Futures shown 5 waves down in them from Monday's high and are resting at horizontal support
MACD's on this 60 minute are at -5 area and look like they want to turn up but the 6 hour, 4 hour and 2 hour are still pointing down
When I look at other time frame charts the odds are shifting more and more to the bears holding that Monday high and any move up today and/or Thursday only putting in a higher low, possibly hitting the falling trendline now connecting Monday's high to Tuesday's high... and it's coming in around 1928 area the futures right now.
There is horizontal support right at the 1900 level and it's an even number play... meaning it's one of those levels that mentally people are drawn too because it seems important. Just like 2000 SPX, 2100, 1800, etc... or in the DOW it would be 16,000... 17,000... you get the picture. From a technical point of view the next support area is around 1890 on the futures, then a retest of that falling channel that just below that 1890 but falling.
After a low is found this morning we could (and should) see it turn back up later in the day (or sooner?) to attempt one more breakout, which should fail from the looks of the charts and just put in a lower high that will also look like the right shoulder of a nice "head and shoulders" pattern with the head at Monday's high and the left shoulder at last Thursday's high. It might end up looking a lot like the head and shoulders pattern that formed back on 2/1 (the head), 1/22 and 1/27 (two left shoulders) and 2/4 (double right shoulder).
If they fail to turn back up and continue lower today and into tomorrow then they could work off enough of the overbought conditions on the larger time frame and allow another turn back up next week to make another run attempt to breakthrough overhead resistance at the 1950 SPX horizontal line in the sand. Right now I see those odds as low, but if it happened then that 1860 area for the gap fill on the futures would be about a 50% retrace and my target to be hit today/tomorrow if NO right shoulder.
The scenario I favor is the right shoulder to form today/tomorrow and then a big drop starting Friday and continuing into next week with that 1860 being busted and a move on down to make a triple bottom at the 1810 zone, which I think will break this go around. But for now lets just say I'm looking for early selling and a midday to late day turn back up.
Jack Griffin helped oversee Tribune Publishing’s spinoff from its parent company, now called Tribune Media.
After taking as the chief executive of Tribune Publishing in 2014, Jack Griffin withstood a string of controversies and criticisms and a decline in the company’s share price to about $7 from nearly $25. The one thing he could not survive was a new investor who initially seemed like a potential savior.
When Michael Ferro, a Chicago entrepreneur and the majority owner of The Chicago Sun-Times, took a $44 million stake in Tribune Publishing in early February, many there thought the move might give Mr. Griffin more cash to pursue acquisitions and more leverage to stave off potential takeover bids. At the time, Mr. Griffin described the investment as one that would help Tribune Publishing execute its strategic plan. The company owns The Chicago Tribune, The Los Angeles Times and The Hartford Courant, among other newspapers.
Less than three weeks later, Mr. Griffin has been abruptly replaced. The news, first reported by Politico, was announced in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission early Tuesday. Mr. Griffin will be succeeded by Justin C. Dearborn, the former chief executive of Merge Healthcare, the company said.
Current and former Tribune Publishing staff members, speaking on condition of anonymity, attributed the move to Mr. Ferro. The company declined to comment on Mr. Griffin’s departure.
In a subsequent statement, Mr. Griffin said he had laid the foundation for the future success of the company and that “the timing is right for a new leader to come on board and lead Tribune Publishing through its next phase of transformation.”
Mr. Griffin helped oversee Tribune Publishing’s spinoff from its own parent company, now called Tribune Media, after years of turmoil. But he has been criticized recently by, among others, current and former members of the staff, and by civic leaders in Los Angeles, for cost-cutting that they said endangered The Times and for the lack of a clear plan to turn around the company’s newspapers. They are struggling, as are many in the industry, as precipitous downturns in print advertising are not being made up by digital revenue. The company’s stock price has fallen to about $7.20 Tuesday afternoon from nearly $25 in 2014.
