Yen's slide stalls, U.S. earnings lift stocks

By Richard Hubbard

LONDON (Reuters) - A selloff in the yen paused on Tuesday as it neared 100 to the dollar, while a firm start to the U.S. corporate earnings season and a fall in Chinese inflation helped shares and commodities.

The Japanese currency touched 99.67 to the dollar in Asian trade, the greenback's strongest level versus the yen since May 2009, before the selloff ran out of steam. The euro peaked at 129.94 yen, its highest level since January 2010.

Most market players expect the halt in selling to be temporary and believe it is only a matter of time before the dollar breaks the 100 yen mark.

"It's looks inevitable and I'd say (it will break 100) within the next month, if not sooner," said Alpesh Patel, a founding principal at asset manager Praefinium Partners.

In European trading the yen's recovery left the dollar down 0.3 percent at 99.05 yen, while the euro was off 0.15 percent on the day at 129.10 yen.

"Investors have been quick to use any setback to put on new short yen positions. Everything is pointing to a weaker yen and everyone is happy to go with the flow," said Niels Christensen, currency strategist at Nordea in Copenhagen.

The dollar has still gained around 7 percent against the yen since the Bank of Japan (BOJ) unveiled a massive stimulus program last Thursday involving large purchases of long term Japanese government bonds (JGBs).

The BOJ's bold measures have had a major impact on the world's main debt markets, sending Japanese government yields down sharply and spurring a search for higher-yielding assets, which has seen yields fall on U.S. and euro zone bonds as well.

"Markets are increasingly focused on the notion that larger JGB purchases, at longer maturities, by the BOJ could push Japanese domestic long-term investors elsewhere," said Vassili Serebriakov, strategist at BNP Paribas.

The yield on 10-year Treasury notes stood at 1.75 percent, little changed from late U.S. trade on Monday, although not far from a four-month low of 1.68 percent when markets began to price in the effect of the BOJ's plans.

German 10-year bonds were also steady at 1.24 percent having hit 1.2 percent on Friday, their lowest level since mid-2012 before European Central Bank President Mario Draghi promised to do whatever it took to save the euro.

EARNINGS LIFT

Equity markets were being led higher by mining stocks as investors hoped for more accommodative monetary policy from China following benign inflation data, and after U.S. resources giant Alcoa posted solid earnings.

Alcoa Inc , the largest U.S. aluminum producer, kicked off U.S. earnings on Monday, reporting an increase in quarterly profit and easing concerns about corporate results in the first three months of 2013.

Europe's FTSE Eurofirst 300 index <.fteu3> was up 0.6 percent at 1,171.75 points in morning trade. London's FTSE 100 <.ftse>, Paris's CAC-40 <.fchi> and Frankfurt's DAX <.gdaxi> were between 0.7 and 0.9 percent higher.

Earlier, the MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific stocks outside Japan <.miapj0000pus> rose 1 percent, led by Australian shares <.axjo> which gained 1.4 percent on rises in blue chip financials and miners. <.l><.eu/>

MSCI's world equity index <.miwd00000pus>, which tracks share prices in 45 countries, was up 0.3 percent with further gains likely as U.S. stock futures suggest Wall Street will open higher. <.n/>

CHINA STIMULUS

China's annual consumer inflation cooled in March as food prices eased from nine-month highs and producer price deflation deepened, data showed on Tuesday, leaving policymakers room to keep monetary conditions easy and nurture a nascent recovery.

The Chinese data underpinned demand for copper which climbed to $7,550 a tonne on the London Metal Exchange, its highest since March 28, before paring the gains to trade around $7,534 a tonne, up 1.01 percent.

LME copper prices are recovering from 8-month lows of $7,331.25 a tonne hit last week but are still down by more than 5 percent from a peak above $8,300 a tonne in early February as weak global demand leads to a surplus in supply.

Oil also gained on the Chinese data though a stalemate in talks between Iran and Western nations over its nuclear program and rising tension on the Korean peninsula added support to prices.

North Korea has nearly closed its last major project with its southern neighbor, raising speculation it may test a nuclear weapon or a missile, in a crisis that has become one of the most serious since the Korean War ended in 1953.

