Worldwide semiconductor sales were $24.7 billion in May, a sequential increase of 4.5 percent from April when sales were $23.6 billion, and a year-over-year increase of 47.6 percent from the same month last year, the Semiconductor Industry Association said Monday.
“Global sales of semiconductors in May reached a new high and remain on pace to reach the SIA forecast of 28.4 percent growth to $290.5 billion in 2010,” said SIA President George Scalise.
“Chip sales have been buoyed by strength in sales of personal computers, cell phones, corporate information technology, industrial applications, and autos. Unit sales of personal computers are now expected to grow by 20 percent this year and cell phone unit sales are predicted to be up 10 to 12 percent over 2009 levels."
Emerging markets, including China and India, are fueling sales of computation and communications products, Scalise said, and the automotive market is also slowly recovering after several years of weak sales paydayloans. The industry includes some of Austin's largest employers including IBM Corp., Freescale Semiconductor Inc., Advanced Micro Devices Inc., Samsung Austin Semiconductor and others.
SIA noted that the industry year-on-year and sequential growth rates are likely to continue to slow during the second half of 2010.
“Recent chip sales have shown robust demand, but the year-on-year growth rates also underscore the very depressed market conditions of the first half of 2009. Going forward, the year-on-year growth comparisons will reflect the industry recovery that gained momentum in the second half of last year," Scalise said.
Solve your money worries and apply for a faxless payday loan today!
New York Gov. David Paterson, as promised, has started vetoing 6,900 spending items included in a budget plan approved Monday by the Senate and Assembly.
In all, Paterson will ax more than $600 million in spending approved by legislators in votes on Monday. Paterson called the spending a “gimmick” and said legislators were “self-serving” and “fantasizing” that certain revenue would materialize.
The largest items to go: $419 million of extra money for K-12 education, plus close to $200 million in grants, mostly for nonprofits. The budget votes, though, avoid a government shutdown.
Paterson’s vetoes mean legislators will have to hold another vote on the spending to override it. An override in the Senate appears unlikely, as 10 Republicans would have to vote with all 32 Democrats to overcome the veto with the required two-thirds majority.
Another contentious vote is on tap today, as legislators hold session to vote on a plan to generate nearly $1 billion of new revenue to help erase the state’s $9.2 billion deficit and pay for spending in the budget.
The bill is the last significant piece of the state budget yet to be acted on—capping a disjointed and piecemeal budget process three months after a budget was due.
This bill, like the ones voted on Monday, is the product of a deal brokered between Democrats in the Assembly and Senate. The budget plan contains fewer spending cuts than Paterson’s original $135 billion proposal, laid out back in January.
At this point, it remains unclear how much money the state will spend this fiscal year, which runs through March 2011.
The revenue bill up for a vote today forces businesses to defer $1.1 billion of their tax credits over the next three years. They’ll be unable to begin tapping that money until 2013.
The state will also charge sales taxes on clothing and footwear purchases of less than $110 from October 2010 through March 2011, raising $330 million.
In addition, the bill hikes taxes on hedge fund managers living out-of-state, cuts the number of charitable donations the wealthiest New Yorkers can claim on tax returns and boosts an annual tax credit given mostly to filmmakers downstate by $85 million, to a total of $505 million low rate payday loans.
On Monday night, Paterson blasted legislators for their budget plan. He had promised to veto certain spending if legislators failed to create a safety net in case close to $1 billion of federal funds do not come through.
The Medicaid reimbursement funds have been in doubt for weeks, tied up in debate in Congress. Without the money, the state’s deficit would jump to $10.2 billion—requiring legislators to return to Albany later this year, during an election campaign, if they don’t account for the potential loss of funds now.
At best, New York will receive much less than the $989 million it was initially expecting, Paterson said.
“The reality is, the day of reckoning has come,” Paterson said. “I am disappointed, stunned and frankly chagrined with a Legislature that is either unwilling or unable to address the problems the state of New York has. New York, again, wants to blissfully move forward, fantasizing that Medicaid money is coming. We’re actually going in reverse.”
Paterson said he is open to further negotiations with legislative leaders, although the vetoes are “his final word” on the specific spending.
