Finance & Business World

Canada’s prime minister heads to China next week where he’ll discuss Canada’s vast oil reserves in a visit that’s being viewed as an “open warning” to the United States, which rejected a pipeline from Canada to Texas.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper will be in Beijing and two other cities for bilateral meetings with top Chinese officials, including President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao, from Feb. 8-11.

Andrew MacDougall, Harper’s spokesman, said Friday it is “absolutely in Canada’s interests” to move the country’s resources to China.

Five Cabinet ministers, including the ministers of natural resources, trade and foreign affairs will make the trip with Harper.

Harper is determined to build a pipeline to Canada’s Pacific Coast after U.S. President Barack Obama rejected the Keystone XL pipeline that would have taken oil from Alberta to refineries in Texas.

Ninety-seven percent of Canadian oil exports now go to the U.S and Harper is eager to diversify. Canada is increasingly looking to China, thinking America doesn’t want a big-stake share in what environmentalists call “dirty oil,” which they say increases greenhouse gas emissions.

Canada has the world’s third-largest oil reserves after Saudi Arabia and Venezuela: more than 170 billion barrels. Daily production of 1.5 million barrels from the oil sands is expected to increase to 3.7 million by 2025, which the oil industry sees as a pressing reason to build the pipelines.

Harper told Obama he was “profoundly disappointed” that he rejected the Keystone XL pipeline. The pipeline has become a hot topic in the U.S. presidential election. Republican presidential candidates Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney have both promised to approve the pipeline.

After Obama first delayed a decision on the Keystone pipeline in November, Harper told the Chinese president at the Pacific Rim summit in Hawaii that Canada would like to sell more oil to China, and the Canadian prime minister filled in Obama on what he said instant credit report.

Wenran Jiang, an energy expert and professor at the University of Alberta, said Canada is using China as leverage.

He said Harper’s visit is an explicit warning to the U.S.

“It’s a not a subtle warning. It’s an open warning,” Jiang said. “Harper has said Keystone was a wake-up call.”

Jiang said Washington will be paying attention to the trip but he said a number of factors make U.S. officials less worried than a few years ago when China’s intentions in Canada’s oil sector weren’t as clear as they are now.

Jiang said U.S. officials no longer fear that the Chinese are investing in Canada to lock up the supply and ship it back to China. But Jiang said that doesn’t prevent Republicans like Gingrich and Romney from raising fears that the U.S. is losing energy security.

David Goldwyn, a former energy official in the Obama administration, has said he sees no threat from Chinese inroads into Canada because there is more than enough oil for all concerned.

China’s growing economy is hungry for Canadian oil. Chinese state-owned companies have invested more than $16 billion in Canadian energy in the past two years. State-controlled Sinopec has a stake in Enbridge’s proposed Pacific pipeline, and if it is built, Chinese investment in Alberta oil sands is sure to boom.

Zhang Junsai, China’s ambassador to Canada, has said Harper’s visit will help forge a “win-win” natural resource partnership with Canada to help his country’s expanding economy meet its voracious energy needs.

Forty Canadian business leaders will accompany Harper on the trip.

Relations between the countries have improved since Harper’s first visit in 2009 when Premier Wen publicly chided Harper for taking so long to visit China. Harper has since changed Canada’s hardline stance on human rights.

Source

Instant online cash advance with next-day cash direct deposit.

Portugal

Be realistic when you ask borrow money using instant payday loans. Do not borrow more than you can afford to pay back, even if they offer you more money.

The war of words between Europe and private investors heated up Tuesday as talks to reduce Greece’s massive debt burden hit an impasse.

While the finance ministers of the countries that use the euro as their currency adopted a tough stance on how much rescue money they would pump into the Greek economy, the head of the group that represents the country’s private creditors _ banks and other investment firms _ warned that the future of Europe was being threatened if a voluntary debt reduction deal over Greece was not agreed.

Charles Dallara, the managing director of the Institute of International Finance, warned that Europe was putting “decade of progress at risk” over the management of Greek debt-reduction talks, which stalled over the weekend.

“European stability is at stake as well,” Dallara said in Zurich in a press conference.

On the front line of Europe’s sovereign debt crisis, Athens is trying to get its private creditors to swap their Greek government bonds for new ones with half their face value, thereby slicing some euro100 billion ($130 billion) off its debt. The new bonds would also push the repayment deadlines 20 to 30 years into the future.

However, the main stumbling block over the past few weeks to securing this deal has been the interest rate these new bonds would carry. A high interest rate could buffer losses for investors, but would also require the eurozone and the International Monetary Fund to put up more than the euro130 billion ($169 billion) in rescue loans they promised in October.

Dallara said the private creditors, which include banks, insurance companies and hedge funds, were acting in good faith and that the proposal made last week was in the spirit of last October’s agreement. At that time, Europe’s leaders said Greece should look to reduce the value of its private sector debts by 50 percent, or euro100 billion ($130 billion).

In the early hours of Tuesday, eurozone politicians drew a firm line on the Greek debt restructuring.

