Education And Training

Story By: by The Associated Press

U.S. wholesalers increased their stockpiles more slowly in March after seeing less growth in sales.

The Commerce Department said Wednesday that wholesale stockpiles increased 0.3 percent in March, just one-third of the February increase. Sales in March were up 0.5 percent, about half sales gain in February.

Growth in restocking has slowed this year from the end of last year, contributing less to economic growth in the January-March quarter.

Larger stockpiles require businesses to order more goods. That typically leads to more factory production and economic growth.

Still, it would take 1.17 months to exhaust all wholesale stockpiles at the March sales pace. That’s considered a healthy inventory to sales ratio and suggests businesses will keep restocking to meet demand.

Inventory growth is expected to stay positive this year. But the gains are not expected to be anywhere near the level seen at the end of last year.

Businesses had cut back on restocking last summer when some feared the economy was on the verge of another recession. When it became clear that it wasn’t, many companies raced to rebuild their stockpiles and keep pace with consumer demand.

The increase in wholesale inventories in March included a 0.4 percent rise in auto inventories, a 2.1 percent increase in inventories of lumber and a 0.9 percent rise in inventories of computers.

Still, consumers must keep spending for businesses to continue restocking at a healthy pace.

In the first three months of this year, the economy grew at an annual rate of 2.2 percent. It was driven by the fastest growth in consumer spending since late 2010.

Consumers spent more partly in response to strong hiring. The economy added 252,000 jobs per month on average from December through February.

But hiring slowed sharply in the past two months. Employers added just 115,000 jobs last month and only 154,000 in March.

And wages haven’t kept pace with inflation. Over the past year, average hourly pay has ticked up 1.8 percent to $23.28. Inflation has been roughly 2.7 percent. Which means the average consumer isn’t keeping up with price increases

Sluggish job growth and weak pay raises threaten to drag on consumer spending. That would weaken growth. Consumer spending accounts for 70 percent of economic activity.

Stockpiles at the wholesale level account for about 27 percent of total business inventories. Stockpiles held by retailers make up about one-third of the total. Manufacturing inventories represent about 40 percent of the total.

Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh has played down the negative impact of the Syrian crisis on Lebanese banks operating in Syria, saying the central bank has taken precautionary measures to guarantee the stability of Lebanon’s financial institutions.

“The dangers in Syria will not destabilize any Lebanese banks operating there due to precautionary measures implemented by the Central Bank,” Salameh told the daily Al-Mustaqbal’s banking supplement to be published Tuesday. â€œThere is no doubt that the crisis in Syria had its impact felt on the Lebanese economy and the profits of Lebanese banks operating in Syria, but the Central bank took all precautionary measures to prevent instability from affecting Lebanon’s financial sector,” he added.

Lebanese banks have increased their provisions against non-performing loans following the events in Syria and Egypt, measures which banking experts consider crucial to protect local banks under the current circumstances.

In the first quarter of 2012, Bank Audi reported consolidated unaudited net earnings of $94.5 million, rising by 4.5 percent relative to the first quarter of 2011, despite the allocation of collective provisions of $31.2 million. Bank Audi’s consolidated assets grew to $28.7 billion at the end of March 2012, despite the contraction of assets of Bank Audi Syria by 52 percent during the same period. The bank’s consolidated deposits reached $24.4 billion.

At the end of September 2011, the aggregate assets of the affiliates of seven Lebanese banks operating in Syria reached $7.1 billion, marking a decrease of 13 percent from end-2010, according to a report by Byblos Bank. Despite the contraction in assets, Salameh ruled out the risk of a spillover of the Syrian crisis to Lebanon.

“There is no contagion and we do not expect the dangers in Syria to destabilize any bank in Lebanon,” he said. Salameh added that Lebanese banks operating abroad have no large credit exposure to those markets. â€œCredit exposure is subject to the same standards which are adopted by the Lebanese model,” he said.

The governor stressed that Lebanese banks continue to make good profits and enjoy high liquidity. While Lebanese banks have managed to successfully weather the global financial crisis and the negative impact of the regional turmoil, added pressure have emerged from the U.S. and EU, which recently tightened sanctions on Syria and Iran and intensified a crackdown on money laundering activities and terrorist funding.

