Economic Calendar

Monday, April 2, 2012

Apple’s New IPad Is No. 1 Tablet in Consumer Reports’ Rating

By Sarah Frier and Scott Moritz - Apr 2, 2012 8:34 PM GMT+0700

Apple Inc. (AAPL)’s new iPad was named the best tablet computer in a ranking by Consumer Reports, two weeks after the magazine said the device runs “significantly hotter” than previous models.

The new iPad’s high-resolution screen provides the best detail and color accuracy of all tablets Consumer Reports has seen, the publication said today on its website. Consumer Reports also commended the device’s camera and faster connectivity. The new iPad costs between $500 and $830.

A new Apple Inc. iPad in New York on March 16, 2012. Photographer: Scott Eells/Bloomberg

March 15 (Bloomberg) -- Bloomberg's Rich Jaroslovsky reviews Apple Inc.'s new iPad. Jaroslovsky says the new iPad has a vastly improved display and offers an ultra-fast Internet connection -- but otherwise seems more likely to maintain Apple's huge lead in the tablet market than to extend it. (Rich Jaroslovsky is a Bloomberg News columnist. The opinions expressed are his own. Source: Bloomberg)

March 7 (Bloomberg) -- Tim Cook, chief executive officer of Apple Inc., Walter Piecyk, an analyst at BTIG LLC, and Eric Jackson, president and founder of Ironfire Capital LLC, offer their views on Apple's new iPad and the outlook for the company. The device will be called iPad, carry a price tag of $499 to $829 and include an A5X chip that enables better graphics, Apple said today at an event in San Francisco. Kevin Dede, technology analyst at Auriga USA, and Michael Holland, chairman of Holland & Co., also speak. (Source: Bloomberg)

Last month, Consumer Reports said the new iPad reached temperatures of 116 degrees (47 degrees Celsius) when handling processor-intensive tasks such as playing graphics-heavy games. The reviewers didn’t regard the temperature as a concern, though it was hotter than the prior model. Many customers didn’t wait for the reviews before buying the new tablet. Apple sold more than 3 million iPads during the product’s debut weekend.

The sales enthusiasm carried through to satisfaction ratings, according to survey results released today by ChangeWave Research, a unit of 451 Research LLC. Of the new iPad owners surveyed, 82 percent said they were very satisfied with the device, compared to the 74 percent approval rating of the previous iPad.

Eye Pleasing

The high-resolution “retina” display was ranked the best feature on the iPad by new owners. The biggest dislike of the iPad was the cost, according to the ChangeWave survey.

Consumer Reports ranked the new iPad above other new tablets including the Toshiba Corp. (6502) Excite 10LE, the Pantech Co. Element, the Sony Corp. (SNE) Tablet P, and Samsung Electronics Co. (005930)’s Galaxy Tab 7.7.

When Cupertino, California-based Apple released the iPhone 4, the magazine declined to recommend it, saying it dropped calls when gripped a certain way. After initially playing down the matter, which became known as “Antennagate,” Apple gave out free cases and issued a software update aimed at addressing the glitch.

Apple rose 0.3 percent to $601.04 at 9:30 a.m. New York time. The shares had gained 48 percent this year before today.

To contact the reporters on this story: Sarah Frier in New York at sfrier1@bloomberg.net; Scott Moritz in New York at smoritz6@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Tom Giles at tgiles5@bloomberg.net; Ville Heiskanen at vheiskanen@bloomberg.net




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European Stocks Gain as U.S. Manufacturing Expands

By Namitha Jagadeesh - Apr 2, 2012 10:35 PM GMT+0700

European stocks climbed the most in almost three weeks, erasing earlier losses, as reports showed manufacturing expanded more than forecast in the U.S. and China.

Oriflame (ORI) Cosmetics SA gained 2.6 percent after Coty Inc. offered to buy Avon Products Inc. for $10 billion. Cookson Group Plc (CKSN) jumped 6.6 percent after the Sunday Times said the company may spin off a unit.

Employees pass stock index prices displayed on electronic screens at the entrance to the Hellenic Stock Exchange in Athens. Photographer: Kostas Tsironis/Bloomberg

April 2 (Bloomberg) -- Valerie Gastaldy, commercial director at Day by Day, discusses investment strategy and her recommendation for Air Liquide SA, Rexel SA and Hermes International SCA. She speaks from Paris with Maryam Nemazee on Bloomberg Television's "The Pulse." (Source: Bloomberg)

April 2 (Bloomberg) -- Kevin Gardiner, head of investment strategy for Europe, Middle East and Africa at Barclays Wealth, talks about investment strategy and the outlook for U.S. treasuries. He speaks with Maryam Nemazee on Bloomberg Television's "The Pulse." (Source: Bloomberg)

The benchmark Stoxx Europe 600 Index (SXXP) advanced 1.4 percent to 267.08 at 4:33 p.m. in London, having earlier dropped as much as 0.4 percent. The gauge climbed 7.7 percent in the first quarter, its best start to a year since 2006, boosted by the European Central Bank’s 1 trillion euros ($1.3 trillion) in loans to the region’s financial firms.

“Equity markets ended the first quarter well,” said Simon Denham, managing director of Capital Spreads in London. “That’s enough to make even the most skeptical of bulls mildly optimistic.”

National benchmark indexes advanced in 12 out of 18 western-European markets. France’s CAC 40 Index climbed 1.1 percent, the U.K.’s FTSE 100 Index rose 1.8 percent while Germany’s DAX Index rallied 1.5 percent.

Manufacturing in the U.S. expanded more than forecast in March. The Institute for Supply Management’s factory index climbed to 53.4 from 52.4 in February, data showed. Economists in a Bloomberg News survey had estimated an increase to 53. Readings above 50 signal growth.

China Economy

China’s Purchasing Managers’ Index (CPMINDX) compiled by the logistics federation and the National Bureau of Statistics rose to 53.1 in March from 51 in February.

The gauge, which was released yesterday, has a pattern of gaining each March. In contrast, a PMI from HSBC Holdings Plc and Markit Economics fell to a four-month low of 48.3, showing that manufacturing contracted and export orders declined.

European stocks declined last week as Standard & Poor’s said that Greece may have to restructure its debt again and an ECB policy maker said a bigger bailout package will not solve the fiscal crisis.

Finance ministers from the 17-member monetary union unveiled a package including 500 billion euros in fresh bailout funds on top of 300 billion euros already committed to rescue programs.

IMF Resources

Group of 20 nations that rebuffed German-led pleas for more aid in February will be asked to decide this month whether Europe has done enough to warrant increased resources from the International Monetary Fund. Euro-area finance ministers insisted at a meeting that ended on March 31 in Copenhagen that they’ve fulfilled their side of the bargain.

Germany’s central bank last week said it won’t accept bank bonds guaranteed by Ireland, Greece and Portugal as collateral, which “raised questions about policy cohesiveness” in the euro region, according to Moody’s Investors Services.

This is “a credit negative for euro-area sovereigns and banking systems overall, but particularly for those of Greece, Ireland and Portugal,” Alain Laurin from Moody’s wrote in the report today.

Oriflame paced advancing shares, gaining 2.6 percent to 261.50 kronor after Coty offered to buy Avon, a door-to-door cosmetics seller, for $23.25 a share in cash. Oriflame sells cosmetics at parties hosted in private homes.

Cookson, Novo Nordisk

Cookson Group Plc surged 6.6 percent to 730 pence after the Sunday Times reported the world’s biggest maker of ceramic linings for metal smelters may spin off its electronics unit.

The manufacturer has hired Rothschild to devise a proposal for the unit to sell shares and list on the London Stock Exchange, the newspaper reported yesterday without saying where it got the information.

