Home mortgage rates ticked lower after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said the central bank will continue to keep interest rates low.The average 30-year fixed mortgage slipped to 5.55% from 5.58% the week prior, and the 15-year fixed fell to 4.89% from 4.93%, according to the weekly national survey from Bankrate.com.Recently rates have been "yo-yoing as corporate earnings announcements and economic data toy with investor sentiment," the report noted.
On Wednesday Bernanke gave his semi-annual congressional testimony on the state of the economy, saying the central bank will "likely keep interest rates low for an extended period of time," the Bankrate report noted.A separate Thursday report showed sales of existing homes disappointed again in June, rising just 3.6%.
Current mortgage rates remain much lower than last year's levels, when the average 30-year fixed was 6.77%, according to Bankrate.com.At the current rate of 5.55%, the monthly payment on a $200,000 mortgage would be $1,141.86, or about $158 less than the monthly payment at last year's rate.
Adjustable-rate mortgages is given as ARMs "continue to post mixed results," the report said, with the average 1-year ARM rising to 5.23% from 5.22%, and the 5-year ARM falling to 4.93% from 4.98%
source:cnn.com
Brought to you by-aminul,sust.
Friday, August 28, 2009
New home sales blast past expectations
Sales of newly constructed homes leaped unexpectedly in July to hit their highest level since last September.New homes sold at an annualized rate of 433,000 during the month, according to a joint report issued by the Census Bureau and Department of Housing and Urban Development.That far exceeded analysts' forecasts and was up 9.6% from the revised 395,000 rate recorded in June. A consensus of industry experts surveyed by Briefing.com had predicted July sales of 390,000.The news followed other positive housing market reports earlier this month, including a spike in existing home sales, home prices and affordability."There are many economic conditions that led to the surge," said Bob Walters, chief economist for Quicken Loans. "But certainly low mortgage rates, huge price reductions on the high inventory of new builds, and the first-time homebuyer tax credit have been instrumental in getting consumers to take the plunge into the real estate pool of opportunity."Plus, the psychology of the market is changing, according to Peter Morici, an economics professor at the University of Maryland. "The notion that prices will drift down forever is gone," he said. "Now people are thinking the window of opportunity will not be open forever.""Home shoppers visiting builders' model homes are more likely to purchase than earlier in the year," added Brad Hunter, chief economist for Metrostudy, a real estate research and consulting firm.They are also canceling fewer contracts. Of the 10 markets where Hunter examines cancellation rates, most are running at substantially lower levels. In Phoenix, for example, the cancellation rate lately has been about 4% compared with 7% late last year.It certainly is an attractive market. The median price of a new home declined again last month to $210,100, down only slightly from June but off more than 11% from July 2008.
source: cnn.com
source: cnn.com
Different currency types in the world
We all are probably familiar with the currency codes in SAP (e.g., United States dollars [USD], euro [EUR], Japanese yen [JPY]). These indicate the specific currencies used to record transaction values. Currency types control the specific currency codes in which financial transactions are recorded. In SAP, a single financial transaction is recorded using multiple currency types. A minimum of two currency types is used to record all financial transactions in General Ledger Accounting (FI-GL), document currency, and company currency. Different currency types may map to the same or different currency codes for a specific transaction based on the data input (e.g., company code, cost center, document header currency).When performing the basic configuration for all financial modules, the term “currency type” inevitably crops up. It’s a key choice you make early in finance configuration that can be difficult to change later on.
Configuring General Ledger Accounting (FI-GL) or Special Purpose Ledger (FI-SL) to store values in multiple currency types enables you to track a single transaction in multiple currencies, referred to as parallel valuation. This allows you to perform reporting quickly in different currencies. For more about parallel valuation with the new General Ledger (G/L), see “Streamline Your Parallel Accounting with the New G/L Ledger Solution,” by Aylin Korkmaz in this issue.Consider a UK company, with local currency (also known as company currency in SAP) of British pounds (GBP), that is a subsidiary of a French company with local currency euro (EUR). For local reporting, the UK company produces reports in GBP, while for group reporting the corporate head office needs consolidated reports in EUR. Storing transaction values in both GBP and EUR allows you to meet both reporting needs quickly. If transaction values were stored in GBP only, the GBP values would have to be converted to EUR whenever consolidated group reports were required, slowing down the process.
