Stock Market Live Blog: S&p 500 Hits Record; Dow In Triple-digit Gain

Toronto stock market advances, traders look to bank earnings, growth data

But Apple may be able to withstand the headwinds of waning appetite for new devices with the launch of an iPhone with a 5-inch display later this year, according to analyst Mark Moskowitz at J.P. Morgan. Moskowitz also speculated that the tech giant may introduce a new converged mobility and computing platform which he dubbed iAnywhere. While not a new idea, our global tech research team believes Apple could be on the cusp of introducing a new category with iAnywhere, a converged Mac OS iOS operating system that allows an iPhone or iPad to dock into a specially configured display to run as a computer. In his view, iAnywhere could be the stepping stone to boosting Apples peripherals and services sales, and at the same time, reduce its dependence on product cycles. 11:57 am EBay shareholders, please fasten your seatbelts by Sue Chang Add a Comment Bloomberg EBay Inc. /quotes/zigman/76117/delayed /quotes/nls/ebay EBAY shares rose 3.3% after activist investor Carl Icahn publicly called out the companys leadership for multiple failures going as far as to mentionChief Executive John Donahoe in a letter to eBays shareholders . We have discovered multiple lapses in corporate governance. These include certain material conflicts of interest, which we believe could put the future of our company in peril.

The tech sector was up 0.9 per cent with BlackBerry (TSX:BB) up 77 cents or 7.57 per cent to $10.94 amid an unconfirmed report from Bloomberg that automaker Ford will base the next-generation Sync system on the smartphone makeras QNX and no longer use Microsoftas Windows. Ford has been struggling with in-car technology flaws and has more than seven million vehicles on the road with Sync using Microsoft voice-activated software. The gold sector gained 0.4 per cent while the April gold contract was up $13.50 to a 3 1/2 month high of US$1,337.10 an ounce. Meanwhile, figures showed that average new home prices in Chinaas 70 major cities rose 9.6 per cent in the year to January, down on the 9.9 per cent rise recorded in December. The first slowdown since November 2012 has added to fears that the banks are beginning to tighten their lending and that could mean Chinese growth falters. The base metals segment led decliners, down 0.45 per cent as copper prices fell four cents to US$3.25 a pound following the release of the Chinese housing data.

Stock Investors Like The View In Europe

Asia Markets recap: China stocks take real-estate slam

Funds See Outflows By Feb. 23, 2014 1:46 p.m. ET U.S. fund managers are rediscovering their passion for Europeand not just as a vacation destination.

) This time around, Kim Eng Securities (its second mention in todays blog!) is citing a consensus forecast of $17.6 billion for net profit, though the broker itself is tipping just $16.6 billion. Its lowball projection is in part because they see HSBC incurring roughly twice theregulatory costs as cited in the average estimate. 1:00 am Upside for China’s air pollution? by Mike Kitchen Add a Comment Listen up, conspiracy http://www.prweb.com/releases/Mike-Dillard/releases-video/prweb10200410.htm theorists: A Chinese admiral says the nations deadly smog problem is actually a good thing when it comes to defending the country. Navy Maj-Gen.Zhang Zhaozhong was quoted in reports as saying the polluted air plaguing large swaths of the country would significantly cut into the accuracy of a new futuristic U.S. laser canon (the first of which is set to be deployed this summer aboard the interestingly named USS Ponce). Under conditions where there is no smog, a laser weapon can fire [at a range of] 10 kilometers.

B.c. Health Going After Millions In Unpaid Bills

The Provincial Health Services Authority would not comment on the closed bid, citing confidentiality. Inpatient accounts include charges for hospital rooms, residential care, preferred rooms, medical supplies, emergency fees and diagnostics, and are generally much higher bills than outpatient accounts. The charges on outpatient bills tend to be related to medical supplies, emergency fees and diagnostics. The request notes the average combined debt owed to health authorities in B.C. is more than $8 million a year.

