Stocks up

Stocks up

"Stocks up. European stocks rose and the euro stayed under pressure on Tuesday as investors weighed the debt turmoil in the euro zone against an improved U.S. economic picture that looks set to deliver upbeat corporate results.

European shares gained from the start on Tuesday, led by mining stocks after forecast-beating results from U.S. aluminum producer Alcoa (AA.N) improved the outlook for commodities.

"A good start to the earnings season; it shows the demand outlook is not so bad and we could get more positive surprises," Mike Lenhoff, chief strategist and head of research at Brewin Dolphin Securities, said.

The key FTSEurofirst 300 .FTEU3 index was up 1.3 percent at 1,021.47 points, while the STOXX Europe 600 euro zone banking index .SX7P gained around 2.0 percent.

Nervous currency markets remained focused on the outlook for the euro zone economy, upcoming government debt sales and how the region's banks will raise much needed capital to repair their balance sheets.

The euro rose slightly to trade around $1.2792, holding firmly above the 16-month lows of $1.2666 hit on Monday, due mainly to traders buying back the currency to square their positions after recent heavy selling.

The Bank of France focused attention on the ailing euro zone economy by reporting growth had stalled at zero in the fourth quarter of 2011 in the region's second-biggest economy.

But separate data showed French industrial production rose 1.1 percent in November, bucking expectations for no growth as output from refineries rose from weak levels of a year ago during strikes.

"There's short-covering and a bit of risk appetite with positive equity markets overnight," said Niels Christensen, currency strategist at Nordea in Copenhagen.

"But we have the debt auctions, the ECB meeting on Thursday and it's still a weak and vulnerable euro..., with no sign of a quick solution to the debt problems in the euro zone," he said.

The worries about the health of the region's banks saw commercial lenders' overnight deposits held at the European Central Bank hit another record high of 482 billion euros.

The banks are awash with cash after taking an unprecedented 489 billion euros in the ECB's first-ever three-year liquidity operation late last month, but they are still uncertain about what to do with the money in the longer term.

French banks were also likely to be in the spotlight after an internal memo obtained by Reuters on Monday showed Societe Generale (SOGN.PA) is forecasting a sharp drop in investment bank revenue in 2012, weighed by higher funding costs and efforts to slash its balance sheet.

Earlier, data showed China's exports and imports grew at their slowest pace in more than two years in December. The figures fuelled expectations of more policy action from Beijing to support the world's second biggest economy, and most Asian markets gained on Tuesday.

Wall Street ended slightly higher on Monday in a light-volume session as investors stayed cautious ahead of the earnings season that kicked off with Alcoa.

Tuesday's focus in euro zone debt markets will mainly be on Austria's auction of 1.3 billion euros of 10-year bonds which should give an indication of how worried investors are about the country's exposure to neighboring Hungary, which is locked in a dispute with the IMF over international aid.

Bund futures were slightly lower in midmorning trade.

Elsewhere, British retailers finished 2011 with the best sales growth in months as hefty discounting lured in shoppers, while weak business a year earlier flattered the figures, the British Retail Consortium said on Tuesday.

It added that it expected another tough year."

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States to weigh in on basic health coverage

States to weigh in on basic health coverage

"U.S. health officials will allow states to select the basic set of medical benefits that must be offered by insurance plans participating in new exchanges mandated by the federal healthcare overhaul, the U.S. government said on Friday.

The Department of Health and Human Services announcement relates to the so-called essential health benefits for millions of Americans expected to qualify for coverage sold through state-based insurance exchanges beginning in 2014.

The proposed approach reflects the federal government's commitment to give states flexibility as they set up the exchanges, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said on Friday.

"The coverage that works in Florida may not work in Nebraska," Sebelius told reporters on a conference call.

Under the approach announced on Friday, states can select an existing health plan to set the benchmark for services included in the essential health benefits package.

As benchmarks, states would be able to choose either: One of the three largest small employer plans in the state; one of the three largest state employee health plans; one of the three largest federal employee health plan options; or the largest health maintenance organization plan offered in the state's commercial market.

