Net Fishers goings on

Source: MSNBC (Original Article)

Major U.S. stock indexes finished higher Thursday, though below earlier highs, following a dramatic reversal lower for oil prices, which plunged despite a huge decrease in U.S. crude inventories.

A report on U.S. economic growth in the first quarter was revised slightly higher. S&P MarketScope cites a growing perception that the U.S. escaped recession as second-quarter GDP is expected to rise as well. Weekly initial jobless claims were slightly higher.

Bonds fell but closed up from session lows following an apparent asset allocation program to equities from debt. The dollar index was solidly higher. Gold futures were lower.

On Thursday, the blue-chip Dow Jones industrial average finished higher by 52.19 points, or 0.41%, to 12,646.22. The broader S&P 500 index added 7.42 points, or 0.53%, to close at 1,398.26. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index was higher by 21.62 points, or 0.87%, ending the session at 2,519.90.

Activity in the broader market was positive, with 19 stocks rising in price for every 11 that declined on the New York Stock Exchange. The ratio on the Nasdaq was17-11 positive. Trading was sluggish, reports S&P MarketScope. Financial stocks were strong.

July West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures, which hit a high of $133.12 per barrel earlier in Thursdays session, fell $4.17 to $126.77 after an Energy Dept. report showed crude stocks unexpectedly fell 8.8 million barrels. Citi Futures’ Tim Evans said the drop came “on a combination of lower imports and higher crude runs and was focused on the Gulf Coast, which showed a 9.3 million barrels drop. Inventories at Cushing, Oklahoma rose 700,000 barrels.”

S&P’s Mark Arbeter believes “crude oil prices are in the topping phase, and we think we could see a fairly large correction back to the $100 to $110/barrel range over the next two to four months.

U.S. jobless claims rose 4,000 to 372,000 for the week cheap flights ended May 24, about in line …continue reading

Source: PR-Inside.com (Pressemitteilung) (Original Article)

www.RetailVelocity.com - Vendor Managed Technologies, Inc. (VMT) the leading provider of enterprise Demand Signal Repository (DSR) and retail business intelligence (BI) solutions announced today that KKM has successfully implemented the Velocity(R) Solution Suite as its core retail reporting solution. Velocity is now the key enabling technology for managing their retail in-stocks and maximizing sales across their retail

accounts and manufacturer clients.

“We chose Velocity because of VMT’s depth of experience in POS data and retail execution. They have been the leading pioneer in POS data and reporting solutions for consumer goods suppliers and it shows in their depth of retail knowledge and responsiveness to our needs,” stated James Ruh, KKM’s Director of Retail & Marketing.

Velocity provides a “one stop shop” for store-level consumer data that enables category managers, customer logistics managers, replenishment managers and account managers to spend less time manipulating data and more time executing on store-level POS insights. Velocity cleanses, harmonizes and integrates store-level POS data with third party and internal data and provides end users with an off-the-shelf data warehouse, best-in-class analyses and best practices reporting tools. VMT equips its clients, such as 3M, Newell Rubbermaid, BIC, Masco and many other industry leaders, with the technology and insights needed to incorporate a consumer-driven strategy for their existing supply chain and sales processes such as CPFR, VMI, category management, direct store delivery (DSD), scan-based trading (SBT), and more. Since 1994, Velocity has been the leading enterprise demand signal repository (DSR) and business intelligence solution specifically built for retail analytics and reporting in the consumer goods market.

Velocity is based on the Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) platform utilizing SQL Server and .Net technologies. “Microsoft Cheap Travel and VMT are not new to …continue reading

Source: OCRegister (Original Article)

Contact the writer: kding@ocregister.com

Other Stories

Entourage dvd

Source: Portsmouth Herald News (Original Article)

As two readers so kindly pointed out last week, we haven’t done a sports cards and memorabilia hobby roundup in these pages for a while. With summer fast approaching and a bunch of local card shows on tap, now seems like the perfect time to do so.

Summer is always a great time for feeding your inner child, spending a little money and expanding your and/or your kids’ collections.