We can also use currency types to store transaction data at different valuations. For example, when you make an inter-company sale using a transfer price, you (the selling company) make a profit. However, this intercompany profit can not show on consolidated group reporting. Storing transactions with both legal and group valuation allows you to produce both local company accounts, with the intercompany profit, and consolidated group accounts, without intercompany profit, quickly.I will explain what a currency type is and how it affects financial reporting. I use values found in SAP R/3 Release 4.7, although the information and steps I give apply to all SAP R/3 releases from 3.0 to mySAP ERP Central Component 5.0. You will have the information you need to determine the currency type configuration suitable for your organization.
Configuring General Ledger Accounting (FI-GL) or Special Purpose Ledger (FI-SL) to store values in multiple currency types enables you to track a single transaction in multiple currencies, referred to as parallel valuation. This allows you to perform reporting quickly in different currencies. For more about parallel valuation with the new General Ledger (G/L), see “Streamline Your Parallel Accounting with the New G/L Ledger Solution,” by Aylin Korkmaz in this issue.Consider a UK company, with local currency (also known as company currency in SAP) of British pounds (GBP), that is a subsidiary of a French company with local currency euro (EUR). For local reporting, the UK company produces reports in GBP, while for group reporting the corporate head office needs consolidated reports in EUR. Storing transaction values in both GBP and EUR allows you to meet both reporting needs quickly. If transaction values were stored in GBP only, the GBP values would have to be converted to EUR whenever consolidated group reports were required, slowing down the process.
We can also use currency types to store transaction data at different valuations. For example, when you make an inter-company sale using a transfer price, you (the selling company) make a profit. However, this intercompany profit can not show on consolidated group reporting. Storing transactions with both legal and group valuation allows you to produce both local company accounts, with the intercompany profit, and consolidated group accounts, without intercompany profit, quickly.I will explain what a currency type is and how it affects financial reporting. I use values found in SAP R/3 Release 4.7, although the information and steps I give apply to all SAP R/3 releases from 3.0 to mySAP ERP Central Component 5.0. You will have the information you need to determine the currency type configuration suitable for your organization.
US bank stocks on a roll, but for how long?
It's been a banner year for long-beleaguered US bank stocks, but now investors have to worry if the shares will flag.
After two years on life support, bank stocks and broader industry indexes have enjoyed strong gains in 2009, including a 3 percent rise in the sector's major index and a several-fold spike in share prices for the biggest US banks since a March bottom.Many analysts say the industry is resurgent, like the banking boom in the 1990s that followed the commercial real estate crash, but others are skeptical."There will be some price gains and losses short-term, but this is very similar to the performance I remember in October 1990," said Jeff Davis, senior research analyst at FTN Equity Capital Markets.
"If you went back to October 1990, it looked like the world was going to end. It was a lousy two or three more quarters, but then the banks went on this two- to three-year run."
Investors, both individual and institutional, are becoming more comfortable investing in financial stocks as the industry stabilizes after a credit crisis that claimed two of the nation's largest banks and more than a hundred smaller ones, some analysts said.The KBW Bank Index is up 3 percent this year, closing Tuesday at 46.65. The index bottomed on March 6 at 18.62, down 84 percent from its July 2007 peak, but has been rebounding ever since.JPMorgan Chase & Co's (JPM.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) stock price has nearly tripled from $14.96 on March 6, closing Tuesday at $43.58. Bank of America Corp (BAC.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) stock has spiked 600 percent since a March 6 bottom of $3.14, closing Tuesday at $17.75.Michele Garren, an Atlanta-based Invesco Ltd (IVZ.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) portfolio manager, said the asset management firm's $8.2 billion global equities portfolio is underweight banks. The firm is building positions in select banks with strong future growth prospects, but is cautious about the wider sector, she said."We feel like the system wasn't really cleared, that there wasn't the creative destruction needed for a strong rebound, but there are positive trends at work in the industry," said Garren, noting a favorable yield curve and some banks with strong capital bases for acquiring weaker rivals.Yet the short-term outlook remains uncertain, as investors contend with a weak economy and the prospect of rising credit losses.Some analysts say bank stocks have become too expensive, buoyed by hope rather than banks' current performance.Banks have not demonstrated an ability to produce earnings similar to pre-2007 levels and are still dogged by credit problems, Richard Bove, veteran banking analyst with Rochdale Securities LLC, said in a research note.
