History shows special elections can be good predictors of the next election cycle. Tom Brunell, a political scientist at the University cheap wholesale clothing of Texas-Dallas, studied special elections from 1900 to 2008. When Democrats gained seats in special elections, they also gained in the next general election 82% of the time, he found. "It's a horse race, and we're definitely out of the gate for the 2012 election," Brunell said. "But we're at the first post here."
One pollster who correctly predicted the outcome said he's not sure it means anything nationally. "Jane Corwin and her team ran a lousy campaign," said Siena College's Steven Greenberg. "They let Hochul beat them up on the Medicare issue, and they didn't come up with a response."
Tuesday's election followed the resignation of Rep. Chris Lee, a Republican who sent shirtless photos to a woman he met through the Craigslist website.
Final, unofficial results gave Hochul, the Erie County clerk, 47%. Corwin, a state assemblywoman, received 43%. Tea Party candidate Jack Davis took 9% of the vote. He has run as a Democrat in the past, and polls say he took votes from both major candidates.
The district stretches from the suburbs of Buffalo to the suburbs of Rochester. Decimated by manufacturing losses over decades, the district's demographics skew older than the rest of America. Republicans have an 8-point advantage in voter registration.
"New York Republicans, even upstate Republicans, are not like Republicans across the nation," Greenberg said. Although they have a favorable view of House Speaker John Boehner and support repealing the health care law, they also overwhelmingly favor tax hikes on the wealthy.
The architect of the Republicans' Medicare plan, House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, didn't object to the idea that it was a defining issue in the race.
"There is a Medicare story to be told cheap fashion here," Ryan said on MSNBC. "The president and his party have decided to shamelessly distort and demagogue Medicare."
By the time Democrat Kathy Hochul declared an upset victory over Republican Jane Corwin in the special election Tuesday night in the western New York district, Medicare was the defining issue.
According to a Siena College Research Institute poll conducted late last week, 74% of voters who identified Medicare as the top issue supported Hochul.
Democrats seized on the result as evidence that the Republican plan for sweeping changes to Medicare was backfiring, and the GOP was cracking over the issue. On Wednesday, the U.S. Senate voted 57-40 to reject the Medicare plan. Five Republicans voted with the Democrats.
Steve Israel, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said the New York election shows his party could pick up 97 House seats next year — more than the 63 they lost to the GOP last fall. "I'm not going to get cocky," he said. "The fact is if we can win in one of most conservative Republican districts in America, then we can win in many other places."
"To predict the future based on the results of this wholesale clothing unusual race is naive and risky," Pete Sessions, Israel's GOP counterpart, said in a statement. He made no mention of Medicare.
2011年5月20日星期五
The largest crowds nationwide Friday were in Madrid wholesale sandals
The decision comes as protests against Spain's economic crisis continued for a sixth day on Friday in many wholesale sandals cities, just two days ahead of local and regional elections that are scheduled across the Iberian nation. The ruling means no such protests can legally occur on Saturday.
This follows a ruling from late Thursday, when Spain's electoral board said that the demonstrations, organized largely via social media networks, would be banned on Saturday. That day is supposed to be a "day of reflection" for voters -- the idea being that there should be no campaigning immediately preceding Sunday's balloting -- the board said.
Now the government of the ruling Socialist Party must decide whether the police should keep a safe distance, as they did last Wednesday when a demonstration was banned but wholesale sandals went ahead anyway, or if they will crack down. Socialist politicians are widely expected to suffer deep losses to the conservatives, according to recent polls.
"What we are going to do is comply with the law," Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba told reporters Friday.
Yet Perez, who is also Deputy Prime Minister, added that the police would not be there to create even more wholesale sandals problems than already exist in the streets.
Economist Fernando Fernandez of the IE Business School predicted that police late Friday would try to peacefully seal off Puerta del Sol plaza to prevent more demonstrators from arriving, and let those in the plaza eventually leave.
"The government does not want to have any sort of violence taking place the day prior to the elections. This would have a very large political cost and electoral cost," Fernandez told CNN.
"People want to participate. This is a fiesta of democracy," Sofia de Roa, a spokeswoman for the protesters, told CNN.
The largest crowds nationwide Friday were in Madrid, where thousands of mostly young demonstrators returned to the central Puerta del Sol plaza.
Demonstrators are protesting Spain's 21% unemployment rate, the highest in the euro zone, and a record 4.9 million wholesale sandals people who are out of work. The jobless rate for youth -- those between ages 15 and 24 -- is 42%.
Protesters say that many temporary labor contracts offer few or no job benefits. In addition, some are protesting against the political and financial establishment that they say is to blame.
The protests appear to have gained momentum in the closing days of the campaign. They have captured considerable news media coverage, and all major parties have acknowledged them.
Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said in an interview with SER radio on Friday that voters ultimately will decide whether and how much change will be made.
On Sunday, voters in Spain's 8,000 cities and towns will elect mayors, along with 13 out of 17 regional presidents and parliaments. The results are expected to be a bellwether for national elections, which must happen no later than March 2012.
De Roa, a journalist who works for a university communications office, said protester assemblies, their ad hoc decision-making bodies, have called for a demonstration on Saturday night despite the no-campaigning tradition on the eve of a Spanish election.
She said the protests also are expected to continue nightly, even after the elections.
"We're not leaving until there's a change," she said, standing amid thousands of protesters in Madrid's emblematic central square. "Until a politician commits to implementing the proposals here."
Beatriz Elosegui, a government worker, said Thursday she had been to several protests since they started on Sunday. Her husband, an advertising executive, is out of work and her wholesale sandals son is about to finish his training to become an electrician but has few job prospects, she said.
