Singapore has fewer women in boardrooms than China

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Despite having a high workforce participation rate for women and one of highest literary rates for women in the region, Singapore significantly lags global peers in the number of females on the boards of its publicly-listed companies, a new study found.

Of the 677 Singapore Exchange (SGX)-listed companies studied, 7.9 percent of board directors were women, a report by National University of Singapore (NUS) Business School and BoardAgender showed.

While, this is a slight improvement from 7.3 percent and 6.9 percent in 2012 and 2011, respectively, Singapore is far behind regional and developed nation peers.

Read more: Want to outperform? Put women on your board

Female representation in boardrooms stood at 9.0 percent in China, 9.4 percent in Hong Kong, 11.6 percent in Indonesia and 15.8 percent in Australia, according this year`s study.

“The bleak data on Singapore is a surprise considering the country is known for meritocracy and provides both men and women equal opportunity in both education and employment,” said Kelly Teoh, market strategist at IG.

At the current rate of improvement, it will take until 2026 for Singapore to catch up to regional benchmark Australia – that is, if Australia remains at current gender diversity levels, the report said.

Most developed countries recorded a rate above 15 percent, with 16.6 percent in the US and 17.0 percent in the European Union. Scandinavian nations Finland, Sweden and Norway, meanwhile, ranged between 27 and 41 percent.

Read more: Top boardrooms: No-go areas for women, minorities

In an analysis of the relationship between the proportion of female directors and firm performance, the study found that more gender diversity had a positive effect on return on assets (ROA) and return on equity (ROE), but not stock market returns.

Board diversity was also positive for corporate governance. Companies featuring above-average female board representation scored higher on factors such as transparency and investor relations as well as accounting and auditing.

“Bringing this back to the financial markets…in situations where investors find that stock prices no longer justify valuations, they will now be able add another measure to the growth potential of a company by looking at the quality and diversity of its board members, said Teoh.

Read more: South Korean women struggle in workforce

-By CNBC’s Ansuya Harjani; Follow her on Twitter:Ansuya_H

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US the top energy producer for a little while

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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The International Energy Agency said last week that the United States is likely to become the world’s top oil producer by 2016, overtaking Saudi Arabia and bringing the nation closer to energy independence.

While it’s been a widely held notion in the marketplace that increases in North American supply — meaning the US and Canada combined — would bring about a sea change in the crude market, last week’s IEA report noted that US dominance will last for only four years.

So while the highly anticipated production surge will help reduce the West’s dependence on OPEC output, how much does it really matter in the longer term? And is the IEA correct in its assumption that the boom in Texas and North Dakota oilfields will be past its prime by 2020?

“There are real questions about the longevity of the fields,” said John Kilduff, founding partner of Again Capital. “The early going has seen rapid decline rates [in Texas and North Dakota] after about year two or three, which seems to keep the drillers on the move. The rapid advances and rise in production have moved the date forward as to when the US becomes No. 1.”

Other analysts see more longevity in the fields, however. Justin Jenkins, research associate at Raymond James, said, “Our views on technological advancements continue to bolster our thoughts that US production will continue to grow throughout the decade. As we approach the end of the decade, the growth rates will decline, but our models don’t show any major declines.”

The production boom discussion comes as concerns about supply seem almost nonexistent. In the last three months alone, the US benchmark crude price, West Texas Intermediate, has fallen more than 12 percent, from just under USD 108 a barrel to slightly less than USD 94 now.

The slide is good news for consumers, as gas prices have been dropping nationwide. They are down 38 cents from a month ago, with the national average for a gallon of regular at USD 3.19 and even dipping below $3.00 in parts of the country.

Read more: Big city gluttony in North Dakota

What’s even more noteworthy about the WTI price is its recent resistance to influence by geopolitical news, specifically headlines out of the Middle East. Domestic crude prices hardly reacted last week when Iran failed to negotiate a deal with the international community on shutting down its nuclear weapons program, while they would have been volatile on similar news a year ago.

But regardless of what’s happening at this moment, the IEA report indicates that US oil prices are unlikely to be free of OPEC’s influence.