Novo Nordisk A/S (NOVOB) jumped 5.6 percent to 815.50 kroner. The world’s biggest insulin maker said it will meet its 2014 target date to begin selling an obesity drug, Victoza, Copenhagen-based newspaper Borsen reported, citing an interview with Chief Science Officer Mads Krogsgaard Thomsen.

An advisory panel voted last week to recommend the U.S. Food and Drug Administration require heart studies for all diet pills.

To contact the reporter on this story: Namitha Jagadeesh in London at njagadeesh@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Andrew Rummer at arummer@bloomberg.net




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Biggest Bond Traders See Worst Over for Treasuries

By Susanne Walker and Daniel Kruger - Apr 2, 2012 9:28 PM GMT+0700

The worst is over for the $10 trillion U.S. Treasury market following the biggest quarterly rout since 2010, say Wall Street’s largest bond trading firms.

After rising to as high as 2.4 percent last month from 1.88 percent at the end of 2011, the yield on the benchmark 10-year note will finish 2012 at 2.49 percent, according to the average estimate in a Bloomberg News survey of the 21 primary dealers that trade with the Federal Reserve. That’s the same as a January poll, suggesting the market isn’t ready to declare a bear market in bonds after a 30-year bull run.

The Federal Reserve building in Washington. Photographer: Brendan Smialowski/Bloomberg

March 30 (Bloomberg) -- Peter Tchir, founder of TF Market Advisors, and Hans Olsen, managing director at Barclays Wealth, talk about the outlook for U.S. stock and bond markets, and their investment strategies. They speak with Trish Regan and Adam Johnson on Bloomberg Television's "Street Smart." Michael Gayed, chief investment strategist at Pension Partners LLC, also speaks. (Source: Bloomberg)

Barack Obama, U.S. President, needs the support of the bond market to help finance a budget deficit projected to exceed $1 trillion for the fourth year as he runs for re-election in November. Photographer: SeongJoon Cho/Bloomberg

Ben S. Bernanke, chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve, said the central bank will consider further stimulus, even after upgrading its economic outlook March 13. Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

Signs of strength in the economy, which caused a 5.56 percent loss in bonds maturing in 10 years or more last quarter, may fade in the second half of 2012, the dealers say. Tax cuts are expiring, $1 trillion of mandatory federal budget cuts are due to kick in and $100-a-barrel oil is eating into consumer spending. With inflation in check, Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said last week that the central bank will consider further stimulus, even after upgrading its economic outlook March 13.

“The back-up that we’ve seen over the past three or four weeks was not fully justified by what we’re seeing in the data,” said Aneta Markowska, a senior U.S. economist at primary dealer Societe Generale SA in New York. The 10-year yield will end the year at 2.25 percent, she said in an interview March 27.

Dealer Holdings

Primary dealer holdings of U.S. government debt rose to $91 billion last month, from a net bet against the securities of $53.4 billion in May, according to the Fed. In the survey, 15 say the odds are that the Fed will need a third round of bond purchases, or quantitative easing, to bolster the economy.

The yield on the benchmark 10-year note dropped three basis points or 0.03 percentage point at 10:24 a.m. in New York, according to Bloomberg Bond Trader prices. The 2 percent security due in February 2022 rose 8/32, or $2.50 per $1,000 face amount, to 98 12/32.

Housing reports the last two weeks showed a key part of the economy remains under pressure. The Commerce Department said March 23 new home sales fell to a 313,000 annual pace in February, the slowest since October, from the 318,000 rate in January that was weaker than previously reported. The National Association of Realtors said existing-home sales eased to a 4.59 million rate last month from January’s 4.63 million.

‘Unusually Large Layoffs’

The economic recovery isn’t yet assured and unemployment remains too high, Bernanke told ABC News anchor Diane Sawyer, according to transcripts of the interview released March 27.

The remarks came a day after Bernanke said in a speech that the drop in the unemployment rate to 8.3 percent may reflect “a reversal of the unusually large layoffs that occurred during late 2008 and over 2009.” Significant further improvement would likely require faster growth, he said. The Fed hasn’t tightened monetary policy with joblessness at the existing level since it fought surging inflation in the 1980s.

“In the past week Bernanke’s gotten in front of every microphone he could find and gotten the market to realize that we shouldn’t have priced out QE3 and even if you don’t think it’s going to happen you have to attribute some sort of probability to it, and that he’s going to stay accommodative and potentially increase accommodation,” John Briggs, a U.S. government bond strategist at primary dealer RBS Securities Inc. in Stamford, Connecticut, said in an interview on March 28.

Forecast Range

Yield forecasts at the primary dealers range from 2 percent at RBS, Scotia Capital and Barclays Capital to 3 percent at Deutsche Bank AG, Jefferies & Co. and BMO Financial.

Even if the most bearish forecasts prove true, yields would remain below the average of 3.85 percent over the past decade, 4.98 percent over the past 20 years and 6.48 percent since 1982.

The bull market for bonds began after then-Fed Chairman Paul Volcker began to lower borrowing costs from a high of 20 percent in 1980 after taming inflation.

President Barack Obama needs the support of the bond market to help finance a budget deficit projected to exceed $1 trillion for the fourth year as he runs for re-election in November.

While the amount of marketable debt outstanding has more than doubled to $10.2 trillion from $4.34 trillion in mid-2007 as the U.S. sold bonds to pay for spending programs designed to pull the economy out of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, interest expense equaled 3 percent of the economy in fiscal 2011 ended Sept. 30. That’s down from 4 percent in 1999, when the U.S. ran budget surpluses.

Bond Losses

Bernanke helped spark last quarter’s selloff when the central bank upgraded its assessment of the economy at its March 13 policy meeting. Losses in long-term bonds were the most since they tumbled 8 percent in the fourth quarter of 2010, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch indexes, and compare with a 3.22 percent return for company debt and a 12.6 percent gain in the Standard & Poor’s 500, including reinvested interest.

Traders immediately reduced bets the central bank would favor more bond purchases and moved forward the date that they anticipated the Fed would raise interest rates to 2013 from late 2014.

“At this point in the policy cycle it is common for market participants to get ahead of themselves,” said Vincent Reinhart, chief U.S. economist at primary dealer Morgan Stanley and a former senior Fed official, in an interview on March 28. “The market’s got a rosier view of the outlook.”

Reinhart forecasts 10-year yields will end the year at 2.25 percent, and there’s a better than even chance of QE3 after the Fed already bought $2.3 trillion of bonds from December 2008 to June to avert deflation and spur growth. It’s now replacing $400 billion of shorter-term maturity Treasuries in its holdings with longer-term debt in a policy traders call Operation Twist.

Rising Loans

There are enough signs of strength in the economy and credit markets to keep the Fed from adding more stimulus, according to Maury Harris, the chief economist at primary dealer UBS Securities LLC in New York. Fed data show commercial and industrial loans outstanding rose to $1.38 trillion as of March 14 from the post-crisis low of $1.2 trillion in October 2010.

“The banks are expanding lending now as a result of the earlier QE, and that’s a reason why now we’re seeing better job growth,” Harris said in a March 28 telephone interview. “You put so much in the system, some of it made a difference.”

UBS expects 10-year yields will end 2012 at 2.7 percent.

Gross domestic product in the U.S. will probably expand 2.2 percent in 2012, according to the median estimate of more than 70 economists surveyed by Bloomberg. That’s slower than the 3.1 percent posted in 2005 and 2.7 percent in 2006 before the recession and financial crisis.

‘Spring Slowdown’

“We’re going to have some Spring slowdown in housing, some Spring slowdown in employment, and the first opportunity they get to juice the system they will,” Steven Ricchiuto, chief economist in New York at primary dealer Mizuho Securities USA, said in a March 28 telephone interview in reference to Fed policy makers.