In a memo to staff members on Tuesday, the company said that Mr. Dearborn believed “that Tribune Publishing has a significant opportunity to leverage technology to increase the value of our content and distribution channels.” Before his appointment, Mr. Dearborn accompanied Mr. Ferro to some Tribune Publishing meetings, according to a person briefed on the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Mr. Ferro, who also became board chairman upon making his investment, said in a statement, “The board thanks Jack Griffin for his significant contributions and wishes him the best of luck in his future endeavors.”
Robert Feder, who operates an independent website and has covered the news media in Chicago for decades, said it seemed clear that Mr. Ferro was “carrying out a strategy that he had planned from the beginning to take over the company.” Mr. Ferro, he said, was expected to make further executive changes, which could include “most of the people who were top executives around Griffin.” The plans, he said, would most likely be unveiled early next month, around the time of the company’s earnings call.
Mr. Griffin’s departure represents the latest upheaval for Tribune Publishing’s newspapers. The Tribune Company, its corporate antecedent, was bought by the Chicago billionaire Sam Zell for $8.2 billion in 2008. Less than a year later, in the face of reports of erratic management, it tipped into bankruptcy, listing $7.6 billion in assets against a debt of $13 billion.
In 2014, after years of dealing with the bankruptcy and its fallout, the company spun its newspaper assets out into a separate company, Tribune Publishing, which it left with $350 million in debt. Mr. Griffin, who had consulted on the company’s spinoff, was appointed chief executive.
The Los Angeles Times, its flagship newspaper, responsible for the largest portion of the company’s revenue, has waged a continuing battle with its ownership through the years. Two former top editors — including Dean Baquet, now the executive editor of The New York Times — left after refusing to cut newsroom jobs. Despite their efforts, the newsroom, once staffed by 1,200 people, declined to about 500.
And late last year, Mr. Griffin fired Austin Beutner, the recently appointed publisher of the newspaper, who had injected a sense of optimism into the newsroom, after the two disagreed about strategy.
Many of those who protested Mr. Beutner’s firing have held out hope that the Los Angeles billionaire Eli Broad, who previously expressed an interest in leading a group to buy The Times as an act of civic benevolence, would do just that. It was not immediately clear on Tuesday what impact the change in Tribune leadership might have on The Times.
In the Los Angeles Times newsroom on Tuesday the feeling was one of resignation from afar. The journalists, said one person who was there, had been through this before.
SEATTLE – Bertha, the machine boring the State Route 99 tunnel under Seattle, resumed tunneling Tuesday after being shut down for more than a month due to safety concerns.
WSDOT announced Seattle Tunnel Partners resumed digging after getting conditional permission to lift the “suspension for cause” that halted tunneling.
The state ordered STP to stop digging January 14 after a sinkhole formed behind Bertha. The hole was 35 feet long, 20 feet wide and 15 feet deep. Two days before that, a barge used to haul dirt from construction partially tipped, damaging a pier.
“As part of the conditions for lifting the suspension for cause, STP will be permitted to tunnel forward and install approximately 25 concrete tunnel rings. During this time, they must demonstrate that they have implemented a number of changes to ensure they can safely continue mining,” WSDOT said in a press release.
Those changes include:
Updated tunnel work and quality plans, including calculations of the amount of soil removed during excavation of each tunnel ring
Realignment of key personnel within their quality assurance program
New quality assurance protocols
New personnel at key positions within the tunneling operation
Restructured daily tunneling meetings that include additional participants and protocols
Barging activities will still be restricted for the time being and soil will be removed by truck.
WSDOT says the lifting of the suspension is conditional. Bertha will dig 160 feet. If the new requirements show that everything is working OK, Bertha will dig another 100 feet. That’s where there will be a final maintenance stop which could last several weeks.
After that, Bertha will dig beneath the Alaskan Way Viaduct. That stretch of highway will be closed for about two weeks during digging. The date of that closure has not yet been determined. From there, Bertha will be digging under downtown Seattle.