“I never take any joy in vetoing education money, health care, services for poor and indigent,” Paterson said. “It breaks my heart to do this. The only reason I’m doing it is because I think otherwise, we’re proverbially kicking the can down the road.”
Democrats criticized the vetoes.
A spokesman for Senate Democrats called the vetoes “a typical Albany power play with school children and taxpayers caught in the middle.” He said Democrats are discussing a potential veto override.
Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan) said: “The budget passed by the Legislature would dramatically reduce state spending. The governor’s decision to veto these bills will mean larger classes, higher property taxes and more expensive tuition for SUNY and CUNY students.”
After a grueling 20-hour session, lawmakers early Friday finished melding the House and Senate Wall Street reform bills, bringing Congress closer to passing the most sweeping changes to the financial system since the New Deal.
Finishing at 5:39 a.m. ET, 43 lawmakers agreed to send to their respective chambers a final bill that aims to strengthen consumer protection, shine a light on complex financial products, create a new process for taking down giant, failing financial firms, and make them stronger to prevent such failure.
"We are now on the brink of passing Wall Street reform," said President Obama at the White House, shortly before leaving for Canada to attend the G-20 meeting. "We are poised to pass the toughest financial reforms since the ones we passed during the Great Depression."
The conference committee votes were 20-11 among House negotiators and 7-5 among Senate negotiators, strictly along party lines. The room erupted into claps and hugs when it was all done, with staffers shaking hands and saying, "big bill."
In one of their final votes, lawmakers renamed the legislation the Dodd-Frank Bill for the lawmakers who led the work on the reforms: Senate Banking Chairman Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., and House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank, D-Mass. The chamber erupted in cheers on the motion’s approval.
"It’s the most extraordinary experience," Frank said. "You hate to have the kind of pain that so many people went through in this economic crisis, but it just doubled our resolve to get it done."
Frank and Dodd insisted on pushing forward and wrapping up the negotiations, to ready the bill for final passage by each chamber before Congress adjourns for the Independence Day recess.
Shortly after the vote, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner put out a statement supporting the efforts and calling for Congress to move ahead. "We urge Congress to carry the momentum forward and move swiftly towards final passage," he said.
The move was a big win for the White House, giving Obama fodder as he encourages other nations to embrace financial reforms at the G-20 meeting in Toronto on Saturday.
"This will strengthen the hand of the president going to Toronto to make that case," Dodd said. "We can make the case if not to embrace exactly what we’ve done, to embrace the principles we’ve enshrined in this bill."
Despite promises of an open negotiating process, many of the toughest deals were reached in private conversations among Democrats, as well as White House and Treasury officials, outside the Senate meeting room session that was being broadcast on C-SPAN.
Lawmakers, who began negotiations Thursday at 9:30 a.m. ET, grew increasingly short-tempered and weary. Sometimes, the air conditioning shut off, and suit jackets and sweaters came off and sweat ran down faces.
The lawmakers have been meeting for two weeks reconciling the bills, which were largely similar. However, they left most of the toughest decisions to the last day.
Most of Thursday, negotiations were slow going, as Democrats disagreed among themselves on measures that aimed to stop the kinds of problems that lead to the massive taxpayer bailout of American International Group.
Early Friday, lawmakers agreed to a weakened version of a provision originally authored by Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., to force large banks to spin off divisions that trade derivatives contracts into affiliates.
The compromise allows banks to engage in trades of contracts of traditional banking bets, such as on interest rates and the price of gold. But banks would have to two years to spin off affiliates if they want to make riskier trades, ranging from commodities to credit default swaps.
But Lincoln fought efforts to weaken the provision further Friday morning.
"Clearly swap dealing is a risky activity, and it’s something we need to deal with," Lincoln said. "Banks should be banks."
Finish line
Congress first started working on financial overhaul last spring. The House passed a version in December, and the Senate passed its version in May.
Since January 2009, financial services firms have spent nearly $600 million and hired hundreds of lobbyists to influence legislation including financial reform, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. This week, dozens of them lined the Senate office building meeting room and hallway, where they often pulled staffers and lawmakers aside.
The final compromise that lawmakers struck will establish a consumer financial protection regulatory bureau inside the Federal Reserve, that will write new rules to protect consumers from unfair or abusive mortgages and credit cards. Lawmakers agreed the regulator would not oversee auto dealers who make auto loans.
