Cornerstone Capital Inc. Founder and CEO Erika Karp discusses making capital more accessible for small and medium-sized enterprises. She speaks with Deirdre Bolton on Bloomberg Television's "Money Moves."
Sunday, 22 September 2013
European Stocks Rise for Third Week on Fed Taper Surprise
European stocks climbed for a third straight week after the Federal Reserve unexpectedly refrained from reducing its monthly bond purchases and Lawrence H. Summers withdrew from consideration as chairman of the central bank.
Glanbia Plc (GLB) rallied the most in more than two years as food and beverage shares gained. Hennes & Mauritz AB jumped 6.9 percent after reporting monthly sales that beat estimates. Edenred SA rose 7.8 percent after Raymond James Financial Inc. said margins may improve in 2014. Fresnillo Plc sank 14 percent after missing out on inclusion in a gold-miners gauge.
The Stoxx Europe 600 Index advanced 0.9 percent to 314.2 this past week. The equity gauge has surged 5.7 percent in September, putting it on course for the biggest monthly gain in almost two years. The measure has climbed 12 percent in 2013 as the euro area emerged from recession and central banks pledged to keep borrowing costs low to support the global economy.
“The lack of tapering was a real surprise,” Philip Dicken, head of European equities at Threadneedle Asset Management Ltd. in London, said by phone. His firm oversees about $127 billion. “It signals that if the Fed is at all worried about growth, they will not use tapering if it will choke off that growth. It’s another net positive for European equities, where life is getting incrementally better.”
The Stoxx 600 climbed to its highest level since June 2008 on Sept. 19, a day after the Fed said it needs to see more evidence of lasting improvement in the U.S. economy before slowing bond purchases. Some 44 of 64 economists surveyed by Bloomberg before the decision had predicted that the central bank would start tapering stimulus measures this month.
Summers Withdrawal
The Fed repeated guidance that its target interest rate will remain low for at least as long as unemployment exceeds 6.5 percent, and the outlook for inflation remains no higher than 2.5 percent. Stocks worldwide also rallied this week after Summers withdrew from the running to replace Ben S. Bernanke as Fed chairman, paving the way for Janet Yellen, who investors say will favor slower stimulus reduction.
European equities fell yesterday after Fed Bank of St. Louis President James Bullard said a “small taper” in stimulus is possible next month and as investors awaited Sunday’s elections in Germany.
The Bank of England released this week the minutes from its Sept. 4-5 meeting, which showed that officials unanimously concluded there was no need for additional stimulus given the improving outlook for the British economy.
Volatility Declines
The VStoxx Index, a measure of expected volatility in euro-area stocks, slid 8.8 percent to 16.76 this week, the lowest level in a month. National benchmark indexes climbed in 16 of the 18 western-European markets. Germany’s DAX added 2 percent, France’s CAC 40 rose 2.2 percent and the U.K.’s FTSE 100 gained 0.2 percent.
“Whereas before the news was always getting worse, now it’s getting a little better,” Dicken said. “That sort of turning point makes a critical difference to equities.”
Glanbia rallied 9.2 percent in Dublin for the biggest gain in the Stoxx 600 this week. The Kilkenny, Ireland-based dairy producer led a gauge of food and beverage shares in the Stoxx 600 higher by 2.3 percent. Nutreco NV, the world’s biggest maker of fish feed, rose 6.2 percent in Amsterdam.
Banks also climbed. Banco de Sabadell SA surged 9.1 percent for the second-biggest increase in the Stoxx 600. HSBC Holdings Plc raised Spain’s fifth-biggest lender to neutral, or hold, from underweight. Unione di Banche Italiane SCPA jumped 7.5 percent after Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said capital-sensitivity at Italian banks is decreasing.
H&M Sales
H&M gained 6.9 percent, the biggest rally in 15 months. Europe’s second-largest clothing retailer said revenue at stores open at least a year rose 4 percent in August compared with the same month last year. The average estimate in a SME Direkt survey was for a 2.5 percent increase.