The contractor now has an opportunity to show progress during this test period, prior to tunneling under the viaduct and underneath Seattle,” said Gov. Jay Inslee.
Bertha spent two years idle underground while undergoing repairs. It resumed moving on Dec. 23, 2015, but was stopped less than a month later after the sinkhole and barge incidents.
The tunnel was originally scheduled to be open by now. Due to the two year hiatus, the tunnel is now expected to open in spring 2018. Much of the work on the north end, where the tunnel will exit, has continued during the shutdown.
Even after Deutsche Börse failed to merge with the N.Y.S.E., it has struck a number of acquisitions.
Four years ago, Deutsche Börse called off an effort to merge with the parent of the New York Stock Exchange, after European antitrust regulators threatened to block the combination.
Now, the German market operator is willing to try another deal — this time with the London Stock Exchange.
The two exchanges said on Tuesday that they were in talks to combine in an all-stock deal, potentially uniting two of the biggest European market operators and creating a new giant in an industry that has rapidly consolidated.
“The boards believe that the potential merger would represent a compelling opportunity for both companies to strengthen each other in an industry-defining combination, creating a leading European-based global markets infrastructure group,” the two said in a joint regulatory statement.
In the last decade, numerous market operators have pursued ever-bigger scale through mergers. Both of the big, old names in American exchanges, the N.Y.S.E. and the Nasdaq, are the products of mergers themselves: the Big Board with Euronext and then the IntercontinentalExchange, and the Nasdaq with the OMX Group of Sweden.
Under the terms of the proposed merger disclosed on Tuesday, shareholders in the LS.E. would receive 0.4421 of a new share in the combined company for every L.S.E. share they own. Their counterparts at Deutsche Börse would receive one share of the new company for each of their shares, giving the 54.4 percent of the united market operator over all.
The new company’s board would be evenly divided between directors of each of the two companies.
Shares of the L.S.E. were up nearly 17 percent in Tuesday trading in London. In Frankfurt, shares of Deutsche Börse were up 7.4 percent.
The two are no strangers to deal-making. Even after Deutsche Börse failed to merge with the N.Y.S.E. — clearing the path for the Big Board to sell itself to the IntercontinentalExchange — it has struck a number of acquisitions.
The L.S.E. has played both acquirer and potential target, not least with Deutsche Börse itself. The two discussed plans to merge in 2000, though no deal emerged, and then four years later, Deutsche Börse made an unsuccessful bid for its London-based rival.
Other exchange operators, including OMX and Nasdaq, also made bids for the L.S.E. that the British firm rejected.
Instead, the L.S.E. has struck acquisitions like those of Borsa Italiana of Milan and Russell Investments, the owner of the Russell stock market indexes. The London exchange also sought to acquire TMX, the parent of the Toronto stock exchange, though that deal was scuttled by investors in the Canadian firm.
Robey Warshaw is advising the L.S.E., while Perella Weinberg Partners is advising Deutsche Börse.
Consumers aren’t as optimistic about the economy in early 2016 as they were last fall.
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Consumers confidence fell in February to the lowest level in seven months, as American became a bit more pessimistic about business conditions. Turmoil in stock markets probably also increased anxiety.
The consumer confidence index dropped to 92.2 from a revised 97.8 in January, the Conference Board said Tuesday. Economists polled by MarketWatch had projected the index to fall to 96.9.
The present situation index, a measure of current conditions, slid to 112.1 from 116.6.
The future expectations index declined to 78.9 from 85.3.
“Consumers’ assessment of current conditions weakened, primarily due to a less favorable assessment of business conditions,” said Lynn Franco, director of economic indicators at the Conference Board. “Consumers’ short-term outlook grew more pessimistic, with consumers expressing greater apprehension about business conditions, their personal financial situation, and to a lesser degree, labor market prospects.
Still, the survey also suggests that consumers believe the economy “will continue to expand at a moderate pace in the near term,” Franco added.