The firm sees 10-year yields ending the year at 2.5 percent, and places a greater than 50 percent chance on QE3.

RBC Capital Markets is focusing on Europe, where the sovereign debt crisis may still curb the global economy. European leaders capped new lending for bailouts last week at 500 billion euros ($667 billion), after a Germany-led coalition opposed a further expansion of the region’s anti-crisis firewall.

The International Monetary Fund’s mission chief to Greece, Poul Thomsen, said March 28 that while the nation has made an “aggressive” start, it will take at least a decade to fully complete the country’s restructuring. Two days later, Spain, under threat of falling victim to the crisis, said it will raise taxes and cut spending to achieve 27 billion euros in deficit cuts as it tries to trim its budget deficit by a third.

Tom Porcelli, chief U.S. economist at RBC Capital Markets, expects 10-year yields will end 2012 at 2.25 percent and the Fed will implement QE3, he said in a March 29 interview.

“Europe will continue to be a factor on the macro backdrop for the foreseeable future.”

Primary Dealer 10-Year Yield, Quantitative Easing Forecasts

Firm January March QE3?

Bank of America 2.4 2.4 Yes
Barclays 2.0 2 No
BMO Financial 2.4 3 Yes
BNP Paribas 3 2.7 Yes
Cantor Fitzgerald 2.5 2.63 Yes
Citigroup 2.45 2.45 Yes
Credit Suisse 2.25 2.5 Yes
Daiwa 2.4 2.6 No
Deutsche Bank 3 3 No
Goldman Sachs 2.5 2.5 Yes
HSBC 2.3 2.3 NA
Jefferies 3 3 Yes
JPMorgan Chase 2.5 2.5 No
Mizuho 2 2.5 Yes
Morgan Stanley 2 2.25 Yes
Nomura 2.48 2.75 Yes
RBC 2.25 2.25 Yes
RBS 2 2 Yes
Scotia Capital 3 2 Yes
Societe Generale 2.25 2.25 Yes
UBS 2.4 2.7 No
Mean 2.43 2.49

* ‘Yes’ on QE indicates odds of 50 percent or higher.

To contact the reporters on this story: Susanne Walker in New York at swalker33@bloomberg.net; Daniel Kruger in New York at dkruger1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Dave Liedtka at dliedtka@bloomberg.net






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BlackBerry Fans Cite Reliability as They Snub Competitors

By Sarah Frier - Apr 2, 2012 8:48 PM GMT+0700

For BlackBerry fans, these are dark days. Research In Motion Ltd. (RIM) is losing market share to Google Inc. (GOOG) and Apple Inc. (AAPL) New Chief Executive Officer Thorsten Heins has even said he would consider a sale or partnership. That has BlackBerry devotees fretting over their favorite phone’s future.

Like fans of many iconic products, BlackBerry loyalists love the design of their phone. They praise its fast messaging features and, perhaps most of all, the tactile pleasure of typing on a real keyboard. BlackBerry loyalists come from all walks of life, from high-powered CEOs to freelance artists and students. They all have one thing in common: They can’t imagine a world without BlackBerrys.

Research In Motion Ltd. BlackBerry ad. Photographer: Adeel Halim/Bloomberg

March 29 (Bloomberg) -- Alex Gauna, an analyst at JMP Securities LLC, talks about the outlook for Research In Motion Ltd. RIM reported revenue and profit that fell short of analysts' estimates and said it will discontinue giving financial forecasts as demand for BlackBerry smartphones wanes. Jim Balsillie, former co-chief executive officer, resigned from the board. Gauna speaks with Emily Chang on Bloomberg Television's "Bloomberg West." (Source: Bloomberg)

BlackBerry Fans Cite Reliability for Thumbs-Down to Rivals

An attendee uses his Blackberry device in front of the Research In Motion booth at the 2012 International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Photographer: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg

“As long as I stay involved in this type of job, I’ll need a BlackBerry,” said John Yester, who has been a firefighter outside of Pittsburgh for the past 15 years.

Yester, 31, started using his BlackBerry’s instant messaging service three years ago to coordinate with fellow firefighters when responding to emergencies. He likes that it’s fast, with a notification system, and easy, with a physical keyboard.

“BlackBerry is reliable in my line of work, especially with the dispatch center and in any emergency,” Yester said. “I tried Android last year and the e-mail capabilities were actually very frustrating. I switched back.”

BlackBerry phones aren’t likely to go the way of the Palm Treo, Kodachrome film, or Saab cars anytime too soon.

Growth Overseas

Fortunately for RIM, there are more than 75 million others out there like Yester, including U.S. President Barack Obama and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

While Waterloo, Ontario-based RIM’s BlackBerry has lost its top spot in Canada and U.S. to the iPhone, it continues to grow in emerging markets. The company still has seen its stock slide 74 percent in 12 months, and the challenge for CEO Heins is to recover the magic in North America before it’s too late.

RIM rose 1 percent to $14.85 at 9:42 a.m. New York time.

Kevin Michaluk, who founded fan site Crackberry.com after “crackberry” became Webster’s 2006 word of the year, says traffic has stayed level as international users replace those in the U.S. RIM outshipped Apple by a margin of more than 3-to-1 in the Middle East and Africa last year and BlackBerry outsold iPhone in Latin America 5-to-1, according to research firm IDC.

Michaluk said he likes that a BlackBerry allows him to be more efficient, by emphasizing fast messaging, as opposed to helping him waste time with games.

‘Priorities’

“People’s priorities are so messed up because if they actually knew the BlackBerry experience and how much faster it is, they wouldn’t use the other phones,” he said.

That’s all that Michael Hayes, a 32-year-old investor, says he needs. As he works from home in Tampa, Florida, he can step outside and run errands, staying connected to work to the extent that he has calluses on the hand where his phone sits. His girlfriend makes fun of him.

“I don’t use my phone to play Draw Something or Angry Birds or anything,” he said, referring to the games that take advantage of touch screens on iPhone and Android phones. “If I’m doing something, it’s pretty important.”

Some customers are hanging on for BlackBerry Messenger, a system that comes loaded on the devices which allows any two people to communicate instantly for free. Clyde Berry, a 45- year-old music producer in Fall River, Massachusetts, uses the service to communicate with all his clients. You couldn’t pay him to give up his 2007 BlackBerry Curve in exchange for a new iPhone, he said.

Mobile Romance

“I’m able to keep in contact faster with clients, and we can actually have real conversation,” said Berry, who describes himself as a “crackberry addict” in his Twitter profile. “I also use the password protector a lot and keep a lot of personal and confidential information.”

BlackBerry continues to thrive overseas. In Saudi Arabia, teenagers have embraced RIM because they can flirt using its encrypted and free BlackBerry Messenger, which allows them to avoid local religious police who restrict interaction between unmarried men and women.

In Venezuela, where the device is ubiquitous on the streets of Caracas, President Chavez has dubbed his BlackBerry and Twitter account his “secret weapon.”

RIM is also popular in Indonesia, where the company is planning to add 4,000 retail stores, kiosks and other outlets to keep up with demand. Rioting broke out at a November event in Jakarta, sending 10 people to the hospital, when a promotion for RIM’s latest BlackBerry Bold phone ran out of devices.

RIM could still make a comeback in the U.S. market, its loyal fans insist, especially with the planned release later this year of BlackBerry 10, a new feature-rich operating system.

“BlackBerry has a strong brand,” Michaluk said. “America loves a comeback story. And if RIM can pull together the BlackBerry 10 story, people will buy it.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Sarah Frier in New York at sfrier1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Peter Elstrom at pelstrom@bloomberg.net





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Most Stocks in U.S. Advance on Manufacturing Report

By Lu Wang - Apr 2, 2012 9:49 PM GMT+0700

Most U.S. stocks rose, after the biggest first-quarter rally since 1998 for the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index, as stronger-than-forecast growth in manufacturing offset an unexpected decline in construction spending.

Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. (FCX) and Alpha Natural Resources Inc. (ANR) jumped more than 1.8 percent, pacing gains among commodity shares. Avon Products Inc. (AVP) surged 17 percent after Coty Inc. offered to acquire the door-to-door cosmetics seller. Groupon Inc. sank 12 percent after the company said fourth- quarter sales were lower than previously stated. Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) fell 2.3 percent as the largest Internet retailer was cut at Bank of America Corp.

April 2 (Bloomberg) -- David Kelly, chief market strategist at JPMorgan Funds, talks about investment strategy, the outlook for financial markets and the U.S. economy. Kelly, speaking with Betty Liu, Dominic Chu, Sheila Dharmarajan and Josh Lipton on Bloomberg Television’s “In the Loop,” also discusses Federal Reserve policy. Todd Horwitz, chief strategist at Adam Mesh Trading Group, also speaks. (Source: Bloomberg)

April 2 (Bloomberg) -- Marc Faber, publisher of the Gloom, Boom & Doom report, talks about the outlook for stocks and investment strategy. Faber, speaking with Betty Liu on Bloomberg Television's "In the Loop," also discusses Federal Reserve policy and the gold market. (Source: Bloomberg)

About four stocks advanced for every three that declined on U.S. exchanges at 10:43 a.m. New York time. The S&P 500 rose 0.1 percent to 1,410.07. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 14.95 points, or 0.1 percent, to 13,197.09 today.

“Certainly the manufacturing side has been the strength of our economy and the exporting has been huge -- that’s what has sustained us the past several years,” Barry James, who helps oversee $3.3 billion as president of James Investment Research in Xenia, Ohio, said in a telephone interview. “Here in the United States, things have stabilized. If it weren’t the rest of the world, we’d be OK. The problem we see that’s likely to unfold later this year is Europe.”

Manufacturing Report

Manufacturing in the U.S. expanded at a faster pace than forecast in March, a sign that the industry is weathering slower global growth. The Institute for Supply Management’s factory index rose to 53.4 in March from 52.4 a month earlier, the Tempe, Arizona-based group’s data showed. Fifty is the dividing line between growth and contraction. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg News projected the gauge would climb to 53.

Construction spending decreased 1.1 percent in February, government data showed, compared with the median economist forecast for growth of 0.6 percent.

The S&P 500 rose 12 percent in the first quarter as economic data surpassed estimates and investors speculated that the euro area would contain its sovereign-debt crisis. The benchmark measure advanced 3.1 percent in March, its fourth- straight monthly increase for the gauge’s longest streak of monthly gains since 2009.

Commodity shares rose the most among 10 groups in the S&P 500. Freeport-McMoRan jumped 1.8 percent to $38.73. Alpha Natural, a coal producer, surged 3.5 percent to $15.74.

Avon surged 17 percent to $22.64. Coty said it has submitted a non-binding proposal to acquire the company for $23.25 a share in cash. The purchase price represents a premium of about 27 percent over the three-month average weighted price for Avon shares, Coty said in a statement.

Groupon tumbled 12 percent to $16.20 after the largest provider of daily deals online reported a “material weakness” in its financial controls and said fourth-quarter revenue was lower than it had stated because of higher refunds to merchants.

Amazon.com fell 2.3 percent to $197.83. The largest Internet retailer was cut to neutral from buy at Bank of America Corp.

To contact the reporter on this story: Lu Wang in New York at lwang8@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Nick Baker at nbaker7@bloomberg.net




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Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood Nominates President Candidate

By Tarek El-Tablawy, Mariam Fam and Abdel Latif Wahba - Apr 2, 2012 5:00 PM GMT+0700

Egyptian military judges dropped convictions against Muslim Brotherhood presidential candidate Khairat el-Shater, clearing the nominee of the nation’s dominant political party to run in the election, the group’s lawyer said.

“We have taken administrative, legal and judicial measures before the military judiciary and based on this, all convictions have been dropped,” Abdel Monem Abdel Maqsoud said in a phone interview in Cairo yesterday. “All legal obstacles have been removed, and el-Shater now has the right to fully exercise all his political rights,” he said.

Khairat el-Shater of the Muslim Brotherhood waves as he arrives to al-Galaa court in Cairo on Dec. 10, 2007. El-Shater is a leader in the Brotherhood’s Guidance Council, its main decision-making body. Photographer: Khaled Desouki/AFP/Getty Images

Khairat el-Shater of the Muslim Brotherhood waves as he arrives to al-Galaa court in Cairo on Dec. 10, 2007. El-Shater is a leader in the Brotherhood’s Guidance Council, its main decision-making body. Photographer: Khaled Desouki/AFP/Getty Images

The Brotherhood said March 31 that el-Shater was its candidate for the presidential election that begins May 23 and May 24, making him one of the favorites to win and potentially increasing tensions between the once-banned group and the generals who currently rule the nation. He received 58 out of 110 votes at a meeting of the Brotherhood’s consultative council, according to Arab satellite network Al-Jazeera. The narrow majority suggested rifts within the organization.

Abdel Maqsoud said the necessary legal steps were taken “over the last days.” El-Shater, 62, will submit his candidacy application this week, Abdel Maqsoud said. “The Brotherhood wouldn’t have named him if there were still obstacles.”

El-Shater spent years in and out of the jails of former President Hosni Mubarak. In the most recent conviction, he was sentenced in 2008 by a military court to seven years in prison amid a crackdown on the Brotherhood by the then government. He was released in March 2011, less than a month after Mubarak’s ouster.

Millionaire Engineer

The nomination of the millionaire, an engineer by training and widely seen as the Brotherhood’s chief financier, drew criticism from some members of the group. Kamal el-Helbawy, the Brotherhood’s former spokesman in Europe, said he was resigning, citing what he said was the organization’s conflicting stances, the state-run daily Al-Akhbar reported.

The Brotherhood, whose Freedom and Justice Party alliance holds 47 percent of the seats in parliament’s lower house, had previously said it wasn’t planning to run a candidate for the presidency. The group has clashed in recent weeks with the military rulers who took over after Mubarak’s ouster.

Freedom and Justice party head, Mohamed Morsi, said concerns that the group was trying “to control all leadership positions in the state” were unfounded, according to a statement e-mailed late yesterday.

Political Tensions

The nomination of El-Shater comes amid political tensions as the Islamist group, secularists and the ruling military wrangle over issues including the composition of the committee charged with drafting the country’s constitution.

Prime Minister Kamal el-Ganzouri said the current political situation in the country was “more than concerning” and was creating “great fear” about Egypt’s future, lawmaker Moustafa Bakri told reporters yesterday after a meeting between members of parliament from Cairo governorate that was attended by the premier and several ministers. Freedom and Justice Party lawmakers didn’t attend the meeting.

El-Shater’s nomination “immediately makes him a front- runner in the race,” Hani Sabra, Middle East analyst with the Eurasia Group, a consultancy, said in a telephone interview.

The businessman, who holds investments ranging from furniture and clothing to bus assembly and pharmaceuticals, said in an interview with Bloomberg News last year that he backed a strong private sector and that the Brotherhood wants “to attract as much investment as possible.”

Tension With Generals

El-Helbawy said that the army would use el-Shater’s candidacy as a pretext to stifle the country’s move to democracy and, eventually, the Brotherhood itself, Al-Akhbar reported.

The group has criticized the generals for rejecting its calls to fire the current Cabinet for failing to revive the economy. The group’s secretary-general, Mahmoud Hussein, said the government hasn’t met the needs of the people and that there is a “threat to the revolution.”

