EconoBlog

The Shanghai Composite Index rose 9.3%, or 304.7 points, to close at 3,583.0 after tax was cut from 0.3% to 0.1%.

It is a clear sign that the government wants to support share prices, which had fallen 50% from their peak levels in October 2007.

The Labor Department reported Thursday that claims for unemployment benefits fell by 33,000 last week to 342,000. Economists had been expecting claims would rise by 3,000.

The four-week moving average for claims fell by 7,250 to 369,500. Even with the improvements, analysts are still worried that the weak economy is putting greater pressures on the labor market. The unemployment rate climbed to 5.1% in March as businesses laid off the largest number of workers in five years.

New home sales fell in March to the lowest level in more than 16 years, according to a key government report on the battered housing market released Wednesday.March sales came in at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 526,000, the Census Bureau report showed, down 8.5% from a revised 575,000 in February and down 36% from a year earlier. It was the lowest annual rate since October 1991.

Economists were expecting new home sales to decline to 580,000 from the originally reported 590,000, according to estimates compiled by Briefing.com.

Oracle today announced that it will host a Financial Services Global Leadership Summit, May 7-9, 2008, at the InterContinental Hotel in Athens, Greece. The summit will provide financial services industry professionals an opportunity to network with, and learn from, respected thought leaders in the banking, insurance and capital markets sectors - as well as explore how organizations are managing the challenges of increased regulatory pressure, complex global operations and rising demand for innovative customer service.

The Ford Motor Company said on Thursday that it earned $100 million in the first quarter, after a loss in the same quarter a year ago, a surprising improvement amid a slump in the United States market that has cut sales of lucrative trucks and sport utility vehicles. The company also warned of the possibility of more cuts in its work force.Ford’s automotive operations earned a pretax profit of $669 million, compared with a loss of $895 million a year ago, though the company continued its lengthy streak of money-losing quarters in North America.

Daimler AG’s Chief Executive Dieter Zetsche said he foresees an acquisition for the company’s truck division, reported Dow Jones, citing a report from Germany’s WirtschaftsWoche magazine. In an interview to be published Monday, Zetsche told WirtschaftsWoche that the company is considering the expansion of production capacity in Eastern Europe. A decision on whether a new plant might be built in Poland, the Czech Republic or Romania will be made “in the second quarter,” Zetsche said.

All quoted companies will be forced to detail carbon emissions in their annual reports after the Government took a controversed decision.

An amendment added to the Climate Change Bill last week is expected to go on the statute books this summer. It requires quoted companies to include carbon emission information as part of their annual business reviews. These would list emissions from company cars, boilers and on-site equipment.

Charlton Heston, who won the 1959 best actor Oscar as the chariot-racing “Ben-Hur” and portrayed Moses, Michelangelo, El Cid and other heroic figures in movie epics of the ’50s and ’60s, has died.
The actor, who for years was president of the National Rifle Association, died Saturday night at his home in Beverly Hills with his wife Lydia at his side, family spokesman Bill Powers said.

RIP

Producers of construction materials have become the main targets for private equity funds over the last two years in the wake of high growth rates and high profits.

Enterprise Investors, Oresa Ventures and Advent International were all involved in two acquisitions on the construction materials market (estimated to be worth around 6.5 billion euros last year) after the funds registered an over 30% annual growth rate, and hope to make a profitable exit in five years’ time.

Swiss group Sandoz, the second-largest player on the global market of generic drugs, is considering relocating its drug re-analysis centre from Germany, with the possible destinations including Romania and Poland.

“Our plans include investments worth one million euros this year. However, there is a very strong possibility that we will receive approval from the European Union for a re-analysis centre, which would entail a major investment,” said Iztok Sever, country head of Sandoz Romania, although he refused to specify the necessary investments for such a project.