Entries from November 2009 ↓

GENEVA (Reuters) – Swiss bank UBS (UBSN.VX) is threatening to move its headquarters out of Switzerland if the authorities impose too many new regulations in the wake of the global financial crisis, Swiss weekly paper Sonntag CH said.

Oswald Gruebel, chief executive of Switzerland's biggest bank by assets, made the threat in a speech to businessmen last week, citing the possibility that the authorities would force major banks to reorganize as holding companies, the paper said on Sunday.

A UBS spokeswoman declined to comment on the report.

Gruebel spoke to the Zurich Business Club on Thursday at a closed-door event at which reporters were not present.

The idea of forcing banks in Switzerland to operate as holding companies is part of the discussion on supervising banks deemed "too big to fail."

Switzerland's relatively small economy is dominated by two mega-banks, UBS and Credit Suisse (CSGN.VX).

Swiss National Bank Vice-Chairman Philipp Hildebrand, noting total banking assets are more than seven times the size of Swiss gross domestic product, said earlier this month that the country urgently needed tougher regulatory standards than other countries given the relative size of its banks. [ID:nLI129832]

The Swiss government bailed out UBS in October 2008 by injecting 6 billion Swiss francs ($5 fast cash now.95 billion) in return for a stake of some 9 percent, subsequently sold at a profit.

UBS also originally planned to transfer some $60 billion in illiquid assets to the central bank, but this was later reduced to $39 billion.

Swiss regulators believe that forcing multinational banks to operate as national institutions in different countries, controlled by a central holding company, would allow the authorities in a crisis to rescue the Swiss company while letting foreign subsidies go under, the paper said.

But such a structure would oblige the bank to inject capital into the subsidiaries, which would be expensive.

In such circumstances it would be logical to move the holding company abroad, the paper quoted Gruebel as saying.

Gruebel is not the only banker to threaten a move.

Bankers and hedge funds in London often say they will move to Switzerland if UK regulation and taxation becomes too oppressive.

($1=1.009 Swiss Franc)

(Reporting by Jonathan Lynn; Editing by Mike Nesbit)

UBS threatens to move HQ from Switzerland: report

Hot News: Europe Markets: Europe shares off early lows as buyers emerge

DUBAI/LONDON (Reuters) – Banks outside the Gulf played down their exposure to Dubai debt on Friday after fears of default shook global markets, and European leaders said the world economy was now strong enough to cope with the setback.

Stocks from Tokyo to London were haunted by concerns that banks were exposed to state companies in Dubai, whose rise from a desert backwater into the business hub of the world's top oil exporting area lured expatriate cash and executives.

The crisis began on Wednesday when Dubai, part of the United Arab Emirates federation, asked to delay payment on billions of dollars of debt issued by conglomerate Dubai World and its main property subsidiary Nakheel, developer of three palm shaped islands that once attracted celebrities and the super-rich.

"While it is a setback, I think we will find it is not on the scale of previous problems we have dealt with," British Prime Minister Brown told reporters in Port of Spain, where he will attend a summit of leaders from Commonwealth countries.

"The world financial system is stronger now and able to deal with the problems that arise," he said.

French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said there were enough resources in the region to make sure there would not be a second round of the financial crisis although at a joint news conference, Russian premier Vladimir Putin said the saga showed it would be tough for the world to shake off the financial crisis which has gripped it for two years.

Dubai World had $59 billion of liabilities as of August, most of Dubai's total debt of $80 billion. International banks exposure related to Dubai World reach $12 billion in syndicated and bilateral loans, banking sources told Thomson Reuters LPC.

But the numbers pale in comparison to the $2.8 trillion in writedowns the International Monetary Fund estimates U.S. and European lenders will have made between 2007 and 2010 as a result of the global credit crisis.

"The events in Dubai in recent days are one of the hiccups if you like, one of the difficulties, which affirms that we were right to highlight the uncertainty ahead of us and that the road ahead could be a bumpy one," European Central Bank Governing Council member Athanasios Orphanides said.

