My Market Overview

Wall Street poised for modestly higher opening

2009-02-18T05:24:00.000-08:00

Wall Street pointed to a modestly higher open Wednesday, a day after stocks were pummeled by growing concerns about the weakening global economy.

Investors waited for President Barack Obama to announce a plan to help stabilize the housing market and reduce foreclosures. Sharp drops in housing prices and sales, coupled with rising foreclosures since the middle of 2007, have been a primary cause of the recession. Obama's plan comes a day after he signed a $787 billion economic stimulus plan he hopes will spur the economy and create or save more than 3 million jobs.

The administration's housing plan is to be announced just hours after the Commerce Department's expected release of data showing home construction and building permit applications fell for the seventh straight month in January, hitting a record low.

Economists expect that construction of new homes and apartments fell to an annual rate of 530,000 units from 550,000 units in December, according to analysts polled by Thomson Reuters.

The data is set to be released at 8:30 a.m. EST.

Ahead of Wednesday's opening, Dow Jones industrial average futures rose 37, or 0.49 percent, to 7,544. Standard & Poor's 500 index futures rose 4.7, or 0.60 percent, to 790.30, while Nasdaq 100 index futures gained 5.75, or 0.49 percent, to 1,188.25.

Wall Street is trying to rebound after a terrible Tuesday in which the Dow closed just above its November low as doubts about the recently signed stimulus bill and plans to revive the banking sector continued to weigh on investors.

Investors remain uncertain about how effective a plan announced last week by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner would actually help the banking sector.

Tuesday's trading followed sharp declines worldwide as investors come to the realization that a global recovery will be prolonged and government intervention is unlikely to help spur quick improvement. Over the weekend, a meeting of Group of Seven finance ministers failed to produce any specific steps to revive the global financial system.

Continued concerns about banks, along with struggling U.S. automakers and cash-strapped consumers sent the Dow tumbling 297.81 points, or 3.79 percent, to 7,552.60 -- just 31-hundredths of a point above its post-meltdown Nov. 20 close of 7,552.29, which was its lowest close since March 12, 2003. The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 37.67, or 4.56 percent, to 789.17.

Investors will also get a look Wednesday at the nation's January industrial output, which is expected to have fallen 1.5 percent, according to economists polled by Thomson Reuters. The Federal Reserve's report on production at the country's factories, mines and utilities is due out at 9:15 a.m. EST.

The Fed will also release the minutes of its January meeting Wednesday afternoon.

Bond prices were mixed. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which moves opposite its price, fell to 2.64 percent from 2.65 percent late Tuesday. The yield on the three-month T-bill, considered one of the safest investments, rose to 0.32 percent from 0.29 percent late Tuesday.

The dollar was mixed against other major currencies, while gold prices fell slightly.

Oil fell 12 cents to $34.81 per barrel in premarket electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Overseas, Japan's Nikkei stock average fell 1.5 percent. In afternoon trading, Britain's FTSE 100 declined 0.7 percent, Germany's DAX index fell 0.9 percent, and France's CAC-40 fell 0.4 percent.

U.S. Plans New Bank-Capital Injections, Expanded Fed Program

2009-02-06T22:47:00.000-08:00

By Dawn Kopecki and Rebecca Christie

Feb. 7 (Bloomberg) -- The Obama administration is considering subjecting banks to a new test to determine whether they require fresh capital injections as part of the rescue plan to be unveiled by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner next week, people familiar with the matter said.

The Treasury may increase its stake in lenders that are judged short of capital, the people said on condition of anonymity. Should extra taxpayer funds result in majority ownership by the government, officials would then decide whether to liquidate the institutions, place them into receivership or retire the companies’ assets over time, they said.

Officials are preparing to deploy billions of dollars more to help recapitalize the banks, after already investing an excess of $200 billion. In a second key feature of the plan, the Federal Reserve will likely expand what is now a $200 billion program to revive consumer loans, according to two people briefed on the talks. Details are still being discussed and could change.

The proposals are part of what the U.S. Treasury calls a “comprehensive” effort to shore up confidence in the financial system after more than $750 billion in credit losses. Officials are also considering ways to deal with the toxic assets clogging banks’ balance sheets, where the debate has moved away from the creation of a so-called bad bank, which some lawmakers have called too costly. Guaranteeing the securities may offer a cheaper option.

