Lenon’s main business news

South Sudan is negotiating loans to boost the value of its currency and keep its economy afloat as foreign-exchange reserves decline after the country halted oil production, Deputy Finance Minister Marial Awou Yol said.

The East African nation has secured a $100 million line of credit from Qatar National Bank and will receive a $500-million loan within a month from an unidentified provider, Yol said in an interview in Juba, the capital, on May 8. Loans are also being sought from countries including China.

Solve your money worries and apply for a faxless payday loan today!

CALGARY

Payday loans can be risky because of the chance of identity theft. It is important to make sure that payday loan lenders are legitimate.

Out of work and worried about their future, a young couple gathers their belongings and heads overseas in search of greener pastures. It

In a bold move to gain control of Argentina’s energy reserves, President Cristina Fernandez pushed forward a bill to renationalize the country’s largest oil company on Monday despite fierce criticism from abroad and the risk of a major rift with Spain.

In a national address, Fernandez said the legislation put to congress would give Argentina a majority stake in oil and gas company YPF by taking control of 51 percent of its shares currently held by Spain’s Repsol.

Both Repsol and Spain strongly oppose the move and have warned that it could turn Argentina into an international pariah.

YPF is vital for Argentina’s energy future, especially after its recent find of huge unconventional oil and natural gas reserves. But the company is under pressure from Fernandez’s government to raise output while its shares have plunged in recent months on fears of possible state intervention. Argentina this year expects to import more than $10 billion worth of gas and natural liquid gas to address an energy crisis even though it is an oil-producing nation, according to estimates from the hydrocarbon sector.

“We are the only country in Latin America, and I would say in practically the entire world, that doesn’t manage its own natural resources,” Fernandez said. She said her proposal “is not a model of statism” but “the recovery of sovereignty.”

Critics blame the government for an energy shortage and high gasoline prices. But Fernandez said the shortage is the result of Repsol’s “emptying” of YPF, and that Argentina had a deficit of $3 billion last year partly due to energy imports.

Argentines gathered in Buenos Aires’ main square shouting slogans, waving national flags and carrying banners supporting the government takeover. One of them read: “Today, with Cristina, we recovered YPF.” YPF was privatized in the 1990s. Repsol’s subsidiary in Argentina holds 57 percent of YPF’s shares.

Fernandez said the renationalization was a long-held desire of her late husband and predecessor, former President Nestor Kirchner.

“I hope he’s watching over me because he always wanted to recover YPF for the country,” she said.

But analysts said the planned takeover risks alienating foreign investors and prompting retaliation from Spain’s government.

“It is a bad decision,” said Emilio Apud, a former Argentine energy secretary who now works as a consultant. “It gives the Argentine government a bad image” and will discourage investment, he said. Apud also called the proposed law “a bad way to treat friendly governments like Spain.”

In Madrid, Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo called the move arbitrary, and said it broke the climate of cordiality and friendship that had existed with Argentina. He said Spain would respond with “forceful measures” he did not describe.

The European Commission has warned that nationalizing YPF would be bad for the investment climate in Argentina, and has said it backs Spain in the standoff over the subsidiary.

Fernandez, however, was unmoved by the risk of a row with Spain, Argentina’s largest foreign investor.

“This president is not going to answer any threat, is not going to respond to any sharp remark.,” she said to applause from business, union and political leaders.

“I am a head of state and not a hoodlum,” said Fernandez, who has also renationalized the country’s Aerolineas Argentinas airline and nationalized the Anses state private pension funds.

There was no explanation of how, or how much, Repsol and its stockholders would be compensated. Analysts say that the government might have to use Central Bank reserves, or funds from the Anses to pay for the takeover.

“The issue that scares investors is not knowing how far the governmental participation will go, if it’s only YPF or if it is going to include other petroleum companies in Argentina,” said Joe Amador, Latin America director for Scotia Waterous, the oil and gas arm of Scotiabank, in Houston, Texas.

Even with its share prices depressed, YPF last week was valued at $13.6 billion, and buying half of that would deplete Argentina’s treasury of funds it needs to maintain the populist subsidies that have kept the country’s economy afloat.

Repsol released a statement promising to protect the interests of its shareholders. It called the move “unlawful and gravely discriminatory.”

