Cleanup Attempt At Japan’s Fukushima Plant Could Release 14,000 Times As Much Radiation As Atomic Bomb

After disaster, the deadliest part of Japan’s nuclear clean-up

10:16pm EDT

By Aaron Sheldrick and Antoni Slodkowski

An aerial view shows workers wearing protective suits and masks work at a construction site (C) of the shore barrier to stop radioactive water from leaking into the sea, at the tsunami-crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Fukushima, in this photo taken by Kyodo August 9, 2013. Highly radioactive water from Japan’s crippled Fukushima nuclear plant is pouring out at a rate of 300 tons a day, officials said on Wednesday, as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe ordered the government to step in and help in the clean-up. The revelation amounted to an acknowledgement that plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co (Tepco) has yet to come to grips with the scale of the catastrophe, 2 1/2 years after the plant was hit by a huge earthquake and tsunami. Tepco only recently admitted water had leaked at all.

TOKYO (Reuters) – The operator of Japan’s crippled Fukushima nuclear plant is preparing to remove 400 tons of highly irradiated spent fuel from a damaged reactor building, a dangerous operation that has never been attempted before on this scale.

Containing radiation equivalent to 14,000 times the amount released in the atomic bomb attack on Hiroshima 68 years ago, more than 1,300 used fuel rod assemblies packed tightly together need to be removed from a building that is vulnerable to collapse, should another large earthquake hit the area. Read more of this post

Korea’s National Pension Service (NPS) is under fire for poor management of taxpayers’ money after it was found to have provided pensions worth $51.3 million to unqualified people between 2009 and June this year

2013-08-13 16:42

NPS hit for mismanaging pensions

By Yi Whan-woo
The National Pension Service (NPS) is under fire for poor management of taxpayers’ money after it was found to have provided pensions worth 57.2 billion won ($51.3 million) to unqualified people between 2009 and June this year. According to data released by Shin Yee-jin of the ruling Saenuri Party, the country’s pension fund operator supplied that amount of pension to people not entitled to that money, including missing persons and the dead. Read more of this post

Energy Firm Makes Costly Fracking Bet—on Water

August 13, 2013, 8:09 p.m. ET

Energy Firm Makes Costly Fracking Bet—on Water

For Antero’s Planned Ohio River Pipeline, Payoff Hinges on Rainfall Patterns

RUSSELL GOLD

Antero Resources Inc., an energy company backed by New York private-equity firms, plans to spend more than half a billion dollars on a pipeline. But the 80 miles of pipe won’t transport oil or gas: They will carry water from the Ohio River to fracking sites in West Virginia and Ohio. The project is a costly wager that the hydraulic-fracturing industry’s thirst for reliable sources of water will grow over the next few years. Fracking, an oil-field technique driving the nation’s current energy boom, involves injecting vast quantities of water into the earth, along with other materials, to break up rock formations and unlock trapped oil and gas. Read more of this post

Whither China Seen in Australia as RBA Notes Slowdown

Whither China Seen in Australia as RBA Notes Slowdown: Economy

From his Manhattan office, Steven Englander looks to commentary from policy makers and executives in Sydney, not Beijing, for the best take on China’s economy.

“They get a direct, immediate view of China demand for highly cyclical products and have an incentive to give it a close read, so if they are sensing an extended slowdown I would take their views seriously,” said Englander, 58, head of Group of 10 currency strategy at Citigroup Inc. “It may be better to have an accurate view of a limited but important segment of Chinese demand, than an uncertain view of aggregate demand.” Read more of this post

Mall Owners Woo Hispanic Shoppers

August 13, 2013, 8:26 p.m. ET

Mall Owners Woo Hispanic Shoppers

MIRIAM JORDAN

PANORAMA CITY, Calif.—On a recent Sunday, Spanish-speaking families swarmed the Panorama Mall here in the outskirts of Los Angeles for an afternoon of Latino entertainment. “We come for the mariachi, then we eat something and go shopping,” said Gloria Mesina, visiting the mall with her daughter, Viviana, and her granddaughter, Brisa. That is music to the ears of José Legaspi, a real-estate broker who joined forces with the mall’s owner, MacerichCo., MAC -2.20% to revitalize the shopping center by targeting Hispanics. The partners are among an emerging crop of commercial-property investors responding to the same demographic reality that has rocked the political landscape: the rise of Hispanics.

