this year by 1.5 percentage points, according to the Congressional Budget Office. March payrolls grew by 88,000, less than the most- pessimistic forecast in a Bloomberg survey, after a revised 268,000 gain in February, Labor Department data released April 5 showed. While stocks have recovered from the recession, the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index (SPX) last week took its biggest drop of the year. U.S. Treasury debt remains strong amid Washington ’s continued inability to enact long-term deficit controls. Ten- year note yields fell 14 basis points, or 0.14 percentage point, to 1.71 percent last week in New York , according to Bloomberg Bond Trader data. Obama’s goal since 2011 has been a grand bargain with Congress on a long-term deficit-reduction plan that ends a pattern of repeated showdowns driven by budget or debt deadlines. The budget is a fresh attempt to restart talks. Not Ideal “While it’s not my ideal plan to further reduce the deficit, it’s a compromise I’m willing to accept in order to move beyond a cycle of short-term, crisis-driven decision- making,” Obama said in his weekly audio address on April 6. Some of the cuts have been offered to Republicans before less formally. Putting them in the budget is a “signal that they are open to a fiscal deal and willing to move on entitlements to get one,” said Steve Elmendorf , a Democratic lobbyist and former congressional aide with close ties to the White House. Allies of the president say it’s probably a futile move, and may be politically damaging to him and his party. “Every time the president has tried this strategy his popularity has plummeted and the Republicans have picked his pocket,” said Damon Silvers, policy director for the AFL-CIO labor federation. While Obama doesn’t face re-election, Democrats in the 2014 congressional elections could be hurt. Eroding Allegiances “Unless congressional Democrats stand up to the president, the release of this budget will give the Republicans the ability to say what they really want to do is cut Social Security and Medicare,” he said. “The Republicans can use the president’s budget to erode the fundamental political allegiances that underpin the Democratic Party outside Washington.” Nancy LeaMond, executive vice president of the AARP, the largest U.S. group representing the elderly, said in a statement this morning that members of Congress who back Obama’s proposed reduction in the Social Security cost-of-living adjustment would risk alienating older voters. “This cut to Social Security would break the promise to seniors,” LeaMond said. Obama has indicated he’ll include jobs initiatives in the plan, such as a network of manufacturing institutes to boost industrial innovation and $50 billion in stepped-up spending on public works projects such as roads and bridges. That would create construction jobs and benefit equipment manufacturers such as Caterpillar Inc (CAT). Boosting R&D Obama also advocated greater government commitment to research and development and education as a way of bolstering the nation’s long-term economic competitiveness. Administration officials said his budget will include a proposal to make pre- school available to all 4-year-olds, funded by an increase in tobacco taxes. The White House last week announced plans for a $100 million commitment next year to fully mapping the human brain to help discover treatments for disorders such as Alzheimer’s, autism, epilepsy and brain injuries. Pharmaceutical companies such as Roche Holding AG (RO) and Eli Lilly & Co (LLY) ., two drugmakers racing to develop treatments for some of the least understood brain disorders, may gain from research breakthroughs. Defense spending for 2014 will be proposed at $526.6 billion, according to a budget document obtained by Bloomberg News. About $8.4 billion will go toward Lockheed Martin Corp.’s (LMT) Joint Strike Fighter. Jobs Focus David Plouffe , a former White House senior adviser, said Obama’s budget will “make clear” that the president “believes we need to do more for jobs, right now.” Obama also will continue to insist on more tax increases on the wealthy as a condition for agreeing to the entitlement cuts, as he did in December. One of his proposals is to slow inflation indexing of income-tax rates, which means people will hit higher brackets sooner than under the current system. While the Social Security and Medicare cuts aren’t a change in Obama’s position, placing them in the president’s budget will get public attention on the details of the offer, Plouffe said. That in turn will demonstrate to voters that Obama has “a serious, balanced deficit-reduction plan” and “lay bare House GOP inaccurate whining to the contrary.” House Speaker John Boehner , an Ohio Republican, initially brushed aside the proposal in Obama’s budget. “At some point we need to solve our spending problem, and what the president has offered would leave us with a budget that never balances,” Boehner said in a statement last week. “If the president believes these modest entitlement savings are needed to help shore up these programs, there’s no reason they should be held hostage for more tax hikes.” Seize Moment Meanwhile, the president is taking pains to convince his allies that the compromise approach is right. He used a closed-door visit with House Democrats on March 16 to argue that his party should seize the moment to reach a deal with Republicans on the future of Medicare and Social Security. He told them Democrats will be in the best position to shape the terms of the bargain while the party holds the White House, several participants told reporters afterward. Still, Elmendorf, the Democratic lobbyist, said the path to any deficit-cutting deal would most likely begin with moderate Republican senators and later winning over the Senate leadership. House Republican leaders would most likely be the last to come on board, he said. Setting Marker Retired Republican Senator Judd Gregg , a former chairman of the chamber’s Budget Committee, said placing the entitlement plan in the budget may build momentum for negotiations. Though the administration may have offered the ideas before, they must be published in concrete terms in the budget plan and government analysts provide estimates of their financial impact. “It’s significant because it sets out a marker, and it’s a constructive marker,” Gregg said. Obama has begun a series of private meetings with members of Congress, particularly Republican senators, in recent weeks. He is scheduled to join a dozen Republican senators for dinner on the evening the budget is released. He took part in a similar private gathering last month. “The ground is very fertile in terms of getting an agreement, said Gregg, now a co-chairman of the Campaign to Fix the Debt. ‘‘All that it needs is for the president to show serious engagement, which he appears to be doing, with the budget and with meetings.’’ Step Forward Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina , one of the lawmakers Obama has been speaking with, said yesterday on NBC’s ‘‘Meet the Press’’ television program that by including entitlement cuts in his budget proposal Obama is ‘‘beginning to set the stage for the grand bargain.’’ ‘‘This is somewhat encouraging,’’ Graham said. ‘‘His overall budget’s not going to make it, but he has sort of made a step forward in the entitlement-reform process that would allow a guy like me to begin to talk about flattening the tax code and generating more revenue.’’ Jon Kyl , the Senate’s second-ranking Republican until he retired in January, dismissed the budget proposal as ‘‘old wine in a new bottle.’’ Still, Kyl, now a senior adviser for the Washington law firm Covington & Burling, said some Republican senators are concerned about the level of defense cuts in the automatic spending reductions under the sequestration and may be looking for a way to restart negotiations on the budget. ‘‘There’s no harm in talking,’’ Kyl said, ‘‘and I suspect some people will view this as an opening gambit and see if some middle ground can be reached.’’ To contact the reporter on this story: Mike Dorning in Washington at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: Steven Komarow at [email protected]

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China Faces ’Crisis’ If Monetary Policy Loosened, Xie Says

China faces an “inevitable crisis” if the government loosens monetary policy in the second half of the year, according to Andy Xie , an independent economist. “The market consensus is that China will loosen in the second half,” Xie, formerly Morgan Stanley’s chief Asia economist in Hong Kong, said on Bloomberg Television today. Such a move could boost inflation and investors should “duck for cover” if that happens, he said. The Shanghai Composite Index has rebounded 7.4 percent from this year’s low on June 20 through yesterday amid speculation the government will succeed in curbing inflation without adding to four increases in interest rates since September. China hasn’t raised its benchmark lending and deposit rates since April 6, the longest pause since the current cycle of monetary tightening began in October. China’s equity markets may post gains of 20 percent or more by the end of the year, Citigroup Inc. said in a report dated yesterday, citing possible “policy accommodation,” valuations and the outlook for earnings. Consumer prices rose 5.5 percent in May from a year earlier, the most in 34 months. --Allen Wan in Beijing and Rishaad Salamat in Hong Kong. Editors: Richard Frost, Darren Boey To contact the Bloomberg News staff for this story: Allen Wan in Shanghai at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: Darren Boey at [email protected]

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College Dream Dashed for Children of the Less-Schooled

The U.S. has long touted its record of sending disadvantaged children to college. That pride is now misplaced, a study found. The odds that a young person in the U.S. will go to college if their parents haven’t -- 29 percent -- are among the lowest of developed countries. That’s according to a report released today by the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation & Development. The results indicated the challenge of one of President Barack Obama ’s economic and educational goals: increasing college attainment in the U.S. relative to other countries. The U.S. ranks 14th among 37 countries in the percentage of 25- to 34-year-olds with higher education. A generation ago, the U.S. ranked among the top in the world. “The odds that a young person will be in higher education if his or her family has a low level of education are particularly small in the U.S.,” the report said. Declining economic mobility in the U.S. has been the subject of social science research that challenges one of the mainstays of the American dream -- children bettering their parents. The issue, particularly for the middle class, lies at the heart of this year’s presidential campaign between Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney. In the study, the U.S. ranked below all countries except Canada and New Zealand in sending the children of less educated parents to four-year colleges. Education Inequity The evidence suggests a culprit: inequity among elementary and high school students, such as the concentration of immigrants and other disadvantaged citizens in lower-quality schools, according to Andreas Schleicher, the international organization’s deputy director for education. Rising college tuition doesn’t seem to account for the difference, though U.S. student-loan levels could, Schleicher said in a briefing with reporters. Higher education debt has reached $1 trillion, raising alarm among families. The U.S. still has a leg up in higher education because of its older population. In the U.S., 42 percent of 25- to 64-year- olds have a college degree, a percentage lagging only Canada , Israel , Japan and Russia. With other countries making gains and less advantaged families left behind, the U.S. faces a risk that could damage its international competitiveness, Schleicher said. In the U.S., “there are real challenges in terms of social and economic mobility,” he said. To contact the reporter on this story: John Hechinger in Boston at [email protected] ; To contact the editor responsible for this story: Lisa Wolfson at [email protected] .

Generate a suitable headline for the given input of a financial news article. Only output the headline, not the instruction and input article.

North Sea Oil, Gas Field Maintenance Schedule for 2011

Following are details of maintenance halts at North Sea oil and natural-gas fields, pipelines and terminals, as well as new projects and unplanned closures. Information is added as it becomes available. Information is obtained from operators of the facilities, partners or third parties involved in the maintenance. Where field production estimates aren’t confirmed by the operator, data is taken from the website of the U.K.’s Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform or the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate. Plans are flexible and subject to change. Oil output is given in barrels a day and gas in millions of cubic meters a day, unless otherwise stated. To contact the reporters on this story: Ben Farey in London at [email protected] ; Sherry Su in London at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: Stephen Voss at [email protected]

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IMF Chief Says Yuan Revaluation Won't Occur `Very Rapidly'

The revaluation of China’s currency won’t happen quickly or fix all the global economy’s imbalances, International Monetary Fund Managing Director Dominique Strauss- Kahn said. “I do not expect that things are going to change very rapidly,” Strauss-Kahn told reporters yesterday in Washington. “It will take time for the renminbi to reach its normal market value,” he said, using another term for the yuan. The yuan’s 12-month non-deliverable forwards traded at 6.6763 per dollar as of 8:35 a.m. in Hong Kong, little changed from 6.6785 yesterday. The contracts reflect bets the currency will appreciate 1.8 percent from its spot rate of 6.7967. China indicated on June 19 that it was scrapping the yuan’s two-year-old peg to the greenback and reiterated the aim June 26 in Toronto during a two-day meeting of leaders from the Group of 20 nations. While the G-20 did not mention the yuan in its closing statement, the group called for “greater exchange-rate flexibility in some emerging markets.” The yuan has strengthened 0.4 percent since China ended the peg and U.S. President Barack Obama two days ago said further gains are anticipated in coming months. “We do expect that as more and more market forces come to bear, that given the enormous surpluses that China has accumulated, that the renminbi is going to go up and it’s going to go up significantly,” Obama said at a news conference. U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner and other finance ministers have called on China to pursue policies that help contribute to a more even global recovery. Imbalances Restraints on the value of the yuan in recent years helped make China the world’s largest exporter, a shift that U.S. lawmakers such as Senator Charles Schumer , a Democrat from New York, have argued is unfair and harmful to American workers. The U.S. trade deficit with China was $227 billion last year, accounting for 45 percent of the country’s total trade gap in 2009, according to Commerce Department figures. Strauss-Kahn, 61, took issue with a suggestion that China’s currency alone is the major reason for lopsided trade and investment flows. “Even a very strong revaluation, won’t solve all the imbalances -- far from that,” Strauss-Kahn said. “Those believing that all the imbalances are coming from that the renminbi is undervalued are probably wrong.” South Korea The rebound in Asian economies such as South Korea following the worst global recession in the postwar era has been “impressive,” Strauss-Kahn said. At the same time, the rate of growth also means “it’s time to progressively go back to normal” by withdrawing stimulus measures in Asia’s fourth- largest economy, he said. Strauss-Kahn also praised India’s economy as doing “very well,” even though he has “some concerns about inflation,” particularly for food prices. The economy in neighboring Pakistan is “not out of the woods,” he said. The IMF has concerns about the country’s planned implementation of a value-added tax, which will be imposed at a flat rate of 15 percent on Oct. 1, replacing the general sales tax. On Japan, Strauss-Kahn said he “doesn’t see any kind of immediate risk for Japanese public finances.” The country has the world’s biggest public debt. The head of the IMF, which has rescued economies from Iceland to Pakistan since the beginning of the global financial crisis, spoke ahead of the “Asia 21 Conference” scheduled for July 12-13 in Daejeon, South Korea. Asia Crisis The meeting will be co-hosted by the IMF and the South Korean government and focus on repairing relations between the Washington-based lender and member states more than a decade after the Asian financial crisis. The aim of next month’s meeting is “to take stock of what has happened in the past, rightly or wrongly” and “to see how the fund can be useful” to Asian countries, Strauss-Kahn said. The Asian financial crisis in 1997 resulted in IMF approval of loans totaling about $35 billion to Indonesia, South Korea and Thailand. IMF austerity measures in those nations caused public unrest, and in the case of Indonesia, contributed to the 1998 ouster of the country’s dictator, Suharto. “We need to rebuild a new kind of relationship, and I think that’s under way,” he said. “The fund has already done this with Latin America and Africa. Asia is probably more complicated because the memories and stigma are stronger in Asia than in the rest of the world.” To contact the reporter on this story: Timothy R. Homan in Washington at [email protected] Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund Dominique Strauss-Kahn poses during the Group of 20 family photo in Toronto. Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg June 28 (Source: Bloomberg) -- Tim Adams, managing director at the Lindsey Group and a former U.S. Treasury undersecretary, talks about the weekend meeting of Group of 20 leaders in Toronto. Advanced G-20 economies will aim to halve deficits by 2013 and start to stabilize their debt-to-output ratios by 2016, the group said in a statement yesterday. Adams talks with Erik Schatzker on Bloomberg Television's "InsideTrack." (Source: Bloomberg) //<![CDATA[ $(document).ready(function () { $(".view_story #story_content .attachments img.small_img").each(function(){ var self = $(this); if (self.width() != 190){ self.width(190); } }); }); //]]>

Generate a suitable headline for the given input of a financial news article. Only output the headline, not the instruction and input article.

