The original bidders for Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. have both dropped their offers for the federal nuclear agency, says the union representing scientists and engineers at the company.
Prime Minister Jose Socrates said Portugal doesn’t need a bailout from the European Union and its 2010 budget deficit will be lower than forecast.
Socrates, in a speech in Lisbon today, said rumors that the country needs aid are only helping “speculators” while hurting Portugal and the euro. He didn’t give a new deficit figure for 2010. Emanuel Santos, Portugal’s secretary of state for the budget, said on Jan. 6 that the government had already met its target for a budget gap of 7.3 percent of gross domestic product last year.
“The budget deficit will clearly be below forecast,” Socrates said. “The country is doing its job and doing it well. Portugal will not request financial aid for the simple reason that it’s not necessary.”
Portugal tomorrow plans to sell as much as 1.25 billion euros ($1.6 billion) in debt, the first bond auction this year by any of the euro region’s most-indebted countries. The difference in yield between Portuguese 10-year bonds and German bunds, Europe’s benchmark, reached a euro-era record of 484 basis points on Nov. 11. The spread was 403 basis points today.
Austerity Measures
Portugal is raising taxes and cutting wages as it tries to convince investors it can narrow its budget gap further after the Greek debt crisis led to a surge in borrowing costs for indebted euro nations last year. Ireland in November became the second euro country after Greece to seek a bailout and the first to request aid from the European Financial Stability Facility.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, appealing for “calm” on financial markets, said today that Portugal’s budget cuts need time to make an impact.
Portugal has, in my opinion, taken very important and decisive measures and I believe the implementation of these steps will take some time,” Merkel told reporters in Nicosia, Cyprus. The European Commission “believes that these measures are sufficient to reach the targets.”
Portuguese yields may be rising to levels that force the nation to request aid. The country’s existing 10-year debt has yielded more than 7 percent in 10 of the past 62 days, according to Bloomberg data. Greece needed a rescue within 17 days of its 10-year yield breaching 7 percent on April 6, while Ireland lasted less than a month after it cracked that level in October.
Portuguese government revenue rose more than forecast last year and spending gained less than predicted, Socrates said. Spending rose 1.7 percent in 2010, less than the 2.5 percent forecast, and revenue gained 5.3 percent, more than the 4.5 percent predicted, he said today. The government ended the year with 800 million euros more than it projected, Socrates added.
Stocks dipped Monday ahead of the start of fourth quarter earnings season. Alcoa Inc. will release its results after the market closes.
The week started with news of two big corporate deals. DuPont, a major chemical company, said it would buy a Danish food maker for $5.8 billion. Duke Energy Corp. said it would buy Progress Energy Inc. in a $13 billion deal that will create one of the nation’s largest utilities. Duke fell 2.1 percent to $17.41.
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 51 points, or 0.4 percent, to 11,623 in afternoon trading.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 lost 5, or 0.4 percent, to 1,267. The Nasdaq composite dipped 8, or 0.3 percent, to 2,695.
Losses were spread across the market. Industrial companies were the only member of the 10 industry groups that make up the S&P index to rise. General Electric Co. led the 30 stocks that make up the Dow with a 0.9 percent gain. DuPont had the largest fall, giving up 2.7 percent to $48.41.
European stocks fell after a German newspaper reported that France and Germany are pressing Portugal to accept outside aid to keep Europe’s financial crisis from spreading. Portugal has denied that it needs to do so. If the country requires help, it will join Greece and Ireland as the third member of the European Union to tap its neighbors for a bailout.
Italy, Spain and Portugal are each scheduled to sell bonds this week no fax payday loans. If they have to pay higher interest rates, the debt crisis could spread.
“Italy and Spain are the big wildcards,” said Paul Zemsky, the head of asset allocation at ING Investment Management. “If they got into trouble there’s not enough money to bail them out.”
No major economic reports are scheduled for Monday. On Friday, the Labor Department said that employers added fewer jobs in December than analysts expected. That report helped push the S&P down 0.2 percent.
After the market closes, Alcoa is expected to post a fourth-quarter profit of 18 cents per share, according to estimates compiled by FactSet. The aluminum company earned 9 cents a share in the third quarter. The stock rose 0.5 percent to $16.50.
Oil companies fell after a pipeline in Alaska was shut Saturday after a leak was discovered at a pump station. Production of crude oil was cut to 5 percent of its normal output. Exxon Mobil Corp., BP and Chevron Corp. each fell by more than 1 percent.
Bond prices rose slightly. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note, which moves opposite its price, fell to 3.29 percent from 3.33 percent late Friday.
The dollar gained 0.4 percent against an index of six other currencies.
Every evening, dozens of technicians in blue scrubs at Barnes-Jewish Hospital prepare as many as 56 “case carts,” each containing all the items needed for a patient’s surgery.
