Kingfisher Misses Estimates as Sales Drop in France, Britain

Irish Times

Kingfisher caned by currency fluctuations Proactive Investors UK ... our third quarter, one of our most significant trading periods in the year. Our markets remain challenging, with consumer confidence still weak and so we maintain our strong focus on margin, costs and cash," said Ian Cheshire, chief executive of ... See all stories on this topic » Proactive Investors UK

Kingfisher: What the analysts say Retail Week “We said yesterday that the best investor relations team in the industry would surely engineer a top-of-the-range third quarter outcome today at Kingfisher, so we have to take our hats off to them for presenting a bottom-of-the-range outcome of £257m ... See all stories on this topic »

Kingfisher Misses Estimates as Sales Drop in France, Britain Businessweek Kingfisher's markets “remain challenging, with consumer confidence still weak,” Chief Executive Officer Ian Cheshire said. The CEO is seeking to protect profit by directly sourcing more products from suppliers and adding common product ranges across ... See all stories on this topic »

Kingfisher suffers earnings fall Financial Times Kingfisher suffers earnings fall. By Louise Lucas. Kingfisher, the owner of the B&Q home improvement chain, reported a 5.9 per cent drop in third-quarter earnings before interest and tax to £257m, as French and British consumers downed tools. The ... See all stories on this topic »

Kingfisher says budget uncertainty hitting France Reuters UK LONDON (Reuters) - Kingfisher (KGF.L), Europe's biggest home improvements retailer, said uncertainty over the French government's budget plans had knocked consumer confidence in its largest market, as it posted a 6 percent drop in quarterly profit. See all stories on this topic »

B&Q and Castorama owner Kingfisher dips on cautious outlook The Guardian (blog) Kingfisher, the owner of B&Q in the UK and Castorama in France, continues to struggle with tough markets, and its latest results have done little to dispel the gloom. With falling revenues in both its main markets, its like for like sales for the third ... See all stories on this topic »

B&Q owner Kingfisher warns of "opaque" outlook Telegraph.co.uk Kingfisher, which also owns Screwfix, said like-for-like sales in the UK fell by 3.8pc in the 13 weeks to October 27. This compares to a 5.5pc drop in the first half of the year, when B&Q sales were dragged down by Britain's wet summer. “It's ... See all stories on this topic » Telegraph.co.uk

Kingfisher profits down by 6% Irish Times Kingfisher, Europe's number one home improvements retailer, posted a 6 per cent fall in third-quarter profit, hit by a fall in sales in its main markets in France and the UK as well as unfavourable foreign exchange movements. The group, which runs B&Q ... See all stories on this topic »

Money Flows Out of Mutual Funds

Money Flows Out of Mutual Funds Wall Street Journal Long-term mutual funds fell by $5.52 billion in the latest week, as declines from equity and hybrid funds more than offset inflows to bond funds, according to the Investment Company Institute. Bond and hybrid funds have mostly recorded weekly net ... See all stories on this topic »

Should you invest in ICICI Prudential Capital Protection Oriented Fund? Economic Times The fund offers growth and dividend option. You can invest a minimum of Rs 5000 in these funds. There is no exit load. You can also choose to switch funds from your investments in other schemes of ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund. The new fund offer closes ... See all stories on this topic » Economic Times

Top performing US mutual fund bets on BlackBerry revival, increases RIM stake Waterloo Record TORONTO – Donald Yacktman, whose $19-billion mutual-fund firm has outperformed peers by picking undervalued stocks, is leading a rush of investors betting Research In Motion and its BlackBerry smartphone can recover. Yacktman Asset Management ... See all stories on this topic » Waterloo Record

Top 5 Best Performing Healthcare Mutual Funds Year to Date - Best Performing ... NASDAQ Mutual funds are the perfect choice for investors looking to enter this sector since they possess the advantages of wide diversification and analytical insight. Below we will share with you the 5 best performing healthcare mutual funds year to date. To ... See all stories on this topic »

NAVs soar as markets delivered excellent performance Moneycontrol.com Equity Mutual Funds delivered excellent performance as markets rallied by around 2 per cent yesterday. The debt funds too were seen on positive radar on the hopes of RBI's announcing OMO to handle liquidity crunch situation. Source: Moneycontrol.com ... See all stories on this topic » Moneycontrol.com

