Jan. 29 (Bloomberg) –Indonesia may sustain its economic growth, Trade Minister Gita Wirjawan said, as
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European stocks rose on Friday as investors set aside concerns about the euro’s debt crisis to focus on the impending release of monthly U.S. jobs data, which many hope will confirm a mild recovery in the world’s largest economy.
Asian market indexes closed lower as they reacted to poor economic and financial indicators out of Europe the previous day. That stream of poor European data continued on Friday, with new information showing a drop in retail sales and economic sentiment among consumers and businesses. Unemployment in the 17-nation eurozone, meanwhile, remained at a worrying 10.3 percent.
Traders expect 2012 to be a tough one for Europe, as it slides back toward recession, and appeared relieved to have more upbeat U.S. economic indicators to focus on Friday.
Analysts are projecting hiring gains of about 150,000 when the U.S. Labor Department issues the December jobs report. That would mark a six-month stretch in which the economy generated 100,000 jobs or more in each month. Expectations of the data rose on Thursday, when the private payrolls agency ADP said its own calculations for hiring gains were much stronger than forecast.
An improvement in the U.S. labor market is crucial for global markets because American consumer spending accounts for a fifth of the world’s economic activity. A recovery in the U.S. would also mitigate the impact of the sharp slowdown in Europe.
Britain’s FTSE 100 rose 0.4 percent to 5,644.55, while Germany’s DAX rose 0.6 percent to 6,131.25. France’s CAC-40 rose 0.8 percent to 3,170.85. Ahead of the opening bell on Wall Street, Dow Jones futures rose almost 0.1 percent to 12,334 and S&P 500 futures gained 0.1 percent to 1,274.50.
Although upbeat U.S. data could push stocks higher, gains were likely to be limited by the lingering fears about Europe’s debt crisis. Italy’s benchmark 10-year bond yield edged further above 7 percent, a borrowing rate that is considered unsustainable over the longer term.
Italy, along with many other European governments, has to roll over huge amounts of debt in coming months. It is trying to restore investor confidence in its public finances to get those bond yields down and pay lower rates when it auctions its bonds to raise cash from capital markets.
Traders will watch comments from Italian Premier Mario Monti, who will hold talks in Paris with French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Friday.
Banks, meanwhile, are hurting due to fears that they will take big losses on their holdings of government debt and will struggle to raise new cash to plug those holes.
Trading in UniCredit, Italy’s largest bank, was halted on Thursday after the stock lost a quarter of its value in two days. The bank said Wednesday it would need to offer huge discounts to investors to raise money in a new share sale. The stock was down another 11 percent on Friday.
Longer-term concerns about the euro and the region’s financial system pushed the common currency to 15-month lows on Thursday. It recovered slightly on Friday, rising 0.1 percent to $1.2808.
Outside the eurozone, Hungary was sliding deeper into its own financial crisis. It had to pay a staggeringly high interest rate of 10 percent on its 12-month debt. That is far above the 7 percent level that forced Greece and Portugal to seek emergency bailouts to prevent them from defaulting on their debts.
Investor confidence in the country has deteriorated to the point that the country is considering asking the International Monetary Fund for a standby rescue loan.
Asian indexes ended mostly lower as they reacted to the previous day’s European market jitters. Japan’s Nikkei 225 Index closed 1.2 percent lower at 8,390.35. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index fell 1.2 percent at 18,593.06 and South Korea’s Kospi fell 1.1 percent to 1,843.14. Benchmarks in Taiwan and Indonesia also fell. India and Singapore rose.
In mainland China, the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index gained 0.7 percent to 2,163.39, while the smaller Shenzhen Composite Index gained 0.5 percent to 817.78.
Japanese stocks are hurt by the yen’s rise against the dollar, which makes exports less competitive internationally. On Friday, the dollar dropped another 0.1 percent to 77.07 yen.
Benchmark oil for February delivery rose 60 cents to $102.41 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell by $1.41 to end Thursday at $101.81 in New York.
As with fast payday loans, this recently used to be the case, but competitive lenders and higher demand has taken this loan type to mainstay levels.