Two young men who appeared to be the only ones wearing suits and ties in the crowd said they showed up Thursday for the first time. Both said they work as accountants, and one, Andres Maldonado, complained of tight credit that is squeezing homeowners wholesale cheap fashion and small businesses. He said government efforts to inject liquidity into the financial system are not working.
Besides Madrid, there were also wholesale sandals protests in Barcelona, Valencia and other cities in Spain. Up to a few hundred protesters have camped out in central squares each night, but the main protests are in the evening.
This follows a ruling from late Thursday, when Spain's electoral board said that the demonstrations, organized largely via social media networks, would be banned on Saturday. That day is supposed to be a "day of reflection" for voters -- the idea being that there should be no campaigning immediately preceding Sunday's balloting -- the board said.
Now the government of the ruling Socialist Party must decide whether the police should keep a safe distance, as they did last Wednesday when a demonstration was banned but wholesale sandals went ahead anyway, or if they will crack down. Socialist politicians are widely expected to suffer deep losses to the conservatives, according to recent polls.
"What we are going to do is comply with the law," Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba told reporters Friday.
Yet Perez, who is also Deputy Prime Minister, added that the police would not be there to create even more wholesale sandals problems than already exist in the streets.
Economist Fernando Fernandez of the IE Business School predicted that police late Friday would try to peacefully seal off Puerta del Sol plaza to prevent more demonstrators from arriving, and let those in the plaza eventually leave.
"The government does not want to have any sort of violence taking place the day prior to the elections. This would have a very large political cost and electoral cost," Fernandez told CNN.
"People want to participate. This is a fiesta of democracy," Sofia de Roa, a spokeswoman for the protesters, told CNN.
The largest crowds nationwide Friday were in Madrid, where thousands of mostly young demonstrators returned to the central Puerta del Sol plaza.
Demonstrators are protesting Spain's 21% unemployment rate, the highest in the euro zone, and a record 4.9 million wholesale sandals people who are out of work. The jobless rate for youth -- those between ages 15 and 24 -- is 42%.
Protesters say that many temporary labor contracts offer few or no job benefits. In addition, some are protesting against the political and financial establishment that they say is to blame.
The protests appear to have gained momentum in the closing days of the campaign. They have captured considerable news media coverage, and all major parties have acknowledged them.
Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said in an interview with SER radio on Friday that voters ultimately will decide whether and how much change will be made.
On Sunday, voters in Spain's 8,000 cities and towns will elect mayors, along with 13 out of 17 regional presidents and parliaments. The results are expected to be a bellwether for national elections, which must happen no later than March 2012.
De Roa, a journalist who works for a university communications office, said protester assemblies, their ad hoc decision-making bodies, have called for a demonstration on Saturday night despite the no-campaigning tradition on the eve of a Spanish election.
She said the protests also are expected to continue nightly, even after the elections.
"We're not leaving until there's a change," she said, standing amid thousands of protesters in Madrid's emblematic central square. "Until a politician commits to implementing the proposals here."
Beatriz Elosegui, a government worker, said Thursday she had been to several protests since they started on Sunday. Her husband, an advertising executive, is out of work and her wholesale sandals son is about to finish his training to become an electrician but has few job prospects, she said.
Two young men who appeared to be the only ones wearing suits and ties in the crowd said they showed up Thursday for the first time. Both said they work as accountants, and one, Andres Maldonado, complained of tight credit that is squeezing homeowners wholesale cheap fashion and small businesses. He said government efforts to inject liquidity into the financial system are not working.
Besides Madrid, there were also wholesale sandals protests in Barcelona, Valencia and other cities in Spain. Up to a few hundred protesters have camped out in central squares each night, but the main protests are in the evening.
2011年5月18日星期三
Gross domestic product contracted an annualized 3.7 percent
Japan’s economy shrank more cheap feather hair extensions than estimated in the first quarter after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami disrupted production and prompted consumers to cut back cheap fashion spending, sending the nation to its third recession in a decade.
in the three months through March, following a revised 3 percent drop in the previous quarter, the feather hair extensions Cabinet Office said today in Tokyo. The median forecast of 23 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News was for a 1.9 percent drop. Economists typically define a recession as two consecutive quarters of contraction.
The March disaster hit an economy already weighed down by years of deflation and subdued consumer spending and that was reliant on exports for growth. The economy will probably shrink further this quarter before rebounding in the second half as supply constraints ease and reconstruction begins, according to a survey of analyst forecasts by a government-affiliated group.
“The negative economic impact from the disaster will be on full display during the second quarter,” Hiroshi Watanabe, a senior economist at the Daiwa Institute of Research in Tokyo, said before the report. “This recession may be deep, but short.”
The Nikkei 225 (NKY) Stock Average rose 0.3 percent at 9:28 a.m., after the Federal Reserve signaled U.S. interest rates will remain low and commodity prices advanced. The Nikkei has lost 7 percent since the quake and tsunami, which left more than 24,000 dead or missing. The yen traded at 81.70 against the dollar, compared with 81.69 before the report was published.
Highlighting the disaster’s effect on companies, Toyota Motor Corp. said profits plunged while Nippon Stee feather hair extensions l Corp. reported its first net loss in six quarters, after the quake closed plants, cut supply chains and caused power shortage.
Factory output fell by a record and retail sales and exports declined in March because of power shortages spurred by a nuclear accident in Fukushima, northeast of Tokyo, and damage to transportation facilities after the temblor.
“It’s hard to think that companies will become aggressive about increasing business spending when uncertainties remain strong,” said Junko Nishioka, chief economist at RBS Securities Japan Ltd. in Tokyo. “Capital spending will likely be in a declining trend as corporate profits may do worse than expected.”
Capital investment dropped 0.9 cheap fashion percent in the first quarter, the first decline in six quarters, today’s data showed.