Compass EMP Funds Introduces 13 New Mutual Funds Sacramento Bee NASHVILLE, Tenn., Nov. 28, 2012 -- /PRNewswire/ -- Compass EMP Funds announced the launch of thirteen (13) new mutual funds increasing its fund family to sixteen total funds. These new funds and their ticker symbols are presented below within their ... See all stories on this topic »

Fancy Funds, Below Average Returns Moneylife Mutual funds have tried just about everything to lure investors and sell their schemes. They have tried foreign funds, contra funds, sector funds when a particular sector is doing well and many other tricks. Instead of coming up with innovative ways of ... See all stories on this topic »

Mutual fund dealer's books at issue TheChronicleHerald.ca A mutual fund dealer operating in Nova Scotia is being accused of improperly maintaining its books, causing a client's investment to be used in a manner she did not intend. According to a recently posted statement of allegations, Nova Scotia Securities ... See all stories on this topic »

Killing Them Softly is a hitman allegory about the Great Recession

Killing Them Softly, the new crime caper thriller from writer/Director Andrew Dominik (The Assassination of Jesse James By the Coward Robert Ford), is set in 2008, during the height of the panic over the U.S. financial collapse and the run-up to Barack Obama's election. I mention this because you might miss that crucial bit of subtext if you're not paying close attention to the excerpts from Obama's election-night speech that are included during the jaggedly edited opening sequence. Or during the centerpiece heist sequence. Or five minutes later when someone has the car radio on. Or pretty much every time anyone in this movie is listening to a radio or watching a television.

Because Andrew, buddy, pal, c'mon: We get it already. We understand that you're turning your adaptation of George V. Higgins' novel Cogan's Trade — full of low-lifes, hired killers, and an unseen corporatized criminal hierarchy — into some kind of a metaphor for the malfeasance that led up to the Great Recession, and the nature of the response to it. It's clear from the crime committed by Markie (Ray Liotta), who arranged to steal from the card game he runs. That in turn inspires a copycat crime by small-time crook Johnny (Vincent Curatola), who brings in an old acquaintance, Frankie (Scoot McNairy), to do the actual dirty work. It's clear from the interaction between Jackie (Brad Pitt), a no-nonsense hired killer, and the businesslike representative (Richard Jenkins) of the crime bosses by whom Jackie's been hired to deal with whoever stole from them. And man oh man is it clear from the incessant intrusion of the voices of George Bush, Barack Obama, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, etc. etc. etc.

The damned shame of it is that, for a while anyway, Killing Them Softly has the makings of a uniquely down-and-dirty spin on familiar underworld material. Yes, the off-the-cuff conversations might have you expecting the latest in a 20-year lineage of post-Tarantino chatty/witty thugs, particularly in the pre-heist banter between Frankie and his accomplice/prison buddy Russell (Ben Mendelsohn) about prison sex, among other things. McNairy's a terrifically effective weasel, though, and the actual card-room robbery is a study in minimalist tension built entirely into reasonable behavior.

It's even clear that Dominik had his story pointed in a direction that would have made a compelling thematic idea all on its own — the role of distance, whether physical or emotional, in being able to live with doing something terrible. Several solid dialogue sequences are built around this notion: a pair of goons fretting over beating up Markie because they don't want to deal with pleading; Jackie bringing in a second killer (James Gandolfini) to deal with a target that Jackie knows personally; Frankie trying to avoid direct involvement in pointing Jackie towards Johnny. The film's title is used as an almost absurdist suggestion that there's a right way to destroy someone's life — one that results in no stress on the conscience of the destroyer.

But that's not good enough for Dominik, who churns out the background-noise references to the meltdown pretty much any time there's a moment of dead air, leading up to a climactic speech by Pitt that turns into something more pointed in its contemporary-relevance-message-delivering than anything that's been similarly criticized in Lincoln. The ham-handedness extends to Dominik's visual choices, including an extended bit from the heroin-addled Russell's point of view, and a slow-motion killing that — even if intended as a juxtaposition with a couple of messier, less balletic murder sequences still to come — cries look-at-me without justifying itself. And when it feels as though the filmmaker isn't completely in control of his material, the discursive bits, like a flashback to a failed attempt to burn a stolen car, wind up seeming completely pointless.

