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Unemployment across the 17-nation eurozone hit a record 18 million in July, the EU statistics agency says. Some 88,000 more people were added to the jobless total, but upwardly-revised data for June meant the unemployment rate remained at 11.3%.
Eurostat said the 18,002,000 jobless total was the highest since records began in 1995. The highest unemployment rate in the eurozone was in Spain, at 25.1%. The lowest was in Austria, at 4.5%.
Compared with a year ago, the unemployment rate fell in 10 eurozone countries, increased in 16 and remained stable in Slovenia. The largest falls were observed in Estonia (13.2% to 10.1%), Lithuania (15.2% to 13.0%) and Latvia (17.0% to 15.9%)
Meanwhile, the highest increases were registered in Greece (16.8% to 23.1%), Spain (21.7% to 25.1%) and Cyprus (7.7% to 10.9%). Spain and Greece, which are struggling to tackle sovereign debt and banking crises, recorded jobless rates of more than 50% in the under-25s age-group.
BBC News - Eurozone unemployment at new high
Eurozone slippin' into double-dip recession?...
Eurozone unemployment at new high
31 August 2012 - Ever more Spaniards are looking for work
Unemployment across the 17-nation eurozone hit a record 18 million in July, the EU statistics agency says. Some 88,000 more people were added to the jobless total, but upwardly-revised data for June meant the unemployment rate remained at 11.3%.
Eurostat said the 18,002,000 jobless total was the highest since records began in 1995. The highest unemployment rate in the eurozone was in Spain, at 25.1%. The lowest was in Austria, at 4.5%.
Compared with a year ago, the unemployment rate fell in 10 eurozone countries, increased in 16 and remained stable in Slovenia. The largest falls were observed in Estonia (13.2% to 10.1%), Lithuania (15.2% to 13.0%) and Latvia (17.0% to 15.9%)
Meanwhile, the highest increases were registered in Greece (16.8% to 23.1%), Spain (21.7% to 25.1%) and Cyprus (7.7% to 10.9%). Spain and Greece, which are struggling to tackle sovereign debt and banking crises, recorded jobless rates of more than 50% in the under-25s age-group.
BBC News - Eurozone unemployment at new high
The euro currency dropped against the safe-haven dollar and yen after European Central Bank President Mario Draghi said the exchange rate was important to growth and price stability, which investors took as a sign the bank is concerned about the euro's advance in recent days. Materials shares were among the weakest performers on the S&P 500, with the S&P 500 materials index <.splrcma> down 0.7 percent, while housing stocks also declined. A housing sector index <.hgx> was off 1.4 percent. Despite the day's decline and weakness earlier this week, the stock market has been in an almost uninterrupted uptrend for most of the year, with the S&P 500 gaining more than 5 percent for 2013.
Many investors could see buying opportunities in the decline. "I don't think there's the systemic risk that we had some time ago of bank failures in Europe and so forth. They seem to be ahead of that sort of crisis," said Dan Veru, chief investment officer of Palisade Capital Management, in Fort Lee, New Jersey. The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> was down 67.95 points, or 0.49 percent, at 13,918.57. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> was down 6.31 points, or 0.42 percent, at 1,505.81. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> was down 16.76 points, or 0.53 percent, at 3,151.72.
Top U.S. retailers reported strong January sales after offering compelling merchandise that drew in shoppers facing a hit to their take-home pay from higher payroll taxes. Macy's Inc rose 1.5 percent to $40.09 after reporting January same store sales rose 11.7 percent. But Ann Inc dropped 6.7 percent to $30.59 after forecasting fourth-quarter sales below analysts' expectations.
Fund manager David Einhorn's Greenlight Capital on Thursday said it has sued Apple Inc and said the company needs to do more to unlock value for shareholders. Apple shares gained 0.6 percent to $457.43. Akamai Technologies Inc lost 15.6 percent to $35.06 as the worst performer on the S&P 500 after the Internet content delivery company forecast current-quarter revenue below analysts' expectations.
Wall Street ends lower on renewed euro zone fears - Yahoo! News
- Apple Inc. on Thursday confronted its first major challenge from an activist shareholder in years as hedge fund manager David Einhorn's Greenlight Capital filed suit against the company and demanded that it dole out a bigger piece of its $137 billion cash pile to investors. The unusual move comes as the world's largest technology company grapples with a tumbling share price, mounting competition in the smartphone and tablet markets, and concerns about its ability to produce new breakthrough products. Einhorn, a well-known short-seller, said in an interview with CNBC that Apple had a "depression-era" mentality that led it to hoard cash and invest only in the safest, lowest-yielding securities.
Apple nearly went broke in the 1990s before Steve Jobs returned and engineered a sensational turnaround, with products like the iPhone and iPad that became must-haves for consumers around the world. The company's near-death experience has led to Apple to be exceptionally conservative with its cash. Apple last March, just months after Jobs' death, responded to a barrage of investor criticism over its large cash hoard by initiating a quarterly cash dividend and a share buyback that would pay out $45 billion over three years. At the time, Apple was sitting on $98 billion in cash.
Einhorn's lawsuit targets a proposal by Apple to eliminate preferred stock from its charter. He urged Apple shareholders to vote against the plan at the company's annual meeting on February 27, and put forward a proposal of his own for the company to issue preferred stock with a perpetual 4 percent dividend. Apple shares, which had fallen 35 percent from the record high hit in mid-September through Wednesday, were up 1.2 percent at $459.83 in the afternoon.
Einhorn, often cited as one of the most committed Apple bulls, remains long on its shares. But he said the company needs to fix its "cash problem." "It has sort of a mentality of a depression. In other words, people who have gone through traumas ... and Apple has gone through a couple of traumas in its history, they sometimes feel like they can never have enough cash," Einhorn said on CNBC.