The ballparks around New England, including MerchantsAuto.com Stadium (the tedious name for the New Hampshire Fisher Cats’ home field) in Manchester and Hadlock Field in Portland, Maine, are open for business, not to mention Fenway Park in Boston. There are also plenty of cards and collectibles shows on tap that are close enough where you won’t need to cut into Junior’s college fund to pay for the gas.

First off, there is a card show in Rochester at the Elks Lodge on Sunday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Admission is only a buck, so you just can’t go wrong there. And who doesn’t enjoy a leisurely drive to the Lilac City?

On Sunday, June 8, Chris Morse of Chris’s Cards and Comics in Seabrook fame is hosting a show at the Galley Hatch Conference Center at the Best Western: The Inn At Hampton (nice place, but could we cut down on the name?) on Route 1 in Hampton.

The show is from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., and admission for big kids is $3 (kids 12 and under are admitted for free). Log on to Morse’s new Web site at www.chriscardscomics.com for more info.

As if two upcoming Seacoast shows weren’t enough, there is a third one planned. Yep, it’s like Christmas in June if you collect sports stuff.

Seacoast show promoters Ken Kelley and Bill Harless are doing quite well with their new monthly show in Dover since relocating it a few months ago from Epping. The next one is set for Sunday, June 22 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Dover Elks Lodge on Route 108. Hmm, there’s just something about Elks Lodges and card shows, I guess. LAZYTOWN dvd Whatever works.

Down in Methuen, Mass, which …continue reading

Source: Newindpress on Sunday (Original Article)

Artist Jaspal Singh’s paintings, may bear titles of peoples and places but that does not mean that his charming portrait of a woman against palm trees and the sea, or his paintings of the Mathura and Vrindavan temples jostle with each other. They are made at different times, in different mediums, only that the artist thinks of the inherent relation within our surroundings, and that finds an important place in his paintings.

Born in Jorhat, Assam, Jaspal graduated from the Dibrugarh University in Fine Arts and later on went to the Government College of Art & Craft, Calcutta. He has experimented with watercolours on paper, acrylic on paper and canvas, worked in wood and clay and, thereby his creativity spans a gamut of elegant works.

Explaining his concept and method of work, he says: “The urban buildings, vehicles and roads appear to me as submerged or overlapped images. Often the fog, the pollution and the smoke create a gloomy atmosphere and sometimes a bright light can be seen in nocturnal scenes. Human figures also intrude in these scenes, but it is not the figures but the images that predominate and creation of a total and not individual objects appear to be more predominant. All these scenes sometimes appear to me more than one vibrant colour, or again in certain monochromatic structural images.”

He is also fascinated by kaleidoscopic and erratic changes in our daily surroundings. The concrete shapes and forms of an urban scene, or the flowers, leaves and birds with the freshness and simplicity of the village folks appear to him in the form of peculiar textures. The elongated human face with diagonal eyebrows and sharp nose are created with the help of broken lines partly covered with thick pigments of colours. Sometimes their exaggerated features try to express the untold words and with them, “I simply love to play with colours.”



His temperament is totally different while working with watercolours. So Travel tips much so, the work has to …continue reading

Source: PR Newswire (press release) (Original Article)

NORTH CAROLINA RANKS SIXTH NATIONALLY IN BOATING FATALITIES

HIGH ROCK LAKE, N.C., May 23 /PRNewswire/ — With the start of the
summer recreation season beginning this weekend, Alcoa joined forces with
local law enforcement officers at High Rock Lake today to stress the
importance of water and boating safety.

“Accidents can happen in an instant. When they do, there’s little or no
time to react. Your decision to wear a life jacket - instead of stowing
under a seat — could mean the difference between life and death,” said
Tommy Gibson, an Alcoa community relations manager. “We encourage everyone
who visits the lakes this summer to play it safe and always wear a life
jacket.”

Statistics from the U.S. Coast Guard show that 24 people in North
Carolina died in boating accidents during 2006, a 41 increase from 2005.
Nationwide, 710 people died in boating accidents, nearly two-thirds of whom
were not wearing a life jacket and drowned.

