Finance & Business World

Want to be the first one on your block with a 3-D television? It will cost you about $3,000.

Samsung and Panasonic will start selling 3-D TVs in U.S. stores this week, inaugurating what manufacturers hope is the era of 3-D viewing in the living room. But because the sets require glasses, and there is for now little to watch in the enhanced format, it will take at least a few years for the technology to become mainstream, if it happens at all.

Samsung Electronics Co. announced Tuesday that for $3,000, buyers get a 46-inch set, two pairs of glasses and a 3-D Blu-ray player. Panasonic Corp. will start selling sets Wednesday.

The sales debut comes as moviegoers have shown considerable enthusiasm for the latest wave of 3-D titles in the theater totally free credit score.

Although it’s clear that 3-D sets for the home will appeal to technology and home-theater enthusiasts, it remains to be seen whether other consumers will be enticed to spend at least $500 above the price of a comparably sized standard TV and Blu-ray player.

TV makers hope so, because sets with the last big technological improvement — high definition — have come way down in price, below $500.

Source

100% Online payday loans. No Fax. Instant Approval. Bad Credit OK!

Aqua America Inc. posted nearly flat income on a revenue increase in the fourth quarter, as earnings per share met analysts’ estimates and revenue did not.

The Bryn Mawr, Pa.-based water and wastewater utility holding company earned $26.7 million, or 20 cents per fully diluted share, in the quarter. The average estimate of eight analysts polled by Thomson Reuters was that it would earn 20 cents per share in the quarter. It earned $25.7 million, or 19 cents per fully diluted share, in the fourth quarter of 2008.

Aqua America’s revenue in the quarter was $167.9 million, up from $159.8 million in the fourth quarter of 2008. The average revenue estimate of six analysts polled by Thomson Reuters was $176 cash advance america.2 million.

In all 2009, the company earned $104.4 million, or 77 cents per fully diluted share, on revenue of $670.5 million. All the figures were increases from 2008, when Aqua America (NYSE:WTR) earned $97.9 million, or 73 cents per share, on revenue of $627 million.

Nicholas DeBenedictis, the company’s chairman and CEO, said in Aqua America’s earnings press release that he expected its earnings to continue to rebound in 2010, supported by an improving economy, a return to normal weather patterns and the successful completion of rate cases it has pending.

Source

U.K. manufacturers said credit constraints eased in the past two months as the cost of financing their debt stabilized further, according to the Engineering Employers Federation.

The proportion of British companies reporting an increase in the cost of new borrowing dropped to 40 percent from 47 percent in the previous quarter, the EEF said in a report today. The lobby group based its findings on a survey of 328 companies taken between Jan. 28 and Feb. 17.

“Evidence that credit constraints have started to calm down will help build some confidence across the sector,” Lee Hopley, chief economist at the EEF, said in an e-mailed statement. “The key question is whether the banks will be there for manufacturers as a return to growth generates greater demand for finance.”

The EEF forecast last year that the economy, which expanded 0.1 percent in the fourth quarter, will grow 0.9 percent in 2010. Prime Minister Gordon Brown is counting on the credit squeeze to ease further, aiding the recovery in time for an election which he must call by June.

Source

Vietnam raised $1 billion from its second global bond sale, offering higher yields than Philippines and Indonesia, amid the busiest start to a year for global borrowing by developing nations since 2005.

The Southeast Asian government sold 10-year bonds to yield 6.95 percent, or 332.7 basis points more than Treasuries, according to a person close to the transaction who declined to be identified because he’s not allowed to speak publicly. A basis point equals 0.01 percentage point.

The Philippines sold debt due in 2020 at 5.67 percent on Jan. 7, while Indonesia offered similar-maturity notes at 6 percent on Jan. 12. Both countries carry lower debt ratings than Vietnam from Standard & Poor’s.

“I like the country and see continuing inflows into emerging markets,” Francesca di Cesare, a bond manager who helps oversee the equivalent of $10 billion at Aletti Gestielle SGR SpA in Milan, said in an interview before the bond pricing. “Vietnam is not a frequent issuer and thus offers a diversification factor.”

AllianceBernstein L.P. and Western Asset Management Co. last week said Vietnam needed to offer at least 7 percent as the government struggles with a currency trading near a record low, accelerating inflation and a widening trade deficit. Before today’s sale, countries from Turkey to Slovenia and Philippines have sold more than $13 billion of debt, the most in the same period since 2005, data compiled by Bloomberg show guaranteed payday loans.