Consumer spending fell 0.6 percent in the January-March period from the previous three months, today’s report showed.
From the previous quarter, the economy shrank 0.9 percent in the first three months of 2011, today’s report showed. In nominal terms, the economy contracted an annualized 5.2 percent in the first quarter, today’s report showed.
Net exports, or shipments less imports, subtracted 0.2 percentage point from GDP.
The economy will probably contract cheap feather hair extensions 2011 at a 3.3 percent annual pace this quarter, and then resume growth the next two quarters, according to the average forecast of 43 economists in a survey by the government-affiliated Economic Planning Association released on May 16.
Japan’s GDP shrank for four straight quarters during the global financial crisis, and contracted for cheap feather hair extensions three straight quarters in 2001. Consumer prices excluding fresh food costs have dropped every month since March 2009, underscoring the deflationary pressure that has sapped consumer demand.
The GDP deflator, a gauge of price trends, fell 1.9 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier, today’s report showed.
The Japanese government, like the U.S., doesn’t define a recession as two consecutive quarterly GDP declines. The Cabinet Office appoints a committee of academics to determine when recoveries and recessions begin and end.
Toyota Motor, the world’s largest carmaker, said last week that profit slumped 77 percent to the lowest in 1 1/2 years for the three months ended March 31 after the earthquake forced it to halt production and depressed its domestic sales.
Nippon Steel, Japan’s biggest steelmaker, said in April it posted a worse-than-expected loss in the fiscal fourth-quarter after the temblor damaged plants. The company’s output is expected to drop by 7 percent to 8 percent this quarter as damaged carmaker facilities damp orders.
Kan Stimulus
Prime Minister Naoto Kan plans to come up with second extra budget for reconstruction after parliament approved a 4 trillion yen ($49 billion) budget this month. He will need the cooperation of opposition party politicians, who control the Upper House of parliament, to get the second budget enacted. The government in March estimated that damage from the disaster will swell to as high as 25 trillion yen.
Japan’s central bank injected record amounts of cash into the money market after the quake, and doubled to 10 trillion yen a fund to buy assets such as corporate bonds and real estate investment trusts. The Bank of Japan’s policy board last month rejected a proposal by a deputy governor to expand that fund.
Some data suggest that demand may recover earlier than expected after the quake.
Machinery orders, an indicator cheap fashion of future capital spending, unexpectedly increased in March, while companies said they plan to increase factory output in April and May.
Honda Motor Co., Japan’s third-largest automaker, said this week it will return to normal production before the cheap feather hair extensions end of the year as its production has recovered faster than it expected. Toyota Motor and Nissan Motor Co. have also said the recovery in production is quicker than expected.
“We look for a classic 2011 cheap fashion wholesale V-shaped recovery in the July-to- September period and after,” said Kyohei Morita, chief economist at Barclays Capital in Tokyo. “A self-sustaining recovery in production, an increase in government consumption and reconstruction demand centered around public works will likely support the economy.”
in the three months through March, following a revised 3 percent drop in the previous quarter, the feather hair extensions Cabinet Office said today in Tokyo. The median forecast of 23 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News was for a 1.9 percent drop. Economists typically define a recession as two consecutive quarters of contraction.
The March disaster hit an economy already weighed down by years of deflation and subdued consumer spending and that was reliant on exports for growth. The economy will probably shrink further this quarter before rebounding in the second half as supply constraints ease and reconstruction begins, according to a survey of analyst forecasts by a government-affiliated group.
“The negative economic impact from the disaster will be on full display during the second quarter,” Hiroshi Watanabe, a senior economist at the Daiwa Institute of Research in Tokyo, said before the report. “This recession may be deep, but short.”
The Nikkei 225 (NKY) Stock Average rose 0.3 percent at 9:28 a.m., after the Federal Reserve signaled U.S. interest rates will remain low and commodity prices advanced. The Nikkei has lost 7 percent since the quake and tsunami, which left more than 24,000 dead or missing. The yen traded at 81.70 against the dollar, compared with 81.69 before the report was published.
Highlighting the disaster’s effect on companies, Toyota Motor Corp. said profits plunged while Nippon Stee feather hair extensions l Corp. reported its first net loss in six quarters, after the quake closed plants, cut supply chains and caused power shortage.
Factory output fell by a record and retail sales and exports declined in March because of power shortages spurred by a nuclear accident in Fukushima, northeast of Tokyo, and damage to transportation facilities after the temblor.
“It’s hard to think that companies will become aggressive about increasing business spending when uncertainties remain strong,” said Junko Nishioka, chief economist at RBS Securities Japan Ltd. in Tokyo. “Capital spending will likely be in a declining trend as corporate profits may do worse than expected.”
Capital investment dropped 0.9 cheap fashion percent in the first quarter, the first decline in six quarters, today’s data showed.
Consumer spending fell 0.6 percent in the January-March period from the previous three months, today’s report showed.
From the previous quarter, the economy shrank 0.9 percent in the first three months of 2011, today’s report showed. In nominal terms, the economy contracted an annualized 5.2 percent in the first quarter, today’s report showed.
Net exports, or shipments less imports, subtracted 0.2 percentage point from GDP.
The economy will probably contract cheap feather hair extensions 2011 at a 3.3 percent annual pace this quarter, and then resume growth the next two quarters, according to the average forecast of 43 economists in a survey by the government-affiliated Economic Planning Association released on May 16.
Japan’s GDP shrank for four straight quarters during the global financial crisis, and contracted for cheap feather hair extensions three straight quarters in 2001. Consumer prices excluding fresh food costs have dropped every month since March 2009, underscoring the deflationary pressure that has sapped consumer demand.
The GDP deflator, a gauge of price trends, fell 1.9 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier, today’s report showed.