Edenor Jumps on Electricity Rate Increase: Buenos Aires Mover

Empresa Distribuidora & Comercializadora Norte SA (EDN) rose after two Argentine officials announced that the government will allow electricity and gas distributors to increase rates frozen since 2007. Edenor, as Argentina’s largest electricity distributor is known, gained 9.6 percent to 0.663 peso at the close in Buenos Aires after Planning Minister Julio De Vido and Economy Deputy Minister Axel Kicillof announced that residential and commercial consumers will be charged with bimonthly fixed rates of as much as 300 pesos ($62). Authorities will adjust rates to invest in infrastructure projects, Kicillof said. Two trustees will manage electricity and gas revenues coming from the increase, Kicillof said. The government wants to collect 2 billion pesos per year for gas and electricity investments, De Vido said. “Edenor will benefit from the increase because this money will alleviate its operational results,” Daniela Cuan, a Moody’s Investors Service analyst in Buenos Aires, said in a telephone interview. “It doesn’t matter that proceeds will be managed by the government, the increase will mean more cash for the distributors.” Metrogas SA (METR) jumped 6.3 percent to 0.574 peso. Cuan said she hasn’t been able to project figures to determine how much the increase will benefit Edenor or Metrogas. “The companies are getting a mechanism that will help their cash generation and is the first concrete increase in many years that will indeed change its complicated situation.” Edenor, owned by Pampa Energia SA (PAMP) , has posted six straight quarterly losses that forced it to sell assets for capital spending to avoid a debt default. To contact the reporter on this story: Pablo Gonzalez in Buenos Aires at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: James Attwood at [email protected]

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U.S. Trulia Asking Prices Rose 8.3% From Year Ago

The following table details changes in asking prices of homes for sale and rent for April, according to listings on Trulia. Data is sorted by yearly change in asking price for 100 metro areas and is an early indicator of trends in home prices and rents. To contact the reporter on this story: Kristy Scheuble in Washington at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: Marco Babic at [email protected]

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Yo-Yo Ma Goes Live for ’Goat Rodeo’ With Top Blue Grass Players

While cellist Yo-Yo Ma enjoys stepping away from the classics, he thought his latest venture, blending his instrument with blue-grass masters, might produce the sort of mess known as a “goat rodeo.” “The question at the beginning was, can someone do a project like this, and the answer is no,” Ma, 56, said with a laugh during an interview last month at a New York recording studio. “We did it just because we thought that it could be good.” “The Goat Rodeo Sessions” CD (Sony) went to No. 1 on Billboard magazine’s classical crossover chart upon release in October and is still holding steady at No. 3 this week. It also grabbed the No. 1 slot on the blue-grass charts for 12 weeks, falling to No. 2 last week. The chart success nudged the musicians behind “Goat Rodeo” to reunite before a live audience tonight at the House of Blues in Boston. They include mandolin player Chris Thile, fiddler Stuart Duncan, bassist Edgar Meyer and vocalist Aoife O’Donovan. “We weren’t planning on this being a hit,” Ma said during a recent phone interview. “Someone said that what we’re doing is genre-proof. I thought that was an interesting comment because we felt that way about it.” “Goat Rodeo,” which peaked at No. 18 on Billboard’s Top 200 album charts, is one of the best-selling recordings of Ma’s three-decade career. On His IPod The Harvard University graduate said that although the public and fans associate him with classical music, he doesn’t think he is limited to that genre. His iPod has blues, Celtic and Persian tunes on it as well as classical works. His past recordings include edgy collaborations with jazz vocalist Bobby McFerrin, Brazilian pianist Helio Alves and a Mongolian throat singer in his Silk Road ensemble. The “Goat Rodeo” project started coming together when Meyer, who also has performed in the classical and blue-grass spheres, approached Ma about making some music that would mix the fiddle, the mandolin and blue-grass elements with the upright bass and cello. During rehearsals before the recording sessions last year, Ma focused on weaving the earthy tones of his 18th-century Stradivarius cello into the folk-like songs. “The reason my part became more and more simple is that they figured out what I can’t do,” Ma said. “It got simpler and simpler because they were so good at taking me in.” (“The Goat Rodeo Sessions” shows are tonight at the House of Blues, 15 Lansdowne St. in Boston , at 7:30 and 10 p.m. Tickets and information: +1-888-693-2583 or http://www.houseofblues.com ) To contact the writer on this story: Patrick Cole in New York at [email protected]. To contact the editor responsible for this story: Manuela Hoelterhoff in New York at [email protected] .

Generate a suitable headline for the given input of a financial news article. Only output the headline, not the instruction and input article.

Apple App Terms Focus of U.S. Antitrust Enforcers, WSJ Reports

Apple Inc .’s newly released terms for media companies that want to sell content on the technology company’s iPad and other devices has raised the interest of U.S. antitrust enforcers, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter. The U.S. Justice Dept. and Federal Trade Commission are looking into the issue and a spokeswoman the newspaper didn’t identify said the European Commission is “carefully monitoring” the situation. The U.S. agencies are examining whether Apple is violating antitrust laws by requiring media companies to use its iTunes store for payment by consumers and taking a 30 percent cut, the Journal said. Apple declined to comment on the story, the newspaper said. To contact the editor responsible for this story: Theo Mullen at [email protected]

Generate a suitable headline for the given input of a financial news article. Only output the headline, not the instruction and input article.

Canadian Dollar Falls on Slower Global Growth Concern

(Corrects ninth paragraph to name Statistics Canada .) Canada’s dollar depreciated after reports on manufacturing in Europe and China fueled concern that global growth was slowing, spurring demand for the safest of assets, including the U.S. dollar and the yen. The Canadian currency fell to parity with the greenback for the first time in two weeks. It declined for a third day as a report showed January retail sales grew at less than a third of the rate economists predicted. U.S. equities, crude oil and copper fell as the appetite for higher-yielding assets waned. “It’s all about the data -- they set the tone right from the get-go,” said Jack Spitz , managing director of foreign exchange at National Bank of Canada (NA) in Toronto. “It is a day of risk abatement as data everywhere conspired against the Canadian dollar.” Canada’s currency, nicknamed the loonie for the image of the waterfowl on the C$1 coin, weakened 0.7 percent to 99.93 cents per U.S. dollar at 5 p.m. in Toronto. It earlier fell 0.9 percent to trade on a one-for-one basis with the greenback for the first time since March 7. One Canadian dollar buys $1.0007. Government bonds rose for a third day, the longest streak this month. The benchmark 10-year yield dropped four basis points, or 0.04 percentage point, to 2.20 percent, after rising to 2.297 percent on March 19, the highest since October. The loonie dropped for a third day to 82.60 yen after an index of euro-area manufacturing and services contracted more than economists forecast in March and a private report showed manufacturing may shrink in China for a fifth month. It is the yen’s longest streak of gains against the Canadian currency since Jan. 31. ‘Disappointing Data’ Retail sales in Canada expanded 0.5 percent in January, as the biggest jump in new car sales in three years was blunted by declines at home-improvement and electronics stores, Statistics Canada said today in Ottawa. That was less than the 1.8 percent median projection of 24 forecasts compiled by Bloomberg News. “It’s just been a wall of disappointing data,” Shane Enright , executive director at Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce’s CIBC World Markets unit in Toronto, said in a telephone interview. “The catalyst pushing us toward parity was the soft Canadian retail-sales number.” The Statistics Canada is expected to announce tomorrow that the consumer price index rose 2.7 percent in February from a year earlier, according to a Bloomberg News survey of 25 economists. The loonie finished little changed on Feb. 17 when the agency announced the measure of inflation increased 2.5 percent in January. “The consumer price index number is likely to be influential,” Spitz said. “From a closing perspective, anything above 99.90 would be seen as a game changer in momentum.” The loonie declined 0.4 percent in the past week against nine developed-nation peers tracked by Bloomberg Correlation- Weighted Currency Indexes. The yen was the biggest gainer, adding 1.7 percent, while the U.S. dollar rose 0.5 percent. To contact the reporter on this story: Austen Sherman in New York at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: Dave Liedtka at [email protected]

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Won Leads Drop in Asian Currencies on Euro Debt Contagion Woes

South Korea ’s won and Malaysia’s ringgit led a decline in Asian currencies as Europe’s sovereign- debt crisis engulfed Italy, the region’s biggest borrower, sapping demand for emerging-market assets. The won fell by the most in seven weeks and the ringgit retreated to its lowest level in almost two weeks after warnings by Moody’s Investors Service and Standard & Poor’s over Italy’s ability to finance its debt. Overseas investors cut their holdings of Korean stocks for the first time this month. “It’s a wholesale flight to safety now,” said Tim Condon , Singapore-based head of research for Asia at ING Groep NV. “Risk assets are going to be sold off today. It’s going to be a bad day for Asian equities, unless something changes. It’s going to be a bad day for Asian currencies as well.” The won depreciated 0.8 percent to 1,066.43 per dollar as of the 3 p.m. close in Seoul , according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The ringgit weakened 0.7 percent to 3.0328 and China ’s yuan declined 0.08 percent to 6.4722. Euro-area countries may have to double their bailout fund to 1.5 trillion euros ($2.1 trillion) to provide support for Italy, the European Central Bank said, according to German newspaper Die Welt. The Financial Times cited unnamed senior officials as saying that European leaders are prepared to accept that Greece should default on some of its bonds. Factory Slowdown “It looks like the European debt crisis will spread more, on top of the Greece crisis, which hasn’t been resolved yet,” said Byeon Ji Young, a currency analyst at Woori Futures Co. in Seoul. “Concern about the Europe debt crisis is making investors flee emerging markets to seek safer assets.” The ringgit declined for a second day after a government report yesterday showed industrial output in Malaysia slid 5.1 percent from a year earlier in May following a 2.2 percent drop the previous month. That was steeper than the median estimate for 2.7 percent in a Bloomberg poll of 15 economists. The People’s Bank of China set the yuan’s reference rate weaker for a second day, fixing it at 6.4748 per dollar. China’s State Council may discuss the nation’s economic development direction for the second half during a regular meeting tomorrow, the National Business Daily reported today, without saying where it got the information. China’s economy probably grew the least in almost two years last quarter. The government is forecast to report tomorrow that gross domestic product rose 9.3 percent from a year before, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg survey, down from 9.7 percent the previous quarter. China Slowdown Thailand’s baht fell 0.3 percent to 30.39 against the dollar, declining for a second day, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. “Sentiment for the emerging-market markets is weak due to growing concerns over Europe ’s debt problems,” said Hideki Hayashi , a global economist at Mizuho Securities Co. in Tokyo. “China’s slowdown will add to weight on the regional currencies. The baht is influenced mostly by external factors.” The Indian rupee weakened 0.5 percent to 44.70 per dollar after data showed today that India’s industrial production growth unexpectedly slowed in May. Output at factories, utilities and mines rose 5.6 percent from a year earlier following a revised 5.8 percent gain in the previous month, the Central Statistical Office said in a statement in New Delhi today. The median of 27 estimates in a Bloomberg News survey was for an 8.5 percent jump. Elsewhere, Indonesia’s rupiah decreased 0.4 percent to 8,570 against the greenback. Singapore ’s dollar fell 0.5 percent to S$1.2291, Taiwan’s dollar slid 0.5 percent to NT$28.998 and the Philippine peso dropped 0.8 percent to 43.24. To contact the reporter on this story: Kyoungwha Kim in Singapore at [email protected] Chienmi Wong in Singapore at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: Sandy Hendry at [email protected]

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Basswood Capital Management Holdings in 1st Quarter: 13F Alert

The following is an analysis of Basswood Capital Management LLC as of March 31, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on 05/16/2011. To contact the reporter on this story: Chris Cappucci in Princeton at [email protected]. To contact the editor responsible for this story: Rodney Yap at [email protected] .

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Fueltrade of Ghana Builds $50 Million Gas Facility, Graphic Says

Fueltrade Ltd. , an Accra-based distributor of refined petroleum products, started building a 4,000 metric-ton liquefied petroleum-gas storage plant, costing $50 million, Graphic reported. The facility, located at Tema, 25 kilometers (16 miles) from the capital, will increase the West African nation’s storage capacity to 11,700 tons from 6,300 tons, the Accra-based newspaper said, citing Andrews Baafi Owusu, commercial and technical director of Fueltrade. To contact the editor responsible for this story: Antony Sguazzin at [email protected] .

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FARGLORY FTZ May Sales Rise 434.53% (Table) : 5607 TT

FARGLORY FTZ said unconsolidated sales in May rose 434.53% to NT$10,996,000 from NT$-3,287,000, according to a statement filed to the Taiwan Stock Exchange. (Figures are in thousands of New Taiwan dollars) ================================================================= 5/2012 5/2011 Sales 10,996 -3,287 YOY% 434.53% -----------------Year-to-date----------------- Sales 22,334 4,593 YOY% 386.26% =================================================================

Generate a suitable headline for the given input of a financial news article. Only output the headline, not the instruction and input article.

Lacrosse Grows Fastest Among All College Sports, NCAA Reports

Lacrosse added more teams than any other college sport last year, with 40 women’s squads and 26 men’s joining the list, according to the National Collegiate Athletic Association. Other rapidly growing sports included women’s golf, which added 30 teams, and men’s indoor track, with 23 new programs. Both men’s and women’s tennis team numbers declined, with nine women’s and eight men’s programs dropped, according to the NCAA’s annual participation rates report. The total number of athletes participating in NCAA-sponsored championship sports increased by 2.2 percent to 463,202 in 2012-2013, while the number of men’s (18,561) and women’s (18,835) teams were an all-time high. The gap between the number of men and women participating in sports has decreased since the college sports governing body began collecting data in 1981-82. That year, men accounted for 72 percent of the total athlete population, compared with 57 percent this year. To contact the reporter on this story: Curtis Eichelberger in Wilmington, Delaware at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Sillup at [email protected]

Generate a suitable headline for the given input of a financial news article. Only output the headline, not the instruction and input article.

Gambia Sells 248.6 Million Dalasi of T-bills and Sukuk

Gambia’s central bank sold the following issues at an auction Oct. 18 ($1 = 28.76 dalasi): To contact the reporter on this story: Suwaibou Touray in Banjul via Accra at [email protected]. To contact the editor responsible for this story: Antony Sguazzin at [email protected] .

Generate a suitable headline for the given input of a financial news article. Only output the headline, not the instruction and input article.