To speed the process and minimize snafus, used surgical instruments are placed on a conveyor belt and decontaminated by automatic washers before being sorted by hand. Selected by individual surgeons, the supplies are put on a rolling metal cart and sterilized. An electronic “production control board” directs the process.
The hospital
The Obama administration on Thursday unveiled a proposed new framework for protecting consumers’ privacy online.
The plan centers around a "Privacy Bill of Rights" that would encourage better transparency about data collection online, according to the Commerce Department’s report on its policy recommendations. It would promote "informed consent" for consumers through simple notices that clearly state what personal information will be collected and what will be done with it.
The Commerce Department’s proposal would be voluntary — companies would be able to choose whether or not they want to participate. But for those that do, their commitment would be enforceable by the Federal Trade Commission.
That agency came out with its own, more drastic proposal earlier this month, calling for a "do not track" option that would let Web surfers opt out of all data collection.
The Commerce Department was quick to point out in its report that global online transactions generate roughly $10 trillion of sales every year, and U.S. information technology jobs are growing at a pace that’s four times faster than all other domestic jobs.
Reluctant to upset the apple cart, the Obama administration decided against creating a set of "disfavoring prescriptive rules." Translation: It doesn’t want to issue mandates.
Instead, it proposed that the government "enlist the expertise and knowledge of the private sector" to create "voluntary codes of conduct that promote informed consent and safeguard personal information no fax pay day loan."
The report said that the agency would try not to create procedural hurdles, or "impose undue burdens on commerce and on commercial actors."
Still, the Commerce Department sees a role for the government in steering online privacy practices. It proposed the creation of a Privacy Policy Office within the Commerce Department, which would coordinate privacy initiatives with Internet companies.
The new office would work with the Federal Trade Commission in developing a Privacy Bill of Rights and enforcing compliance with it among companies that volunteer to adopt it.
There is a clear demand for enhanced privacy controls online, the department noted: Nearly two-thirds of American adults have changed their privacy settings on their social network profiles in order to limit what they share online.
"America needs a robust privacy framework that preserves consumer trust in the evolving Internet economy while ensuring the Web remains a platform for innovation, jobs, and economic growth," Commerce Secretary Gary Locke said in a prepared statement. "Consumers must trust the Internet in order for businesses to succeed online."
The Commerce Department considers the report a "road map for considering a new framework that is good for consumers and businesses." It would likely need congressional approval to be enacted.
President Barack Obama says lawmakers must reach an agreement to stop taxes from increasing for the middle class, even if the solution isn’t exactly the one he prefers.
Obama says raising taxes on the middle class would not only be detrimental to American families, but would also be a drag on the economy.
Lawmakers are seeking a compromise on the expiring Bush-era tax rates. An outline is emerging that would temporarily extend the cuts for all taxpayers and extend jobless benefits for millions of American.
Obama has said the country can’t afford a permanent extension of taxes for top income earners. He’s speaking at a North Carolina community college that the White House says has demonstrated ways to better prepare workers to compete in a global economy.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (AP) _ President Barack Obama is calling for new investments in education and innovation, a glimpse at a 2011 agenda designed to place the U.S. in a better competitive position in the world.
Obama was scheduled to speak at a community college here where he also planned to press Congress to extend Bush-era tax rates and jobless benefits.
The president’s trip to Winston-Salem on Monday comes as the White House and lawmakers are working on a compromise to extend temporarily the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts for all income brackets. The White House also wants to continue unemployment insurance benefits, which are expiring as well.
A White House official says Obama will renew his opposition Monday to any upper-income tax-cut extension unless unemployment benefits also are extended. The official spoke on condition of anonymity ahead of Obama’s remarks.
Obama’s call for investments in education and innovation to boost America’s competitiveness with other countries is a prelude to specific initiatives the president will unveil in the months to come, White House spokesman Bill Burton said.
“This is a framing speech to talk about what we should be focused on for the next year,” Burton told reporters aboard Air Force One.
He offered no specific examples of the initiatives Obama might promote, but said the president would offer no details in his community college speech.
A federal jury on Tuesday ordered SAP AG to pay $1.3 billion to its archenemy, Oracle Corp., for stealing customer-support documents and software in a scheme to siphon off customers.
The verdict amounts to more than half of SAP’s total profit last year and stunned the German software maker. It had only set aside $160 million for anticipated damages, and already paid $120 million of that to Oracle’s lawyers.
The penalty is one of the largest on record for software piracy, and has the potential to reshape the business software landscape because of the extent of the damage to the pocketbook and reputation of one of its biggest players.
The verdict came after less than a full day of jury deliberations, and followed a three-week trial that turned into a Silicon Valley sideshow.