The Japanese government, like the U.S., doesn’t define a recession as two consecutive quarterly GDP declines. The Cabinet Office appoints a committee of academics to determine when recoveries and recessions begin and end.
Toyota Motor, the world’s largest carmaker, said last week that profit slumped 77 percent to the lowest in 1 1/2 years for the three months ended March 31 after the earthquake forced it to halt production and depressed its domestic sales.
Nippon Steel, Japan’s biggest steelmaker, said in April it posted a worse-than-expected loss in the fiscal fourth-quarter after the temblor damaged plants. The company’s output is expected to drop by 7 percent to 8 percent this quarter as damaged carmaker facilities damp orders.
Kan Stimulus
Prime Minister Naoto Kan plans to come up with second extra budget for reconstruction after parliament approved a 4 trillion yen ($49 billion) budget this month. He will need the cooperation of opposition party politicians, who control the Upper House of parliament, to get the second budget enacted. The government in March estimated that damage from the disaster will swell to as high as 25 trillion yen.
Japan’s central bank injected record amounts of cash into the money market after the quake, and doubled to 10 trillion yen a fund to buy assets such as corporate bonds and real estate investment trusts. The Bank of Japan’s policy board last month rejected a proposal by a deputy governor to expand that fund.
Some data suggest that demand may recover earlier than expected after the quake.
Machinery orders, an indicator cheap fashion of future capital spending, unexpectedly increased in March, while companies said they plan to increase factory output in April and May.
Honda Motor Co., Japan’s third-largest automaker, said this week it will return to normal production before the cheap feather hair extensions end of the year as its production has recovered faster than it expected. Toyota Motor and Nissan Motor Co. have also said the recovery in production is quicker than expected.
“We look for a classic 2011 cheap fashion wholesale V-shaped recovery in the July-to- September period and after,” said Kyohei Morita, chief economist at Barclays Capital in Tokyo. “A self-sustaining recovery in production, an increase in government consumption and reconstruction demand centered around public works will likely support the economy.”
2011年5月16日星期一
I emphasised to our Pakistani friends
Please respect FT.com's ts&cs and copyright policy which allow you to: share links; copy content for personal use; & redistribute limited extracts. Email ftsales.support@ft.com to buy additional rights or use this link to reference the article Many members of Congress have suggested it was inconceivable that Pakistani officials did not know the al-Qaeda leader was on Pakistani soil, and have argued that the roughly $3bn a year Islamabad gets from the US a year was not well spent.
“I emphasised to our Pakistani friends – and they are friends – that many in Congress are raising tough questions about our ongoing economic assistance to the government of Pakistan because of the events as they unfolded, and because of the presence of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan,” Mr Kerry said.
At the same time, Pakistani legislators have expressed deep anger at the US Navy Seals strike in Abbottabad, a military town, and have suggested that Pakistan’s vital logistical support for the Afghanistan war could be thrown into question.
Because 40 per cent of supplies for the Afghan war effort go through Pakistan, US officials argue that scope for reducing US aid for Islamabad is limited, because of the risk that Pakistan could cut off transit routes in retaliation.
The US is also seeking to maintain good relations with Pakistan because of the country’s status as a nuclear weapons state outside the non-proliferation treaty.
The Institute for Science and International Security, a Washington-based think-tank, said on Monday that Islamabad was ramping up its nuclear weapons programme with three new reactors that would “roughly double Pakistan’s annual ability to build nuclear weapons to about 19-26 nuclear weapons per year”.
ISIS and other groups are particularly worried about the safety of weapons-grade nuclear materials kept in Pakistani laboratories.
A joint statement agreed by Mr Kerry and the Pakistani government struck a note of harmony and said the two countries would work together in any future action against “high value targets” – in contrast to the Abbottabad raid.
But Congressional officials made clear that Mr Kerry was speaking only on his own behalf. Barack Obama won the US presidency promising he would take action against al-Qaeda targets if Pakistan was unwilling to do so – and US officials have said they did not tell Pakistan of the raid for fear the extremist group could have been tipped off.
Mr Kerry added that Pakistan had agreed to hand over the wreckage of a US Blackhawk helicopter destroyed during the raid.
Some western officials had feared that Pakistan might pass the wreckage on to China, to allow Beijing an insight into US stealth technology.
.Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2011. You may share using our article tools. Please don't cut articles from FT.com and redistribute by email or post to the web.
“I emphasised to our Pakistani friends – and they are friends – that many in Congress are raising tough questions about our ongoing economic assistance to the government of Pakistan because of the events as they unfolded, and because of the presence of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan,” Mr Kerry said.
At the same time, Pakistani legislators have expressed deep anger at the US Navy Seals strike in Abbottabad, a military town, and have suggested that Pakistan’s vital logistical support for the Afghanistan war could be thrown into question.
Because 40 per cent of supplies for the Afghan war effort go through Pakistan, US officials argue that scope for reducing US aid for Islamabad is limited, because of the risk that Pakistan could cut off transit routes in retaliation.
The US is also seeking to maintain good relations with Pakistan because of the country’s status as a nuclear weapons state outside the non-proliferation treaty.
The Institute for Science and International Security, a Washington-based think-tank, said on Monday that Islamabad was ramping up its nuclear weapons programme with three new reactors that would “roughly double Pakistan’s annual ability to build nuclear weapons to about 19-26 nuclear weapons per year”.
ISIS and other groups are particularly worried about the safety of weapons-grade nuclear materials kept in Pakistani laboratories.
A joint statement agreed by Mr Kerry and the Pakistani government struck a note of harmony and said the two countries would work together in any future action against “high value targets” – in contrast to the Abbottabad raid.
But Congressional officials made clear that Mr Kerry was speaking only on his own behalf. Barack Obama won the US presidency promising he would take action against al-Qaeda targets if Pakistan was unwilling to do so – and US officials have said they did not tell Pakistan of the raid for fear the extremist group could have been tipped off.