The General Motors plant in Wentzville has completed the hiring of 437 employees who will work a second shift that’s set to begin in early January, which will mark the first time in two years that the plant has run more than a single shift.
GM, which builds the Chevrolet Express and GMC Savana full-size vans in Wentzville, will add a second shift of van production on Jan.3, bringing the total employment at the plant to 1,940 hourly workers and 155 salaried employees.
Of the 437 hourly employees added for the second shift, 235 are new hires, said Tom Brune, UAW communications coordinator for Local 2250, which represents hourly workers at the plant. GM also recalled 38 employees to the plant and transferred 164 GM employees from across the country.
“It’s a long time coming,” Brune said about the second shift, which was announced in September as part of a new labor contract.
Plant manager John Dansby said many of the transferred employees planned to move their families to the St. Louis region over the holidays.
“We’ve gotten them familiar with the plant and have them working side by side with current employees to understand how we work and how the plant works,” he said of the new employees.
Recalling laid-off workers and preparing for a second shift has “been a great boost to morale,” Dansby added.
The second shift isn’t the only new development at the Wentzville plant. GM also plans to build the next generation of its Colorado midsize pickup there, which will bring an additional 1,260 hourly and salaried jobs in 2013.
To prepare for the line, the automaker plans to invest $380 million in the plant, including the construction of a 500,000-square-foot addition to the current 3.7 million square feet.
A quiet day on Wall Street ended Friday with major stock indexes little changed after a big rally the day before.
The Dow Jones industrial average gained 23 points, or 0.2 percent, to finish at 12,231.11. Stock indexes jumped more than 3 percent Thursday after European leaders unveiled a plan to expand their regional bailout fund and take other steps to contain the debt crisis in Greece.
Optimism ebbed on Friday as analysts raised questions about the plan, which left out many key details about how the fund would work. European markets mostly fell, and the euro declined against the dollar.
The S&P 500 rose less than a point to 1,285.09. The Nasdaq composite fell 1.48, or 0.1 percent, to 2,737.15.
“It’s a kind of sobering-up after a day of partying,” said Jerry Webman, chief economist with Oppenheimer Funds in New York. “We got back to what’s more of a square position, closer to where we want to be, and now we’re going to take a couple of deep breaths and reassess what this really means.”
There are still plenty of obstacles to overcome before the crisis is resolved. One troubling sign: Borrowing costs for Italy and Spain increased, signaling that traders remain worried about their finances.
The Dow is up 12.1 percent this month, the S&P 13.6 percent. Both indexes are on pace to have their best month since January 1987.
In less than four weeks, the Dow has risen 14.8 percent from its 2011 low, reached on Oct. 3. The S&P has gained 17 percent in that time. However, the Dow remains 4.5 percent below this year’s high, reached on April 29. The S&P is 5.8 percent below its high.
Whirlpool Corp. slumped 14 percent, the most in the S&P index, after the appliance maker said it would cut 5,000 jobs, citing weak demand and higher costs for materials fast payday loan. Another household name, Newell Rubbermaid Inc., soared 11 percent after its adjusted earnings beat Wall Street’s expectations. The maker of tubs and markers maintained its outlook for the year.
Cablevision Systems Corp. fell 12.5 percent after reporting that its third-quarter net income dropped sharply and it lost cable TV subscribers.
Thursday’s stock rally led to a sell-off in Treasurys, which traders hold to protect their money when other investments are falling. Demand for Treasurys increased sharply Friday, pushing the yield on the 10-year Treasury down to 2.33 percent from 2.39 percent late Thursday.
Markets have been roiled for months by fears about the impact of Europe’s debt crisis. Greece couldn’t afford to repay its lenders, and banks holding Greek bonds faced billions in losses. A disorganized default by Greece threatened to spook lenders to other countries with heavy debt loads such as Spain and Italy. Traders feared that a wave of defaults by countries would cause financial panic and mire the global economy.
Some analysts expect traders to refocus on U.S. economic news next week after months spent watching Europe. The government releases its jobs report for October next Friday. A news conference by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke might offer clues about the Fed’s economic outlook. Key reports on manufacturing and business sentiment are due out as well.