Salameh said Lebanese banks have complied both domestically and abroad with the strict regulations and precautionary measures imposed by monetary authorities through the Central Bank, the banking control commission and the Special Investigation Commission. The Special Investigation Committee was formed to investigate accounts suspected of money laundering with the authority to lift banking secrecy if the need arose.

“Lebanon’s Central Bank is committed to the implementation of Lebanese laws to preserve a sound and good reputation, as well as the implementation of international standards that guarantee transparent banking,” he said. Early in April, Lebanon lifted the banking secrecy law on 18 suspicious bank accounts and investigated numerous cases which have not complied with the strict rules of the Central Bank.

The U.S. has sent several key officials from the Treasury Department to Lebanon over the past two years with the most recent visits aimed at ensuring that Lebanese banks are fully complying with sanctions imposed on the neighboring Syrian regime.

SHANGHAI, May 9 (Reuters) - Copper futures rose on Thursday,
bouncing off the previous session's three-week lows as some
Chinese investors took advantage of the dip in prices to cover
short positions and restock.
    Chinese data this week, including trade data later in the
session, will likely show the economy has bottomed out as
inflation slows and output picks up, which will ease concerns
about slowing demand from the world's top copper user.
    But investors continue to worry over the euro zone, where
Spain's efforts to clean up indebted lender Bankia by taking a
stake in it only underlined fresh fears over the country's
debts, and where Greece's failure to form a coalition government
stirred fears of it backing away from austerity measures.	

    FUNDAMENTALS
    * Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange
rose 0.3 percent to $8,080.50 a tonne by 0100 GMT, after closing
0.5 percent lower in the prior session.
    * The most-active August copper contract on the Shanghai
Futures Exchange rose 0.2 percent to 57,530 yuan
($9,100) a tonne.
    * Both contracts had fallen to their cheapest levels in
three weeks during Wednesday's session.
    * Leftist leader Alexis Tsipras gave up his attempt to form
a new government on Wednesday, pushing Greece closer to its
second election in a few weeks, after voter rejection of an
EU/IMF bailout plunged the country into crisis.
    * Political disarray in Greece and fresh fears about Spain's
banks have triggered a scramble for the world's lowest-risk
government bonds, with investors willing to accept returns of
next to nothing in exchange for shelter from the eurozone storm.

    * Differing views from two U.S. Federal Reserve officials on
whether to raise interest rates this year highlighted
disagreements over how long the Fed should keep rates near zero,
as it has since December 2008.
    * For the top stories in metals and other news, click
, or 	

    MARKET NEWS
    * Asian shares fell and the euro stayed pressured on
Wednesday, as political uncertainty continued to surround
leadership changes in Greece and a French.
    * The euro fell for a seventh straight session against the
dollar on Tuesday. 	

    DATA/EVENTS (GMT)
0645  France    Industrial output mm       Mar
0800  Italy     Industrial output yy WDA   Mar
1100  Britain   BOE Bank Rate              May
1230  U.S.      Jobless claims             Weekly
1230  U.S.      International trade        Mar
1430  U.S.      EIA natural gas stocks     Weekly
      China     Exports yy                 Apr
      China     Imports yy                 Apr
      China     Trade balance              Apr       	

  Base metals prices at 0100 GMT
  Metal              Last       Change   Pct Move YTD pct chg
  LME Cu            8080.50     27.50     +0.34      6.32
  SHFE CU FUT AUG2    57530       140     +0.24      3.42
  LME Alum          2054.00      5.00     +0.24      1.68
  SHFE AL FUT AUG2    16160        10     +0.06      2.02
  HG COPPER JUL2     367.05      1.10     +0.30      6.82
  LME Zinc          1963.00     20.00     +1.03      6.40
  SHFE ZN FUT AUG2    15330       -10     -0.07      3.62
  LME Nickel       17200.00      5.00     +0.03     -8.07
  LME Lead          2078.00      3.00     +0.14      2.11
  SHFE PB FUT         15610       -55     -0.35      2.09
  LME Tin          20605.00      0.00     +0.00      7.32
  LME/Shanghai arb    1972

   Shanghai and COMEX contracts show most active months
   ^ LME 3-m copper in yuan, including 17 pct VAT, minus SHFE
 third month

 ($1 = 6.3097 Chinese yuan)	

 (Reporting by Carrie Ho; Editing by Michael Urquhart)

Mobile computing initiatives are changing the ways that teachers teach and students learn. Collaborative, interactive learning: As schools seek to improve student engagement, they are emphasizing one-to one learning experiences, in which each student uses a laptop computer for accessing multimedia content and completing lessons. Mobility gives schools flexibility in how classroom space, teachers, and learning resources are used.