Britian’s Queen Elizabeth II, centre, talks to Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin, left, and Mayor of London Boris Johnson, centre, during a royal visit to the construction site of the new Bond Street Crossrail Station in central London, Tuesday Feb. 23, 2016. The Queen is scheduled to tour the Crossrail project which will provide new links through new tunnels under Central London, opening in 2018, (Dominic Lipinski / PA via AP) UNITED KINGDOM OUT - NO SALES - NO ARCHIVES (Associated Press)
By Associated PressFebruary 23 at 7:36 AM
LONDON — A new rail line under London is to be named in honor of Queen Elizabeth II.
Developers say the project known as Crosssrail will be named the Elizabeth Line when it opens in December 2018. When it is finished, the line will run for more than 60 miles (100 kilometers) from east to west, including a 13-mile (21-kilometer) underground stretch through London.
The monarch, who turns 90 in April, unveiled a sign with the purple “Elizabeth Line” logo on a visit to a Crossrail tunnel on Tuesday.
Several London transit lines already have royal connections. The Jubilee subway line was named in honor of Elizabeth’s Silver Jubilee marking 25 years on the throne in 1977, while the Victoria Line and Victoria railway station are named after Queen Victoria.
Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Futures hit horizontal resistance yesterday and barely pierced though. Now this morning the appear ready to lose the rising trendline of support
MACD's rising on this 60 minute chart have made 3 lower highs, which is triple negative divergence
From the looks of the charts this morning we might have already topped yesterday and had a small wave 1 down after the close with the small wave 2 up this premarket morning. It's riding a rising trendline which also makes a triangle. The Apex (the ending point) of that triangle is around 1950 on this chart. If the wave count of a small 1 down and 2 up is incorrect then possibly we go up one last time toward that Apex today. But it really doesn't look like it's got the power to do that in my opinion.
Looking at the MACD's I see triple negative divergence on them with 3 lower highs. The 6 hour chart is flatlined up around +12 on it's MACD's and looks ready to drop as well. The 2 hour and 4 hour charts also look ready for a pullback. So a move over the 1940 level to at least retest the 1943.75 high yesterday, if not break it, would be a blessing for the bears to short at.
If it breaks through it overhead resistance there should be a stop run to get it up to that 1950 area, but once the stops are hit and taken out there's not anything left to keep it up there as the technical picture is too bearish. I would look to short that breakout if it happens today. However, just based on the technicals, the bulls need to do it today... otherwise there will likely be a small wave 3 down to around the gap fill area in the 1915 zone I'd guess. Possibly that turns out to be just a 3 wave pullback instead of a 5 wave and then the bulls try again on Wednesday, but they are running on air right now and need at least a 50% retrace of the entire rally up from the 1800 area lows to reset the charts if they really want to make a run for 2000 or higher.
Google Chief Executive Sundar Pichai received restricted stock worth about $199 million, according to a regulatory filing by Google parent company Alphabet.
Pichai, who took over in August, received a grant for 273,328 Class C Google stock units on Feb. 3. The valuation is based on the stock’s closing price on that date.
On the same day, Pichai sold 375 Class A common shares at a price of $786.28 each, and 3,625 Class C capital stock at a price of $768.84 each, the filing said.
It’s obvious that a $10-a-barrel tax on oil would translate into higher prices for gasoline at the pump. But how much higher?
The White House on Thursday said President Barack Obama will propose a $10-a-barrel tax on each barrel of oil to pay for clean transportation projects. The tax, which will be part of the budget request Obama sends to Capitol Hill next week, would be paid by oil companies and gradually phased in over five years. The measure, however, isn’t expected to go far.
But if it were to be enacted, it probably wouldn’t be the oil companies that feel the most pain.
“This proposal would trickle down and be a $10 per barrel tax on motorists—or 20 to 25 cents per gallon on refined fuels,” said Patrick DeHaan, senior petroleum analyst at GasBuddy.com. “To me it’s clear: this is not something oil companies are going to absorb.”