U.S. oil futures were up 0.2 percent to $93.58 a barrel and Brent rose 0.4 percent to $105.08.

(Additional reporting by Jessica Mortimer. Editing by David Stamp.)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/yen-still-focus-u-earnings-seen-aiding-asian-001647531--finance.html

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Sandy Hook families on Air Force One: why it matters

In an unusual move, 11 family members of Sandy Hook victims will fly with President Obama back to Washington on Air Force One so they can lobby Congress on gun control.

By Linda Feldmann,?Staff writer / April 8, 2013

President Obama (c.) arrives at Bradley Air National Guard Base in Hartford, Conn., Monday. Obama is in Connecticut to deliver remarks on measures to reduce gun violence, at the University of Hartford.

Jason Reed/Reuters

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President Obama is pulling out all the stops this week on gun legislation, amid news of a fresh effort at compromise to expand background checks for gun buyers.

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Mr. Obama delivers a speech late Monday afternoon on gun violence in Hartford, Conn., about an hour from the scene of last December?s massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Vice President Joe Biden will hold a gun-related event at the White House on Tuesday, and on Wednesday, first lady Michelle Obama travels to Chicago for another gun event. ?

But most unusual, perhaps, is the fact that 11 family members of Sandy Hook victims will accompany the president on Air Force One back to Washington after his speech at the University of Hartford. The family members will head to Capitol Hill to lobby members of Congress on gun legislation.

At his daily briefing, White House press secretary Jay Carney portrayed the Air Force One news as a matter of logistics.

?These are family members who are planning to be in Washington to speak with Congress about the importance of taking action to reduce gun violence,? Mr. Carney said, ?and in order to make sure they were able to attend the event in Connecticut and still be in Washington when they needed to be, we invited those family members to fly back with the president.?

Obama frequently surrounds himself with stakeholders ? be they middle-class taxpayers, law enforcement, or supporters of health-care reform ? when making public remarks. But having them hitch a ride on Air Force One to get them to D.C. for a lobbying push is rare. The move no doubt reflects the depth of Obama?s emotion on gun violence, and on the Sandy Hook massacre in particular, in which 20 first-graders were murdered by a lone gunman. The day of the massacre, the president brushed away tears and could barely speak when he addressed the tragedy in public for the first time.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/uAxlm5bsd54/Sandy-Hook-families-on-Air-Force-One-why-it-matters

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Beyonce, Michelle Cameos Are 'Not Destiny's Child' Reunion, Kelly Rowland Insists

'It's me featuring Beyonce and Michelle,' Rowland teases about Talk A Good Game song.
By Jocelyn Vena

Kelly Rowland, Beyoncé and Michelle Williams
Photo: Kevin Mazur/ WireImage

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1705168/beyonce-kelly-rowland-michelle-williams-destinys-child.jhtml

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Sustained stress heightens risk of miscarriage

Apr. 8, 2013 ? Several studies have examined the impact of stress on a pregnancy -- both chronic stress, such as workload, and acute stress associated with traumatic events like the 9/11 terrorist attacks. They conclude that stress can lead to adverse birth outcomes, including miscarriage and premature birth.

Few studies, however, assess the impact of continuous military or political stress throughout a pregnancy, says Prof. Liat Lerner-Geva of Tel Aviv University's Sackler Faculty of Medicine and the Women and Children's Health Research Unit at The Gertner Institute for Epidemiology and Health Policy Research Ltd, Tel Hashomer. Now her new study, conducted with PhD student Tamar Wainstock and Prof. Ilana Shoham-Vardi of Ben Gurion University, Prof. Eyal Anteby of the Barzilai Medical Center, and Saralee Glasser of Gertner Institute, Tel Hashomer, reveals that living under these sustained stresses significantly increases the risk of miscarriage.

Following the pregnancies of women from the Israeli town of Sderot, which is constantly under threat of rocket bombings from Gaza, and women from nearby Kiryat Gat, which is outside of Gaza's rocket range, the researchers demonstrated that those living under rocket fire were 59 percent more likely to miscarry than their neighbors.