Mr Kerry added that Pakistan had agreed to hand over the wreckage of a US Blackhawk helicopter destroyed during the raid.
Some western officials had feared that Pakistan might pass the wreckage on to China, to allow Beijing an insight into US stealth technology.
.Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2011. You may share using our article tools. Please don't cut articles from FT.com and redistribute by email or post to the web.
The earnings season is slowly coming to an end
Banks and utilities lost further ground on worries about how
much cheap fashion wholesale 2011 they will have to contribute to help troubled nuclear
operator Tokyo Electric cheap fashion wholesale 2011 Power (Tepco) compensate
victims of the crisis at its tsunami-hit nuclear plant. The mood was also soured after Goldman Sachs downgraded its
recommendation on Japanese stocks to "underweight" from "market
weight", citing a weaker global macro backdrop, supply chain and
electricity supply problems after the March 11 earthquake as
well as a stronger yen. "We have entered a 'risk-off' stage in Tokyo. The earnings season is slowly coming to an end so traders are again
shifting their focus from micro factors like earnings to the
broader macro picture," said Makoto Kikuchi, chief executive
officer at Myojo Asset Management. The benchmark Nikkei average ended down for a third
straight day, losing 0.9 percent to 9,558.30, while the broader
Topix shed 1.2 percent to 829.55. Analysts said a decisive break below its closing
level may push the Nikkei to the bottom of its daily Ichimoku
cloud at 9,533,88, and if that level is then broken, it would be
a major bearish signal triggering more selling. "If overseas stocks slip again, the Nikkei may fall as low
as 9,300," he added. Market participants said risk factors for Tokyo stocks
included volatile commodities markets, a possible correction
ahead for U.S. stocks as the Federal Reserve ends its supportive
policy, and the fear of a worsening euro-zone debt crisis. Goldman Sachs lowered its 12 month target for TOPIX to 970
from 1,050 and said its Japan index targets imply 1 percent, 4
percent and 15 percent upside over 3, 6 and 12 months
respectively, compared to 8 percent, 13 percent and 25 percent
for Asian stocks outside Japan for the same periods. The Nikkei has tumbled more than 8 percent since the March
11 disasters, while Asian stocks outside Japan
have gained 5 percent over the last two months.
BANKS, UTILITIES EXTEND LOSSES Banks fell further after comments from the government's top
spokesman sparked concern on Friday that banks are likely to be
asked to ease troubled Tepco's cheap fashion wholesale 2011 loan burden. Although Japanese officials on Sunday denied the government
will ask banks to forgive loans to Tepco, investors still seemed
worried.[ID:nL4E7GF015] "The problem is that there seems to be a
difference of opinions on this issue inside the government. The
fact is that they don't seem to know what to do and that is
undermining investor confidence," said Masayuki Otani, chief
market analyst at Securities Japan Inc. "This uncertainty can keep a lid on bank stocks
for a longer while," Otani said. Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group shed 1.6 percent to
377 yen and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group weakened
2.1 percent to 2,401 yen. SMFG also said on Friday it expects
core lending to remain sluggish this year.[ID:nL3E7GD29Y] Utility stocks extended losses into a third day after the
government approved on Friday a plan to help Tepco compensate
victims of the crisis at its tsunami-crippled nuclear plant and
said other utilities would be asked to pay annual premiums to
help fund compensation. Shares initially fell on Thursday in
anticipation of the move.[ID:nL3E7GD00T] Chubu Electric fell 4.5 percent to 1,417
yen and Tohoku Electric lost 5.4 percent to 1,060 yen. But surprisingly strong machinery orders data boosted shares
of construction companies cheap fashion wholesale 2011 and machinery makers on hopes that
reconstruction demand will bolster capital spending.
much cheap fashion wholesale 2011 they will have to contribute to help troubled nuclear
operator Tokyo Electric cheap fashion wholesale 2011 Power (Tepco) compensate
victims of the crisis at its tsunami-hit nuclear plant. The mood was also soured after Goldman Sachs downgraded its
recommendation on Japanese stocks to "underweight" from "market
weight", citing a weaker global macro backdrop, supply chain and
electricity supply problems after the March 11 earthquake as
well as a stronger yen. "We have entered a 'risk-off' stage in Tokyo. The earnings season is slowly coming to an end so traders are again
shifting their focus from micro factors like earnings to the
broader macro picture," said Makoto Kikuchi, chief executive
officer at Myojo Asset Management. The benchmark Nikkei average ended down for a third
straight day, losing 0.9 percent to 9,558.30, while the broader
Topix shed 1.2 percent to 829.55. Analysts said a decisive break below its closing
level may push the Nikkei to the bottom of its daily Ichimoku
cloud at 9,533,88, and if that level is then broken, it would be
a major bearish signal triggering more selling. "If overseas stocks slip again, the Nikkei may fall as low
as 9,300," he added. Market participants said risk factors for Tokyo stocks
included volatile commodities markets, a possible correction
ahead for U.S. stocks as the Federal Reserve ends its supportive
policy, and the fear of a worsening euro-zone debt crisis. Goldman Sachs lowered its 12 month target for TOPIX to 970
from 1,050 and said its Japan index targets imply 1 percent, 4
percent and 15 percent upside over 3, 6 and 12 months
respectively, compared to 8 percent, 13 percent and 25 percent
for Asian stocks outside Japan for the same periods. The Nikkei has tumbled more than 8 percent since the March
11 disasters, while Asian stocks outside Japan
have gained 5 percent over the last two months.