Yellen’s Lesson

“A lesson from past experience with banking crises around the globe is that the removal of bad assets from bank balance sheets, along with the injection of new capital, is needed to restore health to the banking system,” San Francisco Fed President Janet Yellen said in a speech in Hawaii yesterday.

The surge in home foreclosures is also likely to be addressed, according to House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank.

Geithner will present his plan on Feb. 9 in a speech at the Treasury scheduled for 12:30 p.m. in Washington.

“They need to get credit flowing again,” said Kenneth Rogoff, a professor at Harvard University and a former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund. “To do that they need to clear the decks somehow. The financial system is just dead in the water.”

Economy Deteriorates

Efforts to breathe life back into the banking system have taken greater urgency as reports showed the recession -- already the worst since 1982 -- is deepening. The Labor Department said yesterday that another 598,000 jobs were lost in January, driving the unemployment rate to 7.6 percent, the highest level in 17 years. As more people lose their jobs, more loans have soured and banks have become even more reluctant to lend.

President Barack Obama has warned that some banks have yet to fully reflect losses on their assets, and stress tests may offer the government a way of forcing firms to reckon with the illiquid securities. The tests model what would happen to banks in different scenarios and gauge whether they have enough capital to survive.

Geithner has for years pushed lenders to be more aggressive in assessing the vulnerability to their capital and liquidity of their trading to unexpected crises.

“More rigorous and comprehensive stress testing of large shocks across multiple markets, geographic regions and business lines is vital, particularly for systemically important institutions,” Geithner said in an April 2005 speech, when he was the president of the New York Fed.

Geithner Campaign

More recently, in responding to questions from lawmakers after his confirmation hearing last month at the Senate Finance Committee, he called for “more frequent and more focused forward-looking assessments of capital and liquidity adequacy under a range of possible scenarios.”

The S&P 500 Financials Index is down almost 50 percent since the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program was enacted Oct. 3. The first half of the TARP was dedicated to injecting capital into more than 300 financial firms and bailing out automakers.

Officials have for weeks talked about how to overhaul the four-month-old $700 billion financial-rescue program, which Congress has criticized for failing so far to restart lending to consumers and businesses.

One of the main sticking points has been how to value the assets that the government could insure or guarantee -- a challenge that helped force former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson to abandon an earlier effort at doing so last year.

Reviving Credit

Still, addressing the deteriorating investments is critical to repair the financial system and allow lenders to begin extending credit again, economists say.

Yellen, who served as White House Council of Economic Advisers chairman in the Clinton administration, warned that “as long as hard-to-value, troubled assets clog their balance sheets, banks find it difficult to attract private capital and to focus on new lending.”

One way to nurse banks back to health has been to backstop their debt. The FDIC currently has a program that guarantees some kinds of bank debt for as long as three years, and announced on Jan. 16 broad plans to expand the facility to include guarantees up to 10 years.

The agency is evaluating precisely how to expand the insurance. Temporary regulations on that extension have been delayed as Treasury and FDIC officials weigh what debt should be covered.

Fed Program

As part of Geithner’s rescue plan, the Fed may expand a new program to make it easier for consumers and small businesses to get loans.

Under the Term Asset-Backed Securities Lending Facility, announced in November, the central bank will lend up to $200 billion to holders of top-rated debt backed by “newly and recently originated” loans. Those include education, car and credit-card loans, and borrowing guaranteed by the Small Business Administration.

The program, known as the TALF, is being seeded with $20 billion of funds from the TARP to protect against Fed losses. Any additional Treasury funds may help the Fed widen the program. The Fed said yesterday it will announce a start date this month, stepping back from previous plans to begin lending in February.

Hedge funds, private equity funds and mutual funds based and managed in the U.S. are eligible to borrow from the TALF program to invest in the debt, the Fed said in updated terms and guidance on the facility.

Mesothelioma Lawsuit

2009-01-28T15:41:00.000-08:00

Two Types of Mesothelioma Lawsuits

The choice for a mesothelioma attorney is ultimately up to you, the client. Just remember, don’t be afraid to ask questions, and don’t be afraid to go elsewhere when you do not get the answers you need.

