China's 3 big airlines post sharply lower profits

HONG KONG (AP) ? China's three major state-owned airlines posted sharp drops in annual profit because of the weak global economy, higher jet fuel prices and smaller foreign currency gains.

China Southern, the country's biggest carrier by passenger numbers, said Wednesday that profit plunged by half compared with the previous year. Rivals Air China and China Eastern reported that earnings tumbled by about a third.

"Demand in the aviation industry in 2012 continued to be weak as a result of the slow recovery of the U.S. economy, the on-going European debt crisis and the global recession," Beijing-based Air China said. "Escalating operating costs from high jet fuel price and the intensifying competition added to the challenges faced by the industry."

China Eastern said the average price of fuel rose 2 percent. The Shanghai-based carrier reported that profit fell 35 percent to 2.95 billion yuan.

Jet fuel costs rose the most for China Southern. The airline, based in the southern economic hub of Guangzhou, said it spent 33 billion yuan ($5.3 billion) on fuel last year, 14.5 percent more than in 2011.

Fuel is the biggest single expense for the airlines. Chinese airlines can do little to keep their fuel bill under control. One reason is that fuel for domestic flights is supplied by a state-owned monopoly, which marks up prices "higher than an otherwise open market would allow," Barclays analyst Patrick Xu wrote in a report.

Chinese carriers also don't typically use hedging contracts to lock in part of their fuel bill, like other airlines do, because they lost a lot of money in 2008 using such techniques, Xu added.

The three airlines also reported sharply lower foreign exchange gains as the yuan's appreciation against the dollar slowed from the year before. Chinese airlines are vulnerable to currency fluctuations because while they mostly earn in yuan, their expenses for fuel and new airplanes are in dollars.

Air China, which said profit dropped 35 percent to 4.6 billion yuan last year, reported a net foreign exchange gain of 124 million yuan, compared with 3 billion yuan in 2011. The other two carriers also reported sharp declines in foreign currency income.

China Southern carried 86.5 million passengers last year, or 7.2 percent more than 2011, but earnings fell by half to 2.6 billion yuan. The airline warned that "demand for short and mid-distance aviation will be further suppressed" as China rapidly expands its high speed rail network. Authorities plan to expand the network to 18,000 kilometers (11,120 miles) by 2015, about double the 9,300 km currently.

___

Online:

Air China: http://www.airchina.com

China Eastern: http://www.ceairgroup.com/

China Southern: http://www.csair.com

Follow Kelvin Chan at twitter.com/chanman

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/chinas-3-big-airlines-post-sharply-lower-profits-074838787--finance.html

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Celebrity Real Estate - Curbed National

Tuesday, March 26, 2013, by Sarah Firshein

According to the shrewd celebrity journos at TMZ, Cher has unloaded her 4,000-square-foot Martyn Lawrence Bullard-designed condo in L.A. for $5.5M, exactly what the pop star wanted. She's also just listed her house in Venice Beach and is rumored to be quietly shopping around her Malibu compound for upwards of $40M. What's with the SoCal exodus? [TMZ; previously]

Source: http://curbed.com/archives/2013/03/26/celebrity-real-estate-189.php

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Three more charged in insider trading probe

By Bernard Vaughan

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Federal prosecutors announced criminal charges on Tuesday against three new defendants in the government's broad-based insider trading probe.

Authorities said David Riley, a former chief information officer at Foundry Networks Inc, leaked tips about the company's pending $3 billion takeover in 2008 by Brocade Communications Systems Inc , to hedge fund analyst Matthew Teeple.

The government said Teeple then tipped others, resulting in trades that led to more than $27 million in profits and avoided losses.

Teeple was an analyst at Artis Capital Management, a San Francisco-based hedge fund launched in 2001 that invests mainly in public technology companies, according to people familiar with the matter.

"Artis has been cooperating fully with the government's investigation into this matter and has been advised by the U.S. Attorney's Office that the firm is a witness in the investigation," Bill McBride, a spokesman for the firm, wrote in an email.

Prosecutors said Teeple had also leaked information to Karl Motey, a California technology consultant who has pleaded guilty in the probe and been cooperating with prosecutors, the government said.

Riley, 47, and Teeple, 41, were each charged with three counts of securities fraud and one count of conspiracy, U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara in Manhattan said. They face up to 20 years in prison on each securities fraud count.

A third defendant, John Johnson, 46, pleaded guilty to one count each of securities fraud and conspiracy, Bharara said.

Johnson is the chief investment officer of the Wyoming Retirement System, which he joined as a senior investment officer in 2010, after the allegations in the complaint. The pension on Tuesday relieved him of all his investment and administrative responsibilities pending further review, according to Tom Williams, executive director.