Opinion: Oil-tax proposal steps on White House jobs message.
And the impact of the tax would grow over time. DeHaan created a chart to show just how big a toll he expects the tax would take on gasoline consumers through 2023, if it were passed.
“As with almost every tax increase on fossil fuels, whether at the state or federal level, it will likely be completely passed to consumers in the years ahead,” he said.
And it won’t just impact gasoline prices, but also diesel, jet fuel, heating oil and others, DeHaan said. “It could stifle production to some degree, though to a lesser degree as long as the tax applies to imported oil as well.”
The proposal comes at the worst time for the oil market, which has already seen prices drop by more than 70% from their highs above $106 in June of 2014. On Friday, West Texas Intermediate crude CLH6, -2.27% settled at $30.89 a barrel.
Read: This is how the oil rout’s ‘endgame’ might play out.
A global glut of crude supplies cratered prices in the last year and a half, and global production has yet to show any significant declines as major oil producers play a game of “you cut first” with output amid a battle to retain market share.
Also see: Oil output barely dented despite crude’s plunge
It’s a “time of fierce competition in the global oil market and heavy job losses in the industry,” said Brian Milne, energy editor and product manager at Schneider Electric.
Earlier this month, BP PLC BP, -0.49% said it would cut another 3,000 jobs by the end of 2017 after reporting a full-year loss of $5.2 billion. Royal Dutch Shell RDS.A, +0.29% RDS.B, +0.25% this week reported its worst profits in over a decade.
For an industry that has already lost 60% of its gross income, it doesn’t make sense to “slap a tax on it that would take another 10% of their gross income,” said Charles Perry, chief executive officer of energy-consulting firm Perry Management.
That will eventually result in a “mass plugging of the many already marginal wells,” as well as the “need to expand the network of bankruptcy courts,” he said.
So why bring up the prospect of an oil tax right now?
Obama is adamant about the advantages the tax will create. “We’ll look back and say that was a smart investment. It’s right to do it now, when gas prices are really low,” he said Friday.
Read: Oil-tax proposal steps on White House jobs message
Milne said Obama may think he can “slip the tax through…without many realizing that they’re paying the government more to fuel their vehicles and warm their houses” because oil and gasoline prices are low right now.
On Friday afternoon, the average price for regular gasoline at pump stood at $1.747 a gallon, according to GasBuddy. That’s down 40.5 cents from last year’s average of $2.152. Gasoline futures RBH6, -3.78% also dropped below $1 a gallon on Friday for the first time since late 2008.
Read: Gasoline prices may be about to spike
The tax is “certainty a hot topic,” said DeHaan. “Motorists should be eyeing this carefully.”
Shares of satellite Internet outfit ViaSat surged nearly 12 percent Tuesday on speculation that American Airlines might use the Carlsbad company to supply in-flight Wi-Fi on some of its commercial jets.
The news stemmed from a contract dispute between American and its current in-flight Wi-Fi provider – Chicago-based Gogo – that could open the door for the Dallas-based airline to switch to ViaSat for some domestic flights.
Gogo’s stock price tumbled 27 percent on the news.
The contract spat is nuanced, but it highlights the growing importance of high speed Wi-Fi to airline passengers. According to a recent survey by Honeywell, two-thirds of passengers said the availability of Wi-Fi was a factor when they selected a flight. A study by the Airline Passenger Experience Association found that better in-flight connectivity was the second most desired upgrade that passengers want – trailing only more comfortable seats.
A relative newcomer to the market, ViaSat powers satellite in-flight Wi-Fi for JetBlue, Virgin America and some United Continental aircraft, with about 450 commercial jets in the sky. It delivers more bandwidth – up to 12 megabits per second to each seat – than older inflight Wi-Fi technology. That allows passengers to stream Netflix or Amazon Prime shows to their computers or tablets while in the air.
Carlsbad's ViaSat delivers high-speed in-flight Wi-Fi to JetBlue's fleet in North America. It also supplies satellite Wi-Fi to Virgin American and some United Continental Holdings aircraft.
