| TradeKing CEO to Offer Perspective on the Growing Opportunity in ...
BOCA RATON, Fla., Nov. 19 /PRNewswire/ -- TradeKing (www.tradeking.com), a nationally licensed online broker dealer, today announced that its Chairman and CEO Donato Montanaro will be a featured speaker on "The Retail Business" panel during the 23rd Annual Futures and Options Expo taking place November 27-29 in Chicago. Montanaro and the panel participants will discuss the growth of options trading among individual investors and the various approaches brokerage firms are taking to offering options to the retail trader, comparing traditional business models with those of new entrants. He will be joined on his panel by brokerage executives from TD Ameritrade, Merrill Lynch, Optionshouse and OptionsXpress. For more information, visit: http://www.futuresindustry.org/expo-2007.asp.
Nurturing human capital
Married men earn 10 percent to 40 percent more than single men with similar skills, and their children are much more likely to graduate from high school. But among the lower-middle class, there is a poisonous spiral of economic stress and cultural decay. A new working-class tax credit applied against the payroll tax would reduce some of the stress. So would a larger child tax credit and increases in the Earned Income Tax Credit. The federal budget should bestow less on seniors and more on young families. The second group of policies would involve early-childhood education. There could be nurse-home visits for children in chaotic homes so that they have some authority in their lives. Preschool should be radically expanded and accountability programs put in place.
Australian stock market closes lower after US dip and inflation ...
At the 4.15pm AEDT close, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was 1.6 points lower at 5980.0 while the All Ordinaries index fell 13.5 points to 6040.9. On the Sydney Futures Exchange, the March share price index futures contract was down 23 points to 5981 on a volume of 21,062, according to preliminary calculations. Today, the monthly inflation gauge prepared by TD Securities-Melbourne Institute rose by 0.6 per cent in December, and by 3.7 per cent in the 12 months to December. The annual reading was the highest since December 2006. On the local bourse, the big miners and major banks were weaker. In the resources sector, global miner BHP Billiton was down six cents at $38.24, and Rio Tinto was off 60 cents at $125.00. Takeover target Allegiance Mining slipped 0.5 cents to $1.045 as it said a recent vote of support from its largest shareholder, China's Jinchuan Group, was a sign of the strength of the relationship between the companies.
FUTURES FILE: Volatility in equity markets leads to commodity savings
As overseas equity markets were plunging on Monday due to fears about slowing worldwide economic growth, traders in the U.S. were forced to sit and watch as the nation observed Martin Luther King Jr. Day.By Tuesday morning, the anxiety about worldwide economic stability and growth had reached a boiling point. Seemingly out of nowhere, the Federal Reserve announced it was slashing the Fed Funds rate by 75 basis points to help ease concerns and to prevent a more substantial slowdown in economic growth.Initially, the decision had the opposite effect. Traders interpreted the sudden and extreme cut as a sign that things might be as bad or worse than they seemed. Only a few minutes after the open of U.S. equity trading on Tuesday, equity issues had fallen almost 4 percent.As the day continued, most of the losses were erased and markets closed down just 1 percent.
'Rogue trader' rips off French bank for $8.2bn
A ROGUE trader has been accused of defrauding one of France's largest banks to the tune of $8.2 billion, in what would be the largest trading fraud in history. Trader Jerome Kerviel, said by Societe Generale bank to have racked up 4.9 billion euros in fraud-related losses, had been suffering from "family problems", according to three union officials who have been briefed by management. Mr Kerviel, a Frenchman in his 30s, is at the centre of the fraud case uncovered last weekend. His lawyer Elisabeth Meyer said on French television network BFM that he "is not fleeing" and is "available for judicial authorities", without specifying where he was. Union officials representing employees at the bank - Michel Marchet of CGT, Alain Treviglio of CFDT and Pascal Colin of CFTC - said managers who briefed them today about the case told them that the trader was having "family problems".
Aliquippa has a future in alternative fuels
Once the plant opens in Aliquippa, Cranston said, shipments of corn will come into the city, mostly from the Midwest, via barge, truck and train.But Aliquippa isn’t the only community in the Pittsburgh area getting a helping of green. Southwestern Pennsylvania is on the brink of becoming a powerhouse for alternative energy sources.In February 2006, Gov. Ed Rendell unveiled his Energy Independence Strategy, designed to increase the state’s investment in alternative and renewable energy production industries.A major component of that bill — the PennSecurity Fuels Initiative — supports the construction and expansion of new facilities and would require that all diesel or gasoline sold in the state have a percentage of ethanol or biodiesel by 2017. By that time, the governor also expects the state be in position to produce 1 billion gallons of alternative fuels.And Aliquippa would be a leader in that process.Cranston expects the local plant to produce around 160 million gallons annually of ethanol once construction is completed sometime in 2012.
Australian dollar stonger at noon
THE dollar was stronger at noon, rising above $US0.8700, as healthier share market performances outweighed expectations of another interest rate rise. The market is still divided on whether the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) will act next month, even though annual core inflation is at its highest level in more than 16 years. At 12.00pm AEDT, the Australian dollar was trading at $US0.8721/26, up from yesterday's close of 0.8657/65. During the morning, the domestic currency traded between a low of $US0.8688 and a high of 0.8745. The Australian share market has climbed 2 per cent during the morning session, moving upwards with US equities, following an emergency American rate cut of three-quarters of a percentage point yesterday. Easy Forex senior dealer Francisco Solar said a recovery in the domestic share market, after this week's longest run of slides in 26 years, was a bigger driver of the Australian dollar than interest rate rise expectations.
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