Friday, October 24, 2014

Today's Headlines

Bloomberg:  
  • Ebola Patient’s Home Decontaminated as Officials Reassure Public. (video) New York City authorities began decontaminating the apartment of the doctor who tested positive for Ebola as questions mounted over whether health-care workers caring for patients should be isolated. As officials fanned out today to reassure the public, the doctor, Craig Spencer, 33, was being treated in an isolation unit at Bellevue Hospital Center in Manhattan. Officials are tracing his contacts and monitoring those who have been with him since his return from West Africa. He traveled on the subway, went bowling and had close contact with several people in the days before developing an elevated temperature and alerting authorities. 
  • N.Y. Ebola Case Shows Doctor Quarantine Needed: Lawmaker. (video) Doctors returning from treating Ebola patients in West Africa should be quarantined for at least three weeks, Representative Jason Chaffetz said today as Congress held a second hearing on the response to the virus’ outbreak. Chaffetz, a Utah Republican, said a New York City doctor’s self-monitoring for Ebola symptoms after he returned to the U.S. “didn’t work.” Doctors should be in “some sort of quarantine or isolation” for 21 to 42 days, he said. “He went into West Africa to help people who have Ebola,” Chaffetz said in an interview today on Bloomberg Television before the hearing. “You gotta love a person like that, but for them to come back, and then be out in the public in such a populous city like New York City. I think that scares a lot of people.”
  • Putin Accuses U.S. of Blackmail, Weakening Global Order. The U.S. is behaving like “Big Brother” and blackmailing world leaders, while making imbalances in global relations worse, Russia’s president said. Current conflicts risk bringing world order to collapse, Vladimir Putin told the annual Valdai Club in the Black Sea resort of Sochi. The Cold War’s “victors” are dismantling established international laws and relations, while the global security system has become weak and deformed, with the U.S. acting like the “nouveau riche” as global leader, he said.
  • Merkel Says Ukraine May Lose EU Gas Without Russia Deal. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Ukraine risks losing gas supplied by its European supporters if it doesn’t reach an agreement on payments to Russia. The European Union is showing solidarity with Ukraine through reverse flow gas deliveries in its conflict with Russia, Merkel said at an EU summit in Brussels. She urged negotiators to come up with a financing agreement before the turmoil disrupts gas supplies to Europe in the winter.
  • China Stocks Post Biggest Weekly Loss in 4 Months on IPO Concern. China’s benchmark stock index posted its biggest weekly loss in four months amid concerns new share sales are diverting funds from existing equities and a slowing economy is hurting profits. Great Wall Motor Co., the biggest Chinese maker of SUVs, slid 6.7 percent in Shanghai after third-quarter profit dropped 22 percent. China Construction Bank Corp. (601939) retreated to a one-week low after earnings trailed estimates. Anhui Conch Cement Co., the largest producer of building materials, slumped 2.4 percent in Hong Kong after new-home prices in China fell in all but one city monitored by the government last month. The Shanghai Composite Index (SHCOMP) dropped 1.7 percent this week, the most since the five-day period ended June 20
  • European Stocks Decline as Stoxx 600 Trims Weekly Advance. European stocks fell, paring their biggest weekly jump of the year, after a report on U.S. new-home sales, and as a draft communique showed 25 lenders are set to fail the European Central Bank’s euro-area bank health check. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index slipped 0.3 percent to 327.17 at the close, after briefly extending its decline to 0.7 percent following the U.S. report. Commodity producers and oil and gas companies retreated the most among the 19 industry groups on the gauge as Brent dropped. CaixaBank SA slid 3.4 percent and Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc lost 0.9 percent.
  • Aluminum Caps Biggest Two-Day Slide in Three Weeks. Aluminum capped the biggest two-day loss in three weeks as signs of a weaker housing market raised concern that demand will slow in China, the world’s top metals consumer. New-home prices fell in all but one Chinese city monitored by the government in September, the nation’s statistics bureau said today. Aluminum’s uses in construction include sheet products for roofing and wall cladding, according to Rio Tinto Group, which produces the lightweight metal. 
  • WTI Heads for Weekly Drop as Saudi Policy Seen Unchanged. West Texas Intermediate retreated from the biggest gain since September amid speculation a drop in Saudi Arabian oil supplies isn’t a signal that OPEC’s largest producer has decided to cut production. Brent slid in London. Futures fell as much as 1.3 percent in New York and are poised for a fourth weekly decline.
Wall Street Journal:
ZeroHedge:
Business Insider:
Reuters:
  • Russia still has troops in Ukraine, NATO says. Russia still has troops in eastern Ukraine and retains a very capable force on the border despite a partial withdrawal, NATO's military commander said on Friday. "We've seen a pretty good withdrawal of the Russian forces from inside Ukraine but, make no mistake, there remain Russian forces inside eastern Ukraine," U.S. Air Force General Philip Breedlove told reporters at NATO's military headquarters near Mons in Belgium. Some Russian troops stationed near the Ukraine border had left and others appeared to be preparing to leave. "But the force that remains and shows no indications of leaving is still a very, very capable force," said Breedlove, NATO's supreme allied commander Europe.
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