Edenred climbed 7.8 percent for the biggest advance in 18 months. So-called organic-issue volume growth at the French seller of meal and service vouchers may climb 10.5 percent in the third quarter, Raymond James wrote in a report. The firm rates Edenred shares as outperform, similar to a buy recommendation.
Remy Cointreau SA (RCO) jumped 6 percent, the most since January. Chinese cognac shipments increased 20.5 percent in August, rising for the first time since January, according to UBS AG, citing from BNIC, a trade association of cognac makers.
Fresnillo tumbled 14 percent for the biggest decline since June. The precious-metals producer wasn’t added to the NYSE Arca Gold Miners Index (GDX), after the gauge’s methodology was changed to include companies not listed in the U.S.
K+S AG, Europe’s biggest potash distributor, sank 8.9 percent. Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc., North America’s largest fertilizer producer, said OAO Uralkali’s withdrawal from a joint venture with Belarus has paralyzed global markets for the crop nutrient.
Link: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-09-20/european-stocks-rise-for-third-week-on-fed-taper-surprise.html
Saturday, 21 September 2013
Sprint Offers Early Upgrade Program
Bloomberg’s Emily Chang reports on today’s top stories in “Top Headlines.” She speaks on Bloomberg Television’s "Bloomberg West."
Lenovo CEO Shares Bonus With Workers Again
In "Company News," Bloomberg's Anna Edwards reports on the top business stories of the day. She speaks on Bloomberg Television's "On The Move."
The Top Ten Stocks for Sept. 20
Bloomberg’s Adam Johnson, Matt Miller and Trish Regan report on today’s ten most important stocks including Darden, Facebook and Blackberry.
Nigeria Naira to Kenya Shilling, Bonds Boosted by Fed
African currencies from Nigeria’s naira to Kenya’s shilling strengthened and yields on the continent’s dollar bonds fell after the Federal Reserve refrained from reducing stimulus that has triggered a rally across emerging markets.
Fed policy makers led by Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said yesterday they want more evidence of lasting improvement in the U.S. economy before paring the central bank’s $85 billion monthly bond-buying program. The median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of economists was for a $5 billion reduction. Ten out of 24 African currencies tracked by Bloomberg gained against the dollar, six were unchanged and eight weakened.
“The Fed produced a huge surprise,” Societe Generale SA strategists, led by London-based Benoit Anne, wrote in an e-mailed note. “Emerging-market investors will move on and go on a buying spree.”
Nigeria’s naira advanced as much as 1.2 percent to 160.13 per dollar and was trading 0.7 percent stronger at 160.95 as of 12:58 p.m. in Lagos, the commercial capital, set for its highest closing level since Aug. 14. Zambia’s kwacha jumped 0.9 percent to 5.245 per dollar, set for its best close since May, while Kenya’s shilling climbed 0.3 percent to 87.20 per dollar, heading for its best close since July 19.
Kenya, East Africa’s largest economy plans to raise at least $1.5 billion this year in its first sale of dollar bonds, following other sub-Saharan African nations including Zambia and Rwanda selling dollar-denominated debt, which will help plug a budget deficit and finance construction of ports, railways and power-generation projects.
Kenya Cheer
The Fed holding off on paring bond purchases is also “good news” for Kenya’s expected Eurobond sale, Charles Robertson, the London-based chief global economist at Renaissance Capital, wrote in an e-mailed note today. “It might reduce the yield by 50 basis points, so Bernanke may have saved Kenya $75 million over the 10-year lifetime of a $1.5 billion Eurobond.”
Yields on Zambia’s $750 million of international debt maturing September 2022 fell 18 basis points, or 0.18 percentage point, to 7.24 percent, while borrowing costs on Ghana’s $1 billion Eurobonds due October 2023 declined eight basis points to 8 percent. The rate on 10-year Nigerian dollar-denominated notes slid 12 basis points to 6.13 percent, the lowest since Aug. 21.