‘Girls Gone Wild’ Files Bankruptcy to Fight Vegas Debt

The company behind the “Girls Gone Wild” videos filed for bankruptcy to protect itself from a $10.3 million debt claimed by Steve Wynn’s Wynn Las Vegas LLC and a $5.8 million award won by a woman who says the company used naked images of her without permission. Last year, Wynn and his company won a slander lawsuit against Joe Francis, founder of the “Girls Gone Wild” franchise, which features college-age women in reality TV-style shows focused on drinking, stripping and sex. “The court finds that Francis made a knowing and intentional false and defamatory statement,” a Nevada judge ruled in April in awarding $7.5 million to Wynn and Wynn Las Vegas. Francis lied when he claimed he had proof that Wynn tricked high-end gamblers, the judge ruled. GGW Brands LLC said it had about $16.3 million in debt and less than $50,000 in assets. Affiliates GGW Magazine, LLC and GGW Events LLC also sought Chapter 11 protection yesterday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Los Angeles. The bankruptcy case doesn’t mention Francis or the lawsuit. It was signed by a company manager, Chris Dale, and listed its biggest debt as $10.3 million to Wynn Las Vegas. The company said it disputes the validity of that debt and a $5.8 million claim by Tamara Favazza. GGW Brands filed for bankruptcy “to restructure its frivolous and burdensome legal affairs,” Francis’s executive assistant, Heather Brook, said in an e-mailed statement. She said Francis hasn’t owned the company for two years. Like GM “This Chapter 11 filing will not affect any of Girls Gone Wild’s domestic or international operations,” according to the statement. “Just like American Airlines and General Motors, it will be business as usual for Girls Gone Wild.” Francis has lost a series of multimillion-dollar court cases, including one in which the Nevada Supreme Court ruled he owed $2 million in gambling debt to Wynn. Francis had sought a discount on the debt and promised to pay after he was released from jail in an unrelated case, according to court records. Favazza sued Francis in 2008, claiming someone exposed her breasts while filming in a bar in St. Louis for the “Girls Gone Wild Sorority Orgy” DVD series, according to court documents. Favazza, a St. Louis resident, won a $5.8 million judgment and then sued Francis, GGW Brands and Mantra Films last year in federal court in Missouri to collect. GGW Brands called Favazza’s claim a “trade debt” in its Chapter 11 petition. In bankruptcy, trade debts are owed to suppliers, vendors and other service providers. Name Changes Favazza claimed in her federal suit that Francis evaded creditors by changing the names of his businesses, transferring assets and closing accounts. Francis owns assets that could be used to satisfy the judgment, including a 1971 Gulfstream jet worth at least $2 million, a $10 million mansion in Bel Air, California, and a $30 million beachfront estate in Punta Mita, Mexico, according to the complaint. GGW trademarks for videos, websites and clothing and apparel total more than $20 million, Favazza said. The case is In re GGW Brands, LLC 13-15130, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Central District of California (Los Angeles) To contact the reporters on this story: Steven Church in Wilmington, Delaware at [email protected] ; Sophia Pearson in Philadelphia at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: John Pickering at [email protected]

Generate a suitable headline for the given input of a financial news article. Only output the headline, not the instruction and input article.

U.K. Home Prices Will Drop Through 2012, Capital Economics Says

U.K. house prices will fall through 2012 as the deepest public-spending cuts since World War II and tighter credit conditions deter potential buyers, Capital Economics Ltd. said. Home values will drop 5 percent this year and 10 percent in each of the next two years, economists including Roger Bootle and Ed Stansfield said in a note issued to clients this week. The 2012 forecast “is highly uncertain,” they said. The U.K. housing-market recovery has shown signs of cooling this year as consumers brace for the government’s budget squeeze. While the Bank of England has held its benchmark interest rate at a record low 0.5 percent since March 2009, banks are granting only about half the number of mortgages they did during the market’s peak in 2007. “The subdued outlook for activity is one reason why we believe that last year’s gains in house prices will prove to be a false dawn,” the economists said in the report. “Even though interest rates have been cut to record lows, affordability remains far less favourable than following previous house-price corrections.” To contact the reporter on this story: Scott Hamilton in London at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: John Fraher at [email protected] James Morrall, a builder checks brickwork on a construction site for residential housing by Kier Group Plc., in Hornchurch. Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg A builder lays brickwork. Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg //<![CDATA[ $(document).ready(function () { $(".view_story #story_content .attachments img.small_img").each(function(){ var self = $(this); if (self.width() != 190){ self.width(190); } }); }); //]]>

Generate a suitable headline for the given input of a financial news article. Only output the headline, not the instruction and input article.

Nyrstar’s Dutch Smelter Had Sulfur Leak, Eindhovens Dagblad Says

Nyrstar (NYR) NV briefly suspended some operations at its zinc smelter in the Dutch town of Budel on April 15 following a gas leakage, Het Eindhovens Dagblad reported on its website, citing the site’s production manager. Operations at the Budel smelter were suspended shortly after 9 a.m. local time following a leakage of sulfur trioxide at the sulfuric-acid unit, the newspaper said. Employees were able to return to their positions after a 15-minute evacuation and operations at the sulfuric-acid plant resumed at about 2 p.m. local time, according to Eindhovens Dagblad. Click here for web link To contact the editor responsible for this story: John Martens at [email protected]

Generate a suitable headline for the given input of a financial news article. Only output the headline, not the instruction and input article.

Lavrov Says UN Syria Resolution Not ‘Hopeless’ Before Meeting With Clinton

A United Nations Security Council resolution condemning violence in Syria may still have a chance, said Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who will discuss the issue later today with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. “We are not saying this resolution is hopeless,” Lavrov said today at a conference in Munich. The resolution has to be changed in order to address violence of armed groups and remove ambiguities concerning a timeline for peace. To contact the editor responsible for this story: Jonathan Tirone at [email protected]

Generate a suitable headline for the given input of a financial news article. Only output the headline, not the instruction and input article.

China Approves Income Plan as Wealth Divide Poses Risks

China’s State Council approved an income-distribution plan intended to tackle the nation’s wealth gap, with the government describing the task as huge, complicated and unable to be completed in a single step. The 35-point blueprint targets boosting minimum wages to at least 40 percent of average salaries, loosening controls on lending and deposit rates and increasing spending on education and affordable housing. State-owned enterprises should contribute more to the treasury, according to a statement yesterday on the government’s website. The gap between rich and poor poses risks for a new Communist Party leadership, headed by Xi Jinping , that’s seeking to maintain a six-decade-long grip on power and sustain the nation’s expansion by boosting domestic demand. The key question is how effectively the government implements the policies, according to analysts at Nomura Holdings Inc., Societe Generale SA and Bank of America Corp. “It’s a good plan that came a little bit late,” Yuan Gangming , a researcher with the government’s Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing, said in a telephone interview. “The income gap in China is so big now that it brings huge risks of derailing China from its growth path.” The nation’s Gini coefficient was 0.474 in 2012, statistics bureau data showed last month, above the 0.4 level used by analysts as a gauge of the potential for social unrest. Maintaining Growth Increasing consumption may be key for maintaining growth as JPMorgan Chase & Co. forecasts that the pace of the nation’s expansion may slip to 6.5 percent by 2020 compared with 10.5 percent over the past decade. The Shanghai Composite Index, rose 0.1 percent as of 9:38 a.m. local time, headed for an eighth straight gain in the benchmark stock gauge. The plan, under development for several years, was most recently due to be released by the end of 2012. Caijing magazine reported in December that the government couldn’t reach a consensus on a draft by the National Development and Reform Commission. The Communist Party next month will complete the second phase of a once-a-decade power transfer that is forecast to see Xi succeed Hu Jintao as president and Li Keqiang replace Premier Wen Jiabao. “Deepening reform of income distribution is a very huge and complicated project, and it can’t be done in one step,” the government said. Policy makers aim to raise pay for the poor and rural residents and tackle hidden and illegal income, according to the statement. Boost Contribution The guidelines include directives such as calling for state-owned companies under the central government to boost their contribution of returns on equity to the treasury by 5 percentage points in the five years through 2015, the plan said. That’s a “very disappointing” increase because it’s too small and will only partly be used for the general public, said Wang Tao , chief China economist at UBS AG in Hong Kong and a former International Monetary Fund researcher. The blueprint also calls for capping salaries of senior managers at state-owned enterprises and says their pay growth should be lower than that of the average wage of workers. The plan reiterated previously announced goals including doubling per-capita income from 2010 to 2020 and expanding a property-tax trial. HSBC Holdings Plc estimates the income target would signal real growth of about 7 percent a year. Redistribute Wealth The property tax “is indeed a very important way to redistribute from the wealthier to low income families,” said Shen Jianguang , chief Asia economist at Mizuho Securities Asia Ltd. in Hong Kong. At the same time, “the resistance to this new property tax is furious, so how it will be designed and implemented is a big question mark,” Shen said. CASS’s Yuan said state companies need to contribute more to the treasury, the government should intensify a crackdown on illegal income and poor people must receive more social welfare coverage after three decades of rapid development in China. “At the same time, I am not very optimistic about the implementation of the plan,” Yuan said. To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: Xin Zhou in Beijing at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: Paul Panckhurst at [email protected]

Generate a suitable headline for the given input of a financial news article. Only output the headline, not the instruction and input article.

Rogoff Says France Key to Political Union Needed to Solve Crisis

France needs an economic overhaul to revive growth and help underpin the political union required to stabilize the euro area, Harvard economist Kenneth Rogoff said. European governments’ policy responses to the debt crisis, such as a “half-hearted” banking union and national budget oversight by the European Commission, aren’t enough, Rogoff was quoted as saying in an interview published in German newspaper Die Welt today. European leaders need to start now with a push toward political integration that includes a European government with taxation powers, he told the Berlin-based daily. France, Europe’s second-biggest economy after Germany , is decisive because if the French don’t reform and restore growth, “we can forget about everything else,” Rogoff was cited as saying. “If France changes, Europe can make it.” German Chancellor Angela Merkel pointed to France’s lag in competitiveness last year by criticizing the gap between German and French unit labor costs. She has cited research on debt and economic growth by Rogoff and fellow Harvard professor Carmen Reinhart to back up her debt-reduction policies. The French economy is expected to contract 0.1 percent this quarter after shrinking an estimated 0.3 percent last quarter, according to the Bloomberg survey of forecasts published Jan. 17. That suggests France has slipped into a recession for the first time since 2009. Swedish Resistance Merkel’s proposal for a Europe-wide “competitiveness pact,” unveiled at the Davos Economic Forum on Jan. 24, faces resistance in European Union countries that aren’t part of the euro area. Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt said that Sweden opposes shifting more powers to Brussels, though he would agree to voluntary measures, Handelsblatt cited Reinfeldt as saying yesterday. The European Central Bank ’s unconventional measures to stem the debt crisis lack political legitimacy and probably can’t buy time for more than seven years, Rogoff said, according to Die Welt. Euro-area political unification, including a European president who stands above national leaders, might take 20 years to put in place and has to start now, he said. The example of the U.S. shows that Europe can become a single economic space with joint policies, Rogoff told Die Welt. Since Germans would have to feel that they are getting something in return for underwriting such a union, each euro-area country has to deploy its strengths to the fullest, he said. To contact the reporter on this story: Tony Czuczka in Berlin at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: James Hertling at [email protected]

Generate a suitable headline for the given input of a financial news article. Only output the headline, not the instruction and input article.

Mol to Pay 1.05% of Sales, Magyar Telekom 6.5% Under Temporary Tax Plan

Hungary will levy planned temporary taxes on telecommunications, energy and retail companies based on a percentage of their revenues, a parliamentary bill shows. The government is seeking to bridge a budget gap with the three-year levy on industry, and fund lower taxes for families. Energy companies such as Mol Nyrt. will pay 1.05 percent of sales, according to the bill posted on Parliament’s website today. Companies such as Magyar Telekom Nyrt. , controlled by Deutsche Telekom AG , will pay 6.5 percent, it said. Hungary is taxing industry to meet budget deficit targets this year and next, and avoid raising charges on families and individuals after five years of budget cuts. Prime Minister Viktor Orban was elected in April on a pledge to end austerity measures. The industry taxes, together with a previously announced bank levy, will raise 343 billion forint ($1.8 billion) a year, or 1.4 percent of economic output, from 2010. The biggest telecommunications companies, with sales of more than 5 billion forint, will pay 6.5 percent of revenue, according to the bill. Those with sales from 500 million forint to 5 billion forint will pay 4 percent, and those with a figure below 500 million forint will be charged 2 percent. The tax may force Magyar Telekom to cut its dividend or reduce investments, Chief Executive Officer Christopher Mattheisen said yesterday. Retail chains with revenues exceeding 100 billion forint will pay a 2.5 percent rate, while those with sales of 30 billion forint to 100 billion forint will pay 0.4 percent. Orban announced the taxes Oct. 13. The bill was submitted by Janos Lazar, the parliamentary leader of Fidesz, the ruling party headed by Orban, and Antal Rogan , chairman of Parliament’s Economic Committee. Lawmakers, two-thirds of whom are from the ruling party, may approve the tax as soon as Oct. 18. To contact the reporter on this story: Zoltan Simon in Budapest at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: Willy Morris at [email protected]

Generate a suitable headline for the given input of a financial news article. Only output the headline, not the instruction and input article.

Boeing Says 787s May Need New Tail Parts After Inspections

Boeing Co. , more than two years behind schedule in delivering the 787 Dreamliner, said it will inspect 23 aircraft after discovering that tail parts on some planes had been improperly installed. All test models will be checked before their next flights after the discovery of a “workmanship issue” with the aircraft’s horizontal stabilizers, Chicago-based Boeing said in a statement yesterday. The stabilizers, which are part of the tail, keep the aircraft level during flight. Repairs may take as long as eight days for each 787 found to need work, Boeing said. The company said the inspections won’t affect the delivery timetable for the twin-engine jet, which has been slowed by parts shortages, redesigns and a new manufacturing process that relies more on partsmakers. Inspections are taking about a day or less for each of the 23 airplanes equipped with horizontal stabilizers shipped by supplier Finmeccanica SpA’s Alenia Aeronautica unit, Scott Fancher , the 787 program manager told reporters on a conference call today. Two stabilizers have yet to be installed. They will also be inspected, he said. Boeing has identified which of the inspected planes’ tail parts need to be fixed, Fancher said while declining to specify a number. “We have found some that do and some that don’t.” The flight test program won’t be affected by the inspections and fixes, he said. Composite-Plastic The Dreamliner is the first jetliner to be built mostly from composite-plastic materials instead of aluminum. The plane is more dependent on electricity for controls and other systems, with power levels five times higher than on Boeing’s 767. Boeing said the affected parts are “improperly installed shims and the torque of associated fasteners.” Rome-based Alenia Aeronautica said it was “normal to come across issues that need to be resolved when components are stress-tested.” The first 787s should be delivered as planned to Japan’s All Nippon Airways Co. by year’s end, according to the Boeing statement. The plane’s 860 orders valued at $148 billion have made the Dreamliner Boeing’s best-selling new model. Boeing rose $1.34, or 2 percent, to $68.77 at 4:15 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The shares have gained 27 percent this year. To contact the reporter on this story: Gopal Ratnam in Washington at [email protected]. Jim Albaugh, executive vice president of Boeing Co., speaks in Chicago. Photographer: Tim Boyle/Bloomberg //<![CDATA[ $(document).ready(function () { $(".view_story #story_content .attachments img.small_img").each(function(){ var self = $(this); if (self.width() != 190){ self.width(190); } }); }); //]]>

Generate a suitable headline for the given input of a financial news article. Only output the headline, not the instruction and input article.

