Tuesday, August 19, 2014

Wednesday August 20 Housing and Economic stories


Apple to cut 200 jobs at Beats  - (www.marketwatch.com)  Apple Inc. is planning to cut 200 jobs at Beats Electronics, the headphones and music-streaming service it recently acquired for $3 billion, The New York Post reported on Thursday. The cuts, which come ahead of the expected Aug. 1 closing of the deal, are equal to about 40% of the company's workforce, said the paper. In a statement, Apple said it has extended job offers to all Beats employees, although because of overlap with other parts of its business, some offers are for a limited period. 

Stock Market's "Oh Sh*t" Moment About Russia, As Bevy of Blue-Chips Warn - (www.thestreet.com)  I guess investors needed to hear it from companies as diverse as Siemens, Adidas, and Shell all at once to drive the point home. Yes, Russia, Ukraine, Russian impact on Europe, strong dollar, it's all coming together in one ugly morning. There's a grudging recognition that not only are the sanctions not working, but they are making Putin dig in his heels. Digging in his heels means that he is going to cut the natural gas spigot to Europe when it gets cold. I think that's how a company like Siemens could withhold an outlook for 2015. I think it is how Shell last night said it could be a game changer. Adidas didn't even have to wait until winter to lower the boom. It did so now.

In Portugal, Central Bank Moves to Clean Up Banco Espírito Santo - (www.nytimes.com)  Portugal’s central bank stepped up efforts to clean up the troubled lender Banco Espírito Santo and end its family control after the bank reported a stunning first-half loss of $4.8 billion that will force it to raise more capital. After the bank’s earnings report, the central bank issued a statement ordering Banco Espírito Santo to raise more funds and announced the suspension of three members of the Espírito Santo family, which has controlled the bank for generations. The central bank removed the three members’ voting rights as directors and said that it would push for legal action against any director involved in fraudulent activities. “The reshuffle of the leadership equals a nationalization of the financial institution through the back door,” Antonio Barroso, an analyst at Teneo Intelligence in London, said in a report.

ISDA to Rule If Argentina Credit-Default Swaps Triggered  - (www.bloomberg.com) The International Swaps & Derivatives Association said its determinations committee will rule on whether credit-default swaps linked to Argentina have been triggered by a failure-to-pay credit event. The committee will meet tomorrow at 11 a.m. in New York and a decision that an event has occurred would lead to payouts on all contracts, according to ISDA’s rules. A total of 2,652 contracts insuring a net $1 billion of Argentina’s debt were outstanding as of July 25, according to the Depository Trust & Clearing Corp. Swiss bank UBS AG asked for the ruling after the government missed a deadline yesterday to pay $539 million in bond interest payments. Argentina would be the first nation to trigger payouts on default swaps since Greece restructured its debt in 2012. “CDS are likely to be triggered,” Casey Reckman and Daniel Chodos, analysts at Credit Suisse Group AG in New York, wrote in a note to investors today.

California Health Insurance Rates Rise Up to 88% in ’14 - (www.bloomberg.com) Health-care insurance premiums for individuals in California rose between 22 percent and 88 percent in 2014 from last year, even after the federal health-care overhaul, the state’s insurance commissioner said. The rate increases, with variation for geography and age, were masked by federal subsidies that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act provides to 88 percent of the1.4 million Californians who purchased health care through the state’s exchange, Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones said. Jones, a Democrat, is pushing a statewide ballot measure for November known as Proposition 45 that would give him regulatory say on proposed premium increases. The measure is opposed by insurance companies, which have said that it would actually cause rates to rise while harming the quality of care.





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