Mesothelioma lawsuits are divided into two categories — one, where the person suffering from mesothelioma is living and is bringing the lawsuit as a plaintiff in his or her own individual capacity; the second, where the person with mesothelioma has died, and the plaintiff is a spouse, relative and/or representative of the deceased person’s estate. The former is called a personal injury lawsuit (a “living case”), the latter is called wrongful death lawsuit (or “death case”), and the laws and procedures that apply to them can be quite different, depending on what jurisdiction the case is filed in.

In the case of the living plaintiff, the most important factor is time. The attorney will come to the plaintiff’s home and gather the information necessary to file the lawsuit and answer the interrogatories. This will probably take several sessions. Then, in most cases, there will be one or two depositions of the plaintiff, depending on what the local procedures are. Once the deposition(s) are done, the plaintiff’s attorney does the rest, until it is time to go to trial.

When it comes to choosing a mesothelioma law firm, bigger is not better.

There are basically two types of firms that handle mesothelioma cases — the larger, traditional firms that have been doing all kinds of asbestos cases since the early days of the asbestos litigation, and smaller, newer firms and individual attorneys who concentrate on mesothelioma or cancer cases to the exclusion of all or most non-malignant cases. The Law Offices of David Shaw falls into the second category.

Smaller, newer firms, as rule, contain attorneys who worked for and cut their teeth at the larger firms. These law practices concentrate exclusively or almost exclusively in the representation of individuals and families of individuals with mesothelioma and lung cancer, and are selective about the cases they take on. This can be very advantageous because it puts the lawyer in a strong bargaining position — the defendants will not be able to force a weak case to trial along with the strong one. The other advantage of the smaller firms is that each individual case is important to the firm. It is much easier to get a lawyer or group of lawyers to focus on your case when they do not have a thousand or more other cases to deal with. A difficult exposure case will get the kind of extensive investigation needed. While some cases never pan out no matter what resources are put into them, there are many other cases where the hard work pays off tremendously.

The problem with the larger type of firm is that lawyers have to represent all their clients, not just those with mesothelioma. Mesothelioma cases represent a small fraction of the all asbestos personal injury cases now pending in the court system. The vast majority of the other cases are for diagnoses of non-malignant conditions (asbestosis and pleural scarring) that do not, in general, have anything like the severity of mesothelioma. When your case is handled by a firm that represents hundreds, or even thousands, of individuals with asbestos-related diseases, this disparity between your case and most of the other cases can result in several downsides. First, your mesothelioma case may not get the kind of individual attention it should, especially if it is a case with difficult exposure issues; second, and more importantly, in settlement negotiations, the inventory of other cases may not be advantageous to your case, which will generally be one of the stronger cases in the mix; and, third, some of the larger, traditional firms have mass settlements with certain asbestos companies already in place that may not be advantageous to your case.

This info is taken from http://www.mesothelioma.net/

Make Money Online

2009-01-27T16:52:00.001-08:00

People have been obsessed in making money online and I can't blame them. The times are tough and we need an alternative source of income. So many websites offer tips on earning money online but most of them really fail to explain the grass roots detail. There's no easy way on making money online. Everything is hard work and perseverance. You need to have the right attitude to succeed in anything that you want. Set goals for yourself and start with reading this article on how to make money online.

Most Expensive States for Insuring a Home

2009-01-24T03:20:00.001-08:00

According to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners' most recent study of insurance premiums, drawn on 2005 data due to lags in state reporting, those four states rank among the nation's most expensive places to insure a home. Texans pay an average $1,372 in premiums, with Louisianans shelling out $1,144, and Mississipians and Floridians paying $939 and $929 a year.

Texas ranked as the state with most expensive insurance premiums, thanks to wind, rain, hail, tornados and hurricanes.

"Just about every type of peril is available here," says Texas Department of Insurance spokesman Ben Gonzalez. There is, however, one danger that no longer factors into the state's high insurance premiums: mold.

Back in 2001 and 2002, that wasn't the case. "There was a media frenzy about toxic mold, and the folks writing homeowners insurance got hit hard. It drove up premiums quite a bit," says TDI spokesman Jerry Hagins.

Now, if they could only bring hail and hurricanes under control as easily.

Why So Pricey?