Market Volatility

The government delayed the pricing on Jan. 22 because of increased market volatility after President Barack Obama unveiled measures to curb risk-taking by U.S. banks. The JPMorgan Chase & Co. Emerging Market Bond Index Global fell 0.5 percent last week, the most since October. Vietnam has a 0.23 percent weight in the index that tracks debt of 37 emerging- market countries.

“If the market sentiment is less supportive like last week, the spreads could widen after the sale,” said di Cesare, who bid for the securities.

Vietnam is struggling to balance policies that spur growth with efforts to ensure its economy remains stable, Moody’s Investors Service said Jan. 15. The nation is rated Ba3 by Moody’s, three levels below investment grade, with a negative outlook. The ranking is on par with the Philippines and one grade weaker than Indonesia. S&P rates Vietnam BB, one level higher than the BB- ranking for Indonesia and the Philippines.

The government sold $750 million of 10-year bonds to yield 7.125 percent at its inaugural sale in October 2005, a premium of 2.56 percentage points over similar-maturity Treasuries. The January 2016 notes yielded 6.15 percent yesterday, according to Bloomberg data.

Barclays Plc, Citigroup Inc. and Deutsche Bank AG managed the sale.

Source

Shoppers appear to have given the nation’s stores a needed last-minute sales surge.

Early readings from Toys R Us, Sears Holdings Corp. and several mall operators show packed stores on Christmas Eve following a busy week fueled by shoppers who delayed buying, waiting for bigger discounts that never came or slowed by last weekend’s big East Coast snowstorm.

Stores are counting on these stragglers in a season that so far appears slightly better than last year’s disaster. The jury is still out, because the week after Christmas accounts for about 15 percent of sales as gift card-toting shoppers return to malls.

"The procrastinators were really out in force," says David Bassuk, managing director in the retail practice of AlixPartners, a global business advisory firm.

"But I think retailers needed to be more aggressive to fight for those sales. A lot of people are still willing to hold out until after Christmas because the deals weren’t as good."

A Christmas Eve snowstorm in the nation’s heartland was slowing some shoppers after snarling roads in the mountain states a day earlier.

Wally Brewster, spokesman at General Growth Properties said merchants in his centers said they had made up for lost sales.

Still, he expects overall holiday sales will be only about even with a year ago payday loans with no faxing.

Caution remained. Karen MacDonald, spokesman for mall operator Taubman Centers Inc., noted that stores said many shoppers, remembering the 80 to 90 percent clearance sales they found last year, were asking whether the discounts were going to get any deeper.

And Rebecca Stenholm, a company spokesman for mall operator Macerich Co., reported that more people were using cash to pay for gift cards than a year ago, reflecting tight credit and a desire to pay down debt.

The full picture won’t be known until merchants report December sales Jan. 7. But most expect merchants’ fourth-quarter profits should be intact because they didn’t have to cut prices more than they’d planned as they were cushioned by lean inventories.

ShopperTrak is sticking to its prediction for a 1.6 percent gain, compared with a 5.9 percent drop a year ago.

The National Retail Federation expects that total retail sales will slip 1 percent, though some experts say that might be a bit too cautious.

A year ago, they fell 3.4 percent by the trade group’s calculations.

Source

Sales tax revenue continues to fall in Dallas and other cities across North Texas.

Dallas' sales tax revenue fell 5.3 percent for November, compared to collections for the same period in 2008. Still, it's better than the Texas average, which dropped 14.4 percent, according to state Comptroller Susan Combs.

Dallas' net payment was $14.5 million, compared to $15.4 million for the same period last year. So far this year, payments are down 9.2 percent, dropping to $205.4 million from $227 million in 2008.

Fort Worth saw its monthly payment drop a whopping 17.3 percent, to $7 million from $8.5 million a year ago. For the year, payments in Fort Worth are down 7.9 percent, to $97.8 million from $106 no fax payday loan.2 million.

Frisco saw its November collections drop 11.6 percent, Plano saw a drop of 19.1 percent, Grapevine tax revenue for the month was down 8.3 percent and Irving showed a decrease of 18 percent. Lewisville fared better than most North Texas cities, with November 2009 collections dipping less than 1 percent when compared with November 2008.

Texas collected $1.7 billion in sales taxes last month, making November the ninth consecutive month of a year-over-year decline.Combs says collections are down in all categories, including retailing, oil and gas production and construction.

Source

The United Arab Emirates’ central bank set up an emergency facility on Sunday to support bank liquidity in the first policy response to Dubai’s debt woes that threatened to paralyze lending and derail economic recovery.

Dubai rocked the financial world on November 25 when it said it would ask creditors of Dubai World, the conglomerate behind its rapid expansion, and Nakheel, builder of its palm-shaped islands, to agree to a standstill on billions of dollars of debt as a first step to restructuring.