More Activist investor sues Apple in bid to unlock its cash - Yahoo! News
Granny says Europe needs to get it's financial house in order...
Wall Street dips on renewed euro zone fears
7 Jan.`13 - Stocks fell on Thursday as comments by the ECB president on the euro raised worries about Europe's outlook and curbed investors' appetite for risky assets.
The euro currency dropped against the safe-haven dollar and yen after European Central Bank President Mario Draghi said the exchange rate was important to growth and price stability, which investors took as a sign the bank is concerned about the euro's advance in recent days. Materials shares were among the weakest performers on the S&P 500, with the S&P 500 materials index <.splrcma> down 0.7 percent, while housing stocks also declined. A housing sector index <.hgx> was off 1.4 percent. Despite the day's decline and weakness earlier this week, the stock market has been in an almost uninterrupted uptrend for most of the year, with the S&P 500 gaining more than 5 percent for 2013.
Many investors could see buying opportunities in the decline. "I don't think there's the systemic risk that we had some time ago of bank failures in Europe and so forth. They seem to be ahead of that sort of crisis," said Dan Veru, chief investment officer of Palisade Capital Management, in Fort Lee, New Jersey. The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> was down 67.95 points, or 0.49 percent, at 13,918.57. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> was down 6.31 points, or 0.42 percent, at 1,505.81. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> was down 16.76 points, or 0.53 percent, at 3,151.72.
Top U.S. retailers reported strong January sales after offering compelling merchandise that drew in shoppers facing a hit to their take-home pay from higher payroll taxes. Macy's Inc rose 1.5 percent to $40.09 after reporting January same store sales rose 11.7 percent. But Ann Inc dropped 6.7 percent to $30.59 after forecasting fourth-quarter sales below analysts' expectations.
Fund manager David Einhorn's Greenlight Capital on Thursday said it has sued Apple Inc and said the company needs to do more to unlock value for shareholders. Apple shares gained 0.6 percent to $457.43. Akamai Technologies Inc lost 15.6 percent to $35.06 as the worst performer on the S&P 500 after the Internet content delivery company forecast current-quarter revenue below analysts' expectations.
Wall Street ends lower on renewed euro zone fears - Yahoo! News
See also:
Activist investor sues Apple in bid to unlock its cash
7 Jan.`13 - Greenlight's Einhorn sues Apple, seeks bigger payout
- Apple Inc. on Thursday confronted its first major challenge from an activist shareholder in years as hedge fund manager David Einhorn's Greenlight Capital filed suit against the company and demanded that it dole out a bigger piece of its $137 billion cash pile to investors. The unusual move comes as the world's largest technology company grapples with a tumbling share price, mounting competition in the smartphone and tablet markets, and concerns about its ability to produce new breakthrough products. Einhorn, a well-known short-seller, said in an interview with CNBC that Apple had a "depression-era" mentality that led it to hoard cash and invest only in the safest, lowest-yielding securities.
Apple nearly went broke in the 1990s before Steve Jobs returned and engineered a sensational turnaround, with products like the iPhone and iPad that became must-haves for consumers around the world. The company's near-death experience has led to Apple to be exceptionally conservative with its cash. Apple last March, just months after Jobs' death, responded to a barrage of investor criticism over its large cash hoard by initiating a quarterly cash dividend and a share buyback that would pay out $45 billion over three years. At the time, Apple was sitting on $98 billion in cash.
Einhorn's lawsuit targets a proposal by Apple to eliminate preferred stock from its charter. He urged Apple shareholders to vote against the plan at the company's annual meeting on February 27, and put forward a proposal of his own for the company to issue preferred stock with a perpetual 4 percent dividend. Apple shares, which had fallen 35 percent from the record high hit in mid-September through Wednesday, were up 1.2 percent at $459.83 in the afternoon.
Einhorn, often cited as one of the most committed Apple bulls, remains long on its shares. But he said the company needs to fix its "cash problem." "It has sort of a mentality of a depression. In other words, people who have gone through traumas ... and Apple has gone through a couple of traumas in its history, they sometimes feel like they can never have enough cash," Einhorn said on CNBC.
More Activist investor sues Apple in bid to unlock its cash - Yahoo! News
The German economy contracted 0.6 percent in the final quarter of 2012, marking its worst performance since the global financial crisis was raging in 2009. Exports, normally the motor of its economy, did most of the damage. Overall the euro zone's 17-country economy shrank 0.6 percent, with France's 0.3 percent fall slightly worse than forecast.
Germany is expected to rebound but the figures suggest the bloc overall could remain in recession in the first quarter of this year, despite a jump in market sentiment this year as fears that the currency bloc could fall apart faded. The data pushed the euro down more than 0.9 percent to a session low $1.3328 by 5:30 a.m. ET. "It is kind of disappointing that Germany, which had shown so much resilience, is now showing signs of suffering from the debt crisis," said Anita Paluch, sales trader at Gekko Capital Markets.
Stock markets had managed to turn around initial falls but were back down by mid-morning. The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index <.fteu3> was down 0.4 percent at 1162.58. Frankfurt's DAX <.gdaxi> and Milan's <.ftmib> fell 0.9 percent while Paris's CAC-40 <.fchi> and London's FTSE <.ftse> were 0.4 percent lower.
German bonds rose as demand for traditional safe-haven assets returned. Bund futures were 45 ticks higher on the day at 142.51, having extended gains after Italian GDP figures also came in weak. Italy, which holds parliamentary elections in just over a week, suffered its sixth successive quarterly fall in GDP - this time a sharp 0.9 percent - putting it into a longer recession than it suffered during the crisis of 2008/2009.
YEN STEADIES