Link: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-09-19/nigeria-naira-to-kenya-shilling-bonds-boosted-by-fed.html
Fed policy makers led by Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said yesterday they want more evidence of lasting improvement in the U.S. economy before paring the central bank’s $85 billion monthly bond-buying program. The median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of economists was for a $5 billion reduction. Ten out of 24 African currencies tracked by Bloomberg gained against the dollar, six were unchanged and eight weakened.
“The Fed produced a huge surprise,” Societe Generale SA strategists, led by London-based Benoit Anne, wrote in an e-mailed note. “Emerging-market investors will move on and go on a buying spree.”
Nigeria’s naira advanced as much as 1.2 percent to 160.13 per dollar and was trading 0.7 percent stronger at 160.95 as of 12:58 p.m. in Lagos, the commercial capital, set for its highest closing level since Aug. 14. Zambia’s kwacha jumped 0.9 percent to 5.245 per dollar, set for its best close since May, while Kenya’s shilling climbed 0.3 percent to 87.20 per dollar, heading for its best close since July 19.
Kenya, East Africa’s largest economy plans to raise at least $1.5 billion this year in its first sale of dollar bonds, following other sub-Saharan African nations including Zambia and Rwanda selling dollar-denominated debt, which will help plug a budget deficit and finance construction of ports, railways and power-generation projects.
Kenya Cheer
The Fed holding off on paring bond purchases is also “good news” for Kenya’s expected Eurobond sale, Charles Robertson, the London-based chief global economist at Renaissance Capital, wrote in an e-mailed note today. “It might reduce the yield by 50 basis points, so Bernanke may have saved Kenya $75 million over the 10-year lifetime of a $1.5 billion Eurobond.”
Yields on Zambia’s $750 million of international debt maturing September 2022 fell 18 basis points, or 0.18 percentage point, to 7.24 percent, while borrowing costs on Ghana’s $1 billion Eurobonds due October 2023 declined eight basis points to 8 percent. The rate on 10-year Nigerian dollar-denominated notes slid 12 basis points to 6.13 percent, the lowest since Aug. 21.
Link: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-09-19/nigeria-naira-to-kenya-shilling-bonds-boosted-by-fed.html
Gold Rises to One-Week High as Fed Maintains Stimulus
Gold rose to a one-week high in London after the Federal Reserve maintained the pace of U.S. bond purchases, boosting demand for the metal as a store of value. Silver and palladium advanced.
The Federal Open Market Committee said it will “await more evidence” for sustained economic recovery before reducing its $85 billion in monthly stimulus. Gold has dropped 18 percent this year on speculation that the Fed would taper debt purchases that helped the metal cap a 12-year bull run in 2012.
“This came as a complete surprise to many market participants and we are seeing prices move higher,” David Meger, the director of metal trading at Vision Financial Markets in Chicago, said in a telephone interview. “The trend is bullish.”
Gold for immediate delivery rose 0.2 percent to settle at $1,366.36 an ounce at 4:59 p.m. in New York. Earlier, the price reached $1,375.81, the highest since Sept. 10. Yesterday, the metal surged 4.1 percent, the most in 15 months.
On the Comex in New York, gold futures for December delivery rose 4.7 percent to close at $1,369.30, the biggest gain since March 19, 2009. Yesterday, the price settled 0.1 percent lower before the Fed announcement.
Goldman Outlook
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said the Fed’s decision “leaves risks to gold prices as skewed to the upside in the near term.” The bank affirmed its forecast that prices will resume a drop into 2014 on U.S. economic growth and less accommodative monetary policy, analysts Damien Courvalin and Jeffrey Currie said in a note dated yesterday.
Analysts were divided on the amount by which policy makers would scale back monthly asset purchases. Among 64 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News before the announcement, 33 predicted the Fed would reduce buying of Treasuries by $5 billion or less, while 31 forecast a cut of $10 billion or more.
Spot gold, which reached a record $1,921.15 on Sept. 6, 2011, surged 70 percent from the end of December 2008 to June 2011 as the Fed pumped more than $2 trillion into the financial system by purchasing debt. The price fell 14 percent in two days through April 15, the biggest drop since 1983, as some investors lost faith in the metal as a store of value. The rout spurred coin and jewelry demand from the U.S. to China.
