Saturday, July 31, 2010

Jan permanent products orders seen up 1.5 percent

Wed Feb 24, 2010 3:00pm EST Stocks & &

WHAT: U.S. January durable goods report

WHEN: February 25 at 8:30 a.m.

REUTERS FORECAST:

The median forecast for new orders for durable goods is for a 1.5 percent rise in January after a 1.0 percent gain in December. Forecasts range from a drop of 0.5 percent to a gain of 5.0 percent.

Stripping out transportation orders - which are heavily skewed by aircraft bookings - the median forecast for new orders for durables is for a 1.0 percent increase in January after a 1.4 percent gain the prior month. Forecasts range from a 1.8 percent drop to a 2.0 percent increase.

The median forecast for nondefense capital goods excluding aircraft -- a key component of the monthly report seen as a gauge of business spending -- is for a 0.8 percent rise in January after a 2.2 percent gain in December. Forecasts range from a 1.5 percent drop to a 3.2 percent increase.

FACTORS TO WATCH:

An increase in civilian aircraft orders likely propelled new orders for U.S.-made durable goods in January. The expected rise in aircraft orders comes as U.S. plane maker Boeing Co (BA.N) reported that it won orders for 10 aircraft during January, building on the 59 orders placed in December.

Excluding transportation, orders will likely rise with gains in the two metals categories as well as tech-related equipment.

A third straight monthly rise in nondefense capital goods ex-aircraft should confirm investment growth is improving.

Inventories outside of the vehicle sector should also show improvement after the sharp cutback in stock during the fourth quarter of 2009. For the manufacturing sector, some analysts say cuts will continue for a while because the inventory-to-shipments ratio is still high in this sector.

MARKET IMPACT:

Stronger-than-expected durable goods orders would likely be supportive for stocks and the U.S. dollar, while creating pressure on bond prices, as it would be seen as a sign of improving economic strength.

The impact of the orders figures could be offset, though, by data on U.S. weekly jobless claims, released at the same time, as market participants look for changes in the job market, one of the weakest sectors of the U.S. economy.

(Polling by Bangalore Polling Unit)

(Reporting by Nancy Waitz and Caroline Valetkevitch; Editing by Padraic Cassidy)

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Budget 2010: Cider drinkers strike hardest by taxation rises on ethanol (includes video)

Helen Nugent, David Rose & , : {}

Cider drinkers were left with a flat taste in the mouth yesterday after the Chancellor picked them out for a punitive tax rise.

From midnight on Sunday duty on cider will increase by 10 per cent above inflation. The price of a bottle of cider will rise by 9p while a litre of cider will cost an extra 5p.

A 1 per cent increase in duty on beer, wine and spirits will come into force at the same time, adding 2p to a pint, 10p on a bottle of wine and 36p to a bottle of spirits. Alcohol duties will rise by 2 per cent above the rate of inflation for two more years from 2013.

The definition of cider will be changed so that higher-strength versions are taxed more. More than one in ten adults drinks cider at least once a month.

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Alistair Darling suggested that the increase in cider duty would reduce the number of people abusing high-strength alcoholic drinks, but cider producers said that it could damage the industry.

Henry Chevallier, chairman of the National Association of Cider Makers, said: We are at saturation point on the duty on alcohol even for a success story like cider. This dramatic increase could well reverse the growth we have generated in recent years.

Depending on how retailers deal with the duty it will add significantly to what consumers pay for a pint of cider. We have no control over the retail price of cider, but it could mean up to 10p a pint.

What makes this so serious is that cider makers have invested millions to plant thousands of acres of new orchards in the last decade. Orchards take years to yield a return and the loss to the rural economy and the environment will be enormous if sales decline sufficiently and the demand for English apples falls.

Smokers will pay more for their cigarettes, with a tobacco duty increase of 1 per cent above inflation this year and a rise by 2 per cent in real terms each year until 2014. This means that a packet of cigarettes will cost 15p more, as will a 20-gram pack of tobacco.