Multiple factors, not necessarily the threat of a single disaster, spike prices. Tornados and floods make headlines, but hail and wind cause more damage in an average year. The combination of all four factors has premiums sky-high in the plains states of Oklahoma and Kansas.

Building costs are another determinant. Insurance pays out at replacement cost--the amount it would take in labor and materials to rebuild the house. In Washington, D.C., labor, regulations and the cost of business drive up construction prices, according to the National Association of Homebuilders.

And it's homebuilders who in turn pass that on to homebuyers. This overhead is eventually reflected in the costs an insurance company would have to pay in repairs.

The Best Business Schools of 2008

2009-01-24T03:17:00.001-08:00

After nearly four years as a management consultant at such firms as Deloitte Consulting and Booz Allen Hamilton, Ari Perlman was itching to try his hand at investment banking. So this summer the 26-year-old MBA student at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business signed on with Lehman Brothers for an internship. Then all hell broke loose. With the economy unraveling and much of Wall Street seemingly on the brink of collapse, Lehman slashed bonuses for interns. And by the time Perlman returned to campus, the company had filed for bankruptcy. Lehman’s last check for Perlman’s travel expenses? Bounced. An e-mail explained that a new check would be in the mail. Eventually. “I haven’t heard anything from them since,” says Perlman, who’s now looking for a consulting job. “And frankly, I am not too hopeful.”

On the nation’s B‑school campuses, hope used to spring eternal. No more. Students like Perlman are downsizing their expectations, rejiggering career plans, and settling for less as the cascading effects of the global financial crisis start to be felt at MBA programs around the country. With companies pulling back on second-year recruiting and competition for the few remaining finance jobs becoming fierce, students are entering what surely is the toughest MBA job market since the dot-com bust. “I think next fall is going to be very, very difficult,” says George G. Daly, dean of Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business. “This is terra incognita.”

Despite the gloomy outlook for current students, applications to B-schools are on the upswing, driven largely by applicants who have been laid off or are otherwise hoping to ride out the recession. With more applicants to choose from, admissions officers can be pickier, making 2009 a difficult year to land a slot at a top B‑school. Meanwhile, professors and deans are attempting to make sense of the financial crisis in the classroom, offering new electives and town-hall-style meetings on the meltdown, altering syllabi, and writing new case studies based on recent market-churning events. Risk management, until recently an unpopular elective, is expected to become a more important part of many B‑schools’ curriculums in three to five years, a trend that Robert Meyer, co-director of the Risk Management & Decision Processes Center at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, calls “potentially transformational.”

For current students, though, the only concern is finding a job—and nowhere is that dream receding faster than on Wall Street. Brian Mirochnik, 26, an MBA student at the University of Rochester’s Simon Graduate School of Business, is facing that reality head-on as he looks for jobs in the investment banking field. He didn’t receive a job offer from UBS after his summer internship and now is scrambling to find a position, a search he fears could easily stretch into the spring. “Banks are telling me they are going through their own layoffs and don’t know when they are going to start hiring again,” says Mirochnik, who has given up on the big Wall Street firms and is looking exclusively at boutique investment firms and mid-market banks. “A lot of the factors affecting my future employment are just out of my hands.”

Second-year students such as Mirochnik without job offers appear to be in the most precarious position. According to a survey by the umbrella group MBA Career Services Council, about 70% of the 77 schools surveyed said they saw a downturn in full-time recruiting opportunities in financial services in October. Meanwhile, about half of the schools said overall full-time job postings and on-campus recruiting this fall was either flat or down 5% during the same period, with some indicating it has fallen as much as 10%.

In the coming year, the job market for MBAs may begin to bear a striking similarity to the period following the dot-com bust when some banks and consulting firms rescinded or renegotiated job offers they had extended to second-year students. That hasn’t happened this time around—yet. But many are worried that the situation could change if the economy drifts into a deep and prolonged recession. “The dot-com meltdown was horrific,” says Georgetown’s Daly. “This has not reached those levels, but I expect it to.”

Driving Under the Influence or DUI, lawyers, attorneys

2009-01-17T06:31:00.000-08:00

Driving under the influence (DUI) is a term used by most states, including California, Florida and Pennsylvania, for being legally intoxicated or impaired while operating a motor vehicle. The threshold for legal intoxication is typically when a breath, blood or urine test registers a blood alcohol content of 0.08%. Minors under the legal drinking age may be declared under the influence at a lower BAC percentage. Similarly, law enforcement may arrest a motorist for being impaired even when their BAC is lower than 0.08%.