Investors, he said, are now buying weak bank stocks that used to be the high fliers of the industry, with the expectation that they'll return to their pre-crisis performance. Bove views that as unlikely."If there is any lesson to be learned from the movement of stock prices over the past decades, it is that expectations drive stock prices far more than fundamentals," he said in a research note. "Psychology trumps reality every time."
After two years on life support, bank stocks and broader industry indexes have enjoyed strong gains in 2009, including a 3 percent rise in the sector's major index and a several-fold spike in share prices for the biggest US banks since a March bottom.Many analysts say the industry is resurgent, like the banking boom in the 1990s that followed the commercial real estate crash, but others are skeptical."There will be some price gains and losses short-term, but this is very similar to the performance I remember in October 1990," said Jeff Davis, senior research analyst at FTN Equity Capital Markets.
"If you went back to October 1990, it looked like the world was going to end. It was a lousy two or three more quarters, but then the banks went on this two- to three-year run."
Investors, both individual and institutional, are becoming more comfortable investing in financial stocks as the industry stabilizes after a credit crisis that claimed two of the nation's largest banks and more than a hundred smaller ones, some analysts said.The KBW Bank Index is up 3 percent this year, closing Tuesday at 46.65. The index bottomed on March 6 at 18.62, down 84 percent from its July 2007 peak, but has been rebounding ever since.JPMorgan Chase & Co's (JPM.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) stock price has nearly tripled from $14.96 on March 6, closing Tuesday at $43.58. Bank of America Corp (BAC.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) stock has spiked 600 percent since a March 6 bottom of $3.14, closing Tuesday at $17.75.Michele Garren, an Atlanta-based Invesco Ltd (IVZ.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) portfolio manager, said the asset management firm's $8.2 billion global equities portfolio is underweight banks. The firm is building positions in select banks with strong future growth prospects, but is cautious about the wider sector, she said."We feel like the system wasn't really cleared, that there wasn't the creative destruction needed for a strong rebound, but there are positive trends at work in the industry," said Garren, noting a favorable yield curve and some banks with strong capital bases for acquiring weaker rivals.Yet the short-term outlook remains uncertain, as investors contend with a weak economy and the prospect of rising credit losses.Some analysts say bank stocks have become too expensive, buoyed by hope rather than banks' current performance.Banks have not demonstrated an ability to produce earnings similar to pre-2007 levels and are still dogged by credit problems, Richard Bove, veteran banking analyst with Rochdale Securities LLC, said in a research note.
Investors, he said, are now buying weak bank stocks that used to be the high fliers of the industry, with the expectation that they'll return to their pre-crisis performance. Bove views that as unlikely."If there is any lesson to be learned from the movement of stock prices over the past decades, it is that expectations drive stock prices far more than fundamentals," he said in a research note. "Psychology trumps reality every time."
Toyota to cut capacity to match sales
Toyota Motor Corp will cut its global production capacity to match lower sales, a company source with direct knowledge of the matter said on Wednesday.The Nikkei business daily said Toyota planned to cut its global capacity by 10 percent, or 1 million vehicles, as early as the current financial year to March 2010, but the source said the extent and timing of the production cuts had not yet been set.Toyota, the No.1 carmaker, has begun restoring some production cut in the wake of the global financial crisis, as inventories shrink and government stimulus efforts kick in, but it has yet to announce whether it plans permanent cuts in factory capacity.Many car plants around the world are idle or running below capacity as the industry tries to work out how much sales will recover after the crisis passes and how U.S. firms General Motors Co and Chrysler Group LLC emerge from their deep woes.
Toyota has decided to halt a production line in Japan for about a year and a half from next spring and is considering halting a line at a UK plant, said the source, who declined to be named because the matter was not public.
Toyota has said it will decide this month whether to pull out of New United Motor Manufacturing Inc (NUMMI), a California joint venture with General Motors.Those three moves would cut capacity by 700,000 vehicles, based on Toyota factory data, from Toyota's annual output capacity of 10 million vehicles.The Nikkei said Toyota would cut capacity to 9 million cars in a bid to return to an operating profit in fiscal 2010, but the source said decisions had not been taken on such deep cuts.
Toyota forecast this month a slightly shallower annual loss, relying on deeper cost cuts and government-backed sales stimulus around the world, but there remain doubts about a sustainable recovery in demand.
Toyota has decided to halt a production line in Japan for about a year and a half from next spring and is considering halting a line at a UK plant, said the source, who declined to be named because the matter was not public.