Meru completely changes how schools view and use wireless. With Meru, schools can keep students, teachers, and administrators continuously connected in the classroom, across the school campus, and between schools in a system or district. Schools are able to transparently enhance the students learning experience with seamless access rich multimedia content, online books, and virtual tours to another part of the world. Easy to deploy and simple to manage, schools are able to deliver an incomparable user experience and a lower total cost of ownership than other wireless LANs.

This Meru Networks EMEA white paper looks at:

• Symptoms of network problems

• Supporting partner solutions

Dubai The number of trade licences issued by the Department of Economic Development (DED) during the first three months of 2012 was 4,343, an increase of 27 per cent over the same period in 2011, a statement said.

The total number of licences renewed was 25,382, a three per cent decrease from the same period in 2011, while amended licences showed a 21 per cent increase.

The total number of BRL (Business Registration and Licensing) transactions reached 144,840, compared with 124,037 during the same period in 2011, a 17 per cent increase.

Tourism

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Despite potential nuclear disaster in Japan, civil unrest and wars in the Middle East and debt crises in Europe and the US, some UAE listed firms are seeing positive progress. AMEinfo.com takes a look at some candles in the wind.

On March 17, Argentina’s Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, together with HE Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem, Chairman of DP World opened South America’s largest cruise terminal, Quinquela Martin. It was designed and will be operated by DP World, whose shares are listed at Nasdaq Dubai.

DP World shares came under pressure in February due to the civil unrest in Tunisia, Egypt and then Libya, Yemen, Bahrain and Oman, but recovered partially in March. Despite the turmoil, the emirate of Dubai is booming as it is the only globally connected metropolis in the region which provides security and free zones for all business segments. It is not facts, but emotions currently drive markets. “In the mid-term, not only in the long term, chances dominate at Middle Eastern capital markets”, says Haisam Arabi, CEO of Gulfmena Alternative Investments in Dubai. Meanwhile, DP World has recovered most of the decline from February.

Market risk rife throughout Middle East

The systematic risk, also known as market or beta-risk can’t be eliminated through diversification. This kind of risk is currently high throughout the Middle East, as civil unrest does not follow any rules nor does it have a timeframe (such as upcoming market regulations).

For the UAE, which has not been hit by civil unrest such as in Bahrain, Yemen or Kuwait, the systematic risk might be balanced as rising oil prices support the country’s fiscal balance. Dubai, as a safe and connected trade hub, in particular has in the past attracted investors who fled other Middle Eastern countries hit by war or social unrest. The UAE is home to 7.9% of global oil reserves. The unique risk, known as alpha-risk is different from share to share.

UAE enterprises back on track

Other publicly listed firms at the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX) and the Dubai Financial Market (DFM) are raising the UAE‘s profile. Aldar Properties seems to have left its worst times behind. After it was bailed out by the Abu Dhabi government with $5.2bn, which included the purchase of key assets and Aldar’s subscription of a bond sale, the firm reported the delivery of Ikea’s store on Yas Island. “The 33,000sqm store with a total sales area of 19,150sqm will be the largest Ikea store in the Mena region and expects to serve nearly 1.3 million visitors in the first year of operations,” Aldar said in a statement on March 13. Aldar also presented the Yas developments to Russian investors at MITT Moscow, the largest travel industry fair in the country.

While Bahrain had to cancel its traditional Formula-1 Grand Prix in March, as of now nothing seems to prevent Abu Dhabi from holding the 3rd edition Etihad Airways F1- Grand Prix, scheduled for the second week of November 2011.

Despite posting a 30% profit drop in 2010, Emirates NBD’s future looks bright. The Middle East’s largest bank in relation to assets, is constantly building up its retail branch network and its private banking unit. “For Arab and expat high net worth individuals, there is no need to transfer money on Swiss accounts as we do have booking centres in Dubai, Singapore and London,” Gary Dugan, the CIO Private Banking at ENBD tells AMEinfo.com. In January, ENBD entered a partnership with The Fine Art Fund Group, London, in order to help clients to invest in paintings, sculptures and rare collections as an asset class.