As a result, banks face heavy losses and the risk that fearful depositors could rush to remove cash from the system, and threatening interbank lending with the second largest Arab economy still facing a downturn this year.

“It might support the market a little bit but I don’t think it is enough,” said Shawkut Raslan, head of brokerage at Prime Emirates brokerage.

“I think some foreigners will take their money of the country and others will be afraid to put their money into these markets.” The central bank policy move came late on Sunday as Dubai’s Supreme Fiscal Committee gathered to prepare a statement before market open on Monday in an attempt to reassure investors.

The central bank said the banking system was more sound and liquid than a year ago, when the global crisis ended the oil and real estate fueled boom in Arab Gulf, the world’s top oil producing region.

The monetary authority said on Saturday it was closely watching events stemming from the Dubai debt crisis to ensure there is no negative impact on the UAE economy.

Before the Dubai debt crisis, the UAE economy was seen falling by 1.1 percent this year before returning to a 2.9 percent growth in 2010, a Reuters poll of analysts showed earlier this month.

PREVENTIVE MOVE

Analysts said the central bank’s move was a preventive measure to avoid a possible capital flight and a run on deposits when markets reopen on Monday after a four-day holiday break.

“It is important because the main concern is that there might be some panic behavior by depositors in Dubai and by bankers who want to take deposits out of the banking system,” said John Sfakianakis, chief economist at Banque Saudi Fransi-Credit Agricole Group in Riyadh.

Senior bankers in Abu Dhabi, Dubai’s oil-rich cousin in the UAE federation, told Reuters on Friday Abu Dhabi banks have built up an exposure to Dubai-based companies worth at least 30 percent of their loan books.

In reaction to Dubai’s debt problems, Fitch Ratings has said it downgraded Dubai Bank, Tamweel and Bahrain’s TAIB Bank.

“It (the facility) would cover the immediate concerns related to deposits in the UAE banks,” said Ghanem Nuseibeh, senior analyst at Political Capital consultancy.

“It doesn’t mean that lending would necessarily ease. It is no guarantee for depositors. We still don’t know the extent of the UAE banks’ exposure to Dubai’s problems,” he said. 

Read more

WASHINGTON — Toyota plans to replace the gas pedals on 4 million vehicles in the United States because the pedals can get stuck in the floor mats and cause sudden acceleration.

The massive recall is the largest in the U.S. for Toyota Motor Corp. The Japanese automaker earlier told owners to remove the driver’s side floor mats to keep the gas pedal from becoming jammed.

A deadly crash in California brought attention to the problem. Investigators of the accident, in which four died, determined that a rubber all-weather floor mat found in the wreckage was slightly longer than the mat that belonged in the vehicle, and it could have snared or covered the gas pedal.

The government has attributed at least five deaths and two injuries to floor mat-related acceleration in the Toyota vehicles. Regulators have received reports of more than 100 other incidents.

Dealers will offer to shorten the gas pedals by three-fourths of an inch beginning in January as a stopgap measure while the company develops replacement pedals. New pedals will be installed by dealers on a rolling basis beginning in April, and some vehicles will get a brake override system as a precaution.

The recall involves 3.8 million vehicles, including the 2007-10 Camry, 2005-10 Avalon, 2004-09 Prius, 2005-10 Tacoma, 2007-10 Tundra, 2007-10 Lexus ES350 and 2006-10 Lexus IS250/350. Owners of the ES350, the Camry and the Avalon will get first notification because the cars are believed to be at most risk.

For more information, owners can contact Toyota at 1-800-331-4331 or the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration hot line at 1-888-327-4236.

Source

German business confidence probably increased to a 14-month high in November, suggesting the economic recovery may gather pace next year.

The Ifo institute in Munich will say its business climate index, based on a survey of 7,000 executives, increased to 92.5 from 91.9 in October, according to the median of 37 forecasts in a Bloomberg News survey of economists. That would be the highest reading since September last year. The index reached a 26-year low of 82.2 in March. Ifo releases the report at 10 a.m. today.

Economic growth accelerated in the third quarter as export orders rose and companies increased production and investment. The manufacturing industry expanded for a second month in November and the country’s benchmark DAX share index has advanced 19 percent this year. Unemployment, the euro’s strength and the expiry of government stimulus measures may still damp growth in 2010.

“New orders are strong, the inventory cycle is turning around and the manufacturing sector has just left recession, which means there’s a lot of room for improvement in the economy,” said Carsten Brzeski, senior economist at ING Group in Brussels. “Germany should continue leading the euro-zone economies for quite some time.”

The government last month raised its economic outlook, forecasting growth of about 1.2 percent in 2010 after a 5 percent contraction this year.