Silver for immediate delivery rose 0.5 percent to $23.072 an ounce. Yesterday, the price soared 5.6 percent.
Spot palladium jumped 2.2 percent to $734.45 an ounce. The price climbed for the fifth straight session, the longest rally in two months.
Platinum fell 0.1 percent to $1,463.60 an ounce.
Link: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-09-19/gold-swings-after-rising-most-in-15-months-as-fed-keeps-stimulus.html
The Federal Open Market Committee said it will “await more evidence” for sustained economic recovery before reducing its $85 billion in monthly stimulus. Gold has dropped 18 percent this year on speculation that the Fed would taper debt purchases that helped the metal cap a 12-year bull run in 2012.
“This came as a complete surprise to many market participants and we are seeing prices move higher,” David Meger, the director of metal trading at Vision Financial Markets in Chicago, said in a telephone interview. “The trend is bullish.”
Gold for immediate delivery rose 0.2 percent to settle at $1,366.36 an ounce at 4:59 p.m. in New York. Earlier, the price reached $1,375.81, the highest since Sept. 10. Yesterday, the metal surged 4.1 percent, the most in 15 months.
On the Comex in New York, gold futures for December delivery rose 4.7 percent to close at $1,369.30, the biggest gain since March 19, 2009. Yesterday, the price settled 0.1 percent lower before the Fed announcement.
Goldman Outlook
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said the Fed’s decision “leaves risks to gold prices as skewed to the upside in the near term.” The bank affirmed its forecast that prices will resume a drop into 2014 on U.S. economic growth and less accommodative monetary policy, analysts Damien Courvalin and Jeffrey Currie said in a note dated yesterday.
Analysts were divided on the amount by which policy makers would scale back monthly asset purchases. Among 64 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News before the announcement, 33 predicted the Fed would reduce buying of Treasuries by $5 billion or less, while 31 forecast a cut of $10 billion or more.
Spot gold, which reached a record $1,921.15 on Sept. 6, 2011, surged 70 percent from the end of December 2008 to June 2011 as the Fed pumped more than $2 trillion into the financial system by purchasing debt. The price fell 14 percent in two days through April 15, the biggest drop since 1983, as some investors lost faith in the metal as a store of value. The rout spurred coin and jewelry demand from the U.S. to China.
Silver for immediate delivery rose 0.5 percent to $23.072 an ounce. Yesterday, the price soared 5.6 percent.
Spot palladium jumped 2.2 percent to $734.45 an ounce. The price climbed for the fifth straight session, the longest rally in two months.
Platinum fell 0.1 percent to $1,463.60 an ounce.
Link: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-09-19/gold-swings-after-rising-most-in-15-months-as-fed-keeps-stimulus.html
Huawei Targets Nigeria Smartphone Boom for Market Share
Huawei Technologies Co., China’s largest networking-equipment manufacturer, plans to double smartphone sales in Nigeria this year as it seeks to boost its global market share, company officials said.
Huawei, which released its Ascend P6 smartphone, said to be the “world’s slimmest phone” in Lagos, the commercial capital of Africa’s biggest phone market, on Sept. 6, forecasts it will sell 200,000 smartphones in the country by year-end, Tony Liang, managing director of the company’s consumer business group for West Africa, said in a Sept. 10 interview in the city. That’s twice the number it sold last year.
“With Nigeria developing economically, smartphone use will boom over the next five years,” he said. More than 90 percent of the phones used in the country now are “feature phones,” used only for voice calls and text messages, leaving room for smartphone growth, he said.
The Shenzhen-based company seeks to become one of the top three smartphone vendors globally by 2018. Nigeria had 117 million mobile-phone subscribers as of June 2013, according to the Nigerian Communications Commission, for a population of more than 160 million. With many subscribers acquiring more than one line, the numbers will grow to more than 200 million subscriptions in 2017, London-based research company Informa Telecoms & Media estimates.
