Bloomberg:
- Consumer Confidence in U.S. Rose More Than Forecast. Confidence among U.S. consumers rose more than forecast in January to the highest level in eight months as Americans became more optimistic about job prospects. The Conference Board’s index of sentiment increased to 60.6 from a revised 53.3 the prior month that was higher than previously estimated, figures from the New York-based private research group showed today. Economists projected the January gauge would rise to 54, according to the median forecast in a Bloomberg News survey. A pickup in optimism, an improving labor market and tax relief may combine to encourage consumers, whose spending accounts for about 70 percent of the economy. The share of Americans who said jobs were plentiful rose to the highest level since May 2009, while those expecting an increase in incomes climbed to an eight-month high. The Conference Board’s measure of present conditions rose to the highest since November 2008. The index averaged 96.8 during the last economic expansion that ended in December 2007. The Conference Board’s index of present conditions increased to 31 from a revised 24.9. The gauge of expectations for the next six months rose to 80.3 from 72.3. The percent of respondents expecting more jobs available in the next six months rose to 16 from 14.2 the previous month. The proportion who expect their incomes to rise over the next six months increased to 11.4, the highest since May, from 9.9 percent. The share of consumers who said jobs are currently plentiful rose to 5.2 percent from 4.2 percent. Those who said jobs are hard to get decreased to 43.4 percent from 46.0 percent. Confidence rose in all nine U.S. regions, led by a 21.3-point surge in the West South Central area, which includes Texas and Oklahoma.
- Commercial Property Debt Soars to Highest Since 2008 on Bet Worst is Over. Debt investors are wagering that the worst is over for commercial real estate, driving prices on mortgage bonds to the highest in more than two years. “Investors have gotten more comfortable and have started putting money back into CMBS,” Chris Callahan, head of commercial-mortgage backed bond trading at Credit Suisse Group AG, said in an interview at the Commercial Real Estate Finance Council’s conference in Washington. “It has gone from being the red-headed stepchild to being a viable asset class again.” Investors are buying bonds tied to hotel, shopping center and skyscraper loans as more financing becomes available to borrowers, helping halt a slide in real-estate values. U.S. commercial property prices, which have declined 42 percent from their peak in 2007, rose for the third consecutive month in November, Moody’s Investors Service said in a statement yesterday. So-called junior AAA commercial-mortgage backed securities, which are less insulated from losses than senior and mezzanine AAA classes, have increased almost 21 percent to 87 cents on the dollar during the past three months, according to data compiled by JPMorgan Chase & Co. The bonds, valued at about 51 cents six months ago, are at the highest levels since June 2008, JPMorgan data show. Sales of commercial-mortgage backed securities are poised to climb to $45 billion this year, according to JPMorgan, after banks arranged $11.5 billion of the debt in 2010. Rising sales make it easier for property owners with maturing loans to refinance.
- China to Start Stockpiling Rare Earths, Caijing Says. China will start stockpiling rare earth minerals this year, Caijing magazine reported today, citing an unidentified official at the China Nonferrous Metals Industry Association. The report didn’t say when the stockpiling would begin or give other details.
- IMF Raises 2011 Global Growth Forecast to 4.4%, Says Risks Still Elevated. The International Monetary Fund raised its forecast for global economic growth this year, reflecting stronger U.S. output based on tax-cut extensions, while emerging nations lead the recovery. The world economy will grow 4.4 percent, more than the 4.2 percent expected in October. Expansion next year is projected to reach 4.5 percent, unchanged from October, the IMF said today in an update to its World Economic Outlook report.
