11/28 DailyFinance

Please add updates@feedmyinbox.com to your address book to make sure you receive these messages in the future. DailyFinance Panic strikes, and investors sell gold and buy dollars -- yet again November 27, 2009 at 3:30 pm Filed under: Economy, Investing Rattled by concerns about Dubai's debt, investors fled gold for the safety of the U.S. dollar during early trading on Friday. The move comes as the booming appetite for the precious metal among smaller investors has led to near record prices and shortages of American Eagle gold coins at the U.S. Mint. But as the enthusiasm for gold reaches a fevered pitch worldwide with speculation focused mainly on how high it can go, the sharp drop also serves as a useful reminder: While often thought of as a "safe haven," gold is marked by volatile prices, and it recently sold off sharply when investors truly got nervous. Continue reading Panic strikes, and investors sell gold and buy dollars -- yet again Panic strikes, and investors sell gold and buy dollars -- yet again originally appeared on DailyFinance on Fri, 27 Nov 2009 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Why China can't make bold carbon pledges: Rogue provinces November 27, 2009 at 2:30 pm Filed under: Energy, Economy, Green During his recent visit to China, U.S. President Barack Obama pushed hard for a firm target for cutting carbon emissions from the Chinese government. He had hoped to secure a concrete, detailed proposal from the world's largest emitter of greenhouse gases ahead of the pending Copenhagen Climate Summit in December. But China has delivered a watered-down guarantee that the Obama team publicly praised but privately trashed. According to The New York Times, the Chinese proposed to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide emitted per unit of economic output by 40% to 45% by 2020. That would slow the growth rate of carbon emissions for China, for sure. But due to the country's rapid economic growth rate, aggregate carbon emissions would continue to increase. Continue reading Why China can't make bold carbon pledges: Rogue provinces Why China can't make bold carbon pledges: Rogue provinces originally appeared on DailyFinance on Fri, 27 Nov 2009 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Making online media pay: Demand Media vs. The Texas Tribune November 27, 2009 at 2:00 pm Filed under: Company News, Technology, Economy, Media This has been a tough year for the media business: as august newspapers and magazines like the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and Gourmet have closed their doors for good, other outlets are scrambling to develop strategies that will guarantee long-term economic survival while allowing them to continue producing quality content. This month, Rupert Murdoch entered the fray, going toe to toe with Google (GOOG) over advertising revenues and access to News Corp.'s (NWS) online newspapers. As he tries to work out a revenue-sharing scheme with Microsoft's (MSFT) Bing, it will be interesting to see how the Internet's low-cost distribution structure ultimately affects the production of news and other media. Traditional newspapers and magazines use three revenue sources -- subscriptions, newsstand sales, and advertising -- to fund highly expensive news-gathering, writing, and editing operations. While some publications like Murdoch's Wall Street Journal have managed to make paid content work, most Internet sites provide content for free, which puts funding solely into the hands of advertisers. The question is whether Internet ads can generate enough revenue to fund media production. Continue reading Making online media pay: Demand Media vs. The Texas Tribune Making online media pay: Demand Media vs. The Texas Tribune originally appeared on DailyFinance on Fri, 27 Nov 2009 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments The Dow dives more than 150 points on Dubai's debt crisis November 27, 2009 at 1:10 pm Filed under: Economy U.S. stocks followed the rest of the world lower in a short Friday session after the state investment company of Dubai shocked global debt and equity markets on Thursday by asking for more time to make a loan payment, essentially admitting that it's currently insolvent. As banks across Europe, the U.S. and the Gulf region scrambled to assess their exposure to the Dubai debt crisis, money whooshed out of stocks in a global flight to safety that pushed up of the value of the U.S. dollar and U.S. Treasurys. The blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average ($INDU) lost 154.5, or 1.48%, to close at 10,309.9, while the broader S&P 500 ($INX) retreated 19.1, or 1.72%, to finish at 1091.5. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite ($COMPX) shed 37.6, or 1.73%, to close at 2138.4. U.S. markets were closed on Thursday for the Thanksgiving holiday and, as usual, experienced low volume Friday before an early 1 p.m. Eastern close, which likely helped dampen the effects of Thursday's global sell-off. Continue reading The Dow dives more than 150 points on Dubai's debt crisis The Dow dives more than 150 points on Dubai's debt crisis originally appeared on DailyFinance on Fri, 27 Nov 2009 13:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments High-speed travel: Employers push one-day business trip to avoid hotel costs November 27, 2009 at 1:00 pm Filed under: Economy As corporate budgets shrink, so do business trips. Looking to avoid paying for overnight hotel stays, cost-conscious companies are increasingly asking employees to squeeze all their away meetings into one day -- and then turn around and fly home. Headhunter Marc Lewis, who frequently flies between coasts on his clients' tab to interview job candidates, says the single-day business trip is becoming a familiar drill. "Several clients have suggested to us that if we're ok with it, they would prefer for us to take the red-eye home rather than stay overnight," says Lewis, founder and CEO of Leadership Capital Group, an executive search firm based in Westport, Conn. Continue reading High-speed travel: Employers push one-day business trip to avoid hotel costs High-speed travel: Employers push one-day business trip to avoid hotel costs originally appeared on DailyFinance on Fri, 27 Nov 2009 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Psst, have you heard? Watercooler backer dishes on the social media upstart November 27, 2009 at 12:00 pm Filed under: Technology, Media, Facebook I wanted to talk to Maha Ibrahim because I kept running into Watercooler. Not a real watercooler, but the community-based fan and games network that's generating lots of buzz in the social networking space. Ibrahim is a general partner at Canaan Partners, a $3 billion venture capital fund that is one of Silicon Valley's oldest. Several people I knew were either using Watercooler products, pitching business to the Mountain View, Calif.-based company, or studying its business model. Ibrahim sits on the company's board because Canaan was the first venture investor in the company. Talking to VCs about their investments often will give you a very different version of the story that you hear from the CEOs of the bank-rolled companies. In this case, I had heard Ibrahim speak before and was impressed. Ibrahim's Web profile bills her as a "technology trend spotter with deep operational experience." All true. Continue reading Psst, have you heard? Watercooler backer dishes on the social media upstart Psst, have you heard? Watercooler backer dishes on the social media upstart originally appeared on DailyFinance on Fri, 27 Nov 2009 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Black Friday may be first big marketing test of social networks November 27, 2009 at 11:00 am Filed under: Company News Marketers have not warmed to social networks. The advertising that Facebook and MySpace get tends to be at low cost per thousand compared with the advertising on large content sites like CNN, while Twitter gets almost no advertising revenue at all. Marketers find it difficult to use huge, disparate pools of people to effectively reach specific demographic targets. Facebook may have 200 million members by some counts, but its revenue is only about $500 million a year. The FT reports that retailers have been making a marketing surge on the large social networks this holiday. The paper reports "retailers have reinforced their traditional efforts with an array of new social-networking weapons including Twitter, the micro-blogging website." Best Buy (BBY) released its sales discount information early to one million Facebook "friends," and it's also using Twitter to send information about its deals. Continue reading Black Friday may be first big marketing test of social networks Black Friday may be first big marketing test of social networks originally appeared on DailyFinance on Fri, 27 Nov 2009 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Is Dubai market crash a Black Friday buying opportunity? November 27, 2009 at 10:30 am Filed under: Economy, Investing, General Electric Global stock markets, overreacting to Dubai's debt woes, could mark down stocks too much. Dubai -- which is famous for building a palm-shaped island, the world's tallest building, an indoor ski slope, and paying Rihanna $500,000 to perform at a New Year's Eve party -- wants a six-month reprieve from repaying a $3.5 billion bond. Why would this be an overreaction? The cost of writing-off Dubai's debt is a