Spanish officials had earlier protested the plan, saying Argentina risks becoming “an international pariah” if it takes control of Repsol’ subsidiary, Repsol YPF SA

Spain’s foreign minister last week summoned Argentine Ambassador Carlo Antonio Bettini to convey concern over possible nationalization of YPF, which represents 42 percent of Repsol’s total reserves, estimated at 2.1 billion barrels of crude.

Mexico’s Economy Minister Bruno Ferrari said in recent days that Spain had requested that Mexico intervene in the row with Argentina over Repsol-YPF SA. But Ferrari said Mexico’s role in the dispute is still to be determined.

“We will hold talks with Spain over the next days to exactly determine what Mexico can do,” he said ahead of the World Economic Forum on Latin America 2012 that will be held in the coastal city of Puerto Vallarta.

At the forum on Monday, Mexican President Felipe Calderon criticized Argentina’s move, calling it “not very responsible and not very rational.”

In contrast, Venezuela’s foreign ministry issued a statement voicing support for Fernandez’s decision to renationalize YPF. Venezuela’s state oil company also supported the Argentine decision and said it is willing to help strengthen Argentina’s oil industry,

“Venezuela puts all its technical, operational, legal and political experience of Petroleos de Venezuela at the disposition of the government of Argentina and its people to strenthen the state oil sector,” the foreign ministry said.

Governors of oil-producing Argentine provinces have withdrawn about 15 oil leases, representing 18 percent of YPF’s crude production, alleging the company failed to keep its promises to develop them. YPF has countered that it has invested millions in those areas and plans to increase production, but Argentine officials have said that still falls short.

How Argentina may try to displace Repsol has been the subject of wide speculation since the government’s pressure campaign began in February.

The president’s proposal would leave Repsol with just a little more than 6 percent of YPF’s shares.

Fernandez put Federal Planning Minister Julio de Vido and Economics Vice Minister Axel Kicillof in charge of handling the expropriation.

The president’s proposal declares that the exploration and exploitation of hydrocarbons is “of national public interest” and declares that building up the nation’s supply is a priority.

____

Associated Press writers Luis Andres Henao in Buenos Aires and Jorge Sainz in Madrid contributed to this report.

Source

Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne gave to the rich by lowering Britain

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke returns to his roots as a university professor today, seeking to explain and justify the existence of the central bank ahead of the 100th anniversary of its founding next year.

Bernanke will lecture to about 30 undergraduate students at George Washington University in the first of four hour-long talks on the history of the Fed as part of what public relations specialist Richard Dukas called a

HAZELWOOD • The company that wants to build hybrid electric delivery vans here says its plans are rolling forward, but a crucial piece of its financing appears to be stalled.

Emerald Automotive’s plans to build a new $160 million auto plant in Hazelwood – and an estimated 1,000 jobs it would create in the region – hinge largely on its application for a $120 million federal loan from a U.S. Department of Energy program designed to spur green auto manufacturing. Yet that loan program hasn’t issued a loan that size in nearly two years and appears to be mired in election year politics that have analysts skeptical that any loans will be approved any time soon.

Emerald says it remains confident. But in recent weeks, other green car-makers have thrown up their hands in frustration with the Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing Program, a $25 billion loan fund that has two-thirds of its money still in the bank.

Last month, Chrysler withdrew a $3.5 billion loan application after negotiating for three years with the Department of Energy. Bright Automotive recently shut its doors after failing to reach a deal on a $450 million package. Last week, diesel-police-car maker Carbon Motors was turned down for a $310 million loan. All three criticized federal officials for repeatedly changing loan terms and dragging out the process.

“We are outraged by the actions of the (Energy Department),” Carbon wrote in a statement. “It is clear that this was a political decision in a highly charged, election-year environment.”

Emerald filed its application for a $120 million ATVM loan last April and said it continues to talk frequently with the energy department. It’s still in a preliminary phase of the process, and has been given no timeline on closing a loan, but says it hopes to do so this year.

“Our experience has been nothing but positive,” said Gary Marble, Emerald’s communications director. “So far, everything seems to be going forward in a very positive manner. That’s all we can go on.”