Jean-Claude Juncker, the Luxembourg prime minister who chaired a meeting of finance ministers on efforts to fight the crisis, said the average interest rate over the lifetime of the new Greek bonds must be “clearly below 4 percent,” with an average rate of less than 3.5 percent for the period until 2020. That is far below the 4 percent demanded by the Institute of International Finance, which has been leading negotiations for the private bondholders.

The European ministers’ tough stance on the interest rates underlines how the eurozone and the IMF are unwilling to increase new rescue loans above the promised euro130 billion, even though Greece’s economic situation has deteriorated. After already granting Greece a euro110 billion bailout in May 2010, the eurozone and the IMF are threatening to withhold further funding for the country, which has repeatedly failed to hit budget and reform targets required in return for the financial aid.

The interest rate caps will also seriously test the willingness of private bondholders to agree to a debt deal voluntarily.

Dallara said talks would continue over the coming days, adding that he was confident there would be “large-scale” participation by the private sector if a “voluntary” deal is clinched.

However, he refused to put a deadline on the discussions.

Given the complexity of the negotiations and the legal consequences that would ensue, many analysts think a deal has to be agreed soon if Greece is to meet a vital bond repayment deadline in March.

If it can’t pay its bond, Greece would be in default of its debts, a scenario that could lead to renewed panic in financial markets and potentially derailing a feeble global economic recovery.

Dallara said Europe must keep the support of the private sector, given the massive amounts of debt that have to be refinanced from France to Portugal.

He added that there wasn’t a country that didn’t need investment from the private sector.

“Investors need to feel confident in their investments … in sovereign debt,” he said.

Before Dallara’s latest comments, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said the current impasse was a normal part of difficult negotiations.

“We continue the negotiations (with investors) as happily, but also as little susceptible to blackmail as possible,” he told reporters in Brussels. “That exists in every bazaar _ a final offer _ one shouldn’t let oneself be overly impressed by that.”

The alternative to a voluntary deal would be to force losses on to investors _ a move that the eurozone has so far been unwilling to make. Some officials fear that a forced default could trigger panic on financial markets and hurt bigger countries like Italy, Spain or even France.

But several ministers indicated that they might be willing to accept a forced default if it puts Athens in a position where it can eventually repay its remaining debt _ including the rescue loans from the eurozone and the IMF. The eurozone has said that Greece’s debt is sustainable if it falls to some 120 percent of gross domestic product by 2020. Without a restructuring it would reach close to 200 percent by the end of the year.

Even Olli Rehn, the EU’s Monetary Affairs Commissioner, said that forcing some holdouts to accept a restructuring that has the support of the majority of bondholders would be acceptable.

“That is possible within the framework of achieving a voluntary agreement on private sector involvement,” Rehn said, referring to so-called collective action clauses that Greece could write into its old bond contracts to allow majority decision making. The Commission has so far always been opposed to any forced losses for investors.

But ministers also put the pressure on Greece to reach a manageable debt level by bolstering its reform and austerity measures.

“Greece and the banks have to do more in order to reach a sustainable debt level,” Dutch Finance Minister Jan Kees de Jager told reporters as he arrived for a second day of meetings with his European counterparts. “We have to await the discussions about that because a sustainable debt level is absolutely a precondition for the next (rescue) program.”

Schaeuble also insisted that firm support for new austerity measures from all major Greek parties _ including after elections expected in April _ was a precondition for a new bailout.

__

Pan Pylas in Zurich and Nicholas Paphitis in Athens, Greece, contributed to this story.

Source

Asian stocks posted muted gains Monday in trade thinned by Chinese New Year holidays as talks on a debt agreement for Greece dragged on.

Only a handful of markets were open for business. Trading is closed in mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines and South Korea.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 stock average was up 0.2 percent at 8,779.16 while Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 slipped 0.3 percent to 4,228.10. New Zealand’s benchmark added 0.1 percent to 3,279.19.

On Friday, stocks in Europe mostly held their gains for the week, waiting for the outcome of Greece’s negotiations with its creditors on a deal to cut the face value of up to euro200 billion ($258 billion) in debt by 50 percent.

Over the weekend, the representative of Greece’s private creditors said the talks are continuing even after his unexpected departure from the country.

A deal in Athens would allow the country to receive a second bailout package from other European governments and the International Monetary Fund, and cut Greece’s debt from an estimated 160 percent of its annual economic output to 120 percent by 2020 low interest rate personal loans.

That is still painfully high, but without the help, Greece will not be able to pay euro14.5 billion in debt due March 20. A Greek default would send borrowing costs higher across Europe and could trigger chaos in the global financial system.

On Wall Street on Friday the Dow rose 96.50 points to close at 12,720.48. The S&P 500 index inched up 0.88 to 1,315.38 and the Nasdaq gained 1.63 points to 2,786.70.

In energy trading, benchmark crude was down 41 cents at $97.92 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Source

Banks are hoarding the European Central Bank

India

Companies cranked out more goods in December and pending sales of existing homes jumped in November for a second month, pointing to a pickup in U.S. economic growth as 2011 comes to a close.

