BMW Makes Lone Shift to Carbon Fiber to Gain Auto Edge; In BMW’s Leipzig factory, steel is no longer the measure of toughness. A sign there reads “nerves of carbon fiber.” The company’s not afraid of going it alone

November 16, 2013 Leave a comment

BMW Makes Lone Shift to Carbon Fiber to Gain Auto Edge

Bayerische Motoren Werke AG (BMW)’s bid to save its cars from potential extinction starts with hundreds of thousands of fine white strands snaking upwards in a production hall in rural Washington. Looped through an almost mile-long course, what looks like the world’s thinnest rice noodles will be stretched, toasted and eventually scorched black to create carbon fiber — a material thinner than human hair and yet tougher than steel. Read more of this post

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New Fund Lets Investors Fish for Returns in Farmed Seafood

November 16, 2013 Leave a comment

New Fund Lets Investors Fish for Returns in Farmed Seafood

ImpactIQ.org — Within a few years, most of the fish we eat will be farmed, not caught. That could be a boon for already over-stressed oceans. But the worldwide explosion of aquaculture since 1970 has left its own trail of environmental destruction, from toxic concentrations of waste, to outbreaks of disease, to the continued over-harvesting of smaller ocean fish for feeding their penned brethren. Read more of this post

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China’s 50-Year Bond Auction Draws Least Demand Since 2009

November 16, 2013 Leave a comment

China’s 50-Year Bond Auction Draws Least Demand Since 2009

China’s sale of 50-year bonds drew the least demand since the country began issuing the securities in 2009 as economic growth slows and investors brace for a reduction in U.S. monetary stimulus. The Ministry of Finance sold at least 20 billion yuan ($3.3 billion) of notes due 2063 paying 5.31 percent, the highest yield since the nation started selling the tenor. A Bloomberg survey of five traders and analysts forecast a rate of 5.05 percent. The government received just 30.2 billion yuan in bids, compared to 42.6 billion in May, when the securities sold to yield 4.24 percent. Read more of this post

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UBS Stargazing Signals First Back-to-Back Bond Losses For Investment-Grade Securities

November 16, 2013 Leave a comment

UBS Stargazing Signals Back-to-Back Bond Losses: Credit Markets

Wall Street is starting to signal that 2014 will look a lot like 2013 for U.S. corporate bond investors, setting the stage for the first back-to-back annual losses for investment-grade securities on record. The debt, on pace to lose 1.9 percent this year as investors reject record low yields in favor of stocks, will drop an additional 0.9 percent in 2014, UBS AG analysts led by Matthew Mish said this week. That followed Citigroup Inc.’s forecast last month for a 1.1 percent decline through next year. Read more of this post

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Maersk CEO Says Balancing Supply of Ships to Demand Is Years Off

November 16, 2013 Leave a comment

Maersk CEO Says Balancing Supply of Ships to Demand Is Years Off

A.P. Moeller-Maersk A/S (MAERSKB), owner of the world’s largest container line, said the shipping industry must learn to live with excess capacity. Given the current order book for container vessels, achieving equilibrium between supply and demand “is not an immediate thing,” Chief Executive Officer Nils Smedegaard Andersen said in an interview. Industry estimates point to a balance being reached in 2015 or 2016, with Copenhagen-based Maersk on the “slightly more pessimistic side,” he said. Read more of this post

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Investors take aim at ‘male, pale and stale’ U.S. boards

November 16, 2013 Leave a comment

Investors take aim at ‘male, pale and stale’ U.S. boards

5:15pm EST

By Nadia Damouni and Ross Kerber

NEW YORK/BOSTON (Reuters) – American boardrooms are looking grayer than ever. More retired executives are being offered directorships, mandatory retirement ages are rising, and directors are staying on longer. It is a trend that has some investors, particularly state pension funds, increasingly concerned. They say directors who stay on a board a long time can get too cozy with management and lose their independence. It also means that the clubby domination of boardrooms by older, mainly white, men can continue, with fewer opportunities for women and minorities to get directorships. Read more of this post

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Reluctant Germany casts cloud over Europe’s bank revamp

November 16, 2013 Leave a comment

Reluctant Germany casts cloud over Europe’s bank revamp

2:17pm EST

By Michelle Martin and John O‘Donnell

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – European countries pledged on Friday to stand by banks found to be struggling after health checks next year as Germany pushed for investors to bear the brunt of repairing lenders to spare the use of euro zone funds. In a statement designed to underscore Europe’s readiness to act following the checks, ministers spelt out how they would have funds in place to help, overcoming German objections to eventually allow euro zone funds be used as a last resort. Read more of this post

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Midwest Farmland Values: Past Peak Season?