French banks said their exposure to the Dubai crisis was limited and Italy's central bank said Italian banks should face no problems linked to the Gulf trade and tourism hub. The sentiments were echoed by Chinese banks.

Those statements helped push European stocks into the black although U.S. stock futures pointed lower after markets were shut for the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday.

"We have seen a classic risk aversion reaction in the markets over the past 24 hours. The dollar has slumped, the yen is stronger," a Societe Generale note said. "At this stage, this setback looks to be one that is very much country specific."

ABU DHABI EXPOSURE

While European and Asian banks scrambled to distance themselves, lenders in Abu Dhabi, a fellow member of the UAE federation and home to most of the country's oil, appeared to have major positions.

Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank has at least 8-9 billion dirhams ($2.18-$2.45 billion) exposure to Dubai World and related entities, forcing the bank to book more provisions, a senior executive of the bank said immediate payday loans online. First Gulf Bank has at least 5 billion dirhams ($1.36 billion).

JP Morgan said it was less concerned about global banks' direct exposure to Dubai World and was not worried about Abu Dhabi, which is sitting on hundreds of billions of dollars.

"We are more concerned about the spillover effect within the UAE with CDS spreads in Abu Dhabi increasing," it said in a note. "It remains unclear if the Dubai government will support the liabilities of government related entities and how … neighbors will weather the storm."

The price of insuring Gulf debt surged again on Friday.

Credit default swaps (CDS) for Dubai rose more than 100 basis points but were well below previous peaks in the global crisis late last year and earlier this.

For related graphic, see:

http://graphics.thomsonreuters.com/119/ME_DBCDS21109.gif

Nakheel's Islamic bond prices extended losses, falling 30 points to a record low of 40, according to Reuters data.

The $3.52 billion bond at the center of the crisis, which was originally due to mature on Dec 14, 2009, had traded as high as 110 on Wednesday before the Dubai government said it would ask creditors to agree on a standstill of debt held by Nakheel and Dubai World until May 2010.

The debt crisis in Dubai also pushed up debt insurance costs for other sovereigns in the Gulf, a wealthy region Western firms had turned to for help at the height of the credit crunch.

TRANSPARENCY, CREDIBILITY

Analysts expect Dubai to receive financial support from Abu Dhabi, though it may have to abandon an economic model focused on developing swathes of desert with foreign money and labor.

But the prospect of a bailout did little to allay concerns among investors, already worried the global economy may not be recovering quickly enough to justify a near doubling of prices for emerging market stocks and many commodities since March.

International fund managers said they were considering rotating dedicated money out of Dubai and into Abu Dhabi, Qatar and Egypt after local markets begin to open on Monday after the Muslim Eid al-Adha holiday.

Analysts also said the timing of the announcement on the eve of the holiday, the lack of prior communication with bondholders, and the scant details given on how a debt rescheduling would work had dented Dubai's credibility.

"The way the announcement was made, including its timing has caused damage to Dubai's credibility," Ghanem Nuseibah, senior analyst at Political Capital Policy Research & Consulting Institute. "This will take a very long time to repair."

UAE media either ignored the crisis or put a positive spin on the news on Friday. Abu Dhabi-based financial daily Alrroya Aleqtissadiya carried the headline "European markets overreact to Dubai's bond news."

(For graphic of a simplified breakdown of the various holdings of Dubai World, Dubai Holding and Investment Corporation of Dubai click:

http://graphics.thomsonreuters.com/119/ME_DBSTR1109.gif)

(Writing by Lin Noueihed, reporting by Raissa Kasolowsky, Martina Fuchs and Enji Kiwan in Dubai, Ulf Laessing in Saudi Arabia, Adrian Croft, Sujata Rao, Atul Prakash, Caroline Cohn in London and Michele Kambas, Editing by Mike Peacock)

Banks, world leaders play down Dubai debt threat

PARIS, Nov. 26 (Xinhua) — The French Senate House has passed the finance bill for 2010 Budget on Wednesday night, raising the planned public deficit to 117.6 billion euros (176.7 billion U.S. dollars).