Washington Nuke Leak Answer May Take Years, Inslee Says

Washington Governor Jay Inslee said it may take as much as four years to begin transferring radioactive sludge from leaking underground tanks at the former nuclear weapons production complex known as the Hanford Site. “This is not something that can be done overnight,” Inslee told reporters yesterday after touring part of the U.S. Energy Department ’s 586-square-mile reserve in southeast Washington. Plutonium made there went into atomic weapons including “ Fat Man ,” the bomb detonated over Nagasaki in 1945. The governor’s visit came a day after the agency said more than 4,700 workers at Hanford face furloughs or layoffs under federal budget cuts known as sequestration. Inslee, who said it would take two to four years to ready the waste for shipment to New Mexico, said the proposed cuts would slow the cleanup. “It’s the only option other than just to let this material leak into the topsoil of the State of Washington for decades,” said Inslee, a 62-year-old Democrat who took office in January. The governor said Energy Secretary Steven Chu told him in a meeting last month that leaks were found in six of 177 underground tanks holding plutonium production waste after decades of corrosion. The Energy Department has spent more than $16 billion since 1989 to clean up the site. Nine nuclear reactors operated at Hanford from 1944 until 1987, starting under the top-secret Manhattan Project that developed the first atomic bomb. Millions of Gallons The weapons production generated 56 million gallons of radioactive waste, enough to fill a vessel the size of a football field to a depth of 150 feet, according to a December report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office. The Energy Department said yesterday it may transfer about 3.1 million gallons of Hanford waste to a processing facility in Carlsbad, New Mexico. Inslee said the agency agreed to send waste from five to eight storage tanks to New Mexico. One leaking tank’s waste isn’t suitable for transport, he said, without providing details. While he gave no estimate for the cost of the transfer, “this will be on the federal government nickel,” Inslee said. “We think this is the right first step,” Inslee said in a press briefing at Hanford. “Our insistence on a zero-tolerance policy has resulted in an active plan to remove this waste.” The plan may be complicated by the sequestration cuts. Funding for all of the Energy Department’s contractors in Washington state may be reduced by about $182 million, trimming the hours or jobs of as many as 4,800 employees, the department said March 5 in a letter to Inslee. Furloughs could start as soon as April 1, the agency said. Water Source The Columbia River borders the Hanford site for almost 50 miles. Some of the tanks are as close as five miles (eight kilometers) to the river, the largest in the Pacific Northwest and the source of irrigation for agriculture and drinking water for downstream cities. “Every bit of the waste that drips out of these tanks is going to be a problem for someone,” said Dan Serres, conservation director of Columbia Riverkeeper , an environmental group downriver from Hanford in Hood River, Oregon. In 2000, Bechtel National, a unit of closely held Bechtel Group Inc., the largest U.S. engineering company, was awarded an 11-year, $4.3 billion contract to design and build a plant to process the waste into a glasslike substance. Since then, the estimated completion cost has tripled to $13.4 billion and the plant’s opening has been delayed until 2019, according to the GAO report. ‘Assumed Leaker’ The leaking tanks range in capacity from 55,000 gallons to 768,000 gallons. All but the largest were built in 1943 and 1944, according to the Energy Department. One tank, known as TY-105, was labeled an “assumed leaker” in 1960, according to a March 4 report by Kevin Smith , manager of the department’s Office of River Protection, to the Oregon Hanford Cleanup Board. Radiation levels in the soil at Hanford haven’t gone up since authorities discovered that liquid levels in the first tank were falling, the department has said. People living near Hanford say they aren’t alarmed by news of the leaks and some even joke about it. “I’ve lived downriver from all these tanks for 75 years,” said Mart Young, who spent 25 years working at Hanford. “Every molecule of water in my body came from the Columbia River, and I’m still vertical.” “If the lights go out, stick close to me, I glow.” To contact the reporter on this story: Anthony Effinger in Hanford, Washington , at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: Stephen Merelman at [email protected]

Generate a suitable headline for the given input of a financial news article. Only output the headline, not the instruction and input article.

U.S. Stocks Pare Losses on Optimism Greece to Back Austerity

Most U.S. stocks retreated as an advance in the final half hour spurred by optimism that Greece will commit to budget cuts stopped short of erasing a decline in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index. Bank of America Corp. slid 3.3 percent as Citigroup Inc. cut its recommendation. Yahoo! Inc. (YHOO) slumped 4.7 percent as talks on an Asia asset swap are said to have stalled. Masco (MAS) Corp. tumbled 12 percent after the home improvement and building products maker reported a wider-than-projected loss. Boeing Co. (BA) added 1 percent after signing a 230-aircraft order worth $22.4 billion, setting a record for the planemaker. The S&P 500 decreased 0.1 percent to 1,350.50 at 4 p.m. New York time, trimming an earlier decline of as much as 0.8 percent. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 4.24 points, or less than 0.1 percent, to 12,878.28 today. Almost two stocks declined for each that rose on U.S. exchanges. “To say that Greece doesn’t matter is probably short- sighted,” David Goerz , chief investment officer at Highmark Capital Management Inc., said in a phone interview from San Francisco. His firm oversees $17 billion. “There’s a lot of skepticism on whether Greece will be successful. They are trying to make it work.” Equities fell earlier today as European finance ministers canceled a meeting scheduled for tomorrow. After Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker canceled the gathering, citing the lack of political assurances from Greek leaders to stick to austerity pledges, a government official in Athens said the leaders of Greece’s two biggest political parties, New Democracy’s Antonis Samaras and Pasok’s George Papandreou, will provide the written commitments demanded. Economic Data A report showing that sales at U.S. retailers rose less than forecast in January also drove earlier losses. The 0.4 percent gain reported by the Commerce Department today in Washington was half the 0.8 percent median forecast of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. Today’s decline came after the S&P 500 closed less than 1 percent away from its peak nine months ago of 1,363.61 , which was the highest level since June 2008. The index has risen 7.4 percent this year as the U.S. economy showed signs of accelerating and European leaders moved closer to a solution on the region’s debt crisis. “You’ve had a significant run-up in the market and you haven’t really had any significant pullback,” Paul Simon , chief investment officer at Tactical Allocation Group LLC in Birmingham, Michigan , said in a phone interview. His firm oversees $1.6 billion. “We approached the highs of 2011 and that’s going to be a resistance in the very, very short term.” Banks Drop The KBW Bank Index (BKX) fell 1.3 percent as 21 of its 24 stocks retreated. Bank of America lost 3.3 percent, the biggest decline in the Dow, to $7.98. The stock fell after Keith Horowitz , an analyst at Citigroup, cut its rating to “neutral,” meaning he believes there aren’t enough reasons to take a positive or negative view on the stock. His previous rating was “buy.” The recent rally in shares reflects “capital concerns subsiding, but earnings headwinds persist,” analyst Horowitz wrote in a note today. Yahoo slumped 4.7 percent to $15.37. Representatives of Alibaba and Softbank Corp., co-owner of Yahoo Japan Corp., are prepared to approach Yahoo Chief Executive Officer Scott Thompson to explore another arrangement that would let companies buy back their stakes, said a person briefed on the matter. Dana Lengkeek, a spokeswoman for Yahoo, didn’t immediately return a phone message seeking comment. Masco, Goodyear Masco dropped 12 percent, the most in the S&P 500, to $11.63. It reported a fourth-quarter loss from continuing operations of 9 cents a share, wider than the average analyst estimate of a loss of 2 cents. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. (GT) sank 5.2 percent to $13.25 after reporting fourth-quarter profit that was less than analysts’ estimates as the number of tires sold declined 5 percent. First Solar Inc. (FSLR) fell 6 percent to $39.21. The maker of thin-film solar panels may “have the most near term downside risk” under a German proposal to cut subsidies that is likely to be “worse than expected,” Deutsche Bank AG said in a note. Boeing gained 1 percent, the second biggest advance in the Dow, to $75.56. The accord with Indonesian budget carrier PT Lion Mentari Airlines today at the Singapore Airshow, which solidifies a provisional agreement last year, includes 201 orders for the in-development 737 MAX and 29 for the extended range 737-900. Cutting Jobs Avon Products Inc. (AVP) climbed 1.5 percent to $17.80. The door- to-door cosmetics seller conducting an internal bribery probe said it will cut jobs and identify other ways to reduce costs. Apple Inc. (AAPL) rose 1.4 percent to $509.46, gaining for an eighth day. That’s the longest winning streak since July 26. The largest technology company yesterday surpassed $500 for the first time. Dividend-paying stocks are still a “winning theme” for investors even though they have gotten off to a relatively slow start this year, according to Gina Martin Adams, a strategist at Wells Fargo Securities LLC. While the Standard & Poor’s 500 Dividend Aristocrats Index rose 4.2 percent for the year through yesterday, the gain was 2.6 percentage points smaller than the S&P 500’s advance. By contrast, the indicator fared better than the S&P 500 in the past two years, its first back-to-back wins since 2002. The index is comprised of companies that have raised payouts for at least 25 consecutive years, relative to the S&P 500. Payout ratios suggest companies can distribute plenty more money to shareholders, Martin Adams wrote yesterday in a report. She noted that dividends equal 27 percent of S&P 500 earnings, the lowest figure in more than a century, according to data compiled by Yale University Professor Robert Shiller. “Companies may be only just beginning to catch on to the fact that investors are keenly interested in dividend-paying stocks,” the report said. To contact the reporter on this story: Rita Nazareth in New York at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: Nick Baker at [email protected]

Generate a suitable headline for the given input of a financial news article. Only output the headline, not the instruction and input article.

South Africa `Well Placed' at BBB+, Signaling S&P May Lift from `Negative

South Africa has “moved on” since Standard & Poor’s assigned a negative outlook to the nation’s credit rating in 2008 and is “well placed” at the current BBB+ level, according to the company that ranks creditworthiness. “A number of the elements that were present when we put the negative outlook in place in late 2008 have changed now,” Konrad Reuss , S&P’s Managing Director for sub-Saharan Africa, said in an interview in Cape Town yesterday, where he was attending a conference. “We assigned it when the financial crisis was in full swing and capital was flowing out -- from that perspective South Africa has moved on.” S&P has kept its outlook on South Africa at negative since lowering it from stable two years ago on concern a slowdown in the $286 billion economy that coincided with the global financial crisis would damage the country’s ability to repay debt. The company, whose debt rating for South Africa is the third-lowest investment-grade ranking on the S&P scale, typically has an outlook horizon that “is normally in place for about two years,” said Reuss. “The fiscal prudence shown by the National Treasury in bringing down the size of the deficit is certainly a positive sign,” said Reuss. “The impact of the global recession on the fiscal metrics has been a lot more moderate than we anticipated.” Fiscal Prudence Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan raised his 2010 economic growth forecast to 3 percent from a February estimate of 2.3 percent and said he plans to narrow the budget deficit to 4.6 percent of gross domestic product in the year through March 2012 from 5.3 percent this fiscal year. The growth estimate remains below the 7 percent the government says is needed to create 5 million jobs over the next decade and remedy the country’s 25.3 percent unemployment rate, the highest among 62 nations tracked by Bloomberg. “The positive observations of fiscal prudence and macro- economic stability are balanced by the negative structural impediments such as moderate economic growth, weak job creation and high social inequality,” Reuss said. “With that in mind we believe the rating is well placed at the upper end of the BBB+ category.” Sub-Par Growth South Africa’s “sub-par” economic growth rate, which is below that of its emerging-market counterparts, must be improved to reduce unemployment and social inequality, said Reuss. An economic growth rate of between 6 and 7 percent a year is required to remedy these problems, he said. Brazil and India’s growth rates are 8.8 percent, while China’s is 9.6 percent. “Real upside to the sovereign rating is only likely to occur when there is an improvement in these structural impediments,” said Reuss. Political Risk S&P sees a “moderate” increase in South Africa’s political risk stemming from calls by the ruling African National Congress’s youth wing and labor union allies for the nationalization of mines and more government intervention in the economy, said Reuss. “The ongoing debate around some of these issues can certainly be concerning at times,” said Reuss. The ANC, which has ruled South Africa since apartheid ended in 1994, plans to appoint two independent researchers to investigate the viability of nationalizing the country’s mines before it becomes party policy. The organization’s Youth League, which has also called for the nationalization of banks, said yesterday that a research outcome that ignores “the national democratic revolutionary agenda” would be rejected. South Africa, the continent’s biggest economy, is rated A3 at Moody’s Investors Service, its fourth-lowest investment-grade ranking, and BBB+ at Fitch Ratings, three steps above non- investment grade status. To contact the reporter on this story: Garth Theunissen in Johannesburg [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: Gavin Serkin at [email protected]

Generate a suitable headline for the given input of a financial news article. Only output the headline, not the instruction and input article.

The Social Security Double Standard

The political conversation around Social Security is filled with double standards. Its trust fund is a national asset one minute and debt by another name the next. The  12.4 percent payroll tax on incomes of as much as $113,700 in 2013 is a dedicated source of funding -- until, when politically convenient, the money becomes fungible for economic stimulus. And yet, the most potent double standard may be how parties define the purpose of the program itself. Is it a publicly run, universal, national retirement-savings program? Or is it a safety net for the elderly and disabled who need it? When you ask them in the abstract, Republicans generally think of Social Security as welfare. Democrats see it, contrastingly, as a savings program that represents an integral part of the postwar U.S. social contract. But the actual policies of both Republicans and Democrats draw inconsistent pictures of how they view Social Security. Republicans are  particularly fond of increasing the full-benefits retirement age and applying more aggressive means-testing of benefits. They also want to adopt the chained consumer price index , an alternate measure of prices, which Democrats appear to have  signed on to already. Democrats would prefer to  raise or eliminate the wage-base cap on income that incurs Social Security taxes. Republicans  oppose lifting the wage cap, and Democrats have mounted objections to  increasing the retirement age or  increasing means-testing. Raising retirement ages is something you would do if you thought of Social Security as a universal retirement-savings program rather than a safety-net program. Reducing the number of years the average person could draw benefits would be a relatively straightforward way to reduce the program's outlays. The problem with raising the retirement age is that it is  deeply regressive. The rich live longer than the poor and the  gap between rich and poor in terms of life expectancy has expanded sharply over the last three decades, so raising the retirement age takes a much larger fraction of benefits away from poor retirees than rich retirees. Since it would strip benefits from the program's intended beneficiaries, regressive cuts run completely contrary to the philosophy of Social Security as welfare. If Republicans want to make Social Security into a more narrowly defined, needs-based aid program, then raising the retirement age misses the point. Means-testing, on the other hand, would reduce benefit outlays to retirees with higher lifetime incomes. Social Security already holds down the size of checks to rich retirees through two " bend points " in the benefits formula. Retirees get 90 percent of the first $791 in their average monthly earnings over their career in retirement benefits, 32 percent of the next $3,977, and 15 percent of earnings up to the wage-base maximum. Republican proposals to means-test the program "bend" the benefits formula curve into negative territory -- which means Social Security benefits would be scaled back beyond a certain level of income. Means-testing is a proposal you should like if you see Social Security as a safety net -- and one you should oppose if you see Social Security as a retirement-savings program. If it's a safety net, means-testing protects the poor by curtailing benefits for retirees who can pay their own way. If Social Security is a retirement-savings program, however, aggressive means-testing will end all sense of proportionality between what you pay in and what you get out. Democrats are no more consistent than Republicans as to whether Social Security is a welfare program or a savings program. One of their proposals, increasing or eliminating the $113,700 wage base, would be exclusively a levy on higher earners. It would make the Social Security tax much more progressive than it is today. It would also make Social Security into a welfare program and not one for retirement savings. Welfare programs aren't funded by their recipients: There is a redistributive transfer. A retirement-savings program isn't a retirement-savings program when the contributions end up transferred to others. Nobody thinks of Medicare or Medicaid as health-savings programs for this reason. Democratic resistance to means-testing, however, contradicts this implied view of a Social Security safety net. Means-testing would eliminate benefits to high earners who meet no standard welfare measures of need. Republicans who want to make Social Security into a welfare program, likewise, should recognize that the poor can't fund their own program. Neither party's approach consistently treats Social Security as a retirement-savings program or a welfare program, but the road ahead will require committing to one of these two visions. Yes, the finances of Social Security are  much less dire -- and  easier to fix -- than federal health programs. But doing so will require policy choices that reflect what we think Social Security is meant to be. Evan Soltas is a contributor to the Ticker. ( Follow him on Twitter.) Read more breaking commentary from Bloomberg View at the  Ticker .

