Finance Blog number 1

Manufacturing shrank around the world as the financial crisis enters its 17th month, providing fresh evidence that the global economy is in recession and intensifying pressure on policy makers to respond.

Purchasing managers’ indexes in Europe, Russia, China and South Africa today showed record contractions in production as the persistent lack of credit hammers demand from companies and consumers.

Signs the worldwide slump is worsening pushed stocks in Europe and Asia lower and yields on U.S. Treasuries to record lows as investors sought the safest assets. U.S. factories probably recorded their worst performance in a quarter-century last month, economists said ahead of a report to be released later.

“The pace of manufacturing decline has been vicious,” said Kevin Gaynor, head of economic and interest-rate strategy at Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc in London. “If we thought the last quarter was bad for the global economy, the current quarter is shaping up to be a lot worse.”

The MSCI World index of stocks in 23 developed markets today fell 1.1 percent to 883.58 at 12:26 p.m. in London as the deterioration in manufacturing unnerved investors. The yield on two-year U.S. notes dropped as low as 0.95 percent and the rate on 30-year bonds fell to a record 3.387 percent.

The Institute for Supply Management’s U.S. factory index dropped to 37 last month, the lowest level since 1982, from 38.9 in October, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey. A reading of 50 is the dividing line between expansion and contraction. The Tempe, Arizona-based ISM’s factory report is due at 10 a.m. New York time.

European Contraction

Manufacturing in the 15 nations sharing the euro contracted by the most on record in November. A purchasing managers’ index dropped to 35.6 from 41.1 in October, remaining below the expansion threshold for a sixth month. That’s the lowest since Markit Economics began the poll in 1998, and below an initial estimate of 36.2 published on Nov. 21.

With the euro-region economy already in its first recession in 15 years, the malaise leaves the European Central Bank facing calls to accelerate the pace of interest rate cuts this week. Having reduced its benchmark rate twice by 50-basis points since early October, investors are betting the Frankfurt-based bank may lower it as much as three-quarters of a percentage point when its governing council convenes on Dec. 4.

Rautaruukki Oyj, Finland’s biggest producer of carbon steel, said today it will cut output and as much as 6.7 percent of its workforce, reducing annual costs by 60 million euros ($75.9 million), on weaker demand.

‘Compelling Case’

“There is a compelling case for the ECB to slash interest rates by 100 basis points” for the first time, said Howard Archer, an economist at IHS Global Insight in London payday loans.

Investors are already predicting the Bank of England will cut its key rate by at least a percentage point the same day, having slashed by 1.5 points last month, the biggest reduction in 16 years. Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling said yesterday he may need to take additional steps to combat the slump.

“Interest rates have got to fall significantly further,” said Nick Kounis, an economist at Fortis in Amsterdam and a former U.K. Treasury official.

The slump in industrial economies is now infecting emerging markets, depriving the world of power it was relying on to cushion the slowdown. Manufacturing in China, the fastest-growing major economy, fell by the most on record in November, the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing reported today. Its purchasing managers’ index fell to a seasonally adjusted 38.8 from 44.6 in October.

‘Grim Month’

“Another grim month for China manufacturing,” said Eric Fishwick, head of economic research at CLSA Asia-Pacific Markets in Hong Kong, whose own index for China showed a record drop. “Export orders will weaken further and we expect further cuts in production and employment.”

The yuan fell the most since a fixed exchange rate ended in 2005, sliding 0.7 percent to close at 6.8848 per dollar. Economists at Citigroup Inc. said “more immediate policy help” was now needed on top of last month’s $586 billion stimulus package and biggest interest-rate cut in 11 years.

In Russia, VTB Bank Europe said its measure of purchasing managers fell for a fourth month in November to 39.8, below the level recorded in 1998 when the government devalued the ruble and defaulted on $40 billion of debt.

OAO Severstal, Russia’s largest steelmaker, shut down a blast furnace that supplied 13 percent of the pig iron produced at its main Russian factory because of its age and as global steel demand weakens, the company said on Nov. 28.

“The sense of doom and gloom was only deepening” in November, Tatiana Orlova an economist in Moscow at ING Group NV said. “The mood isn’t getting any better.”

Indexes for Poland, Hungary, Sweden and the Czech Republic also showed some of the steepest-ever declines as recession struck their main export markets. South African manufacturing shrank at the fastest pace in at least nine years, pushing Investec Asset Management’s Purchasing Managers Index to 39.5 last month from 46.2 in October.