Hispanics accounted for more than half the population growth between 2000 and 2011; Latinas have more children than non-Hispanics; Hispanic households that earn $50,000 or more are rising at a faster clip than total U.S. households. Their households outspend other groups on beauty products, food and apparel, according to Nielsen Co. Read more of this post

JCPenney’s 100-year bonds swoon amid retailer’s turmoil

JCPenney’s 100-year bonds swoon amid retailer’s turmoil

1:02am EDT

By Dan Burns

(Reuters) – It was a “century” deal, but in hindsight it was hardly the deal of the century. More than 17 years and a dozen credit downgrades ago, JCPenney Co Inc. (JCP.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) joined an elite club in capital markets circles by issuing a rare 100-year bond. The deal from Penney, then sporting a mid-range investment-grade rating of “A” from Standard & Poor’s and coming off record holiday-season sales, matched the year’s largest “century bond” deals at $500 million, but the company stood out as the only retailer in the mix. Read more of this post

Investors No Longer Bet the Farm on Deere; Results Should Shed More Light on Fears That Soft Commodities Are Slipping Like Hard Ones, Threatening Customers’ Incomes

August 13, 2013, 4:04 p.m. ET

Investors No Longer Bet the Farm on Deere

Wednesday’s Results Should Shed More Light on Fears That Soft Commodities Are Slipping Like Hard Ones, Threatening Customers’ Incomes

SPENCER JAKAB

Investors have been echoing Eddie Albert, who crooned that “Green Acres is the place for me.” Even after slipping recently, tractor maker Deere DE +0.64% & Co. has had a great decade. Its share price has plowed over not just the S&P 500, by 166 percentage points, but even fellow U.S. machinery giant Caterpillar Inc., CAT +0.29% by 74 points. That company also rode rising commodity prices and wealth in the developing world. But it did so through exposure to construction machinery and mineral resources—weak spots lately as China’s economy slows.

Read more of this post

Coca-Cola has announced the launch of its first herbal drink, Habu, for the Thai market. Thailand is the first country to unveil this new beverage

Coke picks Thailand for Habu launch

Kwanchai Rungfapaisarn
The Nation August 14, 2013 1:00 am

Diggy Dey, second left, business development director at Coca-Cola Thailand, and Charnvit Charindhorn, second right, senior vice president for marketing at ThaiNamthip, announce the launch of Coke

Coca-Cola has announced the launch of its first herbal drink, Habu, for the Thai market. Thailand is the first country to unveil this new beverage. Diggy Dey, business development director at Coca-Cola Thailand, said herbal beverages had always been an integral part of Thai culture, so the company saw an opportunity to develop one here, specifically made for Thai consumers. “The heritage of herbal drinks is the key inspiration behind the product and brand design – the brand name Habu is easy to pronounce and identifiably Asian with similarities to the English word ‘herbal’. Habu’s label and packaging are our modern interpretation of beautiful clay pots traditionally used to brew healing herbal drinks,” Dey said. The new ready-to-drink herbal-blended beverage is a combination of four cooling ingredients: rosella, liquorice, luo han guo, and cogon grass. Read more of this post

51 US Stocks Up 150%+ YTD

51 Stocks Up 150%+

MONDAY, AUGUST 12, 2013 AT 04:31PM

The Russell 3,000 index of large, mid and smallcap stocks represents roughly 98% of the US stock market.  So far this year, this cap-weighted index is up 19.41%.  The average stock in the index is up much more than that at 28.47%, so the smaller companies are significantly outperforming the big blue chips. Below is a list of the 51 Russell 3,000 stocks that are up more than 150% so far this year.  If you have owned any of these stocks since the close on December 31st, your portfolio is definitely thanking you for it.  As shown, Revolution Lighting Technologies (RVLT) ranks number one overall with a YTD gain of 563.89%.  On 12/31/12, RVLT closed at $0.63.  As of the close today, RVLT shares were at $4.19.   Read more of this post

