Klik GAMBAR Dibawah Untuk Lebih Info

Sumber Asal Berita :-

NST Online Business Times : latest

---

KL shares open lower Posted: 02 May 2013 06:47 PM PDT Bursa Malaysia opened lower this morning, continuing its bearish trend from yesterday, on lack of buying interest ahead of the 13th general elections on Sunday, dealers said. At 9.03am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 5.27 points lower at 1,708.19, after opening 1.92 points easier at 1,711.54. Market breadth was negative with 39 gainers, 58 losers and 100 counters unchanged, 1,414 counters untraded and 32 others were suspended. Turnover stood at 13.15 million shares worth RM11.78 million. HwangDBS Vickers Research said the local bourse may hit a high note today, before polling on Sunday, with the benchmark FBM KLCI breaching its existing record level of 1,718.44 points and challenge the immediate resistance barrier of 1,720 points today. "Giving investors a further boost is the overnight rise on Wall Street. US barometers were up between 0.9 per cent and 1.3 per cent following a drop in jobless claims and an interest rate cut by the European Central Bank," it said in a research note today. The research house said stocks that could attract interest today included Digi, RHB Capital, UEM Land and YTL Corporation. "Separately, Genting shares may come under pressure after its Singapore-listed Genting Singapore's Jan-Mar quarterly results came in below expectation," it added. On the score board, the Finance Index erased 32.73 points to 15,907.51, the Industrial Index lost 4.82 points to 2,853.79 and the Plantation Index fell 36.04 points to 8,040.54. The FBM Emas Index gave up 30.03 points to 11,634.60, the FBMT100 lost 30.13 points to 11,484.40, the FBM Ace Index declined 2.23 points to 3,928.51 and the FBM Mid 70 Index slipped 11.47 points to 12,799.82. Among actives, Daya Materials rose one sen to 21 sen, Systech and Malaysian Airline System was both flat at 8.5 sen and 36.5 sen, respectively. Heavyweights, Maybank lost one sen to RM9.61, Axiata Group was unchanged at RM6.74 and CIMB Group shed one sen to RM7.69.-- Bernama

S&P 500 reaches new high Posted: 02 May 2013 04:46 PM PDT NEW YORK: The S&P 500 reached a new all-time high on Thursday, boosted by an expected European Central Bank interest rate cut and a surprisingly good US jobless claims report. The S&P 500 rose 14.89 points (0.94 percent) to reach 1,597.59, narrowly above the previous record set Tuesday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 130.63 points (0.89 percent) to 14,831.58. The tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index rose 41.49 points (1.26 percent) to 3,340.62. The gains were a reversal from Wednesday, when all three indices posted solid losses on weak US and Chinese economic data. "Investors returned to the risk-trade after the ECB lowered its key interest rate in an effort to spur growth and pull the eurozone out of a recession," said Wells Fargo in a market note. "An improvement in the employment picture is also helping lift the market." New claims for US unemployment benefits -- an indicator of the pace of layoffs -- fell by 18,000 to 324,000, the lowest level since mid-January 2008. General Motors increased 3.2 percent after reporting a 13.8 percent drop in first quarter earnings due to weakness in North America. Analysts were cheered by smaller-than-expected losses in GM's European operations Facebook added 5.6 percent after reporting a 58 percent increase in first-quarter profit, fueled by mobile advertising growth. Facebook said its monthly active users rose 23 percent from a year ago. Yelp, the online reviews site, jumped 27.4 percent after its first quarter sales beat analyst projections, with a68 percent gain, even as it still reported a net $4.8 million loss overall. Credit-card firm Visa gained 5.7 percent after topping earnings expectations by 11 cents per share. Kellogg dipped 1.8 percent after reporting an 11 percent decline in profits. The company reaffirmed its full-year profit forecast. -- AFP

You are subscribed to email updates from Business Times : latest To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now.	Email delivery powered by Google
Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610

Kredit: www.nst.com.my

Klik GAMBAR Dibawah Untuk Lebih Info

Sumber Asal Berita :-

NST Online Top Stories - Google News

---

Obama Nominates Pritzker for Commerce Post - New York Times Posted: 02 May 2013 08:36 AM PDT By MICHAEL D. SHEAR Published: May 2, 2013 WASHINGTON — President Obama on Thursday morning selected Penny Pritzker, an heir to the Hyatt Hotel fortune and a longtime financial backer of the president, to be the new commerce secretary. The announcement by Mr. Obama came shortly before he departed for a three-day trip to Mexico and Costa Rica. "Penny is one of our country's most distinguished business leaders," Mr. Obama said. "She's got more than 25 years of management experience in industries including real estate, finance, and hospitality. She's built companies from the ground up. She knows from experience that no government program alone can take the place of a great entrepreneur. She knows that what we can do is to give every business and every worker the best possible chance to succeed by making America a magnet for good jobs." The president also selected Michael Froman, a top national security official, to be the new United States trade representative. Mr. Obama said that Mr. Froman "has established himself as one of the world's foremost experts on our global economy." "He has won the respect of our trading partners around the world." Mr. Obama said. "He has also won a reputation as being an extraordinarily tough negotiator while doing it. He does not rest until he's delivered the best possible deal for American businesses and American workers. He's fought to make sure that countries that break the rules are held accountable." Mr. Obama said that he had gotten to know Ms. Pritzker and Mr. Froman not just as leaders and professionals, but also as friends. "And one of the reasons I'm proud to nominate them is they don't forget what matters," he said. "They know this is not about just growing balance sheets. It's about growing opportunity for people. It's about growing a sense of security for the middle class. And, most of all, they operate with integrity and they understand that public service is a privilege, and you've got to do it right when you get involved on behalf of the American people."