El-Shater has been a senior member of the Brotherhood’s Guidance Council, its main decision-making body, and the Brotherhood’s deputy leader.

El-Shater’s campaign would have to be “something done in coordination with SCAF,” said Sabra, referring to the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces.

Economy Deteriorates

Hussein said the Brotherhood’s decision to field a candidate came after reports that former members of Mubarak’s regime were considering running for office, which heightened concerns that the country’s push for democracy was under threat.

The decision to nominate El-Shater for the presidency followed what Hussein said were the Brotherhood’s attempts in recent months to move the country forward using its party’s leading role in parliament. The government has failed to address Egypt’s deepening economic slump, deteriorating security and challenges to the transition to democracy, he said.

Egypt is trying to secure a $3.2 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund -- money that would help it access other donor aid. The Brotherhood, while not rejecting the loan, has said it wants to make sure that the government has exhausted all other options first. The IMF, which sent a technical committee last week to Egypt, has said it wants to see broad consensus from all political groups over the government’s economic program before approving the loan.

The parliament, whose second-largest membership is from the conservative Salafi party, Al-Nour, is preparing to test the military further by pushing again for a no-confidence motion against the interim government. An earlier attempt resulted in comments by the military that people needed to learn from history and avoid repeating past mistakes. Egyptian media and analysts saw that as a reference to the crackdowns on the Brotherhood under earlier governments.

To contact the reporter on this story: Digby Lidstone in Cairo at dlidstone@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Louis Meixler at lmeixler@bloomberg.net




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BlackBerry Fans Cite Reliability for Ignoring Competition

By Sarah Frier - Apr 2, 2012 2:51 PM GMT+0700

For BlackBerry fans, these are dark days. Research In Motion Ltd. (RIM) is losing market share to Google Inc. (GOOG) and Apple Inc. (AAPL) New Chief Executive Officer Thorsten Heins has even said he would consider a sale or partnership. That has BlackBerry fans fretting over their favorite phone’s future.

Like fans of many iconic products, BlackBerry loyalists love the design of their phone. They praise its fast messaging features and, perhaps most of all, the tactile pleasure of typing on a real keyboard. BlackBerry loyalists come from all walks of life, from high-powered CEOs to freelance artists and students. They all have one thing in common: They can’t imagine a world without BlackBerrys.

The BlackBerry logo is seen on a Curve 9300 smartphone, manufactured by Research In Motion Ltd. Photographer: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg

March 29 (Bloomberg) -- Alex Gauna, an analyst at JMP Securities LLC, talks about the outlook for Research In Motion Ltd. RIM reported revenue and profit that fell short of analysts' estimates and said it will discontinue giving financial forecasts as demand for BlackBerry smartphones wanes. Jim Balsillie, former co-chief executive officer, resigned from the board. Gauna speaks with Emily Chang on Bloomberg Television's "Bloomberg West." (Source: Bloomberg)

“As long as I stay involved in this type of job, I’ll need a BlackBerry,” said John Yester, who has been a firefighter outside of Pittsburgh for the past 15 years.

Yester, 31, started using his BlackBerry’s instant messaging service three years ago to coordinate with fellow firefighters when responding to emergencies. He likes that it’s fast, with a notification system, and easy, with a physical keyboard.

“BlackBerry is reliable in my line of work, especially with the dispatch center and in any emergency,” Yester said. “I tried Android last year and the e-mail capabilities were actually very frustrating. I switched back.”

BlackBerry phones aren’t likely to go the way of the Palm Treo, Kodachrome film, or Saab cars anytime too soon.

Growth Overseas

Fortunately for RIM, there are 75 million others out there like Yester, including U.S. President Barack Obama and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

While Waterloo, Ontario-based BlackBerry has lost its top spot in Canada and U.S. to the iPhone, it continues to grow in emerging markets. The company still has seen its stock slide 74 percent in 12 months, and the challenge for CEO Heins is to recover the magic in North America before it’s too late.

The shares rose 2.1 percent to the equivalent of $14.99 in German trading as of 9:45 a.m. today.

Kevin Michaluk, who founded fan site Crackberry.com after “crackberry” became Webster’s 2006 word of the year, says traffic has stayed level as international users replace those in the U.S. RIM outshipped Apple by a margin of more than 3-to-1 in the Middle East and Africa last year and BlackBerry outsold iPhone in Latin America 5-to-1, according to research firm IDC.

Michaluk said he likes that a BlackBerry allows him to be more efficient, by emphasizing fast messaging, as opposed to helping him waste time with games.

‘Priorities’

“People’s priorities are so messed up because if they actually knew the BlackBerry experience and how much faster it is, they wouldn’t use the other phones,” he said.

That’s all that Michael Hayes, a 32-year-old investor, says he needs. As he works from home in Tampa, Florida, he can step outside and run errands, staying connected to work to the extent that he has calluses on the hand where his phone sits. His girlfriend makes fun of him.

“I don’t use my phone to play Draw Something or Angry Birds or anything,” he said, referring to the games that take advantage of touch screens on iPhone and Android phones. “If I’m doing something, it’s pretty important.”

Some customers are hanging on for BlackBerry Messenger, a system that comes loaded on the devices which allows any two people to communicate instantly for free. Clyde Berry, a 45- year-old music producer in Fall River, Massachusetts, uses the service to communicate with all his clients. You couldn’t pay him to give up his 2007 BlackBerry Curve in exchange for a new iPhone, he said.

Mobile Romance

“I’m able to keep in contact faster with clients, and we can actually have real conversation,” said Berry, who describes himself as a “crackberry addict” in his Twitter profile. “I also use the password protector a lot and keep a lot of personal and confidential information.”

BlackBerry continues to thrive overseas. In Saudi Arabia, teenagers have embraced RIM because they can flirt using its encrypted and free BlackBerry Messenger, which allows them to avoid local religious police who restrict interaction between unmarried men and women.

In Venezuela, where the device is ubiquitous on the streets of Caracas, President Chavez has dubbed his BlackBerry and Twitter account his “secret weapon.”

RIM is also popular in Indonesia, where the company is planning to add 4,000 retail stores, kiosks and other outlets to keep up with demand. Rioting broke out at a November event in Jakarta, sending 10 people to the hospital, when a promotion for RIM’s latest BlackBerry Bold phone ran out of devices.

RIM could still make a comeback in the U.S. market, its loyal fans insist, especially with the planned release later this year of BlackBerry 10, a new feature-rich operating system.

“BlackBerry has a strong brand,” Michaluk said. “America loves a comeback story. And if RIM can pull together the BlackBerry 10 story, people will buy it.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Sarah Frier in New York at sfrier1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Peter Elstrom at pelstrom@bloomberg.net




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Why Are the Fed and SEC Keeping Wall Street’s Secrets?

By William D. Cohan Apr 2, 2012 5:01 AM GMT+0700

Getting what should be public information about major Wall Street firms can be maddeningly difficult.

Bloomberg News discovered this in its ultimately successful effort to get information on the $1.2 trillion in “secret loans” the Fed doled out during the financial crisis. And I’ve had no small experience of it myself.

About William D Cohan

William D. Cohan is the author of the recently released "Money and Power: How Goldman Sachs Came to Rule the World" and the New York Times bestsellers "House of Cards" and "The Last Tycoons."

More about William D Cohan

As I started each of my three books -- about Lazard Freres, Bear Stearns and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) -- I submitted Freedom of Information Act requests to the appropriate government agencies (the Securities Exchange Commission, the State Department and the Federal Reserve) to obtain whatever documents, memos and e-mails they had about these companies and their senior executives.

I was hoping to find, among other nuggets, details of enforcement actions, or settlements that were reached where the firms “neither admitted nor denied” guilt, or other documentary evidence of the coziness that has for too long existed between Wall Street and Washington.