“Impacts from the Middle East will still hold some sway,” said Kilduff. “While the US may not have to be concerned about outright shortages, a supply disruption will still spike Brent prices, taking WTI and Gulf Coast prices up with it. There is increasing pressure to allow crude oil exports from the US, as well, which would also put US prices back in play, subject to geopolitical upset.”

Read more: Top energy, lobbying firms said near a merger

Jenkins echoed that position, saying that geopolitical issues will continue be a driving factor in oil prices.

“As we’ve seen with the supply disruptions in Libya, any deterioration in the supply outlook from the Middle East will boost the fear premium in oil prices. However, seaborne crudes like Brent will likely be affected to a greater degree than a domestic benchmark like WTI,” he said.

So where do oil prices go from here? Kilduff and Jenkins both believe they’re headed lower.

Read more: Foreign buyers are getting in on US energy boom

“I expect Saudi Arabia and OPEC to do what they can to curtail production and support prices for a time,” Kilduff said. “Prices could, however, easily trade down to $40 per barrel if supplies really back up. The large amount of oil trapped in Western Canada’s oil sands region is trading about $45 below WTI right now, which gives you a sense of where WTI prices themselves could go.

“The pipeline work being done to move barrels out of Cushing, Okla., will help stave this off for a while, but I refer to it as a movable glut. Gulf Coast prices will come under pressure, giving a great price advantage to the refiners in that region, especially the Houston Ship Channel,” he added.

Jenkins also thinks prices are going lower as “the structural supply-demand fundamentals point to an oversupplied market that should only get worse over the next several years.”

He is not quite as bearish as Kilduff, though. Raymond James forecasts that domestic oil prices in 2015 will be USD 70 a barrel and that Brent will trade at $90 a barrel.

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Is London’s property rally different this time?

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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The London property market’s rush higher may not end in tears anytime soon despite an over 60 percent rally since 2009 and concerns a bubble may be forming.

“Certainly, there’s a lot of speculation (about a bubble) given the growth in values we’ve seen over the last couple of years and this surge in demand, particularly from Southeast Asian buyers,” Tom Eshelby, residential director at Land Securities, told CNBC.

But he added, the supply-and-demand situation in prime central London’s luxury end is favorable, with limited new supply and ever-increasing demand from around the world.

(Read more: Singapore’s wealthy help drive global property demand)

“London seems to have taken on a bit of safe-haven status over the last few years for investors around the world,” Eshelby said, leading to an uptick in buyers.

He doesn’t expect rising interest rates will affect these buyers much. “Whilst they may use finance to purchase, they probably aren’t reliant on that finance,” he said. “Their focus is really more on capital growth,” he said, noting the segment also doesn’t see much flipping of newly purchased units.

He expects an average 5-6 percent price growth a year over the next five years. “I do think that’s at a sustainable level of growth,” he said.

(Read more: Where’s the next property bubble building?)

In London, the average home price came in at 393,462 pounds in September, according to data from the Land Registry, up 1.9 percent from August and 9.3 percent from September 2012. The average property value in England and Wales was 167,063 in September, according to the data.

In cental London, the average price in the Westminster burough was 829,251 pounds in September, up 3.8 percent from September 2012, while properties in Kensington and Chelsea averaged 1.17 million pounds in September, up 7.5 percent from September 2012.

Global real-estate consultancy Knight Frank also doesn’t expect central London’s property prices to hit a speed bump any time soon.

(Read more: Canary Wharf to get Europe’s tallest residential tower)

While the segment’s prices are already above their early-2008 pre-financial crisis peak after rising over 60 percent from their March 2009 post-crash low, “price growth will continue,” it said in a report.

Knight Frank expects prices may stall in 2015 in the uncertainty surrounding the run-up to the UK general election, but it forecasts they will still outpace inflation.

It projects prime central London prices will rise 4.0 percent in 2014, stall in 2015, before resuming their rise at around 5.0 percent a year, for 20 percent cumulative growth by the end of 2018.

(Read more: China’s appetite for offshore prime property booming)

“We expect strong domestic and international demand to continue to support price growth in central London,” it said. But it added, prime central London may no longer lead price gains ahead.

Certain areas of London may see property prices outperform due to the launch of the Crossrail service, it said.

“As the opening of the high-speed service approaches, we foresee prices in and around central London stations gaining extra momentum,” it said.