With 176 favoring votes, the bill increased the 2010 budget deficit by 1.7 billion euros, up from the previous 115.9 billion euros nodded by the National Assembly.

In September, the government deficit was estimated at a record 8.5 percent of GDP in the budget plan for 2010, however, due to the government’s continuous investment in stimulus packages, the gap can be broadened.

Contentious creation of carbon taxes and reforms to professional taxes are placed in the first part of the bill in spite of oppositions from the Left and public.

French carbon tax, covering the use of oil, gas and coal, will charge 17 euros for per tonne of emitted carbon dioxide auto loan. It is expected raise the price of fuel oil by 4.5 eurocents per liter and that of petrol by 4 eurocents per liter.

As both congress houses have passed the bill, France, the first major European economy to tax carbon emission, will implement the levy from next January.

The professional tax, a regional tax charged by local communities and organizations, will be replaced by a new tax named as regional economic contribution (CET). Local beneficiaries have expressed negative reactions to the reform. Special Report: Global Financial Crisis

France raises public deficit for 2010 budget

HONG KONG (Reuters) – The dollar slumped to a 14-year low against the yen on Thursday, helping gold scale another record high, while Asian stocks faltered as investors digested a mixed batch of economic data.

Gold punched above $1,192.60 an ounce on expectations more central banks will buy the precious metal. Its strength was also a reflection of expected prolonged weakness in the dollar, which has already lost more than 8 percent against major currencies this year and is heading for its biggest yearly slide in six years.

On Thursday the dollar slumped to a 14-year low against the yen below 87 yen, as deputy Japanese finance minister Yoshihiko Noda told Reuters that Tokyo was not planning to intervene in the market, and hit a 15-month low against a basket of major currencies (.DXY).

The yen's strength continued to put pressure on shares of Japanese exporters. Japan's Nikkei (.N225) share index was flat but hit a four-month low in early trade and analysts said sentiment remained weak after the government said last week that the economy was back in deflation.

"The Japanese market is also experiencing the double whammy of a strong yen and the government's deflation declaration," said Fumiyuki Nakanishi, manager at SMBC Friend Securities in Tokyo.

"Deflation could ultimately lead to a downward revision in earnings forecasts as lower prices put a lid on corporate sales and dampen profitability."

PHILIPPINE GDP DISAPPOINTS

Equity markets across Asia were subdued as U.S. markets will be closed for the Thanksgiving holiday and as investors digested mixed economic data.

Encouraging U.S. jobless claims and home sales data supported the Dow Jones (.DJI), which edged up 0.3 percent on Wednesday, but trading volumes were the lightest this year ahead of the holiday, and there was disappointment too as U.S. durable goods orders unexpectedly fell last month.

The MSCI index of Asia Pacific stocks traded outside Japan (.MIAPJ0000PUS) was down 0.2 percent while the Thomson Reuters index of regional shares was 0.6 percent lower.

In South Korea, an index of manufacturers' business sentiment on Thursday fell for a second month while the Philippines reported weaker than expected third-quarter gross domestic product figures no credit check payday loans.

Friday marks the start of the U.S. Christmas holiday shopping season and will provide a key indicator of demand for Asian exports in the final months of the year.

Asia-Pacific stock markets outside Japan have already rallied nearly 70 percent this year, making investors cautious as the year-end nears. However, analysts say the region still looks a good bet compared with other parts of the world as Western consumer demand remains fragile.

The Middle East has also lost some of its shine with Dubai on Wednesday reporting that two of its flagship firms planned to delay repayment on billions of dollars of debt .

The Australian dollar held firm as a rate rise still looked to be on the cards next week after data showed a sharp upgrade in Australian business spending plans even though investment unexpectedly slipped last quarter.

"For the Reserve Bank (of Australia), rates at these levels are too low and we anticipate a move upwards in December of 25 basis points," said Andrew Hanlan, senior economist at Westpac in Australia.