The penalties vary for a DUI offense. There's a need to hire specialist dui defense attorneys to determine the severity of the case. Remember to put accident helpline on your phonebooks or somewhere visible in your vehicle for emergency situations. Personal injury lawyer can be also hired in the city government.

DUI is referred to as DWI (Driving While Intoxicated) in eight states, including New York and Texas, and OVI/OMVI (Operating a Motor Vehicle while Intoxicated) in Ohio. For the most part, the acronyms are equivalent and represent being charged with drunk driving. In a few circumstances however, DUI may represent a lower offense in a DWI state. Having a BAC higher than 0.08% would be called a DWI while a DUI would apply to motorists with a BAC of less than 0.08% who are still deemed to be impaired and thus incapable of driving safely.

Land Securities: Trillium Sale

2009-01-16T14:31:00.000-08:00

United Kingdom's Land Securities has postponed its year-long plans to split the group into three and could yet cancel the sale of Trillium, its outsourcing business.

Britain's second-biggest property company said a year ago that it would separate into standalone retail and London real estate businesses, while selling Trillium, which provides accommodation to government departments. The financial crisis has put paid to its demerger plans, but the company said that it would continue to work on a potential sale of Trillium, despite a “protracted” and uncertain timescale for any disposal.

Francis Salway, the chief executive of Land Securities, said that the board still believed in the benefits of specialisation but that work on demerger had stopped. He said: “If the cost of transitioning the debt are so great as to undermine any benefit, it is not worth continuing [with the demerger].”

The plans have been put off indefinitely. “We will not be constantly looking over our shoulder, assessing whether the debt markets have recovered,” he said.

Mr Salway said that he expected a delayed impact from the Bank of England's cut in interest rates last week, which would have investors looking to property for better yields.

The company has had to write down values of its portfolio resulting in a £1.7 billion loss for the first half to September 30. This included a £148 million on the goodwill in the Trillium business, which was written down over fears that its new business prospects rely on the availability of cheap long-term debt.

Land Securities has reached a natural pause in its development programme and will keep a number of large office developments in Central London on hold, until the market recovers. It has cut its staff this year, but would not confirm numbers.

It will not take a final decision on deferring the Walkie Talkie tower in the City until next spring, when demolition on the site is complete, but Mr Salway said it was likely that the scheme would be delayed in expectation of a market recovery in 2011.

Oxford Business College Higher Education Courses

2009-01-13T15:53:00.000-08:00

At Oxford Business College we specialize in a range of Business Management, Marketing and Accountancy courses of varying duration. Each one is tailored specifically to the needs of today's student with flexible start dates throughout the year and competitive fees.

Oxford Business College has, over the years, gained a reputation as a center of excellence amongst various Examining Bodies and Professional Institutes. The College offers business and marketing courses to suit all levels of ability, including full or part time courses.

The College offers courses which lead to an Undergraduate Degree and Postgraduate Masters qualifications, awarded by the University of Sunderland, as well as providing students with direct access to programmes of study at the majority of UK universities. Alternatively, our courses provide you with the opportunity to move straight into a career.

Oxford Business College Higher Education Courses:

Oxford Business College offers various tailor-made specialist short courses in business and management and 3- to 6-month Post-graduate Certificate programmes in Human Resources, Management and Finance.

"The Oxford Business College offers Higher National Certificates (HNC) and Higher National Diplomas (HND) in Management and Finance as well as the Diploma in Management Studies, all of which are awarded by Edexcel.

Edexcel are the U.K.'s largest awarding body who are accredited by the U.K. government's Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) to award a range of qualifications. Edexcel operates in 112 countries and every year more than 4 million people study its internationally recognized qualifications.

Edexcel BTEC qualifications are accepted by all U.K. universities for direct entry with advanced standing onto their degree programmes"

Qualifying Courses
Students may not have the requisite qualifications for entry onto one of the Higher Education courses and so a number of qualifying course are available. The College has a Pre-HNC/HND programme that can be studied on a 3, 6 or 9 month period as well as a Pre-MBA over 3 or 6 months and a Masters Qualifying Programme (MQP) over a 9 month period.