November 16, 2013 Leave a comment

Midwest Farmland Values: Past Peak Season?

Regional Fed Banks Report Declining or Slowing Growth in Prices

JACOB BUNGE

Nov. 15, 2013 4:46 p.m. ET

A multiyear run-up in the value of farmland in the U.S. Midwest may be running out of steam. Average cropland prices declined in parts of the Farm Belt in the third quarter from the previous quarter while rising at a low rate in other areas, according to separate reports this past week by regional Federal Reserve banks in Chicago, St. Louis and Kansas City. Read more of this post

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It Pays to Look Under Tata’s Hood; Indian accounting standards give Tata discretion in accounting for R&D spending.

November 16, 2013 Leave a comment

It Pays to Look Under Tata’s Hood

ABHEEK BHATTACHARYA 

Nov. 15, 2013 4:30 a.m. ET

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India’s Tata Motors 500570.BY +4.66% is in the big league of global car makers. When it comes to accounting for certain costs, though, it doesn’t play exactly the same way as its peers. India’s largest auto company by market value leapt onto the world stage after buying JaguarLand Rover in 2008. Now that the British luxury car maker makes up roughly 80% of Tata’s revenue, this Indian firm is competing with BMW, BMW.XE -0.06% Mercedes-Benz and a host of American and Japanese premium brands. And when compared with some of these peers, Tata looks to be a relative bargain. Although its shares are up more than 20% so far this year, the stock trades at 9.6 times estimated profit for the fiscal year that ends next March. That is at a discount to Daimler, which owns Mercedes, and BMW. Yet Tata’s valuation may be flattered by the way it treats certain costs. This has the effect of boosting its profit—in the near term, at least. Taking that into account, Tata is more expensive than it initially appears. At issue is how Tata treats research and development costs. Tata’s R&D program, at 6% of sales, is higher than the 4% or 5% global car makers typically spend on new products and designs. Read more of this post

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November 16, 2013 Leave a comment

Are There Cockroaches Under Tesla’s Hood?

Tesla Motors Inc. (TSLA) shareholders have had much to fret about lately, from a nosebleed valuation and sagging stock price to periodic YouTube videos of exploding Tesla electric cars. Here’s another one for the list: Sometimes Tesla acts like it doesn’t know what it’s doing when it comes to financial reporting. Consider Tesla’s news release last week disclosing its third-quarter financial results. The headline said Tesla had “Net income (non-GAAP) of $16 million.” Tesla spent parts of the first three pages discussing this and other nonstandard metrics that don’t comply with generally accepted accounting principles. Read more of this post

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Yu’E Bao Draws Chinese Investors as They Seek to Beat Inflation

November 16, 2013 Leave a comment

Yu’E Bao Draws Chinese Investors as They Seek to Beat Inflation

Yu’E Bao, an investment product offered through Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.’s third-party payment affiliate Alipay.com Co., has attracted more than 100 billion yuan ($16.4 billion) as Chinese investors seek returns that beat inflation. Users of Yu’E Bao, created by Beijing-based Tian Hong Asset Management Co., jumped 12 times to 30 million by Nov. 14 from the end of June. The scale of the product jumped almost 18 times to 100 billion yuan from 5.7 billion yuan, Tian Hong said in an e-mail. Read more of this post

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S. Korean steelmaker POSCO CEO resigns; Chung Joon-yang Decides to Leave After Global Slump in Steel Industry Hits Earnings

November 16, 2013 Leave a comment

Posco CEO Offers to Resign
Chung Joon-yang Decides to Leave After Global Slump in Steel Industry Hits Earnings
Nov. 15, 2013 4:40 a.m. ET
The chief executive of South Korea’s largest steelmaker, Posco, 005490.SE +0.62% has offered to resign after a protracted global slump in the steel industry hit its earnings. Chung Joon-yang, a 55-year-old veteran businessman, who has led the company since February 2009, has submitted his resignation letter to the board Friday, Posco said in a written statement. Read more of this post

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GE to Exit Retail Lending, Tightening Focus on Industrial Businesses

November 16, 2013 Leave a comment

GE to Exit Retail Lending, Tightening Focus on Industrial Businesses

Conglomerate’s Plan Includes Partial Sale of Business Early Next Year

KATE LINEBAUGH

Updated Nov. 15, 2013 7:11 p.m. ET

BF-AG230_GECAPI_G_20131115180017

General Electric Co. GE +0.78% plans to exit the retail lending business—the conglomerate’s most aggressive move yet to shrink the size of its financing arm, which still generates half its profit. GE said Friday it will file for an initial public offering of its North American retail finance operations in next year’s first quarter. It plans to sell 20% of the unit to raise cash to better capitalize the stand-alone operations. Read more of this post

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Fixing the world’s metals warehousing: why so long?