GDP Breakdown

Gross domestic product rose 0.7 percent in the third quarter from the second quarter, preliminary figures showed on Nov. 13. The Federal Statistics Office in Wiesbaden will release a detailed breakdown at 8 a.m. today.

Germany’s Beiersdorf AG, the maker of Nivea products, on Nov. 3 raised margin forecasts after reporting third-quarter profit that beat analysts’ estimates, saying its tape-making Tesa unit is seeing a “trend reversal in its industrial business.”

Ifo’s gauge of the current situation will increase to 88 from 87.3 while an index of executives’ expectations will advance to 97.3 from 96.8, according to the survey of economists.

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government is spending about 85 billion euros ($127 billion) on measures to stimulate growth, including infrastructure projects and a 2,500-euro payment for people who junk an old car and buy a new one. The so-called cash-for-clunkers fund ran dry in September.

‘Propped Up’

“Growth so far has been propped up by stimulus,” said Costa Brunner, an economist at Natixis in Frankfurt. “There’s not a self-supporting recovery and the stimulus will run out. We see a W-shaped recovery, and a recession in the second half of 2010 isn’t out of the question.”

German investor confidence declined more than economists forecast in November on concern that the economic upswing isn’t sustainable.

Exports, the motor of German economic expansion this decade, have so far weathered the euro’s 20 percent appreciation against the dollar since mid-February.

“Exports will continue to steam ahead on the recovery in world trade and the pick-up in the global economy,” said Aline Schuiling, an economist at Fortis Bank Nederland in Amsterdam. “Ifo will continue, slowly, to move ahead.”

Source

Norway must remove government stimulus or risk faster interest-rate increases that would strengthen the krone and stifle an export recovery, Finance Minister Sigbjoern Johnsen said.

“My main task is to try to prevent fiscal policy putting an extra burden on the krone,” Johnsen, named to the post last month, said in a Nov. 20 interview in Oslo. “The extraordinary efforts of the fiscal policy should be phased out.”

Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg’s Labor-led government, which was re-elected in September, will breach expenditure guidelines for a second consecutive year after using a record amount of the nation’s $440 billion oil wealth to revive the economy in 2009. The pre-election pledge to spend more came after the world’s sixth-biggest oil exporter, which boasts Europe’s lowest unemployment rate, had already emerged from recession in the second quarter.

Norway’s recovery trajectory has forced interest rates higher. Norges Bank on Oct. 28 became the first rate-setter in Europe to lift borrowing costs since the height of the global slump. Governor Svein Gjedrem increased the deposit rate by a quarter point to 1.5 percent and his bank predicts the rate will average 1.75 percent this year and 2.25 percent in 2010, rising to an average of 4.25 percent by 2012.

“If we spend too much money” it would lead “to a faster increase in interest rates and this could have an impact on the exchange rate and on the competitiveness of our businesses,” Johnsen said.

Krone Best Performer

The prospect of higher rates has helped the krone, making it the best performer of the 16 major currencies tracked by Bloomberg since the end of June. The krone is up 7.3 percent against the euro and 14 percent against the dollar in the period.

That’s cutting into profits at manufacturers like Norsk Hydro ASA, Europe’s second-largest aluminum producer. For every krone the Norwegian currency strengthens against the dollar, based on an exchange rate of 5 instant payday loan.5 kroner, Norsk Hydro’s earnings before interest and tax would be cut by 1.6 billion kroner ($282 million), according to its third-quarter presentation.

Norway’s mainland economy, which excludes oil, gas and shipping, will grow 2.8 percent next year and 3.2 percent in 2011, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

OECD Warning

The government’s spending plans have attracted criticism from the Paris-based organization, which on Nov. 19 warned of the need for “strong fiscal consolidation” and said that “sizeable” policy tightening is “desirable” after a “tremendous” stimulus.

Johnsen, who served as finance minister under Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland from 1990 to 1996, faces the challenge of reining in public spending while keeping his party’s election pledge to support welfare and employment.

Norway, which is also the world’s second biggest natural gas exporter, puts most of its petroleum revenue in a sovereign wealth fund established during Johnsen’s first term in office.

The Government Pension Fund - Global, which started to invest Norway’s oil wealth in 1996, was created to avoid stoking inflation by preventing oil and gas income from seeping through to consumption. Fiscal spending guidelines limit the use of oil money to plug budget deficits to 4 percent of the fund.

Johnsen isn’t promising a sudden shift in his government’s stance.

The return to the spending rule “must be gradual,” Johnsen said. “I will try what I can in order to get back on the 4 percent path during this period. But it is going to be difficult.”

Editors: Chris Kirkham, Tasneem Brogger.

Source