These results, published in the Psychosomatic Medicine Journal of Biobehavioural Medicine, should be a call-to-action for practitioners, advises Prof. Lerner-Geva, who suggests making intervention readily available to pregnant women in stressful and threatening situations.

Studying stress under fire

Sderot has been a constant target of rocket fire from the Gaza Strip since 2001. Rocket attacks are preceded by an alarm warning residents to take shelter. The alarms themselves are loud, sudden, and themselves stress-inducing -- once they sound, Sderot residents have only seconds before the rocket hits. Between 2001 and 2008, more than 1,000 alarms were sounded in the vicinity of Sderot. Since 2001, rockets exploding in the town have killed at least 13 residents, wounded dozens, and caused extensive property damage.

To study the impact of such sustained stress on pregnancy, researchers turned to the medical records at Barzilai Medical Center, a hospital which serves both Sderot and Kiryat Gat. They followed the pregnancies of 1,345 women from Sderot who were exposed to alarms and subsequent rocket fire, and 2,143 residents of Kiryat Gat who live out of missile range. The medical records were then cross-referenced to local municipal databases that track the number and location of rocket attacks.

In the unexposed group in Kiryat Gat, miscarriage rates were 4.7 percent, which accords with predictions from existing medical research literature. In the exposed group in Sderot, however, 6.9 percent of women miscarried -- a statistically significant increase. The results were controlled for other risk factors for miscarriage, such as age and other medical conditions.

Within the exposed group, the researchers also analyzed the intensity of exposure. Not every neighborhood in Sderot was subject to the same number of attacks, notes Prof. Lerner-Geva, and the researchers originally hypothesized that women in higher stress areas would have a higher probability of miscarriage. However, the results indicate that women in both high-intensity and low-intensity areas were at the same risk. One explanation is that the constant fear of attack is as stressful as the attacks themselves, she concludes.

Prevention through intervention

One advantage that healthcare providers have in dealing with populations under constant threat is that they can make use of early intervention, says Prof. Lerner-Geva. "Most of the Sderot pregnant women receive prenatal care through community health clinics. This presents an opportunity to run preventive interventions to reduce stress or even provide one-on-one counseling."

Currently, she and her fellow researchers are conducting further studies on the same population to determine whether sustained stress had an impact on other negative birth outcomes, such as preterm delivery or low birth weights.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by American Friends of Tel Aviv University.

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Journal Reference:

1. T. Wainstock, L. Lerner-Geva, S. Glasser, I. Shoham-Vardi, E. Y. Anteby. Prenatal Stress and Risk of Spontaneous Abortion. Psychosomatic Medicine, 2013; 75 (3): 228 DOI: 10.1097/PSY.0b013e318280f5f3

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/a0LEFQPIsD4/130408133917.htm

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Warren 'overwhelmed' by response to son's death

LAKE FOREST, Calif. (AP) ? Megachurch pastor and popular Christian author Rick Warren posted a message on Twitter Sunday saying he was "overwhelmed" by the love and support offered after the apparent suicide of the youngest of his three children.

"Kay and I are overwhelmed by your love, prayers, and kind words," Warren tweeted to his nearly one million followers two days after Matthew Warren, 27, was found dead. "You are all encouraging our (hash)brokenhearts." The pastor posted the same message on his Facebook page.

Warren did not attend Sunday services at his Saddleback Church in Orange County, where worshippers opened the meeting with a prayer for the family.

Tom Holladay, teaching pastor at Saddleback and Matthew Warren's uncle, opened the 9 a.m. worship service by saying the congregation would face the tragedy together, "as a church family."

Holladay led a prayer for Warren and his wife, Kay, and their surviving son and daughter.

The Warrens said in an email to church staff Saturday that Matthew Warren had taken his own life in a "momentary wave of despair." It said he had long struggled to control his emotional pain despite years of prayers and the best available treatment.

"Matthew was an incredibly kind, gentle and compassionate young man whose sweet spirit was encouragement and comfort to many," the email said. "Unfortunately, he also suffered from mental illness resulting in deep depression and suicidal thoughts."