Carlsbad's ViaSat delivers high-speed in-flight Wi-Fi to JetBlue's fleet in North America. It also supplies satellite Wi-Fi to Virgin American and some United Continental Holdings aircraft.
Gogo is the leading supplier of in-flight Wi-Fi, with more than 2,300 aircraft using its air-to-ground technology. Customers include Delta, United, Alaska Airlines, Air Canada and AeroMexico.
The air-to-ground system doesn’t deliver as much bandwidth as satellite systems. Gogo provides 3 megabits to 10 megabits per second to be shared between all passengers on the plane, which can lead to clunky Web surfing if too many devices hook up.
Gogo is rolling out a new satellite based service called 2Ku, which it says will match ViaSat’s performance. The system has been installed on one AeroMexico jet, with orders in the pipeline for 800 additional planes from various airlines, according to Gogo spokesman Steve Nolan.
Last week, American Airlines filed a legal action in a Texas state court saying under terms of its 2012 air-to-ground contract with Gogo, it had the right to terminate the deal before it expired "if an in-flight connectivity provider other than Gogo began offering a better service," according to court documents.
American named ViaSat as the company providing better Wi-Fi.
"We are always looking at what products we can provide our customers to meet their needs on-board our aircraft, and that includes connectivity," said Casey Norton, a spokesman for American Airlines. "We notified Gogo that a competitor has made an offering, and we will evaluate all of our options."
Gogo declined comment on the lawsuit. But it did say under the contract terms, it has the right to make a counter offer on the roughly 200 aircraft covered by the contract.
"We plan to submit a competing proposal to install our latest satellite technology — 2Ku — on this fleet,"Gogo said in a filing with securities regulators. "We believe that 2Ku is the best performing technology in the market and look forward to discussing our offer with American."
Gogo said it plans to utilize capacity on around 180 Ku-band satellites globally to deliver its 2Ku service.
ViaSat declined to comment on the dispute. But Keven Lippert, ViaSat’s head of satellite systems, said the company-owned satellites have the capacity to deliver exponentially more bandwidth than rival satellites.
For example, ViaSat-1, which was launched in 2011, has 150 gigabits per second maximum bandwidth. Today’s Ku-band Internet satellites have 1 to 3 gigabits maximum capacity, said Lippert.
ViaSat-2 is scheduled to launch next year. It will have close to 300 megabits per second maximum throughput.
"It boils down to math," said Lippert. "You can say you can provide 100 megabits per second, and you can do that for one aircraft. But when you have hundreds of aircraft and passengers video streaming, the capacity of your network becomes important. If you don’t have a lot of capacity, your service breaks down."
ViaSat’s shares ended trading up $7.36 to $69.81 on the Nasdaq exchange.
The U.S. Department of Transportation opened bidding by American air carriers on as many as 110 U.S.-Cuba flights a day. (AP)
The United States and Cuba on Tuesday signed a deal restoring commercial air traffic for the first time in five decades, allowing of dozens of new daily flights to bring hundreds of thousands more American travelers a year to the island as early as this fall.
Immediately after the signing, the U.S. Department of Transportation opened bidding by American air carriers on as many as 110 U.S.-Cuba flights a day - more than five times the current number. All flights operating between the two countries today are charters.
Barring other major announcements, the restart of commercial flights will be the most significant development in U.S.-Cuba trade since Presidents Barack Obama and Raul Castro announced in late 2014 that they would begin normalizing ties after a half-century of Cold War opposition. The Obama administration is eager to make rapid progress on building trade and diplomatic ties with Cuba before the president leaves office. The coming weeks are seen as particularly crucial to building momentum ahead of a trip he hopes to make to Havana by the end of March.
"Today is a historic day in the relationship between Cuba and the U.S.," U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said after he and Transportation Minister Adel Yzquierdo Rodriguez signed the deal in a ceremony at Havana's Hotel Nacional. "It represents a critically important milestone in the U.S. effort to engage with Cuba."
