Swiss central bank interim Chairman Thomas Jordan
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Americans’ incomes rose last month by the most in nine months, a hopeful sign after a year of weak wage gains.
The Commerce Department says incomes rose 0.5 percent, the strongest increase since a similar gain in March. Consumer spending was unchanged, following weak gains of 0.1 percent in both October and November.
The income increase after paying taxes and adjusting for inflation was 0.3 percent in December. For the year, inflation-adjusted incomes rose 0.9 percent, just half the modest 1.8 percent rise in 2010.
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A U.N. nuclear team arrived in Tehran early Sunday for a mission expected to focus on Iran’s alleged attempt to develop nuclear weapons.
The U.N. nuclear agency delegation includes two senior weapons experts _ Jacques Baute of France and Neville Whiting of South Africa _ suggesting that Iran may be prepared to address some issues related to the allegations.
The delegation from the International Atomic Energy Agency is led by Deputy Director General Herman Nackaerts, who is in charge of the Iran nuclear file. Also on the team is Rafael Grossi, IAEA chief Yukiya Amano’s right-hand man.
In unusually blunt comments ahead of his arrival in Tehran, Nackaerts urged Iran to work with his mission on probing the allegations about Iran’s alleged attempts to develop nuclear weapons, reflecting the importance the IAEA is attaching to the issue.
Tehran has refused to discuss the alleged weapons experiments for three years, saying they are based on “fabricated documents” provided by a “few arrogant countries” _ a phrase authorities in Iran often use to refer to the United States and its allies.
Ahead of his departure, Nackaerts told reporters at Vienna airport he hopes Iran “will engage with us on all concerns.”
“So we’re looking forward to the start of a dialogue,” he said: “A dialogue that is overdue since very long.”
In a sign of the difficulties the team faces and the tensions that surround Iran’s disputed nuclear program, a dozen Iranian hard-liners carrying photos of slain nuclear expert Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan were waiting at Tehran’s Imam Khomeini airport early Sunday to challenge the team upon arrival.
That prompted security officials to whisk the IAEA team away from the tarmac to avoid any confrontation with the hard-liners.
Iran’s official IRNA news agency confirmed the team’s arrival and said the IAEA experts are likely to visit the underground Fordo uranium enrichment site near the holy city of Qom, 80 miles (130 kilometers) south of the capital, Tehran.
During their three-day visit, the IAEA team will be looking for permission to talk to key Iranian scientists suspected of working on a weapons program, inspect documents related to such suspected work and secure commitments from Iranian authorities to allow future visits to sites linked to such allegations. But even a decision to enter a discussion over the allegations would be a major departure from Iran’s frequent simple refusal to talk about them.
The United States and its allies want Iran to halt its enrichment of uranium, which they worry could eventually lead to weapons-grade material and the production of nuclear weapons. Iran says its program is for peaceful purposes, such as generating electricity and producing medical radioisotopes to treat cancer patients.
Iran has accused the IAEA in the past of security leaks that expose its scientists and their families to the threat of assassination by the U.S. and Israel.
Iranian state media say Roshan, a chemistry expert and director of the Natanz uranium enrichment facility in central Iran, was interviewed by IAEA inspectors before being killed in a brazen bomb attack in Tehran earlier this month.
Iranian media have urged the government to be vigil, saying some IAEA inspectors are “spies,” reflecting the deep suspicion many in Iran have for the U.N. experts sent to inspect Iran’s nuclear sites.
On a quiet afternoon in Manhattan’s East Village, I’m having lunch inside a monastery while Rasanath Dasa, a banker-turned-monk, tells us about the moment he decided to leave Wall Street.
"My desire to work in Wall Street arose back in 1992, when foreign TV first came to India and I watched Charlie Sheen in the movie Wall Street," he tells the group of five who have traveled to his monastery. "For some reason, the images stuck in my head of ‘man, that’s what I really want to do — that fast-paced life.’"
But the religious life also appealed to Dasa. He joined a monastery while he was still hustling deals on Wall Street for his employer, Bank of America. When he started work on a project for Playboy, the stark contrast between his inner life and his day job became too much.
"At the time that the economy was tanking, I was actually making money selling sex," he says.
He’s a slight man who speaks slowly and carefully, pausing to gather his thoughts as he narrates. He’s sharing his story with us thanks to a startup called SideTour. Almost every week, Dasa hosts a lunch for those who want to chat with him about his journey from Wall Street to the monastery.
Forget daily deals on restaurants and spas, or flash sales on designer clothes. The hot e-commerce trend at the moment is selling one-of-a-kind experiences.
Lunch with Dasa — priced at $20 — is just one offering from SideTour’s lineup. Its roster also includes a race down an ice luge with an Olympic medallist (that’s $150) or a cooking session with the host of NBC’s America’s Next Great Restaurant at his West Village townhouse ($35), among dozens of other options. The company takes a 20% cut when customers pay for an event.