Allison O'Neal, a supervising deputy coroner for Orange County, declined to release the cause and manner of death pending an autopsy planned for Tuesday.

The elder Warren founded Saddleback Church in 1980, according to his biography on the church website, and watched it grow to 20,000 members and several campuses beyond its home base of Lake Forest.

Already well-known among evangelical Christians, he became a national celebrity in 2002 with the publication of the multimillion-selling book "The Purpose Driven Life," whose popularity reached far beyond the usual religious readers.

He later delivered the opening prayer at Barack Obama's inauguration in 2008.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/warren-overwhelmed-response-sons-death-014610375.html

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US general: Taliban likely to be long-term threat

BAGRAM AIR FIELD, Afghanistan (AP) ? The United States accepts that a diminished but resilient Taliban is likely to remain a military threat in some parts of Afghanistan long after U.S. troops complete their combat mission next year, the top U.S. military officer said Sunday.

In an Associated Press interview at this air field north of Kabul, Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said he is cautiously optimistic that the Afghan army will hold its own against the insurgency as Western troops pull back and Afghans assume the lead combat role. He said that by May or June, the Afghans will be in the lead throughout the country.

Asked whether some parts of the country will remain contested by the Taliban, he replied, "Yes, of course there will be."

"And if we were having this conversation 10 years from now, I suspect there would (still) be contested areas because the history of Afghanistan suggests that there will always be contested areas," he said.

He and other U.S. commanders have said that ultimately the Afghans must reach some sort of political accommodation with the insurgents, and that a reconciliation process needs to be led by Afghans, not Americans. Thus the No. 1 priority for the U.S. military in its final months of combat in Afghanistan is to do all that is possible to boost the strength and confidence of Afghan forces.

Shortly after Dempsey arrived in Afghanistan on Saturday, the Taliban demonstrated its ability to strike.

It claimed responsibility for a suicide car bombing that killed five Americans ? three soldiers and two civilians, including Anne Smedinghoff, a foreign service officer and the first American diplomat killed overseas since the terrorist attack Sept. 11 in Benghazi, Libya.

A fierce battle between U.S.-backed Afghan forces and Taliban militants in a remote corner of eastern Afghanistan left nearly 20 people dead, including 11 Afghan children killed in an airstrike, Afghan officials said Sunday.

There are now about 66,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan. That number is to drop to about 32,000 by February 2014, and the combat mission is to end in December 2014. Whether some number ? perhaps 9,000 or 10,000 ? remain into 2015 as military trainers and counterinsurgents is yet to be decided.

Dempsey spent two days talking to senior Afghan officials, including his counterpart, Gen. Sher Mohammad Karimi, as well as top U.S. and allied commanders.

He also visited a U.S. base in the volatile eastern province of Paktika for an update on how U.S. troops are balancing the twin missions of advising Afghan forces and withdrawing tons of U.S. equipment as the war effort winds down.

Paktika is an example of a sector of Afghanistan that is likely to face Taliban resistance for years to come.

Bordering areas of Pakistan that provide haven for the Taliban and its affiliated Haqqani network, Paktika has been among the more important insurgent avenues into the Afghan interior.

While the province has a functioning government, Taliban influence remains significant in less populated areas, as it has since U.S. forces first invaded the country more than 11 years ago.

"There will be contested areas, and it will be the Afghans' choice whether to allow those contested areas to persist, or, when necessary, take action to exert themselves into those contested area," he said.

Dempsey said he is encouraged by the recent development of coordination centers, including one in Paktika, where a wide range of Afghan government agencies work together on security issues. He called it a "quilt" of government structures that links Kabul, the capital, to ordinary Afghans in distant villages.

In some parts of the country, Afghan villagers have shown their dissatisfaction with Taliban influence by taking up arms against the insurgents, even without being pushed by the U.S. or by Kabul. This has happened in recent weeks in the Panjwai district of Kandahar province, a traditional stronghold of the Taliban. The Andar district of Ghazni province has seen a similar uprising.

"We should encourage it, but we shouldn't be seen as hijacking" these local movements, he said.