Johnson had had various contacts with Teeple since 2005, when Johnson worked at a mutual fund, and made more than $136,000 on trades based on information about the Foundry takeover leaked to him by Teeple, prosecutors said.

Johnson told Williams about the charges Tuesday afternoon, Williams said.

"To the extent that these charges are true, we're very disappointed," Williams said.

All three defendants were also charged in separate U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission civil proceedings.

"When David Riley and Matthew Teeple chose to traffic in inside information involving high-tech companies, they embarked on a high-stakes game that has repeatedly proven to be unwinnable," Bharara said in a statement.

Nathan Hochman, a lawyer for Teeple, said his client intends to defend himself against the charges.

John Kaley, a lawyer for Riley, did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Joshua Franklin, a lawyer for Johnson, declined to comment.

Riley and Teeple were arrested on Tuesday morning in California and were expected to appear later in the day in different federal courts in that state.

ARTIS INVESTED IN YOUTUBE

The arrests are the latest in a widespread government crackdown on insider trading in recent years.

Since October 2009, the Manhattan U.S. Attorney's Office has charged at least 80 people, of whom at least 72 have been convicted or pleaded guilty.

Launched in 2001 by Stuart Peterson, Artis is known for having co-invested alongside Sequoia Capital in an $8 million round of financing in video-sharing website YouTube, before it was sold to Google Inc for $1.65 billion in 2006.

Artis is not named in court papers made public on Tuesday about the latest criminal charges.

Motey avoided prison time at his sentencing in February, at which a federal judge called him "a particularly impressive cooperator." He was ordered to submit $40,000 and serve a year of supervised release for conspiracy and securities fraud.

Motey kept a notebook "he often used to memorialize conversations he had with various individuals, including Teeple," the complaint states. Motey told investigators that a July 18, 2008, entry summarized a conversation in which Teeple explained that the Foundry acquisition might happen at $2.9 billion, according to the complaint.

Teeple also provided information about Palm Inc to Motey and Riley in exchange for the inside information on Foundry, according to the complaint.

In a June 15, 2009 telephone call that Motey recorded, Teeple said his firm owned "like 12 million shares" of the device maker, and that it was "gonna be a monster for a while."

When Motey asked Teeple where in Palm his contacts were, he said "one guy is in dev and then, one guy is kind of a, senior marketing guy," according to the complaint.

The cases are U.S. v. Riley et al, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 13-mag-00806; U.S. v. Johnson in the same court; and SEC v. Teeple et al in the same court, No. 13-02010.

(Reporting By Bernard Vaughan and Katya Wachtel; Editing by Gerald E. McCormick, Tim Dobbyn and Bernard Orr)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/three-more-charged-u-insider-trading-probe-185916370--sector.html

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S.D. Sen. Johnson to retire, citing health and age

VERMILLION, S.D. (AP) ? Entering the auditorium on a motorized scooter and delivering remarks in halting speech, South Dakota Sen. Tim Johnson announced Tuesday that he would retire next year at the end of his term and acknowledged he remains limited by a 2006 health crisis that nearly killed him.

Smiling and joking at times as he made the announcement at a press conference in his hometown of Vermillion, the 66-year-old said the effects of his life-threatening brain hemorrhage had made speech and mobility increasingly difficult.

"I feel great, but I must be honest ... I appreciate my right arm and right leg aren't what they used to be, and my speech is not entirely there," Johnson said, his delivery slurred at times.

Johnson, who until recently relied on a cane to get around, has become dependent on the motorized scooter he used to enter the auditorium at the University of South Dakota where he made his remarks. He also said he hoped to spend more time with his five grandchildren and that "I think mostly it's time to go."

Johnson's departure helps solidify GOP prospects of claiming the state's first open Senate seat since 1978. Republican former Gov. Mike Rounds had announced plans last year to challenge Johnson, the chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, and has rallied much of the state and national party establishment behind him.

In a sign Republicans are not yet lock-step behind Rounds, a Washington-based political action committee released a statement Tuesday criticizing Rounds' spending during two terms as governor, and calling for a more conservative candidate to run for Johnson's seat. The same fractures between tea party-aligned and more moderate Republicans cost the GOP seats that were seen as winnable in 2010 and 2012.

On the Democratic side, long-rumored possible successors including Johnson's son, South Dakota's U.S. Attorney Brendan Johnson, and former U.S. Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin.

"I've talked to Brendan now and then, but I'm not leaning on him to run or not run," Johnson told The Associated Press after the event. "I gather he is undecided."

Brendan Johnson declined to comment on his political plans Tuesday. He has avoided public statements about the race, but has had conversations with party activists in the state, and advisers and potential donors outside South Dakota.