US Treasury Finally Admits The Truth: It’s All POMO

US Treasury Finally Admits The Truth: It’s All POMO

Tyler Durden on 08/13/2013 18:15 -0400

Back in 2010, when few still dared to question that the entire move in the market is predicated on the Fed’s daily POMO (then still on QE2), we laid out, in a way so easy even a caveman could grasp it, how every tiny move in the stock market is nothing but a function of the Fed’s daily POMO on those days in which Bernanke would be directly injecting liquidity into the capital markets using his Primary Dealer frontmen. Since then nearly three years have passed, and thousands of POMO days. All of which brings us to this quarter’s Treasury refunding presentation, and specifically the section “Effects of policy and market structure” from the Presentation to the Treasury Borrowing Advisory Committee, in which we learn that we had in fact been right all along, and that perhaps for the first time ever, the Treasury admitted that not only “no one dares fight the Fed” but that, as expected, it is “all POMO.” There, hidden on page 26, or slide 76 of 100, where the Treasury discusses “The Impact Of Monetary Policy”, the biggest “conspiracy theory” of all becomes merely the latest conspiracy fact. First, for corporate bonds… Read more of this post

The rise of the one-tenant REIT

The rise of the one-tenant REIT

Garry Marr | 13/08/12 | Last Updated: 13/08/13 2:02 PM ET
If you want to own publicly-traded retail real estate, your choice until recently was RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust, Calloway REIT or First Capital Realty Inc. — old school real estate landlords, behemoths now after one to two decades of growth in the ever-expanding Canadian retail market. Read more of this post

Ports a Hot Commodity

Aug 13, 2013

Ports a Hot Commodity

By Gillian Tan

The sale of 99-year leases attached to two Australian ports in the nation’s most-populous state for US$5.3 billion earlier this year was at a multiple so rich that two other owners of berths have since put their interests up for sale. Australian port assets are prized for their stable revenue and rarely come up for sale, but the country has emerged as a hotbed for port deals this year. Read more of this post

Legal Cloud Hangs Over Banks

August 12, 2013, 3:53 p.m. ET

Legal Cloud Hangs Over Banks

DAVID REILLY

Almost five years after the worst throes of the financial crisis, the biggest U.S. banks face a widening array of legal challenges. The U.S. Department of Justice this month filed civil charges against Bank of AmericaBAC +0.69% alleging it defrauded investors when selling mortgage-backed debt in 2008. J.P. Morgan JPM +0.37% indicated in its most recent securities filing that it is also facing government scrutiny related to sales of such securities, even as it continues to grapple with multiple inquiries into its “London Whale” trading debacle.

Read more of this post

Here’s Why You Need To Worry About The IPO Boom

Here’s Why You Need To Worry About The IPO Boom

The Huffington Post  |  By Mark Gongloff Posted: 08/13/2013 12:27 pm EDT  |  Updated: 08/13/2013 12:45 pm EDT

The IPO market is back in full swing. Believe it or not, that’s bad news for the stock market. So far this year, 126 companies have priced initial public offerings in the U.S., according to IPO tracker Renaissance Capital, up 40 percent from a year ago. Those companies have raised $27.1 billion, which puts the total IPO market on track to raise more than $43 billion this year, by my estimate. Adjusted for inflation, that would be the most money raised in the U.S. since 2007. (Story continues below chart.) Why is this terrible news? Well, as MarketWatch columnist Mark Hulbert points out, peak moments of stock issuance are typically followed by bad stock-market returns. Read more of this post

Alleged Penny-Stock Scam Nets $140 Million

Updated August 13, 2013, 8:22 p.m. ET

Alleged Penny-Stock Scam Nets $140 Million

CHAD BRAY

Federal prosecutors said they uncovered an unusually sophisticated international scheme to sell stock in companies that barely existed, one that allegedly netted its organizers $140 million.

Working with throwaway cellphones and from call centers in places like Thailand and Canada, the people behind the alleged scheme plied unsuspecting investors with stock in companies such as Resource Group International, a Wyoming corporation based in Thailand that says it developed a revolutionary fertilizer, and RainEarth Inc.,RNER -12.50% a Nevada corporation with its principal office in Beijing that says it is in the mineral-exploration business and developing a specialized fiber, according to prosecutors. Read more of this post

Rajan’s ideas can lift India’s corporate torpor; Business chiefs should be more vocal about performance. There is an Indian proverb about finding fault with others: “Those who can’t dance say the yard is tilted.”

August 13, 2013 2:46 pm

Rajan’s ideas can lift India’s corporate torpor

By James Crabtree in Mumbai

Business chiefs should be more vocal about performance

There is an Indian proverb about finding fault with others: “Those who can’t dance say the yard is tilted.” It is a saying that could easily be applied to the country’s corporate sector, as it seeks to assign blame for faltering growth. True enough, India’s situation looks increasingly dire: the rupee keeps tumbling, growth is stagnant, private investment has collapsed and corporate earnings show no sign of revival. As a result there is much quiet muttering from business types about their feckless political counterparts, alongside occasional respectful public requests for policy “reforms”. It is often noted that Indian business is unwilling to criticise its government openly. But it is just as true to say the recent slowdown has brought little in the way of self-examination from the corporate sector, parts of which are also badly in need of a shake-up. The upper echelons of Indian business can speak from a position of authority, given that the cream of India’s well-run large companies is among the few bright spots in a now-tarnished growth story.

Read more of this post

India increases gold tax third time this year in piecemeal approach to cut deficit and defend rupee

India unveils gold duties in piecemeal approach to defend rupee

7:13am EDT

By Rafael Nam and Swati Bhat

MUMBAI (Reuters) – India raised import taxes on gold and silver on Tuesday as policymakers scrambled to narrow a gaping current account deficit, but concerns about the slowing economy and fears of more capital outflows kept up pressure on the ailing rupee. The rupee got a small lift after the gold measures were announced in late afternoon, after earlier threatening to test record lows. Read more of this post

Foreign banks brace for India regulatory shake-up that will force them to set up separately capitalised local subsidiaries

Last updated: August 12, 2013 5:48 pm

Foreign banks brace for India regulatory shake-up

By James Crabtree in Mumbai

Standard Chartered, Citigroup and HSBC – the three largest foreign banks operating in India – are bracing themselves for a regulatory shake-up in the country that will, in effect, force them to set up separately capitalised local subsidiaries. The Reserve Bank of India’s new policy on overseas banks is “imminent”, and will potentially be unveiled as soon as this week, according to people familiar with the situation. Foreign banks control about 5 per cent of the assets in India’s banking sector, but face numerous regulatory restrictions, including strict limits on the number of branches they are permitted to open. Read more of this post

Made outside India: As growth slows and reforms falter, economic activity is shifting out of India

Made outside India: As growth slows and reforms falter, economic activity is shifting out of India

Aug 10th 2013 | COLOMBO, DUBAI AND MUMBAI |From the print edition

INDIA’S diaspora of 25m people is something to behold. In colonial times Indian labourers and traders spread across the world, from Fiji to the Caribbean. A second wave of Indians left between the 1970s and mid-1990s, when the economy was in a semi-socialist rut. Migrant workers rushed to the Persian Gulf and South-East Asia, then booming. Educated folk and entrepreneurs fled to the rich world. Plenty struck gold, including engineers in Silicon Valley and Lakshmi Mittal, boss of ArcelorMittal, a giant steel firm. Often they now have little to do with India beyond sending cash to relatives and groaning as the once-vaunted economic miracle fades. Read more of this post

When ETFs are mousetraps

Aug. 12, 2013, 7:39 a.m. EDT

When ETFs are mousetraps

Commentary: How to avoid falling for the bait

By Chuck Jaffe, MarketWatch

In some respects, mutual fund companies are in the mousetrap business.

The question for investors is whether they are the rodent, getting snapped up by the contraptions that financial inventors are creating. That dichotomy was on full display Thursday when Charles Schwab (NYSE:SCHW)  Investment Management put out the cheese for its latest investment products, six new Schwab Fundamental Index ETFs that begin trading next week. There is no denying that the new products are cool and appealing, with the potential to prove themselves as “better.” It makes perfect sense that financial planners and money managers—Schwab officials said they had gotten a lot of requests from advisers for these new products—would be interested; it isn’t so clear, however, that the average fund/ETF investor should give a mouse’s whisker over the new products. Read more of this post

China’s longevity town overrun by the sick and rich

China’s longevity town overrun by the sick and rich

Staff Reporter

2013-08-13

Tens of thousands of patients, a quarter alone coming from Yangtze River Delta and especially the city of Shanghai, have flooded the “town of longevity” in Guangxi to seek a cure for their ailments. The secret of Bama, ranking fifth on a list of the world’s cities with the longest-living residents, is said to be in its clean spring water and fresh air high in negative oxygen ions, the Shanghai-based Jiefang Daily reports. Read more of this post