Business and Investing

Posted on Friday, 15th July 2011 by Jesse Walker

It’s no secret the U.S. is struggling with high unemployment and dismal job growth. But at least one industry seems to be bucking the trend. “Sizing the Clean Economy: A National and Regional Green Jobs Assessment,” is an unbiased report published by Brookings. It demonstrates that, despite what some might think, solutions to environmental problems are not a drag on federal and state budgets, and can instead create revenue and new jobs.

The Brookings report shows that each of the top 100 American metropolitan areas by population has been able to add jobs as a result of green initiatives. Almost all of these jobs pay better than the median wage for that urban area.

The report notes: “The clean economy is manufacturing and export intensive. Roughly 26 percent of all clean economy jobs lie in manufacturing establishments, compared to just 9 percent in the broader economy. According to the report, “on a per job basis, establishments in the clean economy export roughly twice the value of a typical U.S. job . “
Read more…

Tags: Growth
Comments (0)

Posted on Friday, 15th July 2011 by James Martin

Todays guest post tackles a sensitive question in estate planning: when to disburse an inheritance to heirs. The post is courtesy of Mark Goodfield, a professional accountant who writes the The Blunt Bean Counter Blog. Mark covers accounting, tax and wealth management issues on his blog and if you havent checked out his site, please do so. It is excellent. Now, over to Mark

I am often engaged to provide estate planning. Many people born to the “silent generation” have amassed great wealth; a 2006 Decima Research study estimated that over one trillion dollars in wealth could be transferred between 2006-2026. Aft

Read more…

Tags: Estate Planning, Planning
Comments (0)

Posted on Friday, 15th July 2011 by Jesse Walker

Our society is changing. Nuclear families are the norm. Inflation is high and hence money needed to fund the retirement is increasing. Additionally due to longevity of life, the requirement for retirement fund will further increase. This is where the right retirement planning helps individuals spend their time in old age with dignity.

Most of the Indians living in foreign countries plan to come back to India at some point in time in the future. Hence it is important that they plan for their retirement in India.

Even though many NRIs plan to come back in the later stages of life, their children may not come back. They do not have much idea about the options available in the Indian market which prevents them from planning well for their retirement.

Steps in retirement planning:

Start early: The importance of starting early cannot be emphasized enough.

Read more…

Tags: Retirement, Retirement Planning
Comments (0)

Posted on Thursday, 14th July 2011 by Jesse Walker

LONDON — OAO Lukoil Holdings and its partners have awarded a deal to a “known” service company to drill some 23 new wells at Iraq’s supergiant West Qurna Phase 2, a person familiar with the project said Thursday.

“The central contracts committee at the Iraqi Oil Ministry is studying the contract and we expect them to take a decision shortly,” the person told Dow Jones Newswires.

The person said that the cost of the drilling contract would be around $160 million.

Along with Norway’s Statoil ASA and Iraq’s state South Oil Co., Lukoil is expected to award four other major deals in August to help develop the 12.9-billion-barrel field located in Basra governorate in southern Iraq.

The four contracts include a crude processing facility, a 126-megawatt power station, an export pipeline linking the field with a tank farm in Tuba near Iraq’s southern export terminals, and six large storage tanks, the person said, adding the largest contract would be the crude processing facility.

Read more…

Tags: 23 Iraq, Iraq
Comments (0)

Posted on Thursday, 14th July 2011 by Christopher Allen

Investors were bullish on Google and other stocks after strong earnings reports prompted Wall Street traders to shrug off fears of a looming debt crisis.

Investors jumped back into stocks Friday after some high-profile earnings reports prompted an end-of-the-week rally.

In doing so, Wall Street shrugged off fears of a national default if Congress doesn’t reach a debt ceiling deal and opted to place their bets on companies that showed stronger-than-expected second-quarter results.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq led the way with a nearly 1 percent increase, closing up 27.13 points at 2,789.80. The Standard & Poor’s Standard & Poor’s Latest from The Business Journals How to hedge against U.S. debt ceiling disasterStandard & Poor’s elevates MFA’s ratingsHow U.S. credit downgrade could hurt Missouri Follow this company 500 index was up half of one percentage point to close at 1,316.14. The

Read more…

Tags: Prompt, Prompt Late
Comments (0)

Posted on Thursday, 14th July 2011 by James Martin

“Weiss Ratings is very close to downgrading the sovereign debt rating of the United States one more notch to a ‘C –’, which will put it just one notch above junk,” Martin Weiss, President of Weiss Ratings told CNBC on Wednesday.