Australian shares were steady, outperforming most other markets, including Hong Kong where the Hang Seng Index (.HSI) was down 1 percent and China's Minsheng Bank (1988.HK) fell below its initial public offering price on its trading debut.

The $3.9 billion issue by China's seventh-largest lender, the world's fifth-biggest IPO so far this year, came amid weakening appetite for Chinese banks due to fears they will need more capital. Minsheng fell to as low as HK$8.95 from its offer price of HK$9.08.

In Vietnam, the dong currency was quoted near its new low point against the dollar after the central bank devalued the currency by more than 5 percent on Wednesday and narrowed its trading band.

(Additional reporting by Aiko Hayashi in TOKYO and the SYDNEY newsroom; editing by Tomasz Janowski)

Dollar hits 14-year low vs yen, gold at new high

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Shares on Wall Street were slightly lower in late trading Tuesday after a report showed that the economy grew at a slower pace in the third quarter than first anticipated.

Investors are entering trading cautiously as the updated report from the Commerce Department showed the nation’s economy grew at a 2.8 percent rate in the third quarter, down from an initial estimate of 3.5 percent — fresh evidence that while a recovery is under way, it is slow and bumpy.

Economists polled by Thomson Reuters predicted the growth rate would be revised to 2.9 percent.

Slow consumer spending, weakness in commercial construction and the nation’s trade gap all likely contributed to the lower growth expectation.

Consumer spending accounts for more than two-thirds of all economic activity and a rebound in shopping is considered vital for a strong recovery.

At the close, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 17.24 points or 0.16 percent, to 10,433.71. The broader Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index was down 0.58 points, to 1,105.66, and Nasdaq fell 6.83 points or 0.31 percent, to 2,169.18.Overseas markets were mostly lower as China’s central bank warned commercial banks in the country to control their lending.

Investors waiting for further clues about an economic recovery are also getting data on consumer confidence.

A report from the Conference Board is expected to show consumers are still nervous about the economy. The group’s Consumer Confidence Index for November was likely unchanged at 47.7, compared with October. A reading above 90 would signal the economy is on solid footing.

A housing report showed home prices improved for the fourth straight month in September, providing further evidence of a modestly improving housing market.

The Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller home price index, which tracks prices in 20 major metropolitan markets, rose 0.3 percent in September, compared with the previous month. Prices rose in 11 areas.

The home price report comes a day after an upbeat report on existing home sales in October helped stocks snap a three-day losing streak cash advances pay day loan. A weakening dollar also helped major indexes rally on Monday. Major indexes rose more than 1 percent.

The National Association of Realtors said October home sales rose more than 10 percent, easily topping the 1.4 percent increase predicted by economists.

A weakening dollar has bolstered commodities and stocks of energy and materials companies, helping drive shares higher in recent weeks.

The dollar was mixed Tuesday against other major currencies, while gold prices also rose.

Meanwhile, bond prices rose modestly. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which moves opposite its price, fell to 3.34 percent from 3.36 percent late Monday. The yield on the three-month T-bill, considered one of the safest investments, rose to 0.05 percent from 0.03 percent.

Overseas, China’s Shanghai index fell 3.5 percent, its biggest decline in three months, while Japan’s Nikkei stock average fell 1 percent. Britain’s FTSE 100 declined 0.59 percent, Germany’s DAX index fell 0.55 percent, and France’s CAC-40 declined 0.75 percent.

In London, the governor of the Bank of England, Mervyn King, said in a parliamentary hearing on Tuesday that there were “signs that a recovery will soon be under way” but added that “profound challenges” remain.

Mr. King said that inflation is likely to accelerate in the coming months because of higher petrol costs and as a temporary reduction in retail tax expires but that consumer prices would probably fall again after that.

“Powerful forces are continuing to restrain spending in the economy,” he said. “Banks are actively trying to reduce their leverage,” households and companies remain reluctant to spend because of concerns about future income and the government is likely to cut spending to reduce a record deficit.