The U.S. Department of Transportation expects to award the new routes by the summer. The winning airlines then must negotiate their own deals with Cuba.
Yzquierdo declined an interview request but Foxx said after meeting with the Cuban minister that he believed Cuba was eager to restore commercial air service as quickly as possible.
"Every indication I have in the conversations we've had today is that the Cubans want to move as fast as we're able to move," Foxx said. "People will actually be able to go buy a ticket and fly to Cuba on a commercial airline. That's a pretty big step. We haven't been able to do that in 50 years."
The agreement allows 20 regular daily U.S. flights to Havana, in addition to the current 10-15 charter flights a day. The rest would be to other Cuban cities.
Nearly 160,000 U.S. leisure travelers flew to Cuba last year, along with hundreds of thousands of Cuban-Americans visiting family, mostly on expensive, frequently chaotic charter flights out of Florida.
"The adoption of this memorandum is an important step that will soon permit the establishment of regular flights between the United States and Cuba," Yzquierdo Rodriguez at the signing ceremony.
Commercial flights make travel to Cuba far easier for U.S. travelers, with features such as online booking and 24-hour customer service that are largely absent in the charter industry.
U.S. visitors to Cuba will still have to qualify under one of the travel categories legally authorized by the U.S. government. Tourism is still barred by law, but the number of legal reasons to go to Cuba — from organizing professional meetings to distributing information to Cubans — has grown so large and loosely enforced that the distinction from tourism has blurred significantly.
Commercial travel will give travelers the ability to simply check an online box on a long list of authorized categories.
The deal does not contemplate flights by Cuba's national airline to the United States, where lawyers for families and businesses that have sued Havana over decades-old property confiscations are eager to freeze any of its assets that they can get their hands on.
American Airlines spokesman Matt Miller said the company plans to bid on routes from Miami and other unspecified "American hubs."
"We applaud the Administration for making commercial air service a priority," American chairman Doug Parker said in a written statement. "American looks forward to submitting a Cuba service proposal to the Department of Transportation in the coming weeks."
United Airlines is also looking to serve Havana from some of its hubs, spokesman Luke Punzenberger said. The carrier's major hubs include Chicago, Houston, Washington and Newark, New Jersey. It currently does not fly charters to Cuba.
"Assuming service is approved, United customers will benefit from United's expanded global route network and new opportunities for leisure and business travel to Cuba," the airline said.
JetBlue Airways said it was eager to offer service between "multiple" cities in the United States and the island, with spokesman Doug McGraw saying that "interest in Cuba has reached levels not seen for a generation."
DuPont Co. and Dow Chemical Co. plan to stick by their longtime hometowns as the chemical giants combine and then split into three separate companies, resolving some uncertainty that has loomed over the giant merger for employees and local officials.
Wilmington, Del., DuPont's home since its founding in 1802, will be the base for two planned companies, one handling agricultural products and the other electronic components and biosciences. Midland, Mich., Dow's home since 1897, will retain the material-sciences company, the companies said on Friday.
Dow and DuPont executives said that keeping corporate bases in Michigan and Delaware was the most efficient way to run the three businesses in the future, relying on employees and infrastructure already there. The deal, which would create a company with a combined market value of about $104 billion, aims to eliminate $3 billion in combined costs before separating into three publicly traded companies within three years.
The agricultural company's name will include DuPont, while the material sciences company's name will include Dow, according to the companies.
The headquarters decision is a victory for Wilmington, where DuPont and other big employers have slashed jobs and operations in recent decades. The merger deal raised concerns that DuPont's presence would be further reduced in the city of 72,000, and DuPont in late December announced plans to lay off 1,700 employees in Delaware as part of a plan to save $700 million before the Dow combination.