Toyota has said it will decide this month whether to pull out of New United Motor Manufacturing Inc (NUMMI), a California joint venture with General Motors.Those three moves would cut capacity by 700,000 vehicles, based on Toyota factory data, from Toyota's annual output capacity of 10 million vehicles.The Nikkei said Toyota would cut capacity to 9 million cars in a bid to return to an operating profit in fiscal 2010, but the source said decisions had not been taken on such deep cuts.
Toyota forecast this month a slightly shallower annual loss, relying on deeper cost cuts and government-backed sales stimulus around the world, but there remain doubts about a sustainable recovery in demand.
Stocks end week on downturn
The market ended the week with a downturn on a selling spree by investors. Market observers said investors were piling up for subscribing to upcoming IPOs, especially the long-awaited Grameenphone issue.On Wednesday, GP published its prospectus where it announced that the IPO subscription would open on Oct 4 and end on Oct 8.Thursday's trading left more than 70 percent of the traded scrips down on the previous day's close.Dhaka Stock Exchange's benchmark index shed almost 24 points, while turnover slumped to Tk 5.10 billion from the previous day's Tk 6.16 billion.At least, six IPOs and a couple of mutual funds are expected to float within two months, he said.Meanwhile, brokers blamed recent volatility for Thursday's downturn."Investors are quite nervous due to the fluctuating nature of the market," said an official of brokerage house Royal Securities.Trading fell into negative territory on the opening bell. It recovered losses in the midday session but fell sharply towards the end.Mutual funds lost after Wednesday's highs, although banks closed mixed with prices moving slightly.
Non-banking financial institutions (NBFI) also witnessed a depressed trend after rising Wednesday on the news of regulatory moves to double its capital base.Insurers continued to fall with fuel and energy shares following.DSE's benchmark general index, or DGEN, shed 23.88 points, or 0.79 percent, to close at 2977.72.The all-share index or DSI lost 20.11 points, or 0.79 percent, to close at 2501.70.The DSE-20 blue chip index fell 13.57 points, or 0.63 percent, to finish at 2108.74.Losers outnumbered gainers 171 to 53, while eight issues held steady.Beximco, the turnover leader, saw shares worth Tk 339.083 million change hands, losing 1.39 percent to close at Tk 282.Off-dock service provider Summit Alliance Port Ltd followed with a turnover of Tk 313 million, crawling down 0.05 percent to Tk 2250.25. Bex Tex's turnover reached Tk 216.413 million, closing at Tk 63.40, down 2.31 percentAftab Automobiles fell 3.27 percent to Tk 1629.25, with a turnover of Tk 208.123 million.Summit Power lost 2.22 percent to close at Tk 1282.50, seeing Tk 198.894 million worth of shares change hands.
Among other scrips on the turnover board—Beximco Pharma, AIMS 1st Mutual Fund and AB Bank lost.ICB 2nd NRB Mutual Fund and Bay Leasing & Investment Ltd rose on buying pressure.
Non-banking financial institutions (NBFI) also witnessed a depressed trend after rising Wednesday on the news of regulatory moves to double its capital base.Insurers continued to fall with fuel and energy shares following.DSE's benchmark general index, or DGEN, shed 23.88 points, or 0.79 percent, to close at 2977.72.The all-share index or DSI lost 20.11 points, or 0.79 percent, to close at 2501.70.The DSE-20 blue chip index fell 13.57 points, or 0.63 percent, to finish at 2108.74.Losers outnumbered gainers 171 to 53, while eight issues held steady.Beximco, the turnover leader, saw shares worth Tk 339.083 million change hands, losing 1.39 percent to close at Tk 282.Off-dock service provider Summit Alliance Port Ltd followed with a turnover of Tk 313 million, crawling down 0.05 percent to Tk 2250.25. Bex Tex's turnover reached Tk 216.413 million, closing at Tk 63.40, down 2.31 percentAftab Automobiles fell 3.27 percent to Tk 1629.25, with a turnover of Tk 208.123 million.Summit Power lost 2.22 percent to close at Tk 1282.50, seeing Tk 198.894 million worth of shares change hands.
Among other scrips on the turnover board—Beximco Pharma, AIMS 1st Mutual Fund and AB Bank lost.ICB 2nd NRB Mutual Fund and Bay Leasing & Investment Ltd rose on buying pressure.