The Royal College of Physicians, which called yesterday for a ban on smoking in cars, said that the predicted increases in tobacco duty were welcome. It warned, though, that tax rises on alcohol would not have a serious impact on binge drinking.

Its been a common complaint from public health professionals, as well as the drinks industry, that cider has been singled out in this way, a spokesman said. To what extent this is a radical increase in duty to cut down on high-strength drinks, or just bringing it into line with other drinks, is open to question.

The spokesman added: Duty is an imperfect demand management tool, which raises money for the Treasury, and we are worried that many supermarkets will simply absorb the proposed increase and continue providing discounted deals that encourage consumers to drink more.

Leading doctors including Sir Liam Donaldson, the Chief Medical Officer for England, have called instead for a minimum price per unit of alcohol, which studies suggest could reduce consumption and help to prevent nearly 3,000 deaths a year.

A study in the Lancet medical journal said yesterday that setting the minimum cost at 50p per unit of alcohol would save up to 50,000 people from illness in a decade and have health benefits for all drinkers.

The Conservatives have said that they would want increases in duty on problem drinks, such as super-strength beers, and would act against below-cost selling.

Brigid Simmonds, chief executive of the British Beer Pub Association, said: This latest beer tax hike piles on the misery for Britains hard-pressed pubs and beer lovers.

It is also a snub to voters, who by a majority of two to one wanted the Chancellor to scrap the beer tax escalator.

Christopher Ogden, chief executive of the Tobacco Manufacturers Association, accused the Chancellor of persisting with an ill-conceived tax measure.

On January 1, 2010, the Government imposed the largest tax increase on tobacco products in ten years and now, less than three months later, taxes are to rise again ... [yesterdays] announcement will only provide further stimulus to those who seek to profit from the illicit trade in tobacco, he said.

In a letter to The Times yesterday, 20 of Britains most senior doctors called for a ban on smoking in cars as part of a sweeping expansion of laws to protect children against the effects of inhaling smoke.

As announced at the 2009 Pre-Budget Report, the rate of bingo duty is reduced to 20 per cent.

Yesterdays Budget announced an increase in amusement machine licence duty and gaming duty bands in line with inflation. All other gambling tax rates remain unchanged.

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

How new markets let women reach the top

Chanda Kochhar, Executive Director, ICICI Bank with Shikha Sharma, Managing Director and CEO of ICICI Prudential Life Insurance, at a press discussion in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

Amy Turner & , : {}

Did you listen to the one about since women have lousy bankers? Theyre used to spending money, not creation it. Before you die laughing, cruise this: how most senior manager bankers names do you know?

Theres Sir Fred Goodwin, the former RBS arch executive, who walked afar from his still bubbling disaster with a 2.7m pile total and 340,000 annual pension; Sir Tom McKillop, additionally former RBS; Sir Victor Blank, former authority of Lloyds Banking Group; competence be Eric Daniels, the Lloyds arch executive. But can you name any women? Thought not.

Its since they dont exist. In fact, one in 4 FTSE 100 companies does not have any women on the house and there are usually 4 womanlike arch executives.

The total are towering in light of new investigate at Leeds University Business School, that complicated 17,000 companies that sealed in 2008 and found that businesses with at slightest one lady on their house were 20% less expected to go bankrupt.

Last week the Government Equalities Office certified that it could take 60 years prior to men and women were similarly represented at house level, formed on the stream rate of change. Harriet Harman, the equivalence minister, said: Businesses that run on the basement of an old boys network and do not pull on the talents of all the race will not be the ones that develop and pullulate in the 21st century.

A bad show is in store, then, if the contribution are any guide: 113 women are holding 131 FTSE 100 directorships, compared with 834 men holding 947. In America, women have up usually 15% of association boards.