Sadly, getting this information in anything like a timely basis -- say, before my books were finished and published -- has been nearly impossible. At first, when I asked the SEC about documents related to Lazard’s role in the Hartford-Mediobanca scandal starting in 1968 and ending in 1981, the agency told me it could not release the information. When I reminded the FOIA administrator that the SEC had already released the information, years before, to another journalist, the agency dug up the 40 boxes of unindexed, unorganized documents and invited me to a warehouse in Pennsylvania to take a look. After an hour or so, the clerk asked me if I was done with my review. (Eventually, I persuaded the SEC to ship the boxes -- at my expense -- to its office in Manhattan, where I spent months poring over them.)

Zilch, Nada

But that bit of beginner’s luck turned out to be a fluke. To this day, the SEC has given me nothing -- zilch, nada -- about Bear Stearns or Goldman Sachs. After the Lazard book was published, the State Department sent me a thin file that was, supposedly, what it had in its possession about Felix Rohatyn’s three years as the U.S. ambassador to France. I opened the envelope and discovered that most of the 10 or so pages had been redacted.

Last December, nearly nine months after my Goldman book was published, I received an official-looking package from the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. Slapped on the outside of the envelope was a bright orange sticker about keeping the contents -- a computer disk -- away from “magnets and electric motors” and, of course, the warning “Do Not X- Ray.” This, I suspected, was my long-awaited document file about Goldman’s dealings with the Federal Reserve in the days leading up to Sept. 22, 2008, when it, along with Morgan Stanley, had the good fortune to be allowed to become a bank holding company with lifesaving unlimited access to short-term funding.

I was hoping to discover how that whole thing went down at the time, and how Goldman and Morgan Stanley got the Fed’s blessing but Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. did not. Also I was interested in Goldman’s interactions with the Fed since that fateful moment. My hopes were raised further when I heard from people at the firm that Goldman had reviewed the contents of what was being sent to me and that its executives seemed worried about it.

Nothing New

No such luck. On the disk was nothing more than a bunch of obscure -- but publicly available -- Federal Reserve documents about the details of Goldman’s assets and liabilities on a quarterly and annual basis, everything from the kinds of loans the firm had been making to the tenor of its derivatives book to whether the real-estate loans it owns were backed by commercial properties or residential properties.

The documents contained a bunch of detailed numbers (without explanation) about the kinds of risks Goldman was taking at a moment in time, thus prying open ever so slightly the firm’s black box.

For instance, who knew that at the end of December 2011 Goldman had $44.2 trillion in the notional amount of derivatives contracts on its books, about $1.3 trillion more than it did in 2010? Or that $36 trillion of that amount was for contracts of less than one year in tenor? Or that Goldman had $19 billion in insurance underwriting assets, up nearly 40 percent from the year before? Or that Goldman’s book of commercial and industrial loans was $7 billion at the end of 2011, up dramatically from the $829 million it held at the end of 2010? Or that the firm’s stash of mortgage-backed securities -- now $1.37 billion -- had nearly doubled what it had at the end of 2010?

Although I still have no idea how Goldman makes its money, I guess it is interesting to know that the government produces mind-numbing documents containing columns of numbers and then puts them on websites buried on the Internet.

But let’s not pretend that the Fed’s carefully scripted, and untimely, release of a disk of public information to me is even remotely the way FOIA is supposed to work. Where are the documents and e-mails about how Goldman was allowed by the Fed to become a bank holding company? Where are the documents from the SEC about Goldman? Where, for that matter, are the SEC documents related to the short-dated, out-of-the-money puts that investors spent millions of dollars buying in the last week of Bear Stearns’s existence? The SEC said it was investigating who bought and sold these puts, but it has never made the results of its investigation public despite my FOIA request.

If our government agencies continue to do everything in their considerable power to keep hidden information that belongs in the public realm, all the regulatory reform in the world won’t end the rot on Wall Street.

(William D. Cohan, a former investment banker and the author of “Money and Power: How Goldman Sachs Came to Rule the World,” is a Bloomberg View columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.)

Read more opinion online from Bloomberg View. Today’s highlights:

The View editors on why the U.S. should ratify the nuclear-test ban and regulate money-market funds. William D. Cohan on the government hiding public information on banks. Albert R. Hunt on murder in New Orleans. Charles Dumas on why the euro should be abandoned, and Charles Wyplosz on why the euro should be kept.

To contact the writer of this article: William D. Cohan at wdcohan@yahoo.com.

To contact the editor responsible for this article: Tobin Harshaw at tharshaw@bloomberg.net.



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Diageo Said to Hire Goldman, HSBC for Jose Cuervo Negotiations

By Jacqueline Simmons and Clementine Fletcher - Apr 2, 2012 5:01 AM GMT+0700

Diageo Plc (DGE), the world’s largest liquor maker, appointed Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) and HSBC Holdings Plc (HSBA) for advice on gaining control of Jose Cuervo from family owners, people familiar with the plans said.

Cuervo, owned by Mexico’s Beckmann family, is expected to be valued at more than $3 billion and family sellers may gain cash or shares in Diageo as part of the deal, said the people, who declined to be identified because the talks are private.

Diageo, the maker of Johnnie Walker Scotch and Smirnoff vodka, has an option to buy the company because of its international distribution rights to the Cuervo brand, a person with knowledge of the discussions said in May. Diageo’s agreement to distribute Cuervo in countries outside Mexico expires in 2013.

Discussions between Diageo and Beckmann family members may not lead to a deal because it’s unclear whether all of the family members are committed to a process, the people said.

A spokesman for Diageo declined to comment, as did spokesmen for Goldman and HSBC.

Diageo, based in London, is pushing into emerging markets and last year acquired Turkey’s Mey Icki to add the country’s largest maker of Raki liquor for about $2.1 billion.

Supply, notably around the agave plant used to make tequila, are among issues being discussed, one of the people said. A competitor, Brown-Forman Corp. (BF/A), in 2007 gained agave plants through the purchase of Mexico’s Grupo Industrial Herradura SA, maker of Herradura and El Jimador tequilas.

Agave

Brown-Forman in 2008 wrote down the value of dead agave plants, used to make tequila, due to weather, insects and disease, a spokesman said at the time.

Paul Walsh, Diageo’s chief executive officer, said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal on March 26 that he “wouldn’t take anything less than control, or a route to control,” when asked about Cuervo. Walsh has previously said Diageo wouldn’t distribute the brand under the same terms after the agreement lapses, and would seek a more lucrative agreement.

The value of Jose Cuervo works out to about $3.1 billion, Melissa Earlam, an analyst at UBS AG in London, wrote in a note published on March 27.

An all-stock deal would be mostly neutral to Diageo’s earnings per share in the second year, while a cash deal would be about 3 percent accretive to EPS, the report shows.

Cuervo is a global leader in tequila with 19 percent volume share, twice the size of Sauza, the No. 2 player owned by Fortune Brands Inc., according to the UBS report.

The Sunday Telegraph earlier reported Diageo hired Goldman to finalize talks with Jose Cuervo.

Cuervo is using Barclays Capital to explore options and negotiate a potential sale, people familiar with the matter said in May.

To contact the reporters on this story: Jacqueline Simmons in Paris at jackiem@bloomberg.net; Clementine Fletcher in London at cfletcher5@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Heather Harris at hharris5@bloomberg.net





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Dollar Declines Versus Peers on Global Growth Optimism

By Kristine Aquino and Monami Yui - Apr 2, 2012 6:31 AM GMT+0700

The dollar fell versus 13 of its 16 major peers, extending a decline from last quarter, as signs growth is recovering globally damped demand for haven assets.

