Suntech Power Holdings Co. Ltd. (STP) failed to live up to market expectations of a revival in its fiscal second quarter. Although EPADS of 6 cents during the quarter surpassed the Zacks Consensus EPADS estimate of a penny, this was a far cry from the year-ago EPADS of 31 cents. Also, the quarterly results included a $17.5 million foreign exchange gain on account of the appreciation of the euro versus the dollar. Excluding this impact, the company swallowed a loss per ADS of 5 cents during the quarter.   On the revenues front, Suntech witnessed a marginal growth of 1.7% sequentially to $321 million. The growth came through higher shipments leading to volume growth over the first quarter of 2009. Suntech’s dependence on Germany continues, with almost half of its sales coming from the country during the quarter, and Italy chipping in a healthy 13%. The company also generated revenues

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You may have noticed that you’re hearing a lot about America’s national debt recently. No doubt you’ll be hearing a lot more about it in the future. And, along with it, you’ll be hearing a lot more of the “T” word (trillion). In fact, it’s about the only time the average person will ever hear the word trillion, because there just aren’t many things we deal with in life that are that big. After all, a trillion is equal to a million million.

• If you took all of the cars that exist in the entire world, old and new, the number would be under 1 billion, a number that’s a thousand times smaller than a trillion. This sounds about right when you consider the fact that the entire population of the world is under 7 billion. It would take over 140 planet earths to equal 1 trillion people. • If you

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by Edward Hugh: : L'Escala de Empordàbr /br /According to a once-upon-a-time post on the Economist's a href="http://www.economist.com/blogs/certainideasofeurope/2007/07/a_fistful_of_reply.cfm#list-comments"Certain Ideas of Europe Blog/a Edward Hugh “was very cross” about some of the journalism they were serving up over at that prestigious journal. Well, not to worry, since this time he is hopping mad. And the issue which lies behind his wrath is essentially the same one, how to interpret and understand the demographic processes which are currently so evidently affecting our societies. In what is simply the latest episode in a long and sorry saga (if you want documentation, please see the comments Claus Vistesen and I nailed to their "Wall" in the above linked post) this week's print issue contains a href="http://www.economist.com/sciencetechnology/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14164483"a research review from their science and technology correspondent/a who is evidently not backward in coming forward with headline grabbing claims. According to the said corresponedent the demographic transition ...

Base metals were mostly down on Tuesday. Copper fell 0.68 cents to close at $2.4374/lb. Nickel dropped more than 21 cents to finish at $7.1320/lb. Zinc lost three-quarters of a penny, ending at $0.7357/lb. Aluminum added less than a quarter of a cent, closing at $0.7634/lb., while lead moved to $0.7493/lb., down more than a penny from the previous session. Copper retreated a bit yesterday capping a six-day rally that pushed the red metal to a nine-month high on Monday. Speculation that demand will slacken in a seasonal slowdown in China had much to do with the drop in prices.

China imported 378,943 metric tons of refined copper last month, a 12% increase from May and the fifth straight record, customs office data showed yesterday.

“Demand should ease after builders filled orders for the summer construction peak and the margin between China and London prices narrowed,” said Pang Ying, an analyst

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Despite the significant equity market rally off the March lows and the talk of "green shoots," we still see a challenging global economic backdrop and a less than robust environment for the Machinery sector. In fact, what we have seen is certain economies stabilize at much lower levels from peak cycle activity, rather than any sort of V-shaped recovery. As foreign economies deal with weaker exports to the U.S and Europe, industrial customers are cutting back on capital spending. On a y-o-y basis, equipment orders continue to decelerate in almost every end-market -- from machines used in construction, infrastructure, and agriculture. On the bright side, production cuts have helped reduce inventory levels. As a result, we should see less of a near-term drag on output. But let's not confuse a potential inventory rebuild and fiscal stimulus with a real, sustained U.S consumer-led recovery. The combination of U.S job cuts, minimal income growth ...

Despite the significant equity market rally off the March lows and the talk of "green shoots," we still see a challenging global economic backdrop and a less than robust environment for the Machinery sector. In fact, what we have seen is certain economies stabilize at much lower levels from peak cycle activity, rather than any sort of V-shaped recovery. As foreign economies deal with weaker exports to the U.S and Europe, industrial customers are cutting back on capital spending. On a y-o-y basis, equipment orders continue to decelerate in almost every end-market -- from machines used in construction, infrastructure, and agriculture. On the bright side, production cuts have helped reduce inventory levels. As a result, we should see less of a near-term drag on output. But let's not confuse a potential inventory rebuild and fiscal stimulus with a real, sustained U.S consumer-led recovery. The combination of U.S job cuts, minimal income growth ...

Despite the significant equity market rally off the March lows and the talk of "green shoots," we still see a challenging global economic backdrop and a less than robust environment for the Machinery sector. In fact, what we have seen is certain economies stabilize at much lower levels from peak cycle activity, rather than any sort of V-shaped recovery.As foreign economies deal with weaker exports to the U.S and Europe, industrial customers are cutting back on capital spending. On a y-o-y basis, equipment orders continue to decelerate in almost every end-market -- from machines used in construction, infrastructure, and agriculture. On the bright side, production cuts have helped reduce inventory levels. As a result, we should see less of a near-term drag on output.But let's not confuse a potential inventory rebuild and fiscal stimulus with a real, sustained U.S consumer-led recovery. The combination of U.S ...

A long-awaited reversal in the monumental global stock market rally since early March finally arrived last week. As the first-quarter earnings season started winding down and post stress-test capital-raising weighed on some banks, investors were faced with a slew of gloomy economic reports suggesting the recent optimism about a global recovery might have been premature.

“This week, the hard economic data remind us that the global recession is ongoing: exports remain deep in the red; retail sales disappoint; inflation still volatile on food and energy but down on year; and industrial production declines. However, the data are consistent with the story of a slowing economic decline, foretold by several ‘green shoot’ survey reports,” said Rebecca Wilder (News N Economics).

Source: Tom Toles, Washington Post.

“Less bad” economic reports provided investors with little comfort, sparking a reassessment

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“Goodbye safe havens, hello risky assets.” This was the refrain of investors’ theme song during the past week. Safe-haven assets were out of favor as better-than-feared corporate earnings and signs of a budding economic recovery emboldened investors’ appetite for reflation trades such as equities and commodities.

Investors’ sentiment improved notwithstanding a number of influences that could potentially disturb financial markets. These included a three-day delay in the release of the stress test results of the 19 biggest US banks until May 7, the plight of the beleaguered US automakers with General Motors (GM) proposing a sweeping debt-for-equity restructuring and Chrysler filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, and fears of an escalation in the number of swine flu (H1N1) cases.

Source: Vita

As to be expected given the countless catalysts, the past week’s trading was bumpy, but the major

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Deal goes through midmorning Thursday ...

 

Early in the day on Thursday, Barclays PLC announced it had sold its iShares exchange-traded fund unit to CVC Capital Partners, a private equity firm based in Luxembourg, for $4.4 billion.

It was only a few weeks ago that rumors that the unit was for sale began to emerge. Once those were confirmed, CVC was eventually identified as the preferred buyer. Barclays has repeatedly refused to accept funds from the British government as part of a rescue program for financial institutions, presumably because it wanted to avoid being even partially nationalized. However, the bank still needed to raise cash, and the sale of iShares should help with that.

A Barclays press release contains the key elements of the deal. The release states that Barclays will realize "an expected net gain on sale of US$2.2 billion." Barclays is financing the bulk of the deal,

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