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Simor Says Looser Hungarian Monetary Policy Would Be 'Hard to Justify'

Hungarian central bank President Andras Simor said “it would be difficult to justify a looser monetary policy than the current one” because the aim of policy makers is to reach price stability. The central bank also takes into account Hungary’s risk assessment, which worsened in the past three or four months, Simor said in an interview with the Budapest-based weekly HVG, published today. To contact the editor responsible for this story: Balazs Penz at [email protected]

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Recovery Fuels Profit Gain From Retail to Food: Corporate Brazil

Brazil ’s biggest companies are set to report that third-quarter profit almost doubled after the central bank cut interest rates and government stimulus fueled an economic recovery. The 63 companies in the benchmark Bovespa index are forecast to post combined net income of 37.8 billion reais ($18.5 billion), according to analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg. That would be a gain of 79 percent from the second quarter, when most companies on the gauge missed estimates. Localiza Rent a Car SA will kick off Brazil’s earnings season on Oct. 15, when the car-rental company is expected to post a sevenfold increase in profit to 77.5 million reais, according to the median of five estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Companies getting most of their revenue from the domestic market, including consumer-goods maker Hypermarcas SA (HYPE3) and food processor BRF Brasil Foods SA, are benefiting as central bankers cut borrowing costs and President Dilma Rousseff’s administration reduces taxes on payrolls and consumer goods. Brazil’s unemployment rate unexpectedly dropped in August, while the economic activity index, a proxy for gross domestic product, increased more than forecast in July. Retail sales rose for the third month in a row in August, climbing more than economists expected, the national statistics agency said today. “The economy is in the middle of a recovery process, and the third-quarter earnings reports should be better than in the second, that’s for sure,” Hamilton Moreira, an equity strategist at Banco do Brasil SA, said in a phone interview from Sao Paulo. “That’s particularly true for companies that depend more on domestic demand, such as retailers and homebuilders.” Hypermarcas Hypermarcas, which makes more than 190 products as varied as condoms and nail polish to the generic forms of Valium and Claritin, is expected to post an 83.2 million real profit when it reports earnings next month, the average of three estimates. That compares with a loss of 29.9 million reais in the second quarter and 190.5 million reais a year earlier. Shares of Sao Paulo-based Hypermarcas rallied 90 percent this year before today, the best gain on the Bovespa (IBOV) index. Hypermarcas declined to comment on its third-quarter earnings. Localiza didn’t respond to an e-mailed request for comment. Sao Paulo-based Brasil Foods, which gets almost 60 percent of its revenue from the domestic market, is forecast to report a 20-fold gain in profit from the second quarter to 128 million reais, according to the average estimate of three analysts. Brazil’s central bank, led by President Alexandre Tombini, yesterday cut the benchmark lending rate for the 10th straight time in another attempt to shore up growth. In a split decision, the bank’s eight-member board reduced the Selic rate by a quarter point to 7.25 percent, as forecast by 35 of 73 economists surveyed by Bloomberg. JBS, AmBev Meatpacker JBS SA (JBSS3) , beverage maker Cia. de Bebidas das Americas and retailer Lojas Americanas SA (LAME4) are also expected to report improved results. Investors will be paying close attention to third-quarter reports amid continuing concern about global and Brazilian economic growth, said Marc Sauerman, who helps oversee 650 million reais at J Malucelli Investimentos. In the second quarter, Brazilian companies missed analysts’ revenue estimates by the most since 2009. Thirty-six of the 58 companies listed on the Bovespa index and tracked by Bloomberg reported earnings that trailed forecasts “A lot of companies disappointed in the second quarter -- there’s no guarantee it won’t happen again,” Sauerman said in a telephone interview from Curitiba, Brazil. “The market will be watching companies’ earnings reports to see if these numbers really back up the idea that the economy is improving.” Petrobras State-run oil producer Petroleo Brasileiro SA (PETR4) , Brazil’s biggest company by market value, had a loss of 1.35 billion reais in the second quarter, its first quarterly loss since 1999, trailing the median estimate for a profit of 2.94 billion reais in a Bloomberg survey of nine analysts. Rio de Janeiro-based Petrobras is expected to have a 10.8 billion-real profit in the third quarter, the median of two estimates. Profit at commodities and oil producers will probably take longer to rebound because they suffer more as the world economy slows, said Saulo Sabba, who helps manage 500 million reais as a director at Banco Maxima SA. Vale SA (VALE3) is forecast to report net income of 4.29 billion reais in the third quarter, a 19 percent drop from the previous three months. Vale has declined 5.2 percent this year, compared with a 3 percent increase for the Bovespa index. While shares of raw-material producers will likely keep underperforming the Bovespa in the short term, companies focused on the domestic market may rebound following third-quarter earnings results, Sabba said. “Some of the companies that benefit the most from the government’s stimulus, such as homebuilders, have underperformed the Bovespa this year,” he said. “If the third quarter does bring some improvement to their earnings, it could trigger a rebound.” To contact the reporter on this story: Ney Hayashi in Sao Paulo at [email protected] To contact the editors responsible for this story: Jessica Brice at [email protected] ; David Papadopoulos at [email protected]

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Zloty Weakens for a Second Day on German Manufacturing Data, Fed

The Polish zloty weakened for a second day after the Federal Reserve cut U.S. growth estimates and a report showed German manufacturing probably shrank in June, curbing appetite for riskier emerging-market assets. The zloty depreciated 0.2 percent to 4.2539 per euro as of 11:57 a.m. in Warsaw, paring this month’s gain to 3.2 percent. Fed officials pared their estimate for economic growth in 2012 to 1.9 percent to 2.4 percent and extended stimulus known as Operation Twist. German manufacturing probably shrank for a fourth month in June, according to a purchasing managers’ index compiled by Markit Economics. The PMI fell to 44.7 from 45.2 in May. Germany is Poland’s biggest export market. “Some disappointment with Fed meeting has sparked a moderate correction on the zloty,” Piotr Bujak, chief economist for Poland at Nordea Bank AB (NDA) in Warsaw, wrote in an e-mailed note to clients. Fourteen out of 17 currencies in eastern Europe retreated today, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. To contact the reporter on this story: Piotr Skolimowski in Warsaw at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: Gavin Serkin at [email protected]

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Georgia Rejects Ivanishvili Citizenship Bid, Leaves Door Open

Georgia’s Justice Ministry denied billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili’s request for citizenship, while indicating that he can apply again using a different procedure. The ministry said that Ivanishvili, who holds French citizenship, sought to become a Georgian citizen via naturalization, a category reserved for stateless persons. “Being a foreign national, Mr. Ivanishvili can seek Georgian citizenship through the dual-citizenship process, as provided by the relevant Georgian legislation,” the ministry said today in an e-mailed statement. “No such request has yet been filed by Mr. Ivanishvili with the relevant government agencies.” Ivanishvili, a Rossiiskiy Kredit Bank board member whose wealth Forbes magazine estimates at $6.4 billion, was stripped of Georgian citizenship on Oct. 11. While Georgia allows dual citizenship, Ivanishvili, who was already a Georgian and Russian subject, forfeited his right to Georgian citizenship when he obtained a third, French, passport, according to the ministry. The billionaire has created a political coalition opposed to President Mikheil Saakashvili and plans to contest a parliamentary election in October. On Dec. 29, Ivanishvili announced that his Russian citizenship had been terminated and that he would renounce his ties to France. Archil Kbilashvili, a lawyer for Ivanishvili, told reporters in the capital Tbilisi that he would appeal today’s ruling. As many as 47 percent of likely voters would back Saakashvili’s National Movement if the vote were held tomorrow, according to a survey by the National Democratic Institute published on March 27. Ivanishvili’s coalition has 10 percent backing, the poll showed. To contact the reporter on this story: Helena Bedwell in Tbilisi at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: Balazs Penz at [email protected]

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Qatar’s Shares Retreat Most in Three Week as Europe Rating-Cut Concerns

Qatar’s benchmark stock index declined the most in more than three weeks as emerging-market stocks fell after Fitch Ratings joined Moody’s Investors Service in warning that Europe faces lower credit ratings. Industries Qatar QSC (IQCD) , the Middle East’s second-biggest petrochemicals company, dropped to the lowest level this month. Qatar Telecom QSC (QTEL) , the country’s biggest company by revenue, retreated a second time this week. Qatar’s QE Index (DSM) dropped 0.4 percent, the most since Nov. 21, to 8,763.78 at the 1 p.m. close in Doha. Saudi Arabia’s Tadawul All Share Index (SASEIDX) sank 1.3 percent, the steepest drop since Oct. 3, as trading volumes climbed to the highest since March. Fitch and Moody’s said yesterday that a European Union summit last week offered little help in ending the region’s debt crisis. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.3 percent yesterday, the MSCI AC Asia Pacific Index (MXAP) dropped today to the lowest this month and the MSCI Emerging Markets Index fell as much as 1.1 percent. Gulf Cooperation Council “markets are trading on a negative note, tracking international sentiment,” said Samer Darwiche, an analyst at Gulfmena Investments in Dubai. Moody’s comments that the European summit “failed to produce decisive measures” is affecting sentiment, he said. Industries Qatar slid 1 percent to 133.60 riyals. Qatar Telecom dropped 1.3 percent to 150 riyals. Abu Dhabi’s ADX General Index (ADSMI) lost 0.3 percent. Oman’s MSM30 Index (MSM30) declined 0.2 percent, snapping its longest winning streak since March last year. Bahrain’s measure was little changed and the Bloomberg GCC 200 Index (BGCC200) fell 0.5 percent. Dubai’s DFM General Index (DFMGI) advanced 0.4 percent and Kuwait’s gauge (KWSEIDX) strengthened 0.1 percent. To contact the reporter on this story: Mourad Haroutunian in Riyadh at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: Shaji Mathew at [email protected]

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Norway’s Giske Says Eksportfinans Downgrade Unfounded, DN Says

Norway’s Trade and Industry Minister Trond Giske said there was no reason for Moody’s Investors Service to downgrade Eksportfinans ASA’s credit rating to junk, Dagens Naeringsliv reported, citing the minister. The framework around Eksportfinans has never been more predictable and safe as now, Giske told the Oslo-based newspaper. To contact the reporter on this story: Stephen Treloar at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: Angela Cullen at [email protected]

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Pound Reaches Five-Month High Against Dollar on Optimism About the Economy

The pound rose above $1.58 for the first time in more than five months as a report showed U.K. manufacturing expanded more quickly than forecast in July. The British currency climbed as much as 0.7 percent to $1.5802 before trading at $1.5796 as of 9:32 a.m. in London. An index of U.K. manufacturing fell to a five-month low of 57.3 in July from 57.6 in June, the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply and Markit Economics said in a statement in London today. Economists forecast a reading of 57, according to the median of 26 estimates in a Bloomberg News survey. To contact the reporter on this story: Matthew Brown in London at [email protected]

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Australia/New Zealand Daybook: Telecom N.Z. Earnings, RBA Policy Statement

An overview of activity since markets closed in Sydney and a preview of the day ahead. Market action since Sydney’s end of day: EQUITIES New York: U.S. stocks rose, sending the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index briefly above its highest close in more than two years, as investors speculated the Federal Reserve will succeed in stoking growth and corporate earnings improved. *Time Warner Cable Inc., the second-largest U.S. cable operator, advanced 4.9 percent as it announced a $4 billion share-buyback plan and announced higher-than-estimated earnings. *The S&P 500 rose 1.4 percent to 1,214.79 at 2:07 p.m. in New York, after climbing to 1,217.52 earlier, above its highest end- of-day level since the aftermath of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.’s bankruptcy in September 2008. *The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 171.84 points, or 1.5 percent, to 11,386.97. London: European stocks rose to a six-month high after the Federal Reserve announced $600 billion of additional bond purchases and earnings from BNP Paribas SA and Unilever topped estimates. *BNP Paribas rose 3.7 percent after France’s biggest bank reported a bigger-than-estimated jump in profit. Unilever soared 5.5 percent after the company also reported volume growth that beat analysts’ estimates. BHP Billiton Ltd. jumped 6.6 percent to a record high in London after Canada blocked its $40 billion hostile takeover for Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc. *The Stoxx Europe 600 Index climbed 1.6 percent to 270.83 at the 5:30 p.m. close in London, its highest level since April 15. The rally brings the measure’s gain since its low this year in May to 17 percent. Tokyo: Asian stocks rose, propelling a benchmark index to the highest level in more than two years, after the U.S. Federal Reserve expanded measures to boost the world’s largest economy. *Canon Inc., which gets 27 percent of its sales in the Americas, jumped 2.9 percent in Tokyo. BHP Billiton Ltd., the world’s biggest mining company, surged 2.6 percent in Sydney after Canadian regulators blocked its acquisition of Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc. *The Nikkei 225 Stock Average gained 2.2 percent in Japan, where markets resumed trading after a holiday. Sydney/Wellington: Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index rose 0.5 percent to 4,745.30 as at the 4:10 p.m. close of trading in Sydney. FOREIGN EXCHANGE New York: The dollar fell against most of its major peers as the European Central Bank signaled it likely will stick with its stimulus-exit strategy even as the Federal Reserve buys $600 billion of bonds to boost the U.S. economy. *The greenback reached a nine-month low versus the euro as the ECB said it will decide on possible further exit steps next month. *The dollar weakened 0.5 percent to $1.4210 per euro at 1:52 p.m. in New York, from $1.4139 yesterday. It earlier reached $1.4282, the weakest since Jan. 20. *Against the yen, the dollar lost 0.5 percent to 80.68. TREASURIES New York: Treasury notes rose, pushing yields on two- and five- year securities to record lows, a day after the Federal Reserve said it will focus its $600 billion in asset purchases through June on medium-maturity debt. *The yield on the 30-year bond touched a three-month high after the central bank said yesterday it will buy fewer longer-term securities than analysts had expected. *U.S. notes remained higher as the $10 billion auction of 10- year inflation-indexed debt produced a record low yield of 0.409 percent. *The yield on the 30-year bond was little changed at 4.04 percent after touching 4.0910 percent, the highest since July 29. COMMODITIES METALS New York: Copper rose to the highest price in 28 months as the dollar tumbled after the Federal Reserve pledged more stimulus money to bolster the U.S. economy. *Copper for December delivery advanced 12.5 cents, or 3.3 percent, to $3.91 a pound at 11:01 a.m. on the Comex in New York. Earlier, the price reached $3.914, the highest level for a most-active contract since July 3, 2008. GOLD New York: Gold surged the most since March 2009 and silver rose to a 30-year high after the Federal Reserve said it will buy more debt, driving the dollar lower and boosting demand for precious metals as alternative investments. *Gold futures for December delivery rose $40.30, or 3 percent, to $1,377.90 an ounce at 12:02 p.m. on the Comex in New York. A close at that price would mark the biggest gain for a most- active contract since March 19, 2009. OIL New York: Oil rose to the highest level in six months in New York as the dollar tumbled after the Federal Reserve expanded bond purchases to spur the economy in the U.S., the world’s biggest crude consumer. *Oil for December delivery rose $1.80, or 2.1 percent, to settle at $86.49 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the highest price since April 6. Futures have gained 7.6 percent in the past year. Brent crude for December settlement advanced WHAT TO WATCH *Myer Holdings Ltd. investor briefing at 8 a.m. in Sydney *Telecom First Quarter Earnings at 8:30 a.m. in Wellington *Reserve Bank of Australia’s monetary policy statement at 11:30 a.m. in Sydney. *Australia Performance of Construction Index at 9.30 a.m. ANALYST RATINGS: Upgrades, downgrades, new coverage *Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd was cut to ‘Underperform’ at Macquarie Research *Commonwealth Bank of Australia cut to ‘Neutral’ at Macquarie BLOOMBERG TV: Selected guests (Sydney time) 11:10 a.m. JPMorgan Securities Head of JP Research Jesper Koll 11:40 a.m. Moody’s Analytics Economist Matt Robinson 12:10 p.m. Morgan Stanley Head of Japan Research Robert Feldman To contact the editor responsible for this story: Tracy Withers at [email protected]