Dempsey said he discussed the uprisings with Karimi, the army chief, and the Afghan defense minister, Bismullah Khan Mohammadi. They told him they "appreciated that they should allow this to occur (and) they should probably nurture it. They don't necessarily feel at this point as if they should tangibly support it."

The Afghan government's concern, Dempsey said, is that influential warlords could embrace these local movements and eventually leverage them to threaten the armed forces of the central government.

In a separate interview Sunday with al-Hurra, the Arabic-language satellite TV channel funded by the U.S. government, Dempsey was asked whether he worries that Syria, in the midst of a civil war, could become another Afghanistan.

"I do. I have grave concerns that Syria could become an extended conflict" that drags on for many years, he said.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/us-general-taliban-likely-long-term-threat-174457696--politics.html

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Conn. gov faults gun lobbyists over restrictions

In this April 4, 2013, photo, Connecticut Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, center, signs legislation at the Capitol in Hartford, Conn., that includes new restrictions on weapons and large capacity ammunition magazines, a response to last year's deadly school shooting in Newtown. Neil Heslin, behind left, father of Sandy Hook shooting victim Jesse Lewis, Nicole Hockley, right, mother of Sandy Hook School shooting victim Dylan, and Conn. Lt. Gov. Nancy Wyman, left, watch. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

In this April 4, 2013, photo, Connecticut Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, center, signs legislation at the Capitol in Hartford, Conn., that includes new restrictions on weapons and large capacity ammunition magazines, a response to last year's deadly school shooting in Newtown. Neil Heslin, behind left, father of Sandy Hook shooting victim Jesse Lewis, Nicole Hockley, right, mother of Sandy Hook School shooting victim Dylan, and Conn. Lt. Gov. Nancy Wyman, left, watch. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) ? Connecticut Gov. Dannel P. Malloy harshly criticized gun industry lobbyists on Sunday, saying they are doing too little to halt gun violence.

Just three days after he signed into law new restrictions on weapons and large-capacity magazines, the governor compared Wayne LaPierre, executive vice president of the National Rifle Association, to clowns and said lobbyists want to ensure that the industry can sell guns indiscriminately.

"Wayne reminds me of the clowns at the circus," Malloy said of LaPierre on CNN's "State of the Union." ''They get the most attention and that's what he's paid to do."

Representatives of the NRA did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

"What this is about is the ability of the gun industry to sell as many guns to as many people as possible even if they're deranged, even if they're mentally ill, even if they have a criminal background," Malloy said. "They don't care. They want to sell guns."

Robert Crook, executive director of the Connecticut Coalition of Sportsmen, a lobbying group, said Malloy's criticism was "absolutely false."

"It's another political statement from a governor with little knowledge," he said.

Connecticut's gun industry supports a gun trafficking task force and tighter background checks of buyers, Crook said.

Andrew Doba, a spokesman for Malloy, said the Democratic governor was criticizing lobbyists, not the gun industry. Malloy has said he wants Connecticut's large gun industry to remain in the state, though gun manufacturers say the new restrictions will hurt their business.

"People are welcome to stay in our state as long as they're producing a product that can be sold in the United States legally," Malloy said.

Nearly four months after a gunman killed 20 children and six educators at an elementary school in Newtown, lawmakers and Malloy enacted legislation that adds more than 100 firearms to the state's assault weapons ban. It also immediately bans the sale of magazines capable of holding more than 10 rounds of ammunition. People who purchased those guns and magazines before midnight Wednesday will be allowed to keep them if they're registered with the state police before Jan. 1.

Required background checks for private gun sales also take effect.

Other parts of the new law include a ban on armor-piercing bullets, establishment of a deadly weapon offender registry, expansion of circumstances when a person's mental health history disqualifies them from holding a gun permit, mandatory reporting of voluntary hospital commitments, doubled penalties for gun trafficking and other firearms violations, and $1 million to fund the statewide firearms trafficking task force.

Malloy said he preferred an "all-out ban" on magazines of more than 10 rounds of ammunition, but the legislature opposed him on the issue.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/apdefault/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-04-07-Gun%20Control-Conn/id-77f0c259ff6e4bcb98c05219c97f495c

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