BANKS, UTILITIES EXTEND LOSSES Banks fell further after comments from the government's top
spokesman sparked concern on Friday that banks are likely to be
asked to ease troubled Tepco's cheap fashion wholesale 2011 loan burden. Although Japanese officials on Sunday denied the government
will ask banks to forgive loans to Tepco, investors still seemed
worried.[ID:nL4E7GF015] "The problem is that there seems to be a
difference of opinions on this issue inside the government. The
fact is that they don't seem to know what to do and that is
undermining investor confidence," said Masayuki Otani, chief
market analyst at Securities Japan Inc. "This uncertainty can keep a lid on bank stocks
for a longer while," Otani said. Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group shed 1.6 percent to
377 yen and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group weakened
2.1 percent to 2,401 yen. SMFG also said on Friday it expects
core lending to remain sluggish this year.[ID:nL3E7GD29Y] Utility stocks extended losses into a third day after the
government approved on Friday a plan to help Tepco compensate
victims of the crisis at its tsunami-crippled nuclear plant and
said other utilities would be asked to pay annual premiums to
help fund compensation. Shares initially fell on Thursday in
anticipation of the move.[ID:nL3E7GD00T] Chubu Electric fell 4.5 percent to 1,417
yen and Tohoku Electric lost 5.4 percent to 1,060 yen. But surprisingly strong machinery orders data boosted shares
of construction companies cheap fashion wholesale 2011 and machinery makers on hopes that
reconstruction demand will bolster capital spending.
2011年5月13日星期五
Portugal joined Greece and Ireland in seeking a bailout
The figure underscores several dominant themes in Europe: A wide gap persists between wealthy, globally competitive countries in the north, and moribund economies such as Greece and Portugal that are unable to find new sources of private growth to replace a shrinking public sector.
The so-called core of Germany and its neighbors is increasingly decoupling from the debt crisis in Southern Europe cheap fashion wholesale and Ireland. That is a dilemma for the European Central Bank, which likely will be forced to combat signs of overheating in Germany and elsewhere with higher interest rates, even at the risk of doing further damage to the periphery.
(This story and related background material will be available on The Wall Street Journal website, WSJ.com.)
Spain grew in the quarter, albeit slowly, raising hopes that its still-weak economy will withstand the contagion from Greece and keep the debt crisis from infecting the rest of the region. The euro zone as a whole "is definitely on better footing," said Greg Fuzesi, an economist at J.P. Morgan Chase in London.
Gross domestic product across the 17-member euro bloc surged 3.3% at an annualized rate in the first quarter from the previous quarter, according to figures from European Union statistics agency Eurostat. Economists had expected growth closer to 2.5%.
It is a sharp pickup from the fourth quarter of 2010, when the euro bloc expanded just 1.1%. Harsh weather depressed activity at the end of last year, economists said, and a more favorable climate helped boost output in the first quarter. Fuzesi forecasts the euro zone will settle into a roughly 2% growth rate this quarter and next.
Growth was led by Europe's biggest economy, Germany, which advanced at a 6.1% annual rate. Germany has benefited since last year from an upswing in investment and resurgent global demand, particularly from emerging markets, such as China, where German-built luxury cars and specialty machine tools have been selling at record levels.
Nonetheless, Friday's figures suggest Germany is becoming less dependent on other nations for its growth. Though it gave no detailed breakdown, Germany's statistics office said investment and consumer spending posted strong gains, while foreign trade made less of a contribution.
Stefan Kirschsieper, owner of German tool-making company Walter Kottmann GmbH, said orders rose 34% in the first quarter from a year ago, as strong export markets in Central Europe, Russia and Latin America offset weakness in Southern Europe. "Portugal, Italy, Spain and Greece are still weak and Spain especially is far behind," said Kirschsieper, whose business depends heavily on the construction sector.
Germany's closest trading partners, such as Austria and the Netherlands, reported further output gains, each growing at roughly 4% annualized rates. Unlike in previous quarters, when France lagged behind its eastern neighbors, the euro's second-biggest economy grew a robust 3.9% last quarter, though it was driven partly by companies adding to inventories, which is unlikely to be repeated this quarter. French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde said the numbers "confirm that the French economy is on the path to a solid recovery."
Germany, France, and other northern nations comprise the bulk of euro-zone GDP, raising fears that faster growth will lead to overheating and an upward spiral in prices. Mindful of those risks, the ECB last month became the first central bank among major developed economies to raise interest rates. But it paused at its May meeting and signaled it isn't likely to increase again until July at the soonest.
"Given the high wholesale feather extensions weight of core countries [in euro-zone GDP], the ECB has to continue to adjust interest rates, and that's not supportive of the countries in crisis," said Stefan Schneider, an economist at Deutsche Bank. He expects three more rate hikes by year end, a slightly more aggressive view than the consensus, and one that he said the GDP report supports.
Greece reported an unexpected 3.4% rise in first-quarter GDP, at an annualized rate, which its finance ministry called "encouraging." But analysts said they saw no indication that the severe recession gripping the euro's most troubled member has ended, given that last quarter's gain followed a 10% plunge in the fourth quarter of 2010. Output in smaller countries can post big swings from one quarter to the next, and despite last quarter's expansion, Greece's economy is still nearly 5% smaller than it was one year ago.
"For the moment, it is a real hardship," said Christos Kiriakoreizis, purchasing manager at Philkeram Johnson SA, a ceramic-tile maker in northern Greece.
Amid the collapse of Greece's construction sector, the firm halted production months ago, Kiriakoreizis said, and plans to revamp to sell tiles imported from places such as South Africa, India and the Baltics.
The company, which currently employs 224 people, will probably only keep a skeleton staff of around 20 for merchandising, Kiriakoreizis said. "I don't see any new opportunities in Greece right now."
Portugal, meanwhile, slid deeper into recession, shrinking for a second straight quarter as austerity measures drained spending and investment.