Declining stocks narrowly outnumbered rising ones on the New York Stock Exchange. Volume was slightly below average at 4.4 billion shares.
ZOO NEWS: Susan Gallagher, the longtime voice and face of Ameren, is the new director of public relations for the St. Louis Zoo.
Gallagher, who was at Ameren for just over 20 years, retired as director of corporate communications. In that capacity she oversaw advertising, internal and external communications and media relations. Until 2009, Gallagher’s voice was the one you would hear on the radio telling you where Ameren was experiencing outages and what the outlook was for repair times.
Although her official retirement date is Oct. 31, Gallagher started work at the Zoo on Oct. 17. She describes the new job as a post-retirement position, and said she doesn’t want people thinking she’s making the same kind of salary she made at Ameren, because she’s not.
“This is a government job, and I understand that,” Gallagher added with a laugh. “It’s more of a mission for me. I’ve loved the Zoo since I was 10 years old. When I was a little girl in Arkansas my family would come up to St. Louis and we’d visit the Zoo. I have home movies of me at the Zoo. I’ve always loved it.”
Gallagher is replacing Janet Powell, who retired Sept. 30 after 38 years at the Zoo. Powell was the Zoo’s first public relations professional. Powell, of Kirkwood, plans to spend some time in retirement doing volunteer work in the soup kitchen at Centenary United Methodist Church in downtown St. Louis.
Gallagher is married to St. Louis Post-Dispatch business reporter Jim Gallagher. They have two grown daughters.
SAN FRANCISCO — A new biography portrays Steve Jobs as a skeptic all his life — giving up religion because he was troubled by starving children, calling executives who took over Apple “corrupt” and delaying cancer surgery in favour of cleansings and herbal medicine.
“Steve Jobs” by Walter Isaacson, to be published Monday, also says Jobs came up with the company’s name while he was on a diet of fruits and vegetables, and as a teenager perfected staring at people without blinking.
The Associated Press purchased a copy of the book Thursday.
The book delves into Jobs’ decision to delay surgery for nine months after learning in October 2003 that he had a neuroendocrine tumour — a relatively rare type of pancreatic cancer that normally grows more slowly and is therefore more treatable.
Instead, he tried a vegan diet, acupuncture, herbal remedies and other treatments he found online, and even consulted a psychic. He also was influenced by a doctor who ran a clinic that advised juice fasts, bowel cleansings and other unproven approaches, the book says, before finally having surgery in July 2004.
Isaacson, quoting Jobs, writes in the book: “‘I really didn’t want them to open up my body, so I tried to see if a few other things would work,’ he told me years later with a hint of regret.”
Jobs died Oct. 5, at age 56, after a battle with cancer.
The book also provides insight into the unravelling of Jobs’ relationship with Eric Schmidt, the former CEO of Google and an Apple board member from 2006 to 2009. Schmidt had quit Apple’s board as Google and Apple went head-to-head in smartphones, Apple with its iPhone and Google with its Android software.
Isaacson wrote that Jobs was livid in January 2010 when HTC introduced an Android phone that boasted many of the popular features of the iPhone. Apple sued, and Jobs told Isaacson in an expletive-laced rant that Google’s actions amounted to “grand theft.”
“I will spend my last dying breath if I need to, and I will spend every penny of Apple’s $40 billion in the bank, to right this wrong,” Jobs said. “I’m going to destroy Android, because it’s a stolen product. I’m willing to go thermonuclear war on this.”
Jobs used an expletive to describe Android and Google Docs, Google’s Internet-based word processing program. In a subsequent meeting with Schmidt at a Palo Alto, California, cafe, Jobs told Schmidt that he wasn’t interested in settling the lawsuit, the book says.
“I don’t want your money. If you offer me $5 billion, I won’t want it. I’ve got plenty of money. I want you to stop using our ideas in Android, that’s all I want.” The meeting, Isaacson wrote, resolved nothing.
The book is clearly designed to evoke the Apple style. Its cover features the title and author’s name starkly printed in black and grey type against a white background, along with a black-and-white photo of Jobs, thumb and forefinger to his chin.
