| To: StanX Long who wrote (60934) | 2/25/2002 2:03:00 AM | | From: StanX Long | | | | US buying boosts Japanese trade
Monday, 25 February, 2002, 06:09 GMT
news.bbc.co.uk
The Japanese are buying fewer foreign goods
Resurgent US shoppers have provided Japan with a rare break in the dark clouds shrouding its economy, buying more Japanese goods and raising hopes that the export trade may have turned the corner.
Exports from Japan rose faster than any time in the past two years, the Ministry of Finance in Tokyo said, to 188.1bn yen ($1.4bn; £980m) in January.
Although the figure was still down 1.8% from January 2001 by value - and 1.9% by volume - the falls were the smallest since the middle of last year. |
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| To: StanX Long who wrote (60935) | 2/25/2002 2:13:55 AM | | From: StanX Long | | | | Recovery May Leave Consumers Behind
February 24, 2002 4:01:00 PM ET
news.moneycentral.msn.com
By Ellen Freilich
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The recession the U.S. economy experienced last year was a mild one, thanks to the power of the American pocketbook, which allowed consumers to spend even as business profits collapsed.
But as the economy starts to recover and profits at some businesses improve, American workers and consumers may feel a pinch as corporations try to cut down labor costs.
``At every meeting,'' said a product manager at a West Coast bank, ``my boss tells us, 'Everyone worked hard last year and their efforts were appreciated. But remind your people that the company didn't make money, so make sure their expectations (for salary and bonuses) are where they should be.'''
This relationship between corporate profits and Americans' income and spending power means economic growth in the first year of recovery will probably be more subdued than in the first years after previous recessions, economists said.
Goldman Sachs & Co. economist Jan Hatzius said that means 2002 might look like a mirror image of 2001. Last year's strong wage increases crushed corporate profit margins, but helped consumer spending stay strong. This year, margins will probably recover some of their lost ground, but a slowdown in wage growth will weigh on real incomes and consumer spending.
After-tax income is what drives consumer spending, said Dana Johnson, managing director and head of research at Banc One Capital Markets. |
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| To: StanX Long who wrote (60936) | 2/25/2002 3:29:58 AM | | From: StanX Long | | | | Nokia sees China handset revenues up 20 pct in '02
Reuters, 02.25.02, 3:09 AM ET
forbes.com
BEIJING, Feb 25 (Reuters) - Finnish cellphone giant Nokia expects the revenues from its handset sales in China to grow by more than 20 percent this year, a top executive in China said on Monday.
By introducing new high-end models, Nokia hopes to win market share and boost the average selling price of its phones in China, David Hartley, general manager of Nokia's mobile phone unit in China told Reuters.
That would allow Nokia's revenues to grow faster than the total market for handsets in China, the world's biggest mobile phone market, which executives at the company said earlier this month would grow by at least 10-15 percent this year.
"We expect our revenue growth to be greater than 20 percent this year in China," Hartley said in an interview.
Copyright 2002, Reuters News Service |
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| To: StanX Long who wrote (60937) | 2/25/2002 3:35:19 AM | | From: StanX Long | | | | Hitachi expected to miss earnings targets
sg.biz.yahoo.com
Monday February 25, 3:59 PM
TOKYO (Reuters) - Hitachi Ltd, Japan's largest electronics maker, will likely miss earnings targets for the current year through March, as slack demand for communications and industrial equipment adds to its woes, analysts and media said.
The Nihon Keizai Shimbun business daily said over the weekend that Hitachi's net loss in the year to March 31 would exceed 300 billion yen ($2.24 billion), surpassing the company's latest official forecast in October of a loss of 230 billion yen.
Hitachi, like Japan's four other chipmaking conglomerates, was hit hard by last year's slump in the semiconductor industry.
The chip sector has since shown signs of bottoming out, but the conglomerates are being hit by a further slowdown in spending on telecommunications infrastructure and industrial equipment, especially in the sluggish domestic market.