(Read more: Overseas spree on luxury London property chokes local business)

“There will instead be a ‘doughnut’ effect, as prices in the 29 boroughs surrounding the prime London core begin to accelerate at a faster pace,” the report said. “The sheer demand to live in or around London, coupled with the lack of supply in the Greater London area, will underpin this price growth.”

Much of the fresh demand may be domestic, it said, noting the London area’s relatively brighter outlook compared with the rest of the UK.

It forecasts prime outer London prices will rise a cumulative 23.0 percent by the end of 2018.

—By CNBC.Com’s Leslie Shaffer; Follow her on Twitter@LeslieShaffer1

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Oxford Dictionaries word of the year is

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Selfie was named as Oxford Dictionaries’ word of the year on Tuesday, following a sharp rise in the usage of the term, which refers to a photograph one has taken of oneself, typically with a smartphone or webcam and uploaded to a social media website.

The frequency of the word selfie in the English language has risen some 17,000 percent from a year ago, research conducted by Oxford Dictionaries editors shows.

“Using the Oxford Dictionaries language research program, which collects around 150 million words of current English in use each month, we can see a phenomenal upward trend in the use of selfie in 2013, and this helped to cement its selection as Word of the Year,” Judy Pearsall, editorial director for Oxford Dictionaries, said in a statement.

Read more: ‘Selfie’ and ‘phablet’ added to the English dictionary

Selfie is just one word among others such as phablet and coffice that have made it into modern-day language. Another buzz word this year has been twerk, which refers to dancing in a sexually provocative manner and made famous by singer Miley Cyrus at the MTV Video Music Awards in August.

Read more: ‘Coffices’ take off as the work place goes mobile

The words twerk, digital currency Bitcoin and binge-watch, which means watching multiple episodes of a TV program in quick succession, were all on the short list for Oxford Dictionaries’ word of the year.

According to Oxford Dictionaries, while the word ‘selfie’ has been around for a few years, its usage has shot up in the past 12 months.

It said the use of the word has become mainstream thanks to social media and photo-sharing websites such as Instagram and Flickr, with the widespread use of smartphones ensuring that selfies are easier to produce and share.

Photos of well-known personalities posing for photos taken by a mobile phone may have helped the growing popularity of the term.

Read more: Funeral ‘selfies’? Yes, people actually do that

Pope Francis, leader of the estimated 1.2 billion Catholics around the world, posed with young Italians for a photo taken by a phone earlier this year in what has been described as the first papal selfie.

Selfie is not yet in the Oxford English Dictionary, but is being considered for future inclusion, Oxford Dictionaries said.

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Asia can swing with the Fed, but shouldn’t mess with China

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Asian stock prices marked a broad-based increase last week – after three weeks of consecutive declines – on news that Janet Yellen (the future chair of the US Federal Reserve) pledged to maintain the current monetary stimulus, and on some details emerging from the meeting of China’s key policy-making committee.

The question is: were these events just a trigger for a trading burst based on Asian market fundamentals, or did investors take them as meaningful investment strategy signals?

Read more: Markets soothed by Yellen, watching data

There is probably some combination of both, but it does seem that Yellen’s easy Senate confirmation hearing and China’s reforms were the main drivers of large capital inflows into Asian equity markets.

I shall, therefore, take a closer look at Fed and China events to assess their significance for portfolio investments in the coming months and beyond.

Doing the same thing and expecting different result

The first question I would ask is this: what did Janet Yellen say to sustain positive trading bets on Asia? The answer is: nothing new and unexpected; she simply repeated that printing presses would continue to run overtime “for the foreseeable future.” Markets, of course, should have known that without undue analytic strain.

And did she provide any new, or unexpected, rationale for pledging to continue the policy which – after more than three years of recovery – still has the economy growing at only about half its non-inflationary growth potential? Again, the answer is “no.”

Was she challenged to explain why the monetary policy was not delivering what one would normally expect from an unprecedented credit easing in US history? No, she was not, even though the policy she is espousing looks like “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results” — an intellectually unflattering quip attributed to Albert Einstein.

Read more: Taper,no taper—where does Yellen draw the line?