Wall Street Struggles to Find Traction

PORTLAND, Ore. — For decades, the world’s supercomputers have been the tightly guarded property of universities and governments. But what would happen if regular folks could get their hands on one?

The price of supercomputers is dropping quickly, in part because they are often built with the same off-the-shelf parts found in PCs, as a supercomputing conference here last week made clear. Just about any organization with a few million dollars can now buy or assemble a top-flight machine.

Meanwhile, research groups and companies like I.B.M., Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft and Intel are finding ways to make vast stores of information available online through so-called cloud computing.

These advances are pulling down the high walls around computing-intensive research. A result could be a democratization that gives ordinary people with a novel idea a chance to explore their curiosity with heavy computing firepower — and maybe find something unexpected.

The trend has spurred some of the world’s top computing experts and scientists to work toward freeing valuable stores of information. The goal is to fill big computers with scientific data and then let anyone in the world with a PC, including amateur scientists, tap into these systems.

“It’s a good call to arms,” said Mark Barrenechea, the chief executive of Silicon Graphics, which sells computing systems to labs and businesses. “The technology is there. The need is there. This could exponentially increase the amount of science done across the globe.”

The notion of top research centers sharing information is hardly new. Some of the earliest incarnations of what we now know as the World Wide Web came to life so that physicists and other scientists could tap into large data stores from afar.

In addition, universities and government labs were early advocates of what became popularized as grid computing, where shared networks were created to shuttle data about.

The current thinking, however, is that the labs can accomplish far more than was previously practical by piggybacking on some of the trends sweeping the technology industry. And, this time around, research bodies big and small, along with brainy individuals, can participate in the sharing agenda.

For inspiration, scientists are looking at cloud computing services like Google’s online office software, photo-sharing sites and Amazon.com’s data center rental program. They are trying to bring that type of Web-based technology into their labs and make it handle enormous volumes of data.

“You’ve seen these desktop applications move into the cloud,” said Pete Beckman, the director of the Argonne Leadership Computing Facility in Illinois. “Now science is on that same track. This helps democratize science and good ideas.”

With $32 million from the Energy Department, Argonne has set to work on Magellan, a project to explore the creation of a cloud-computing infrastructure that scientists around the globe can use. Mr. Beckman argued that such a system would reduce the need for smaller universities and labs to spend money on their own computing infrastructure cash advance.

Another benefit is that researchers would not need to spend days downloading huge data sets so that they could perform analysis on their own computers. Instead, they could send requests to Magellan and just receive the answers.

Even curious individuals on the fringe of academia may have a chance to delve into things like climate change and protein analysis.

“Some mathematician in Russia can say, ‘I have an idea,’ ” Mr. Beckman said. “The barrier to entry is so low for him to try out that idea. So, this really broadens the number of discoverers and, hopefully, discoveries.”

The computing industry has made such a discussion possible. Historically, the world’s top supercomputers relied on expensive, proprietary components. Government laboratories paid vast sums of money to use these systems for classified projects.

But, over the last 10 years, the vital innards of supercomputers have become more mainstream, and a wide variety of organizations have bought them.

At the conference, undergraduate students competed in a contest to build affordable mini-supercomputers on the fly. And a supercomputer called Jaguar at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee officially became the world’s fastest machine. It links thousands of mainstream chips from Advanced Micro Devices.

Seven of the world’s top 10 supercomputers use standard chips from A.M.D. and Intel, as do about 90 percent of the 500 fastest machines. “I think this says that supercomputing technology is affordable,” said Margaret Lewis, an A.M.D. director. “We are kind of getting away from this ivory tower.”

While Magellan and similar projects are encouraging signs, researchers have warned that much work lies ahead to free what they consider valuable information for broader analysis.

At the Georgia Institute of Technology, for example, researchers have developed software that can evaluate scans of the brain and heart, and identify anomalies that might indicate problems. To advance such techniques, the researchers need to train their software by testing it on thousands of body scans.