November 16, 2013 Leave a comment

Fixing the world’s metals warehousing: why so long?

2:22am EST

By Susan Thomas, Veronica Brown and Josephine Mason

LONDON/NEW YORK (Reuters) – In the mid-1990s the London Metal Exchange was embroiled in a criminal investigation after the discovery that a trader – nicknamed Mr. 5 Percent for the share of the world’s copper he reputedly controlled – had spent years manipulating its systems to hoard copper and boost the price. Read more of this post

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The Return of the Fashion Logo; Serious logomania may be long behind us, but there are newer (and more subversive) ways to say ‘I’m with the brand’

November 16, 2013 Leave a comment

The Return of the Fashion Logo

Serious logomania may be long behind us, but there are newer (and more subversive) ways to say ‘I’m with the brand’

MEENAL MISTRY

Nov. 15, 2013 5:31 p.m. ET

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F. Martin Ramin/The Wall Street Journal, Styling by Anne Cardenas (sweater, necklace, bag, cuff)

I COULD NEVER have predicted my reaction to Louis Vuitton’s new Vivienne bag—a petite cross-body satchel in fine-grained calfskin with a wholly unsubtle shiny, gold, 2-by-2-inch interlocking “LV” as its closure. The sizable chunk of hardware would normally be a bit much for my tastes, but it somehow made sense on this beautifully constructed satchel that rested on my hip just so. I adored the bag without reservation. Read more of this post

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The Most Disturbing Part Of The JPMorgan News Is That It’s Not Shocking At All

November 15, 2013 Leave a comment

The Most Disturbing Part Of The JPMorgan News Is That It’s Not Shocking At All

Posted: 11/14/2013 1:13 pm

No one who has spent more than a little time in China can be shocked by the latest blockbuster from The New York Times about the means through which the family of former Premier Wen Jiabao traded access to power for personal gain. The company at the center of this most recent story makes for particularly compelling reading: JPMorgan Chase, the ultimate “too big to fail” institution, lately embroiled in enough scandals to make Goldman Sachs look like Mother Theresa. The same bank still accounting for its craven abuses in mortgage markets, its London Whale derivatives debacle, and its manipulation of the key index known as Libor now stands accused of essentially funneling funds to Wen Jiabao’s only daughter to win business in China, bringing a federal probe. Read more of this post

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JPMorgan and the Wen Family; Obscure two-person consulting firm run by Wen Jiabao’s daughter Wen Ruchu aka “Lily Chang” wins $75,000-a-month contract from JPMorgan

November 15, 2013 Leave a comment

Published: November 13, 2013

JPMorgan and the Wen Family

For two years beginning in 2006, JPMorgan Chase employed a consulting firm run by Wen Ruchun, the daughter of former Prime Minister Wen Jiabao of China. During this period and later, the bank was involved with several companies in which members of the Wen family or their colleagues had investments. The bank’s primary ties to the Wen family and its colleagues are shown in the panel at bottom.

JPM Wen

NOVEMBER 13, 2013, 10:00 PM

JPMorgan’s Fruitful Ties to a Member of China’s Elite

By DAVID BARBOZA, JESSICA SILVER-GREENBERG and BEN PROTESS

To promote its standing in China, JPMorgan Chase turned to a seemingly obscure consulting firm run by a 32-year-old executive named Lily Chang. Ms. Chang’s firm, which received a $75,000-a-month contract from JPMorgan, appeared to have only two employees. And on the surface, Ms. Chang lacked the influence and public name recognition needed to unlock business for the bank. But what was known to JPMorgan executives in Hong Kong, and some executives at other major companies, was that “Lily Chang” was not her real name. It was an alias for Wen Ruchun, the only daughter of Wen Jiabao, who at the time was China’s prime minister, with oversight of the economy and its financial institutions. Read more of this post

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IMF flags risk of significant decrease in real-estate prices in Singapore; suggested that a 55% fall in prices over three years is a risk

November 15, 2013 Leave a comment

IMF flags risk of significant decrease in real-estate prices

One of the risks the local financial sector could face is a significant fall in real-estate prices, said the IMF in its report on Singapore.