Investment Strategist Has Bright Outlook For South Florida

A guide to Iridian Asset Management’s investment strategy

To place it online click here. If you have a suggestion for a staff-written obituary, please send an email to dadenews@MiamiHerald.com Headlines Hurricane Coverage See the full forecast and storm coverage Investment strategist has bright outlook for South Florida By Evan S. Benn The Miami Herald ebenn@MiamiHerald.com Jobs, wages and real estate prices will keep climbing this year in South Florida, as will government, corporate and consumer spending, a global investment strategist said Tuesday. Things are moving in the right direction, and the probabilities suggest that theyre going to continue to do so, Richard Golod said. Golod, director of global investment strategies for Invesco , spoke to about 250 members and guests of the Executives Association of Fort Lauderdale . He presented the keynote address at the business groups annual economic forecast breakfast at the Marriott Harbor Beach Resort. This winters spike in extreme weather in many parts of the country will likely affect investment markets in the short-term, Golod said. Overall, his outlook was optimistic, especially for U.S. markets, less so for European ones; he cautioned against investing in emerging markets.

<img src='http://media.miamiherald.com/smedia/2014/02/18/20/56/vukAD.Em.56.jpeg&#039; width='200px' alt='Back in December, the football players of Booker T. Washington High Elevation Group celebrated their Class 4A championship, on a double decker bus in the streets of Overtown. Dec. 19, 2013.’ style=’float:left;padding:5px’ />

Iridian recently filed their 4Q 13F with new positions initiated such as Hertz Global Holdings Inc (HTZ), Starwood Hotels & Resorts (HOT), Covidien Plc (COV), Seaworld Entertainment Inc (SEAS). The fund sold Crown Holdings Inc (CCK) and Baxter International Inc (BAX). Asia stocks in hesitant mood; euro holds gains Asian share markets were in hesitant mood on Wednesday as investors keep a wary eye on interest rates in China, though the euro left the dollar in its dust after soft U.S. economic data argued for the Federal Reserve to be patient on stimulus. The action was light, with MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan barely budging. Japan’s Nikkei pared its early losses to be off 0.6 percent, battling to maintain the momentum of Tuesday’s 3 percent rally which followed a decision by the Bank of Japan to expand a scheme to encourage more bank lending. The move was taken as a sign that the central bank was open to further easing steps, which many expect will be needed once an increase in Japan’s sales tax is enacted in April. 10 mins ago Darker U.S. homebuilder mood not just due to bad weather (Reuters) – A plunge in U.S.

Health Experts Warn Of Water Contamination From California Drought

Last month, Democratic Governor Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency, as reservoir levels dipped to all-time lows with little rain or snow in the forecast. On Tuesday, the state’s top public health officials said they were targeting 10 communities for immediate relief, trucking in water when necessary and helping to lay pipes connecting residents with nearby public water systems. Worst hit is the small city of Willits in the northern part of the state, public health director Ron Chapman said. Also targeted for priority help included tiny water systems throughout the state, one so small it serves 55 people in a community listed simply as Whispering Pines Apartments. “Small drinking water systems are especially vulnerable to drought conditions,” the public health department said on its website. “They have fewer customers, which can mean fewer options in terms of resources like funding and infrastructure.” STAGNANT POOLS, CONTAMINATED WELLS Linda Rudolph, co-director for the Center for Climate Change and Health in Oakland and a former state health official, said millions of Californians rely on wells and other sources of groundwater where the concentration of contaminants is growing because of dry conditions.

Bing food, health, and travel apps arrive on Windows Phone

You can look up common medical terms, procedures, and medications to learn more about them. Lastly, you can punch your symptoms into the Symptom Checker to get an idea of what might be ailing you. The final new Bing app hitting Windows Phone is Bing Travel , which lets you book flights and hotels, track your flight status, and helps you find worthwhile attractions while you’re traveling. The app gets much of its information from TripAdvisor, a site where anyone can leave reviews of hotels and attractions, as well as travel-guide site Frommer’s. Microsoft also updated its existing Bing news, weather, sports, and finance apps for Windows Phone so that all of your settings and content from those apps will sync with the Bing apps on your Windows tablet or PC. That means if you customize your news feed in the Bing Sports app to show updates on your favorite teams, you’ll see that information in the same app on your Windows 8 tablet, and vice versa. Many of the existing apps are also getting a few new features, such as mortgage calculator in the Bing Finance app.

