March 28, 2024

O.E.C.D. Sees Improvement in Developed Countries

PARIS — The economic outlook in major industrialized economies is improving, with the United States and Japan leading the way, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said on Monday, adding that activity in the euro zone was also picking up.

The figures come after news last week that the U.S. jobless rate had fallen to a four-year low, offering a bright signal on the health of the world’s biggest economy.

The Paris-based O.E.C.D. said its latest monthly leading indicator for its 33 member countries was at its highest level since June 2011.

The composite leading indicator rose to 100.4 from 100.3 in December, which the organization said pointed to “firming growth.”

It also brought the measure, which is designed to flag turning points in economic activity, further above the long-term average of 100.

The O.E.C.D. says that the turning points in its indicators tend to precede changes in economic activity by about six months.

The United States showed the strongest improvement, with a reading of 100.9, unchanged from December. The index for Japan rose to 100.6 from 100.4.

The recession-hit euro zone also showed better signs, with its reading at its highest level since April, edging up to 99.7 from 99.6. The index for Germany, the largest euro zone economy and the engine for growth, rebounded to 99.6 from 99.2.

The O.E.C.D. said the readings for Italy and France signaled “no further declines in growth,” with the Italian index rising to 99.3 from 99.2 while France inched up to 99.5 from 99.4.

Among the major emerging economies tracked by the organization, the reading for China pointed to “moderating growth” at 99.0 after 99.1 in December. India saw “growth slowing down,” with a reading of 97.2 after 97.3, the O.E.C.D. said.

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/12/business/global/oecd-sees-improvement-in-developed-countries.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

Stocks Trade in Narrow Range

Stocks were mixed on Friday, lifted by a strong report on consumer sentiment but pulled down in late trading by what was said to be an internal report of weak Walmart sales at the start of February.

The Standard Poor’s 500-stock index fell in late trading, with Wal-Mart Stores leading the way down after the report on February sales, but the index remained higher for the week and extended its streak of weekly gains to seven. The last such run was from December 2010 to January 2011.

Equities were little changed for much of the session, with investors finding few reasons to make big bets after an extended rally on Wall Street.

Interest rates were steady. The Treasury’s benchmark 10-year note fell 2/32, to 99 31/32, and the yield rose to 2.01 percent from 2 percent late Thursday.

Wal-Mart Stores dropped 2.2 percent to $69.30 after Bloomberg News reported a weak start to February sales, citing internal company e-mails. The stock was the biggest decliner on the Dow Jones industrial average. The S. P. retail index fell 0.5 percent.

“When a retailer of this size comes out with this kind of lousy news, the whole market can fall off, especially on a Friday afternoon,” said Mike Shea, of Direct Access Partners in New York. “However, I’m not worried that this is indicative of any larger macro issue with retail.”

The Dow Jones industrial average was up 8.37 points, or 0.06 percent, at 13,981.76. The Standard Poor’s 500-stock index was down 1.59 points, or 0.1 percent, at 1,519.79. The Nasdaq composite index was down 6.63 points, or 0.21 percent, at 3,192.03.

For the week, the Dow and Nasdaq fell 0.1 percent each, while the S. P. rose 0.1 percent.

“There’s no news that suggests the strong underpinning for stocks isn’t appropriate,” said Mark D. Luschini, chief investment strategist at Janney Montgomery Scott in Philadelphia. “We may have gotten ahead of ourselves, but there’s also an absence of bad news.”

Many investors are looking ahead to a debate in Washington over the automatic, across-the-board spending cuts put in place as part of a larger Congressional budget fight. The cuts are set to kick in on March 1 unless lawmakers agree to an alternative.

“This had been far enough out to not yet become an impediment for stocks, but it will start to move into the forefront,” Mr. Luschini said.

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York said manufacturing in New York State expanded for the first time in seven months. A preliminary Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan reading of consumer sentiment rose, beating expectations. But manufacturing fell in January.

Wall Street’s gains thus far in 2013 have been driven largely by strong corporate earnings. A surge in merger and acquisition activity, with more than $158 billion in deals announced so far in 2013, has given further support to the equity market as it points to healthy valuations and bets on the economic outlook.

Herbalife shares cut earlier gains to rise 1.2 percent on Friday, to $38.74. Late on Thursday, the billionaire investor Carl C. Icahn disclosed that he owned 13 percent of Herbalife and was ready to put it in play.

MeadWestvaco, a packaging company, climbed 12.5 percent to $35.65, making it the biggest percentage gainer on the S. P. index, after the activist investor Nelson Peltz’s Trian Fund Management said it had bought about 1.6 million shares of the company.

