Stocks edge up even as government shutdown looms (AP)
NEW YORK – The stock market edged higher in early trading Friday, a day after another big earthquake in Japan sent indexes lower.
Investors will be watching Washington, where Republicans and Democrats are in the final day of talks to reach a budget agreement that would prevent a government shutdown. A shutdown will close non-essential government services, including the publication of most economic reports.
The Dow Jones industrial average gained 11 points, or 0.1 percent, to 12,420 in morning trading. The S&P 500 rose 3 points, or 0.2 percent, to 1,336. The Nasdaq composite added 3, or 0.2 percent, to 2,798.
Gains were spread across the market. Technology companies were the only member of the 10 company groups that make up the S&P index to fall.
Oil futures were nearly 1 percent to $111.14. Over the past two months, stocks have fallen following large jumps in oil prices as investors worried that higher transportation costs would cut into company margins and consumer spending.
Todd Salamone, director of research at Schaeffer’s Investment Research, said that stocks tend to rise along with oil prices over the long term. “The recent breakdown in the pattern has largely been due to fears of supply shocks,” he said. “But the oil rally could also be attributed to a stronger world economy.”
World markets rose broadly. The Euro Stoxx 50, an index of European blue chips, gained 0.8 percent. Japan’s benchmark Nikkei index rose 1.9 percent.
Expedia Inc. gained 12 percent, the most of the 500 stocks in the S&P index, after the company said it would split off its TripAdvisor.com division.
Cisco Systems. Inc. fell nearly 1 percent, the most of the 30 stocks that make up the Dow average.
U.S. stocks ended Thursday with small losses after a 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck Japan. The Dow Jones industrial average fell as many as 96 points in morning trading, but recovered most of its losses after a tsunami warning was lifted.
Friday is the last trading day before the next round of corporate earnings reports begins with Alcoa Inc.’s report on Monday.
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SGX’s A$7.3 billion bid for ASX falters on government, regulator (Reuters)
SYDNEY (Reuters) – A A$7.3 billion ($7.1 billion) bid by the Singapore Exchange (SGXL.SI) to take over its Australian rival is faltering as the Australian government, the regulator and a key opposition party are all set to reject it, the Sydney Morning Herald said.
The Foreign Investment Review Board was unlikely to support SGX’s cash and share bid for the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX.AX) but even if it did, the Treasury, whose approval is also necessary, would stop the deal, the paper quoted a senior government source as saying on Saturday.
“If (the FIRB) doesn’t kill it, we will,” the source told the paper.
In addition, the Nationals, a key party in the conservative opposition Coalition, would “ferociously” oppose the deal, Barnaby Joyce, a top party official, told the paper.
The deal, first announced in October, has already been under pressure from Australian politicians — whose approval is necessary to lift a 15 percent shareholder cap — as it was seen as ceding control over a key national institution and a de-facto monopoly.
The SGX last month improved the terms of its offer but it is still far from a merger of equals, as urged by several key political leaders, and SGX Chief Executive Magnus Bocker earlier this month told Reuters there would be no more incentives to win control of ASX.
Another argument by opponents has been that moving effective control of the bourse to Singapore would reduce Sydney’s standing as a regional financial hub.
The Treasury has repeatedly declined to comment, saying it will not form an opinion on the deal until the FIRB has made its recommendation. The SGX launched its application with the FIRB earlier this month and the regulator has 30 days to make an initial ruling.
The Liberals, the biggest party in the opposition coalition, have said the government has yet to prove the deal would provide net benefit to Australia, therefore it had reservations.
Exchanges around the world are involved in merger talks to build scale and reduce costs amid increased competition from dark pools and other alternative electronic trading platforms.
However, some major cross-border deals, such as the Deutsche Boerse’s (DB1Gn.DE) plan to acquire NYSE Euronext (NYX.N), and London Stock Exchange’s (LSE.L) plan to combine with Canada’s TMX Group (X.TO), have run into some nationalistic opposition.
(Reporting by Balazs Koranyi; Editing by Kim Coghill)
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Would you buy Government Motors (GMGMQ) as a short sell?
SEC charges government website maker over CEO perks (Reuters)
NEW YORK (Reuters) – NIC Inc, which builds websites and provides various services to more than 3,000 government agencies, agreed to settle Securities and Exchange Commission charges that it hid more than $1.18 million of perks awarded to its former chief executive.
The company, former CEO Jeffrey Fraser, current CEO Harry Herington and former Chief Financial Officer Eric Bur agreed to pay a combined $2.82 million to settle the charges. The SEC is still pursuing litigation against current Chief Financial Officer Stephen Kovzan.