The Institute for Supply Management-Chicago Inc. said today its business barometer (CHPMINDX) was little changed at 62.5 from a seven- month high of 62.6 in November. The index of signed contracts (USPHTMOM) to buy previously owned houses rose 7.3 percent after climbing 10.4 percent the prior month, the National Association of Realtors said. Both figures surpassed the median estimate of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News.

A former executive of KV Pharmaceutical Co. has accused the Bridgeton-based drug maker of cheating her out of stock options.

Melissa Hughes, the company’s former vice president of human resources, filed a lawsuit Oct. 28 in the Circuit Court of St. Louis County. Her suit was transferred recently to federal court in St. Louis.

Hughes, who resides in St. Charles County, worked at KV from 2003 until 2010.

KV executives could not be reached for comment.

According to the lawsuit, KV awarded Hughes a stock option plan in February 2009, which granted her the right to purchase 40,000 shares of KV’s Class A common stock at $2.95 per share. Two months later, the suit alleges, KV gave her a “retention incentive” that granted her the right to purchase an additional 10,000 shares of Class A common stock at $1.52 per share.

The retention incentive, the suit alleges, was given “for the purpose of retaining her as a key employee with critical and confidential knowledge concerning the financial well-being of the company” because the loss of Hughes and other key workers would have resulted in an exodus of talented employees.

In exchange for continuing to work at KV, the suit alleges, Hughes continued to work at the drug maker “and diligently pursued their economic objectives, and did so at great peril to her long term financial well-being” as the company verged on bankruptcy during the period from April 2009 through September 2010 payday loan lenders.

KV officials acted in bad faith by failing to inform her that her stock options could not be exercised due to the company’s delays in filing its 2009 and 2010 annual reports with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the suit alleges. In addition, the suit alleges that KV officials repeatedly blocked Hughes’ attempts to exercise her stock options in 2010 and 2011.

According to the suit, KV’s former chief executive David Van Vliet told Hughes that her stock options “would be worth $2 million,” but the suit did not specify what period of time Vliet may have referenced. Vliet could not be reached Friday for comment.

Hughes claims that during the time period when she attempted to exercise her stock options from June 2010 to June 2011, the fair market value of KV stock was well above the option purchase price as set forth in her stock option agreements.

According to Bloomberg News, the average price of KV’s common shares during that time period was $3.17, with a low of 61 cents and a high of $13.07.

Hughes was notified last June that KV’s board of directors had canceled her stock options because they had expired before being exercised, the suit alleges.

Source

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti

Bangkok residents jammed bus stations and highways on Wednesday to flee the flood-threatened Thai capital, while others built cement walls to protect their shops or homes from advancing waters surging from the country’s flooded north.

“The amount of water is gigantic,” Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra said. “Some water must spread into Bangkok areas but we will try to make it pass through as quickly as possible.”

Some neighborhoods on the city’s fringes were already experiencing waist-high flooding, but central areas remained dry.

Flood waters breached barriers protecting Bangkok’s second largest airport on Tuesday, halting commercial flights and underlining the gravity of the Southeast Asian nation’s deepening crisis, which has seen flood waters inundate a third of the country and kill 366 people over the last three months.

Yingluck’s government declared a five-day public holiday on Tuesday in affected areas, including Bangkok, while the Education Ministry ordered schools to close until Nov. 7. Many anxious city residents were taking advantage of the holiday to leave the capital or prepare for a possible watery siege.

Panic buying of food and other necessities emptied the shelves of many supermarkets, and walls of sandbags or cinderblocks covered the entrances of many buildings.

Yingluck urged everyone in the capital to move their belongings to higher ground and warned that the city could be swamped if flood barriers at three key locations fail.

“If the three spots 100% free credit score… remain intact, the situation will improve. However, if we can’t protect one of the spots, then the surrounding areas will be flooded. In the worst case, if we can’t protect all three spots, all of Bangkok will be flooded,” she said.

A day earlier, she warned that the floods could range from 4 inches to 5 feet (10 centimeters to 1.5 meters) deep in the capital.

Thousands of people heeded advice to evacuate to official shelters, including many fleeing for a second or third time after their original refuges were overtaken by the flooding.

The exodus included hundreds of inmates from three prisons _ many on death row _ who were taken by bus from Bangkok’s northern suburbs to facilities in other provinces.

Residents living near Mahasawat Canal in western Bangkok evacuated on Wednesday after a rapid overnight rise in water.

“I decided to leave because the water came in very fast,” said Jong Sonthimen, a 57-year-old factory cleaner. A boat carried her and two plastic garbage bags with her belongings to a Buddhist temple, where pickup trucks waited to take residents to a safer area.

Last week, Yingluck ordered key floodgates opened in Bangkok to help drain runoff through urban canals to the sea, but there is great concern that rising tides in the Gulf of Thailand this weekend could slow critical outflows and flood the city.

Source