Late Entrant
While Huawei is relatively a late entrant in the Nigerian smartphone market, it has the advantage of being a network provider to most phone companies, said Yolanda Zhang, marketing director of the consumer business in West Africa.
“We already partner with them for their networks,” Zhang said. “That makes it easier for us than for the others to partner with them” for the smartphone segment as well, she said.
Its competitors include Ontario, Canada-based BlackBerry Ltd, which remains a popular brand in Nigeria, Espoo, Finland-based Nokia Oyj (NOK1V), Taiwan’s HTC Corp. (2498), Hong Kong’s Tecno Telecom Ltd., which produces exclusively for Africa, as well as Samsung Electrics Co. and Apple Inc.
MTN Group Ltd. (MTN)’s Nigerian unit, Nigeria’s Globacom Ltd., New Delhi-based Bharti Airtel and Abu Dhabi-based Emirates Telecommunications Corp. (ETISALAT), known as Etisalat, all offer subsidized or free smartphones and data plans.
Cheaper Data
Huawei is helping deploy a fiber backbone to connect government departments in Abuja by mid-2014 in collaboration with Nigerian company Galaxy Backbone and is in talks to extend it across the country to enable cheaper data services, said Kevin Li, the public relations manager for West Africa.
Smartphone shipments are expected to reach one billion globally this year and their growth could outpace that of mobile data, according to Deloitte’s Technology, Media and Telecommunications Predictions 2013 report.
The target of 200,000 phones set by Huawei for Nigeria this year is small for a market estimated to have five million smartphones, said Yomi Adegboye, managing editor of mobility.ng, a Nigerian online magazine on mobile technology. “Right now Huawei is not very visible on the smartphone front,” he said.
Link: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-09-20/huawei-targets-nigeria-smartphone-boom-for-market-share.html
Huawei, which released its Ascend P6 smartphone, said to be the “world’s slimmest phone” in Lagos, the commercial capital of Africa’s biggest phone market, on Sept. 6, forecasts it will sell 200,000 smartphones in the country by year-end, Tony Liang, managing director of the company’s consumer business group for West Africa, said in a Sept. 10 interview in the city. That’s twice the number it sold last year.
“With Nigeria developing economically, smartphone use will boom over the next five years,” he said. More than 90 percent of the phones used in the country now are “feature phones,” used only for voice calls and text messages, leaving room for smartphone growth, he said.
The Shenzhen-based company seeks to become one of the top three smartphone vendors globally by 2018. Nigeria had 117 million mobile-phone subscribers as of June 2013, according to the Nigerian Communications Commission, for a population of more than 160 million. With many subscribers acquiring more than one line, the numbers will grow to more than 200 million subscriptions in 2017, London-based research company Informa Telecoms & Media estimates.
Late Entrant
While Huawei is relatively a late entrant in the Nigerian smartphone market, it has the advantage of being a network provider to most phone companies, said Yolanda Zhang, marketing director of the consumer business in West Africa.
“We already partner with them for their networks,” Zhang said. “That makes it easier for us than for the others to partner with them” for the smartphone segment as well, she said.
Its competitors include Ontario, Canada-based BlackBerry Ltd, which remains a popular brand in Nigeria, Espoo, Finland-based Nokia Oyj (NOK1V), Taiwan’s HTC Corp. (2498), Hong Kong’s Tecno Telecom Ltd., which produces exclusively for Africa, as well as Samsung Electrics Co. and Apple Inc.
MTN Group Ltd. (MTN)’s Nigerian unit, Nigeria’s Globacom Ltd., New Delhi-based Bharti Airtel and Abu Dhabi-based Emirates Telecommunications Corp. (ETISALAT), known as Etisalat, all offer subsidized or free smartphones and data plans.
Cheaper Data
Huawei is helping deploy a fiber backbone to connect government departments in Abuja by mid-2014 in collaboration with Nigerian company Galaxy Backbone and is in talks to extend it across the country to enable cheaper data services, said Kevin Li, the public relations manager for West Africa.
Smartphone shipments are expected to reach one billion globally this year and their growth could outpace that of mobile data, according to Deloitte’s Technology, Media and Telecommunications Predictions 2013 report.
