Latest Posts by investmentsandequity-blog - Page 2

THE vice-president of the European Commission says taxpayer-funded bank bailouts remain a possibility if the latest stress test of Europe’s biggest banks reveals significant capital shortfalls - or if the debt crisis were to really flare up again.

Continued

Lazard Earnings Rise 75% on Deals

BY MICHAEL J. DE LA MERCED

Lazard, via Associated PressKenneth M. Jacobs, Lazard’s chief executive.

An improving market for deals and cost-cutting bolstered Lazard’s third-quarter earnings, as the investment bank reported on Thursday a 75 percent increase in profit from the period a year earlier.

The firm said it earned $62 million in adjusted profit for the quarter, amounting to 46 cents a share. On average, analysts had been expecting a profit of 35 cents a share, according to estimates compiled by Standard & Poor’s Capital IQ.

Lazard also reported a 10 percent rise in operating revenue, to $489 million.

“It was a solid quarter on both sides of the business,” Kenneth M. Jacobs, Lazard’s chief executive, said by telephone.

The improvement in Lazard’s results reflect, in part, a rise in markets, which has helped both the firm’s core financial advisory arm and its asset management business.

Its best-known operation, its mergers arm, reported a 3 percent rise in revenue, to $192 million. Assignments that the firm completed in the quarter included the sale of the Dutch coffee and tea company D.E. Master Blenders 1753 to Joh. A. Benckiser and the $2.8 billion sale of Ameristar Casinos to Pinnacle Entertainment.

Mr. Jacobs said he expected mergers activity to continue rising, given continued improvement in global economies and increased confidence in corporate boardrooms.

“The change in the last six to 12 months has generally been confidence,” he said. “That augurs well for deals.”

And Lazard’s asset management arm reported a 13 percent rise in revenue, to $248 million, as the firm’s assets under management rose to a record $176 billion thanks to increasing values and new client money.

The investment bank also disclosed that it held its adjusted compensation ratio at 60 percent, compared with 62.7 percent in the period a year earlier. Its ratio of noncompensation expenses to operating revenue fell to 19.7 percent from 21.5 percent.

Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (NYSE:CMG) has recently run into an epic trend line that signals a longer term top in the stock. This trend line stretche…

Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (NYSE:CMG) has recently run into an epic trend line that signals a longer term top in the stock. This trend line stretches back to 2007, 2012 and now 2013. Each time this level has been reached, the stock has pull back significantly. A pull back over the next 6 months could yield an easy target of $450.00. Gareth Soloway InTheMoneyStocks.com

In a tender involving global giants such as Total and China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), Russian Rostec wants to set up the first oil refinery in the fast growing market of Uganda, one of the most business-friendly places in Eastern Africa.

The subsidiary of  Russian state corporation Rostec - RT – Global Resources -  will partner the VTB Capital, while Tatneft will take over the operational role.  

Preliminary estimates suggest the cost of the country’s first oil refinery to be built in the city of Hoima will be around $3 billion, the Izvestia paper reports.

The Ugandan oil market is growing 10 percent annually. It’s one of the most politically-stable countries in Eastern Africa, with not local conflicts or warring neighbors, the paper quotes Karen Simonyan, the President of the Russian-African fund to support science, culture and business cooperation. Production from the refinery will go both to internal and external markets, which don’t have any refineries. Because the country is landlocked the oil products will carry a premium. 

According to the tender 40 percent of financing will be provided by Uganda, while the company that wins will be responsible for the remaining 60 percent. More than 50 international bidders are interested in developing the refinery. The results of the tender will be announced in 2014, while construction process will commence in 2015, according to Daily Monitor.

New exploration will also take place at Alberta Lake that has estimated reserves from 6 to 8 million barrels of oil. The refinery is expected to provide 1.5 million tonnes of products a year by 2017, which will almost completely cover Ugandan needs. By 2020 production at he plant is expected to double.

Investment from Russia will be less than $1 billion, according to Andrey Korobov, the General Director of RT – Global Resources,Izvestiya reports. The consortium aims to recoup the money spent on the project in a short time due to the high oil price.

Rostec considered 25 companies as major rivals, including those from the UK, US and China. The main criterion for Uganda is the construction time. Ugandan representatives have only visited Russia to talk about the proposed agreement.

(Russian oil looks to Africa: Rostec bids for first $3bn Uganda refinery via rt.com)

Ugandans and Batswana take note !! Please complete this short survey and help me to help YOU ! http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/5VVYM2X

Is Blacksburg, VA, the best-kept startup secret in America? That’s what Tech Cocktail says in this thought-provoking blog about the small community in the southwestern portion of the state – which happens to be one of the first to get gigabit internet connectivity, benefits from an entrepreneurship initiative launched by Virginia Tech, and the birthplace of startups Koofers, MailPilot and Virtual U. Even Rackspace has chosen Blacksburg as its next site for expansion. Read more about it here: http://tech.co/blacksburg-va-best-kept-startup-secret-america-2013-11. 