The U.S. currency dropped against the Australian and New Zealand dollars before a report today from the Institute for Supply Management forecast to show a gauge of U.S. manufacturing climbed in March. Japan’s Tankan survey may show confidence among large manufacturers improved. The euro strengthened versus the dollar and yen after European governments called for a bigger global financial emergency fund after engineering a firewall to fight the region’s debt crisis.

“The market is looking for better ISM and even a rebound in the Tankan and just globally better indications of economic growth ahead,” said Emma Lawson, a Sydney-based currency strategist at National Australia Bank Ltd. (NAB) “Across the board, you’re seeing the U.S. dollar a little bit weaker.”

The dollar lost 0.2 percent to $1.3363 per euro as of 8:28 a.m. in Tokyo. It was little changed at 82.81 yen. The euro added 0.1 percent to 110.66 yen. The greenback slid 0.8 percent to $1.0433 per so-called Aussie and declined 0.5 percent to 82.24 cents per New Zealand dollar.

Manufacturing Gauges

The ISM’s factory index for the U.S. probably rose to 53 last month from 52.4 in February, according to the median estimate of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News before the figures are released today. A separate poll predicted the Tankan index for Japan’s largest manufacturers climbed to minus 1 in the three months ended March 31 from minus 4 in the previous period. The Bank of Japan (8301) will publish the data today.

China’s Purchasing Managers’ Index (CPMINDX) climbed to a one-year high of 53.1 last month, the logistics federation and the National Bureau of Statistics said yesterday. The gauge has a pattern of rising each March.

Euro-area finance ministers decided on March 30 that 500 billion euros ($668 billion) in fresh money would go along with 300 billion euros already committed to create an 800 billion- euro defense against the debt crisis. The region’s leaders are set to encourage Group of 20 economies to bulk up the International Monetary Fund’s emergency fund at an April 19-20 meeting.

To contact the reporters on this story: Kristine Aquino in Singapore at kaquino1@bloomberg.net; Monami Yui in Tokyo at myui1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Rocky Swift at rswift5@bloomberg.net





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Oil Rises a Second Day as Chinese Economic Data May Boost Demand

By Ben Sharples - Apr 2, 2012 5:48 AM GMT+0700

Oil advanced for a second day in New York as investors bet that fuel demand may increase on signs of a strengthening Chinese economy, the world’s second-biggest crude-consuming nation.

Futures rose as much as 0.5 percent after a Purchasing Managers’ Index climbed to a one-year high of 53.1 in March, China’s logistics federation and the National Bureau of Statistics said yesterday. Payrolls in the U.S., the world’s biggest crude user, probably increased in March for a fourth consecutive month, economists said before a report this week. Oil capped a second quarterly gain on March 30 after President Barack Obama declared world supplies were sufficient to proceed with new sanctions against Iran.

Oil for May delivery gained as much as 54 cents to $103.56 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange and was at $103.46 at 8:35 a.m. Sydney time. Prices climbed 4.2 percent in the three months to March 30 for a second quarterly gain.

Brent oil for May settlement increased 51 cents, or 0.4 percent, to $123.39 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. The European benchmark contract’s premium to New York-traded West Texas Intermediate was at $19.92 from $19.86 on March 30.

U.S. employment rose by 205,000 after climbing by 227,000 in February, according to the median projection of 54 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. The Labor Department report is due April 6.

To contact the reporter on this story: Ben Sharples in Melbourne at bsharples@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Alexander Kwiatkowski at akwiatkowsk2@bloomberg.net




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Euro Leaders Seek Global Help After Firewall Boosted

By Patrick Donahue - Apr 2, 2012 5:01 AM GMT+0700

Efforts to resolve the two-year-old European debt crisis swung back to world leaders after euro-area policy makers boosted a firewall designed to overcome doubts about their crisis response and to lure additional emergency aid.

Finance ministers from the 17-member monetary union unveiled a package over the weekend including 500 billion euros ($667 billion) in fresh bailout funds on top of 300 billion euros already committed to rescue programs, which together topped the symbolic $1 trillion mark. The total doubles when more than 1 trillion euros lent by the European Central Bank to aid the region’s banks is included.

“The political commitment to the eurozone is increasingly clear, and the ECB has shown that, in the final analysis, they’ll do what they have to do,” Erik Nielsen, chief global economist at UniCredit SpA (UCG), wrote in a note to clients yesterday.

Group of 20 nations that rebuffed German-led pleas for more aid in February will be asked to decide this month whether European leaders have done enough to warrant increased resources from the International Monetary Fund. Euro-area finance ministers insisted at a meeting that ended March 31 in Copenhagen that they’ve fulfilled their side of the bargain.

“Europe has done its part” and that augurs well for talks at the IMF spring meeting on April 20, French Finance Minister Francois Baroin said as he left the meeting in the Danish capital.

IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde said March 30 that Europe’s upgraded strategy will “support the IMF’s efforts to increase its available resources for the benefit of all our members.” The same day, the U.S. Treasury said that Europe’s decision on financing will “strengthen confidence.”

‘Positive Efforts’

“Today’s announcement by the Eurogroup reinforces a trajectory of positive efforts to strengthen confidence in the euro area,” the Treasury said in a statement in Washington.

With finance ministers offering differing arithmetic to defend the firewall, it was unclear whether emerging nations including China and India would be persuaded to help bolster the IMF’s anti-crisis war chest at the fund’s meeting.

The weekend gathering capped a first quarter in which euro- area leaders agreed on a fiscal treaty outlining new budget rules, completed a second bailout program for Greece and bolstered their bailout funding. Along with the ECB’s three-year loans, the activity helped to ease borrowing costs in the monetary union and calm markets.

Even as euro officials pledged to exploit the time they’ve bought with the measures, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble criticized an excessive focus on the volume of bailout funding at the expense of structural overhauls like budget cuts and labor market changes.

‘Stupid Talk’

“My irritation over a lot of stupid talk over the last few days has to do with the fact that it’s as if only the firewall is important,” Schaeuble told reporters in Copenhagen March 30. “You could have put in 10 trillion, but if you don’t solve the problem, it’s worth nothing.”

The meeting featured a spat as to which European minister would present the package to the media. Austria’s Finance Minister Maria Fekter later apologized for speaking before a scheduled press conference.

The increased euro firewall derives from the ability of the 500 billion-euro European Stability Mechanism, the euro-area’s permanent rescue fund scheduled to go into operation from July, to use fresh funding. Had ministers not acted, that figure would have been reduced by funds already committed by the temporary European Financial Stability Facility.

Forced Compromise

The new fund’s firepower fell short of a draft proposal to top it up with some 240 billion euros in EFSF funds not yet committed. Instead, that amount will only be used to ensure that the permanent ESM can lend its full 500 billion euros before it becomes fully resourced in two years.

The compromise was forced by a group of German-led creditor countries that balked at potentially 940 billion euros in overall bailout funds, saying that such a sum couldn’t be justified to their countries’ lawmakers and taxpayers.

“Finland is ready to increase the capacity, but 940 billion is not possible for our side -- it’s too high,” Finnish Finance Minister Jutta Urpilainen told reporters March 30.

It’s questionable whether the lesser amount will win over investors and G-20 leaders who have demanded bolder action from the euro area, according to Malcolm Barr, an economist at JPMorgan Chase & Co. in London. He said the funding was still too meager potentially to rescue Italy and Spain, which have combined borrowing needs of 800 billion euros in the next three years -- or to deal with additional bank recapitalizations.

Rich Enough

Europe’s move “is likely to be a disappointment not only to some within the euro area, but also to those outside who wanted to see ‘the color of European money’ before being prepared to commit more resources to the IMF,” Barr said yesterday in an e-mailed note.