NEW COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEM WILL FACILITATE COMMUNICATIONS

This year, law enforcement officials will have another valuable tool
when responding to emergencies on the lake.

A new long-range communications system, purchased with a grant from the
Alcoa Foundation, will facilitate better communications between various
agencies patrolling the lakes, including the NC Wildlife Resources
Commission, the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary and local law enforcement
agencies.

The improved system allows direct communication between officers with
the NC Wildlife Resources Commission and the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary,
and provides a faster way for those officials to be contacted by local
police and rescue squads. Communication is now possible between law
enforcement all across the lake and even between different lakes in the
region.

“This new communications system will be a tremendous help during
emergency situations,” said Dick Fisher, U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary. “It’s
important that those of us patrolling the Citibank Clear Credit Card lakes can share information
quickly. This …continue reading

Source: The Plain Dealer - cleveland.com (Original Article)

A manufacturing-advocacy group has bagged an $850,000
grant to expand the supply chain for wind power in Ohio.

The Ohio Department of Development awarded the grant this
week to the Westside Industrial Retention and Expansion
Network, known as WIRE-Net.

WIRE-Net’s Great Lakes Wind Network is already
surveying needs of the world’s largest wind-turbine
manufacturers to see what parts can be supplied by Ohio
companies.

“We’re seeing a perfect match between industries
here and the scarcest items in the wind-energy supply
chain,” said Ed Weston, director of the wind network, a
fledgling trade group of component manufacturers for wind
turbines.

Ohio already has 40 to 50 companies active in the supply
chain, he said. He hopes to lift participation to 75
companies by the end of the one-year grant.

WIRE-Net’s wind network is arranging interviews with
200 companies across Ohio that could be wind-industry
suppliers.

Work under the grant includes building a Web site and
information-management system for suppliers, marketing the
supply chain and sending leads on new business to state
development officials.

Early estimates put the market for wind-turbine components
at $10 billion by 2024, under Ohio’s recently passed
energy bill, Weston said.

Ohio companies would like to grab as much of that market
as possible, Weston said.

“It’s tailor-made for the rust belt” and
its abundance of eager manufacturers, Weston said.
“It’s an opportunity to revitalize
ourselves.”

WIRE-Net was the only applicant for the grant. Lt. Gov.
Lee Fisher, also head of the state development department,
said in a news release that the wind supply chain
“creates new jobs and investment from current Ohio
component manufacturers, and attracts new companies.”

Partners in the grant include MAGNET, another local
manufacturing-support group; the Edison Welding Institute in credit card au
Columbus; the Edison Materials Technology Center …continue reading

Source: OCRegister (Original Article)

SALT LAKE CITY — The red lights should have started flashing and the sirens whining three quarters earlier for the Utah Jazz in the decisive Game 6 of the Western Conference semifinals.

The Jazz’s season had all but flatlined by the final quarter when its players finally, desperately and almost heroically responded to the emergency. With their 19-point deficit trimmed to two in the final minute, they fired once, then twice, missing both in the closing seconds to lose the game, 108-105, and the series to Lakers.

All the air was sucked out of the inside of the EnergySolutions Arena when the sellout crowd held its breath and its hand in a prayer.

Utah’s Kyle Korver dished a pass to wide-open Mehmet Okur, the player nicknamed “Money,” who came up short changed. Jazz guard Deron Williams ran down the rebound, backed up, squared up, fired and leaned left, willing his shot close but not quite. The game was over.

Why the Jazz players waited so long to play in it, fight for it and give mouth-to-mouth to it, they’ll have the offseason to wonder.

Before the game, they didn’t behave like a desperate team facing elimination. They didn’t speak with more urgency, fidget or gnaw off their upper knuckles. Sitting in front of his corner locker, listening to music, Jazz forward Carlos Boozer looked as loose as someone who had just had a 90-minute deep tissue massage — minus the cucumber slices over the eyes.

The entire team looked oddly, well, calm, relying on routine to get it into the game that would make all the difference.