BY –

4 HOURS 31 MIN AGO

One of the risks the local financial sector could face is a significant fall in real-estate prices, said the IMF in its report on Singapore. In the assessment, it noted that property prices are already past the 2008 peak and suggested that a 55 per cent fall in prices over three years is a risk. While local property experts agreed that a correction is on the cards, they said a fall of that magnitude is highly unlikely. Century 21 Singapore Chief Executive Ku Swee Yong said if prices started to fall very quickly, the Government would step in. “If there were two consecutive quarters of a 5 per cent drop, immediately, the alarm bells would start to ring.” Read more of this post

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Warren Buffett’s Berkshire buys new US$3.45bil Exxon Mobil stake

November 15, 2013 Leave a comment

Updated: Friday November 15, 2013 MYT 9:07:27 AM

Billionaire Warren Buffett’s Berkshire buys new US$3.45bil Exxon Mobil stake

NEW YORK: Billionaire Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc on Thursday disclosed a new US$3.45 billion stake in Exxon Mobil Corp, after buying 40.1 million shares in the world’s largest publicly traded oil company. Although the investment represents just 0.9 percent of Houston-based Exxon’s shares, analysts said it reflects strong support by the second-richest American of one of the world’s largest and most profitable companies. Read more of this post

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Would You Like Fries With Those Spicy Pork McBites?

November 15, 2013 Leave a comment

NOVEMBER 14, 2013, 6:38 PM

Would You Like Fries With Those Spicy Pork McBites?

By AMY QIN

15SINO-MCBITES01-articleInline

With competition heating up in China’s $174 billion dollar fast-food market, McDonald’s is seeking to up its game by capitalizing on the country’s increasingly voracious appetite for pigs. The result? Spicy Pork McBites. Read more of this post

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Property in China: Haunted housing; Even big developers and state-owned newspapers are beginning to express fears of a property bubble

November 15, 2013 Leave a comment

Property in China: Haunted housing; Even big developers and state-owned newspapers are beginning to express fears of a property bubble

Nov 16th 2013 | SHANGHAI |From the print edition

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IN CHINA, property prices can keep going up forever. At least, that is what optimists seem to think. They point out that the country is undergoing the largest urbanisation in history. The throngs of migrants from the countryside all need homes, the argument runs. China’s swelling middle classes, many of whom live in shoddy 1980s housing, are also eagerly moving to fancier flats or McMansions. The result has been a spectacular property boom over the past decade. Read more of this post

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My sisters as micro-lenders

November 15, 2013 Leave a comment

My sisters as micro-lenders

2013-10-26 02:11:31

Lending in the Shadows

SCMP, South China Morning Post, 24 October 2013,

by Joe Zhang *

Twice a year I travel to Jingmen in central China to visit my parents and siblings. Last week, I was there on a new mission: to review the work of my sisters as shadow bankers. Shadow banking is lending activities outside regular banks. Despite what some would say, it is a reputable business on the mainland. It fills a legitimate need. Despite some lingering stigma, the industry is not one I am ashamed to be in. Read more of this post

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Local $1.6 Trillion Debt Pile Impedes Rate Freedom: China Credit

November 15, 2013 Leave a comment

Local $1.6 Trillion Debt Pile Impedes Rate Freedom: China Credit

By Justina Lee – Nov 14, 2013

Chinese local governments’ $1.6 trillion in bank borrowings are a major obstacle to the freeing up of interest rates in the world’s second-largest economy, according to BNP Paribas SA and Capital Economics Ltd. The financing arms of municipal authorities owed lenders 9.7 trillion yuan ($1.6 trillion), or 14 percent of all loans, in mid-2013, according to China Banking Regulatory Commission figures. Most have weak credit profiles, Moody’s Investors Service said in a Nov. 5 report, noting that only 53 percent of 388 such companies it surveyed in June had enough cash to cover estimated debt payments and interest this year without refinancing. Read more of this post

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Leaders remain undecided on property tax

November 15, 2013 Leave a comment

Leaders remain undecided on property tax

Friday, 15 November, 2013, 3:50am

Victoria Ruan victoria.ruan@scpm.com

Pilot schemes launched in 2011 in Shanghai and Chongqing are unlikely to be extended to other cities for time being, reform planner says

