Welcome to Finance World

Japan’s industrial production rebounded 4 percent in December from November and household spending increased for a second month, suggesting the still-weak economy is gaining some steam after last year’s tsunami disaster and flooding in Thailand that disrupted manufacturers’ supply chains.

Output of automobiles, cell phones and semiconductors drove the gains last month after production fell 2.7 percent in November. Manufacturers project further production increases in January and February, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said Tuesday.

But Japan’s unemployment rate edged up to 4.6 percent and Junko Nishioka, economist at RBS Japan Securities, cautioned that the economic outlook was “mixed.”

While she was heartened by the 0.5 percent uptick in family spending, Nishioka said prospects for Japan’s vital manufacturing sector remained tentative amid weak export demand short term personal loans.

“The pace of recovery will be slow,” she said. “So far, we’re seeing some recovery in the auto sector and electronic components, but still it’s still not enough to compensate for the gap recorded after the March disaster and the Thai flooding.”

The factory data showed that shipments grew 4.5 percent and inventories fell 2.9 percent, both healthy indicators. Broadly speaking, production was led by strength in the electronics, automobile and general machinery sectors, the report showed.

Looking ahead, manufacturers predicted that industrial output would rise 2.5 percent in January and another 1.2 percent in February, according to a METI survey.

Source

Treasury five-year note yields fell to the lowest level ever after Federal Reserve officials unexpectedly said their benchmark interest rate will stay low until at least late 2014.

Yields on the securities set three consecutive records after Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said Jan. 25 that the central bank is considering additional asset purchases to boost growth. U.S. government debt rose for a third day yesterday as a report showed the U.S. economy grew at a slower-than-forecast 2.8% annual pace in the fourth quarter. The Labor Department is expected to report on Feb. 3 that unemployment remained at 8.5 percent this month.

Cass Informations Systems reported fourth-quarter 2011 net income of $5.5 million, or 53 cents per share, compared with $5.1 milllion, or 48 cents per share, in the corresponding period of 2010.

For the year, Cass–a Bridgeton-based provider of invoice payment and information services–reported record net income of $23 million, or $2.21 per share, compared with $20.3 million, or $1.95 per share, in 2010.

Source

One year after Egypt knocked global finance off the agenda at the World Economic Forum, Arab officials returning to Davos may struggle to drum up interest in the region.

Across North Africa, where uprisings ended the autocratic rule of three men, economic growth has stalled, stock markets have slumped and Egyptian bond yields are at a record, with the nine-month treasury bill at 15.802 percent. Foreign direct investment in the Middle East and North Africa last year was the lowest since 2005.

Failure to lure investments threatens to hinder the transition to democratic rule and may spark more deadly protests, while energy-rich states, such as Saudi Arabia, may struggle to diversify their economies and cut the world

JEFFERSON CITY - The gambling industry will fight Gov. Jay Nixon’s proposal to raise casino entrance fees by $1 per patron to help finance the state’s veterans homes.

Casino lobbyist Mike Winter told the House Veterans Committee on Tuesday that the proposal amounts to “a bottom-line hit of $53 million for our companies” each year and could prompt cuts in marketing, capital projects and staffing at the state’s 12 casinos.

Legislators said they’re open to compromise but made clear that they’re adamant about finding a dedicated source of money to operate the state’s seven nursing homes for veterans and possibly, build a new home to accommodate a mounting waiting list.

“Our veterans are out of money in 2013,” said Rep. Charlie Davis, R-Webbb City. “If something doesn’t happen, where are they going to go?”

The Missouri Veterans Commission’s $80 million budget is funded roughly 40 percent from federal money, 35 percent from charges paid by residents of veterans homes and 25 percent by the state.

In recent years, as tax collections have lagged, the state has reduced the general revenue it puts into the veterans commission’s budget, from nearly $31 million in 2009 to $18.6 million this year.

The state now wants to tap the veterans commission’s surplus to help pay operating expenses at the homes, which include one in Bellefontaine Neighbors in St. Louis County.

But that trust fund was designed to cover repair bills when a boiler breaks at a veterans home, as well as the state’s share of construction costs for any new homes. The fund also pays operating costs at the state’s six veterans cemeteries and grants for local programs that help veterans sign up for federal benefits.

While the trust fund now stands at $17 million, it will run dry by June 2013 if it is used at the projected rate of spending, Larry Kay, the commission’s executive director told the House committee on Tuesday.

Kay said the veterans commission needs a funding source that provides at least $35 million a year “just to stay even.”

Nixon’s budget proposal, which he released last week, would pump about $50 million a year into the veterans commission’s budget through a $1 fee increase for every gambler who goes through the casino turnstiles.

The current entrance fee is $2, with half going to the state and half to the home-dock city or county. Last year the veterans trust fund got $6.5 million under a law that divvies up the state’s share of those proceeds.

Winter, who lobbies for the Missouri Gaming Association, noted that casinos also pay a tax equaling 21 percent of their adjusted gross revenue, with most of that money going toward elementary and secondary education.