The biography, for which Jobs granted more than three dozen interviews, is also a look into the thoughts of a man who was famously secret, guarding details of his life as he did Apple’s products, and generating plenty of psychoanalysis from a distance.
Jobs resigned as Apple’s CEO on Aug. 24, six weeks before he died.
Doctors said Thursday that it was not clear whether the delayed treatment made a difference in Jobs’ chances for survival.
“People live with these cancers for far longer than nine months before they’re even diagnosed,” so it’s not known how quickly one can prove fatal, said Dr. Len Lichtenfeld, deputy chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society.
Dr. Michael Pishvaian, a pancreatic cancer expert at Georgetown University’s Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, said people often are in denial after a cancer diagnosis, and some take a long time to accept recommended treatments.
“We’ve had many patients who have had bad outcomes when they have delayed treatment. Nine months is certainly a significant period of time to delay,” he said.
Fortune magazine reported in 2008 that Jobs tried alternative treatments because he was suspicious of mainstream medicine.
The book says Jobs gave up Christianity at age 13 when he saw starving children on the cover of Life magazine paydayloans. He asked whether his Sunday school pastor knew what would happen to them.
Jobs never went back to church, though he did study Zen Buddhism later.
Jobs calls the crop of executives brought in to run Apple after his ouster in 1985 “corrupt people” with “corrupt values” who cared only about making money. Jobs himself is described as caring far more about product than profit.
He told Isaacson they cared only about making money “for themselves mainly, and also for Apple — rather than making great products.”
Jobs returned to the company in 1997. After that, he introduced the candy-coloured iMac computer, the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad, and turned Apple into the most valuable company in America by market value for a time.
The book says that, while some Apple board members were happy that Hewlett-Packard gave up trying to compete with Apple’s iPad, Jobs did not think it was cause for celebration.
“Hewlett and Packard built a great company, and they thought they had left it in good hands,” Jobs told Isaacson. “But now it’s being dismembered and destroyed.”
“I hope I’ve left a stronger legacy so that will never happen at Apple,” he added.
Advance sales of the book have topped bestseller lists. Much of the biography adds to what was already known, or speculated, about Jobs. While Isaacson is not the first to tell Jobs’ story, he had unprecedented access. Their last interview was weeks before Jobs died.
Jobs reveals in the book that he didn’t want to go to college, and the only school he applied to was Reed, a costly private college in Portland, Oregon. Once accepted, his parents tried to talk him out of attending Reed, but he told them he wouldn’t go to college if they didn’t let him go there. Jobs wound up attending but dropped out after less than a year and never went back.
Jobs told Isaacson that he tried various diets, including one of fruits and vegetables. On the naming of Apple, he said he was “on one of my fruitarian diets.” He said he had just come back from an apple farm, and thought the name sounded “fun, spirited and not intimidating.”
Jobs’ eye for simple, clean design was evident early. The case of the Apple II computer had originally included a Plexiglas cover, metal straps and a roll-top door. Jobs, though, wanted something elegant that would make Apple stand out.
He told Isaacson he was struck by Cuisinart food processors while browsing at a department store and decided he wanted a case made of moulded plastic.
He called Jonathan Ive, Apple’s design chief, his “spiritual partner” at Apple. He told Isaacson that Ive had “more operation power” at Apple than anyone besides Jobs himself — that there’s no one at the company who can tell Ive what to do. That, says Jobs, is “the way I set it up.”
Jobs was never a typical CEO. Apple’s first president, Mike Scott, was hired mainly to manage Jobs, then 22. One of his first projects, according to the book, was getting Jobs to bathe more often. It didn’t work.
Jobs’ dabbling in LSD and other aspects of 1960s counterculture has been well documented. In the book, Jobs says LSD “reinforced my sense of what was important — creating great things instead of making money, putting things back into the stream of history and of human consciousness as much as I could.”
He also revealed that the Beatles were one of his favourite bands, and one of his wishes was to get the band on iTunes, Apple’s revolutionary online music store, before he died. The Beatles’ music went on sale on iTunes in late 2010.