Herseth Sandlin, 42, is general counsel for Raven Industries, Corp., a position she began last year after returning to South Dakota from Washington, D.C. She had worked as a lawyer in Washington after losing re-election to a fourth U.S. House term in 2010.

"While I appreciate the encouragement I've received I haven't focused on the future political opportunities," she told The AP.

Although both prospects have political networks to tap, both also face potential liabilities.

The younger Johnson, 37, has never held political office and would face questions about his father's involvement in the confirmation process to his federal post. Herseth Sandlin has taken some positions at odds with some South Dakota Democratic activists, including opposing the 2010 Affordable Care Act, which could hurt in a potential Democratic primary.

Republicans too could face ideological tension. U.S. Rep. Kristi Noem, elected in 2010, has been courted to challenge Rounds by South Dakota conservatives. While Noem has shown little movement toward investigating a 2014 Senate campaign, aides said Tuesday: "She hasn't ruled anything in or out."

Nationally, Republicans said by stepping aside, the politically resilient Johnson, who also retains a $1.2 million campaign war chest, gives the GOP its best chance to gain a seat in its quest for the majority.

"I believe South Dakota moves into the top slot as the most likely Republican pickup," said Greg Strimple, a Republican pollster and past consultant to the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

Johnson, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, joins Democratic Sens. Carl Levin of Michigan, Tom Harkin of Iowa, Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia, and Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey as seasoned and influential Democrats departing the chamber, where Republicans need to gain six seats to take control. Two Republican senators have announced their retirements, both in Republican-performing states Georgia and Nebraska.

South Dakota was carried by Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney last year, adding urgency for Democrats hoping to keep their majority. Republicans must gain six seats to retake the chamber in 2014.

With his wife Barbara at his side, Sen. Johnson remained standing, leaning on his stronger left hand at the podium, taking questions from reporters then posing for pictures and shaking hands with supporters ? reaching out with his left ? for an hour.

"I look forward to serving the remaining two years as the country is facing difficult times on many fronts and I will work every day to find a bipartisan solution to these challenges," he said.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/sd-sen-johnson-retire-cites-health-age-001827846--politics.html

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South Dakota Sen. Tim Johnson announces retirement

Mar 26 (Reuters) - Leading money winners on the 2013 PGATour on Monday (U.S. unless stated): 1. Tiger Woods $3,787,600 2. Brandt Snedeker $2,859,920 3. Matt Kuchar $2,154,500 4. Steve Stricker $1,820,000 5. Phil Mickelson $1,650,260 6. Hunter Mahan $1,553,965 7. John Merrick $1,343,514 8. Dustin Johnson $1,330,507 9. Russell Henley $1,313,280 10. Kevin Streelman $1,310,343 11. Keegan Bradley $1,274,593 12. Charles Howell III $1,256,373 13. Michael Thompson $1,254,669 14. Brian Gay $1,171,721 15. Justin Rose $1,155,550 16. Jason Day $1,115,565 17. Chris Kirk $1,097,053 18. ...

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/sen-tim-johnson-announces-retirement-south-dakota-202410028--election.html

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Oil nearly unchanged after Cyprus rescue bailout

BANGKOK (AP) ? The price of oil was steady Tuesday as a financial rescue package to keep Cyprus from bankruptcy came under renewed scrutiny.

Benchmark crude for May delivery was down 1 cent to $94.80 per barrel at midday Bangkok time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose $1.10 to finish at $94.81 a barrel on the Nymex on Monday. That was the highest New York closing since Feb. 20.

Cyprus secured 10 billion euros ($13 billion) of rescue loans early Monday, just hours before a deadline set by the European Central Bank. Under the deal, the country agreed to slash its oversized banking sector and inflict hefty losses on large depositors in troubled banks.

The deal was initially applauded, but later sparked worry and stock market losses across Europe after Dutch finance minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem said inflicting losses on the banks' shareholders, bondholders and large depositors should become Europe's default approach for dealing with ailing lenders.

Matt Basi of CMC Markets said in an email commentary that the drama surrounding Cyprus "has knocked the confidence of many deposit holders across Europe that policy makers will struggle to win back."

Brent crude, used to price many kinds of oil imported by U.S. refineries, fell 4 cents to $108.13 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange in London.

In other energy futures trading on the Nymex:

? Wholesale gasoline rose 0.1 cent to $3.055 a gallon.

? Heating oil fell 0.1 cent to $2.983 a gallon.

? Natural gas rose 2.6 cents to $3.891 per 1,000 cubic feet.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/oil-nearly-unchanged-cyprus-rescue-bailout-050836438--finance.html

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Sean Lowe: Dancing With the Stars Diva?

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/03/sean-lowe-dancing-with-the-stars-diva/

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