Most startling of all, most newer markets than ours in the West crop up to have cottoned on to womens intensity at house level. Data from the World Economic Forum indicate that the Bric countries Brazil, Russia, India, China with rising economies are becoming different faster than London and New York when it comes to contracting women at senior manager level. Brazil can exaggerate that 11% of the arch management team are women.

India is racing ahead, generally in the monetary services sector. RBS, UBS, HSBC and JP Morgan Chase in India are all run by women; so is ICICI Bank, the countrys largest in isolation lender. Half the emissary governors at the Reserve Bank of India are women and last year Shikha Sharma was allocated handling senior manager of Axis Bank, the countrys third largest lender.

So why, in a nation where just womanlike education rates are poor, are so most some-more women creation it to the top? In Britain, with 30,000 some-more womanlike undergraduates than masculine ones, women competence have cowed disinfectant and law but they have not muscled in to the promissory note boardroom.

One justification is that industry intakes are gender specific. Last year usually 30% of entrants to (traditionally male) investment promissory note were female. But that came first, the duck or the boys club? Women are positively less expected to come in an industry if they know it will benefaction them with a potion ceiling. And it seems a little women are realising they usually cant have it all.

Some women dont wish to get to that turn in the initial place, says Isobel Rimmer, owner of Women on Board, a veteran growth network. By clarification we are articulate about high-potential, high-achieving women and they arent peaceful to underachieve possibly at work or at home. If possibly family or career contingency take a hit to accelerate the other, theyd rather opt out of graduation altogether.

Likewise, if a mothers hard-earned income all goes in profitable the nanny and cleaner, a less pressured pursuit involving some-more time at home competence appear to have undiluted mercantile as well as romantic sense. A investigate from the US-based Center for Work-Life Policy (CWLP), to be expelled in May, will disagree that the amicable and informative traits of Bric countries fool around a large piece in their womens capability to run both companies and family groups successfully.

Sylvia Ann Hewlett, who wrote the report, says: The thing that knocks career women off lane is still the daycare nightmare. In countries with large amounts of lengthened family and poor made at home labour, childcare is not an issue. We found that 80% of women were means to gaunt on their lengthened families. That puts them forward of British and American women.

In India, roughly a third of the operative race live with relatives or in-laws. The US figure is 3% and in Britain the 1%. Hewlett has detected a surpassing disproportion in between dropping immature kids off at hothouse and withdrawal them at home with granny: Weve found justification that motherly shame is partially low in Bric countries. If you unexpected have to take a commercial operation trip, theres no problem.

Chanda Kochhar, head of ICICI Bank in India and a mom of two, agrees: We have a total amicable network that enables women to control a family. There is joy in meaningful you have a large corner family and domicile staff available. Hewlett has found justification to indicate horse opera women are vilified for perplexing to change a high-powered career with family life. In Germany she came opposite a tenure to inform them, Rabenmutter, definition ebony mom after the birds repute for being delinquent of the young.

Rimmer describes one British lady in her mid-forties, with dual immature children, who is a house piece of for a large US curative association and is meditative of stepping down: She went on a commercial operation outing to South Africa with the rest of the board, all men. Nice guys, but all they had to be concerned about was removing there with their prep and office work whilst she had to organize childcare, do the propagandize run and contend weeping goodbyes at the gate. She was all the time tired by the guilt. It wasnt that she didnt have a father who would help, she usually didnt feel gentle not classification out the kids as well as working.

Class is additionally a poignant factor. Indias house women are typically from rarely prepared super-elites, with general aspirations, who hold the critical to teach their daughters, says Hewlett: These are comparatively absolved women who were sent to the most appropriate schools. Their own mothers were all obviously some-more normal women in the work sense, but they positively didnt do their own vacuuming and they positively didnt get down on the building with the toys, personification with the kids.

Theres additionally the issue of timing. Thanks to their education, chosen Bric women grew up with career ambitions that came of age at just the time the building markets began to arise and masculine management team began to correct up to the purchasing energy of women.

