Shot Man in London Was not 'Directly Linked'

123jump.com Staff
30 Nov, -0001
New York City

The young 'Asian man' killed in London subway station at a point blank range by police had nothing to do with the London bombings. In fact he was Brazilian student. The Police Commissioner had asserted that he was 'directly lilnked' to the bombings. The office of the Prime Minister will not answer questions related to the fatal shooting and police will not apologize for the bias against Asian community.

U.S. MARKETS

With 40% of S&P 500 companies reporting earnings for the second quarter so far, earnings growth for the quarter is better than 10% compared to 25% a year ago. Of the reported earnings, 72% of the companies are beating the estimates, a widest measure since the first quarter 2004.

The initial impressions from the flood of earnings from large and small cap companies, tech and consumer products companies and job reductions from some of the largest companies such as Eastman Kodak, Hewlett Packard, Kimberly Clark and IBM led market adrift. The large companies stock traded sideways during the week but the small and mid-cap companies continued their climb.

For the week Crude oil in New York was down 0.8%.

EARNINGS NEWS

Google just met the expectation, Microsoft failed to deliver more, Kimberly-Clark lowered the earnings guidance and Nokia and Motorola did not meet the unit sales targets. Overall market was not interested in rewarding these stocks even though companies are dealing with tough climate.

On the other end smaller companies such as Broadcom, Sandisk, Foundry Networks, Genesis Microchip impressed the market and were rewarded with more than 10% rise in stock prices. Energy services and defense contractors reinforced the prevailing themes in the markets.


INTERNATIONAL MARKETS

The recent revaluation of Chinese currency Yuan of 2.1% may lead to more of it, at least traders are betting on it. Several currency traders in Singapore, HK, and Shanghai expect Yuan to rise additional 5% by the end of the year. Several Asian currencies including Ringgit, Won, Singapore dollar registered gains. The Hong Kong property market may get a boost if hot money continues to flow chasing further revaluation of its currency.

CORPORATE NEWS

Newspaper reports suggest that Sony BMG and New York Attorney General office is close to an agreement to settle charges stemming from music promotion tactics to radio networks and the use of independent promoters.

Philips Electronics reported a fall in sales, in the second quarter report, for the first time since third quarter 2003 due to slowing consumer spending and slumping consumer confidence emanating from fear of impending pension reforms.

British manufacturing sector was dealt another blow with the sale of bankrupt MG Rover Group to China based Nanjing Automobile. The reported asset sale for $88 million may not lead to protect jobs in the UK as the ruling Labour party had hoped. For the last twelve months the ruling party has pumped several million pounds to save the company from bankruptcy ahead of then scheduled national election.

South African airline SAA has suspended all domestic and international flights as strike by ground and cabin staff enters the second day.


OTHER NEWS

Pakistan remains epicenter of terrorist training camps and receives active financial support from local groups in the U.K. as several investigations related to London bombing point in that direction. In the last two decades the U.K. government has refused to eliminate local funding activities to support terrorism network in Kashmir and in Indonesia. Security experts are not surprised of recent London bombings and expect more incidences in future unless these funding sources are cut-off in the U.K.