TIM Participacoes needs a strong new chief
executive to confront rising competition, Barclays analysts
warned on Monday, after Brazil’s No.2 wireless carrier lost CEO
Luca Luciani after a scandal at parent Telecom Italia.

Barclays analysts, led by Vera Rossi, cut their
recommendation on TIM shares to “equal weight” from
“overweight,” saying the stock has traded at a premium to
competitors due to a strong management team built around
Luciani.

* China exchange starts physical trading on iron ore
platform May 8

* Top miners, Chinese steelmakers have signed up to platform

* Plan can succeed if liquidity takes off

By Manolo Serapio Jr and Ruby Lian

SINGAPORE/SHANGHAI, May 7 (Reuters) – China’s first physical
iron ore trading platform is set to debut on Tuesday, helping
the world’s biggest buyer of the commodity boost its
price-setting influence.

The timing looks perfect. Nearly all iron ore sold to China
is now based on spot prices, with the industry evolving over the
past two years after four decades of yearly-set contracts.

China has long believed that its position as the world’s No.
1 iron ore consumer entitles it to a bigger say on prices, and
the platform is its latest move to wrest control from top miners
Vale, Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton
.

But like anything new and untested, the trading community
may take time to migrate to the platform, which analysts said
will succeed if it attracts enough liquidity.

Top miners along with major Chinese steel producers
including Baosteel, Hebei Steel and Wuhan Steel have all signed
up as members of the electronic platform, which will be operated
by China Beijing International Mining Exchange (CBMX).

Physical trading launches at a time when spot iron ore
prices , at around $144 a tonne currently, are 25
percent off last year’s peak as Chinese demand slows and
supplies are plentiful.

“On the face of it, it is a recipe for success,” said Rory
MacDonald, broker at Freight Investor Services. “But the system
must stand up and the system must be seen to perform.”

CBMX said the platform will offer contracts settled in U.S.
dollars and the yuan. Cargoes that can be traded include those
sitting at bonded warehouses, floating at sea, or piled up at
domestic ports as well as those that miners have yet to ship.

Trading hours are 9:30 am to 3:30 pm (0130-0730 GMT) with a
two-hour break from 11:30 am. The benchmark trading price will
be set based on the previous day’s average transaction price.

The exchange will charge a commission fee for both buyers
and sellers of 0.125 yuan or $0.02 per tonne.

Fines including Australia-sourced Newman, Yandi and MAC, as
well as lumps are tradable, with iron content ranging from 52
percent to 67 percent. Pellet and concentrate can also be sold.

The exchange has said banks and financial firms would not be
allowed to participate in a bid to stem speculation, and there
will be no trading of iron ore derivatives.

HESITATION

Currently, trading in the spot market for seaborne cargoes
is done directly between buyers and sellers. Global miners email
or fax prospective buyers whenever they sell cargoes via spot
tenders, a system deemed efficient and free of broking fees.

Traders say unless China offers incentives such as tax
rebates or commission discounts, they are unlikely to migrate to
the platform anytime soon.

“Most traders are still hesitating to participate in the
platform. They need to see prices backed by strong volumes.
That’s the only way they can be representative of the market,”
said a physical dealer in Singapore.

China’s steel sector imported a record 686 million tonnes of
iron ore last year, up 11 percent from 2010, and at prices that,
on average, were up more than 14 percent from the previous year.

The China Iron and Steel Association (CISA) has blamed
“monopoly practices” by foreign miners for the surge in costs,
and sees the new platform as a solution to keeping costs lower,
as it is a likely challenge to the current benchmarks provided
by Platts and the Platts-owned Steel Index and Metal Bulletin.

CHINESE PRESSURE?

The platform will also rival the planned GlobalOre trading
exchange which is backed by BHP Billiton and has offices in
Singapore and London.

But some traders said market size gives China an edge.

“This platform is supported by the Chinese government. The
miners have to show their support to the platform, otherwise
they may feel some pressure from the Chinese government,” said a
physical iron ore trader in Shanghai.