The report did not surprise the market, which had braced for further bad news from Japan's chip and industrial electronics firms after Toshiba Corp <6502>, NEC Corp <6701> and Fujitsu Ltd <6702> raised 2001/02 loss forecasts in late January.
Hitachi's shares closed up 0.50 percent at 808 yen, outperforming a 0.58 percent fall in the benchmark Nikkei average.
The Nihon Keizai also said Hitachi's 2001/02 consolidated operating loss, estimated in October at 30 billion yen, would likely be close to 100 billion yen, its worst ever. |
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| To: StanX Long who wrote (60938) | 2/25/2002 3:41:42 AM | | From: StanX Long | | | | Hong Kong stocks fall as local economy woes drag
Monday February 25, 1:43 PM
sg.news.yahoo.com
HONG KONG (Reuters) - Hong Kong stocks were down by midday on Monday as worries over the sputtering local economy erased initial gains following a modest rise on Wall Street.
The benchmark Hang Seng Index was down 1.62 percent at 10,491.84 by the midday break, extending a 2.71 percent fall last week. The index had opened fractionally higher.
Shares of global banking giant HSBC Holdings, the largest HSI constituent, slid 0.58 percent to HK$85.25 following the release of worse than expected Hong Kong economic data last week.
Nearly 38 percent of HSBC's pre-tax profit in 2000 came from Hong Kong, which is teetering on the brink of its second recession in four years.
"People are also worried about HSBC's corporate results next week which could show increasing levels of bad debts in Hong Kong," said Eric Wong, market strategist at Dao Heng Securities.
Results by HSBC's global rival Standard Chartered , which also derives a substantial portion of its revenues from Hong Kong, showed a sharp increase in bad debt levels, providing an indication of what to expect when HSBC's own full year results come out next week. Analysts on average are expecting the bank to post an 18 percent drop in 2001 earnings. |
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| To: StanX Long who wrote (60939) | 2/25/2002 3:56:38 AM | | From: StanX Long | | | | Taiwan economy turns a healthier shade in January
By The China Post staff
sg.news.yahoo.com
Monday February 25, 12:00 AM
Taiwan's economy started to show a turnaround in the month of January, according to statistics put together by the Council for Economic Planning and Development (CEPD).
The color-coded indicators compiled by the council gave off a "yellow-blue" reading for January, up from the "blue-yellow" reading for the month of December.
The indicator is designed to take the pulse of the economy and uses a range of colors, from blue to red, to reflect how "hot" it is during a particular month.
CEPD officials said that January's improvement came largely from increases in both prices and turnover volumes in the nation's stock market and other financial indicators, including money supply.
However, they also noted that the only material indicator showing signs of improvement in January was the one tracking exports. |
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| To: StanX Long who wrote (60940) | 2/25/2002 3:59:36 AM | | From: StanX Long | | | | Singapore says unemployment may hit six percent
sg.news.yahoo.com
Monday February 25, 10:34 AM
SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Unemployment in Singapore will worsen and may hit six percent before the economy recovers later this year, The Straits Times reported on Monday.
"What we will see from the employment situation is that it will get worse before it gets better," the paper quoted Minister of State for Education and Manpower Ng Eng Hen speaking at a Lunar New Year celebration.
Preliminary estimates show that Singapore's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate rose to a 15-year high of 4.7 percent in December last year from 3.8 percent in September.
Ng described the unemployment rate of 5.3 percent for Singapore's resident population of about three million as "already quite high" adding the last such job squeeze was 17-years ago in 1985. |
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| To: Alex MG who wrote (60943) | 2/25/2002 12:48:10 PM | | From: advocatedevil | | | | Yeah, I'm "still hanging" with my short play (hangin' with a rope around my neck that is!). I was just tryin' to have some fun this morning and those darn semi bulls decided to crash the party. I hope they don't keep things tied up for too long. Good luck with your trade Alex.
AdvocateDevil |
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