Chartered Institute of Marketing Professional Marketing Courses
The marketing courses are administered by the Chartered Institute of Marketing, which is now the largest and most successful marketing organization in Europe with over 50,000 students throughout the world. They are designed to develop individual potential and competence in Marketing.

Undergraduate Programmes

BA (Hons) in Business Management

HNC/HND in Business Management

9 month top up degree in Business Management

Post Graduate Programmes

15 month University MBA

Post Graduate Diploma in Management Studies
(DMS)

Post Graduate Certificate

Qualifying Courses

9 month Masters Qualifying Programme (MQP)

3 and 6 month Pre-MBA

University Foundation Programme

Professional Programmes

CIM Professional Certificate in Marketing

CIM Professional Diploma
in Marketing

CIM Professional Post-graduate Diploma in Marketing

ACCA

Part Time Programmes

Part-time ACCA

Part-time CIM

Part- time MBA

The CIM courses in Oxford follow a comprehensive, practically orientated syllabus for those either thinking of embarking on a career in Marketing or for individuals currently working in Marketing. The Professional Certificate (3 months) and the Professional Diploma (6 months) are now examined through assessment and not through traditional examinations.

If you are committed to entering the marketing profession, whether it is in Public Relations, Product/Brand Management or Media/Advertising, then the CIM qualifications are the ideal platform. All major media, advertising and PR companies recognize and accept that CIM is a premier qualification.

The following marketing courses are available:
3-month Professional Certificate in Marketing
6-month Professional Diploma in Marketing
9-month Professional Post-Graduate Diploma in Marketing

Corporate Training courses
Oxford Business College is now actively involved in preparing bespoke, short training courses for local and international businesses. The College is able to draw on a wide and varied range of expertise, from a list of tutors who are accredited to teach at a Masters level.

Is A Debt Consolidation Refinance Good?

2009-01-12T15:05:00.001-08:00

The main reason anyone would and should consider utilizing a debt consolidation refinance is because it usually can help eliminate the harassing phone calls from your creditors and the debt collectors they employ. It’s also designed to consolidate all of your bills into one monthly payment that is slightly lower then what you previously paid in order to help alleviate some of your financially induced stress. Another benefit is the ability for a debt consolidation refinance to keep you from filing bankruptcy allowing you to stay recognized as a credit worthy consumer.

So when should you consider seeking out a debt consolidation loan or refinance? Typically, you should consider a debt relief loan as soon as your monthly bills become difficult or near impossible to pay. This early intervention through the use of a debt refinance loan will prevent you from having to pay outrageous interest rates, late payment fees and charges which will only complicate your already shaky financial status. Another good indicator of when to seek out a debt relief loan is when you only make the minimum payment amount due every month and when all of your credit balances continue to remain the same even after your monthly payments.

Homeowners have a big advantage over non-homeowners because they have the option of applying for a debt refinance using the equity in their home or house. Using this method requires the discipline to pay off your consolidate bills monthly and to avoid incurring any new bills. Don’t use your home as collateral unless you intend to make the payments on your new debt consolidation loan.

Always make sure to do your research online in order to find a reputable debt refinance and Consolidation Company. Many of these companies appear to be the real deal on the outside but in all actuality may only really be a loan shark in disguise. These establishments need to be avoided at all costs as they will place you under strict monthly payment terms and charge a much higher rate when compared to a real lender. One of the better debt refinance companies include several non-profit lenders who will be able to give you the best options when it comes to refinancing your current debt.

As you can see proper research will allow you to find a good debt refinance company which has the potential to help lower your current monthly payment total, keep you from filing bankruptcy, prevent you from paying higher interest rates and allow you to maintain your credit worthiness ranking.

Euro Edges Higher on ZEW

2009-01-12T14:57:00.000-08:00

The dollar continued to slide against the euro, easing to 1.30 despite better than expected housing data. Pending home sales in October unexpectedly beat consensus estimates at -0.7% versus -4.6% a month earlier. Nonetheless, despite the better than forecast report, the housing market has yet to bottom out and will continue to weigh on economic fundamentals.