As set out in the law, states must ensure the essential benefits package covers services in at least ten categories of care, among them preventive care, emergency services, maternity care and prescription drugs.

Ron Pollack, executive director of healthcare advocacy group Families USA, said that HHS needed to provide "strong oversight and enforcement" of the benefit standards as they are implemented in the states.

"It will be important to ensure that adequate coverage across all ten required benefit categories is provided - marking an improvement over many plans offered today," Pollack said.

HHS said it would take comments on the proposal until January 31. The announcement on Friday addressed only the services and items covered by a health plan, not cost sharing, such as deductibles, co-payments, and co-insurance. HHS plans to address cost in a future announcement.

The essential benefits are perhaps the most anticipated piece of information still awaited by states, employers, health providers and especially insurers under President Barack Obama's landmark healthcare overhaul.

The exchanges are designed to create easy access to an open marketplace of insurance plans and to allow uninsured people and small businesses to band together to negotiate cheaper rates for healthcare coverage, as well as automatically be considered for government subsidies.

HHS has been subject to intense lobbying over the rule as virtually the entire U.S. healthcare system, including insurers such as Aetna Inc and WellPoint Inc, could be affected by it.

The Institute of Medicine, an advisory group to U.S. policymakers, recommended in October that essential benefits stay in line with the cost of insurance in a typical small employer plan, in step with inflation and medical advances.

The healthcare overhaul is designed to extend coverage to an estimated 32 million Americans who are now uninsured."

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Packing and patrolling, U.S. troops roll out of Iraq

Packing and patrolling, U.S. troops roll out of Iraq

"Camp Echo's dusty motorpools are empty, its private contract caterers have long gone home and murals depicting the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York's twin towers have been painted over.

One of the last seven U.S. military bases in Iraq, Echo is in rapid handover to Iraqi hands as American soldiers there pack up and complete their final task - protecting the last few departing troops heading home south across the Kuwaiti border.

Nearly nine years after the invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein, the U.S. mission in Iraq is fast winding down with only 13,000 troops left in the country. Hundreds are departing each day until the end of 2011.

Hundreds of convoys of military vehicles and civilian trucks have gone south into Kuwait since President Barack Obama last month said troops would leave as scheduled, effectively ending the large-scale U.S. military presence on Iraqi soil.

"It's time. The president and everyone is saying it's time. We did as much as we can," U.S. Army Sergeant Fred Fox said at Echo in Diwaniya, 150 km (95 miles) south of Baghdad.

"It's time for us to go home and let them take care of their own," he said.

Soldiers left on Camp Echo, like other bases in Iraq, are still patrolling to protect themselves, the highway south and the base even as they pack up and hand over equipment from vehicles to air conditioners to the Iraqi armed forces.

On Echo, rows of white SUVs, construction vehicles and jeeps sit parked waiting for Iraqi officials to check U.S. inventories. U.S. troops are leaving behind anything not cost-effective to ship elsewhere, like concrete blast walls. (...)"

in Reuters

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Shepard Fairey Unveils New Hope Poster to Support Occupy Movement

Shepard Fairey Unveils New Hope Poster to Support Occupy Movement

"The artist behind the iconic Barack Obama Hope poster has designed a new version in support of the Occupy Wall Street movement. This time around, Shepard Fairey has replaced – or covered – the President’s face with the Guy Fawkes mask synonymous with the protests, reports the Washington Post.

The 31-year-old, who rose to fame following the 2008 frenzy over his image of candidate Obama, said the latest offering is a statement of support to both the man and the cause.

“As flawed as the system is,” he wrote on his blog last week, “I see Obama as a potential ally of the Occupy movement if the energy of the movement is perceived as constructive, not destructive. I still see Obama as the closest thing to ‘a man on the inside’ that we have presently.”

Fairey also shared his thoughts on the relationship between the President and the anticapitalism protests sweeping the U.S. and other countries – and called on doubters to stick with Obama.

“Change is not about one election, one rally, one leader, it is about a constant dedication to progress and a constant push in the right direction. Let’s be the people doing the right thing as outsiders and simultaneously push the insiders to do the right thing for the people.”

in Time

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Some Party, Others Take Midnight Classes

Some Party, Others Take Midnight Classes

"This brings new meaning to "burning the midnight oil."

