China's Construction-Equipment Firms Battle slump

China's largest construction-equipment makers still face massive overcapacity and pressure to consolidate despite signs of improvement from this year's industrywide sales slump, a top executive said. Guangxi Liugong Machinery Co. President Zeng Guang'an said industry inventories appear to be coming down as manufacturers cut production and renew efforts to sell more equipment. Still, he warned that a consolidation of the industry is imminent. "We have too much investment. We need more consumption," he said in a recent interview. "In China, we are going to slowly change the structure of our economy." The industry has taken a hit as China's growth

Dollar Funding Pressure facing Non - US Banks

A large share of dollar-denominated lending is done by non-U.S. banks, particularly European banks. We present a model in which such banks cut dollar lending more than euro lending in response to a shock to their credit quality. Because these banks rely on wholesale dollar funding, while raising more of their euro funding through insured retail deposits, the shock leads to a greater withdrawal of dollar funding. Banks can borrow in euros and swap into dollars to make up for the dollar shortfall, but this may lead to violations of covered interest parity (CIP) when there is limited capital to take the other side of the swap trade. In this case, synthetic dollar borrowing becomes expensive, which causes cuts in dollar lending. We test the model in the context of the Eurozone sovereign crisis, which escalated in the second half of 2011 and resulted in U.S. money-market funds sharply reducing their funding to European banks. Coincident with the contraction in dollar funding, there were significant violations of euro-dollar CIP. Moreover, dollar lending by Eurozone banks fell relative to their euro lending in both the U.S. and Europe; this was not the case for U.S. global banks. Finally, European banks that were more reliant on money funds experienced bigger declines in dollar lending.

US Stocks Lift Up

US stocks closing: It's only been a day, but November on Wall Street is already looking a lot better than October.

Strong economic data and corporate news converged Thursday to give U.S. stocks their best day since mid-September. Positive signs about the job market and higher auto and retail sales reports pushed stock futures up before the market opened. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 100 points the first half hour of trading. At 10, two more strong reports came out and pushed the Dow up as much as 177 points. It fell back some, but held a steady gain for the rest of the day.

The Dow closed up 136.16 points, or 1 percent, at 13,232.62. It was the best day since Sept. 13.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 15.43 points, or 1.1 percent, to 1,427.59. The Nasdaq composite index added 42.83, or 1.4 percent, to 3,020.06. in October, their first monthly losses since May.

The 10 a.m. surge came after the Institute for Supply Management said factories are seeing more orders and increased production. The index has shown growth for the first two months of this quarter, an encouraging sign about the health of corporate America. Before that, manufacturing had decreased for three straight months.

The Conference Board said Americans' confidence in the economy surged last month to the highest level in nearly five years. Many were encouraged by an improving job market, the group said.

Traders watch manufacturing and consumer confidence because factories and consumers are crucial players in the economic recovery. Manufacturing lifted America out of recession, and the resurgent car industry has supported the economy during recent periods of weakness. Consumers, meanwhile, account for about 70 percent of economic activity. If they're not confident enough to spend, no one else has the buying power to take up the slack.

Manufacturing growth tends to signal higher corporate earnings, said Doug Cote, chief market strategist at ING Investment Management. U.S. companies are midway through reporting their third-quarter earnings, which have been relatively weak. If factories keep boosting their output, Cote said, earnings are more likely to bounce back this quarter.

What you want to see is advancing corporate profits, broad manufacturing growth and strong consumer spending,'' Cote said. Cote said those factors set the tone for the market.

Before trading began, the government said applications for unemployment benefits fell 9,000 last week to a seasonally adjusted 363,000, a level consistent with modest hiring. Separately, payroll provider ADP said businesses added 158,000 jobs in October, more than economists had expected.

Another major piece of economic news comes out at 8:30 a.m. Friday, the Labor Department's October jobs report. That report will be watched closely by traders to see how well the U.S. economy

is recovering. If the number is especially good or bad, it also could influence the outcome of next week's presidential election.