The final deal will also create a 10-member council of regulators, headed by the Treasury Secretary. The group is tasked with sounding an alarm before companies are in position to trigger a financial crisis.
Regulators will be tasked with ensuring banks beef up their capital cushions, such as forcing financial firms to move more of their assets into investments that are more easily converted into cash over the next several years.
The bill would also establish new procedures for shutting down giant financial firms that are collapsing.
The bill aims to shine a brighter light on some of the different kinds of complex financial products, called derivatives, that are blamed for the problems that forced a bailout of American International Group (AIG, Fortune 500) and the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers. It would force most derivatives on to clearinghouses and exchanges, to help pinpoint the value of the trades.
Republicans objected to some of the bill’s major provisions, particularly parts that establish the consumer agency and create new rules for the derivatives. While they generally favored more consumer protection and more regulation of derivatives, they argued that the legislation is too heavy-handed in these areas.
Late night calls
Derivatives: After midnight, lawmakers began discussing differences on the bills that aim to shine a light on derivatives.
Lawmakers agreed to push many derivatives onto clearinghouses and exchanges that can better pinpoint the value of the securities and create firewall’s between buyers and sellers.
They also agreed to allow leeway for financial firms to avoid exchanges and avoid posting collateral on such contracts for so-called commercial end-users, such as airlines that are trying to hedge against the changing price of jet fuel.
Additionally, lawmakers embraced a provision that prevents big banks from making risky bets on "nontraditional" derivatives and having access to emergency taxpayer-backed loans. Banks would have to spin off their swaps desk into affiliates, if they want to make such bets.
Volcker: Just before midnight, lawmakers agreed on a new version of the so-called Volcker Rule, which was first proposed by former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker. The measure prevents banks from owning hedge funds and trading for their own accounts.
Lawmakers agreed to gives regulators more specifics and less leeway when it comes to preventing banks from trading for themselves or owning hedge funds. But they also watered it down in several ways: It doesn’t impact insurers. And it allows some proprietary trading in areas, such as government debt, for hedging purposes and small business investments.
As for the ban on banks owning hedge funds, the provision allows Wall Street banks that take commercial deposits to sink as much as 3% of capital in hedge funds or private equity.
Consumer groups and policy analysts watching the negotiations noted that 3% of a giant Wall Street bank’s capital means billions could still be invested on risky bets.
"Three percent of Goldman Sachs’ capital is a big number, and it enables very large funds," said Raj Date, executive director of the Cambridge Winter Center for Financial Institutions Policy.
Also, for some banks, the provision may not fully go into effect for up to seven years, according to Jaret Seiberg, an analyst with Concept Capital’s Washington Research Group.
Bank tax: The cost of implementing Wall Street reform bills is around $19 billion and Congress decided to pay for it by taxing the largest financial firms, with firms taking the biggest risks paying the most.
VeriFone Holdings Inc. said Monday it expanded into South Korea with the acquisition of Orange Logic Ltd., a payment systems provider in that country.
San Jose-based VeriFone (NYSE:PAY) did not disclose terms of the deal.
With the acquisition, VeriFone said, it gained staff and infrastructure to introduce its secure electronic payment product line into the Republic of Korea, along with an existing domestic product line and customer base.
"Although South Korea is second only to the U.S. market with more than 2.5 million deployed electronic payment systems, only 10 percent to15 percent of those meet government security requirements for compliance with the international EMV standard," the company said.
Orange Logic was founded in 2004 and has primarily been supplying electronic payment devices to customers in the South Korean retail and banking segments.
Orange Logic will operate as VeriFone Korea and will continue to manufacture the existing Orange Logic product family.
The Dow advanced for a sixth straight session Thursday. In Colorado, Array BioPharma and American Oil & Gas led actively traded gainers.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished the trading day at 11,144.57, up 21.46 points (0.19 percent).
The S&P 500 closed at 1,211.67, up 1.02 points (0.08 percent).
The NASDAQ Composite finished at 2,515.69, up 10.83 points (0.43 percent).
Among actively traded Colorado stocks, Array BioPharma Inc. (ARRY) led the day’s gainers, up 9.52 percent (28 cents) to close at $3.22.
Other Colorado gainers:
• American Oil & Gas Inc easy pay day loans. (AEZ) — Up 4.26 percent (30 cents) to $7.34.
