Wednesday November 5 Housing and Economic stories

TOP STORIES:

Italy sends S&P, Fitch officials to trial over 2011, 2012 cuts - (www.reuters.com) An Italian court indicted officials from ratings agencies Standard & Poor's and Fitch on Tuesday over accusations of market manipulation related to cuts to Italy's sovereign debt ratings during the euro zone debt crisis in 2011 and 2012. A court in the small southern city of Trani also indicted the two companies for their legal liability in the case through the actions of their employees. The trial is due to start on Feb. 4, 2015. The judge ordered five current and former employees of Standard & Poor's and one from Fitch to stand trial over accusations that sensitive reports were released during trading hours, causing heavy losses on stock and bond markets.

Facebook’s $22 Billion WhatsApp Deal Buys $10 Million in Sales - (www.bloomberg.com) The numbers are in forFacebook Inc.’s acquisition of mobile-messaging application WhatsApp Inc.: The social network paid $22 billion for a startup that generated $10.2 million in revenue last year. In a regulatory filing yesterday, Facebook disclosed WhatsApp’s financial results for 2012 and 2013. The messaging service, which reached 400 million active users in December, generated less than 3 cents in revenue for each one last year. By comparison, Facebook paid $55 per user when it acquired the company. WhatsApp’s net loss was $138.1 million for 2013. The valuation of the deal was already regarded as lofty, at 19 times projected sales. Still, the results illustrate how far Facebook has to go to get its money’s worth for the app, which generates revenue by charging 99 cents for subscriptions after a user’s first year. Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg said he’s in no rush to make money from WhatsApp, or Facebook’s other growing applications, until they reach 1 billion users.

Maine Governor Seeks to Make Nurse Abide by Quarantine - (www.bloomberg.com) Governor Paul LePage said he would try to force nurse Kaci Hickox to abide by Maine’s Ebola quarantine, escalating the confrontation between the previously little-known aid worker and the political leaders of two states. Hickox, who has shown no symptoms since a brief fever, was kept in a tent at a New Jersey hospital after returning from treating patients in Sierra Leone before being released by Governor Chris Christie. She said today she wouldn’t follow isolation orders in Maine, where she lives. LePage, a 66-year-old Republican facing a re-election fight Nov. 4, said he would try to make her.

How Sweden Joined Central Banking’s Hall of Shame - (www.bloomberg.com) European policy makers have been their own worst enemy in the fight to avoid recession and deflation. Swedish central bankers’ decision to cut the benchmark interest rate to zero was the latest evidence that moving too fast to remove emergency stimulus is a risky business. “They’ve blown it,” Nariman Behravesh, chief economist in Lexington, Massachusetts, for consultants IHS Inc., said, referring to policy makers in Europe. “The focus is exclusively on deficit, on debt, on keeping inflation under control. They’ve ignored the threat of deflation and recession.”

Dubai Says Boom Isn't a Bubble This Time. Really - (www.bloomberg.com) Alongside the Dubai Mall, one of the world’s largest shopping centers, sits an ersatz version of what would be an authentic retail experience in most Persian Gulf cities: an Arab souk. If, in the evening, you stroll through this air-conditioned, hassle- and haggle-free caricature of a market, staffed mostly by smiling South Asians, you can amble out onto the shores of man-made Burj Khalifa Lake, named after the world’s tallest building, which looms over it. Here -- bumping elbows with a veritable United Nations General Assembly of residents and tourists decked out in everything from dishdashas to Dior -- you can gawk at the Dubai Fountain, Bloomberg Markets magazine will report in its December issue. Every half-hour, an array of computer-choreographed nozzles sends jets of water erupting from the lake’s surface 500 feet into the air, gyrating to Middle Eastern pop one minute and Andrea Bocelli singing “Con Te Partiro” the next.

OTHER STORIES:

Russia Buys Most Gold for Reserves Since Financial Crisis of ’98 - (www.bloomberg.com)
Another Reason Not to Trust China's Economic Data - (www.bloomberg.com)
German Potholes Risk Growth Prospects in Land of Autobahn - (www.bloomberg.com)
Rajoy Apologizes as New Wave of Graft Allegations Hits Spain - (www.bloomberg.com)

AT&T Sued by FTC Over ‘Throttling’ Smartphone Data Speeds - (www.bloomberg.com)
Apple CEO fires back as retailers block Pay  - (www.reuters.com)
Problems With Infotainment Systems Dog Most Automakers - (www.bloomberg.com)
Apple Pay Faces Challenge as CVS, Rite Aid Reject System - (www.bloomberg.com)