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Pressure on Apple Leaves Markets Mixed

September 11, 2013 by

Stocks had a mixed close on Wednesday as a drop in shares of Apple weighed heavily on the Nasdaq and after President Obama pledged to explore Russia’s diplomatic plan to remove chemical weapons from Syria.

By the end of trading the Standard Poor’s 500-share index was up 0.3 percent, the Dow Jones industrial average gained 0.9 percent and the Nasdaq composite was down 0.1 percent.

Apple shares slumped 5.4 percent, and were the biggest drag on both the S. P. 500 and Nasdaq indexes. Credit Suisse, UBS and Bank of America Merrill Lynch each lowered their rating on the stock to neutral after the company unveiled new iPhone models Tuesday.

Part of the problem for Apple, said Ken Polcari, director of the N.Y.S.E. floor division at O’Neil Securities in New York, is that analysts and consumers “keep comparing everyone who speaks, every product that comes out to what Steve Jobs would have done.”

“Apple is a great company, they’ve done the right thing in coming up with two price products to meet the marketplace — it’s Apple and everybody likes to take a shot at it,” he said.

In a speech Tuesday evening Mr. Obama said a Russian offer to pressure President Bashar al-Assad of Syria to place his government’s chemical weapons under international control increased the odds of putting off a limited military strike that he is considering, but voiced skepticism about the plan.

Mr. Obama also asked leaders in Congress to put off a vote on his request to authorize the use of military force in order to allow diplomacy to play out.

“I don’t see any compelling reason the market should sell-off here and certainly with the potential international diplomacy bomb being defused, we will move sideways here for the next few days until we get the Fed next week,” said Keith Bliss, senior vice president at Cuttone Company in New York.

The Federal Reserve is scheduled to begin a two-day policy meeting on Sept. 17, at the conclusion of which many market participants expect the central bank to announce it will begin to scale back its bond-buying program, which has helped shore up the economy and boost the stock market this year.

United States benchmark crude rose, gaining 31 cents a barrel to $107.70.

The S. P. 500 has gained 3.1 percent over the past six sessions, its longest winning streak in two months, as concerns ebbed about a Western military strike against Syria and as data showed improving growth in China, the world’s second-biggest economy.

Texas Instruments, the No. 3 chip maker in the United States, dipped 0.7 percent after it lowered its third-quarter forecast.

Harvest Natural Resources, an oil and gas producer, surged 26.8 percent after the company said it was in exclusive talks to sell itself to Argentina’s Pluspetrol in a deal valued at about $373 million including debt.

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/12/business/daily-stock-market-activity.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

Filed Under: Economy News Tagged With: , ,

In Furor Over Cartoon, Murdoch Apologizes for ‘Grotesque’ Drawing

January 29, 2013 by Leave a Comment

The drawing, by one of Britain’s best-known cartoonists, was published on Sunday, as Britain observed Holocaust Memorial Day.

In a message on Twitter on Monday, Mr. Murdoch wrote that the work of the cartoonist, Gerald Scarfe, “has never reflected the opinions of the Sunday Times. Nevertheless, we owe major apology for grotesque, offensive cartoon.” The Sunday Times is normally seen as supportive of Israel’s security concerns.

The drawing showed Mr. Netanyahu holding a trowel and included these lines: “Israel elections. Will cementing the peace continue?” The wall in the cartoon was apparently a reference to the barrier Israel has built between itself and the West Bank.

Stephen Pollard, the editor of Britain’s Jewish Chronicle weekly newspaper, said in a BBC radio segment on Tuesday that the timing of the cartoon was “grotesque.” It reflected “the worst anti-Semitic blood libel,” which was common in cartoons in Arabic newspapers in the Middle East, he said.

But, appearing on the same broadcast, Steve Bell, a cartoonist for The Guardian, responded in a heated discussion that when Mr. Scarfe depicted President Bashar al-Assad of Syria in a similarly confrontational light there had been “not a squeak” of criticism.

The debate also spread to Israel, where columnist Anshel Pfeffer wrote on the Haaretz newspaper Web site: “Should The Sunday Times have not published the cartoon on International Holocaust Memorial Day? Only if one believes that is a day in which Israeli politicians have immunity from being caricatured.”

The criticism of The Sunday Times, a broadsheet, drew Mr. Murdoch’s newspaper holdings here into a new area of scrutiny after the months of scandal swirling around News International, the British newspaper subsidiary of News Corporation, after the phone hacking scandal that exploded in July 2011.

Since then, News International executives and journalists have been caught in an avalanche of criminal investigations and resignations. Some of Mr. Murdoch’s most senior former executives are set to stand trial later this year on a range of charges.

Mr. Scarfe’s work has appeared in The Sunday Times since 1967. In a message on his Web site, Mr. Scarfe said: “First of all I am not, and never have been, anti-Semitic. The Sunday Times has given me the freedom of speech over the last 46 years to criticize world leaders for what I see as their wrongdoings. This drawing was a criticism of Netanyahu, and not of the Jewish people: there was no slight whatsoever intended against them. I was, however, stupidly completely unaware that it would be printed on Holocaust Day, and I apologize for the very unfortunate timing.”

The Board of Deputies of British Jews, the main representative body for British Jews, said it had complained to the Press Complaints Commission, the body by which British newspapers regulate themselves.

Like Mr. Pollard, the board said the cartoon “is shockingly reminiscent of the blood libel imagery more usually found in parts of the virulently anti-Semitic Arab press.”