• St. Mary Land & Exploration Co. (SM) — Up 3.57 percent ($1.36) to $39.45.
• General Moly Inc. (GMO) — Up 3.24 percent (12 cents) to $3.82.
• Liberty Capital Group (LCAPA), a tracking stock of Liberty Media Corp. — Up 2.4 percent ($1.01) to $43.16.
Jack Gold has resigned as executive director of San Francisco Architectural Heritage.
Gold, who led the organization for two years, will return to Providence R.I., where he owns a home and his partner lives. His last day is March 25.
“I deeply appreciate and value Jack’s two-plus years of service here at Heritage. Jack joined Heritage during a period of significant transition and helped stabilize and strengthen the organization,” said Heritage President Charles Olson.
Gold said he was “proud of the organization’s accomplishments during the past two years.” While at Heritage, Gold advocated for the new Proposition J, the legislation that established a new more powerful Historic Preservation Commission cash advance no faxing. He worked to attract younger members and grew the Heritage board by 50 percent.
Heritage, founded in 1971, is an advocacy and education organization whose mission is to protect and enhance San Francisco’s unique architectural identity. It owns and operates the historic Haas-Lilienthal House Museum at 2007 Franklin Street.
Mayer Electric Supply has opened a new office in south Alabama, according to a release issued by the electrical supplier Thursday.
The new location in Calvert will be the 16th in Alabama and the 51st in the Southeast region for the company. It will go by name Mayer-Mobile North.
In a press release, Mayer President Wes Smith said the site is well-positioned to serve the growing Mobile region, which has attracted a number of new industrial companies in the last several years bad credit personal loan lenders.
The new location will be less than a mile from the state’s new ThyssenKrupp plant.
The U.S. economy continued to improve modestly in February despite uncharacteristically severe weather in many regions of the country, the latest Federal Reserve report on economic conditions reports.
Nine of the Fed’s 12 regional banks — including the New York Bank which encompasses Buffalo and Upstate — reported in the U.S. central bank’s Beige Book survey that economic activity improved last month.
Two districts, St. Louis and Atlanta, reported a more mixed performance and one district, Richmond, Va., was snowed under by winter storms.
The survey is a collection of anecdotes compiled by the Fed to give policy makers a feel for conditions across the country as they prepare for the next meeting on March 16 to plot monetary policy strategy.
Among the survey’s findings: Credit conditions have not improved and businesses still are unable to obtain credit, which is a critical factor behind the sluggish pace of growth creditreport.
Also, loan demand remains weak and banks are sticking to tight standards.
There were no signs in February of an improving labor market, though the pace of layoffs slowed.
Consumers appeared somewhat more willing to spend, the survey found, and demand for services was generally positive.
Manufacturing activity was stronger, but worries persisted about whether it was a result of customers restocking their shelves and unlikely to result in sustained improvement.
Oil prices rebounded Friday on supply concern following strikes at French refineries, and after a report showed a dip in U.S. inflation.
What prices are doing: Crude oil for March delivery rose 75 cents to settle at $79.81 a barrel on Friday. Prices had fallen as low as $77.76 earlier in the session.
On Thursday, oil rose to its highest level in five weeks after an inventory report showed a larger-than-expected inventory drop in supplies of some refined products.
The oil market was closed Monday in the United States in observance of Presidents Day, but prices rose steadily throughout the remainder of the week. From Tuesday to Friday, crude prices gained 3.6%.
What’s driving prices: A stronger dollar kept oil prices in check early Friday, a day after the Federal Reserve raised the discount rate by a quarter percentage point to 0.75%.
But later in the session, reports surfaced about an intensifying strike at French oil giant Total SA, which began shutting operations and warned of fuel shortages. Workers have been on strike for three days to protest Total’s permanent closure of oil processing at a plant in Flanders.
A Friday morning economic report also helped put a floor under prices. The Consumer Price Index, the government’s key inflation reading, showed prices rose just 0.2% in January. The core inflation rate fell a seasonally adjusted 0.1%.
Gas prices: The national average price for a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline rose to $2.623, up 0.9 cents from the previous day’s price of $2.614, according to motorist group AAA.
Powered by WordPress -- XHTML 1.0