Stoking the drama were colorful public provocations by Oracle’s outspoken CEO Larry Ellison, the looming possibility of a crushing verdict against a company that makes ubiquitous business software, and the specter of Silicon Valley’s most elusive new celebrity, Hewlett-Packard Co. CEO Leo Apotheker.
In the end, Oracle turned the trial into a double feature: a grinding attack on SAP, whose dominance in business applications is under assault from Oracle, and HP, another technology industry heavyweight with which Oracle shares a decades-long partnership that is now coursing with bad blood.
“For more than three years, SAP stole thousands of copies of Oracle software and then resold that software and related services to Oracle’s own customers,” Oracle co-president Safra Catz said after the verdict. “Right before the trial began, SAP admitted its guilt and liability. Then the trial made it clear that SAP’s most senior executives were aware of the illegal activity from the very beginning.”
Representatives of SAP, which is based in Walldorf, Germany, expressed disappointment and said the company will “pursue all available options, including post-trial motions and appeal if necessary.”
If the size of the punishment is ultimately allowed to stand, SAP’s takeover in 2005 of a small software-support firm called TomorrowNow, which dragged the company into this mess, will end up costing SAP significantly more than the $10 million it paid for the acquisition.
“This will unfortunately be a prolonged process and we continue to hope that the matter can be resolved appropriately without more years of litigation,” SAP said in a statement. “The mark of a leading company is the way it handles its mistakes. As stated in court, we regret the actions of TomorrowNow, we have accepted liability, and have been willing to fairly compensate Oracle. … Our focus now is looking forward.”
It’s difficult to think of a more thorough legal victory for a software maker pursuing a copyright infringement claim, said Santa Clara University law professor Eric Goldman.
Besides collecting the damages, Oracle was able to publicly humiliate one of its biggest rivals while making another competitor, HP, squirm as it skirted questions concerning the whereabouts of its new CEO, Leo Apotheker. Oracle repeatedly tried to serve a subpoena on Apotheker, a former CEO and top sales executive at SAP, but couldn’t find him within the jurisdiction of the Oakland federal court payday loan.
“Oracle has always dreamed big in this case and all their dreams came true,” Goldman said. “It just turned out to be a real windfall for them.”
SAP boxed itself into a corner by admitting it had trampled on Oracle’s copyrights before the trial began. That left SAP with little do but plead for leniency and “it turned out to be a tough sales pitch,” Goldman said. “This was just a bad case for SAP, up and down the board.”
Oracle, based in Redwood Shores, is the leading maker of database software, which helps companies organize their information. Its aggressive expansion into business applications has forced Oracle into a faceoff with SAP, the leader in that space.
HP was a late addition to the dustup: After HP’s former CEO, Mark Hurd, was ousted in August in the wake of a sexual harassment investigation, Oracle hired Hurd, HP hired Apotheker, and Ellison used both of HP’s decisions as reasons to blast the company.
At the heart of Oracle’s claim against SAP was a series of golden gotcha moments, in which Oracle noticed unusual behavior on secured websites it maintained to help customers solve problems, and uncovered a scheme in which an extraordinary amount of software and documents were being plundered and shipped back to TomorrowNow servers.
Oracle technicians spotted the scam by investigating accounts that were registered with clearly bad information (such as phone numbers like “777-7777″) and user names seemingly connected to the SAP subsidiary (names such as “Tom Now”).
SAP admitted that the now-shuttered subsidiary was secretly siphoning off instruction manuals and technical specifications for Oracle’s software. But its lawyers argued that Oracle’s claims of injury were exaggerated.
Oracle demanded billions based on its estimate of the value of its intellectual property and business it lost.
SAP posited that TomorrowNow actually wasn’t that good at stealing customers from Oracle, and that SAP should only pay for money it made from the 358 customers it gained with the stolen data.
The jury sided with Oracle’s argument that the value of its intellectual property is vast, and that aggressively enforcing copyrights is critical to nourishing a healthy technology industry and funding innovation.
SAP conceivably could ask the judge to lower the damages determined by the jury, but that is usually a difficult argument to win, Goldman said.
“The size of this verdict further reduces SAP’s flexibility,” he said.
SAP shares fell 67 cents, or 1.4 percent, to $48.02 in extended U.S. trading, after the verdict was announced. The stock had fallen 71 cents, or 1.4 percent, to finish the regular trading session at $48.69.
Oracle shares rose 37 cents, or 1.4 percent, to $27.56 in extended trading, after falling 86 cents, or 3.1 percent, to finish the regular session at $27.19.
Renowned classical ballerina Karen Kain made her name performing around the world, has been a leading supporting of Canadian arts and is the artistic director of The National Ballet of Canada. The latest performance under her charge is Chroma & Serenade & Emergence, onstage from Nov. 24 to Nov. 28 at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts. Kain, 59, was born in Hamilton and lives in Toronto.
