Economic Indicators

Asia Trading Update, Currencies, Gold, Oil, Equities

Live Asia Update from LTN and HCM Leaders in Financial News and Services in Asia Energy producers lost 1.3 percent, the biggest drop among 10 industries in the index. South Korea’s Kospi index retreated 0.3 percent and Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index (AS51) slid 0.7 percent. Japanese markets are closed for a holiday. The Hang Seng [...]

Durable Goods Manufacturing Led Growth

Durable-goods manufacturing, professional, scientific, and technical services, and information services were the leading contributors to U.S. economic growth in 2011, according to advance statistics on the breakout of real gross domestic product (GDP) by industry from the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Overall, 15 of 22 industry groups contributed to the 1.7 percent increase in real [...]

The End of US Social Security

US Social Security and Medicare are insolvent in the long term The annual report of the Trustees of the Social Security and Medicare trust funds was just released the report provides plenty of food for thought, and some fear. The Social Security trust funds for Old Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI) plus Disability Insurance (DI) [...]

Retail sales up 1.1 percent

ADVANCE MONTHLY SALES FOR RETAIL AND FOOD SERVICES FEBRUARY 2012 The U.S. Census Bureau announced today that advance estimates of U.S. retail and food services sales for February, adjusted for seasonal variation and holiday and trading-day differences, but not for price changes, were $407.8 billion, an increase of 1.1 percent (±0.5%) from the previous month [...]

Austerity Leads Italy to Recession

Italy’s economy shrank 0.7 percent in the fourth quarter of 2011, following a 0.2 percent decline in gross domestic product in the third quarter. Prime Minister Mario Monti bowed to pressure from the ECB, World Bank and IMF, he rushed through a misguided 33 billion euro ($43 billion) austerity plan in December and is now [...]

Default Contagion Possible in Europe

Friday seen one of the worst moments of the 2008 financial crisis played out, part of the European Union defaulted on their debt and with the help of the ECB, World Bank and IMF strong armed bond holders in to accepting massive write offs. European officials insist that Greece is a one-time deal, not meant [...]

China CPI at 3.6%

China’s February CPI at 3.6%, down from January’s 4.5% China’s consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, is expected to rise to 3.6% in February, down from January’s 4.5% increase, according to a economist’s forecast. The pullback is due to continuous declines in food prices, which has a nearly 33% weighting in the [...]

Greece in Default, Rating Cut to Lowest Level

Moody’s dropped Greece’s rating to C from Ca late yesterday, saying in a statement that investors who participate in the nation’s debt exchange will get about 70 percent less than the face value of their holdings, Economist Shayne Heffernan said that, “now officially Greece has defaulted.” The deal constitutes “a distressed exchange, and hence a [...]

Austerity Rules Europe

Budget discipline pact signed by 25 EU states All but 2 European Union countries signed a treaty on tighter budget discipline for the euro zone on Friday, marking a coup for Germany which pushed for the accord to try to prevent a repeat of the loose spending that led to a debt crisis. Chancellor Angela [...]

RMB Hits New High

China’s Yuan rises to new high against USD Wednesday The Chinese currency Renminbi (RMB), or the Yuan, rose to a new high against the USD Wednesday. It strengthened 42 basis points to stand at 6.2919 vs. the USD Wednesday, according to the China Foreign Exchange Trading System. In China’s foreign exchange spot market, the Yuan [...]

Read More » No comment February 29, 2012

Investor Services

Private Equity Takes a Hit in Q1 2012

Most private-equity and hedge funds typically take 20 percent of investment gains as carried interest, on top of 2 percent of assets as a management fee to …