The book was originally called “iSteve” and scheduled to come out in March. The release date was moved up to November, then, after Jobs’ death, to Monday. It is published by Simon & Schuster and will sell for $35.
Isaacson will appear Sunday on “60 Minutes.” CBS News, which airs the program, released excerpts of the book Thursday.
Ortutay reported from New York. AP Technology Writer Peter Svensson in New York and AP Chief Medical Writer Marilynn Marchione in Milwaukee also contributed to this report.
Asian stock markets were mixed Monday after a weekend meeting of the leaders of France and Germany provided a promise of action on Europe’s debt crisis but few details.
Oil prices hovered above $83 per barrel while the dollar slipped against the euro and the yen.
On Sunday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy said a comprehensive response to the debt crisis would be finalized by the end of the month, including a detailed plan to ensure European banks have adequate capital. Few other details were provided.
The market reaction in Asia was lukewarm. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 0.7 percent to 17,589.15. But South Korea’s Kospi rose 0.7 percent to 1,771.29 and Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.5 percent to 4,184.40.
Benchmarks in mainland China, New Zealand and the Philippines were lower. Singapore’s FTSE Straits Times Index rose. Markets in Japan were closed for a national holiday.
“Discussions over the weekend between German Chancellor Merkel and French President Sarkozy delivered little in substance,” Credit Agricole CIB said in a research note.
“In the meantime, markets may give eurozone officials the benefit of the doubt, but patience will run thin if no progress is made on these fronts,” it said.
Analysts have urged European officials to identify all the banks in the region that need to replenish their capital reserves, then decide whether to compel them to raise that money from markets and to provide government financing to the ones that can’t unsecured personal loans.
Many experts say the capital cushions of many European banks must be strengthened in order to withstand a possible government bond default by Greece.
Chinese real estate shares fell after a weekend report by a research firm that housing prices in 100 cities declined in September for the first time this year following repeated interest rate hikes and other government efforts to cool an overheated economy.
Hong Kong-listed China Overseas Land & Investment Ltd. lost 5.1 percent. China Resources Land Ltd. fell 5.2 percent. China Vanke Co. dropped 3.3 percent.
Meanwhile, energy shares rose on the back of stabilizing oil and gold prices. Australia’s Woodside Petroleum gained 1.3 percent and Energy Resources of Australia gained 4.3 percent.
The euro rose to $1.3449 from $1.3388 in late trading Friday in New York. The dollar weakened to 76.74 yen from 76.82 yen.
In energy trading, benchmark crude for November delivery was up 67 cents to $83.65 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract climbed 39 cents to end Friday at $82.98 a barrel in New York.
Brent crude was up 16 cents at $106.04 a barrel on the ICE Futures Exchange in London.
Two historic yet empty jazz-age dance halls in Grand Center and Midtown Alley are getting attention, but just what will become of them remains uncertain.
One is the Castle Ballroom at 2839 Olive Street, and the other is the Palladium at 3618 Enright Avenue.
Castle Ballroom, at the edge of Midtown Alley within the Locust Business District, is for sale for $450,000. Despite some ground-floor fire damage, the building’s second-floor auditorium remains intact.
Jassen Johnson, a Midtown Alley developer, said the auditorium could be an ideal space for an advertising agency, a photography studio or other creative businesses. Preserving the building is key to continuing the area’s revitalization, he added.
“It’s in the best interest of everyone to see it developed in some way,” he said. “Potentially, it could be one of the coolest buildings in the neighborhood.”
Opened in 1908 as Cave Hall, the building became better known decades later as the Castle Ballroom, which drew most of its business from the nearby Mill Creek and Yeatman, two predominantly black neighborhoods. It has hosted few events since the early 1950s, when Mill Creek was razed for redevelopment.
Sculptor Ernest Trova, who died in 2009, said in an interview in 1988 that the Castle Ballroom helped him indulge his passion for music.
“I remember
Stocks traded in narrow ranges on Thursday as investors awaited signals from the heads of the European Central Bank and the Federal Reserve as well as President Barack Obama that they will help shore up economic growth.
