Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/288470895?client_source=feed&format=rss
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Saturday, March 2, 2013
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China's manufacturing growth falls to 5-month low
BEIJING (AP) ? China's manufacturing grew at its weakest rate in five months in February as demand faltered and factories shut down for the Lunar New Year holiday, two surveys showed Friday.
An industry group, the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing, said its purchasing managers index declined to 50.1, down 0.3 points from January, on a 100-point scale on which numbers above 50 show an expansion in activity. A separate index by HSBC Corp. fell to 50.4 from January's 52.3.
China's economic growth rebounded to 7.9 percent in the final quarter of last year following its deepest slowdown since the 2008 global crisis. But analysts warn the recovery will be weak and gradual, and growth could be vulnerable if trade or investment weakens.
China's recovery is continuing but the latest manufacturing indicator "suggests a slower pace of expansion," HSBC economist Hongbin Qu said in a statement.
The Chinese federation said its measures of new orders and exports declined from January, while HSBC said its measures for both grew weakly.
"Overall the economy is in a period of stabilizing," said economist Zhang Liqun in statement released by the logistics federation.
Chinese manufacturing is closely watched as an indicator of global consumer sales and potential demand for trading partners that supply its factories with raw materials and industrial components.
Economists are cautious about drawing conclusions about China's economy from trade and other data in January and February, due to the lengthy Lunar New Year holiday. It begins on different days in those two months each year, distorting business activity.
This year, the holiday shutdown for Chinese companies fell entirely in February. Manufacturers often rush to fill orders before the holiday, boosting output, and then close for up to two weeks.
The latest Chinese manufacturing data come as hopes for a global economic recovery have been boosted by a run of upbeat data and indications from U.S. Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke that the central bank plans no immediate change in its easy monetary policy.
China's slowdown was largely due to government controls imposed to cool inflation and surging housing prices. It deepened when global demand for Chinese exports weakened unexpectedly in 2011.
Chinese leaders are trying to reduce reliance on trade and investment by encouraging domestic consumption, which will depress growth rates in coming years.
Many forecasters expect the rebound to peak in coming months before settling back to deliver growth of about 8 percent for the year, stronger than the outlook for the United States, Europe and Japan but below China's double-digit rates of the past decade.
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Friday, March 1, 2013
RateHub.ca's Fancy New Mortgage Refinance Centre
While Mark is off chasing kangaroos in Australia, his friends are covertly taking over his blog. (Confession: He actually asked us if we would update his readers while he was away and, being the nice guy that he is, we were happy to oblige.)
So, we ? we, as in RateHub.ca ? decided to take this opportunity to introduce something we have been working on over the last few months: our Mortgage Refinance Centre. We have been keeping it under wraps, but it?s finally ready for a proper introduction. And it couldn?t come at a more appropriate time for Canadians: following the holiday season, the amount of high interest debt from credit cards and the like warrants an investigation into refinancing at a low mortgage rate.
What makes our Refinance Centre so special?
We don?t want to brag but our Refinance Centre is pretty remarkable. Whether you are looking to refinance so you can switch to a lower mortgage rate, consolidate your debts, or access your home equity, we have refinance calculators and descriptive narratives to take you through every scenario. We?ve compiled historical mortgage rate data to give you well-informed estimates of the penalties to break your mortgage with each lender, which then allows you to compare those fees to the savings you could accrue with a new mortgage rate and term.
You can easily investigate whether it makes financial sense to switch to the historically low mortgage rates available today, or to consolidate any high interest debts to one lower mortgage rate, with our detailed and comprehensive overview of your refinance options. (Don?t believe us? Check out how simply everything is laid out in some of the screenshots below.)
Top of RateHub.ca?s Debt Consolidation Calculator
Figure 2: The results of a mock scenario using RateHub.ca?s Debt Consolidation Calculator
Some people never think about refinancing their mortgages. But considering 38% of mortgage holders in Canada did consider refinancing in 2011, you would be in good company.[1] With that, we invite you to mosey on over to our site and test out our new tools. You may be pleasantly surprised at the savings you could claim!
Kerri-Lynn McAllister is the Chief Marketing Officer at RateHub.ca, a site that compares Canadian mortgage rates.
[1] CAAMP Mortgage Insights 2011
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Source: http://savelblogs.com/ratehub-cas-fancy-new-mortgage-refinance-centre
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Penney's shares plunge after 4Q massive loss
FILE - In this Friday, July 27, 2012, file photo, Teresa Chavez shops at JC Penney's in the Southaven Towne Center Mall in Southaven, Miss. On Thursday, Feb. 28, 2013, a day after J.C. Penney reported a much wider-than-expected loss, the retailer?s stock is plummeting. (AP Photo/The Commercial Appeal, Kyle Kurlick, File)
FILE - In this Friday, July 27, 2012, file photo, Teresa Chavez shops at JC Penney's in the Southaven Towne Center Mall in Southaven, Miss. On Thursday, Feb. 28, 2013, a day after J.C. Penney reported a much wider-than-expected loss, the retailer?s stock is plummeting. (AP Photo/The Commercial Appeal, Kyle Kurlick, File)
NEW YORK (AP) ? J.C. Penney was the biggest loser Thursday.