- Oil Drops to Eight-Week Low Ahead of Forecast U.S. Inventory Gain, OPEC. Crude oil fell to its lowest in almost eight weeks amid speculation OPEC may boost output and before a U.S. report that may show supplies in the world’s biggest crude user rose last week. An Energy Department report tomorrow will probably show U.S. crude inventories climbed 1.25 million barrels last week, according to a Bloomberg News survey. Oil for March delivery declined as much as $1.57, or 1.8 percent, to $86.30 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, its lowest price since Dec. 2, and was at $86.72 at 1:24 p.m. London time. Al-Naimi’s comments “indicate that the Saudis find increasing discomfort as oil approaches triple digits,” said Victor Shum, a senior principal at consultants Purvin & Gertz Inc. in Singapore. “It’s not due to supply tightness that we have $90 to $100 oil. We do have a well-supplied market today, a lot of inventories, a lot of spare OPEC production capacity.” “OPEC’s policy, as is well known, is to meet any increase in oil demand to maintain the supply-demand balance,” al-Naimi said. “Some OPEC countries will increase their production capacities, thus maintaining OPEC’s spare capacity at approximately 6 million barrels per day.”
- Apple(AAPL) Plans Service That Lets iPhone Users Pay With Handsets. Apple Inc. plans to introduce services that would let customers use its iPhone and iPad computer to make purchases, said Richard Doherty, director of consulting firm Envisioneering Group. The services are based on “Near-Field Communication,” a technology that can beam and receive information at a distance of up to 4 inches, due to be embedded in the next iteration of the iPhone for AT&T Inc. and the iPad 2, Doherty said. Both products are likely to be introduced this year, he said, citing engineers who are working on hardware for the Apple project. Apple’s service may be able to tap into user information already on file, including credit-card numbers, iTunes gift-card balance and bank data, said Richard Crone, who leads financial industry adviser Crone Consulting LLC in San Carlos, California.
- India Raises Benchmark Interest Rate to Two-Year High to Slow Inflation. India’s central bank raised the benchmark interest rate to a two-year high and signaled further increases in borrowing costs as it boosted the country’s inflation forecast. Governor Duvvuri Subbarao lifted the repurchase rate to 6.5 percent from 6.25 percent, according to a statement from the Reserve Bank of India in Mumbai today.
- BRIC Inflation Threatens Priciest Consumer Stocks as Food Bills Increase. Emerging-market consumer companies are valued at the most expensive levels on record just as surging food and energy costs curb household spending from Sao Paulo to Shanghai. Shares in the MSCI Emerging Markets Consumer Discretionary Index traded at a 15-year high of 2.6 times net assets last week, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
- Google's(GOOG) Schmidt to Stay 'As Long as It's Exciting'. Google Inc.’s Eric Schmidt said he has no plans to leave the owner of the world’s largest search engine, dismissing speculation he’s considering a career in the media or politics.
- Goolsbee Says Obama to Focus on Economy in His Speech. President Barack Obama would consider lowering corporate taxes as one of a variety of proposals intended to boost the economy, Austan Goolsbee, chairman of the U.S. Council of Economic Advisers, said today. “The president’s open to all different ways to boost competitiveness,” Goolsbee said on Bloomberg Television. “The president’s focus is how do we win the future and how do we get the economy growing?” In previewing Obama’s State of the Union address, which is scheduled for tonight, Goolsbee said Obama will focus on the economy, the federal budget and the deficit. Goolsbee also cited a U.S. corporate tax code that’s full of “a lot of loopholes and carve-outs,” and said Obama “would be open to broadening the base and lowering the rate to make American companies that are competing with companies from abroad more competitive.”
- Harley-Davidson(HOG) Shares Rise Most Since October as Loss Narrows. Harley-Davidson Inc., the biggest U.S. motorcycle maker, rose the most in more than three months after its fourth-quarter loss narrowed and its financial- services unit posted a profit. Harley climbed $2.91, or 8 percent, to $39.40 at 11 a.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading.
- Christie Says He'll Go to Tax-Raising Illinois to Lure Jobs to New Jersey. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie said he intends to go to Illinois next week to lure jobs from business executives angered about personal income and corporate tax increases its governor and Legislature enacted this month. The trip coincides with advertisements that his administration began running today in publications including the Chicago Tribune and Springfield (Illinois) Journal, encouraging businesses to relocate and invest in New Jersey, Christie said. The first-term New Jersey governor said he sees opportunity in Illinois Governor Pat Quinn’s decision to increase the income tax by two-thirds and corporate taxes to 7 percent from 4.8 percent to help reduce a deficit of at least $13 billion. “If he wants to tank his economy, that’s just fine,” Christie, a 48-year-old Republican, said in an interview at Bloomberg News headquarters in New York today. “I’ll go and try to collect as many businesses as I can, and every job that I create, that I take from Illinois, which comes to New Jersey, will be a net plus for us.” Quinn, 62, a Democrat elected Nov. 2, supported the state’s record tax increase, saying it would help resolve a crisis that had the state “careening toward bankruptcy and fiscal insolvency.”