“That’s focus. Well, at least it better be,” said Jazz coach Jerry Sloan before the game. “They know what’s at stake.”

The presumed urgency didn’t show until the final quarter, which opened with the Jazz already buried but not quite dead, trailing 86-70.

The Jazz found itself trailing by 16 points 10 minutes into the game. Falling into “the hole,” which Williams talked about after bankwest mastercard the Game 1 and 2 defeats, …continue reading

Source: New Zealand Herald (Original Article)

The top three stocks recovered from yesterday’s losses, helping push the sharemarket up 1 per cent today.

The NZSX-50 benchmark index closed up 42.96 points at 3657.2, on turnover totalling $140 million.

“An extremely good end to the week, and closing like that at the end of the week, Monday should be reasonably positive,” said Hamilton Hindin Greene partner Grant Williamson.

“The New Zealand dollar still seems to be under quite a bit of pressure, so that will continue to create very good demand for the export and offshore exposed companies.”

Telecom rebounded 12c, or 3 per cent, to 394, bargain hunters helped push Fletcher Building up 33c, or 4 per cent, to 838, and Contact Energy rose 12c, or 1 per cent, to 889.

“I think the highlight once again would have to be Fisher & Paykel Healthcare. A lot of investors who believe the New Zealand dollar will continue to weaken are continuing to buy that stock,” Mr Williamson said.

F&P Healthcare rose 5c, or nearly 2 per cent, to 275 on more than eight million shares traded.

Among other blue chips, F&P Appliances fell 2c to 267, Auckland Airport gained 6c to 230, Sky City was up 2c at 395, Infratil was down 5c at 230, and Sky TV rose 4c to 460.

Rakon rose 4c to 345 after selling a business in the United Kingdom, Pumpkin Patch was up a cent at 175, PGG Wrightson rose a further 5c to 219, and Kiwi Income Property was up 2c at 129.

TrustPower, up 22c yesterday after reporting a 4 per cent fall in annual net profit, gained a further 13c to 855.

Freightways fell 2c to 343, Guinness Peat Group lost 3c to 182, its partial takeover target Tower fell 4c to 216, Hellaby Holdings lost 7c to 168, and Ryman Healthcare was down 4c at 170.

Clothing retailer Hallenstein Glasson slid 15c to 335 after issuing a profit warning yesterday, while The Warehouse was flat at 525.

Air New Zealand was unchanged at American Express Card 118 after announcing its latest airfare …continue reading

Source: Bizjournals.com (Original Article)

The ad optimization software company PubMatic Inc. recently released its second monthly PubMatic AdPrice Index, which indicates that the economic slowdown in the United States has led to a 23 percent drop in overall monetization for the online advertising industry.

Palo Alto, Calif.-based PubMatic said the index is based on data from over 3,000 publishers and billions of ad impressions.

Large Web sites fared the worst while small Web sites managed to maintain their monetization rates, PubMatic said, adding that eCPMs (effective cost per thousand impressions) for Web sites with more than 100 million page views per month dropped dramatically by 52 percent from 38 cents in March to 18 cents in April.

Web sites with 1 million to 100 million page views per month were nearly flat, with monetization dropping from 34 cents in March to 33 cents in April. Small Web sites managed to improve their monetization, increasing from $1.17 in March to $1.29 in April.

On average, Web site monetization dropped by 23 percent from 49 cents in March to 38 cents in April, the report said, with social networking leading the plunge with monetization dropping from 37 cents in March to 19 cents in April.

Entertainment monetization dropped 17 percent from 40 cents in March to 33 cents in April. Gaming and sports were down 4 percent and 5 percent, respectively.

Technology remained relatively flat at 83 cents in April vs. 82 cents in March.

In April, 77 percent of small Web sites garnered net publisher eCPMs from ad networks of under $1, compared with 95 percent of medium Web sites and 100 percent of large Web sites.

PubMatic is venture backed by Nexus India Capital, Menlo Park, Calif.-based Draper Fisher Jurvetson and St George Gold Credit Card Helion Ventures, which has an office in Bangalore, India.