Combining the tax and the entrance fee, Missouri’s effective tax rate is about 27 percent for casinos now, which he portrayed as high compared to states such as Nevada, which he said charges only 6.75 percent.

However, the Missouri Gaming Commission’s annual report showed Missouri is competitive with most nearby states.

At 27.18 percent, Missouri’s effective tax rate is lower than Illinois (33.92 percent) and Indiana (31.31 percent) but higher than Kansas (25.08 percent), Iowa (22.33 percent) and Mississippi (11.94 percent), according to the latest report.

Legislators pointed out that casinos could pass any entrance fee increase on to their patrons. But Winter said they have no plans to do so. They absorb the current $2 fee.

The gambling industry got some backing from the Missouri Chamber of Commerce & Industry, which said veterans homes were a statewide responsibility that should not be borne by “a single sector.”

But Dewey Riehn, who represents the Veterans of Foreign Wars, said a higher admission fee wouldn’t break casinos, which pulled in $1.8 billion last year.

“If they think they can convince me that a $1 entry fee will cause them to close boats, that’s ridiculous,” Riehn said.

Missouri has the 14th largest population of veterans, according to federal statistics.

In addition to St. Louis County, the state operates veterans homes in Cameron, Cape Girardeau, Mexico, Mt. Vernon, St. James and Warrensburg.

The state’s 1,350 beds are 99 percent full; there are 1,691 people on the waiting list.

In addition to a higher casino entrance fee, legislators are considering asking state voters to pass a constitutional amendment establishing a special Missouri Lottery ticket, with proceeds earmarked for veterans programs.

The sponsor, Rep. Sheila Solon, R-Blue Springs, said a dedicated lottery ticket would not provide a “total fix” but had helped pump money into veterans programs in Illinois, Iowa, Kansas and Texas.

“We need to take care of our veterans,” said Solon, who also sponsors the casino fee increase. “These brave heroes have defended us.”

Source

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Sunday that his government plans to buy new Embraer jets from Brazil as well as used Airbus jets to expand his country’s state airline Conviasa.

Chavez said Venezuela will negotiate credit with the Brazilian Development Bank to buy up to 20 Embraer jets from Brazil.

Chavez thanked Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff “for the credit they’re going to give us.” He said the estimated cost of 20 jets would be $814 million.

The Venezuelan government had said earlier this month that Chavez approved plans to buy six Embraer jets. But during Chavez’s Sunday television and radio program, Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez laid out the options of buying either 10 or 20 Embraer jets.

“It’s enough to see Venezuela’s location on the map to conclude on the pressing need for us to have a very powerful airline,” Chavez said.

Chavez’s government has subsidized Conviasa since its launch in 2004. The president on Sunday did not provide information about how much the government has spent on the airline in recent years instant payday loan.

According to Conviasa’s website, it currently has a fleet of 18 planes. In addition to domestic routes, Conviasa has international flights to cities including Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Damascus, Syria, among others.

Chavez also said Venezuela will buy four used Airbus 340-500 jets from an airline in the United Arab Emirates at a cost of about $60 million per plane.

Bolivian President Evo Morales, a Chavez ally, has announced similar plans to expand his country’s state airline, Boliviana de Aviacion, or BoA.

Morales last month proposed to buy six Embraer 190 jets during a meeting with Rousseff in Caracas.

Source

An Iraqi police official says gunmen have attacked the house of a police officer near the northern oil-rich city of Kirkuk, killing one of his guards.

Kirkuk’s police commander Brig. Gen. Sarhad Qadir says the officer was unharmed in Saturday’s attack in the predominantly Sunni town of Hawija, a former insurgent stronghold located 150 miles (240 kilometers) north of Baghdad.

Suspected Sunni insurgents have frequently targeted Iraqi security forces to undermine the confidence in the Shiite-dominated government and its efforts to protect people from violence without American backup payday loans in one hour.

Attacks have surged amid an escalating political crisis in Iraq. At least 160 people have been killed since the beginning of the year, raising fears of civil war a month after U.S. soldiers left.

Source

Bank of America is back to basics _ slimmed down, stripped of its swagger and no longer the biggest bank in the country. And investors, after pummeling the company for two years, finally like what they see.

The stock soared 4 percent Thursday after Bank of America reported that it made $2 billion from October through December, reversing a $1.2 billion loss from a year earlier. The stock is up 27 percent this year.

Almost none of the profit came from improvements in Bank of America’s basic businesses. In fact, it lost money in the fourth quarter in real estate and investment banking.

But the bank raised $2.9 billion by selling its stake in China Construction Bank and $2.4 billion more by selling debt and issuing common stock to replace its higher-cost preferred stock, which paid out annual dividends as high as 8 percent.

“We enter 2012 stronger and more efficient after two years of simplifying and streamlining our company,” CEO Brian Moynihan said.

The cash has strengthened Bank of America’s balance sheet, a key factor as it undergoes a Federal Reserve “stress test” and tries to meet international regulatory standards that demand banks hold more cash against risky loans.

“It would be a big step if Bank of America can prove to the Street it doesn’t need to raise additional capital,” said Shannon Stemm, a banking analyst Edward Jones, a financial advice company Edward Jones.

After the stock dropped 63 percent drop in 2010 and 2011, Bank of America is eager to start over. But it won’t be easy.

Paying $4 billion for Countrywide Financial Corp., the nation’s largest subprime mortgage lender, in 2008 seemed like a bargain but has cost Bank of America tens of billions in mortgage losses, fines and litigation.

“The biggest problem with Bank of America is that you never know what litigation expense lurks around the corner,” Stemm said.

The bank has also been forced to buy billions of dollars’ worth of mortgages from the government-sponsored mortgage financing companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

In 2011, the bank lost about $14 billion just on legal settlements tied to mortgages issued in years past. On Thursday, the bank said it put aside an additional $1.5 billion in the fourth quarter for future litigation, most of it tied to mortgages.

In addition to the legal costs, the Federal Reserve last year refused to let Bank of America increase its stock dividend, citing uncertainty about the depth of its mortgage problems Faxless payday loans.

It was the only denial issued to any of the four largest U.S. banks by the Fed, which is closely monitoring how the largest banks use their cash since the bailouts of 2008.

This year, Bank of America hasn’t asked the Fed to raise its dividend.

As the U.S. economy slowly comes back, investors are betting Bank of America is poised to capture some of that growth. But that won’t be easy, either.

Loans to people and businesses aren’t as profitable as they were before the financial crisis. Not only are interest rates at historic lows, but regulators have limited the fees banks can collect for overdrafts and late credit card payments. The government has also reduced the fees banks can ollect from stores on debit-card transactions.

Bank of America knows something about debit card fees. Last fall, it caused a public uproar when it announced it would charge customers $5 a month to use debit cards. The bank quickly backed off.

Bank of America serves about half of American households, and its results showed that housing continues remains a concern in the economy. The bank’s real estate business lost $1.5 billion after a 74 percent decline in new home loans. The bank lost some market share and closed a division that helped third-party home lenders.

But Americans seemed to be getting their financial houses in order by paying off more debt on time.

Bank of America, one of the largest credit card issuers, said customers who paid bills a month late declined for the 11th consecutive quarter. New credit card accounts also grew 53 percent, and the division posted a profit of $1 billion.

Bank of America’s investment banking business reported a loss of $433 million due to lower investment banking fees and lower sales and trading driven by the rocky stock and bond markets in the last three months of the year.

The bank’s quarterly earnings came to 15 cents per share, which was less than the 22 cents expected by analysts surveyed by FactSet, a provider of financial data. The earnings were in line with other estimates.

The bank reported fourth quarter revenue rose 11 percent to $25.1 billion from last year. For the year, the bank made $1.4 billion. It lost $2.2 billion in 2010.

Source

China

The decision by Standard & Poor’s to cut the credit ratings of a number of euro countries and to strip France of its cherished top-tier standing met with a fairly calm market response Monday as attention turned towards Greece’s difficulties in thrashing out a deal with private creditors to reduce the value of their holdings of Greek debt

Europe’s debt crisis will likely remain the focus of attention across markets all week as a number of bond auctions are due at the same time as Greece tries to clinch a debt deal with its cast of creditors.

Monday is the first opportunity for traders to respond to S&P’s move, which came late Friday.

Analysts said the downgrades had been widely expected, especially in the bond markets, so there was very little shock at S&P’s announcement to strip France of its treasured triple-A rating and to cut its view on a raft of other euro countries, including Italy. One bright spot was that Germany, Europe’s biggest economy, retained its triple-A rating and had its outlook upgraded to stable from negative.

“After weeks of prevarication and lots of rumors, Standard and Poor’s finally put markets out of their misery on Friday,” said Michael Hewson, markets analyst at CMC Markets. “The surprise is it took so long.”

As a result, the response in the markets was fairly sanguine. In early trading Monday, the Stoxx 50 index of leading European shares was flat at 2,397 while the euro was up 0.2 percent on the day at $1.2670

A bigger headache for markets at the moment is whether Greece can clinch a deal with its creditors payday loan. Last October, Greece’s partners in the eurozone sanctioned a deal whereby Greece’s creditors agree a deal to reduce the value of their Greek debt holdings so that the country’s debt burden is reduced.

The deal with private investors, known as the Private Sector Involvement, or PSI, aims to reduce Greece’s debt by euro100 billion ($126.5 billion) by swapping private creditors’ bonds for new ones with a lower value. It is a key part of a euro130 billion international bailout, the second one for Greece.

It is expected that talks on the PSI will resume this coming week. On Tuesday, representatives of Greece’s creditors _ the European Union, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund _ will visit Greece for yet another round of inspections of its efforts at fiscal and structural reform and negotiations for the next tranche, the seventh, from the first bailout.

Negotiations over the second bailout will start after the PSI deal is clinched. Without a deal, Greece has been told it won’t get the next tranche of money due from its first bailout.

Without that money, Greece would find it more or less impossible to pay a big bond redemption in March and would face the prospect of defaulting on its debts, potentially triggering more mayhem in financial markets.

Source