The target of 200,000 phones set by Huawei for Nigeria this year is small for a market estimated to have five million smartphones, said Yomi Adegboye, managing editor of mobility.ng, a Nigerian online magazine on mobile technology. “Right now Huawei is not very visible on the smartphone front,” he said.
Link: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-09-20/huawei-targets-nigeria-smartphone-boom-for-market-share.html
Billionaire Rupert Buys $4.1 Million Buffalo Mystery
Billionaire Johann Rupert, South Africa’s richest person, led a group that bought a Cape Buffalo bull named Mystery for a record 40 million rand ($4.1 million).
“He’s not a mystery anymore,” Andrien White, the marketing manager for Thabo Tholo, a game reserve and animal breeder in Limpopo Province, said in a phone interview. Mystery’s horns span almost 4 1/2 feet and the breed can weigh as much as a metric ton.
“Obviously where he’s going he’s not going to be hunted,” White said. “He’ll be used as a breeding bull.”
Two men bought Mystery on behalf of Rupert and a group of game breeders in the semi-desert Karoo region, Johann Vosser, the managing director for Vleissentraal Bosveld, a South African auctioneer, said by phone. The purchase was the most ever paid for a buffalo, according to an e-mailed statement on the sale. A sable antelope named “Wiele,” which means “wheels” in Afrikaans, was also sold for 11 million rand.
Rupert, born in Johannesburg, is the oldest son of deceased industrialist Anton Rupert, who founded the tobacco company Rembrandt Group in 1948. The Cie. Financiere Richemont SA (CFR) chairman, who is worth $8.8 billion according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, said on May 16 that he will take a year off, leaving management of the world’s second-biggest luxury-goods company to a team of executives including Cartier’s former CEO.
Great Genes
Derek Light of Graaff Reinet, South Africa-based Derek Light Attorneys, who represents the billionaire and acts as a spokesman, said he couldn’t comment.
Mystery beat a record 26 million rand paid for a buffalo last year, Vosser said. Gnu, oryx and impala were also sold in the auction that brought a total 233 million rand in sales. “People are concentrating more on these exceptional animals to get the genetics,” he said.
Mystery’s horns, which span 53 3/8 inches (135.6 centimeters), and status as disease free are the main factors behind the price of the animal, White said. Many wild buffalo in South Africa carry tuberculosis.
To be able to sell buffalo and move them around in South Africa “they have to be disease-free and there aren’t many of those,” she said.
Link: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-09-20/billionaire-rupert-buys-4-1-million-buffalo-mystery.html
Sunday, 1 September 2013
Magzter's Plan to Become the Youtube of Magazines
Girish Ramdas, co-founder and CEO of Magzter, and Vijay Radhakrishnan, co-founder and president, discuss the company's app and growing business. They speak with Carol Massar on Bloomberg Television's "Taking Stock." (Source: Bloomberg)
Venture Capital Trends to Keep an Eye on
Aug. 30 (Bloomberg) -- Redpoint Ventures Founder Geoff Yang discusses the venture capital trends to watch with Deirdre Bolton on Bloomberg Television's "Money Moves." (Source: Bloomberg)
The Big Moves in Markets That May Get Bigger
Aug. 30 (Bloomberg) -- On today's "Chart Attack," Aegis CIO Stanley Crouch and Bloomberg's Adam Johnson look at big moves in markets that are likely to get bigger. They speak on Bloomberg Television's "Street Smart." (Source: Bloomberg)
The Top Ten Stocks for August 30
Aug. 30 (Bloomberg) -- Bloomberg’s Trish Regan, Adam Johnson and Julie Hyman report on today’s ten most important stocks including Apache, GE and Salesforce. (Source: Bloomberg)
The Top Ten Stocks for August 28
Aug. 28 (Bloomberg) -- Bloomberg’s Trish Regan, Adam Johnson and Julie Hyman report on today’s ten most important stocks including PulteGroup, Cree and Joy Global. (Source: Bloomberg)
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