According to an SEC complaint filed on Wednesday in the federal district court in Kansas City, Kansas, NIC failed to disclose perks that Fraser got from 2002 to 2007, including periods when the company said he “worked virtually for free.”
It said these perks included more than $4,000 per month to live in a Wyoming ski lodge, vacations for himself and his girlfriend, a leased Lexus SUV, and day-to-day expenses such as clothing, food, liquor, tobacco and nutritional supplements.
The SEC also said NIC ignored concerns raised internally that some of Fraser’s perks were not business-related.
“NIC and its executives did not comply with their disclosure obligations and the company’s internal controls by paying Fraser’s personal expenses while telling shareholders that Fraser was working for little or no compensation,” Antonia Chion, associate director of the SEC enforcement division, said in a statement.
Fraser agreed to pay $2.04 million, including a $500,000 fine, in agreeing to settle. NIC agreed to a $500,000 fine and hire an independent consultant to advise on expenses and whistleblower complaints. Herington accepted a $200,000 fine and Bur a $75,000 fine. None admitted wrongdoing.
In statements released by the Olathe, Kansas-based company, Herington said it was in NIC’s best interests to settle, and independent lead director Art Burtscher said NIC’s board of directors had “every confidence” in Herington’s leadership.
Eugene Goldman, a lawyer for Bur, declined to comment. Andrew Levander, who represents Fraser, and William McLucas, who represents Kovzan, did not immediately return requests for comments.
According to its website, NIC works with government entities in 24 states, and federal agencies such as the Federal Election Commission and Department of Transportation.
NIC shares closed up 20 cents at $10.25 on Nasdaq.
The cases are SEC v. NIC Inc et al, U.S. District Court, District of Kansas, No. 11-02016, and SEC v. Kovzan in the same court, No. 11-02017.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Richard Chang)
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Japan Government Sengoku: To Work To Earn Market Trust On Fiscal Discipline
Japan Government Sengoku: To Work To Earn Market Trust On Fiscal Discipline
Japan Government Sengoku: To Work To Earn Market Trust On Fiscal Discipline
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How do I short sell government bonds?
Hi, I’m new to finance, and I was wondering if anyone knows how to short sell government bonds.step by step..Can we do that through the internet?
thanks in advance.
With the US government being 53 trillion dollars in debt and growing, does this affect the stock market?
Everyone always says the stock market has always gone up in the past and will continue to go up in the future. How does this 53 trillion dollar US deficit affect that. Also, if you invest in foreign companies, like in an international mutual fund, are you not exposing yourself to this US problem?
Stock Options
Stock options are actually the rights in order to sell or buy the stocks at a specified time. However stock option buyer or trader can take action on their option within the specified time. Taking action on the option is called exercising the option. Stock options have prescribed time limit within which an action can be taken on the options and if the time expires then the option trader can not take any action.
Stock options have various terms associated for buying and selling them. One is called the put option while the other is called the call option. The put option is actually for selling the stock while the call option is the option made to buy the underlying asset.
There are many people who are not acquainted with the above terms and this acquaintance is very necessary for you if you want to get into options trading. As a matter of fact, option trading revolves around these terms. If you are not good at picking them up then you can not really go for option trading. If you are still confused about the above terms then I have many examples to explain these terms so that you may be able to comprehend the concept easily and effectively.
In order to explain the call option, let us consider the call option given by Microsoft as
MSFT Jan09 $23.50 Call at $3
What does the above call option say? This says that option for 1 share of Microsoft can be bought at $23.50 before the third Friday of January 2009 at $3. This is as simple as that. Your mind might become upset about why a buyer should buy option before the third Friday? So the reason behind this is that options usually expire on the third Friday of every month and they become useless after this prescribed time because after this time, you would not be unable to take any action on the option.
Now the next concept is about the put option. Let us consider another example to clear any confusion regarding this option.
Let us consider that an investor wants to buy the put option from Microsoft which is listed at $40. However, if the current price of the option becomes $45 then the cost of the put would become $5 for the buyer. If the cost of the option remains below $40 then a buyer can take an action on his option and can sell it for more than $40. But if the price of the option remains above $40 then the buyer can not take any action on the option and he would have to suffer the loss of $5 in this option.
In other words, buying options is a good strategy in increasing the profit gains. However, options are usually bought along with the stocks because they are a good source of making investments and above all the chances of losses in these investments are also very less.
Options are traded on the various option exchanges. There are six option exchanges on the U.S. Market the options such American Stock Exchange and Chicago Boards Options Exchange. Stock options can indeed be helpful if you have bought the options of company at the time when its stocks are rising. However, if the stocks of that company start decreasing after some economic recession then you can sell those options at quite high rates because now you would be able to take action on the options. This can give you huge profit margin. So option trading is not a bad bet at all!