The company, which recently began testing two prototypes of its lightweight, low-emission delivery van, continues to try and raise private financing, too. For now it is funding operations through $7 million in private capital, a $5 million grant from the British government and $5 million in loans issued last year by the city of Hazelwood and the Missouri Technology Corp. It has hired a handful of employees here and has an option to purchase a site for its factory in Hazelwood, said general counsel Sharon Heaton. Emerald hopes to start making the vans – and hire about 600 workers – by 2014, and its plans have been hailed as a sign of revival in the St. Louis auto industry.

But any new plant will almost certainly require closing on the federal loan – and closing those loans is where Emerald’s peers have run into trouble. Of the ATVM fund’s $25 billion, less than $8.5 billion has been loaned out, with just $50 million approved since April 2010. And the energy department has halted payments on its $529 million loan to Fisker Automotive after delays stalled a new plant in Delaware.

The energy department says it remains committed to the ATVM program, but that it also wants to make sure taxpayers aren’t left holding the bag on risky start-ups.

“We would like to see private equity invested in these companies,” Energy Secretary Steven Chu told a Senate hearing on the program Tuesday, according to the Detroit News. “We are very focused on the driving the cost (of electric vehicles) down.”

Industry analysts trace the program’s slowdown to Solyndra LLC. The California solar-panel maker received $535 million from a similar energy department program in 2009, then filed bankruptcy and shut its doors last year, becoming a political firestorm. The controversy set off extra layers of scrutiny on all federal energy loans, said David Hurst, an analyst with Pike Research, an alternative-energy research firm in Colorado.

“The politics of the loan program have gotten pretty complicated,” he said. “I think it’s fairly unlikely that Emerald is going to see $120 million. If I were those guys I’d be scrambling for other funding sources.”

It appears the ATVM program’s focus is changing, said Aaron Bragman, senior auto analyst for forecasting firm IHS Global Insight. It was created in 2007 under President George W. Bush, largely to help existing automakers retool plants to make more fuel-efficient cars. Its two biggest loans – a combined $7.4 billion to Ford Motor Co. and Nissan North America – paid to do just that. But then came loans to smaller – and far riskier – start-ups, which triggered more applications from more start-ups.

“After they decided to do Tesla and Fisker, people said ‘Hey, now it’s a (venture capital) start-up fund,” Bragman said. “But really it’s not.”

Emerald sees it differently. Their T-100, a lightweight vehicle intended for export to Europe, is exactly what the ATVM program is meant to fund, Marble said.

“Emerald Automotive is right in the wheelhouse of what that program was set up for,” he said. “We definitely meet what they say they’re looking for.”

Meanwhile, Emerald is “making real progress” in talks with private investors, said general counsel Sharon Heaton, though nothing is finalized yet. The company is nearing a spring deadline – set in its loan agreements with Hazelwood and the Missouri Technology Corp. – to raise $30 million in private funds. The contract allows that date to be moved if necessary.

Hazelwood, which added a special sales tax to fund its $3 million loan to Emerald, is in regular talks with the automaker and hears good reports, said Economic Development Director David Cox. But at this point, there is not much officials there can do but watch, and wait.

“We’ll all keep our fingers crossed,” he said.

Source

Private investors agreed to swap about 85 percent of their Greek government bonds for new securities in the biggest sovereign debt restructuring in history, according to a banker briefed on the results.

Preliminary indications showed that as much as 155 billion euros ($205 billion) of the 177 billion euros of Greek-law bonds were offered, said the banker, who declined to be identified. Twelve billion euros of debt not under Greek law was also tendered, as was 7 billion euros of bonds from state-owned companies guaranteed by the government, the banker said.

With Greece again the focus of the euro-area debt crisis now in its third year, the goal of the exchange is to reduce the 206 billion euros of privately held Greek debt by 53.5 percent. Together with a 130 billion-euro second Greek aid package, the writedown is a key element in European leaders

Calm returned to the stock market Wednesday. Stocks rose smoothly a day after their biggest loss this year as reassuring reports on productivity and hiring overshadowed jitters about the Greek debt crisis.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 78 points, or 0.6 percent, to 12,837 as of 11:20 a.m. Eastern time. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose 9, or 0.7 percent, to 1,352. The Nasdaq composite index rose 23, or 0.8 percent, to 2,933.

The Dow dove 203 points on Tuesday, the first hiccup in this year’s strong rally. Many market-watchers believe that stocks had risen too quickly and were due for a setback. Before Tuesday, the Dow had been up more than 6 percent for the year. The Standard & Poor’s 500 had been up 8.5 percent.