Last month, Portugal joined Greece and Ireland in seeking a bailout from Europe and the International Monetary Fund. All three face years of economic pain as they enact deep budget cuts to trim soaring levels of government red ink. But together they wholesale feather extensions only account for 6% of euro-zone GDP, so even steep recessions along the fringe only have a small effect on the ???9.5 trillion euro-zone economy.
A small amount of extra growth at home makes it much easier for Germany and others in the north wholesale cheap to fund the periphery via loan guarantees or, if needed, outright transfers. On Thursday, Germany reported that, thanks to faster growth, the government can expect an extra ???18 billion in revenues this year, which by itself would finance a sizable portion of Greece's deficit.
Still, aiding the periphery is a tough sell in Germany, which went through a series of reforms last decade to improve its competitiveness and expects its southern neighbors to do the same. "I don't think [German Chancellor Angela] Merkel will say because the outlook for growth is better and there are windfall [revenue] gains, we'll spend them on Greece," said Schneider of Deutsche Bank.
The political risks cut both ways. Athens is imposing stringent and unpopular austerity measures at the insistence of the EU, IMF and ECB. The longer the north-south divide lingers, the wholesale feather extensions greater the risk that political leaders in the periphery balk at taking orders from Brussels and Frankfurt.
One bright spot for the beleaguered fringe was a 1.2% rise in Spanish GDP, raising hopes that despite a difficult climb from a severe housing slump and 20%-plus unemployment, Spain will avoid the fate of Greece, Ireland and Portugal.
"Spain is fundamentally different," said Fernando Eguidazu, vice president at Circulo de wholesale feather extensions Empresarios, a free-market think tank in Madrid, citing Spain's low debt ratio and global companies. But he was careful not to declare victory.
The so-called core of Germany and its neighbors is increasingly decoupling from the debt crisis in Southern Europe cheap fashion wholesale and Ireland. That is a dilemma for the European Central Bank, which likely will be forced to combat signs of overheating in Germany and elsewhere with higher interest rates, even at the risk of doing further damage to the periphery.
(This story and related background material will be available on The Wall Street Journal website, WSJ.com.)
Spain grew in the quarter, albeit slowly, raising hopes that its still-weak economy will withstand the contagion from Greece and keep the debt crisis from infecting the rest of the region. The euro zone as a whole "is definitely on better footing," said Greg Fuzesi, an economist at J.P. Morgan Chase in London.
Gross domestic product across the 17-member euro bloc surged 3.3% at an annualized rate in the first quarter from the previous quarter, according to figures from European Union statistics agency Eurostat. Economists had expected growth closer to 2.5%.
It is a sharp pickup from the fourth quarter of 2010, when the euro bloc expanded just 1.1%. Harsh weather depressed activity at the end of last year, economists said, and a more favorable climate helped boost output in the first quarter. Fuzesi forecasts the euro zone will settle into a roughly 2% growth rate this quarter and next.
Growth was led by Europe's biggest economy, Germany, which advanced at a 6.1% annual rate. Germany has benefited since last year from an upswing in investment and resurgent global demand, particularly from emerging markets, such as China, where German-built luxury cars and specialty machine tools have been selling at record levels.
Nonetheless, Friday's figures suggest Germany is becoming less dependent on other nations for its growth. Though it gave no detailed breakdown, Germany's statistics office said investment and consumer spending posted strong gains, while foreign trade made less of a contribution.
Stefan Kirschsieper, owner of German tool-making company Walter Kottmann GmbH, said orders rose 34% in the first quarter from a year ago, as strong export markets in Central Europe, Russia and Latin America offset weakness in Southern Europe. "Portugal, Italy, Spain and Greece are still weak and Spain especially is far behind," said Kirschsieper, whose business depends heavily on the construction sector.
Germany's closest trading partners, such as Austria and the Netherlands, reported further output gains, each growing at roughly 4% annualized rates. Unlike in previous quarters, when France lagged behind its eastern neighbors, the euro's second-biggest economy grew a robust 3.9% last quarter, though it was driven partly by companies adding to inventories, which is unlikely to be repeated this quarter. French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde said the numbers "confirm that the French economy is on the path to a solid recovery."
Germany, France, and other northern nations comprise the bulk of euro-zone GDP, raising fears that faster growth will lead to overheating and an upward spiral in prices. Mindful of those risks, the ECB last month became the first central bank among major developed economies to raise interest rates. But it paused at its May meeting and signaled it isn't likely to increase again until July at the soonest.
"Given the high wholesale feather extensions weight of core countries [in euro-zone GDP], the ECB has to continue to adjust interest rates, and that's not supportive of the countries in crisis," said Stefan Schneider, an economist at Deutsche Bank. He expects three more rate hikes by year end, a slightly more aggressive view than the consensus, and one that he said the GDP report supports.
Greece reported an unexpected 3.4% rise in first-quarter GDP, at an annualized rate, which its finance ministry called "encouraging." But analysts said they saw no indication that the severe recession gripping the euro's most troubled member has ended, given that last quarter's gain followed a 10% plunge in the fourth quarter of 2010. Output in smaller countries can post big swings from one quarter to the next, and despite last quarter's expansion, Greece's economy is still nearly 5% smaller than it was one year ago.
"For the moment, it is a real hardship," said Christos Kiriakoreizis, purchasing manager at Philkeram Johnson SA, a ceramic-tile maker in northern Greece.
Amid the collapse of Greece's construction sector, the firm halted production months ago, Kiriakoreizis said, and plans to revamp to sell tiles imported from places such as South Africa, India and the Baltics.
The company, which currently employs 224 people, will probably only keep a skeleton staff of around 20 for merchandising, Kiriakoreizis said. "I don't see any new opportunities in Greece right now."