Aimed at enabling full or part time students to attend class, some U.S. colleges are providing "midnight classes" for people with demanding schedules.

Only a small group of schools are entertaining the late night time slot, but the concept is a growing trend in community colleges. With about two-thirds of community college students working full or part time and an influx in enrollment, the idea doesn't seem all that unsound.

"If you've got faculty that's willing to teach at an unconventional hour, then it's a solution for a lot of things," Norma Kent, of the American Association of Community Colleges, told USA Today.

At Bunker Hill Community College in Boston, the idea allowed for the school to better accommodate its 13,000 students. Bunker Hill, where the concept of midnight classes was created, now offers five midnight courses. "We found out there are many more folks than we'd imagined in the Boston area who are working third shifts," Bunker Hill President Mary Fifield said. "It's a population that we didn't know existed."

Joyce Goodie, a Community College of Baltimore County psychology instructor, teaches a psychology class she dubbed "Insomniac Institute." The class meets once a week from 12:01 a.m. to 2:55 a.m., and includes a potluck dinner that the class also invites janitors and security guards working the night shift.

Goodie said the class is composed of two types of students: those who are insomniacs and up at that time anyway, and those who confused the time slot for a noon class and couldn't transfer out.

Still, she keeps the class engaged and active, but said "everyone is pretty miserable" as the witching hour nears."

in Time

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Obama deficit plan aimed at Democratic base

Obama deficit plan aimed at Democratic base

"President Barack Obama will lay out a plan on Monday to cut the U.S. deficit, striking a populist tone aimed at galvanizing his Democratic Party base ahead of the November 2012 election.

Obama will vow to veto any cuts proposed for the government-run Medicare health program for the elderly unless Congress agrees to raise taxes on companies and the wealthy.

The president's recommendations to a congressional "super committee" would deliver deficit savings of more than $3 trillion over the next decade, his aides said, with roughly half of those savings coming from higher tax revenues.

Republicans, who control the U.S. House of Representatives, are firmly rejecting any tax hikes to raise revenues. Many Democrats see that as a sign for Obama to stop trying to compromise with Republicans over tackling the debt, and instead to fight for the voters who put him office.

"These things are critical to the base," said Jared Bernstein, a senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities in Washington and a former economic adviser to Vice President Joe Biden.

Obama, under fire from Democrats to defend Medicare and Medicaid healthcare programs as he seeks to boost flagging support ahead of next year's election, will demand that all Americans share the burden of controlling the budget. (...)"

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Hurricane Irene: Evacuations in North Carolina

Hurricane Irene: Evacuations in North Carolina

"Evacuations in N.C. as Irene Approaches"

"Thousands were fleeing an exposed strip of coastal villages and beaches off the North Carolina coast and dozens of Navy ships were ordered to leave their port to the north Thursday as Irene approached, threatening to become the first major hurricane to hit the East Coast in seven years.

An evacuation order took effect for an estimated 150,000 tourists in coastal Dare County hours after forecasters issued a hurricane watch for much of the state's coast. Meanwhile, emergency officials all the way to New England were scrambling to get ready.

Irene could hit North Carolina's Outer Banks on Saturday afternoon with winds around 115 mph. It's predicted to chug up the East Coast, dumping rain from Virginia to New York City before a much-weakened form reaches land in Connecticut.

Dare County officials were considering making thousands of year-round residents leave, too. "It wouldn't behoove anyone to stay in these circumstances," Dare County emergency management spokeswoman Sharon Sullivan said. "Businesses are boarding up. Nobody can guarantee their safety."

The Navy ordered the Second Fleet in southeastern Virginia, including at Norfolk Naval Station, to leave so ships would be safe from the approaching hurricane. Thursday's order applied to 64 ships in the area, some of which were already at sea.

The Navy, which moves it ships when storms can produce winds of 50 knots and a five- to seven-foot storm surge, said ships at sea can better weather storms. The move will also help protect piers from being damaged. (...)"

in Time

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