Ana Paula Chagas, a partner at corporate headhunter Heidrick Struggles in the Brazil office, says: I poke for as most women as men. Companies are saying, Please deliver me to some-more women that I would similar to to have on my board. They realize the significance of diversity.

The CWLP will recover countryspecific reports focusing on issues such as womens veteran motivations and aspirations, work-life pressures, workplace gender dynamics and the hurdles they face in more advanced professionally.

Following the supervision equivalence consult last week, Gordon Brown asked the Financial Reporting Council to cruise together with a new element in the formula of control requiring firms to inform on their actions to enlarge womanlike illustration on boards, but voiced that he would not be introducing certain movement quotas, as countries such as Norway have.

Peninah Thomson, of the senior manager coaching organisation Praesta, says: I have never met a lady who wants to land a pursuit since shes piece of a quota. I am in foster of any process that calls for transparency. The twenty-five FTSE companies with no women at all on their fool around should have to insist since that is.

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Fulham left with towering to stand as Juventus category tells in Europa League Fulham

Russell Kempson, Turin & , : {}

It has been noble whilst it has lasted, but if Fulham are to magnify their eight-month Europa League adventure, they will have to better Juventus, one of the greats of European football, in the lapse leg of their round-of-16 tie at Craven Cottage on Thursday.

Not only flog them, either, but flog them great and correct after unfair first-half fortifying cost them a two-goal necessity in the primary leg at a frozen Stadio Olimpico last night. At slightest Dickson Etuhus afar idea has since them room with that to manoeuvre.

Actually a 2-0 win would do easily in West London and, pleasantness of Etuhus wickedly deflected set upon in northern Italy, it would be sufficient for Fulham to swell in to the quarter-finals.

How those at the Cottage would applaud that.

Related LinksHodgson happy to fool around story man Fulham hold organisation to challenge champions Zamora hands Fulham slight lead

It will be an sparkling diversion and Im certain the open will suffer it, Roy Hodgson, the Fulham manager, said. To measure dual goals and not concur any is a formidable charge but Ive positively seen foreigner things occur in my time in football.

Getting at the behind of to only 2-1 down, I thought we were pretty placed. It was in the hands then. But to concur again, and in added-on time in the primary half, unequivocally killed us. It was a bad idea to concede.

If it was bitterly cold last night, at slightest the blizzards of the prior day had changed on from Turin and the representation was ideally playable in front of a disappointingly half-full stadium. Nine mins in and Fulham were disappointingly 1-0 behind.

From a dilemma swung in by Diego, Nicola Legrottaglie, the Juventus centre back, rose alone to head past Mark Schwarzer, the round picking up gait as it skidded off the territory on the approach in. The deficiency of imprinting was inexcusable.

Fulham, though, do not miss idea and eleven mins later, in their 46th compare of the deteriorate and thirteenth in the competition, they could have drawn turn after Damien Duff had driven to the byline. The Ireland wingers pull-back all wrongfooted the Juventus counterclaim but Simon Davies, since a free shot, miskicked completely.

Juventus took heart from the slight shun and, after David Trezeguet had guided a long-range barb incompletely over Schwarzers crossbar, they increasing their lead. It came from an doubtful source Jonathan Zebina, the right at the behind of but was a high e.g. of finishing, his 25-yard shot arcing in to the net around the far post.

Resilience has been a key part in Fulhams European excursions and, in the 36th minute, they marked down the gap.

A free flog by Davies found the approach to Etuhu and nonetheless Alex Manninger, the Juventus and former Arsenal goalkeeper, appeared to have his shot covered, it veered in off a dismayed Legrottaglie.

Fulham could have equalised, Manninger carrying to save efforts from Brede Hangeland, Bobby Zamora and Zoltan Gera, but they went to nap at the at the behind of again. Schwarzer sloping over from Fabio Grosso but, from the following corner, Trezeguet squeezed the round home after his primary try had struck a post.