But it is hard to find a repository of such scans that a hospital or a government organization like the National Institutes of Health is willing to share, even if personal information can be stripped away, said George Biros, a professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology. “Medical schools don’t make this information available,” he said.

Bill Howe, a senior scientist at the eScience Institute at the University of Washington, has urged research organizations to reveal their information. “All the data that we collect in science should be accessible, and that’s just not the way it works today,” he said.

Mr. Howe said high school students and so-called citizen scientists could make new discoveries if given the chance.

“Let’s see what happens when classrooms of students explore this information,” he said.

Supercomputing for the Masses

Hot News: Volkswagen aims to triple sales in south China

TEL AVIV (MarketWatch) — Israeli stocks were steady on Sunday, with strength in the drugmakers and the telecom companies offset by weakness in the banks and Israel Chemicals.

Late in the trading day, the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange’s benchmark TA-25 Index edged lower by 0.16% to 1063.60, while the TA-100 Index eased 0.32% to 994.98.

The Tel-Tech 15 Index of top technology issues ticked up 0.11% to 228.56.

The most-active issue was Teva, trading up 0.8%. Teva’s peer in the blue chips, Perrigo, climbed 1.2%.

Among the telecom companies, Cellcom, Israel’s largest cellular provider, rose 2.1%; Bezeq, parent of fixed-line and Pelephone-brand cellular service, was little changed; and Partner, the Israel affiliate of the Orange cellular network, advanced 2.7%.

The Israeli business daily Globes reported that Partner is planning what could become dozens of job cuts during 2010.

The paper reported that the company pared 20 jobs in its Internet department on Friday, and that the additional layoffs could result from an assessment by the management consultants McKinsey & Co. that is now in progress. Late last month, Scailex Corp. acquired a controlling stake in Partner from Hutchison telecom.

The banks were lower, Hapoalim by 0.7%, Mizrahi Tefahot by 1.1%, Leumi by 0.5%, and Discount by 0.3%.

Defense contractor Elbit Systems lifted 0.9%. Nice Systems, producer of digital recording and archiving solutions for industrial and security applications, moved up 1.6%.

Clal Insurance shares nudged up 0.1%. The company swung to third-quarter net income of 2.21 shekels ($0.58) a share from a loss of 3.68 shekels in the year-earlier quarter.

In particular, the company’s report, issued Sunday, showed that it swung to profit of 2 immediate payday loans online.57 billion shekels in earnings from investments and financing income, from a loss of 1.04 billion shekels a year earlier. Gross premiums earned rose 2.7% to 2.36 billion shekels.

Among other major insurers, Migdal and Harel both fell 0.9%.

Within the Tel-Tech 15, an active gainer was Retalix, the producer of management systems for retailers and distributors, up 2.4%, while Ceragon Networks added 2.6%.

Decliners included VeriFone, the producer of payment-processing solutions, off 2.3%, and Given Imaging, the developer of a pill-based endoscopy system, off 1.6%.

Turning to economics, Barclays Capital added its voice to the group that says that after the market closes on Monday, the Bank of Israel will leave its benchmark interest rate at 0.75%.

Market participants are divided about how the central bank, under the leadership of Gov. Stanley Fischer, will call interest rates for December, Barclays Capital emerging-market analysts said in a report dated Friday.

Some analysts are “expecting a hike by the Bank of Israel on the back of a third-quarter gross-domestic-product-growth number earlier this week that was somewhat below expectations but still robust,” the investment bank said. That figure showed seasonally adjusted GDP growth of more than 5% quarter over quarter, the investment bank said.

Last week, Citigroup analyst David Lubin said he expected a quarter-point increase in the benchmark rate, citing the GDP report and other factors.

Israel Stocks: Israel stocks steady; BarCap sees no rate change

TOKYO (MarketWatch) — The Bank of Japan upgraded its view of the nation’s economy, while it unanimously left its overnight call-rate target at 0.1% as widely expected Friday — the same day the government published a report that officially declared the economy is in deflation.