Portugal, meanwhile, slid deeper into recession, shrinking for a second straight quarter as austerity measures drained spending and investment.
Last month, Portugal joined Greece and Ireland in seeking a bailout from Europe and the International Monetary Fund. All three face years of economic pain as they enact deep budget cuts to trim soaring levels of government red ink. But together they wholesale feather extensions only account for 6% of euro-zone GDP, so even steep recessions along the fringe only have a small effect on the ???9.5 trillion euro-zone economy.
A small amount of extra growth at home makes it much easier for Germany and others in the north wholesale cheap to fund the periphery via loan guarantees or, if needed, outright transfers. On Thursday, Germany reported that, thanks to faster growth, the government can expect an extra ???18 billion in revenues this year, which by itself would finance a sizable portion of Greece's deficit.
Still, aiding the periphery is a tough sell in Germany, which went through a series of reforms last decade to improve its competitiveness and expects its southern neighbors to do the same. "I don't think [German Chancellor Angela] Merkel will say because the outlook for growth is better and there are windfall [revenue] gains, we'll spend them on Greece," said Schneider of Deutsche Bank.
The political risks cut both ways. Athens is imposing stringent and unpopular austerity measures at the insistence of the EU, IMF and ECB. The longer the north-south divide lingers, the wholesale feather extensions greater the risk that political leaders in the periphery balk at taking orders from Brussels and Frankfurt.
One bright spot for the beleaguered fringe was a 1.2% rise in Spanish GDP, raising hopes that despite a difficult climb from a severe housing slump and 20%-plus unemployment, Spain will avoid the fate of Greece, Ireland and Portugal.
"Spain is fundamentally different," said Fernando Eguidazu, vice president at Circulo de wholesale feather extensions Empresarios, a free-market think tank in Madrid, citing Spain's low debt ratio and global companies. But he was careful not to declare victory.
2011年5月11日星期三
Bin Laden used the journal
outlined his thinking for mounting attacks with mass casualties and playing U.S. politicians off one another in a hand-written journal, letters and other documents recovered by Navy SEALs who killed the al- Qaeda leader, a U.S. official said.
Bin Laden used the journal, which is between 10 to 20 pages long, to brainstorm ideas about making attacks more deadly and choosing specific targets, such as trains, the official said. The terrorist group’s leader then detailed his thoughts in correspondence to al-Qaeda affiliates and allies around the world, the official said.
The official, lacking authorization to discuss the documents publicly, asked for anonymity. The Associated Press earlier reported on the journal.
The portrait emerging from the documents shows bin Laden was more involved in daily operations than U.S. national- security leaders had suspected.
The journal was among a vast store of documents and equipment including computer hard drives and portable thumb drives seized by the SEALs in the raid on the compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, that killed bin Laden earlier this month.
In some documents, bin Laden talked about the importance of an attack resulting in mass casualties and wonders how many Americans would need to be killed before the U.S. removed troops from Muslim countries.
U.S. Cities
The journal and documents discuss launching attacks in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Washington, the official said.
In the dozens of letters, bin Laden helps with operational planning, including a plot uncovered in Europe last year, the official said. Bin Laden also shares his thoughts on who should or shouldn’t be appointed leaders of al-Qaeda affiliates, the official said.
U.S. intelligence experts and other specialists from 10 government agencies are combing through the material and still quantifying and cataloging the haul, which may produce more hand-written accounts, a second U.S. official said.
The U.S. already has shared certain potential threat information with foreign partners, this official said, declining to specify which countries or organizations or how many.
The U.S. also has female interrogators on standby to interview bin Laden’s widows as soon as they get access that Pakistan has promised, the official said. The commandos conducting the raid left behind three wives of bin Laden and nine children whom Pakistani authorities took into their custody when they arrived on the scene afterwards.
The U.S. last week issued an alert to law enforcement officials based on an item in bin Laden’s notebook that described a plot in February 2010 to attack U.S. trains, a third U.S. official said.
Bin Laden used the journal, which is between 10 to 20 pages long, to brainstorm ideas about making attacks more deadly and choosing specific targets, such as trains, the official said. The terrorist group’s leader then detailed his thoughts in correspondence to al-Qaeda affiliates and allies around the world, the official said.
The official, lacking authorization to discuss the documents publicly, asked for anonymity. The Associated Press earlier reported on the journal.
The portrait emerging from the documents shows bin Laden was more involved in daily operations than U.S. national- security leaders had suspected.
The journal was among a vast store of documents and equipment including computer hard drives and portable thumb drives seized by the SEALs in the raid on the compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, that killed bin Laden earlier this month.
In some documents, bin Laden talked about the importance of an attack resulting in mass casualties and wonders how many Americans would need to be killed before the U.S. removed troops from Muslim countries.
U.S. Cities
The journal and documents discuss launching attacks in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Washington, the official said.
In the dozens of letters, bin Laden helps with operational planning, including a plot uncovered in Europe last year, the official said. Bin Laden also shares his thoughts on who should or shouldn’t be appointed leaders of al-Qaeda affiliates, the official said.
U.S. intelligence experts and other specialists from 10 government agencies are combing through the material and still quantifying and cataloging the haul, which may produce more hand-written accounts, a second U.S. official said.
The U.S. already has shared certain potential threat information with foreign partners, this official said, declining to specify which countries or organizations or how many.
The U.S. also has female interrogators on standby to interview bin Laden’s widows as soon as they get access that Pakistan has promised, the official said. The commandos conducting the raid left behind three wives of bin Laden and nine children whom Pakistani authorities took into their custody when they arrived on the scene afterwards.
The U.S. last week issued an alert to law enforcement officials based on an item in bin Laden’s notebook that described a plot in February 2010 to attack U.S. trains, a third U.S. official said.
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