At a meeting in Mexico City in February, the G-20 said that a European review of its backstop funding is “essential” before any consideration of bulking up IMF resources. Officials at that meeting, including those from Japan, Brazil, Russia and the U.K., sided with the President Barack Obama’s administration, which has said that Europe is rich enough to do more.

Euro-region national central banks plan to steer 150 billion euros to the IMF as a down payment toward other countries chipping in. That sum was left out of Europe’s firewall calculation because it would be managed by the global powers that run the Washington-based IMF.

To contact the reporter on this story: Patrick Donahue in Berlin at pdonahue1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: James Hertling at jhertling@bloomberg.net




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Japan Tankan Confidence Failing to Improve Undermines Rebound

By Keiko Ujikane and Masahiro Hidaka - Apr 2, 2012 6:56 AM GMT+0700

Sentiment among Japan’s largest manufacturers failed to improve in March, undermining signs of a rebound in the world’s third-largest economy.

The quarterly Tankan index was unchanged from minus 4 in December, the Bank of Japan said today in Tokyo. That was less than the median estimate of 25 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News for a reading of minus 1. A negative number means pessimists outnumber optimists.

Stagnant sentiment indicates a weakening currency and gains in stock prices this year may not be enough to bolster corporate activity as exporters struggle to regain ground lost to overseas rivals when the yen surged to a postwar record in October. Sony Corp. (6758) more than doubled its annual loss forecast, while Panasonic Corp. (6752) and Sharp Corp. predicted record losses.

“It’ll probably take more time before the effects of weakening yen and rising stocks spill over into corporate sentiment,” Hideo Kumano, chief economist at Dai-Ichi Life Research Institute in Tokyo and a former BOJ official, said before the report. “There may be many companies that are still holding onto severe views on earnings that suffered a blow from the yen’s appreciation in late 2011.”

A government report last week showed that industrial production unexpectedly dropped in February. Policy makers are counting on reconstruction spending after last year’s earthquake and tsunami to help propel the rebound from a contraction in 2011.

Switch to Expansion

Gross domestic product may expand an annualized 1.7 percent last quarter after a 0.7 percent contraction in the final three months of last year, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey of analysts.

The Japanese currency hit a post-World War II high of 75.35 against the dollar in October, eroding profits of exporters earned abroad and jeopardizing their competitiveness. The yen has retreated from its high after the Bank of Japan expanded monetary stimulus on Feb. 14.

Sony, Japan’s largest electronics exporter, said in February that it predicted its loss in the year ended on March 31 would widen to 220 billion yen, more than double its previous estimate. Panasonic, Japan’s biggest appliance maker, also widened its annual net-loss forecast to a record 780 billion yen, it said in February. Sony earned 70 percent of its revenue outside Japan and Panasonic 48 percent.

Weakness in business confidence may increase the chance that the BOJ will consider expanding its asset-purchase program, Dai-Ichi Life Research’s Kumano said.

BOJ policy board members are scheduled to meet April 9-10 and April 27 this month. The central bank held off from expanding asset purchases at its meeting in March as it monitored improvements in the economy. It expanded bond purchases by 10 trillion yen and set a 1 percent inflation goal in February. Consumer prices excluding fresh food rose 0.1 percent in February.

To contact the reporters on this story: Keiko Ujikane in Tokyo at kujikane@bloomberg.net; Masahiro Hidaka in Tokyo at mhidaka@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Paul Panckhurst at ppanckhurst@bloomberg.net





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Romney Says Wisconsin Win Will Knock Santorum Out of Race

By Lisa Lerer - Apr 1, 2012 11:05 AM GMT+0700

Mitt Romney predicted victory in next week’s Wisconsin primary, projecting new confidence that such a win would clear the way for him to lock up the Republican presidential nomination.

“We’re looking like we’re going to win this thing on Tuesday,” he said in Fitchburg, Wisconsin yesterday, suggesting he could also come out ahead in two other contests in Maryland and the District of Columbia on April 3. “If I can get that boost also from Wisconsin, I think we’ll be on a path that’ll get me the nomination well before the convention.”

Mitt Romney greets volunteers at a phone bank for Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker in Fitchburg, Wisconsin on March 31, 2012. Photographer: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

A trio of victories would demonstrate Romney’s ability to win across the country, while also expanding his lead toward securing the 1,144 convention delegates needed to capture the party nomination.

Romney has 568 delegates, according to an Associated Press tally. Former U.S. Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum has 273, followed by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich with 135 and Representative Ron Paul of Texas with 50.

“If you do your job and I do mine, I might be able to pick up all three of those, and that would be obviously a big statement,” he told voters at a call center for Republican Governor Scott Walker, who is facing a recall election.

Romney wins could also mark the beginning of the end for Santorum, who’s struggled to maintain momentum amid endorsements for Romney and calls from numerous prominent party leaders to complete the primary process and begin preparation for the contest in November against President Barack Obama. Romney on March 29 was endorsed by former President George H.W. Bush.

Santorum’s Pitch

At a Republican party dinner in Wisconsin last night, Santorum raised questions about Romney’s general election competitiveness, saying he didn’t share their views on such issues as a health-care mandate. Romney, Santorum said, couldn’t make a strong case against the national health-care law championed by Obama because of his support for a similar state law as governor of Massachusetts.

“It’s important to stand behind principled conservatives,” he told voters in Pewaukee, Wisconsin. “It’s our best chance of winning.”

The Wisconsin primary is Santorum’s last opportunity to demonstrate his strength in the Midwest, a region where he has said he is better than Romney to compete against Obama. In Michigan and Ohio, Santorum held Romney to wins of 3 percentage points and 1 percentage point.

Romney Polling Ahead

In a NBC News/Marist poll released yesterday, Romney had an advantage over Santorum, 40 percent to 33 percent. Paul was third with 11 percent, and Gingrich was last at 8 percent, in the survey of likely Wisconsin primary voters conducted March 26-27 with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.6 percentage points.

The next contests will be on April 24 in Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York and Delaware -- states expected to favor Romney -- and in Pennsylvania, which Santorum represented in the House and Senate.

Santorum is looking ahead to the April 24 primaries. He scheduled his election night party in Mars, Pennsylvania, near his hometown of Butler, rather than Tuesday in Wisconsin.

On the campaign trail yesterday, Romney ignored his primary rivals, keeping his message focused on the general election. He framed the election as a battle for economic freedom, blaming Obama for “the most tepid, weakest recovery” and labeled his economic strategy a “bust.”

“This is a time for freedom, for economic freedom,” he said in his remarks before the Faith and Freedom Coalition. “It is not a time for a government dominated society or economy.”

Revive America

At the party dinner in Pewaukee last night, Romney promised to revive America, accusing Obama with failing to recognize the country’s unique place in the world.

“It is always a great gift to remember that we have something no one else in the world has: We’re American,” he said. “I want to make sure we bring back that conviction to every man, woman and child around the world.”

Even as he pivoted to the November election, Romney highlighted positions that appeal to evangelical and born-again Christian voters who make up the primary base of the Republican Party.

“I will restore and protect religious freedom,” he said. “We are one nation under God and that must be maintained.”

Romney, 65, struck an upbeat tone as he toured the state, joking with voters and praising Wisconsin U.S. Representative Paul Ryan, who has endorsed Romney.

Joking Romney

In Fitchburg, Romney teased an aide about his gray plaid jacket, saying that it was made out of the fabric of an old couch once owned by Ryan. “People always wondered what happened to that sofa,” Romney told voters.

After losing primaries to Santorum in Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana, Romney is casting Wisconsin as the state that can deliver a knock-out punch.

“I’m not counting the delegates before they hatch,” Romney said. “But I’m going to keep working very hard and hope I get a good strong send off from Wisconsin.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Lisa Lerer in Pewaukee, Wisconsin at llerer@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Jeanne Cummings at jcummings21@bloomberg.net




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