SideTour is far from alone in the market. In the U.S., a key competitor is Zozi, which has raised $11 million from investors and currently operates in more than 60 cities. Germany has a whole pack of startups in the field, including Regiondo, Yasuu and Gidsy, which recently expanded into the San Francisco market.
One notable rival, Vayable, offers up experiences around the globe. Launched in April, the service’s tours range from an exploration of an abandoned Soviet hospital in Berlin to an expert-led wine tasting in Paris.
Vayable founder Jamie Wong attributes the interest in selling experiences in part to the rough job market. More people are finding themselves out of work or in need of a second job.
"I think we’re in an era where both the economy and cultural shifts are really dictating this kind of change, where people are moving more towards a freelance type of lifestyle," Wong says.
SideTour founder Vipin Goyal backs that view. He says his startup gives people the opportunity to make money doing what they love.
"It’s a platform for people to share their expertise and monetize that," he says. "It’s a huge opportunity for folks to supplement their income or to create new sources of income for themselves."
Goyal got the idea for SideTour after he and his spouse left their jobs and bought around-the-world plane tickets for a six-month trip.
"In places that we had local folks to share experiences with, it made all the difference," he says. "In places we didn’t, our own experiences were highly dependent on serendipity."
He came home with the desire to build a platform that would help others connect with those kinds of experiences. Investors flocked to the idea: SideTour landed a spot in incubator TechStars’ first New York cohort this summer, and it recently raised $1.5 million in seed funding. Since launching five months ago, SideTour has hosted 70 experiences, with a 90% sell out rate.
So is this a lasting market or a flashy trend?
Both Wong and Goyal cite studies concluding that experiences, not things, are what make people truly happy.
"People are starting to reevaluate — especially in this economic environment — how they’re spending their money," Goyal says. "I think that’s where you see a lot of this focus on experiences."
Japan may exempt home purchases from any increase in its sales tax, or reduce the amount of increase, Finance Minister Jun Azumi said.
Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda aims to double the 5 percent sales tax by 2015 to boost revenue and contain a public debt burden twice the size of Japan
all at the same time, without being forced to close down a program.
But the cool part is the controls. First, the TV’s built-in cameras use face recognition to automatically sign users into their personal profiles. Then, users can issue voice commands like "channel 34" or "guide" to control the TV. They can also use gesture controls for Web browsing, adjusting the volume and more.
Overall, the experience looks like what would happen if Apple’s (, Fortune 500) Siri voice assistant and Microsoft’s (, Fortune 500) Kinect motion-sensor system had a baby TV.
Content is accessed through the Smart TV Hub. That menu includes other features like "Family Story" — which can upload photos and videos from a mobile device to the TV — and special hubs for fitness content and for kids.
The ES8000, along with most of the other devices Samsung announced Monday, didn’t get a release date beyond "sometime this year."
On Sunday, the company unveiled a device called the InTouch, which converts regular TVs into smart TVs payday loans for bad credit. The $199 converter is a low-cost option for customers to add Internet browsing, Skype voice calling and a keyboard remote, without having to buy a new TV.
Samsung’s Monday keynote also included more on the TV and Internet-connected fronts: a 55-inch Super OLED TV, as well as connected washer/dryer and connected camera line.
In addition, two Samsung devices will soon make their 4G network debuts: the Galaxy Note phone, and the Galaxy Tab 7.7 tablet.
Samsung closed the keynote with two computer announcements. The new Series 9 Notebook is "the thinnest premium notebook on the market," the company says, at just a half-inch thick and 2.2 pounds. It boots up in just under 10 seconds.
Like many of the CES exhibitors, Samsung also unveiled a super-thin ultrabook: the Series 5 Ultra. Samsung says Web browsing on the laptop is twice as fast as on last-generation notebooks.
The French and German leaders are stressing that they view boosting economic growth a priority as they push through with efforts to stem the eurozone’s debt crisis.
Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Nicolas Sarkozy said Monday that Europe should compare countries’ labor market practices and learn from the best; and they called for European funds to be used in a way that create jobs.
Both leaders also said they’re prepared to consider speeding up payments into the 17-nation eurozone’s permanent rescue fund, the European Stability Mechanism, in an effort to bolster confidence.
They’re calling for a quick conclusion to negotiations on a new treaty enshrining fiscal rules.
Still, Merkel says that resolving the crisis will be “step-by-step … there’s no single-dimension solution.”
The addition of 200,000 new jobs in December shows that the economy is strengthening, Labor Secretary Hilda Solis said on Friday.
“We have seen a steady firming up of our economy” in recent months with two million jobs created in the private sector of the past year, she told CNBC television.
“Now we are seeing a better trajectory, we are moving in the right direction.”
