Posts Tagged ‘Mark Kollar’

The Week Unpeeled

Bloomberg terminals and the journalists behind them made headlines last week, after an exclusive in The New York Post alleged that reporters were “spying” on customers by looking at what functions were being used and whether they were logging into terminals (prompting calls to Goldman Sachs at one point about whether a partner had left the firm when a terminal had been left idle).  The story, which became front-page news over the weekend, Goldman and JP Morgan officials were blasting Bloomberg for snooping over security in using the ubiquitous boxes. The Fed and Treasury are now looking into the issue, so the story will have long legs no doubt.

Elsewhere:

  • The Dow continued its rally, ending at a record close Friday of 15,118, and the S&P 500 another record close of 1,633;
  • The Fed said it is planning (timing uncertain) its wind-down its massive bond-buying program, which was designed to stimulate the economy;
  • NBC News is expected to name Deborah Turness, the head of ITV News in Britain, as president, the first woman president of a network news division in the US;
  • Alan Abelson, a top editor of Barron’s and columnist for “Up and Down Wall Street, died; and

Researchers last week announced that carbon levels have reached their highest levels in “millions of years” on earth, which no doubt will brings more attention to climate change issues. End of Story

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The Week Unpeeled

Government leaders, thought leaders and media scribes have been busy convening a lot lately with US presidents in Texas making an appearance for the opening of the George Bush library (with US media commenting how Hillary Clinton looked so presidential herself); the World Bank and IMF finishing its round of huddles (amid talk of less austerity more growth); White House correspondents red-carpeting annual dinner in Washington (boycotted by Tom Brokaw who says it’s more about celebrity than news, and President Obama saying he will be opening the Blame Bush Library soon), and the Milken Global Conference kicking off this week in Beverly Hills.

Elsewhere, less convening, more real headlines:

  • Boston marathon alleged bomber search found evidence of plans for a second attack in Times Square;
  • Washington is confronting allegations that Syria appears to have used chemical weapons, which Obama said would “change his calculus” but many seem unsure what that really means;
  • The AP Twitter account was hacked with a Tweet of White House terrorist attack, briefing sending markets sharply lower;
  • Koch brothers of libertarian bent made headlines in their exploratory bid for a group of newspapers that include The Chicago Tribune and The Los Angeles Times;
  • Apple increased its return of cash to shareholders by $55 billion to about $100 billion over three years;
  • The UK economy narrowly missed a third recessionary dip with slight signs of growth;
  • Nasdaq OMX is expected to pay $10 million to US regulators for botched Facebook listing (separately $62 million expected to go to brokers); and
  • The Dow ended the week slightly higher at 14,703. End of Story
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The Week Unpeeled

An amazingly busy and heavy news week filled with tragic headlines, with global focus on the Boston Marathon bombings and a closely watched manhunt (one of the biggest in US history) that ended in the arrest of a 19-year college student, who with his brother killed in a police firefight, allegedly were responsible for the two homemade bombs at the finish line of the famous race. The live proceedings of the dragnet become reality TV or online viewing with the most recent coverage on why this happened and how it could have been prevented. (UK coverage over the weekend focused on the “what” of Chechnyan ties and the “why” of photos of Bostonians celebrating the capture for such a tragic story.)  The vast amount of civilian coverage of the bombing from smartphones made spectators at the race news “capturerers,” not really witnessed at this intensity. London marathoners on Sunday observed a 30-second moment of silence before the start of their race.

Elsewhere:

  • A fertilizer plant in Texas exploded (at the strength of a 2.1-magnitude earthquake), killing as many as 15 people, leveling many homes and injuring up to 180;
  • An Elvis impersonator was charged in sending ricin-tainted letter to the president and others;
  • The Senate rejected new restrictions on firearms;
  • Al Neuharth, the media mogul who ran Gannett Company and created USA Today, died;
  • Blackstone ended its bid for Dell with ownership still in pursuit;
  • The Dow also suffered, ending down 317 points for the week, or 2.1 percent, to close at 14547;
  • A small Brooklyn news outlet, InsideClimate News, which was founded just six years ago and funded by charitable foundations and readers, won a Pulitzer for national reporting, along with four from The New York Times, one from The Wall Street Journal and two from The Star Tribune in Minneapolis, among others; and
  • The Sunday Times published the Richest in Britain list with the top seven coming from outside the UK, many from Russia, highlighting the “lure of Britain to a footloose global elite”; top spot goes to Alisher Usmanov, part owner of Arsenal football club. End of Story
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The Week Unpeeled

President Obama proposed a fiscal budget that includes $3.8 billion in spending and actually put some “comprising” cuts on Social Security and Medicare on the table.  Now that these sacred endowments have entered the discussion, battles have started from both sides, which will surely dominate headlines especially as we near the midterm elections.  Just in time for tax day. (Maybe we should use bitcoins in the budget . . . They seem to be appreciating bubble-like.)

Elsewhere:

  • Margaret Thatcher, the Iron Lady, died, amid heaps of coverage and commentary from compatriots and detractors (And amid lots of controversy, BBC radio did play “Ding, Dong, the Witch…”);
  • J.C. Penney CEO of Apple retail fame was ousted as the retailer struggled to recover any brand image;
  • North Korean situation remained on high alert;
  • The Fed accidentally released its minutes early (by some 19 hours) to Wall Street firms, among other concerns, raising more talk on embargoes and the whole pre-release process;
  • Gold continue to lose its luster, sinking into bear-market territory and seemingly ending its 12-year bull run (more reason for bitcoins);
  • The Dow ended virtually flat on Friday at 14,865 but strong for the week, hitting new highs again with several other barometers;
  • Annette Funicello, the original Mouseketeer (WAY before Brittany) died; and

Way notable obit: a Wednesday obituary in The New York Times is worth a read: McCandlish Phillips a former NYT journalist who exposed a Jewish Klansman was called a “tenacious reporter and lyrical scribe” (a rare combo). Phillips “refrained from smoking, drinking, cursing and gambling, each of which had been refined to a high exuberant art in the Times newsroom.”  NO surprise, he retired from print to the pulpit. End of Story

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The Week Unpeeled

The jobs picture turned a little sour last week with growth well below expectations because of a non-farm number at only 88,000 and an unemployment rate down to 7.6 percent in March, mostly because of folks leaving the workforce. That put a damper on the market, which has been on a tear.  The Dow ended pretty much unchanged for the week at 14,565, and other indicators were mixed, reflecting the divergent opinions on the direction of the economy and outlook for this rally.  In other markets, bonds continued to show signs of weakness with the closely watched “Agg” or Barclay’s US Aggregate Bond Index declining 0.12 percent in the first quarter, its first decline for that period (WSJ, Apr 3) in about seven years.

Elsewhere:

  • The SEC “blessed” the use of social media for corporate America to announce market-moving news (Warren Buffett’s BusinessWire opted not to “like” by objecting to the decision, no surprise really because it can make those dissemination services obsolete);
  • North Korea continued its bully tactics asking embassies to prepare evacuation plans;
  • Apple CEO Tim Cook used the apologia app and said sorry to China for certain customer service policies;
  • Facebook released what seems to be a super phone app called Home for Google’s Android operating system;
  • Developing signs of bird flu in China started to make headlines;
  • Roger Ebert, famed movie critic of thumbs up or down, died; and
  • Jay-Z, ever-morphing, this time into sports agentEnd of Story
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