Following Einstein’s wisecrack, was it necessary to keep printing money to expand the Fed’s monetary base to a mind-boggling USD 3.7 trillion (a data point published by the Fed on November 13, 2013) and banks’ excess reserves (i.e., loanable funds) to USD 2.4 trillion when monthly averages of their consumer lending over the last two-and-a-half years were stuck in a very narrow range?

Indeed, the slowdown of banks’ loans to households to an annual increase of 3 percent in the third quarter of this year is not the kind of consumer finance needed to lift 70 percent of the US economy to levels that would avoid the current waste of its human and capital resources. And, as I noted in an earlier column, this is not the question of weak loan demand; non-bank lending to consumers is currently soaring at an annual rate of more than 8 percent.

Jamming with the Fed

Was it too impolite, or impolitic, for US senators to ask Ms. Yellen why all this was happening, and why she thought that continuing the same policy would yield a different result?

Well, if they did not ask, it does not mean that you – investors – should not ask.

And neither should you fall for the bromide that the Fed knows how to withdraw this huge wall of money in an ‘orderly’ way. Markets apparently have a different idea about that.

Remember what happened last September when it looked like the Fed might begin to cut back on its USD 85 billion of monthly asset purchases? Asian markets took a beating, Asian leaders got screaming that the US should be more mindful of the impact of its monetary policies on the rest of the world, and, according to some estimates, more than USD 300 million of emerging market bonds were dumped in a few days before the Fed said that it won’t be reducing its monthly asset purchases (also known as “tapering”).

Read more: Critics to Yellen: Show some QE regret

But whenever the Fed begins to “taper” – which, according to some Fed governors, could happen as early as next month – expect what the former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called America’s “jazz-like diplomacy.” In other words, following that wonderful and quintessential American musical genre, expect a long period of Fed’s policy improvisation.

Asia, therefore, should get ready to swing and jam with the Fed. No amount of screaming and finger pointing will do. And the best way for Asia to swing will be to get its economies in good shape. That means – just as the line from a famous jazz song says “take it while you can” – that Asia should take advantage of cheap money and favorable exchange rates it now has to (a) cut budget deficits and public debt, (b) narrow trade gaps and (c) hold inflation down.

And don’t mess with China

China is doing a bit of that; it is tightening its economic management to take all this in stride.

Asian analysts are wasting time trying to find out exactly what, when and how Beijing will do what its key policy making committee (the Third Plenary Session of the 18th Communist Party of China Central Committee) set out in its road map. They, and other China-watchers, should realize that everything is covered in the document (published last Tuesday evening, November 12, 2013) on the country’s sweeping reform process covering the economy, financial markets, judicial system, national security, party’s role and social policies. There is no improvisation here.

Some less contentious and simpler issues will be solved rapidly – as was the case with changes to the one-child policy and the abolition of labor camps. More challenging technical and political problems will be tackled with the tried and tested Chinese pragmatism — “crossing the river by feeling the stones.” There probably will be a whiff of improvisation here, but the party will control and make sure that all remains within the confines of “socialism with Chinese characteristics.”

Read more: Economics behind China relaxing its one-child policy

China’s Asian neighbors should not allow territorial issues to degenerate into confrontation and what, rightly or wrongly, Beijing perceives as hostile policies to obstruct its economic and political standing in the region. That would be damaging to Asia’s huge potential of economic development.

Remember, it took 40 years of tough negotiations for China and Russia to settle their border issues. India and China are now into their 50th year of technical and political dialogue about contested frontier regions.

And here is some anecdotal evidence about the economic dividend of friendly and peaceful Asian relations. On a private visit to a major Asian capital a year ago, I saw many gleaming condominium towers with billboards advertising easy sales – “nothing down,” “0 percent interest rates,” “special bonuses available,” etc. Aha, I said, that looks like what I saw in parts of Florida in 2007 and 2008. But when I recently returned to that city, billboards were gone and replaced by the eyesore of drying linen on elegant balconies in the city center.

What happened? A local acquaintance told me that most of those empty residential towers were sold out to mainland Chinese.

Read more: China’s early-bird investors are left holding the worm

I understood things a bit better when in my fully booked five-star hotel there were only a few sun-starved north Europeans, formerly the main customers in Asian tropics. Again, most of the rooms were rented out to the Chinese trying to escape their debilitating air and water pollution.

