| Canada Stocks Rise to Record on US Jobs; Railroad Shares Jump
April 9 (Bloomberg) -- Canada's main stock index rose to a record, led by Canadian National Railway Co., as a stronger-than- expected U.S. jobs report allayed concern that demand for Canadian exports will slow. Canadian National paced gains among industrial companies, which are sensitive to the economy, after Warren Buffett's investment company increased its stake in Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp. Shares of materials producers such as Teck Cominco Ltd. rose as copper prices climbed a five-month high. ``The jobs report is helping sentiment,'' said Paul Hand, managing director, equity trading, at RBC Capital Markets in Toronto. Buffett ``is an astute investor, who looks for value,'' and ``copper is better, so materials are holding up.'' The Standard & Poor's/TSX Composite Index gained 57.31, or 0.4 percent, to 13,482.33 in Toronto.
Altadis Rejects New $16 Billion Offer From Imperial (Update5)
April 10 (Bloomberg) -- Altadis SA, the maker of Gauloises cigarettes, rejected a sweetened takeover bid by Imperial Tobacco Group Plc that values the company at 12 billion euros ($16 billion), saying the price is still too low. The new offer of 47 euros a share that Imperial Tobacco proposed isn't high enough, Madrid-based Altadis said in a regulatory filing today. The offer is 1.5 percent below the closing price on April 5, the last day the shares traded. Altadis turned down the first offer, of 45 euros a share, on March 16. Buying Altadis would give Imperial the Fortuna cigarette brand and the world's biggest cigar company as government crackdowns cause its main markets to shrink. Imperial Tobacco would gain the Marquise brand in Morocco, where Altadis owns the monopoly tobacco distributor and smoking is increasing.
Tuesday Newspaper Review - Irish Business News and International ...
The Irish Independent reports that reform of the public sector is the single most important task needing to be addressed by any new government, according to ISME, the small business group. The public sector has been given a "free ride" for far too long and urgently needed to be reformed from top to bottom, if the public was to regain any faith in a system that continues to drain the public finances and threatens our economic viability, ISME argues. ISME chief executive Mark Fielding said the cost of running the public sector has completely run out of control, with both the business community and public suffering in the form of higher costs and reduced services. Benchmarking "The public sector pay bill increased from 10.2bn in 2001 to 16.7bn last year - an increase of 64pc - with the benchmarking initiative accounting for up to 1.32bn of that rise," Mr Fielding said.
Younger buyers see home as short-term investment
At the top: transfer to Portland State University in Oregon in the fall; finish a degree in Spanish and urban development and sustainability; ride his bike from Portland to the southern tip of South America - and find a place to live in the Milwaukee area when it's all said and done. Finding a place may be the biggest challenge of them all. "I have been looking into buying a house for the last three years," Kegel said. "I will probably spend another year at least when I get home from Portland looking for a home." Over half - 56% - of first-time home buyers in Wisconsin are ages 25 to 34, according to the Wisconsin Realtors' Association's 2005 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers, and they're not just about finding a place to sleep. They want the investment.
Software helps traders manage stock options.
April 10, 2007 - Wizetrade for Options charts real-time buying and selling pressures through green and red lines in 5 time frames customizable to individual trade styles. Allowing traders to track up to 15 stocks at a time, software helps manage trades, calculates risk, and provides access to stock announcements and company information. It also allows each trade to be documented, and enables submitting of orders online through integration with optionsXpress.
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Three Partners and One Associate Join Thelen Reid Brown Raysman ...
LOS ANGELES, March 29 /PRNewswire/ -- Thelen Reid Brown Raysman & Steiner LLP has added three partners and an associate to its expanding downtown Los Angeles office. The new additions are needed to handle a growing list of real estate finance deals and class action litigation. The firm recently opened an additional floor at 333 South Hope Street to accommodate further growth. Real estate finance specialist David Fong joins Thelen from Stroock & Stroock & Lavan and will be the point person for the firm's real estate finance practice in Southern California. Class action expert and appellate law specialist Steven Katz joins the firm's distinguished Labor and Employment Department from Jones Day. In addition to Mr. Fong and Mr. Katz, Real Estate partner Jarrett Fugh will split his time between the firm's Los Angeles and San Francisco offices, and Real Estate associate Martha Bringas will also move to the downtown Los Angeles office from Century City to assist on real estate finance deals.
Zimbabwe: Best Performing Stock Market in 2007?
CNBC and other stock market tabloids are notorious for making simplistic linkages between the stock market and gross domestic product (GDP). They tell us that any event that stimulates GDP growth inevitably drives stock prices up, and any event that hurts GDP growth pushes stocks down. Since the largest share of GDP is consumption, consumer demand becomes the all-important figure driving growth. When the consumer gets too excited, the Fed must step in to cool them down with interest-rate hikes. When the consumer isn't spending, Fed interest-rate cuts stimulate demand. The tragedy currently occurring in Zimbabwe completely contradicts this sort of logic. Zimbabwe is in the middle of an economic disintegration, with GDP declining for the seventh consecutive year, half what it was in 2000.
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