“In the last few months, on the whole I have seen good incremental increase in the private sector jobs, so on that side of the factor I would say, ‘Hey, that is not a bad thing at all,” she said free business cards.
But she urged the extension of the payroll tax cut and further measures to support continued improvement in the jobs market.
U.S. stocks rallied Tuesday, kicking off the new year on a high note, as investors welcomed upbeat reports on economic activity around the world.
The Dow Jones industrial average () jumped 180 points, or 1.5%, to end at 12,397. The S&P 500 () gained 19 points, or 1.5%, to 1,277. The Nasdaq () added 43 points, or 1.7%, to 2,649.
The gains came after reports on manufacturing growth in China and India came in better than expected over the weekend. On Tuesday, a report showed U.S. manufacturing activity grew at a faster rate in December.
U.S. markets were closed Monday for the New Year holiday.
"There were no major negative headlines out of Europe, and we had some data suggesting the global economy is expanding," said Dan Greenhaus, chief global strategist at BTIG.
Investors scooped up shares of companies that would benefit from a strengthening global economy.
Bank stocks, which were among the worst performing sectors last year, led the Dow higher. Bank of America (, Fortune 500), Citigroup (, Fortune 500) and JPMorgan (, Fortune 500) all posted strong gains.
Industrial names Caterpillar (, Fortune 500) and Alcoa (, Fortune 500) were also higher, as were multinationals such as GE (, Fortune 500), Microsoft (, Fortune 500) and 3M (, Fortune 500).
But traders say the market is vulnerable to concerns about the debt crisis in Europe, which has been the main driver of stock prices for several months.
Stocks in 2012: Choppy but higher
"At least for today, there’s no disaster in Europe," said Art Hogan, a managing director at Lazard Capital Markets. "The market remains focused on what’s going on in the eurozone."
Meanwhile, oil prices surged more than 4% on continued anxiety over Iran’s growing threat to shut down the Strait of Hormuz.
U.S. stocks finished little changed Friday, bringing to an end a year in which the S&P dropped just 0.04 point — the smallest annual change in history. The Dow rose 5.5% for the year, while the Nasdaq lost 1.8%.
Economy: The Institute of Supply Management’s survey of manufacturing purchasing managers rose to 53.9 from 52.7. That’s a bit better than the 53.4 forecast of economists surveyed by Briefing.com.
Any reading above 50 signals expansion in the sector.
The Commerce Department said construction spending jumped 1 quick guaranteed personal loans.2% in November, after a revised 0.2% decline in October. Analysts surveyed by Briefing.com expect construction spending to have risen by 0.5%.
Over the weekend, the Chinese government released its official reading on manufacturing activity, showing the sector expanded slightly in December, after contracting the month before. And on Monday, a report compiled by HSBC and Markit showed India’s manufacturing activity picked up significantly during the month.
The manufacturing data "provides further evidence that global industrial production is likely to be stabilizing in the months to come," analysts at Barclays Capital wrote in a note to clients.
The Federal Reserve plans to give even more detailed forecasts about where it expects its key interest rate to be years from now, according to minutes of the Fed’s December meeting released Tuesday.
Companies: Chesapeake Energy (, Fortune 500) shares rose after the Oklahoma City-based energy company announced it completed a venture with an affiliate of French oil company Total () that gives the French firm a 25% stake in more than 600,000 acres in eastern Ohio, an area rich in shale oil.
20 Stocks For January 2012
Mead Johnson Nutrition () shares gained after two U.S. government agencies said they have completed their investigation of Enfamil and found the baby formula safe to use. The Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had stepped in after a newborn baby died of a rare bacterial infection that they suspected could be linked to the powder-based infant formula.
World markets: European stocks also rose. Britain’s FTSE 100 () added 2%, the DAX () in Germany added 1.5% and France’s CAC 40 () gained 0.4%.
The Hang Seng () in Hong Kong added 2.4%. Markets in Shanghai () and Tokyo () were both closed for an extended New Year holiday.
Currencies and commodities: The dollar fell against the euro, the British pound and the Japanese yen.
Oil for February delivery added $4.20, or 4.2%, to $103.03 a barrel.
Gold futures for February delivery rose $33.70 to end at $1,600.50 an ounce.
Bonds: The price on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury fell, pushing the yield up to 1.96% from 1.87% late Friday.
U.K. manufacturing (PMITMUK) shrank less than economists forecast in December as demand increased in Germany and China.
A gauge of factory output based on a survey by Markit Economics and the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply rose to 49.6 from a revised 47.7 in November, the groups said in an e-mailed statement today. The median forecast of 19 economists in a Bloomberg News survey was for a drop to 47.3 from an initially reported 47.6 in November. A level below 50 indicates contraction.
The sovereign debt turmoil in Europe, the U.K.