The next day, I boarded a completely sold jumbo jet flight originating in Shanghai en route to a popular Indian Ocean tourist destination. Visitor arrivals from China have reportedly doubled in the first nine months of this year in some Asian holiday spots.

Clearly, China is driving an incredibly fast-changing economic scene in Asia. With more than 300 million of an increasingly prosperous and well educated middle class (roughly half of all urban dwellers), that is hardly surprising. These are the people that will carry the Asian economy. These are also the people that are forcing China’s leadership to get in step with the times by paying greater attention to social justice, income equality and better public services – all part of the program of ongoing structural reforms.

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What’s hot on Asia’s market agenda this week

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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With the release of HSBC’s flash report on China manufacturing activity, a speech by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, Japanese export data and a Bank of Japan meeting, Asian markets have plenty to chew over this week.

Add to that news from China late last Friday detailing reform plans for its economy discussed at the Third Plenum, which are also in focus. The reforms include easing China’s controversial one-child policy, encouraging private investment in housing and easing government control on setting interest rates.

“What I can see coming from the 60 point plan is several key overriding themes: notably self-sufficiency, a consuming nation, not just an export nation,” said Evan Lucas, market strategist at trading firm IG, in a note. “This will be the single biggest change to how China operates and how they do business with the world.”

(Read more: Success of Chinese leader’s plan may rest on rural regions)

Analysts said the release of HSBC’s flash purchasing managers index (PMI) of Chinese manufacturing activity on Friday would also fall under the spotlight as an indicator of economic conditions in the world’s second biggest economy.

In October, the final reading of the HSBC China PMI was 50.9, unchanged from a flash estimate.

“Focus will be on China’s HSBC PMI flash estimate as a leading indicator of the broader Asian recovery. We expect a measured uptick rather than a surge,” analysts at Mizuho Corporate Bank said in a note.

Bernanke takes the stand

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is expected to deliver a speech on Tuesday, while the minutes of the Fed’s last meeting are expected on Wednesday. Both could potentially move markets, sensitive to any news that might shed some light on when the Fed could start tapering its bond-buying program.

(Read more: Christmas taper coming? This week will drop a hint)

“We don’t think it will be long before tapering comes. It could come earlier than investors expect,” Frederic Neumann, managing director and co-head of Asian economics research, told CNBC Asia’s “Squawk Box” on Monday.

Elsewhere, the Bank of Japan concludes a two-day monetary policy meeting on Thursday, while the minutes from the Reserve Bank of Australia’s latest meeting are due on Tuesday.

No major changes to policy are anticipated from Japan’s central bank, but there could be some interest in Japanese trade data out on Wednesday, analysts said.

Exports are expected to rise 16.5 percent in October from a year earlier, according to a Reuters poll of analysts, after a rise of 11.5 percent in September.

Thai GDP due

Later on Monday, Thailand releases its third-quarter gross domestic product (GDP) data.

Economists polled by Reuters forecast the Thai economy expanded 2.9 percent on the year in the third quarter, compared with a 2.8 percent rise the quarter before.

(Read more: No capital controls for Thailand: Finance Minister)

Thailand’s economy entered a technical recession in the second quarter, registering a 0.3 percent quarter-on-quarter contraction, after shrinking 1.7 percent in the first quarter.

“I think Thailand came out of a recession in the third quarter,” said Neumann. “If you look at the fourth quarter, political turmoil is likely to weigh on economic growth so we’re cautious on the outlook,” he said, referring to recent anti-government protests.

—By CNBC.Com’s Dhara Ranasinghe; Follow her on Twitter @DharaCNBC

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Christmas taper coming? This week will drop a hint

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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With the market nervously wondering whether the Federal Reserve will start to reduce their quantitative easing program, a few critical clues could come this week. Between Chairman Ben Bernanke’s speech on Tuesday night and the release of FOMC minutes on Wednesday, investors will seek to determine whether a December taper is now on the table.

In addition, the intense, taper-related scrutiny of the jobs market will give Thursday’s initial jobless claims data an added importance.

“The week, we really want to be focused on the typical Fed kind of talk—but I also want to look at that jobless claims number, because the Fed is very dependent on data for their December meeting,” said Jeff Kilburg of KKM Financial. “So keep an eye on all the data points once again.”