Wall Street Journal:
- Accounting Board Backs Off 'Mark to Market' Push. Accounting rule makers took a key step Tuesday to reverse a proposal that would have required banks to value their loans based on the ups and downs of the market.
- Verizon(VZ) iPhone: $30 Unlimited Data. It’s official: Verizon is going to offer iPhone buyers a $30 unlimited data plan.
- Was It Wall Street That Killed The State Bankruptcies Idea?
- Why The Verizon(VZ) iPhone is Going to be Huge: Only 26% of Verizon Subscribers Have Smartphones.
New York Times:
- A 2nd I.R.S. Amnesty for Offshore Accounts. The said on Monday that it would soon announce a new amnesty program aimed at encouraging wealthy Americans with hidden accounts to come forward, declare their money and pay taxes owed.
- Can Anybody Fix Goldman's(GS) Brokerage? Despite a parade of new bosses, bank's asset management unit still sputtering; 'butter their own bread and charge huge fees.'
- Venezuela will resume gasoline shipments to Iran after a pause of more than two years. State-run Petroleos de Venezuela SA has agreed to supply two 30,000-ton cargoes gasoline cargoes per month to Iran, EIG said in its International Oil Daily newsletter, citing Middle East trading and shipping sources that it did not identify. The first cargo is due to arrive at the port of Bandar Abbas in early February, the report said. The shipments are a gesture of goodwill from Venezuela after U.S. and European sanctions restricted the supply of fuel imports into Iran, EIG said.
Rasmussen Reports:
- Voters Wary of State of the Union Spending Proposals. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 39% of Likely U.S. Voters favor the federal government spending more money in areas like education, transportation and technological innovation. Forty-five percent (45%) oppose additional government spending like this, while 15% more are not sure about it.
- UK Economy Suffers Shock Contraction.Britain's economy shrank unexpectedly in the final three months of the year as heavy snow compounded a slowdown in growth. Gross domestic product fell 0.5pc in the fourth quarter, the most in more than a year, the Office for National Statistics reported on Tuesday. The decline compared with growth of 0.7pc in the third quarter.
- IMF Chides US for Fiscal Folly. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has issued its clearest warning to date that the latest US fiscal stimulus is ill-judged, unlikely to do much for growth and raises the risk of a bond crisis over the medium term.
- Apple Inc.(AAPL) and Google's(GOOG) Android smartphone sales are booming in the Nordic countries, at the expense of Nokia Oyj(NOK) models, citing Fredrik Rudberg, managing director at Swedish handset distributor Mobile 20:20. "Almost all the smartphones we sell nowadays are Apple and Android - Nokia phones just don't sell," Rudberg said.
- China's northern city of Tianjin plans to raise minimum monthly wages by 16% to about 1,070 yuan, citing the city's human resources and social security work meeting.
- Chinese farm-produce prices gained in the week ended Jan. 23 from the previous seven days, their fourth consecutive increase, on freezing weather in China's south, citing the Ministry of Commerce. The wholesale price of 18 staple vegetables increased 12.6% and the prices of green peppers, cucumbers, chili peppers and beans gained at least 10%.
- Economists Say Rates Will Rise. CHINA may raise benchmark interest rates next month to tackle inflation and curb liquidity, economists said yesterday. The central government has made inflation a policy priority and another interest rate increase looms, said Lu Zhengwei, an Industrial Bank senior economist. "Another interest rate increase and another reserve requirement ratio increase are both expected in February," Lu said. He forecast an inflation rate of 5.3 percent this month, which he said would push policy makers to increase rates.
- China central bank adviser Li Daokui said oil prices at $100 a barrel will have a negative impact on the nation's economy, according to China's state television.
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