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/16/business/daily-stock-market-activity.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

You’re the Boss Blog: Coding Start-Ups Compete for Booming Market

Would YOU learn to code from this man? The ambassador talks shop in a Treehouse tutorial.Courtesy of Treehouse.Would YOU learn to code from this man? The ambassador talks shop in a Treehouse tutorial.

Start

The adventure of new ventures.

If you build it, they will code.

That’s the attitude behind a groundswell of learn-to-program start-ups, all competing to put aspiring coders through their paces online. With target audiences ranging from neophytes living under rocks – “What’s a browser?” – to tech-savvy kids, entrepreneurs and mid-level developers, these young Web companies use game mechanics and narrative techniques to hold users’ attention and are part of the ongoing boom in online education.

Here’s a look at three coding start-ups that are leading the way:

Treehouse

Video tutorials welcome students to Treehouse Island, where they arrive in a zeppelin, meet a mysterious, eye-patch-wearing ambassador (see photo above) – think Mister Rodgers transposed to “Lost” — and unravel mysteries while learning to code in HTML, Ruby, Python, PHP and JavaScript. The service went live in November and offers three beginner-oriented learning tracks: Web design, Web development, and iPhone/iPad application creation.

Founder: Ryan Carson, 34.
Location: Orlando, Fla.
Employees: 23.
Financing: $600,000 angel round closed in October.
Revenue: Monthly sales hit $175,000 in December.
Users: 6,500 paying subscribers. Corporate clients include Disney and Estée Lauder.
Business model: Users choose between two tiers of access and pay $25 or $49 monthly, with a $9 student plan coming in February.
Special sauce: “We’ve done partnerships with Facebook, WordPress and LivingSocial,” Mr. Carson said. “They’re going to start recruiting people who’ve unlocked our badges for internships and jobs.”

Codecademy

Working inside the start-up incubator Y Combinator, a pair of former Columbia students noticed a lack of user-friendly online tools for beginning programmers. Codecademy began offering JavaScript training in August, quickly attracted major investments from Union Square Ventures, SV Angel and other heavy-hitters, and plans to roll out more programming languages soon. The company’s new initiatives — Code Year, a yearlong tutorial that started this month and attracted more than 350,000 users, and Code Summer+, a youth partnership with the White House announced last week — have won big attention.

Co-founders: Zach Sims, 21, and Ryan Bubinski, 22.
Location: New York City.
Employees: six.
Financing: $2.5 million venture round closed in October.
Revenue: None.
Users: more than 850,000.
Business model: “There is no revenue model at the moment,” Mr. Sims said. “Our first thing is the product.”
Special sauce: Broad appeal. “We got an e-mail from an 85-year-old stroke victim using it,” said Mr. Sims said. “We’ve seen people in almost every country in the world sign up.”

Code School by Envy Labs

In 2010, Web applications consultancy Envy Labs unveiled Rails for Zombies, an interactive Ruby on Rails teaching suite. Some 60,000 coders let the game eat their brains. Hoping to build on that success, the young company introduced Code School in March, targeting users who already know some programming but want to keep current with Ruby, HTML5, CSS3, CoffeeScript and jQuery. It plans to expand to an audience of new and younger users.

Founder: Gregg Pollack, 34
Location: Orlando, Fla.
Employees: Of Envy Labs’ 23 employees, a rotating cast of about five work full-time on Code School at any one time.
Financing: No outside money. Bootstrapped with $280,000 so far.
Revenue: $250,000 since debut.
Users: 90,000 registered for content, including free offerings like Rails for Zombies; 2,000 paying subscribers monthly.
Business model: $25 monthly subscription fee.
Special sauce: “We’re a different kind of start-up. We’ve used our consulting work to fund the development of projects like this,” Mr. Pollack said. “And the content isn’t introductory. Most of our customers are existing developers.”

Do you agree with programmer evangelists that coding is for everyone, especially entrepreneurs? What do you think of these rival start-ups’ plans, and would you consider using their services? Do you do your own coding, or outsource the task to others?

Article source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=cf7d06d542b4a3176e3aa866b0a334aa

DealBook: Behind the Surge in Energy Deals

As the deal-making steadily returns from the depths of the financial crisis and the recession, energy companies are leading the way. Oil, natural gas, and utility players are rapidly consolidating. On Thursday, Energy Transfer Equity bid $4.2 billion for Southern Union Company, a deal that will create one of the largest natural gas pipeline operators. DealBook’s Andrew Ross Sorkin and Adrienne Carter talk about what’s fueling the strong activity.

Article source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=6130f452de3273de77c6273ce38de2ce