George Goncalves, the head of US rates strategy at Nomura, expects the minutes from the Federal Open Market Committee’s October meeting to be much more revealing than Bernanke’s Washington speech.

“We believe that Bernanke will continue to emphasize the committee views and be more balanced, so as not to steal the thunder of Janet Yellen as she takes over eventually,” Goncalves wrote to CNBC.com. But “the minutes could be revealing, because the last meeting statement was perceived on the hawkish side, so any insights on the Fed’s next steps and their thoughts on fiscal issues will be keenly watched.”

All eyes are on the Fed’s December 18th statement, which will be followed by a press conference. Just a week before Christmas, the Fed could finally make the long-awaited (and long-feared) announcement that they will reduce the pace of their $85 billion-per-month bond buying program.

Read more: You’re wrong—QE has not boosted stocks: McKinsey

In fact, Andrew Wilkinson, the chief economic strategist at Miller Tabak, said that markets ignore that possibility at their own peril.

“In the market, there is too much emphasis based on the lack of a potential for imminent tapering,” Wilkinson said. “But this is certainly something that could happen at the December meeting.”

After all, Wilkinson hearkens back to the September meeting, when the Fed strongly signaled tapering, before keeping the pace of asset purchases consistent.

“It’s been proven that this is data-dependent and at the mercy of the development of the economy, but we’re back to the sort of data we had in September that created a groundswell of opinion—provoked by the chairman—that the Fed would begin tapering,” he said. “Everyone knows that bond purchases are going to come to an end at some point. And if you look at the payroll numbers, I think they are probably strong enough. It suggests that the Fed is prepared to look at the cumulative improvement in the labor market and say in December that it’s an appropriate time to move.”

Read more: Get ready for a Christmas rally: Trader

So with Bernanke’s speech, the FOMC minutes, and the initial jobless claims all possibly shedding light on the tapering timeline, how are markets likely to respond this week?

“I’m going to look for bond markets to push lower as we get further guidance from the Fed, ” said Todd Gordon of TradingAnalysis.com.

—By CNBC’s Alex Rosenberg. Follow him on Twitter: @CNBCAlex.

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Taper likely in next couple of months: Morgan Stanley

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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A tapering in the US Federal Reserve’s massive stimulus is the right thing to do against the backdrop of a recovery economy and a scaling back of the stimulus program can be expected in the next couple of months, Morgan Stanley Chairman and CEO James Gorman told CNBC on Thursday.

“Every now and then, markets behave like schoolchildren. They overreact, they run around like crazy. We know we’re going to have tapering, we know we are living in an artificial state of excess liquidity right now and it’s happening because the economy is recovering,” he said.

“The best result is the economy is demonstrating it truly is recovering and tapering happens. It’s a good outcome. If someone is surprised by this over the next couple of months and it will occur in the next couple of months, then shame on them. There’s been plenty of warning here,” Gorman added.

Speculation about when the Fed will start to unwind its USD 85 billion-a-month asset purchase program has dominated markets for months.

In September, the central bank took markets by surprise by not starting to taper its monetary stimulus and in October expectations for when the scaling back may begin were pushed back amid a partial government shutdown and political wrangling over the debt ceiling.

Gorman, in Singapore for Morgan Stanley’s annual Asia-Pacific Summit, said that had it not been for the political turmoil, “we would have had tapering by now.”

Morgan Stanley last month reported a 50 percent jump in third-quarter revenue, helping its adjust earnings beat analyst expectations, as higher income from equities sales and trade offset a drop in the bank’s fixed-income business.

Trading activity in the bond market has slowed significantly in recent months on speculation about a tapering of the Federal Reserve’s bond-buying program, hurting Wall Street banks.

Gorman said that Morgan Stanley was moving from a period of recovery to a period of performance.

“It’s been five years since the crisis. Major strategic blocks have been done, we’ve re-balanced the firm in terms of wealth and asset management, shored up the capital base and liquidity and cut our leverage dramatically,” he said.

Gorman said that as the global economy recovers, more companies were likely to list their shares. Last week, the shares of micro- blogging website Twitter soared in their first day of trading on the new York Stock Exchange.