The nation’s top leaders had not reached a consensus on expanding pilot trials of property taxes in the near future, despite assertions made at the third plenum that fiscal and tax reforms would be accelerated, according to a senior researcher who has long been involved in the nation’s reform planning. Read more of this post

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Infiniti to Target Young Chinese Buyers Who Find BMW Commonplace

November 15, 2013 Leave a comment

Infiniti to Target Young Chinese Buyers Who Find BMW Commonplace

Nissan Motor Co. (7201)’s luxury Infiniti brand plans to attract younger Chinese buyers who are more open-minded about trying out new cars because they find an Audi, Mercedes or BMW too commonplace. Luxury buyers in China, the world’s largest auto market, are younger than the average owner of premium cars globally and are less concerned about a brand’s heritage than its present-day image, Johan de Nysschen, president of Infiniti, said in an interview in Hong Kong. Read more of this post

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Chinese Developers Move Beyond Shopping; Building a Deluxe Mall Isn’t Enough; Firms Add Rafting, Skiing, Riding

November 15, 2013 Leave a comment

Chinese Developers Move Beyond Shopping

Building a Deluxe Mall Isn’t Enough; Firms Add Rafting, Skiing, Riding

WEI GU

Updated Nov. 14, 2013 7:29 p.m. ET

To make a big profit as a Chinese property developer, it used to be that all you needed to do was build a mall and stuff it with luxury brands. But as Chinese get richer and have more time for leisure, they want more than just shopping, and developers are moving to meet the demand, providing venues for horse riding, rafting, skiing and more. Read more of this post

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Cheapskate China Wins No Friends in Philippines

November 15, 2013 Leave a comment

Cheapskate China Wins No Friends in Philippines

As hundreds of thousands of Filipinos struggled to find food, water, shelter and the bodies of loved ones in the wake of Typhoon Haiyan, China quickly dipped into its world-leading $3.7 trillion of currency reserves and came up with … all of $100,000. That was Beijing’s first miserly offer of aid to the storm-tossed Philippines. By Thursday, an international outcry over China’s stinginess shamed it into upping its pledge to a modest $1.6 million worth of relief materials such as tents and blankets. But the damage was already done. Read more of this post

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China cake millionaire at home in his six castles

November 15, 2013 Leave a comment

China cake millionaire at home in his six castles

afp_cakemillionaire

Thursday, Nov 14, 2013

Tom Hancock

AFP

CHONGQING, China – As the greatest urbanisation drive in history swells China’s cities with ranks of identikit apartment blocks, one culinary businessman is indulging his architectural appetite with a visual feast of extravagant, outlandish castles. “I don’t have any hobbies, except for planting trees and building castles,” said Liu Chonghua, standing on a crenellated turret atop the largest of the six he has constructed. Read more of this post

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Alipay’s Yuerbao grows from 55.6bn to 100bn within 1.5 month

November 15, 2013 Leave a comment

BEIJING – NOV 15TH, 8:33 | TAGS: YUEBAO FUND ALIBABA INTERNET FINANCE

Alipay’s Yuebao grows from 55.6bn to 100bn within 1.5 month

tumblr_inline_mwa3z937yl1rzt23v

On November 14th, Tianhong Fund announced on its microblogging account that the scale of Yuebao, a monetary fund product, has exceeded 100bn yuan and its investors are about to reach 30m. Yuebao was launched on June 13th this year and became the first public offering of fund of over 100bn yuan in the country. Its report of the third quarter shows the scale of Tianhong Zenglibao Monetary Fund, which practically operates Yuebao, had reached 55.653bn yuan by the end of September, with around 13.67m investors. It had already become the biggest fund in the market then. The rapid expansion of Tianhong Zenglibao Fund may owe much to the promotion of Alibaba’s “Double Eleven” promotion.

 

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‘Tuhao’ may become part of English glossary

November 15, 2013 Leave a comment

‘Tuhao’ may become part of English glossary

2013-11-15 01:36:45 GMT2013-11-15 09:36:45(Beijing Time)  Shanghai Daily

China’s new buzzword, tuhao, may be in next year’s Oxford English Dictionary. The word caught the attention of the dictionary’s editing team after BBC’s recent program on influential Chinese words. “If its influence continues, it is very likely to appear on our updated list of words,” said Julie Kleeman, project manager with the editing team. Kleeman told the Beijing Youth Daily that tuhao has some similarities with the English word bling, which refers to expensive, ostentatious clothing or jewelry. Both the words have existed for long but later on took a new meaning. Read more of this post

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