Killing Them Softly winds and pirouettes around a dozen different notions in a way that makes it clear that Dominik had something richly cynical at the core of his film. But he doesn't trust the audience to put the pieces together, leaving a frustrating tale that, just in case you missed it, is set in 2008 when everyone was greedy.

Consumer confidence hits post-recession peak MarketWatch WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Consumer confidence rose in November to its best reading in more than four years, according to data released Tuesday, as growing hopes for the jobs market buoys sentiment. The Conference Board said its consumer ... See all stories on this topic »

RV industry's recovery gains speed in 2012 Businessweek (AP) — The RV industry's recovery from the Great Recession has picked up speed. Recreational Vehicle makers are churning out higher numbers of travel trailers bound for dealers' lots and, ultimately, campgrounds. Overall shipments from manufacturers ... See all stories on this topic »

OECD fears another world recession as UAE remains rare bright spot [National ... Equities.com REUTERS / Sergio Perez. Sean Cronin. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development yesterday cut global growth forecasts and warned that the world could plunge back intorecession without decisive action in the United States and Europe. See all stories on this topic »

Killing Them Softly is a hitman allegory about the Great Recession Charleston City Paper by Scott Renshaw. An adaptation of George V. Higgins' Cogan's Trade, Killing them Softly looks at. Courtesy of the Weinstein Company. An adaptation of George V. Higgins' Cogan's Trade, Killing them Softly looks at our response to the Recession. See all stories on this topic » Charleston City Paper

Will Housing Drag Economy Back Into Recession? Fox Business There is new evidence that the housing market is on the -- the Case Shiller Index showing home prices rising 3% in September from the year before but even with a string of upbeat stopped -- upbeat news -- for sale next guest is concerned about what's ... See all stories on this topic »

AFP: Spain still mired in recession: central bank AFP MADRID — Spain appears to be stuck in a jobs-killing recession in the final months of 2012, the central bank said in a preliminary report Wednesday. The scarce available data pointed to shrinking economic output in the final months of 2012, the Bank ... See all stories on this topic » AFP

UPDATE 2-Portugal parliament approves austerity budget Reuters LISBON Nov 27 (Reuters) - Portugal's parliament gave final approval on Tuesday to a 2013 budget which promises a third year of recession and the biggest tax hikes in modern history to ensure international bailout terms are met. Lawmakers from the ... See all stories on this topic »

Is The Decline In Core Capital Expenditures Growth A Worrisome Recession ... Business Insider This morning the Census Bureau released the October Durable Goods report for data through October. The CAPEX referenced by Rosenberg is the Manufacturers' New Orders: Nondefense Capital Goods Excluding Aircraft data series, which is conveniently ... See all stories on this topic »

Connecticut seen rebounding slowly from recession San Francisco Chronicle HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — The slow pace of Connecticut's recovery from the recession is taking a toll on state revenues, leading to expected deep spending cuts next fiscal year, according to Gov. Dannel P. Malloy's budget director. Ben Barnes, secretary ... See all stories on this topic »

Longtime Castro Valley veterinarian dies in plane crash

Small plane crashes in eastern Iowa, 1 dead Seattle Post Intelligencer CLUTIER, Iowa (AP) — The pleasure flight two friends took Wednesday morning ended tragically when the small plane crashed into an eastern Iowa field and caught fire, killing one person and injuring the other, authorities said. The single-engine plane ... See all stories on this topic »

Feds probe airplane crash Albany Democrat Herald (blog) The plane crash that killed Jeff “Tebo” Kropf of Halsey left his family staggering with grief and shock, too overcome to have a memorial plan yet, brother-in-law Alvie Shrock said Tuesday. Federal authorities are investigating a Monday plane crash that ... See all stories on this topic »

Texas plane crash kills Broken Arrow man Tulsa World Steeper reportedly was killed when the plane crashed and exploded on impact during a thunderstorm west of Wells, Texas, the Lufkin News reported. Air traffic controllers lost radar and radio contact with the plane as it was maneuvering to avoid the bad ... See all stories on this topic »

All 29 onboard survive Indian Ocean plane crash USA TODAY 1:38PM EST November 28. 2012 - All 29 people on board a passenger plane survived a crash into the Indian Ocean shortly after it took off from the Comoros Islands Tuesday night. The plane, an Embraer-E120ER Brasilia turboprop, was performing a charter ... See all stories on this topic »