Financial Analytics Market – Worldwide Market Forecasts To 2018

The finance function also helps in the development of strategy maps to monitor financial as well as non-financial performance indicators. In addition to this, it moves from cost center budgeting control to financial forecasts with the implementation of predictive analytics in regular finance function. The traditional finance function provides overall view of the organization; it requires some analytical approach to find out the insights from the reported findings. The predictive models help to estimate the future results and outcomes based on the present and historical data analysis. The visualization software implements various techniques to present complex data into graphical formats. The graphical representation of financial data simplifies the complexity and every department head can understand financial performance without knowing financial techniques.

Investing Strategies That Will Outlive Us All

Investment Elevation Group Strategy For All Seasons: The ‘No Strategy’ Strategy

While those are the headline numbers for most investors, the truth is that the domestic indexes have all been climbing the proverbial wall of worry. The Russell 2000 is up nearly 24%, the S&P Midcap 400 is up over 20% this year, and 14 of the 16 broad-market domestic indexes created by Morningstar are up over 18%. While it is possible to find a few pockets of the world doing better most notably funds focused on Japan or Asia it is an area where investors intuitively feel they are taking on more risk. Click to Play How to achieve the American dream Chuck Jaffe looks at how and why the American dream looks different now than it did for past generations. Portfolios and mutual funds built around asset allocation meaning they are diversified across asset classes must hold some assets that cant keep up. That is why of Morningstars 44 target-risk and target-date indexes, none are within five percentage points of the big domestic indexes. Even the categories of investment that have been generating the most buzz for the way they help smooth out performance funds pursuing alternative investment strategies are badly lagging the domestic market, according to Morningstar.

Their trading ideas are concrete enough, but often the timeframes are stretched over years or decades impossible to prove or disprove until far too late. Their advice is doled out with an eyedropper to the media to generate interest, and these market strategist types do often have a legitimate advisory job to do, even if its just showing up at meetings and speaking in public once a month. Does having a strategy matter, assuming you could even access this level of advice? Not really. In fact, the research shows that the best strategy is no strategy. Dont hide out in cash , waiting for a down market to buy. Dont load up on stocks and ignore bonds, or vice versa. The no strategy strategy is to own the market, all of it.

Wendy Davis Says She Supports Medical Marijuana

But I think watching to see how this experiment plays out in other states is probably advisable before I could tell you for sure.” Gov. Rick Perry has said he supports decriminalizing possession of small amounts of marijuana, partially because the state is trying to keep non-violent offenders out of prisons. He opposes legalizing the drug and would continue to make selling it illegal. Perry and other Republicans, though, oppose medical marijuana that Davis said she would legalize, if Texas voters supported it. “I personally believe that medical marijuana should be allowed for,” she said.

Stock-market Tail Wags Economic Dog

Stock market jitters: After last year’s record run, are you surprised?

5, 2014 4:18 p.m. ET The sudden, sharp drop in stocks is nothing to worry about. Yet. It has been a perilous time for markets. Trouble in emerging markets, a spate of soft economic reports and the Federal Reserve’s decision to keep paring back bond purchases have set nerves on edge. In the past two weeks, the S&P 500 has fallen about 5%. Not since late 2012 has it fallen so far in so short a time. Even so, the selloff has only taken the…

What they said was, well, were worried about China. Our biggest export is copper, and China, theyre our biggest buyer. Now China has to clean up its act, and that hasnt been a transparent market, says Williams. So we dont know how bad the banks are, or when the government is going to get more aggressive at requiring banks to account for the true losses, and true-up their books, so to speak. But if these global currency problems were central to this weeks market stumbles, there are other disturbing domestic trends, some analysts say. For one, interest rates have been declining for the past few decades, and they will eventually start to tick up again after the Feds stimulus comes to an end, putting pressure on corporate profit margins. And so far this year, 44 S&P 500 companiesare forecasting lower-than-expected earnings this year, while only 10 have increased their 2014 outlooks, according to data from FactSet.