“In April, Weiss Ratings gave the U.S. sovereign debt rating a ‘C’. A ‘C’ is equivalent to approximately a triple-B on the S&P, Moody’s and Fitch scales. Its two notches above junk, Weiss told CNBC in May. Weiss added that while the rating was weak, the debt situation was not in a danger zone that should trigger panic.

In yesterday’s interview with CNBC, Weiss responded to Moody’s Rating Agency placing their U.S. triple-A rating on review for a downgrade in the coming weeks on mounting concern that legislators will fail to raise the debt limit in time to avert potentially drastic effects.

Tags: Close, Debt Rating, Sovereign Debt, Sovereign Debt Rating
Comments (0)

Posted on Thursday, 14th July 2011 by Jesse Walker

RIO DE JANEIRO — Brazilian iron-ore company Minerinvest Mineracao Ltda. is negotiating a joint venture with a European steelmaker and a European bank to mine two iron-ore deposits in Brazil’s Minas Gerais state, a local partner to Minerinvest said Thursday.

Minerinvest is “very well backed in terms of funding, support, [and] offtake” by an “international group of more than one nationality,” said Roger Downey, chief executive of Brazilian iron-ore mining company MMX Mineracao e Metalicos SA . On Wednesday, MMX Mineracao e Metalicos signed an agreement with Minerinvest to purchase and export ore to be produced by the new mining company. “There’s certainly one European steelmaker and one European bank involved,” Downey said.

Minerinvest is drilling for iron ore at two sites in Minas Gerais state, southeast Brazil, and is expected to develop production capacity of 10 million metric tons a year of iron ore from 2013, MMX’s Downey told analysts during a conference call.

Read more…

Tags: European Steel, Steel
Comments (0)

Posted on Thursday, 14th July 2011 by James Martin

For the most recent quarter, Alcoa reported net income of $322 million, or 28 cents per share on revenue of $6.59 billion. A year ago, Alcoa posted net income of $136 million, or 13 cents per share, on revenue of $5.19 billion. Excluding one-time items, the company’s EPS came in at 32 cents per share. Despite these strong numbers, the company missed the lofty analyst consensus of 33 cents per share, but beat the projected revenue of $6.28 billion.

Analysts believe that China will be the great catalyst to the company’s future prospects, and will offset weakening demand in Europe and the United States. Aluminum prices increased 6% this quarter, while alumina (a raw material used to process aluminum) increased 7%, boosted by Chinese demand. Alcoa CEO Klaus Kleinfeld has forecast a 12% increase in global demand in 2011 and a doubling of shares at the end of the decade as Asian countries increase commercial construction and purchase more aircraft, cars and trains. In Read more…

Comments (0)

Posted on Thursday, 14th July 2011 by Jesse Walker

The second most important price adding factor is probably the taxation involved vis-à-vis the city of purchase of your car. The price variation between a Maruti Swift taken in Chennai and one taken in Mumbai could be even upto Rs 25,000/- costlier in Mumbai. Similarly there exists a huge price difference between models taken in Delhi as compared to Mumbai and Chennai. As a general thumb rule Delhi is cheapest followed by Chennai and Mumbai.

Ever wondered why the difference between a Santro Xing GL and a Santro Xing GLS was over 30,000/- although both looked the same? This article will try to give you a breeze through into what adds cost to a car. Happy driving.

Fuel option

The biggest price adding factor to a car is the type of fuel on which it runs. The currently available options in India are: Petrol, Petrol+LPG, Diesel and Electric.

Read more…

Comments (0)

Posted on Thursday, 14th July 2011 by Christopher Allen

Bank Nifty Trading Levels for 16 june 2011 Bank Nifty Future Support and Resistance Levels Daily Bank Nifty Level (16 june 2011)
Trading as per the support and resistance levels may be quite useful for intraday and Positional trading in stocks and index. Resistance is termed as the level where the stock generally gets some opposite force before it can go further up. A support is the level where a stock get buying interest before it can fall further. Under the normal market conditions or in the absence of some extremely panic news the support and the resistance levels can act as good levels for initiating the buying / selling. In general it’s advisable to buy the stocks at support levels and sell at the resistance levels. I

Read more…

Tags: 16 June, 16 June 2011, 2011, June 2011
Comments (0)