Plane crash near Yuma, one person dead KSWT-TV BARRY M GOLDWATER BOMBING RANGE, AZ- The Yuma County Sheriffs Office is reporting a deadly plane crash in the Barry M Goldwater Bombing Range west of the Mohawk Mountains. One person is confirmed dead. The plane crash happened ... See all stories on this topic »

Longtime Castro Valley veterinarian dies in plane crash Inside Bay Area On Saturday, he was at the controls of that aircraft when it crashed on a hillside in Calaveras County. Hackler, 68, who lived in Danville, was killed. News of the longtime Castro Valley veterinarian's death prompted scores of online comments, as ... See all stories on this topic »

Local pilot dies in plane crash Lebanon Express Jeff “Tebo” Kropf, 45, of Halsey, and Timothy Dean Carter, 46, of Portland were killed in a plane crash on Highway 226 and Brewster Road on Nov. 26. Kropf is known to many in Lebanon and throughout the mid-valley for the Young Eagles flights he gave ... See all stories on this topic »

2 taken to hospital after plane crashes at Merritt Island Airport WESH Orlando According to the Brevard County Sheriff's Office, the pilot was doing "touch and goes" -- where the plane lands briefly and immediately takes off again -- before the crash. Theplane landed upside down, flipped over a canal and hit some trees. The ... See all stories on this topic »

Captain Jeff “Tebo” Kropf, 45, of Halsey, and Timothy Dean Carter, 46, of Portland were killed in a Vans RV-6 Single Engine Airplane, crash on Highway 226 and Brewster Road on Nov. 26.

Kropf is known to many in Lebanon and throughout the mid-valley for the
Young Eagles flights he gave out of LebanAir Aviation.

“I know he was a good, safe Pilot,” said Ernie Kropf of his brother.
“One of his favorite things to do was give free Young Eagles flights.”

Jeff Kropf had set a goal to give 200 Young Eagle flights this year.
Larry Knox of LebanAir Aviation said Kropf was just three short of that
goal before the crash.

Kropf was the passenger, Knox said, in the plane that went down at about
3:40 p.m.

Dawn McUne witnessed the plane going down while travelling north on
Brewster Road to take her children to 4-H.

“It made a spiral down and crashed into the field,” McUne said.

She said she and other drivers had pulled over after seeing the accident.

“One gentleman quickly jumped over the fence (to help),” McUne said.

She called her husband Russ McUne first because the plane went down close
to their home, then called 911.

“Our house is just right there and I knew he would get there a lot quicker,”
Dawn McUne said.

Russ McUne, an emergency room doctor at Samaritan Albany General Hospital,
was at home working in the barn, he said.

He had his headphones on and didn’t hear the crash, he said.

“I drove up there pretty fast,” Russ McUne said. “There were a couple of
people already out there. I asked if there was anyone in there. It was clear
 there were fatalities.”

McUne identified himself as a physician to authorities when they arrived,
and stayed on scene for about an hour.

“It was definitely clear it was

instant, (they were) killed on impact,” Russ McUne said.

“It was very sad,” he added. “Especially to find out who they were. The
guy who does all these flights with children, I’m glad there wasn’t a kid
on board.”

Knox said LebanAir Aviation proudly footed the bill for the Young Eagle
flights.

“We got him through his commercial license earlier in the year,” Knox said.
“We wanted him to be there because he could teach young people what aviation
 was all about and how wonderful it is.”

Kropf’s death is a loss to those who knew him and to the aviation community,
Knox said.

“His love of life on this earth was flying,” Knox said. “He did it with
wonderful finesse. His whole world was teaching youngsters.”

Knox said Kropf was like a son to him.

“There’s never been a young man that’s ever brought the light into life with more class,” he said.

The accident

Carter was the owner the Vans RV-6 single engine airplane, Linn County
Undersheriff Bruce Riley said. He had a private pilot license.

Riley said it has not been confirmed Carter was piloting the plane.

“Carter landed the plane when he arrived at the Lebanon airport,” Riley said. “We do not know for sure who was piloting the plane when it crashed.”

The plane has dual controls, so either person could have been piloting the plane, Riley said.

It may take months for the National Transportation Safety Board to come up with a probable cause of the accident, said Allen Kenitzer, communications manager for the Federal Aviation Administration.