Shares of J.C. Penney Co. plunged nearly 17 percent on Thursday, the largest decline on the Standard & Poor's 500 index on the day. The drop came a day after the department-store chain reported its fourth consecutive larger-than-expected quarterly loss on another steep sales decline.
Penney shares, which are now trading at around $18, now have lost nearly 60 percent of their value since early February of last year after CEO Ron Johnson revealed his plan to ditch hundreds of sales in favor of everyday low prices. After Johnson announced his vision in late January 2012, investors drove Penney's shares up 24 percent to $43 in a vote of confidence.
The stock drop is the latest sign that Johnson's turnaround strategy is failing on Wall Street as much as on Main Street. The company's quarterly and full-year results, which it reported Wednesday after the markets closed, revealed that shoppers still aren't buying it. But the sell-off shows that investors, too, are concerned that the plan won't work.
"I fear it will be much worse as consumers continue to walk away from J.C. Penney and its financial health continues to deteriorate," said Walter Loeb, a New York based independent consultant.
Penney's spokeswoman Daphne Avila declined to comment on Thursday's stock movement. But Johnson on Wednesday acknowledged to investors that the 1,100-store chain had made some mistakes. He also told them that Penney would start offering sales in stores every week.
"Experience is making mistakes and learning from them," Johnson told investors on Wednesday. "I have learned a lot."
If J.C. Penney's results are any indication, Johnson is right. Penney reported on Wednesday after the markets closed that it widened its quarterly loss to $552 million, or $2.51 per share. Revenue fell 24.8 percent to $12.98 billion.
Revenue at stores opened a least a year dropped 31.7 percent. The measure is a key indicator of a retailer's health. Customer traffic dropped 17 percent in the quarter, worse than the 10 percent drop in the third quarter.
Results for the full year were even more staggering. For the fiscal year, Penney lost $985 million, or $4.49 per share, compared with a loss of $152 million, or 70 cents per share, in the year ended January 28, 2012. Revenue dropped 24.8 percent to $12.98 billion.
It's a disappointing turn of events for Johnson, the mastermind of Apple's successful retail stores who took the top job at Penney in November 2011. A couple of months later, on Feb. 1 of last year, Johnson got rid of the nearly 600 sales Penney offered each year and lowered prices in the store by 40 percent. He also got rid of the word "sales" from the company's marketing.
But customers weren't responding to the changes, and Johnson has tweaked his strategy a few times, including bringing back the word "sale" in its marketing last spring. The latest change came early February when Penney began adding back more sales events and putting price tags on half of its merchandise to show customers how much they're saving by shopping at Penney.
Penney said that it's seeing positive results from its makeover of some of its stores with sectioned-off shops that feature different brands. The company plans to have 700 of its 1,100 stores nationwide remodeled in the coming years, but critics question whether the company is running out of time ? and money.
In November, Penney said that it would end the latest fiscal year with $1 billion in cash. But the company winded up ending the year with $930 million in cash, which was better than analysts had feared but below the company's target.
The company also told investors on Wednesday that it delayed $85 million in payments to its suppliers from the fourth quarter to the early part of the first quarter. That suggests they're running out of cash.
And two rating agencies ? Standard & Poor's Ratings Services and Fitch Ratings ? raised further concerns on Thursday about Penney's ability to meet its loan commitments. Both lowered their credit ratings on Penney, which were already in junk status, by one notch.
"Our analysis suggests (Penney) will deplete cash" in the third quarter, wrote Kimberly C. Greenberger, an analyst at Morgan Stanley in a report published Thursday.
_______
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Canadian adult obesity at historic high
Feb. 27, 2013 ? Obesity rates across Canada are reaching alarming levels and continue to climb, according to a new University of British Columbia study.
Published today in the Canadian Journal of Public Health, the study provides the first comprehensive look at adult obesity rates across Canada since 1998, complete with "obesity maps."
"Being obese or overweight significantly increases the risk of chronic illnesses, such as heart disease, diabetes, and some cancers," says study lead author, Prof. Carolyn Gotay in UBC's School of Population and Public Health. "Our analysis shows that more Canadians are obese than ever before -- on average, between one fourth and one third of Canadians are obese, depending on the region."