It was the second day of trading after Superstorm Sandy ravaged New York and forced markets to close on Monday and Tuesday. Companies that had postponed earnings announcements rushed to release their results.
Thursday's upswing started with strong sales results from retailers and automakers. Chrysler had its best October in five years, with sales rising 10 percent, despite the three-day disruption caused by the storm.
Exxon Mobil beat the financial expectations of analysts surveyed by FactSet, but reported lower production of oil and gas. Its stock rose 43 cents to $91.60.
Kellogg Co.'s net income edged up in the third quarter as its acquisition of Pringles chips earlier this year paid off. Kellogg leapt $1.18, or 2.3 percent, to $53.50.
Pfizer said its third-quarter profit fell 14 percent on plunging sales, mainly due to new competition from generic forms of Lipitor, long the world's top-selling drug. Pfizer fell 32 cents to $24.55.

SIT announced Scholarship for Indian Students

 Southern Institute of Technology's (SIT) brand ambassador and former coach of Indian cricket team John Wright today announced 25 scholarships for aspiring Indian students to live, learn, work in New Zealand and excel in a field of their choice.

Having seen immense sporting and academic talent in the Indian sub-continent, SIT invites all outstanding students from India, Sri Lanka and Nepal to pursue studies abroad with study scholarships named after himself (John Wright Scholarship) ranging between NZ dollar 1400 to NZ dollar 18000 (Rs 60,000 to Rs 75,0000), he told a press conference here.

The scholarships give successful candidates an opportunity to pursue their sporting and academic dreams, he said.

The curriculum includes SIT's postgraduate diploma in business enterprise, nine graduate diplomas, 12 bachelor's degrees, and a host of two-year diploma programme, he said.

Scholarship recipients not only get the benefit of fee reductions, but also get the opportunity to play for Southland local teams in NZ, he said.

Android 3/4 in Smart Phones

Three out of every four smartphones sold in the third quarter featured Google Inc's Android mobile operating system, as the gap between Google and Apple Inc-based phones widened further, according to a new research report.

Shipments of Android-based smartphones made by Samsung, HTC and other vendors nearly doubled in the third quarter, reaching 136 million units, according to industry research firm IDC.

The strong sales boosted Android's share of the worldwide smartphone market to 75 percent, from 57.5 percent in the year-ago period.

Apple's share of the market increased to 14.9 percent during the third quarter, from 13.8 percent a year earlier. Apple's iPhone uses the company's iOS mobile software.

While Android pulled further ahead of Apple's iOS, its gains have come mainly at the expense of rival operating systems Blackberry and Symbian, with shipments of phones running those systems declining significantly.

IDC analyst Kevin Restivo cited Android's close "tie-ins" to Google's broad

array of online services, which include online search and maps, as an important asset that has helped Android grow.

"Google has a thriving, multi-faceted product portfolio. Many of its competitors, with weaker tie-ins to the mobile OS, do not," Restivo said in the IDC report, which was released on Thursday.

Google offers its Android operating system free to phone manufacturers, and primarily makes money from online advertising when consumers access its services on the devices.

Research in Motion's Blackberry operating system had 7.7 percent share in the third quarter, compared with 9.5 percent a year earlier.

Symbian, which had 14.6 percent share a year ago, had a 4.1 percent share in the third quarter. Smartphone maker Nokia still offers the Symbian software in some of its phones, but the company has largely shifted to Microsoft Corp's software.

Mobile versions of Microsoft's software accounted for 3.6 percent of the smartphone market in the third quarter.

But IDC said that the recent launch of the new Microsoft Phone 8 operating system could improve its position in the fast-growing market.

Race for White House

In a year when the White House is at stake, the battle for Congress is the undercard. But it matters, a lot. A President Mitt Romney would need Republicans to gain control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate to push through his promises of an across-the-board tax cut and the repeal of Obamacare. Right now, the odds are he won't manage it.

The House, re-elected in its entirety every two years, is not the problem. Even defiant party loyalists admit Democratic hopes of recapturing the 435-seat chamber, in which the Republicans emerged with a majority of 242 to 193 after the mid-term tsunami of 2010, have virtually evaporated.

Today, thanks to repeated rounds of gerrymandering that have made incumbents safer, and the shrinking of the political centre, less than a quarter of all House districts are in any sense competitive.

Analysts predict Democrats will make a net gain of a dozen seats at most, well short of the "Drive to 25" game plan of Nancy Pelosi, the Minority Leader. There are intriguing individual races, not least the one in Utah's fourth district, where Mia Love – Haitian-American, converted Mormon and mayor of the town of Saratoga Springs – seeks to become the first black Republican Congresswoman.

But the overall picture will almost certainly remain the same: a Republican majority of social and fiscal conservatives, in which moderates are all but extinct, led by a Speaker, John Boehner, with the thankless task of shepherding a rambunctious Tea Party contingent averse to compromise.