tiny fraction of the write-offs from the financial crisis that took $30 trillion off world stock markets in 2008. Reuters reports that even if Dubai defaults on every penny of its $80 billion in debt, the write-offs that banks will take would be 2.86% of the total write-offs -- $2.8 trillion -- banks will take in the wake of the financial crisis between 2007 and 2010, according to the International Monetary Fund. But the risk to banks outside the Middle East is likely to be far less than $80 billion. According to Reuters, their liabilities related to Dubai World could be as high as $12 billion in so-called syndicated and bilateral loans. To be fair, big banks in the Middle East are exposed -- Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank by $2.45 billion and First Gulf Bank by $1.36 billion. Continue reading Is Dubai market crash a Black Friday buying opportunity? Is Dubai market crash a Black Friday buying opportunity? originally appeared on DailyFinance on Fri, 27 Nov 2009 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Need a loan? Why the banks (and Fed) are saying 'Scrooge you' November 27, 2009 at 10:00 am Filed under: Economy If the credit crisis is over -- and it most certainly is as measured by tighter credit spreads -- why aren't banks making loans to the people who need them most, American taxpayers? You don't have to be the chairman of the Federal Reserve to know that banks are behaving worse than Scrooge when it comes to extending credit to small businesses and consumers. Ben Bernanke admitted as much in a recent speech, which is perplexing since a zero-interest-rate policy (ZIRP) is supposed to stimulate economic growth, most of which is generated by those very same small businesses and consumers. Continue reading Need a loan? Why the banks (and Fed) are saying 'Scrooge you' Need a loan? Why the banks (and Fed) are saying 'Scrooge you' originally appeared on DailyFinance on Fri, 27 Nov 2009 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments European banks have large exposure to Dubai debt November 27, 2009 at 9:40 am Filed under: JP Morgan Chase JP Morgan (JPM), RBS (RBS), Credit Suisse (CS) and several other large firms with financial research arms have put out educated guesses as to which banks are most exposed to Dubai debt. Coming up with these numbers has turned out to be an inexact science. And, Dubai may make good on its payments, so the concern about large bank write-offs could turn out to be academic. Credit Suisse reports that European banks may have as much as $40 billion in exposure in Dubai. RBS says that getting correct numbers on Dubai is not possible but that European banks have almost $84 billion in exposure in the United Arab Emirates. According to The Wall Street Journal, RBS derived its data by "using data compiled by the Bank for International Settlements. U.K. banks have by far the largest exposure at $49.5 billion, while French and German banks top the euro-zone list with $11.3 billion and $10.2 billion respectively." Continue reading European banks have large exposure to Dubai debt European banks have large exposure to Dubai debt originally appeared on DailyFinance on Fri, 27 Nov 2009 09:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Stocks in the news: AIG, HSBC, Apple, ING November 27, 2009 at 9:20 am Filed under: Company News, Investing, General Electric , JC Penney, Sony, Apple, American International Group, INC., Wal-Mart Stores, Target Corp., Sanofi Aventis, Amazon.com Inc. AIG (AIG) announced late Wednesday it agreed to settle a long-standing legal battle with the insurance giant's former chairman, Maurice "Hank" Greenberg. The agreement, announced Wednesday, effectively ends years of costly legal battles and barbs between AIG and Greenberg. AIG shares tumbled nearly 5% in pre-market trading. HSBC Holdings (HBC) tumbled more than 6% ahead of the bell as investors try to figure out its exposure to Dubai's debt, since it is one of the top two lenders in the United Arab Emirates. HSBC has about $15.9 billion in loans to the UAE. Goldman Sachs has estimated in a worst-case scenario HSBC could face a write-down on its commercial and mortgage loans to Dubai of $611 million. Continue reading Stocks in the news: AIG, HSBC, Apple, ING Stocks in the news: AIG, HSBC, Apple, ING originally appeared on DailyFinance on Fri, 27 Nov 2009 09:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Black Friday frenzy moves beyond malls to auto showrooms November 27, 2009 at 9:00 am Filed under: Company News, Economy, People Despite the weak economy, many shoppers will be out in full force on Black Friday to take advantage of bargains that -- like Santa Claus -- appear only once a year. So, on this holiest of shopping days, be