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The number of e-mails containing attack attachments jumped eight-fold in the third quarter over the same period last year, according to a report released Monday by IT security firm Sophos Inc.

The research by Burlington, Mass.-based Sophos found one in every 416 e-mail messages contained an attachment that could harm one’s computer, up from one in every 3,333 messages last year.

Sophos officials say PCs running the Windows operating system are most at risk for infection.

“For Apple Mac and Unix lovers, these major spam attacks just mean a clogged-up inbox, not an infected operating system. But organized criminals are causing havoc for Windows users in the hunt for cold hard cash,” Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos, says in a statement one hour loan. “Too many people are clicking without thinking, exposing themselves to hackers who are hell-bent on gaining access to confidential information and raiding bank accounts. The advice is simple: you should never open unsolicited attachments, however tempting they may appear.”

The United States remains the country that produces the most spam with some 18.9 percent of all unwarranted messages, followed by Russia and Turkey each producing 8 percent.

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Rates of daytime help for the elderly in Memphis fall below national and state averages, according to a survey conducted by the MetLife Mature Market Institute.

Adult day services rose nationally by 5 percent in 2007 to $64 per hour. The average rate in Memphis is $33. The state average is $56 per hour.

The national average hourly rate for home health aides rose 5 percent to $20. In Memphis, the rate averaged $17 and is $20 statewide.

The national average hourly homemaker/companion rate is $18 an hour, which is unchanged from last year. The rate is $15 in Memphis and $17 statewide.

Sandra Timmermann, director of the MetLife Mature Market Institute, said in a statement that adult day centers are opening in “virtually all parts of the country.”

“The trend toward older persons desiring to stay in their homes or ‘age in place’ has increased the demand for in-home care and other programs and services available during the day,” Timmermann said http://easy-quick-payday-loans.com.

According to the National Adult Day Services Association, there are more than 3,500 centers nationwide serving more than 150,000 Americans each day.

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Health insurer Humana Inc. has agreed to pay a $750,000 fine to the state of Wisconsin as part of a regulatory settlement with the Office of the Commissioner of Insurance.

The state’s insurance commissioner alleged that Humana’s marketing of Medicare Advantage and Part D products violated Wisconsin regulations.

The commissioner also alleged that some insurance agents selling Medicare products in Wisconsin on behalf of Humana were not licensed in the state, a violation of Wisconsin statutes.

Louisville-based Humana (NYSE: HUM) denies the allegations, the insurance commissioner’s office said in a news release.

“Humana is quickly and thoroughly addressing the exam issues,” Humana’s Louisville-based corporate spokesman Jim Turner said in an e-mail. “Humana’s primary concern is always our members, and after review of our records and the cases in question, it appears that there was no significant impact to members online payday advance. Humana either has successfully addressed or is in the process of addressing issues identified in the Wisconsin OCI exam report for 2005-2007 that led to the forfeiture.”

According to the findings of the investigation, which was initiated in 2007, Humana did not comply with recommendations made by the insurance commissioner following a 2002 investigation.

“With this settlement, we protect our senior citizens by addressing issues with marketing of Medicare Advantage and Medicare Part D products,” Wisconsin insurance commissioner Sean Dilweg said in a news release. “The settlement also resolves long-standing issues with company claim adjudication, customer service and underwriting practices.”

Click here to read the full report issued by the Wisconsin Office of the Commissioner of Insurance.

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John McCain’s acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul Thursday night was watched by more television viewers than Barack Obama’s speech a week earlier.

More than 38.9 million people watched McCain on ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, Fox News Channel, MSNBC, Telemundo or Univision, according to The Nielsen Co. results. A week earlier, Obama’s acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention in Denver was watched by 38.4 million viewers.

McCain’s speech also beat that of his controversial running mate, Alaska Gov guaranteed payday loans. Sarah Palin, whose speech Wednesday night attracted 37.2 million viewers, Nielsen reported.

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James Hardway, spokesman for the Hawaii Department of Labor and Industrial Relations, will be stepping down Sept. 9 to become the new executive director of the state’s Workforce Development Council.

Hardway has served as the assistant to the director of the state Labor Department for the last six years.

The Workforce Development Council is a 31-member private-sector led organization that is responsible for advising the governor on workforce development to support further economic and employment opportunities in Hawaii.

“One of the most critical issues facing Hawaii’s economic future when you talk about economic sustainability is work-force development and it was a challenge I felt I’d like to undertake,” Hardway told PBN.