While the FAA and NTSB are investigating this accident, the NTSB is the lead investigative agency, Kenitzer said.

Kenitzer said private small planes generally do not have black boxes on them.

Pilots union angry over First Air job cuts

Pilots union angry over First Air job cuts Slave River Journal The union representing First Air's pilots and flight engineers spoke out last week against recent job cuts behind the closure of the company's northernmost jet pilot base in Yellowknife. First Air management emailed layoff notices to 15 of the airline... See all stories on this topic » Slave River Journal

Iberia staff consider strike action against job cuts Breaking Travel News 1 hour ago. Iberia staff consider strike action against job cuts. Union officials at Spanish flag-carrier Iberia have warned they may call workers out on strike over Christmas in protest against job cuts at the airline. Members of the UGT union, the ... See all stories on this topic » Breaking Travel News

Lehigh Valley's airport cuts workers, services Allentown Morning Call Bowing to debt and dwindling passengers, Lehigh Valley International Airport officials acted Tuesday to eliminate a dozen jobs and cut services such as valet parking and the airport parking shuttle. The $19.6 million 2013 budget will mean ... See all stories on this topic »

Open-source cloud Eucalyptus gets visual with 'toughened' version 3.2

Software defined what? The Age ... analysts love to give: "it depends". It depends on whether you are a large telco,cloud computing provider, IT service provider or research institute operating a large or complex network: these are the likely candidates for early adoption of SDN ... See all stories on this topic » The Age

Open-source cloud Eucalyptus gets visual with 'toughened' version 3.2 ZDNet Open-source cloud Eucalyptus gets visual with 'toughened' version 3.2. Summary: Eucalyptus Systems' new Eucalyptus 3.2 cloud computing software includes new management and storage capabilities, and a new graphical user interface. Sam Shead ... See all stories on this topic »

Data Security Concerns Impact Cloud Deployments eWeek While organizations continue to adopt cloud computing solutions, data security remains an issue, according to survey of enterprises commissioned by Asigra and performed by the customer metrics and research organization, TechValidate. The survey found ... See all stories on this topic » eWeek

Researchers identify ways to exploit 'cloud browsers' for large-scale ... Phys.Org "Think of a cloud browser as being just like the browser on your desktop computer, but working entirely in the cloud and providing only the resulting image to your screen," says Dr. William Enck, an assistant professor of computer science at NC State ... See all stories on this topic »

Will Cloud Computing Become a Regulated Industry? Backup Technology The use of cloud services is becoming more and more common in businesses of all types and sizes. However, there are still many businesses who are reluctant to commit to cloud computing because of concerns, primarily over reliability and security. See all stories on this topic »

Five things to watch for at Amazon cloud conference - Techworld.com Techworld.com Pretty much anyone watching the cloud computing market will tell you that Amazon Web Services is its 800-pound gorilla. Which means that this is a big week for the company: Today in Las Vegas, Amazon kicks off its first user conference, called AWS re: ... See all stories on this topic » Techworld.com

Raining On The Cloud Computing Stocks Forex Pros Tuesday afternoon, many of the leading cloud computing stocks traded lower on the session. One of the leading cloud computing stocks is Salesforce.com Inc (CRM). CRM stock traded lower by $3.22 to $157.00 a share. This 2.0 percent decline in CRM stock ... See all stories on this topic »

Develop now for the Dragon's Den SMB cloud - CWDN ComputerWeekly.com (blog) Logically we saw the initial birth of the cloud computing model of service-based IT delivery focus on the enterprise big business space. Big advances in operational flexibility with application and data storage changeability and agility, plus of course ... See all stories on this topic »

Review: Rackspace Cloud keeps IaaS simple InfoWorld Rackspace was one of the first players in the cloud arena. The company recognized early that enterprises wanted faster, simpler ways to spin up and spin down servers. If the bosses are going to be fickle and impulsive, there will always be a market for ... See all stories on this topic »

Iomart Web Hosting Boosted Growth in Revenue by Adoption of Cloud Computing Greatresponder.com Greatresponder.com on Nov 28, 2012: Iomart Web Hosting, announced a positive set of consolidated half yearly results for the period ended 30 September 2012 boosted by adoption of cloud computing. Operational highlights for the previous six months... See all stories on this topic »