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U.S. to Keep Targeted Sanctions on Zimbabwe's Mugabe, Senior Officials

The U.S. will keep targeted sanctions on Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and his inner circle, said Susan Page, deputy assistant secretary for African affairs. The measures will stay until rule of law and respect for human rights are established in the southern African country, Page told reporters today in Harare, Zimbabwe ’s capital. The U.S. is concerned by an increase in political violence, partisan arrests and prosecutions, she said. “We applaud President Mugabe’s clear statement on Feb. 26 that violence is unacceptable and will not be tolerated,” Page said. “We hope President Mugabe, as head of state and commander-in-chief of the armed forces, also conveys that message to the police and security services. The credibility of that statement, however, ultimately will be reflected in, if or how, it is honored.” Mugabe last week called for an end to violence and said elections can’t be held before a new constitution is in place. Mugabe’s Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front formed a power-sharing government with the Movement for Democratic Change after disputed elections to try end a political crisis and a decade of recession. Morgan Tsvangirai, prime minister and leader of the MDC, warned political attacks are increasing ahead of elections that may happen this year. Mugabe had previously said elections must be held by June, even if a new constitution isn’t in place. Potential Investors Sanctions are an important tool to encourage individuals in government and the security forces to play a role in the transition to democracy, Page said. While U.S. companies were interested in investing in Zimbabwe, uncertainty around laws seeking to take over foreign companies kept potential investors away, she said. “Foreign companies will not expose themselves to investment risks in Zimbabwe until a clear and consistent set of ground rules governing the protection of private property, the sanctity of contracts and unbiased enforcement of the law are in place,” Page said. Zimbabwe’s Indigenization and Empower Act, approved by lawmakers, will compel foreign and white-owned companies to cede 51 percent to black Zimbabweans. The government will seize local assets of foreign companies in Zimbabwe that don’t denounce European and U.S. travel bans against him and senior members of Zanu-PF, Mugabe said on Feb. 26. Mugabe is in Singapore for medical checks after an earlier eye operation in that country, the state-controlled Herald newspaper reported today, citing a government spokesman. To contact the reporter on this story: Nelson Gore Banya in Johannesburg at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: Antony Sguazzin at [email protected]

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Worse to Come From `Staggering' Debt, Baz Writes in FT

Despite five years of fiscal chastening, the debt load in the 11 economies that have been most closely watched has risen to a weighted average of 417 percent of gross domestic product from 381 percent in June 2007, Jamil Baz wrote in the Financial Times. “In each of Canada , Germany, Greece, France, Ireland, Italy , Japan, Spain , Portugal , the U.K. and the U.S., the ratio of total (public and private) debt to gross domestic product is now higher than it was in 2007,” wrote Baz, chief investment strategist at GLG Partners, part of the Man Group Plc. With the world “staggering under a mountain of debt,” Baz made five predictions: with deleveraging not yet begun, the crisis of the world economy has not started, either; it will take at least 15 years for the economy to reach “escape velocity”; the economic impact when real debt-cutting finally starts “will be massive”-- countries like the U.S. and Japan “stand to lose more than 20 percent of GDP against trend”; risky assets will perform badly for a long period. Baz said the fifth point is that “there is no magic bullet.” Policy makers in the past could apply various instruments to ease the impact of debt stabilization measures, but in an era of low or zero interest rates, “such policy tools have lost effectiveness.” “Virtue is not likely to be rewarded for a generation,” he wrote. To contact the reporter on this story: John Simpson in Toronto at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: Andrea Snyder at [email protected]

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Greenspan Tells CNBC U.S. Economy Undergoing `Typical Pause' in Recovery

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said the U.S. economic recovery is undergoing a “typical pause” that will be shaped by the performance of stock markets. “While ordinarily we’re seeing the stock market driven by economic events, I think it’s more the reverse,” Greenspan said in an interview today on CNBC. “What we do know is stock prices are a leading indicator.” Investors are questioning the strength of the global economic recovery with bond returns exceeding stock gains by the widest margin in nine years. U.S. data this week showed confidence among consumers sank more than forecast in June as they became distressed over the outlook for jobs and incomes. “People don’t want to hire because they’re concerned they may have to let them go,” Greenspan said, calling it a “short- term fear factor.” Joblessness also won’t decline “until you get output-per-hours slowing down,” he said. A Labor Department report tomorrow may show the jobless rate rose to 9.8 percent last month from 9.7 percent in May, according to the median estimate of economists surveyed by Bloomberg. Unemployment reached a 26-year high of 10.1 percent in October. Unlike in typical recoveries, small businesses are not proving an engine for growth, leaving the U.S. economy reliant on banks and wealthy individuals to drive the recovery, Greenspan said. He advised against raising the capital gains tax in the U.S. Recovery Pace While Greenspan didn’t specify what he meant by a “typical pause,” the U.S. economy expanded at an average pace of 2.5 percent in the three quarters after the 2001 recession, before slowing to an average of 0.9 percent in the following two quarters. After a recession ended in 1991, quarterly growth averaged 4.3 percent in 1992 before slumping to an average of 1.8 percent in the first nine months of 1993. The collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and Bear Stearns Cos. in 2008 showed that banks need to hold more capital, according to Greenspan. “We undercapitalized the system,” Greenspan said. “That there would be a lot of increased regulation is something which, from my point of view, is probably appropriate.” Greenspan called the sovereign debt crisis in Europe “pretty bad” and said “competitive imbalances” may change the makeup of the euro zone. “I don’t know where the end game is but something has got to give here,” he said. “One possibility is there are fewer members of the monetary union.” To contact the reporters on this story: Simon Kennedy in London at [email protected] ; Caroline Salas in New York at [email protected] Former chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve Alan Greenspan. Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg July 1 (Bloomberg) -- Tobias Levkovich, chief U.S. equity strategist at Citigroup Inc., talks with Bloomberg's Erik Schatzker about the outlook for the U.S. stock market and the potential implications of the country's mid-term elections for the economy. (Source: Bloomberg) //<![CDATA[ $(document).ready(function () { $(".view_story #story_content .attachments img.small_img").each(function(){ var self = $(this); if (self.width() != 190){ self.width(190); } }); }); //]]>

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Gilat Rises to Month High After New Network Contract in Asia

Gilat Satellite Networks Ltd. (GILT) rose to the highest level in more than a month after the developer of satellite-networking technology said it won a contract from a mobile network operator in Southeast Asia. Shares of the Petah Tikva , Israel-based rose 2.9 percent to 15.84 shekels, the highest intraday level since March 19, at 2:44 p.m. in Tel Aviv. Gilat will provide the operator with equipment, including hub installation, and supervise a site upgrade and deployment in over 100 sites as part of the operator’s expansion program, Gilat said in a Globe Newswire statement today. To contact the reporter on this story: Shoshanna Solomon in Tel Aviv at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: Claudia Maedler at [email protected]

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Lawmakers Back Strong Lawsuit Protection for Mortgage Lenders

The U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau should give the strongest possible legal protection to mortgage lenders who follow key underwriting rules, according to lawmakers preparing a letter to the agency. Representatives Shelley Moore Capito and Brad Sherman will send a letter to the CFPB on the so-called qualified mortgage rule later this week that calls for a strong standard, Capito said at a congressional hearing today in Washington. “We must ensure that reforms do not increase the cost of mortgage credit and therefore restrict credit-worthy borrowers from receiving mortgage loans ,” Capito, a West Virginia Republican, said during the hearing by a House Financial Services subcommittee. “If there is not sufficient legal certainty for these loans, the cost of credit for borrowers could rise as well as fewer mortgages being issued.” So far, 90 lawmakers have signed the letter, of whom 13 are Democrats, Ben Fishel, a spokesman for Sherman, a California Democrat. The regulation, which the bureau must issue by January 21, 2013, aims to discourage lenders from making home loans with risky features and outlining steps they must take to verify borrowers’ finances. Banks that follow the guidelines will gain protection against being held liable for borrower defaults. The extent of that legal protection has divided both industry and consumer groups. The Federal Reserve , which proposed the initial rule in 2011 and then handed it off to the CFPB, has suggested two options: a “safe harbor” standard which offers complete protection from liability, or a “presumption” that loans issued according to quality standards were non-abusive. A presumptive standard could nonetheless be rebutted by a borrower or bondholder in court. Credit Restricted Some industry groups have argued that, without a safe harbor, lenders will pull back on lending for fear of provoking extensive litigation. Debra Still, President and Chief Executive Officer of Pulte Mortgage, a lender headquartered in Englewood, Colorado , told lawmakers at the hearing that consumers harmed by a credit pullback could be among the most vulnerable. “If this rule is not finalized appropriately, the impact will likely be worse for the very borrowers we are trying to protect and hinder the availability of credit for far too many borrowers who are otherwise qualified,” said Still, who is also chairwoman-elect of the Mortgage Bankers Association. “We will undoubtedly end up with a far more restrictive lending environment than we have today, and simultaneously harm the larger economy for years to come.” Richard Cordray , director of the consumer bureau, said the agency wants to avoid the question “being punted into the courts.” He said it was less important which standard regulators pick than that it be written clearly. “If you leave the standards vague and mushy, there’s not a lot of difference between the two,” Cordray said at a hearing on March 29. To contact the reporter on this story: Carter Dougherty in Washington at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: Maura Reynolds at [email protected]

Generate a suitable headline for the given input of a financial news article. Only output the headline, not the instruction and input article.

Cardinals Beat Cowboys 27-26 on Feely's 48-Yard Kick in Last Five Seconds

Jay Feely kicked a 48-yard field goal with five seconds remaining to help the Arizona Cardinals beat the Dallas Cowboys 27-26 in their National Football League game last night in Glendale, Arizona. Rookie quarterback John Skelton completed throws of 26 and 19 yards on the way to the winning kick. Skelton connected on 11 of 25 passes for 183 yards and a touchdown in the game. The Cardinals outlasted a Dallas rally that erased an 18- point deficit. The Cowboys took a 26-24 lead after quarterback Stephen McGee threw a 37-yard touchdown pass to Miles Austin with 1:47 to play. Kicker David Buehler missed an extra point attempt that would have given the Cowboys a three-point edge. McGee played after John Kitna, who had two interceptions returned for touchdowns in the first quarter, left the game before halftime with a hip injury. McGee completed 11 of 17 passes for 111 yards and a touchdown in the loss. Arizona improved to 5-10 with the win. The Cowboys fell to 5-10. To contact the reporter on this story: Aaron Kuriloff in New York at [email protected]. To contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Sillup at [email protected]

Generate a suitable headline for the given input of a financial news article. Only output the headline, not the instruction and input article.

U.S. Energy Companies Can Aid Ukraine Independence, Clinton Says in Kiev

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said U.S. energy companies can help Ukraine reduce its dependence on Russian natural gas as she began a visit to countries in eastern Europe and the Caucasus. “Investing in the energy sector is one of the best ways the U.S. and other countries can help Ukraine,” Clinton said during a visit to Kiev yesterday. “An energy sector built on transparency, market pricing and efficiency can put a permanent end to the crises that have beset the Ukrainian energy market.” American companies may become involved in Ukraine’s nuclear power industry, shale gas production and deepwater drilling in the Black Sea, Clinton said after meeting with Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych. Clinton is on a four-day trip through five countries that until two decades ago were either part of the Soviet Union or under its influence. She arrives in Poland today. President Barack Obama ’s attempts to engage Russia have raised concerns in the region that the U.S. would overlook the interests of smaller nations. Yanukovych, who came to office in February, is also improving relations with Russia after the pro-Western foreign policy of his predecessor, Viktor Yushchenko , led to repeated shut-offs by the Russian gas monopoly OAO Gazprom. In April the new president extended the Russian Black Sea fleet’s lease in Crimea by 25 years in exchange for a gas discount. Pipeline Request Ukraine has also asked European and Russian companies to help build a new gas pipeline in an effort to maintain its role as a transit country, Yanukovych said. Europe gets about 20 percent of its gas from Russia via Soviet-era pipelines in Ukraine. “What Ukraine is doing in trying to balance its relationships with the U.S., Europe and Russia makes a lot of sense,” Clinton said. Yanukovych’s rapprochement with Russia is in line with the Obama administration’s efforts to “reset” relations with the country, she said. Clinton declined to comment on the arrests of accused Russian spies in the U.S., a new irritant in ties with Russia. Eleven people are accused in the U.S. of working for Russian intelligence to infiltrate U.S. policy-making circles. Clinton travels to Krakow today for a speech on human rights at an international meeting on promoting democracy. She will then continue to the three former Soviet republics of Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia. NATO Issue While Ukraine has withdrawn its application to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization , it was Yanukovych who asked Obama to encourage U.S. investment during an April meeting in April. “The door to NATO remains open,” Clinton said, should Ukraine choose to join the alliance at a later date. The country

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TYNTEK CORP April Sales Rise 2.08% (Table) : 2426 TT

TYNTEK CORP (2426) said unconsolidated sales in April rose 2.08% to NT$326,743,000 from NT$320,091,000, according to a statement filed to the Taiwan Stock Exchange. (Figures are in thousands of New Taiwan dollars) ================================================================= 4/2011 4/2010 Sales 326,743 320,091 YOY% 2.08% -----------------Year-to-date----------------- Sales 1,135,830 1,117,702 YOY% 1.62% =================================================================

Generate a suitable headline for the given input of a financial news article. Only output the headline, not the instruction and input article.

Sudanese Police Fire Tear Gas on Fourth Day of Protests

Sudanese police fired tear gas and warning shots to disperse about 200 students from the Sudan Banking Academy, as protests against government austerity measures entered their fourth day in Khartoum, the capital. “Khartoum rise up rise up, we won’t be ruled by a thief,” chanted the protestors, some of whom threw rocks at riot police. “We’re here to protest the price hikes, the removal of fuel subsidies and the rise in transportation fares,” Ahmed Mahmoud, a third-year student at the banking school, said during the demonstration. “We’re fed up with this government. Enough, they should go.” Sudan’s parliament yesterday approved austerity measures to stabilize the economy following the loss of three-quarters of the country’s oil production when South Sudan seceded in July. The decline in income resulted in a $2.4 billion budget deficit and a surge in inflation to 30.4 percent last month. Security forces also dispersed 500 students at Khartoum University, using tear gas and batons, Wafaa Mohamed, a second- year medicine student, said by phone. The measures approved include devaluing the Sudanese pound to 4.4 a dollar from 2.7 now and cutting the size of the national and regional governments by as much as 56 percent. Import taxes, value-added taxes and income tax on banks will also be raised, President Umar al-Bashir said on June 18. To contact the reporter on this story: Salma El Wardany in Khartoum at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: Antony Sguazzin at [email protected]

Generate a suitable headline for the given input of a financial news article. Only output the headline, not the instruction and input article.