US equities also relinquished some of yesterday’s gains with a 2.72% decline in the Dow Jones and 1.55% drop in the Nasdaq. Fed funds futures are currently pricing in a 65% probability that the FOMC will cut rates by 75-basis points at its meeting next week to 0.25%.

by Korman Tam

Refinancing through Consolidate Loans

2009-01-12T14:25:00.000-08:00

How do you really refinance mortgage? More than six million UK residents have taken out debt consolidation loans in the last three years through tax attorney, new figures reveal.

Data from MoneyExpert.com shows one adult Briton in seven has decided to bring their debts together in an effort to lower their monthly payments with the average debt consolidation loan standing at £13,000.

At the best interest rate available on a personal loan someone borrowing £13,000 over three years would repay £393.99 a month, MoneyExpert points out.

By contrast, adding £13,000 to a mortgage at five per cent would only increase payments by £86.92 a month - but over 20 years would repay £20,860 in total.

However, six per cent of people take out a debt consolidation loan for far more - with 360,000 borrowing over £50,000 - and loans over £50,000 generally have to be added to mortgages as they exceed the maximum loan amount on many personal loans.

"The UK's debt crisis is a serious concern and borrowers are starting to feel the strain," said MoneyExpert chief executive Sean Gardner.

"Debt consolidation is entirely sensible and a good way to get your finances under control if you owe money to different lenders at varying rates of interest.

"Theoretically you can reduce your monthly repayments and make your debts manageable."

But borrowers should not think their money troubles end once their loan comes in.

"It only works if you accept consolidation is a wake-up call to get your borrowing under control and then work to become debt-free. There has to be some concern that many people simply see consolidation as a way of keeping on borrowing," Mr Gardner added.

Britons in Yorkshire took out the most in personal loans at £16,065, followed by residents of East Anglia (£15,642) and Scotland (£14,439).

FOREX - Yen buoyed by risk reversal, euro on defensive

2009-01-11T21:04:00.000-08:00

SYDNEY, Jan 12 (Reuters) - The Japanese yen climbed across the board on Monday as a grim global outlook favored safe-haven currencies, while the euro stayed on the defensive on talk of an aggressive cut in eurozone interest rates later this week.

Investors in Asia were still reacting to Friday's dismal U.S. payrolls report which showed 1.1 million jobs lost since November and the highest unemployment rate since 1993.

That was just part of a torrent of woeful economic data from around the globe that put paid to any optimism the new year would bring increased risk appetite and rising equities.

As a result speculators were forced to unwind long positions in the euro and commodity currencies which had been funded largely by borrowing in the yen. Indeed, dealers reported aggressive selling of euro for yen on Friday with one Japanese institution dumping particularly large amounts from 125.00 all the way down to 121.26, a loss of 3 percent on the day. Early Monday, the euro was licking its wounds at 121.16 yen , far from last week's peak around 128.55, though trade was thin with Japan on holiday.

The rush back into the safe-haven yen had knocked the U.S. dollar down to 89.96 yen by Monday morning, from 90.34 in New York and a high last week of around 94.63.

Yet the euro suffered even more, shedding over 2 percent against the U.S. dollar on Friday to end at $1.3424. Early Monday, it had edged up only a little to $1.3470 with investors now looking ahead to the European Central Bank's policy meeting on Thursday. And speculation is rife the central bank will cut its key lending rate by 50 basis points to 2 percent after alarming falls in industrial output right across the euro zone reported last week.

That was a marked turnaround in sentiment as the ECB had seemed to be talking down the chance of any easing in January. Instead, analysts suspected it would have no choice but to cut, and to cut aggressively in coming months.

"With the fourth quarter shaping up to be the weakest on record for growth in the Eurozone and a progressively deteriorating outlook for both industrialised and emerging economies, we now expect the ECB to deliver more stimulus than we did a month ago," Royal Bank of Canada assistant chief economist Dawn Desjardins wrote in a note to clients.

RBC is tipping no less than 150 basis points of easing from the ECB, while it also sees the Bank of England cutting by another 100 basis points to just 0.5 percent.

In this they would be playing catch-up with the Federal Reserve which is already near zero and cannot cut any further, though it is boosting the money supply by buying private assets on its balance sheet.

That means nominal interest-rate spreads are set to narrow in favour of the dollar.

Economic news from the U.S. this week includes the November trade account, retail sales and producer and consumer prices for December and a couple of regional industry surveys for January .