Benedict XVI returns to Vatican for first time - USA Today - USA TODAY Posted: 02 May 2013 09:47 AM PDT Pope Francis, right, and Pope emeritus Benedict XVI meet in Castel Gandolfo on March 23.(Photo: L'Osservatore Romano via AP) Story Highlights Pope Francis welcomed Benedict outside his new retirement home The Vatican said Benedict, 86, was pleased to be back The Vatican provided no television images of Benedict's return Thursday VATICAN CITY (AP) — Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI came home to the Vatican on Thursday for the first time since he resigned Feb. 28, beginning an unprecedented era for the Catholic Church of having a retired pontiff living alongside a reigning one. Pope Francis welcomed Benedict outside his new retirement home — a converted monastery on the edge of the Vatican gardens — and the two immediately went into the adjoining chapel to pray together, the Vatican said. The Vatican said Benedict, 86, was pleased to be back and that he would — as he himself has said — "dedicate himself to the service of the church with prayer." Francis, the statement said, welcomed him with "brotherly cordiality." Unlike the live, door-to-door Vatican-provided television coverage that accompanied Benedict's emotional farewell in February, the Vatican provided no television images of his return Thursday. The low-key return followed the remarkable yet somewhat alarming images transmitted on March 23 when Francis went to visit Benedict at the papal retreat in Castel Gandolfo, south of Rome, where Benedict was living. In that footage, Benedict appeared visibly more frail and thinner only three weeks after resigning. Some Vatican officials questioned whether those images should have been released, given how frail Benedict appeared. The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, has acknowledged Benedict's post-retirement decline but has insisted the 86-year-old German isn't suffering from any specific ailment and is just old. "He is a man who is not young: He is old and his strength is slowly ebbing," Lombardi said this week. "However, there is no special illness. He is an old man who is healthy." Benedict chose to leave the Vatican immediately after his resignation to physically remove himself from the process of electing his successor and from Pope Francis' first weeks as pontiff. His absence also gave workers time to finish up renovations on the monastery tucked behind St. Peter's Basilica that until last year housed groups of cloistered nuns who were invited for a few years at a time to live inside the Vatican to pray. In the compact, four-story building, Benedict will live with his personal secretary, Monsignor Georg Gaenswein, and the four consecrated women who look after him, preparing his meals and tending to the household. The building also has a small library, a study and a guest room for when his brother, Monsignor Georg Ratzinger, comes to visit. "It is certainly small but well-equipped," Lombardi said. When Benedict announced his intention to resign — the first pontiff to do so in 600 years — questions immediately swirled about the implications of having two popes living alongside one another inside the Vatican. Benedict fueled those concerns when he chose to be called "emeritus pope" and "Your Holiness" rather than "emeritus bishop of Rome." He also raised eyebrows when he chose to continue wearing the white cassock of the papacy. Given the political intrigues that plague the Vatican, it wasn't much of a stretch of the imagination to wonder if some cardinals, bishops and monsignors — not to mention ordinary Catholics — might continue making Benedict their point of reference rather than the new pope. But Benedict made clear on his final day as pope that he was renouncing the job and pledged his "unconditional reverence and obedience" to his then-unknown successor. It was a pledge he repeated in person on March 23 when Francis went to have lunch with him. It was during that visit that the world saw how weak Benedict had become: Always a man with a purposeful walk, he shuffled tentatively that day, using his cane. Francis, for his part, seems utterly unfazed by the novel situation. He has frequently invoked Benedict's name and work and has called him on a half-dozen occasions, making clear he has no intention of ignoring the fact that there's another pope still very much alive and now living on the other side of the garden. Francis' gestures to Benedict during that March 23 visit were also remarkable: He refused to pray on the special papal kneeler in the small chapel of Castel Gandolfo, preferring to join Benedict on a kneeler in the pews, and referring to his predecessor as his "brother." Now that they're neighbors, they might bump into one another on walks in the Vatican gardens or at the shrine to the Madonna, which is just a stone's throw from Benedict's new home. Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

You are subscribed to email updates from Top Stories - Google News To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now.	Email delivery powered by Google
Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610

Kredit: www.nst.com.my