While both the Bank of England and the European Central Bank kept their interest rates unchanged, President Barack Obama is expected to announce measures to boost jobs creation in the U.S.
“Global equity markets are attempting to rebound on building hopes for fresh stimulus from the global authorities to support growth,” said Lee Hardman, an analyst at the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ.
In Europe, the FTSE 100 index of leading British shares was flat at 5,318 while Germany’s DAX was steady at 5,407. The CAC-40 in France was 0.1 percent higher at 3,076.
Wall Street was poised for modest losses following Wednesday’s big gains _ Dow futures were down 0.2 percent at 11,394 while the broader Standard & Poor’s 500 futures fell a similar rate to 1,195.
Concerns over the state of the global economy have combined with fears over Europe’s debt crisis during the past month to send financial markets spinning. The repercussions of the recent turmoil are being felt in the actions of policymakers, most notably in the European Central Bank.
Instead of continuing on its policy of steadily raising borrowing costs, the ECB is expected to indicate later today that there won’t be any more interest rate rises in the months to come as it grapples with a worsening economic outlook as well as the debt crisis, which has already seen three countries bailed out.
Investors will be closely monitoring the press conference from bank chief Jean-Claude Trichet later for indications that rate hikes are off the agenda for now. The bank has twice raised its benchmark rate by a quarter point since April, taking it up to 1.5 percent.
His comments could have a major impact on the euro, which was trading 0.3 percent lower at $1.4038.
Later Thursday, Obama is set to make a speech to Congress about increasing the amount of jobs the U.S. economy is generating. Measures totaling $300 billion are expected to be announced as the president tries to get the unemployment rate down from 9.1 percent.
Meanwhile, there are hopes that the Federal Reserve will soon decide to provide the U fast cash without a hassle.S. economy with another monetary stimulus. The previous $600 billion program, which ended in June, was widely credited for the stock market gains recorded in the first over the year and its ending has been blamed for the ensuing reverse.
Fed chairman Ben Bernanke is also speaking later and investors will be monitoring his speech to the Economic Club of Minnesota for any signs that monetary easing remains an option.
“Will he keep his monetary cards close to the vest….or, will he be more forthcoming with respect to the need for, and type of, stimulus,” said Sal Guatieri, an analyst at BMO Capital Markets.
The hopes that policymakers will do more to shore up growth, including at a weekend meeting of finance ministers of the Group of Seven industrialized countries, has helped stocks recover over the past couple of days. A German court decision backing the government’s involvement in Europe’s bailouts has also helped calm concerns over the debt crisis ahead of a meeting of eurozone finance ministers next week.
Earlier in the day, Asian shares posted modest gains. Japan’s Nikkei 225 index rose 0.3 percent to close at 8,793.12 as a softening yen helped Japan’s exporters. By late morning London time, the dollar was flat at 77.33 yen.
South Korea’s Kospi rose 0.7 percent to 1,846.64, benefiting from a decision by the country’s central bank to leave its benchmark interest rate unchanged for a third month. Higher interest rates generally drag on stocks by making them a potentially less attractive investment.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 0.7 percent to 19,912.82 as did shares in mainland China _ the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.7 percent to 2,498.94 while the Shenzhen Composite Index lost 1 percent to 1,100.53.
The more buoyant tone in stock markets over the past couple of days has helped oil prices rally. Benchmark crude for October delivery was up 3 cents at $89.37 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
____
Pamela Sampson in Bangkok contributed to this report.
A maker of pile drivers and other heavy machinery tops a list of China’s billionaires.
The Hurun Rich List 2010, China’s equivalent of the Forbes list, said Liang Wengen, chairman of Sany Heavy Industry Co., leads the country’s fast-growing ranks of super-wealthy. A surge in Sany’s share price doubled his fortune last year, to $11 billion.
Consumer goods, Internet and property tycoons dominated the top of the list.
Rupert Hoogewerf, who compiles the list, said Zeng Qinghong, head of the Wahaha beverage empire, dropped to second place with $10.7 billion, while Red Bull energy drinks mogul Yan Bin was fourth.
Robin Li Yanhong with search engine company Baidu Inc. took third spot, with $8.8 billion.