The second half meandered tediously but any thespian incident, though Gera did have a half-chance that was shut off and unsuccessful to difficulty Manninger, whilst Schwarzer was forced to have a excellent save to keep out a swirling bid from Diego in the last minute. At 4-1 down, Fulham would have been gone.

Tiredness might nonetheless be their greatest hindrance. Defeat at the Olimpico kicked off a punishing five-match spell in that they additionally fool around Manchester United in the Barclays Premier League on Sunday, Juventus in the Europa return, Manchester City in the joining and Tottenham Hotspur in an FA Cup quarter-final replay at White Hart Lane.

We have had a lot of games and may be there was an component of tired tonight, Hodgson said. Perhaps we werent as lissome as we have been in a little of the games. This will positively be a contrast time for the continuance but were not out of this foe yet. Its not impossible.

Juventus (4-3-2-1): A Manninger J Zebina, N Legrottaglie, F Cannavaro, F Grosso H Salihamidzic (sub: M Camoranesi, 46min), C Poulsen (sub: M Sissoko, 76), C Marchisio A Candreva, Diego D Trezeguet (sub: V Iaquinta, 62). Substitutes not used: A Del Piero, Z Grygera, P De Ceglie, C Pinsoglio. Booked: Legrottaglie.

Fulham (4-2-3-1): M Schwarzer C Baird, B Hangeland, A Hughes, P Konchesky S Davies (sub: C Dempsey, 61), D Etuhu D Duff, Z Gera, J Greening R Zamora. Substitutes not used: S Kelly, E Nevland, P Zuberbühler, C Smalling, K Marsh-Brown. Booked: Greening.

Referee: F Meyer (Germany).

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Monday, July 26, 2010

Severn surfers float once-a-decade tidal call

Nico Hines & , : {}

A once-in-a-decade tidal call surged down the River Severn yesterday carrying a society of surfers relishing the singular healthy phenomenon.

The Environment Agency personal the call as a top-rated five star eventuality on the widen of stream that boasts the second top waves in the world.

Joanne Hillman, of the British Surfing Association, pronounced house enthusiasts had been competing to take the longest float on the Severn Bore given the 1960s.

Its flattering dangerous with trees and waste in the H2O so usually learned surfers take on the Bore, she told The Times.

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It contingency be one of the toughest surfing hurdles in the universe since they key is to float the call for miles. Most surfers would onslaught to last the distance.

Steve King, a father of 3 from Saul, nearby Gloucester, mastered the Bore in 2006 to recover the Guinness World Record for Britain by staying on his house in the Severn bay for 7.6 miles.

He snatched behind the pretension from Serginho Laus, a Brazilian, who had surfed for 6.3 miles along the Araguari stream in northern Brazil.

Mr Kings attainment was achieved in an typical year on the Severn where usually four-star tidal waves were recorded. A surge the distance of todays wave, around dual metres high, was last available on Saturday Mar 30, 2002.

A mouthpiece for the Environment Agency pronounced the majority absolute waves were seen rounded off once each ten years. The materialisation is caused by the flue figure of the estuary, that narrows as it moves internal from the Bristol Channel thereby forcing the H2O turn to rise.

Large open tides come a integrate of times a year but when Atlantic tidal levels mix with the right stream conditions you have these some-more absolute Bores, she said.

The Bay of Fundy, located in in between Nova Scotia and New Brunswick in Canada is the usually place in the universe to have available a incomparable climb in in between low and high tide. On the Severn the disproportion in any one day can be some-more than 14.5 metres.

Sunday, July 25, 2010

Two late generals charged in purported Turkish manoeuvre plot

Foreign Staff & , : {}

Two late generals were charged and eighteen some-more Turkish soldiers incarcerated yesterday in the review in to an supposed 2003 troops manoeuvre plot.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Prime Minister, pronounced that no one would be deliberate on top of the law as the dual majority comparison of those arrested Cetin Dogan, a former head of the First Army, and Engin Alan, a former special forces commander in chief in arch faced charges.