She spoke with the Star???s Emily Mathieu about how financial success influences artists, the folly of betting on ticket sales or the stock market and the allure of stamps.
How did your childhood influence your attitude toward money?
My parents were not wealthy, and with four kids they watched every penny. They were practical and frugal but we were very comfortable, with enjoyable holidays (we often went camping) and treats. I am very grateful for their sensible, no-nonsense attitude toward money.
What has been your savviest investment?
As a young dancer, I was invited to guest around the world and these invitations supplemented my income from The National Ballet of Canada. I was able to buy a very small, charming semi-detached house in Cabbagetown. Cabbagetown enjoyed a real estate boom in the 1980s and it proved to be a very good investment.
What is the best financial advice you ever received? What advice would you pass on to young performers?
I was encouraged to buy a house instead of renting, which is old advice but continues to be very wise. I would encourage young performers to invest in themselves through a RRSP or a home. They should find a financial adviser they trust and start a plan for some savings.
How does financial success influence art or artists? Does it have an impact?
Having financial stability, for many artists, is success and this gives them the freedom to explore and create to the best of their ability. There are many senior artists in this country who live below the poverty line and a recent study was an eye-opener at how difficult life is for artists as they age. The disconnect between artists and financial planning has changed dramatically in recent years and I am so impressed with how financially knowledgeable many of the young dancers are today cash advance flexible payments.
Have you learned any financial lessons the hard way?
You can never predict how many tickets you will sell in the theatre or what will happen on the stock market. I am very conservative in my investing but have been stung, like many people, so don???t invest anything that you are not willing to lose.
What was your first significant (or large) purchase?
My first significant purchase was the little house I bought in Cabbagetown when I was in my 20s.
How do you prefer to pay, cash, card or debit?
I prefer to use my credit card. It provides an excellent list of accounts at the end of each month and keeps me clear-eyed about any of my indulgences.
Do you bank online?
No, I still like to spread everything out on my desk with a pen, chequebook and book of stamps. I know it is very old fashioned but I feel a great sense of accomplishment when those envelopes slide into the mail box.
How do you tip?
I always recognize good service and probably tend to over-tipping.
Do you worry about retirement? At what age do you think you will be able to stop working? Do you plan to?
I don???t worry about retirement ??? remember, I have already retired once. I am lucky to be doing what I love and will continue to do it for as long as I feel I am contributing. I don???t put an age to retirement but I know that my instincts, which have rarely been wrong as far as my career is concerned, will tell me when I am ready.
Given the choice, would you prefer to purchase items that are antique or new?
I love both, especially the eclectic look of the new mingled with antiques. We live in an old original farmhouse in the city so it already is an antique in the modern city and is perfect.
Are money and success the same thing?
Of course not. Success is entirely personal and money is . . . well, it???s money.
Can money buy happiness?
We know it can???t. Money can provide stability and that will help alleviate stress or anxiety but not produce happiness.
The number of property foreclosures in Harris County was down in July as compared to a year ago, according to Foreclosure Information & Listing Service Inc.
The Woodlands-based service reports that 1,252 properties went into foreclosure in July. That’s a 2 percent decline from July 2009, when 1,278 properties experienced the same fate.
A total of 4,092 properties were posted for foreclosure this month — 8.4 percent less than the 4,466 properties posted for foreclosure in July 2009.
Foreclosure postings in Harris County have decreased each month in the second quarter when compared to the same time periods in 2009, reports Foreclosure Information & Listing Service.
Year-to-date, 26,974 properties have been posted for foreclosure — a 21 percent increase over the same time period in 2009 when 22,325 properties were posted.
So far this year, 7,839 properties have gone into foreclosure —24 percent more than in the first seven months of 2009, when 6,310 properties fell into foreclosure.
The city of Glendale has put $25 million into an escrow account after the National Hockey League threatened to move the Phoenix Coyotes to another market.
The Glendale City Council approved a plan earlier this month to pay the NHL as much as $25 million in the upcoming hockey season to cover the team’s costs. The NHL owns the Coyotes, in Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization. The league operated the team this season but won’t do the same for the 2010-11 campaign.
The Glendale plan originally had the city government putting aside the $25 million in September, But the NHL asked that the money be in place before the end of June.
The money is in an escrow account, said Glendale city spokeswoman Julie Frisoni, while declining further comment.
NHL has given Glendale until the end of the year to find an owner who will keep the team in Arizona. Glendale officials are hopeful they can get a deal done, though negotiations with Ice Edge Holdings and Jerry Reinsdorf are not progressing. The NHL likely will move the team to Winnipeg, Manitoba, if a deal here doesn’t get done
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