The central bank said financial conditions continue to show signs of improvement, exports and production are increasing and the decline in corporate capital outlays appears to be ending.

“Japan’s economy is picking up mainly due to various policy measures taken at home and abroad, although the momentum of self-sustaining recovery in domestic private demand remains weak,” the bank said in a statement issued after its two-day policy meeting. In its previous assessment, it said the economy “has started to pick up.”

Although economic downside risks have diminished somewhat, the bank said it will maintain its accommodative policies and provide steady support to help the economy recover.

The central bank said its baseline scenario “projects that the pace of improvement of the economy is likely to remain moderate” until around the middle of the fiscal year ending in March 2011. Most analysts expect the BOJ to maintain its extremely accommodative policy at least through the end of 2010.

Gold Rally Pauses On Dollar Gains

Gold’s seemingly unstoppable rally paused Thursday due to dollar strength and lower equities. Key to future moves will be the dollar, because gold is being bought as a hedge against currency weakness and is benefiting from the carry trade.

The Japanese government said in its monthly economic report for November released Friday that weak domestic demand has pushed the country in to “a mild deflationary phase.”

While the government’s official deflation declaration was widely leaked to local media, some analysts said its timing could be linked to Japan’s rising public debt. Debt as a percentage of annual gross domestic product is already around 200%, according to International Monetary Fund estimates — putting it at about twice the size of the country’s economy.

“The government has declared that Japan is in deflation even at the beginning of an economic recovery. We think the government’s surprise declaration is less of a sudden change in its price outlook than a step toward loosening fiscal discipline,” said Junko Nishioka, chief economist at RBS Securities in Tokyo, in emailed comments quick payday loan.

‘Prices will keep falling’

Japanese government officials have recently stepped up calls for the central bank to do more to support the still-fragile economic recovery here, after the BOJ took steps toward normalizing policy at its last meeting.

Japan’s deputy prime minister, Naoto Ka, said Friday that the central bank needed to keep using special liquidity-boosting measures to pull the country out of deflationary conditions.

But Gov. Masaaki Shirakawa said at a press conference after the announcement of the bank’s decision that the government and the BOJ are on the same page.

“If you define deflation as continuous price declines then the BOJ’s judgment on prices is the same as the government’s, as the BOJ forecast that prices will keep falling” for several years in its report released in late October, Shirakawa said, according to Dow Jones Newswires.

The BOJ said in its half-yearly economic outlook report released last month that it expects the core consumer-price index, which excludes fresh food prices, to drop 1.5% in the fiscal year ending in March, a steeper slide than its July forecast for a 1.3% fall. Core CPI will likely slip 0.8% next fiscal year and 0.4% in the year after that, the bank’s outlook report said.

Government data released Monday showed the nation’s economy grew more than expected in the July-September quarter, benefiting from the effects of government stimulus.

In real terms — adjusted for price changes — gross domestic product rose 1.2% in the quarter from the April-June period, or 4.8% on an annualized basis. Economists had expected a 0.6% on-quarter increase and an annualized increase of 2.2% in the latest period. See full story on Japan GDP.

The BOJ last month said it will allow its temporary program to purchase corporate bonds and commercial paper expire at the end of December, as scheduled. It extended a low-interest loan program for banks by three months through the end of March, but said that program, too, would then be allowed to expire.

Bank of Japan hikes economic view amid deflation

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Dell (DELL.O), the world's No.3 PC brand, said on Friday that its core business of selling computers to companies was returning, after a sharp drop-off during the global downturn led to disappointing quarterly results.

Dell's commercial business has traditionally made up the bulk of its revenue, and is an area where it continues to hold some advantage over recent upstarts such as Acer (2353.TW) of Taiwan.

"A lot of the recovery this time has been in the consumer sector, so it's not surprising to see Dell's recovery is a bit slower," Steve Felice, president of Dell's small and medium business, told reporters during a telephone conference.