Markets Retreat On Light Volume: Stock Levels On Big Movers

Ugandans and Batswana take note !! Please complete this short survey and help me to help YOU ! http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/5VVYM2X

American Airlines, US Airways Strike A Deal To Merge Into The World’s Biggest Airline: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/report-american-airlines-us-airways-162924491.html (via Business Insider)

Petraeus Op-ed on Iraq is the latest in his elaborate comeback

By Brian Jones, October 30th from Business Insider

America loves a comeback kid, and Former CIA Director and retired Army Gen. David Petraeus is on a comeback tour. 

After resigning in disgrace as Director of the CIA last year because of an extra-martial affair, Petraeus has worked hard at getting back to a good place in the eyes of the American people.  

The first step was a philanthropic tour as a professor at New York City's public university, for which he was paid just $1. 

It didn't go as well as planned, as students affiliated virulently protested his presence there. Six were eventually arrested. 

But why is Petraeus so invested in rehabilitating his image? Perhaps he is mulling a run for political office. Maybe he is just trying to protect a once virtually spotless legacy.

The keystone of that legacy is the belief that Petraeus won the war in Iraq. He commanded the war during President George W. Bush's "surge" and is widely heralded as the architect of the Counterinsurgency strategy that surge forces worked to implement. 

Yesterday, Petraeus took the next step toward that end with an exhaustive, nearly 8,000 word op-ed in Foreign Policy called "How We Won In Iraq."

The timing is odd. Right now, Iraq is on fire. More than 7,000 civilians have been killed this year, a pretty clear indication that whatever perceived security gains were made prior to the 2011 withdrawal of U.S. combat forces were not sustainable. And so it's strange for Petraeus to take this moment to remind everyone about his greatest "success" in Iraq.

And yet he does, in dense fashion. Using the word "surge" 74 times. 

"I recognized early on that I had become the face of the surge," he writes. "I had not asked for this role, but whether I liked it or not, I had to fill it."

He breaks his editorial down into sections:

The Surge of Forces and the Surge of Ideas

The Sunni Awakening and Reconciliation

Targeted Special Operations

The Development of Iraqi Security Forces

The Civilian Components

Detainee Operations and Rule-of-Law Initiatives

The Iraqi Political Component and Strategic Communications

The Magnitude of the Difficulty

Commanding MNF-I

The Road Ahead

Petraeus shows off his Ivy League doctorate in political science and years of first-hand experience in the region. And regardless of the motives, it's a remarkable account  from the perspective of the general who ran the war — a rare historical insight.

He also addresses some of the more questionable and ambiguous history of U.S. operations in Iraq, including whether the surge precipitated the Anbar Awakening.

He concedes that the Anbar Awakening started before the surge, and before he arrived in the region, but he claims his strategies made it spread throughout Iraq.

"The spread of the Awakening was not serendipity; it was the result of a deliberate decision I took soon after taking command," he says. 

But embracing the Awakening often meant forming alliances with the same people who had previously been fighting American forces for years. Petraeus acknowledged it was a tough sell to other military leaders.

"Many correctly pointed out that the leaders and members of the groups that wanted to reconcile with us groups that might be willing to embrace the Awakening ... had American blood on their hands." 

Simultaneous to the surge, Petraeus, working with the then commander of the Joint Special Operations Command, a lieutenant general named Stanley McChrystal, expanded a program to capture or kill high-level operatives. 

"Although I publicly acknowledged from the outset that we would not be able to kill or capture our way to victory (hence the need to support the Awakening)," Petraeus writes, "killing or capturing the most important of the 'irreconcilables' was an inescapable and hugely important element of our strategy."

He concluded by saying that Iraq has slipped back into chaos because the surge tactics stopped:

What mattered most was the surge of ideas -- concepts that embraced security of the people by "living with them," initiatives to promote reconciliation with elements of the population that felt they had no incentive to support the new Iraq, ramping up of precise operations that targeted the key "irreconcilables," the embrace of an enhanced comprehensive civil-military approach, increased attention to various aspects of the rule of law, improvements to infrastructure and basic services, and support for various political actions that helped bridge ethno-sectarian divides.

But Petraeus' account of the history of the war was immediately met with some criticism:

Chase Winter, an international development officer at the American University of Iraq, tweeted that Petraeus outlined "what we did to win, [without] defining winning."

"For Petraeus to write this while Iraq burns takes enormous balls," tweeted Joshua Foust, a former intelligence analyst and freelance journalist.

The claim that the surge worked in Iraq is a bit of a point of contention. An Army lieutenant colonel named Daniel Davis gained notoriety last year by publishing a blistering account of the war and said that any gains made were pure luck. Davis was deployed to Iraq from 2008-2009. 