With the growth in Chinese demand for iron ore this year
slowing along with the overall economy, the pricing dynamic is
changing to China’s advantage.

“The supply and demand balance will change over the next few
years and should see Chinese mills in a much stronger position
whereas the last few years has very much been a sellers’
market,” said Christopher Ellis, a Metal Bulletin analyst.

“The new platform and interest from the mining side
represents this change.”

Despite a slump in net profit year-on-year Emirates NBD is pleased with ‘robust’ results as deposits increase and the bank moves forward with its plan to seek approval to combine its Emirates Islamic Bank division with recently-acquired Dubai Bank.

Emirates NBD chief executive Rick Pudner insisted the group’s Q1 financial results were “robust”, despite the UAE‘s largest lender by assets reporting a 55% slump in net profit in Q1 2012 compared to the year-earlier period. Amid uncertainty over the future direction of the bank’s Islamic finance units, Emirates NBD generated net profit of Dhs641m ($174.5m) in the first three months of this year, a fall of 54.6% compared with the same period last year. And although improvements in the Dubai property market helped the bank reduce charges for bad debts for the first time since June 2011, it still had to put aside a total of Dhs1.1bn to cover losses from bad debts.

The figures, nevertheless, beat analyst estimates and were hailed as positive by Pudner. “I’m pleased that the bank has been able to deliver a very robust set of results for the first quarter,” said the CEO. “The current period performance represents a good improvement on comparable quarters.”

The bank posted a Q1 2012 net profit of Dhs641m compared with Dhs152m in Q4 2010 and Dhs1.41bn in Q1 2011, when the bank’s figures were aided by an Dhs1.84bn gain on the sale of a stake in Network International, a Dubai-based payments card vendor. And it did manage to boost operating profits significantly, from Dhs83m in the first quarter of 2011, to Dhs643m in Q1 2012, as the Dubai economy strengthened and the bank’s underlying profits were boosted by an “absence of investment property write-downs” and an upturn in investment securities, according to Ben Franz-Marwick, head of investor relations at Emirates NBD.

Income increase supported by deposits

Assets rose 4% to Dhs296.7bn compared to Dhs284.6bn at end-2011, and while consumer loans nudged up to Dhs204.1bn in Q1 2012, from Dhs203.1bn at end-2011, deposits jumped 8% to Dhs208.5bn from Dhs193.3bn in the previous quarter. “Expected margin contraction from a re-pricing of loans has been mitigated by a push for retail deposits and our loan-to-deposit ration now stands at a healthy 98%,” noted Emirates NBD CFO Surya Subramanian.

Total income for the quarter increased by 19% to just under Dhs2.67bn compared with Dhs2.26bn in the 12 month earlier-period, and rose 8% compared with Dhs2.49bn in Q4 2011. Net interest income, meanwhile, improved by 8% to Dhs1.78bn from Dhs1.65bn in Q1 2011, but declined by 8% compared with Dhs1.93bn in Q4 2011. The bank attributed this drop primarily to a normalisation of the net interest margin to 2.63%, from 2.85% in the previous quarter. Emirates NBD said the expected reduction in the net interest margin arose primarily from loans re-pricing to lower EIBOR rates, and from the negative mix impact of an improved funding profile.

“There has been no need to take any further write-downs on either associates or investment properties so it’s been a pretty clean quarter from that perspective,” said Pudner. “We also saw further improvement in our liquidity and funding positions, as our loan-to-deposit ration moved to within our target range of 95 to 100%, and we’ve raised over Dhs7bn in medium-term debt.”

Emirates NBD has Dhs8.47bn of debt due in 2012 and Emirates Islamic Bank (EIB), a unit of Emirates NBD, in January completed the issuance of a $500m Islamic bond, or sukuk. The bond, which matures in 2017 and will pay a profit rate of 4.718%, was the first public issuance by EIB since 2007 and was three times oversubscribed, receiving more than $1.5bn in bids. And Emirates NBD raised 1bn yuan ($158m) in March from the sale of a three-year offshore yuan bond, also known as a ‘Dim Sum’ bond, the first such offering from the Middle East.

Costs and staffing reassessed after Dubai Bank acquisition

The bank’s costs in Q1 2012 amounted to Dhs942m, an improvement of 8% over Q4 2011 resulting from lower non-staff costs.