The arrests were over impasse in the supposed Sledgehammer tract to clear a troops takeover.

Those who have plans at the back of sealed doors to vanquish the peoples will contingency see that from right away on they will face justice, Mr Erdogan said.

Related LinksTurkey arrests 50 people in anti-coup swoopIsrael says contemptible after degrading Turkish attach�

The review lifted fears of a showdown in between the statute Justice and Development Party (AK) and the army.

Mr Erdogan, who met the President and head of the armed forces for talks, discharged accusations that the Government was perplexing to disprove the armed forces to acquire a free palm in realising a tip Islamist agenda.

These are the footsteps of an modernized democracy, he said.

The 3 majority comparison total to be questioned so far the ex-navy arch Ozden Ornek, the former air force commander in chief in arch Ibrahim Firtina and the former series dual of the ubiquitous staff, Ergin Saygun were expelled this week.

However, the prosecutor pronounced that the review was continuing, raising the probability that they might still face trial.

Saturday, July 24, 2010

Chinas ultimate mystery: Hu Jintao and the declining micro-blog

Jane Macartney in Beijing & , : {}

Chinas President dismayed the internet at the week end by opening a micro-blog the Chinese homogeneous of Twitter.

Fascinated netizens began signing up at the rate of some-more than ten people a minute. But a day after the comment of Hu Jintao disappeared.

A short pro-forma note this sunrise on the dull site, hosted by the Communist Party spokesman Peoples Daily Online, pronounced simply: This object cannot be found, the writer might have erased it.

That fails to insist the poser of the presidents blank micro-blog.

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Did the famously discreet personality of 1.3 billion people confirm he wasnt ready for such open interaction? Has he assimilated the ranks of those censored by the Great Firewall of China? Was it a box of temperament theft? Had the Peoples Daily unsuccessful to lift out the correct checks? Or was it a elementary computer error?

A journal inform on the remarkable disappearance offering dual central explanations. One was that the site simply crashed underneath the assault of 1,000 people an hour signing up to follow President Hus micro-blog.

The second was that a new ascent combined an involuntary micro-blog for any one who had purebred their temperament in the Peoples Daily chatroom as the boss did for an online review with the open on Jun 20, 2008.

A notice on the website pronounced all Strong Country VIP accounts were at the moment dangling to concede acknowledgment of the identities.

Whatever the case, the result is a serious annoyance for Peoples Daily Online. Today, would-be micro-bloggers were incompetent to register new accounts, at slightest for the moment, notwithstanding the notice that pronounced users were still acquire notwithstanding the strong overkill the day before.

Registered supporters of President Hu will be disappointed. He had nonetheless to post a singular blog prior to the site disappeared.

His micro-blog had been reliable as genuine, according to the Global Times an English-language announcement underneath the Peoples Daily.

Perhaps users should have been alerted to intensity problems by the deficiency of a photograph. Instead, micro-blogger Hu Jintao was represented simply by the animation light-bulb used by those reluctant or incompetent to pulp up a self-portrait.

His blog had been listed as @hujintao. It gave his temperament as General Secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, Chinese President and Chairman of the Central Military Commission.

The pretension was roughly as prolonged as a singular entry. By the time the micro-blog left it had gained some-more than 16,000 supporters and a thousand-plus comments, most of that were adulatory.

Blogger Shao Mingbo wrote on Sunday: "I will keep watchful tonight to see who can be the initial propitious supporter of the account." An hour later, a blogger declared "feiquanmingqin" was hailed as the initial supporter of President Hu"s micro-blog and wrote "Calm down, ease down as others offering congratulations.

Another voiced disappointment, saying: "It"s a empathize he hasn"t created anything yet.

Some had even asked either the boss would concede Twitter criminialized in China to reappear.

It looks as if they will be watchful utterly a little time for a twitter from that sold micro-blogger.