Yesterday morning we were talking about Bitcoin $US260.

This morning? BITCOIN $US300. Actually $US305.

Continued

The bull market of recent months has been great for momentum swing traders, but there are several key warning signs that the party may be nearing an end.

Here’s the 2 key warning signals: http://blog.morpheustrading.com/3385

After much debate about setting a final price, Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR)’s initial public offering is officially priced at $26 per share.

Happening NOW on Yahoo Finance! Breakout’s live coverage of the #TwitterIPO as $TWTR begins trading today! Tune in here http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/breakout/watch-twitter-ipo-live-stream-coverage-nov-7-194141440.html

Twitter stock surged through the gates and made some millionaires even richer today, but to the average person like me and you, what is Twitter’s real value?

Northwestern University unveils some shiny, new design proposals for the former Prentice Women’s Hospital site on its Chicago campus.

Designs submitted by Goettsch Partners and Ballinger, Perkins & Will and Adrian Smith & Gordon Gill Architecture and Payette made the final three and now the university wants feedback.

So, tell us: Which design do you like best?

How to build value in the drug business: This is a great video from Forbes, This year's two biggest pharma takeouts were Onyx Pharmaceuticals, purchased by Amgen for $10 BIllion, and Bausch + Lomb, a turnaround story sold to Valeant for $8.7 billion. The CEOs from both companies talk about how to revitalize a pharmaceutical firm. The discussion is moderated by Lazard's Kenneth Jacobs. 

For nearly a quarter century Molecular Biology of the Cell has been the leading cell biology textbook. This tradition continues with the new Fifth Edition, which has been completely revised and updated to describe our current, rapidly advancing understanding of cell biology. To list but a few examples, a large amount of new material is presented on epigenetics; stem cells; RNAi; comparative genomics; the latest cancer therapies; apoptosis (now its own separate chapter); and cell cycle control and the mechanics of M phase (now integrated into one chapter).

The hallmark features of Molecular Biology of the Cell have been retained, such as its consistent and comprehensive art program, clear concept headings, and succinct section summaries. Additionally, in response to extensive feedback from readers, the Fifth Edition now includes several new features. And for the first time, Molecular Biology of the Cell now contains end-of-chapter questions. These problems, written by John Wilson and

French scientists have managed to generate red blood cells from stem cells and inject them back in to the donor. This major achievement opens up the possibility of a stem cell-based alternative to donated blood cells.

Researchers Re-Engineer E-Coli DNA to Make it Programmable

A team of synthetic biologists led by Farren Isaacs at Yale University [has taken] Escherichia coli cells and replaced all of the UAG stop codons with UAAs. They also deleted the instructions for making the release factor that usually binds to UAG, effectively rendering UAG meaningless…

The next step was to assign a new meaning to UAG during protein production. The team did this by designing molecules called transfer RNAs and accompanying enzymes that would attach an unnatural amino acid – fed to the cell – wherever they spotted the UAG codon…

By reintroducing UAGs at specific locations, as the Yale team have done, unnatural amino acids can be added into proteins at will.

"We now have an organism that has a new code, and we can reliably and efficiently open up the chemical diversity of proteins," says Isaacs.

For example, artificial amino acids could be added that give proteins unusual properties, such as the ability to bind to metals – resulting in novel adhesives. Or enzymes could be developed that are activated only in the presence of other molecules – which could be useful for drugs. “The genetic code is conserved for all of life, so this is a fundamental step forward,” says Philipp Holliger of the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, UK. He says that because so much of the genetic code is redundant, there might be other codons that could be reassigned to expand the chemistry of living organisms.

(via Reprogrammed bacterium speaks new language of life - life - 23 October 2013 - New Scientist)

This story gets to the heart of one of the biggest problems with Obamacare: the difference between health insurance and health care.

from Forbes (emphasis mine):

For someone in the middle of a cancer treatment, or someone with a chronic condition, this can be extraordinarily...

This is truly tragic. It’s time to count 87,000 Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Alabama customers among the millions of Americans who have lost their health insurance because of Obamacare.

From AL.com:

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Alabama recently notified about 87,000 policy holders in the...

We asked the Transgender Law Center whether new health care regulations help, hurt. or ignore trans people and their families.

How Obamacare Will Affect Trans Folks and Families

For some people, Obamacare will mean the difference between getting treatment and going without. For others it will mean the difference between solvency and bankruptcy. And for still others it will be the first time they’ve ever had any health coverage at all.

Here Are Some of the People Being Helped by Obamacare | Mother Jones (via america-wakiewakie)

Election Day: What’s at stake at the polls

(Photo: Andrew Gombert / EPA)

Elections in Virginia, New Jersey, New York City and even Alabama could provide nationally resonant lessons for Republicans and Democrats alike.

Continue reading