prepared for lots of traffic and long lines -- unless you set your sights on an automobile showroom rather than the local mall. With consumers' tastes more geared toward purchasing a new TV, computer or other trendy electronic device, foot traffic is notoriously light at new-car dealerships at this time of year. And that appears to work to the advantage for those who don't mind spending the day after Thanksgiving haggling over the price of a shiny new ride rather than resting up after a big feast. Continue reading Black Friday frenzy moves beyond malls to auto showrooms Black Friday frenzy moves beyond malls to auto showrooms originally appeared on DailyFinance on Fri, 27 Nov 2009 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Daily Blogwatch: Stocks to be thankful for; has Buffett lost his mind? November 27, 2009 at 8:15 am Filed under: Company News, Technology, Columns, Economy Three stocks I'm thankful for this holiday season. _________________ Is there a Buffett Bubble in railroad stocks? _________________ And the Lonely Value Investor asks if Buffett has lost his mind by buying a railroad. _________________ Continue reading Daily Blogwatch: Stocks to be thankful for; has Buffett lost his mind? Daily Blogwatch: Stocks to be thankful for; has Buffett lost his mind? originally appeared on DailyFinance on Fri, 27 Nov 2009 08:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Stocks poised to join global selloff on Dubai's debt problems November 27, 2009 at 8:00 am Filed under: Economy, Investing U.S. stocks are poised to open sharply lower this Black Friday morning, joining a global selloff that began Thursday when U.S. markets were closed for the Thanksgiving holiday. Late Wednesday, Dubai said it has asked for a stay on two of its largest companies' debt, sending world markets skidding as investors lost confidence and tried to get a grip on banks' exposure to the debt. As U.S. markets play catch-up to global stocks, they will do so only until 1:00 p.m. Eastern when markets close. Trading could be thin, which may contribute to the downward move. Investors will also focus on retail today as Black Friday starts the holiday shopping season. More here: Before the bell: Futures sharply lower on Dubai's debt problems Stocks poised to join global selloff on Dubai's debt problems originally appeared on DailyFinance on Fri, 27 Nov 2009 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Dubai trouble rattles Asian markets, building and banking shares plunge November 27, 2009 at 7:00 am Filed under: Economy, Investing Asian stocks plunged Friday with Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index plummeting 4.8% to close at 21,135. In China the Shanghai Composite Index lost 2.4%, ending the day at 3,096 and in Japan, the Nikkei Index fell 3.2% to 9,082. News that Dubai's government-owned investment company, Dubai World, was asking to delay paying back $60 billion in debt, triggered a wave of heavy losses for banks and other companies with investments in the region. Dubai has been on a massive spending spree, investing in construction and development that has transformed this desert locale into a financial and tourism center. Recent additions to the landscape include the gravity-defying Burj Dubai, intended to be the tallest building in world and slated to be completed this January, and a mall with an indoor ski resort. Continue reading Dubai trouble rattles Asian markets, building and banking shares plunge Dubai trouble rattles Asian markets, building and banking shares plunge originally appeared on DailyFinance on Fri, 27 Nov 2009 07:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Retailers kick off holiday shopping season with deep discounts, expanded hours November 27, 2009 at 4:27 am Filed under: Company News, Economy, Wal-Mart Stores, Target Corp. The nation's retailers ushered in the traditional start of the holiday shopping season on Friday with expanded hours and deep discounts on everything from toys to TVs to lure crowds of shoppers. A number of stores, including Walmart and many Old Navy locations, opened on Thanksgiving, hoping to make the most of the extra hours. Toys R Us opened most of its stores just after midnight Friday. Online sellers also pushed to grab a piece of the action, pushing deals on Thursday and even earlier in the week. Continue reading Retailers kick off holiday shopping season with deep discounts, expanded hours Retailers kick off holiday shopping season with deep discounts, expanded hours originally appeared on DailyFinance on Fri, 27 Nov 2009 04:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments   This email was sent to gatdemit001@gmail.com.  Create Your Account Don't want to receive this feed any longer? Unsubscribe here.