If Mr Obama is re-elected, he will therefore have to cope with divided government. Just how divided depends on what happens to the Senate, and there the prospects for Mr Romney's party are murkier.

In the outgoing 112th Congress, Democrats held a slender Senate edge, of 53 to 47. As usual, a third of the chamber's 100 seats are up for re-election in 2012 – and the starting arithmetic distinctly favoured Republicans, who were defending just 10 seats compared to their opponents' 23.

Four or five GOP pick-ups have been likely from the outset of the campaign. But a combination of unexpected Democratic strength in several toss-up contests, a couple of candidates' own goals in seats the Republicans would expect to win, and plain old bad luck, have made the push to the magic number of 51 seriously complicated.

Precisely how complicated hinges on the outcome of the presidential race. If Mr Obama gains a second term, Republicans need a net gain of four. But that figure drops to three should Mr Romney prevail. A 50-50 tie would suffice, given the decisive vote of vice-president Paul Ryan in his constitutional role as president of the Senate.

And Mr Romney's performance may affect the outcome not only directly, but indirectly too. The final outcome, according to analysts, depends on eight or nine especially close races – three (in Virginia, Nevada and Wisconsin) in states which will decide the battle for the White House. If Mr Romney does well in them, his "coattails" could haul the Republican Senate candidate to victory as well.

Right now the omens are mixed. In Virginia, the battle of two former governors, the Democrat Tim Kaine and Republican George Allen, is tilting towards the former. Mr Allen, who once held the seat and presidential aspirations of his own, wants to make amends for his blunder of 2006 when he was caught on camera at a rally using the racial slur "makaka".

In Wisconsin, the popular former Republican governor Tommy Thompson was clear favourite before an unexpectedly bruising primary battle depleted his resources. Right now his opponent, the Democratic Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin, is ahead by a whisker. In Nevada, it is Republican Dean Heller who has a tiny advantage.

Elsewhere several Democrats are doing better than expected, among them the incumbents Bill Nelson in Florida and Sherrod Brown in Ohio, both states where the presidential race is neck-and-neck but where they have established near double-digit leads. And in Nebraska, scene of one of the most fascinating undercard contests, old Democratic lion Bob Kerrey, a presidential candidate in 1992, is fast catching up in his underdog fight to recapture the seat.

But the highest-profile race of all, fittingly, is in Massachusetts. The Republican Scott Brown's 2010 win in the seat held for nearly half a century by Ted Kennedy cost Democrats their filibuster-proof Senate majority of 60, and was portent of the Republican tidal wave that November.

Now Mr Brown is in the fight of his life against Elizabeth Warren, a Harvard professor and celebrated consumer champion, whom some suspect of presidential aspirations of her own should she win. Polls suggest she may.

Gaffes meanwhile on the abortion issue have damaged two other once-favoured Republicans. In Missouri, Todd Akin – he of the "legitimate rape" comment – is trailing the Democratic incumbent, Claire McCaskill. In Indiana, Richard Mourdock's comment that pregnancies arising from rape are "God's will" suddenly threatens to cost Republicans a seat they've held for 36 years.

God's will, of course, can also be sheer bad luck. Few expected Olympia Snowe, one of the few Republican Senate moderates, to resign her seat in Maine in disgust at a deadlocked, hyperpartisan Congress. She is likely to be replaced by Angus King, a former governor and nominal independent, who will probably side with the Democrats. If so, then Ms Snowe may have handed not only her seat, but the whole Senate, to the Democrats.

Just One Banana

While cutting his way through India, Alexander the Great paused to note that in India bananas were the fruit of the wise man. According to a new report commissioned by the UN Committee on World Food Security, Alexander was perceptive. For as the climate warms, rice and wheat will become scarce. In their stead, the scientists say, the smart money is on bananas.

It would be a shame to wave goodbye to bread and rice, but the 'nana and its near cousin the plantain, both actually perennial herbs, provide consolations. Cyrus Todiwala says their leaves are a fine thing to cook fish in. While the plant's flower is familiar in Vietnamese banana blossom salads. The plantain's centre is also, according to Levi Roots, pretty handy as a stuffing, or for deep frying. But Fanny Craddock suggests you roll them in nuts and jam, stand them in a pineapple ring and place a glacé cherry on the end – wisdom indeed.