The board, which meets four times a year, appointed Hardway as its new executive director on Aug cashadvance.com. 28.

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As gasoline prices continued to rise, Californians used 43.5 million fewer gallons of gasoline — 3.2 percent less — in March than they did a year earlier, according to figures reported Monday by the California State Board of Equalization.

Gasoline usage in March was up 27.2 million gallons, or 2.1 percent, over February, in line with historic trends as winter turns to spring and people become more active, the board said in its report.

The average pump price in California in March shot up to $3.61 a gallon from $3.23 per gallon in February. That $3.61 was 16 percent above the average pump price in March 2007.

The bad news at the pump has had an upside for the board of equalization. The board estimates that the higher prices generate nearly twice as much sales tax as compared with five years ago. Approximately $3.6 billion in sales tax from gasoline was generated in 2007, compared with $2.1 billion in 2003, when the average pump price was $1.88.

March sales of diesel fuel for use on roads fell 12.4 percent year over year, the largest decline since 2004, the board said. First-quarter diesel use on roads fell 3.7 percent year over year, the second-consecutive quarter to see a decline payday loans in one hour.

The drop reflects both higher diesel prices and the slowing economy, which has led to less freight movement on California roads, the report said. Diesel prices for the quarter were up 27.4 percent year over year.

The board of equalization monitors gasoline and diesel usage through tax receipts paid by fuel distributors. The board collects more than $53 billion annually in taxes and fees supporting state and local government services, and hears business tax appeals, acts as the appellate body for franchise and personal income tax appeals, and serves in the assessment and administration of property taxes.

East Bay Business Times

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OncoVista Innovative Therapies Inc. has bolstered its ownership stake in AdnaGen AG in Hanover, Germany, the company said Wednesday.

San Antonio-based OncoVista (OTCBB: OVIT) now owns over 95 percent of the issued and outstanding shares of the company, up from 85 percent. Financial terms of the private stock purchase were not disclosed.

"The increase in our ownership of AdnaGen to over 95 percent allows OncoVista to fully realize the revenues resulting from the sale of test kits as well as have control over the use of the AdnaTest technology."

AdnaGen's core expertise is the development of tumor diagnostic kits based on its proprietary technology. The kits can detect biomarkers in circulating tumor cells. The German company has kits for breast, colon and prostate cancer. A kit for ovarian cancer will be available soon.

OncoVista is a biopharmaceutical company engaged in the development and commercialization of targeted cancer therapies and diagnostic equipment payday advance lenders. The company's focus is discovering new treatments that are more effective and less toxic than current cancer treatments on the market.

AdnaGen was founded in 1999 as a privately held biotechnology research and development company. OncoVista acquired a stake in AdnaGen in order to help introduce the tests in the United States.

Web sites: www.oncovista.com, www.adnagen.com

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Demand for repairing cracked foundations and lifting sunken concrete has prompted Dwyer Cos. to expand at its West Chester headquarters.

The company said it is breaking ground Friday on a 35,000-square-foot manufacturing plant across from its headquarters on Schumacher Park Drive. The building, designed and built by KZF Design and Schumacher Dugan Construction, is scheduled to be completed in early to mid-October.

Bryan Dwyer, who founded Dwyer Concrete Lifting in 1985 to raise slabs of sunken concrete, added foundation repair services over the years and in 2000, purchased St. Louis-based Magnum Piering, which makes steel underpinning systems.

Demand for the systems has outgrown the company's current manufacturing capacity, Dwyer said in the release http://us-no-fax-payday-loans.com.

"We simply must have more space - not only to manufacture our products more efficiently, but also to support our ongoing engineering, training and support operations for our Magnum Piering dealers and installers," he said.

More than 100 employees have been added since the Magnum Piering acquisition, and sales volume has grown sixfold, the company said. The company employs 130 in total.

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Dole Food Co. is selling land in Hawaii and California to avoid default on $350 million on bonds, according to reports from Bloomberg News.

The Westlake, Calif.-based company is raising money after European banana tariffs and shipping costs both increased, affecting the company's ability to repay debt, according to the report.

Dole had agreed in February to sell 2,000 acres in Hawaii for about $39 million according to filings. The company owns 28,000 acres of pasture, forest and farmland in Oahu and relies on less than 3,000 acres of that land for pineapples, coffee and cacao, the report said bad credit payday loans.

California land and a flower unit, worth $76.2 million combined, may also be sold,.

Dole Food Co. Inc. is the world's largest producer and marketer of fresh fruit, vegetables and fresh-cut flowers.

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