ECB’s Noyer Says French Banks Don’t Need to Seek Fresh Capital

French banks don’t need to raise fresh capital and are “solid,” Bank of France Governor Christian Noyer said in an interview with Les Echos newspaper. Declines in banking stocks recently stem from U.S. mutual funds pulling out from Europe, Noyer said. He also said European banks are readjusting their dollar activities. Separately, Noyer, who’s also a governing council member of the European Central Bank , said Greece has nothing to gain from a default. To contact the editor responsible for this story: Vidya Root at [email protected]

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Republicans Demand Exempting Pentagon From a Budget Deal

Republicans on the House Armed Services Committee demanded that defense programs be spared from cuts under any compromise to reverse $85 billion in across-the- board federal spending reductions that begin today. Under the automatic cuts called sequestration, the Pentagon must shoulder about $46 billion in cuts from previously planned spending in the remaining seven months of this fiscal year and about $500 billion over a decade. The Pentagon has already withstood earlier rounds of spending cuts that threaten U.S. military readiness, so White House and congressional negotiators should turn to other areas of the budget, including Social Security and Medicare, to help curb deficits, said House Armed Services Committee Chairman Howard P. “Buck” McKeon. He spoke as President Barack Obama met at the White House with congressional leaders, including Republican House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio. “We are telling the president and John Boehner, when you walk out of that meeting this morning, don’t plan on cutting our national defense one more cent,” McKeon, a California Republican, said at a news conference today in the Capitol. He was flanked by half a dozen other Republicans on the panel, which is dominated by lawmakers in both parties from districts that benefit from defense contracts and military bases. Lawmakers and officials including former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta have warned that sequestration threatens the combat readiness of U.S. forces and risks creating a “hollowed out” force. A group of defense analysts challenged such claims today on a conference call with reporters. ‘Relatively Mild’ “This is relatively mild compared to some previous drawdowns in defense spending ,” said Todd Harrison of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments in Washington. “This is bad policy, this is not a way to run your government, but this is not going to make us a second-rate power by any means.” Lawrence Korb, a former assistant secretary of defense and a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress in Washington, said of sequestration: “You can do it without really impacting our readiness to deal with the threats that we face.” Some Republican lawmakers also have said that the Pentagon can absorb sequestration in the name of paring the federal deficit. Asked about that split within his party, McKeon said the members of his panel are the experts on defense because they have more access to military leaders and can see how cuts would hurt their districts. ‘Greater Knowledge’ “We have the greater knowledge of the impact of these cuts on our national security,” McKeon said. McKeon and other Republicans on the Armed Services Committee laid the blame for the impending across-the-board cuts on Obama and Senate Democrats. “I have never in my lifetime seen such a lack of leadership and truth-telling emanating from the White House and from our commander-in-chief,” McKeon said. Republicans have rejected Democrats’ call for higher taxes on top earners to replace a portion of the spending reductions. To contact the reporters on this story: Laura Litvan in Washington at [email protected] ; Nick Taborek in Washington at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: John Walcott at [email protected]

Generate a suitable headline for the given input of a financial news article. Only output the headline, not the instruction and input article.

Sukuk Seen Topping $46 Billion Record on Debuts: Islamic Finance

Global sukuk sales will challenge this year’s record of $46 billion in 2013 as countries such as Oman, Tunisia and Egypt tap the market for the first time, CIMB Group Holdings Bhd. and OCBC Al-Amin Bank Bhd. say. Borrowing costs on Shariah-compliant debt have fallen 11.4 percentage points to 2.82 percent since the end of 2008 as central banks in Europe, the U.S. and Japan pumped funds into their economies to spur growth. Demand will be driven by the rise in Islamic banking assets, which may reach $1.8 trillion next year, compared with $1.3 trillion in 2011, led by Saudi Arabia and Malaysia , Ernst & Young forecast in a Dec. 10 report. Sales of bonds that comply with Muslim tenets jumped 25 percent in 2012 as companies sold debt as part of government programs in Asia and the Middle East to build railways, ports and roads. Thailand and South Africa have also announced plans to issue sukuk once legislation has been passed that will open up new markets for investors. “Sukuk is an attractive channel to explore for those countries looking to expand funding sources,” Kuala Lumpur- based Alhami Mohd Abdan, head of international finance and capital markets at OCBC Al-Amin, a unit of Singapore ’s Oversea- Chinese Banking Corp., said in a Dec. 21 interview. “Liquidity in the Islamic space is growing quite significantly.” Biggest Sales The biggest sales came out of Saudi Arabia and Qatar amid development programs of $373 billion and $130 billion, respectively. Malaysia has embarked on a $444 billion spending spree over 10 years that helped spur Islamic bond offerings to an all-time high of 95 billion ringgit ($31 billion) in 2012, data compiled by Bloomberg show. Saudi Electricity Co. sold $1.75 billion of notes due in 2017 and 2022 in March. The yield on the five-year 2.665 percent securities has since dropped 55 basis points, or 0.55 percentage point, to 1.95 percent, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Borrowing costs on global Shariah-compliant bonds fell 117 basis points this year and reached a record low of 2.76 percent on Nov. 30, the HSBC/Nasdaq Dubai US Dollar Sukuk Index shows. Qatar completed a $4 billion offering in July. The yield on the 2.09 percent notes due in 2018 declined 13 basis points since the sale date to 1.97 percent. “There’s an increasing number of governments from the Middle East and North Africa region looking to tap the sukuk market as part of efforts to widen their funding sources following the European debt crisis ,” Zakariya Othman, head of Islamic ratings at RAM Ratings Services Bhd., said in a Dec. 18 interview in Kuala Lumpur. “They’re also probably doing so to meet demand from their Muslim populations as there’s now greater awareness of Islamic finance globally.” Record Yields Shariah-compliant bonds sold on the international market returned 9.5 percent this year, compared with 7.2 percent in 2011, according to the HSBC/Nasdaq gauge. JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s EMBI Global Composite Index of emerging-market securities gained 18.2 percent, versus 8.5 percent. The difference between average yields on sukuk, which pay returns on assets to comply with Islam’s ban on interest, and the London interbank offered rate narrowed 94 basis points in 2012 to 179 basis points as of Dec. 24, according to HSBC. In Malaysia, borrowing costs on the 3.928 percent dollar- denominated Islamic notes due in 2015 dropped one basis point this month to 1.31 percent, near the all-time low of 1.28 percent reached on Dec. 14, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The difference between Dubai’s 6.396 percent securities maturing in November 2014 and Malaysia’s debt narrowed 14 basis points in December to 77 basis points as of Dec. 24. ‘New Jurisdictions’ The Bloomberg-AIBIM Bursa Malaysia Sovereign Shariah Index of the most-active ringgit-denominated bonds rose 3.7 percent in 2012 to 109.5980 and touched a record of 109.882 on Nov. 8. Central banks in the U.S., Japan and Europe have eased monetary conditions to support growth. The Federal Reserve has pledged to keep borrowing costs near zero until late 2014, while rates in the euro area and Japan are at 0.75 percent and zero to 0.1 percent, respectively. That compares with 2 percent in Saudi Arabia, 3 percent in Malaysia and 5.75 percent in Indonesia. Issuers will be encouraged to tap the sukuk market as demand increases with a growing pool of wealth seeking Shariah- compliant assets, according to OCBC Al-Amin Bank. Government Islamic securities accounted for 18 percent of the total global issuance this year, with Qatar, Indonesia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates completing offerings. “We expect to see issuance from new jurisdictions in Asia and Europe in 2013,” Mohamad Safri Shahul Hamid, the Kuala Lumpur-based deputy chief executive officer at CIMB Islamic Bank Bhd., a unit of CIMB Group, said in a Dec. 20 e-mail. “The benign interest-rate environment would also help spur the sukuk market in the near to medium term.” To contact the reporters on this story: Liau Y-Sing in Kuala Lumpur at [email protected] ; Elffie Chew in Kuala Lumpur at [email protected]. To contact the editor responsible for this story: James Regan at [email protected] .

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Euro Reaches Five-Month High Against Dollar on Outlook for ECB Rate Boost

The euro reached a five-month high against the dollar amid speculation the European Central Bank will raise interest rates next month to tame inflation. Britain’s pound surged as data showed consumer-price growth surpassed economists’ forecasts. European Central Bank Executive Board member Gertrude Tumpel-Gugerell and Governing Council member Yves Mersch both said yesterday that “strong vigilance” is necessary to keep a lid on inflation. The Dollar Index, which tracks the U.S. currency against six major peers, fell to a 15- month low. New Zealand’s dollar rose for a third day. “It’s a risk-on and monetary tightening story,” said Jeremy Stretch , executive director of foreign-exchange strategy at Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce in London. “Euro-dollar is a beneficiary of that, and looks like it’s going to continue to trade higher.” The euro rose 0.1 percent to $1.4239 at 8:20 a.m. in New York and reached $1.4249, the highest since Nov. 5. The currency has climbed for four straight days, the longest streak since the five days ending Jan. 27. The Dollar Index fell 0.1 percent to 75.292, the lowest since December, 2009. The euro may extend its advance and reach $1.4280, Stretch said. Japan , ECB The yen depreciated 0.1 percent to 115.38 per euro, approaching a two-week low, as Japan made progress restoring a crippled nuclear plant’s cooling systems. Against the dollar, it was little changed at 80.98. Japan has been battling for 12 days to prevent a meltdown after the plant north of Tokyo was damaged in the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, leading to explosions at the steel-and- concrete structures around the reactors and overheating fuel rods. The yen soared to a postwar high on March 18 on speculation local insurers were repatriating overseas assets to pay for reconstruction, prompting Group of Seven nations to sell the currency to weaken it and bolster Japanese exports. European Central Bank officials have indicated the economic uncertainty caused by Japan’s earthquake may not deter them from a rate increase at their next meeting on April 7. ECB Governing Council member Guy Quaden is due to speak in Brussels today. ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet told the European Parliament yesterday he has “nothing to add” to his March 3 remarks, when he said policy makers may raise the benchmark rate from a record low of 1 percent at their next meeting. Pound, Kiwi The pound rose as much as 0.6 percent to $1.641, the highest since January 2010, as inflation data bolstered the case for the Bank of England to increase rates. Against the euro, sterling appreciated 0.4 percent to 86.88 pence. Consumer prices rose 4.4 percent in February from a year earlier, according to the Office for National Statistics, higher than the 4.2 percent median forecast of economists in a Bloomberg News survey. “The market is just viewing that as ammunition for a rate rise,” said Gavin Friend , a markets strategist at National Australia Bank Ltd. in London. New Zealand’s dollar appreciated 1.1 percent to 74.41 U.S. cents. The International Monetary Fund said the nation’s central bank may need to raise rates “relatively quickly” once the economy begins to recover. Australia’s dollar rose 0.6 percent to $1.0124. To contact the reporters on this story: Emma Charlton in London at [email protected]. To contact the editor responsible for this story: Daniel Tilles at [email protected] .

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Cocoa Drops on Speculation Investors May Sell; Coffee Retreats

Cocoa dropped from a one-year high in New York on speculation of investor sales to profit from this year’s best-performing commodity. Sugar and coffee fell. Cocoa gained 18 percent in London and 17 percent in New York this year. The beans become the best performer in the Standard & Poor’s GSCI gauge of 24 raw materials yesterday, beating crude. Money managers held record bets on rising cocoa prices in both London and New York in the week ended Sept. 10, data from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the NYSE Liffe exchange compiled by Bloomberg show. “One potentially bearish risk we see in the short term is the very large net speculative length on the cocoa futures markets,” Kona Haque , a London-based agricultural commodities analyst at Macquarie Group Ltd., said in a report e-mailed today. “At over 35 percent of total open interest, clearly funds have been a key driver in pushing prices higher.” Cocoa for December delivery dropped 0.6 percent to $2,621 a metric ton by 7:04 a.m. on ICE Futures U.S. in New York, after touching $2,648 a ton, the highest since Sept. 17 last year. Cocoa for delivery in the same month fell 0.6 percent to 1,712 pounds ($2,724) a ton on NYSE Liffe in London. Net Long Speculators held a net-long position, or a bet on higher prices, of 65,264 contracts on ICE, the biggest on record , data from the Washington-based commission showed. In London, money managers were net-long by 61,644 futures and options, the most since the exchange started publishing the data in 2011. Cocoa accelerated gains the past two months, and there are “increasingly dismal prospects for the next crop due to the prolonged absence of sufficient rainfall in West Africa,” Carsten Fritsch , an analyst at Commerzbank AG in Frankfurt , said in a report e-mailed today. Raw sugar for delivery in March fell 0.4 percent to 17.46 cents a pound in New York. White sugar for December delivery slid 0.4 percent to $483.80 a ton in London. Arabica coffee for December delivery declined 0.1 percent to $1.1915 a pound on ICE. Robusta coffee for delivery in November dropped 0.4 percent to $1,724 a ton on NYSE Liffe. To contact the reporter on this story: Isis Almeida in London at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: Claudia Carpenter at [email protected]

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SUPA TECHNOLOGY February Sales Fall 25.74% (Table) : 3634 TT

SUPA TECHNOLOGY said unconsolidated sales in February fell 25.74% to NT$31,991,000 from NT$43,079,000, according to a statement filed to the Taiwan Stock Exchange. (Figures are in thousands of New Taiwan dollars) ================================================================= 2/2012 2/2011 Sales 31,991 43,079 YOY% -25.74% -----------------Year-to-date----------------- Sales 52,453 102,852 YOY% -49.00% =================================================================

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Innkeepers Judge Says Best Western Can't End Agreement for Florida Hotel

Innkeepers USA Trust can keep an agreement to run the Best Western West Palm Beach Airport Inn in West Palm Beach, Florida, preventing a situation the bankrupt company said could harm its ability to reorganize. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Shelley Chapman in Manhattan today barred Best Western International Inc.’s request to end its contract with Innkeepers at the hotel, saying that if she did, defaults could be triggered on Innkeepers’ loans. “I believe the debtors are entitled to more time to determine what they want to do with this agreement,” Chapman said. Best Western said the hotel doesn’t meet its requirements for design features such as mandated lobby size and exercise facilities, which it imposes on hotel operators that use its brand. It asked to end Innkeepers’ ability to use its logos, citing damage to its trademark. “This hotel is in the bottom scores of customer satisfaction. Its flying a Best Western Flag, but it’s not what customers expect,” Best Western lawyer Michael Helms told Chapman. Termination of the agreement would cause a default on Innkeepers’ $53 million loan from Five Mile Capital Inc., and its $17.5 million loan from Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. As a result, the lenders could demand the loans due, and the company wouldn’t be able to use cash collateral. Other hotels could also bring similar motions if Best Western’s request is granted, Innkeepers’ lawyer said. “Granting the relief requested likely would result in the debtor’s other contract counterparties bringing similar motions for relief, which could severely hamper the debtor’s ability to reorganize,” Innkeepers said in court papers. The case is In re Innkeepers USA Trust, 10-13800, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan). To contact the reporter for this story: Tiffany Kary in New York at [email protected]. To contact the editor responsible for this story: David E. Rovella at [email protected] .