Initially, The Sunday Times defended its decision to publish the cartoon, British news reports said, saying it was “aimed squarely at Mr. Netanyahu and his policies, not at Israel, let alone at Jewish people. It appeared yesterday because Mr. Netanyahu won the Israeli election last week.”

But Martin Ivens, the acting editor of The Sunday Times, said the newspaper would not countenance insults to the memory of Holocaust victims or blood libel, a term denoting medieval superstitions falsely accusing Jews of using the blood of children in rituals.

“The paper has long written strongly in defense of Israel and its security concerns, as have I as a columnist,” he said in a statement published by the Press Association news agency. “We are, however, reminded of the sensitivities in this area by the reaction to the cartoon, and I will, of course, bear them very carefully in mind in future.”

Mr. Ivens planned to meet British Jewish leaders on Tuesday to apologize in person for the cartoon.

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/30/world/europe/murdoch-apologizes-for-grotesque-netanyahu-cartoon.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

Filed Under: Media Business Tagged With: , ,

Gaziantep Journal: Turkey’s Sanctions on Syria Hurt Business for Border City

December 13, 2011 by Leave a Comment

There is no sign of the 40,000 Syrians who trekked each month to the gleaming Sanko Park shopping mall here to buy designer head scarves or discounted Gucci shoes. There is no more need for public announcements in both Turkish and Arabic. Many came from Syria’s largest city, Aleppo, just 60 miles away.

“We miss the Syrians,” said Ercan Nacaroglu, surveying his empty jewelry store, and adding, “We hope the crisis will stop, because it is killing the local economy.”

Only a year ago, Turkey and Syria were close allies, as Turkey’s governing Muslim-inspired Justice and Development Party sought to expand the country’s economic influence and grow into a regional power. Their 500-mile border is Turkey’s longest; during the Ottoman Empire, Gaziantep (pronounced gahz-ee-AHN-tep) was part of Aleppo Province. For its part, Syria remains suffused with Turkish influence, from Ottoman architecture to the continuing popularity of Turkish soap operas. Trade between the two countries had more than tripled since 2006, to $2.5 billion in 2010.

Turkish officials tried for months to persuade President Bashar al-Assad to halt the violent crackdown against a civilian uprising that began in March, but finally, and emphatically, turned against the Syrian government.

In combination with sanctions imposed by the Arab League, the European Union and the United States, Turkey’s own tough measures — including freezing the Syrian government’s assets — are slowly beginning to choke Mr. Assad’s rule.

But businesspeople here complain that the rupture cuts both ways.

On Monday, more than 150 Turkish truck drivers protested after they were forced to leave their vehicles in Syria and walk to the Turkish border; Damascus had closed down its crossing near Urfa, in eastern Turkey. The drivers told Turkey’s NTV news channel that Syrian looters had stolen their tires and batteries. Turkish companies, which relied on Syria as a transit route to the Middle East, have begun bypassing Syria, shipping goods via Iraq and the Mediterranean instead.

Syria last week unilaterally suspended its free trade agreement with Turkey, retaliating to the Turkish sanctions by introducing taxes of up to 30 cents on Turkish goods entering Syria. Turkey did the same.

Here in this large industrial center of 1.7 million people, everyone from olive vendors to owners of large textile conglomerates complained that the shifting geopolitics was proving bad for business, even if, as Turkey’s economy minister,  Zafer Caglayan,  said last week, Syria suffers more than Turkey, which is its second-largest export market after China.

Turkish sellers are harder hit than buyers: imports from Syria amounted to just 0.3 percent of Turkey’s total last year, while 10.6 percent of Syria’s came from Turkey.

Turkey’s decision to become the voice of regional outrage against the Assad government has also divided the identities of some in a city where Turkish and Arab culture have commingled for centuries.

Emre Hadimogullari, 22, an electrical engineering student in Gaziantep, is so irate at the Turkish government’s policy in Syria that he has grown a long beard in protest. Mr. Hadimogullari is an Alawite whose grandparents found themselves Turkish citizens when his hometown, Samandag, formerly part of Syria, was ceded to Turkey in 1923. Mr. Hadimogullari expressed a kinship with Mr. Assad, also an Alawite, and said he believed that the reports of atrocities in Syria were exaggerated. Turkey, he insisted, should stop playing the part of regional police officer.

“Turkey should mind its own business and stop interfering in another country’s affairs,” he said.

Huseyin Qebed, a marketing analyst from Aleppo and one of few Syrians remaining in Gaziantep, said the crisis had not harmed his relationship with his Turkish friends, though these days he avoided talking about politics. The Turkish sanctions, he added, were harming all Syrians, including the demonstrators whom Turkey purported to support. “The sanctions won’t solve anything,” he said. “Costs are rising for everyone.”

Turkish businesspeople here also questioned the wisdom of sanctions, even as they acknowledged that Mr. Assad’s brutality could not go unanswered.

Cengiz Akinal, vice president of Akinal Bella, a large shoe manufacturer that imports bows for its shoes from artisans in Syria, said that the Turkish tax increase on goods from Syria was forcing him to import bows from China. On the upside, he said, Arab League countries boycotting Syrian shoe companies were turning to his.

Sebnem Arsu contributed reporting from Istanbul.

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/13/world/europe/turkeys-sanctions-on-syria-hurt-business-for-border-city.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

Filed Under: Global Business Tagged With: , ,