“The Twitter IPO is a great example of bringing innovative companies to investors. I don’t tweet, I stay away from social media because I’ve found people have tried to mimic me,” Gorman said.

Copyright 2011 cnbc.com

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Samsung creams Apple in third quarter smartphone sales

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Samsung sold almost three times as many smartphones as rival Apple in the third quarter, according to Gartner, reflecting the South Korean tech giant’s growing dominance in the increasingly competitive industry.

Vendors worldwide sold 80,357 Samsung smartphones to end users, during the July-September period, compared with just 30,330 Apple handsets, new data from the technology research firm released late Thursday showed.

Samsung’s share of the global smartphone market stood at 32.1 percent in the third quarter, unchanged from the same period in 2012, while Apple’s share fell to 12.1 percent, from 14.3 percent. In the second quarter of 2013, Samsung’s share was 31.7 percent, while Apple’s was 14.2 percent.

“While Samsung’s share was flat in the third quarter, Samsung increased its lead over Apple in the global smartphone market. The launch of the Samsung Note 3 helped reaffirm Samsung as the clear leader in the large display smartphone market, which it pioneered,” Gartner said, referring to Samsung’s latest “phablet” – oversized smartphone handsets that are a cross between a phone and tablet.

Anshul Gupta, principal research analyst at Gartner said that while the arrival of the new iPhones 5s and 5c had a positive impact on Apple’s overall sales, the boost to sales could have been greater had Apple not started shipping late in the quarter.

“While we saw some inventory built up for the iPhone 5c, there was good demand for iPhone 5s with stock out in many markets,” said Gupta.

Overall, global smartphone sales reached 250.2 million units, up 45.8 percent from the third quarter of 2012, led by growth in Asia-Pacific.

Lenovo shines

While Lenovo (Hong Kong Stock Exchange: 992-HK) lagged the duopoly of Samsung and Apple, the Chinese PC maker’s sales soared 85 percent on-year to 12.9 million units, thanks to robust growth in the mainland market.

Lenovo, which recently accelerated its foray into mobile devices, became the world’s third-largest smartphone maker by shipments in the third quarter, replacing South Korea’s LG Electronics.

Its market share stood at 5.1 percent in the third quarter – up from 4.1 percent in the same period a year earlier – compared with LG’s 4.8 percent, according to Gartner.

Copyright 2011 cnbc.com

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Shoplifting cost the world USD 112 bn last year

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Retail theft, or “shrink”- a loss of inventory due to factors such as shoplifting, employee or supplier fraud and organized retail crime – cost retailers over USD 112 billion worldwide last year, according to the 2012-2013 Global Retail Theft Barometer.

Shrink rose in most countries with global retailers blaming sluggish economic recoveries and organized retail crime for high theft rates, according to a study by retail security firm Checkpoint Systems and market research company Euromonitor.

“As a growing share of the population struggles to meet its financial obligations, the occurrence of both shoplifting and employee theft reportedly rose,” the report said.

“Shoplifting is on average the most important cause of shrinkage in all countries reviewed, followed by employee theft,” it added.

Read more: Retailers track employee thefts in vast databases

The study surveyed 157 companies in 16 countries covering 160,000 stores. The companies generated more than USD 1.5 trillion in sales in 2012.

The highest shrink rates were recorded in Brazil and Mexico at 1.6 percent of overall retail sales, followed closely by the US and China at 1.5 percent.

The lowest rates were seen in Japan and Australia at 1.0 and 1.1 percent, respectively.

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The most stolen merchandise are typically small, easy to steal and hide, have a relatively high value and offer the possibility of resale.

These include fashion accessories, jeans, footwear and lingerie, high-value electronics such as Apple products, electronic games, mobile device accessories and consumer health products including allergy treatments and milk formula.

“Shrink is a multi-dimensional threat for retailers across the globe, with shoplifting and employee theft, including organized crime, on the rise,” said Katharina Kunze, associate consultant at Euromonitor.

“Growing shrink concerns have put loss prevention high on the agenda of retail companies keen to invest in effective and proven loss prevention methods such as collaborating with technology companies and specialists for loss management solutions,” Kunze said.

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-By CNBC`s Ansuya Harjani; Follow her on Twitter:@Ansuya_H

Copyright 2011 cnbc.com

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow