| Oil price strikes record $US90
CRUDE oil prices struck a record $US90 a barrel in after-hours trading in New York overnight, amid increased tensions between Turkey's government and Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq. Traders said a weak US dollar and supply jitters had also stoked the price surge. The price gains came after New York's main oil futures contract, light sweet crude for delivery in November, had jumped $US2.07 to a record close of $US89.47 a barrel. London prices also pushed higher in after-hours trading, as Brent North Sea crude for December delivery soared to $US84.88 after the contract had earlier settled $US1.47 higher at $US84.60. Oil prices have pushed higher this week amid geopolitical angst related to the Turkey-Iraq border and a weakening dollar, which makes dollar-priced commodities such as oil cheaper for buyers with stronger currencies and therefore lifts crude demand.
Govt: RP budget deficit lowest in a decade
Revenue in 2007 totaled 1.135 trillion pesos, up 15.8 percent from the previous year. Expenditures totaled 1.144 trillion pesos, 9.5 percent more than total spending in 2006.
Increased spending in infrastructure last year helped boost economic growth in the Southeast Asian nation to 7.3 percent, the highest in 31 years.
Taxes collected by the Bureau of Internal Revenue, the government's main revenue-generating agency, were 7.1 percent short of the target of 765.9 billion pesos.
But revenue from other offices, including proceeds from asset sales, surged to 144.7 billion pesos, more than double the target of 71.2 billion pesos and 166 percent higher than the previous year's 54.3 billion pesos.
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INVESTING: The best offense may be defense With 'recession' on ...
An individual may decide to put half of his money into stocks, domestic or global funds that have both domestic and foreign stocks. (Garcia warned against moving large portions into foreign funds, because they already have enjoyed a strong run in recent years and offer too little upside potential given downside risks.) The investor should put the other half of his money in a bond fund with a diversified mix of low-, medium- and high-quality bonds, Garcia said. Investors can simply choose a target fund, which has a mix of stocks and bonds that get more conservative as the investor ages, he said. A good target fund "kind of is the perfect meal," Garcia said. He advised against a lot of a la carte investments to the target fund. Bangma, who likens the 2008 economy to the stagflation of 30 years ago, says once again gold is appreciating in value.
The Ex Ante Factor: Bizarro World
The week of January 21-25, 2008 will go down in the history books of financial markets and potentially society at large. We witnessed the largest financial debacle in history where SocGen lost $7b in index futures pushing stock markets to the brink of collapse (are we trying to one-up each other's debacles?), we received an historic 75bps inter-meeting ease from the Federal Reserve (to fix a bad trade in Europe?), the US government agreed to pass a stimulus package to head off a recession (borrowing $150 billion to save a multi-trillion $ credit bubble?) and to top it off 10YR treasury yields traded down to 3.30% just 30bps from the 2003 lows while the inflation sensitive gold contract traded at an all time high above $920/oz (is this bizarro world?). With all the debate regarding whether or not the US will enter a recession we took a look at the conflicting messages coming from the commodity and bond markets to see if we could come up with a conclusion and trading strategy.
Happy Tech Year 2007!
There will be two versions of the PS3 (the abbreviated name the console is commonly spoken of), one which will be a USD$699 version with a 60GB hard disk and a USD$499 PS3 that packs a 20GB hard disk drive. Which one to choose? Obviously the more expensive PS3 is the one to have, since it has wireless LAN and extra flash card readers. They both work great as Blu-ray disc players though. Offering hi-definition movie and gaming experience right out of the box! Your girlfriend will like the homely new you.
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Hooda invades Bhajan’s Adampur bastion
Although efficiency at the SDM office has gone up after the introduction of computers, operationalising CCTVs is expected to further improve the functioning on a day-to-day basis. An important aspect of the CCTV set up is going to be the constant recording of all activities at the SDM office. The SDM can check the working in his absence by viewing the recordings. The effectiveness of setting up CCTV system could lead to this model being introduced in other government offices throughout the state. It is expected that this system will go a long way in improving functioning in the government offices. SDM Mukesh Ahuja has been instrumental in conceptualising this proposal. He had put up this proposal before deputy commissioner Mohammad Shayin who promptly sanctioned it. Ahuja said the setting up of CCTV cameras was practically an extension of the existing computer infrastructure.
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