Also of interest on Friday will be Treasury data on capital flows in and out of the United States since the country needs to borrow a vast amount of money this year and any hint of waning offshore demand for U.S. debt could undermine the dollar.

Stocks: Mergers and Acquisitions

2009-01-11T20:40:00.000-08:00

Jan 12 (Reuters) - The following bids, mergers, acquisitions and disposals involving European, U.S. and Asian companies were reported by 0400 GMT on Monday.

** Citigroup Inc (C.N) was closer to a deal to join its Smith Barney business with Morgan Stanley's brokerage operation (MS.N) in a move that would create the world's largest retail brokerage.

** Malaysia's national car company Proton Holdings (PROT.KL) may sell a controlling stake to a foreign carmaker, company Chairman Nadzmi Mohd Salleh told the Business Times newspaper.

** British bank HBOS Plc (HBOS.L) has been informally approached by private equity groups about buying its housing subsidiaries, Keepmoat and Apollo, according to a report in The Independent.

** Time has run out for Lufthansa to make a bid for a stake in Alitalia, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said, confirming Air France-KLM had sealed an alliance with the relaunched Italian carrier.

** Africa Israel Properties (AFPR.TA), a subsidiary of Africa Israel Investments (AFIL01.TA), said it agreed to sell 51 percent of its holdings in Tel Aviv's Jubilee Tower to an entity controlled by foreign investors.

** Morgan Stanley (MS.N) could pay $2 billion to $3 billion or more for a controlling stake in Citigroup Inc.'s (C.N) Smith Barney retail brokerage business, two people familiar with the matter said.

** Abu Dhabi's International Petroleum Investment Co (IPIC) is paying cash for a 70 percent stake in MAN Ferrostaal AG, and may acquire the remainder by 2010, the German company's chairman said.

** American International Group Inc (AIG.N) is close to a deal to sell its Canadian life insurance business, a source close to the transaction said.

** Sequenom Inc (SQNM.O) said it has proposed to buy Exact Sciences Corp (EXAS.O) in an all-stock deal valued at about $41 million to boost its cancer diagnostics offering.

Tech Stocks

2009-01-11T20:04:00.000-08:00

Friedman Billings downgraded the semiconductor manufacturing industry saying their recent channel checks in Asia, as well as semiconductor inventory analysis, indicate the recovery in semiconductor manufacturing fundamentals will be slower than currently dialed into Street expectations. They downgraded Applied Materials (AMAT), ASML Holdings (ASML), Form Factor (FORM), KLA-Tencor (KLAC), Teradyne (TER), and MEMC Electronic (WFR) from Outperform to Market Perform.

Argus downgraded Intel (INTC) to Hold from Buy saying the co's near-term prospects appear dismal due to the impact of the global economy on its end-user base. The company reported preliminary 4Q08 revenues of $8.2 billion, more than 20% below its initial 4Q guidance. The firm expects revs to remain weak at least through the first half of 2009.

Collins Stewart notes yesterday at CES 2009 pre-event keynote session, MSFT CEO Steve Ballmer announced the availability of Windows 7 Beta. In addition, Microsoft (MSFT) announced multiple search/online deals with DELL and Verizon (VZ) -- both at the expense of Google (GOOG) and expanded its partnership with Facebook. Given the Windows Beta launch now and mixed response of Windows 7 predecessor Windows Vista, they believe MSFT will likely launch Windows 7 in Nov '09.

JMP notes that at CES, Cisco (CSCO) issued seven press releases and held an extensive press conference specifically talking about its Consumer Electronics business. CSCO stated that 10 of its 24 major new business initiatives touch the consumer: firm believes that the 12-17% growth tgts that CSCO has set for itself depend in part on its CE business showing solid growth.

Lawson (LWSN) reported Q2 (Nov) earnings of $0.10 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.03 better than the First Call consensus of $0.07; revenues fell 5.6% year/year to $206.4 mln vs the $205.3 mln consensus. Co issues mixed guidance for Q3, sees EPS of $0.07-0.09 vs. $0.09 consensus; sees Q3 revs of $183-187 mln vs. $210.04 mln consensus. As a result of economic uncertainties the company is not providing updated guidance for fiscal 2009, which ends May 31, 2009. Prior fiscal 2009 guidance should no longer be relied upon.