The sell-off was brought on by fears about the latest deadline in Greece’s debt crisis. Hedge funds and banks that own Greek government debt have until Thursday night to exchange their bonds for new bonds that are less valuable. If too few are willing, Greece might default, which could rattle the global financial system.

Jerry Webman, chief economist at OppenheimerFunds Inc., said Tuesday’s decline was no surprise after such a strong rally.

“You wouldn’t expect to get it all back in one day,” Webman said of Wednesday’s modest gains. He said the February employment report, due out Friday, will signal whether hiring is brisk enough to offset the economic drag of high gas prices.

“There’s a foot race between gas bills and paychecks,” he said. “If we continue to print new paychecks at the rate we’ve been adding them, that mitigates a lot of the damage of higher gasoline prices.”

Two encouraging signs about the labor market emerged before the market opened. The government said U.S. workers were more efficient late last year, though productivity grew more slowly than in the summer. Productivity measures output per hour worked. As productivity grows more slowly, employers might hire more workers to keep up with demand.

A closely-watched private estimate of hiring also exceeded economists’ expectations. Payroll processor ADP said employers added 216,000 jobs last month. The result lifted hopes about the big February jobs report, due to be released Friday.

Investors who fear that Tuesday’s decline signals the end of the four-month rally might be glad to know that the rally has survived six other 200-point drops in the Dow.

On Nov. 21, the Dow fell 248 points after a congressional committee failed to reach a deal to reduce federal spending. Two days later, it fell 236 points because of worries about the European debt crisis.

Despite those falls, the Dow is still up almost 20 percent since Oct. 3, 2011 and 4.7 percent this year. The S&P 500 index, a broader measure of the market, is up 7.2 percent for the year. Just last week, the Dow closed above 13,000 for the first time since May 2008.

Even before Tuesday, there was a sense among many market watchers that stock buyers may have gotten ahead of themselves. Skeptics argued that stock prices reflected a recovering U.S. economy but downplayed the risk of a European recession and a default in Greece.

Among stocks making big moves:

_ Internet radio company Pandora Media Inc. dove 24 percent after its projected results for the first quarter badly missed analysts’ estimates.

_ Netflix rose 1.5 percent after CEO Reed Hastings recently suggested that the video streaming and DVD-by-mail company form partnerships with cable TV companies to expand its customer base. The company has about 22 million online streaming subscribers in the U.S.

_ American Eagle Outfitters rose 4.9 percent. The teen clothing retailer said it expects profit margins and sales to improve this year. Revenue at stores open at least a year rose 10 percent in the fourth quarter.

Source

Businesses slashed spending on machinery and equipment in January after a tax break expired, pushing orders for long-lasting manufacturing goods down by the largest amount in three years.

Orders for durable goods fell 4 percent last month, the Commerce Department said Tuesday.

A big reason for the decline was demand for so-called core capital goods, which are viewed as a good measure of business investment plans, tumbled 4.5 percent. That’s the biggest drop in a year.

Demand for core capital goods hit an all-time high in December. Companies rushed to take advantage of a tax break that expired at the end of last year.

A durable good is a product expected to last at least three years. They include everything from appliances and cars to heavy machinery and planes. Orders tend to fluctuate sharply from one month to the next. But the overall trend in orders has increased since the recession ended nearly three years ago.

In January, overall orders totaled $206.1 billion. That’s 38.6 above the low hit during the recession. Orders are still 16 percent below their peak hit in December 2007.

Even without that tax break, many analysts believe business investment will pick up and stay strong in 2012 as companies take advantage of stockpiles of cash to expand and modernize their production facilities payday loan lenders.

U.S. factories boosted output last month and December ended up being their best month of growth in five years. Strong auto sales and growing business investment in machinery and other equipment are keeping factories busy and helping the economy grow.

About 9 percent of the nation’s jobs are in manufacturing. But last year, factories added 13 percent of new jobs. And in January, about one-fifth of the 243,000 net jobs the economy created were in manufacturing.

The economy grew at an annual rate of 2.8 percent in the final three months of last year. Economists are looking for roughly the same level growth in the current quarter. And a forecasting panel of the National Association for Business Economics said Monday that the economy should grow 2.3 percent this year.

Source