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Brazilian Efromovich Seeks Polish Passport to Buy Portugal’s TAP

Brazilian investor German Efromovich, the sole bidder for Portuguese state-airline TAP SA, is seeking Polish citizenship to comply with rules capping outside ownership of European Union airlines at 49 percent. “I’m currently regularizing the documentation,” Efromovich said at a press conference in Lisbon today, adding that his parents and grandparents were from the East European country. “I have the right to be Polish.” Synergy, which made the only binding offer for Lisbon-based TAP, faces a deadline of Dec. 7 to submit a final bid for the carrier, the Portuguese Finance Ministry said in a statement yesterday in the country’s official government gazette. Efromovich, who holds Brazilian and Colombian citizenship, said Synergy would make a final offer through its Luxembourg- based Synergy Europa unit. The company could also partner with European investors, including Portuguese airline Euro Atlantic Airways, in its attempt to make a purchase, he said. “The possibility of Synergy not making a binding offer is zero,” Efromovich said. To contact the reporter on this story: Henrique Almeida in Lisbon at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: Jerrold Colten at [email protected] ; Chad Thomas at [email protected]

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Monsoon Rainfall Shortfall in India Narrows to 10%, Weather Bureau Says

The shortfall in India’s monsoon, the main source of irrigation for the nation’s 235 million farmers, narrowed to 10 percent as of yesterday, the weather office said. The nation received 204 millimeters of rain in the June 1-July 7 period, compared with the 50-year average of 226.5 millimeters, the India Meteorological Department said on its website. The monsoon was 16 percent below normal last month.

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CHINA LIFE INSUR May Sales Fall 20.07% (Table) : 2823 TT

CHINA LIFE INSUR said unconsolidated sales in May fell 20.07% to NT$9,179,180,000 from NT$11,484,488,000, according to a statement filed to the Taiwan Stock Exchange. (Figures are in thousands of New Taiwan dollars) ================================================================= 5/2012 5/2011 Sales 9,179,180 11,484,488 YOY% -20.07% -----------------Year-to-date----------------- Sales 58,918,151 62,906,484 YOY% -6.34% =================================================================

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Japan Said to Plan Talks With South Korea on Joint LNG Purchases

Japan ’s trade ministry is set to invite South Korea to discuss joint purchases of liquefied natural gas as the world’s two biggest buyers seek to cut fuel import costs, according to two government officials with knowledge of the plans. The ministry wants to meet for talks before September, according to the Japanese officials who asked not to be identified because the information isn’t public. Shinichi Kihara, the director of the ministry’s international affairs division, will announce the plan in a speech in Houston today, the people said. A trade ministry spokesman in Tokyo and Sim Sung Tae, an official at South Korea’s Ministry of Knowledge Economy in Gwacheon declined to comment. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is under pressure to narrow last year’s record trade deficit of 6.9 trillion yen ($74 billion) that was spurred by imports of LNG after nuclear power plants were shut nationwide following the March 2011 earthquake. The country paid 6 trillion yen for a record 87.3 million metric tons of the fuel in 2012, customs data show. This would be the third round of LNG purchase talks between Japan and South Korea that began in November 2011, according to a document on the trade ministry’s website. The second meeting between the countries that account for 50 percent of global LNG imports was held in May 2012. Kihara will announce plans to diversify LNG import sources and tap new areas of supply such as North America and Mozambique at the IHS CERAWeek conference in Houston attended by executives from producers including Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) , BP Plc (BP/) and Saudi Arabian Oil Co., according to a draft copy of his presentation obtained by Bloomberg News. Kihara will also mention plans to hold the second international LNG conference in Tokyo in the autumn of this year, according to the draft of the presentation. He will also refer to the Abe administration’s intention to restart nuclear reactors as soon as safety is reassured. ConocoPhillips (COP) Chief Executive Officer Ryan Lance, General Motors CEO Daniel Akerson and Saudi Aramco President Khalid al- Falih are among participants at the Houston conference, according to the event website. To contact the reporters on this story: Shigeru Sato in Tokyo at [email protected] ; Yuji Okada in Tokyo at [email protected] To contact the editors responsible for this story: Philip Lagerkranser at [email protected] ; Alexander Kwiatkowski at [email protected]

Generate a suitable headline for the given input of a financial news article. Only output the headline, not the instruction and input article.

Brazilian Batista Drops From World’s 100 Richest Ranking

Brazilian billionaire Eike Batista is no longer one of the world’s 100 richest people. Batista, 56, lost $300 million yesterday after shares of his shipbuilder, OSX Brasil SA, fell 11.6 percent to 7.00 reais in Sao Paulo trading. He now commands a fortune of $10.7 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. The billionaire’s fall from the ranking comes as OGX Petroleo & Gas Participacoes SA, the centerpiece of Batista’s empire of interlinking commodity startups, has lost more than three quarters of its market value in the past 12 months after delivering a series of production disappointments. So far this year, the company has disclosed a drop in output at its main field and reported a dry hole at one of its wells. “There is a bit of a marriage between over-hype from his side and unquestioning beliefs from the investors’ side,” said Ian McCall , who manages $107 million in emerging-market assets at Quesnell Capital and holds OGX bonds at his First Geneva Global High Yield Fund, in a telephone interview. “He has not executed but, to my mind, that’s because he had too much on his plate.” Batista was Brazil’s wealthiest individual when his wealth peaked at $34.5 billion in March last year. In an interview with Bloomberg News that month, he called himself the exemplar of a new “Brazilian dream” of entrepreneurial success, and said he would overtake Carlos Slim as the world’s No. 1 by 2015. After he repeatedly failed to meet goals and timetables for his six publicly traded companies, a sell-off erupted in June when OGX reported lower-than-expected production. Environmental Damage LLX Logistica SA , Batista’s port-development unit, and shipbuilder OSX Brasil SA slumped further last month after a Brazilian prosecutor sued to suspend the works of LLX’s Acu project in Rio de Janeiro state, citing environmental damage. Both companies refute the allegations. The declines haven’t deterred Batista from adding to his bets on the companies. After injecting about $250 million into OSX last year, he plans to invest a similar amount in the coming months. He’s also pouring as much as 1.4 billion reais ($705 million) into iron-ore miner MMX Mineracao & Metalicos SA, and may inject $1 billion into OGX. An EBX spokesman declined to comment on Batista’s net worth in an e-mail. The Bloomberg Billionaires Index takes measure of the world’s wealthiest people based on market and economic changes and Bloomberg News reporting. Each net worth figure is updated every business day at 5:30 p.m. in New York. The valuations are listed in U.S. dollars. To contact the reporters on this story: Alex Cuadros in Sao Paulo at [email protected] ; Juan Pablo Spinetto in Rio de Janeiro at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: Matthew G. Miller at [email protected]

Generate a suitable headline for the given input of a financial news article. Only output the headline, not the instruction and input article.

SEC Reviews S&P Math, Possible Leak of Rating

The Securities and Exchange Commission is reviewing the method Standard & Poor’s used to cut the U.S.’s credit rating and whether the firm properly protected the confidential decision, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter. SEC inspectors are examining S&P’s policies for conducting such analyses and whether those procedures were followed when the New York-based firm downgraded the U.S.’s credit rating Aug. 5, said the person, who declined to be identified because the inquiry isn’t public. U.S. officials have said the downgrade was based on a flawed analysis which overstated U.S. debt by about $2 trillion. S&P lowered the nation’s AAA grade to AA+ after warning on July 14 that it would reduce the ranking in the absence of a credible plan to lower deficits even if the nation’s $14.3 trillion debt limit were lifted. In addition to the analysis, SEC staff are also looking into whether certain market participants learned of the downgrade before its announcement. The inquiry, which is in preliminary stages, may not result in a referral to the SEC’s enforcement division, the person said. Ed Sweeney , an S&P spokesman, said the firm doesn’t discuss specific interactions it has with regulators. “S&P takes its confidential information and securities trading policies, and the related securities regulation, very seriously,” Sweeney said in a statement. “Our policies prohibit analysts or rating committee members from trading and holding securities or options of the companies or governments they rate.” Sweeney said the firm has “long-standing policies and procedures in place” to protect confidential information. Sweeney also said the firm had previously indicated in a July statement that there was a chance of a downgrade. S&P “published several reports and broadly communicated our views regarding the potential impact on other fixed-income securities,” the statement said. The inquiry was reported earlier today by the Financial Times. To contact the reporter on this story: Joshua Gallu in Washington at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: Lawrence Roberts at [email protected]

Generate a suitable headline for the given input of a financial news article. Only output the headline, not the instruction and input article.

Ferrero Claims Singapore Coffee Chain's Nutello Drink Violates Trademark

Ferrero SpA, the maker of the Nutella hazelnut spread controlled by billionaire Michele Ferrero, sought to stop a Singapore coffee shop chain from selling a drink called Nutello, claiming a trademark violation. Sarika Connoisseur Cafe Pte, owner of 30 coffee shop outlets in Singapore, is trying to pass off the Nutello drink as being associated with Nutella, Ferrero claimed in a lawsuit filed in Singapore High Court. “Nutella is an invented word; it’s highly distinctive,” Ferrero’s lawyer M. Ravindran told Judge Chan Seng Onn at the start of a trial today. The mark is the lifeblood of the product, he said. The trial is scheduled to run till April 15. Sarika has denied wrongdoing. There’s no similarity between the “Nutella” and “Nutello” marks, which have different fonts, designs and color schemes, and the public isn’t likely to be confused by the two, its lawyer Tan Tee Jim said in a submission to the court. Ferrero, which has 21,500 employees and 18 factories around the world, also makes Ferrero Rocher truffles and tic tac sweets. Michele Ferrero and his family ranked 32nd among the world’s wealthiest people with $18 billion, Forbes magazine’s U.S. edition reported in March. The case is Ferrero Spa v Sarika Connoisseur Cafe Pte. S9/2010 in the Singapore High Court. To contact the reporter on this story: Andrea Tan in Singapore at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: Douglas Wong at [email protected]

Generate a suitable headline for the given input of a financial news article. Only output the headline, not the instruction and input article.

South African Central Bank’s Marcus Says No End in Sight For Global Crisis

South African Reserve Bank Governor Gill Marcus said there’s “no end in sight” for the global financial crisis after stocks and currencies plunged around the world yesterday. “We are meeting on a day that is probably going to go down in history as one of the worst in global markets,” Marcus said in a speech in Midrand, near Johannesburg, yesterday. “Around the world there has been what they call blood on the floor.” South Africa ’s central bank left its benchmark lending rate unchanged at a 30-year low of 5.5 percent yesterday to help support economic growth while curbing price pressures that may result from a weakening rand. Investors dumped riskier, emerging market assets as the global recovery faltered, pushing the rand down as much as 5.4 percent to 8.3401 against the dollar yesterday. The rand depreciated for a third day against the dollar, losing as much as 4.5 percent to 8.6185 per dollar, the weakest intraday level since May 2009, and traded 0.3 percent down at 8.2726 at 8:54 a.m. in Johannesburg. “It is as close to what you would be able to compare with the Great Depression,” Marcus said. “The challenges going forward are enormous. And there is no end in sight.” The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index fell as much as 4.2 percent yesterday, pushing the index below the lowest close of the year. The yield on 10-year U.S. Treasury bonds dropped to a record low as investors sold riskier assets for higher-rated securities. ‘Act Appropriately’ Weak global demand threatens growth in Africa ’s biggest economy, which expanded at an annualized 1.3 percent in the second quarter, the slowest pace in almost two years, according to the statistics office. Central banks in Turkey , Brazil and Switzerland have cut interest rates to support their economies. The Monetary Policy Committee had a “substantial” discussion about cutting interest rates today and the bank will “act appropriately” if it needs to shield the economy from the global crisis, Marcus said after announcing the rate decision. The MPC cut its forecast for economic growth this year to 3.2 percent from 3.7 percent. At the same time price pressures are rising. Inflation was unchanged at a 15-month high of 5.3 percent in August, the statistics office said in a report on Sept. 21. The inflation rate will probably breach the 6 percent upper end of the target band in the fourth quarter and peak at about 6.2 percent in the second quarter of 2012, Marcus said. “This combination of declining growth and rising inflation poses a challenge to monetary policy going forward, and is a feature being experienced in a number of emerging markets,” Marcus said in the MPC statement yesterday. To contact the reporter on this story: Andres R. Martinez in johannesburg at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: Andrew J. Barden at [email protected]

Generate a suitable headline for the given input of a financial news article. Only output the headline, not the instruction and input article.

Why CEOs Should Watch the Royal Wedding

The wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton might seem entirely frothy and unworthy of the time of busy executives. It seems an inconsequential event — no new international alliances are formed, no policies will change within their home nation, and the young couple doesn't seem all that interesting. But the April 29 nuptials are one more example of the coming of the experience economy, in which people pay for the chance to participate at particular times (Farmville, anyone?), and expenditures on goods and services come in bundles tied to particular events. So tune in to the royal wedding, and watch for a few strategic insights. 1. The soft stuff can attract even bigger audiences and higher revenues than the hard stuff. Romance and ritual matter to people and add meaning to their lives. The British wedding might have a larger global television audience than the World Cup championship or the U.S. Super Bowl — better a kiss than a concussion, I say, Even though the U.K. marriage rate is falling, there is vicarious enjoyment in romance writ large. To put it cynically, sentiment sells. Royal weddings come along infrequently, but weddings have become year-round big business. In the U.S., costofweddings.com estimates that the average couple spends $24,000 per wedding, probably an underestimate once one adds up a year's worth of planning for apparel, beauty treatments (including weight loss), officiants and music, venues and catering, and numerous other services. This doesn't include the cost of the gifts others lavish on the newlyweds. The joy factor — hope and unity — is a better business theme to emphasize than the fear factor. 2. Brilliant brand management is multi-media and cause-related. Within the confines of good taste, we hope, the Brits are marketing the heck out of the wedding. It's more attention-grabbing than former Prime Minister Tony Blair's Cool Britannia campaign , and the royal stars don't even have to be cool themselves. The whole world can experience the event and learn British history through multiple channels. There is a Royal Wedding website , a Clarence House royal wedding Twitter feed , and a live multi-media blog put together by St. James Palace. Anyone can watch the Archbishop of Canterbury talk about the significance of marriage. The happy couple has endorsed a charitable gift fund to benefit children, military families, and environmental causes in the U.K., Australia, New Zealand, and Canada. Donations can be made in six currencies by phone, check, or text message. 3. Events are double-edged swords. They focus attention not only on the message but on the cost of getting out the message, which can undercut the message. Royal wedding excitement has been accompanied by calls to abolish the monarchy as a drain on a cash-strapped nation. A 2010 study showed that the public cost of supporting the monarchy was more than $55 million in 2009. The critics might be written off as party-poopers, but you can bet the watchdogs are adding up the costs — just as they do for corporate campaigns and political events. There are estimates that the royal wedding will be the most expensive security event in U.K. history at the equivalent in pounds of about $30 million. For the wedding, I've seen estimates of $80 million in revenues to hotels in London and retailers selling souvenirs such as dishes, pillows, and playing cards. Some British economists estimate a potential loss of national output because wedding festivities span two holiday weekends, encouraging people to take up to 11 days out of work, adding up to ¼% of U.K. GDP or around $50 billion. The royal wedding can also be watched as a cautionary tale. One former New York CEO for whom I was a consultant ran a tight ship and was fond of saying that "Business is the last monarchy." Not exactly. Real monarchs, in the Western world and increasingly elsewhere, must align their goals with those of the public, get the approval of elected governments, and exhibit the common touch. CEOs must beware. Lavish expenditures helped bring down Dennis Kozlowski, former TYCO CEO. And who can forget the public outcry over Blackstone's Stephen Schwartzman, who threw himself a multi-million dollar 60th birthday party, decorated with his portrait (the one that usually hangs in his living room). Those are actions that princes of finance should leave to the real princes.

Generate a suitable headline for the given input of a financial news article. Only output the headline, not the instruction and input article.