The Maritimes and the two Territories had the highest obesity rates from 2000 to 2011 -- more than 30 per cent of the population in these regions is estimated to be obese. British Columbia had the lowest overall rates, but obesity still increased from less than 20 per cent to almost 25 per cent. Meanwhile, rates in Quebec remained below 24 per cent.
The obesity maps that accompany the study serve as a tool to regional authorities to monitor and act on these trends, says Gotay, who is also the Canadian Cancer Society Chair in Cancer Primary Prevention in UBC's Faculty of Medicine.
"Maps that use colours and well-known geographical depictions are an efficient way to convey complex data that transcends language differences and personalizes the data for the viewer," says Gotay. "This information can provide an impetus for action for the public, health care providers, and decision makers."
Using data from the Canadian Community Health Survey, the researchers adjusted self-reported Body Mass Index (BMI) data to get more accurate obesity estimates. Over the 11-year study period, the researchers found the greatest increase occurring between 2000 and 2007.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of British Columbia.
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Journal Reference:
- Carolyn C. Gotay, Peter T. Katzmarzyk, Ian Janssen, Marliese Y. Dawson, Khatereh Aminoltejari, Nicci L. Bartley. Updating the Canadian Obesity Maps: An Epidemic in Progress. Canadian Journal of Public Health, 2013; 104 (1) [link]
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/6niA9ND0tds/130227151256.htm
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Former SNC-Lavalin CEO faces new corruption charges
OTTAWA (Reuters) - The former chief executive of SNC-Lavalin Group Inc
The province of Quebec's anti-corruption police unit alleges that ex-CEO Pierre Duhaime, who resigned from the Montreal-based company last year, committed fraud and other criminal offenses.
In a statement, the unit provided no details about the charges, but the Globe and Mail newspaper reported they were connected to a contract awarded to SNC in 2010 for the construction of a Montreal hospital.
An arrest warrant was also issued on Wednesday for Riadh Ben Aissa, SNC's former head of construction, for similar corruption charges, as well as for three other men.
The allegations are the latest development in a widening scandal at SNC that stretches from Montreal to Tripoli and led to prior arrests of both Duhaime and Ben Aissa.
"In the cases of Pierre Duhaime and Riadh Ben Aissa, these are new criminal accusations which have been authorized by the bureau for the fight against corruption and embezzlement," said the anti-corruption unit in a statement.
In early 2012, an internal investigation by SNC found that $56 million in funds had gone missing, paid to unknown agents on projects that did not exist. Duhaime quit in March after it came to light that he signed off on the mystery payments.
He was then arrested in November on three fraud charges and later released.
Ben Aissa was arrested in Switzerland last April on charges of money laundering and corruption and in an affidavit released last month, Canadian police alleged that he had paid bribes to a son of deposed Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi in exchange for help in obtaining major contracts for the company's international arm. He remains in custody in Switzerland.
SNC AWARE OF WARRANTS
Duhaime's lawyer Michel Massicotte told Reuters on Wednesday that his client had not yet been arrested and that he would plead "not guilty" to the new set of charges, which he said would replace previous ones.
"He's in the province of Quebec and obviously he will face the charges there. There's no problem about that," Massicotte said.
Lawyers representing Ben Aissa were not immediately available for comment.
SNC said it was aware of the warrants for its former executives and that it would continue to cooperate fully with authorities.
"We have voluntarily turned over information that we have to local and other authorities for them to take any actions that they may consider appropriate," spokeswoman Lilly Nguyen said in an email.
"We are unequivocal that no unethical behavior or illegal acts must ever be tolerated. We believe that anyone found to have committed any wrongdoing in connection should be brought to justice."
The 102-year-old company has installed a new CEO and several new executives while tightening its ethics policies.
Last week, it hired a former Siemens AG compliance officer to help guide it through the scandal. Siemens paid $1.6 billion to U.S. and European authorities in 2008 to resolve allegations it paid bribes around the world.
Investors appeared to shrug off the news, though modest gains were erased by session-end on Wednesday, as the stock closed down 4 Canadian cents at C$47.13 on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
"Right now there is, incrementally speaking, nothing new at all, so that's why the market just doesn't care," said Maxim Sytchev, analyst at AltaCorp Capital.
Also named in Wednesday's arrest warrant was Arthur Porter, the former head of the McGill University Health Centre, which runs a network of health facilities. The Globe and Mail newspaper reported Porter was the chief negotiator on the C$1.3 billion ($1.3 billion) contract awarded to SNC in 2010.
Porter's alleged involvement in corruption has ruffled feathers in political circles because Prime Minister Stephen Harper had appointed Porter in 2008 to a committee which oversees the government's spy agency, where he served until 2011.
($1=$1.02 Canadian)
(Reporting by Louise Egan; Editing by James Dalgleish)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/former-snc-lavalin-ceo-faces-corruption-charges-215118788--sector.html
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