Trade revives as Palestinian cities reconnect
Businesses in normal countries take getting around for granted. They can distribute, export and attract workers and customers from wide areas.In the Israeli-occupied West Bank, access to more than half of the land is restricted. Israel has ultimate control of roads, energy, water, telecommunications and air space.An Israeli barrier of fence and concrete wall now seals off much of the West Bank. At a handful of crossing points, freight heading for the Jewish state is screened for security.A decade of what the Palestinians call "closure" created higher transaction costs, uncertainty and inefficiency.But violence has fallen significantly. The Palestinians have established an effective security force, with American help.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that in addition to the classic, top-down peace process, he can build peace from the bottom up by boosting the Palestinian economy.This northern city was the West Bank's commercial hub until the Palestinian uprising that began in 2000 when it was virtually sealed off by the Huwara checkpoint, known for years as one of the toughest in the occupied territory.In the past five years 425 companies left for Ramallah to escape the economic siege, according to Omar Hashem of the Nablus Chamber of Commerce.The economy of this volatile city, where Israeli settlers occupy homes near a Jewish religious site under army protection, shows little sign of improvement, say some local businessmen.This city is the envy of the others. As the administrative capital close to Jerusalem in the biggest conurbation of the region, Ramallah benefited from the sense of remoteness felt in cities like Nablus closed off behind Israeli checkpoints.People have moved in and it has grown. There are two international hotels under construction, including a Moevenpick which was mothballed for years after the 2000 uprising began.Under what the World Bank calls the "extreme closure" of a tight Israeli blockade, the Mediterranean coastal enclave where 1.5 million Palestinians live is now all but divorced from the economy of the West Bank.
Its public sector is paid from foreign aid cash trucked in by security vans. It gets much of its food and energy in United Nations and European Union aid, and some it brought in commercially under Israeli inspection.Most other goods are supplied by a smuggling industry running tunnels under the border with Egypt.Gaza is controlled by the Islamist Hamas group hostile to the Palestinian leadership in the West Bank and resistant to Western demands that it accept Israel's right to exist and forego armed resistance.Israel launched a military offensive against Hamas last December to stop its forces firing rockets into Israeli territory and over the course of three weeks inflicted enormous damage on the enclave and killed more than 1,000 people.International donors have pledged some $4 billion for Gaza's reconstruction but a ban on the import of cement and steel has prevented the work from starting.
Its public sector is paid from foreign aid cash trucked in by security vans. It gets much of its food and energy in United Nations and European Union aid, and some it brought in commercially under Israeli inspection.Most other goods are supplied by a smuggling industry running tunnels under the border with Egypt.Gaza is controlled by the Islamist Hamas group hostile to the Palestinian leadership in the West Bank and resistant to Western demands that it accept Israel's right to exist and forego armed resistance.Israel launched a military offensive against Hamas last December to stop its forces firing rockets into Israeli territory and over the course of three weeks inflicted enormous damage on the enclave and killed more than 1,000 people.International donors have pledged some $4 billion for Gaza's reconstruction but a ban on the import of cement and steel has prevented the work from starting.
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Internet speeds down in Bangladesh due to Typhoon
Bangladesh has been experiencing slow internet speeds after Typhoon Morakot damaged undersea cables in East Asia this week, a senior telecoms official said on Thursday.
Taiwan, Hong Kong, Philippines and Singapore are facing most trouble because of the damage to the Asia Pacific Cable Network-2 (APCN-2), BTCL managing director Khabiruzzaman told bdnews24.com.
"Repair work has begun, we have been informed by Singtel of Singapore, and the net speeds will be back to normal by Friday," Khabiruzzaman said.
Reuters had earlier reported that up to 90 percent of all voice call and Internet services from parts of East Asia were disrupted after Typhoon Morakot damaged the undersea cables.
A senior official of Chunghwa Telecom, Taiwan's largest telecoms company also said services would be back to normal by Friday.
Chunghwa Telecom, a former state-owned monopoly, shares APCN-2 with other operators in East Asia.
TF Leng, president of Chunghwa's International Business Group, said they were working with other affected telecommunications companies in the region to use alternative routes to restore connectivity.
"We see that most Internet and voice connections should be back to near-normal levels by the end of Thursday," he said.
"The typhoon didn't destroy the cables all in one go, which would have led to a sudden outage of services. It slowly destroyed some of the cables, which is why it took a few days before users were affected."
The last time Internet users in Asia experienced an Internet outage as a result of a natural disaster was in 2006, when an earthquake off the coast of Taiwan damaged the undersea cables.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