Earlier, Dell announced that its third-quarter net profit plunged 54 percent from a year earlier on lower-than-expected sales as it lost market share to competitors amid a wider price war in the sector.

Felice said he was comfortable with market forecasts for PC shipments in 2010, and said the company would be working to outpace the market.

"We know how these figures were derived, and we're comfortable with the way IDC sees the world going," Felice said.

Research firm IDC says PC shipments are likely to climb above 9 percent to nearly 310 million units in 2010 from this year, and an additional 13 percent in 2011 from 2010 fast payday loan.

Asia would continue to drive much of the company's growth, Felice said, with revenue likely to return to positive growth in the near future. He declined to give details.

Much of this growth came from emerging markets such as China, where Dell said it saw its revenue grow by about 20 percent in the third quarter from the preceding three months.

Demand for computers also picked up following Microsoft's (MSFT.O) launch of its new Windows 7 operating system on October 22, but the bulk of demand is likely to come from companies looking to upgrade their aging PC systems.

"Windows 7 will have some positive effects on overall PC demand, but the larger effect will come from the older base," Felice said.

Other rivals, such as Lenovo (0992.HK) and Acer, have also been similarly upbeat on the effect of Windows 7 on PC sales, betting that the new operating system will spur commercial demand for computers.

Dell shares tumbled 6 percent following the weak results, which stood in contrast to larger rival HP's (HPQ.N) market-beating preliminary earnings this same week.

(Reporting by Kelvin Soh; Editing by Chris Lewis)

Dell bets on corporate spending for recovery

The Treasury Department opened its doors to economic bloggers this month, and the meeting was productive in at least one respect: as John Jansen of the blog Across the Curve concluded, “After meeting them, I feel I cannot refer to them as Timothy Geithner and his minions” anymore.

Mr. Geithner, the Treasury secretary, was among the senior officials who talked with bloggers at an outreach session on Nov. 2. The two-hour round table was held on background, meaning that the bloggers could describe the sessions, but not attribute quotes to specific officials. Lengthy posts about financial system reforms — and the bloggers’ disagreements with the Treasury’s strategies — ensued.

New-media scribes have gradually made their way inside most governmental institutions over the years, but the meeting was the first for bloggers at the Treasury. Tyler Cowen, an economics professor at George Mason University who has written at the Marginal Revolution blog for six years, said it was the first time he had heard from any Treasury official.

The meeting “shows that the Obama administration is working very hard on outreach to a lot of different media sources,” he said.

The Treasury invited about 20 bloggers. Eight attended — at their own expense — including some ardent critics of the department. Michael J. Panzner, who writes the Financial Armageddon blog, said the invitation “was totally out of the blue.”

Andrew Williams, a spokesman for the Treasury who assembled the event, said that Mr. Geithner had “long valued the blogosphere” and mentioned that during Mr saving account payday loan. Geithner’s tenure as the president of the New York Federal Reserve Bank, he had requested a daily compendium of relevant blog posts.

Another reason for the outreach, Mr. Williams said, is that the blogs are influential, especially because they are read by reporters at more traditional outlets.

For the Treasury officials, it was a break from the ordinary, as well.

“I think we were much better informed than the groups they’re used to talking to,” Mr. Cowen said, citing politicians who visit and “ask for the impossible.”

Mr. Cowen, also a regular contributor to the Sunday Business section of The New York Times, said that one of the senior officials remarked that the bloggers were a “welcome change of pace.” Some of the bloggers were acutely aware of the effects of being welcomed inside “the brain trust,” as Steve Randy Waldman put it on the blog Interfluidity.

“The mere invitation made me more favorably disposed to policy makers,” he wrote in his summary of the event, even though he abstained from eating any of the cookies at the meeting, “on principle.”

An economics blogger who did not attend, James Kwak of the Baseline Scenario, remarked that when the chief executives of big banks “went to Washington in March all they got was water, no cookies.”

From Treasury, an Invitation to Financial Bloggers

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