"It's welcome news because we really didn't know what was going to happen," said Richard Heffron, president of the Delaware State Chamber of Commerce. "A lot of people were pessimistic." Mr. Heffron credited efforts by Delaware Gov. Jack Markell and members of the U.S. Congress for successfully wooing Dow and DuPont.
Keeping the material sciences company in Midland, Mich., which the companies had signaled earlier, is "good news for us," said Maureen Donker, mayor of the city of 42,000. "As they go through this transformation, we'll continue to [work with them] to make sure we don't miss any opportunities that would arise," she said.
The governors of Iowa and Indiana said they welcomed the commitment from Dow and DuPont to keep major agricultural functions in their states. The Iowa Economic Development Authority on Friday approved a $2 million loan and $14 million in tax credits on the condition that the agricultural spinoff keep 500 research and development jobs in the Des Moines area.
The Indiana Economic Development Corp. is discussing job-related incentive packages with the companies, but hasn't yet finalized the terms, a spokeswoman for the group said.
T-Mobile has been rapidly improving its network since it started the Uncarrier marketing strategy by acquiring loads of low-frequency wireless spectrum.
T-Mobile is gobbling up low-frequency radio airwaves so that video of "The Walking Dead" playing on your phone doesn't stall when you walk into your basement.
T-Mobile on Wednesday said it had acquired more of the spectrum in the low-frequency 700 MHz band as it seeks to catch up to rivals Verizon Wireless and AT&T in coverage. The company plans to put the spectrum to use in the next 12 to 18 months, and said it would allow it to reach 48 million more people.
The additional spectrum should extend its coverage footprint and improve service indoors, two issues that long dogged T-Mobile subscribers. It's part of an arms race by the carriers in stocking up spectrum, all to ensure that your phone calls don't drop and your mobile videos stream stutter-free.
T-Mobile has been shaking up the wireless industry for more than two years, offering no-interest device financing, free international data, unlimited access to video streaming, and plans without service contracts. On Wednesday, it reported a fourth-quarter profit of $297 million, or 34 cents a share after adding 2.1 million new customers.
Historically, the Bellevue, Washington, company has offered poor coverage outside of urban areas as well as inside buildings. But the company has worked quickly to close the gap by acquiring low-frequency spectrum that allows signals to easily penetrate through obstacles like walls and offers wider coverage.
Executives say the low-frequency spectrum already in use has helped the company retain customers, catapulting it to the top of customer satisfaction surveys from companies like JD Power and Associates.
T-Mobile has made huge strides in the past several quarters reducing its so-called churn rate, or the rate at which customers drop its service. For the fourth quarter of 2015, this rate fell to 1.46 percent for is postpaid customers, or customers who pay their bills at the end of the month. A year ago, its churn rate was 1.74 percent.
"It's seems obvious, but this is one of the things that's driving up satisfaction and driving down churn," T-Mobile's CEO John Legere said on the company's earnings call Wednesday.
The latest purchase is part of T-Mobile's ongoing strategy to obtain as many spectrum licenses in this low-frequency range as it can to bolster its coverage and reliability. But T-Mobile executives admit that the deals it's been making on the secondary market won't be enough to keep up with demand and give consumers the coverage they need wherever they go.
"The strategy has been to leverage spectrum we already have and buy what we can on the secondary market," Neville Ray, T-Mobile's chief technology officer, said in an interview. "But there isn't much left to run at."
"We've always said whatever spectrum we get in the secondary market is an enhancement," Ray added. "That's why we have filed to participate in the upcoming auction."
T-Mobile lobbied aggressively for rules in the auction that favor smaller players such as itself. A few months ago, the company looked like it would dominate bidding on spectrum the FCC had carved out especially for smaller players. But now the company will likely face stiff competition from some deep-pocketed new rivals.
Cable giant Comcast confirmed earlier this month it plans to participate in the auction. There are also several investment firms that will be bidding on this spectrum.
T-Mobile has said previously it will go into the auction with a $10 billion budget. With additional bidders, prices are likely to be high, which may hamper how much spectrum T-Mobile is able to acquire.
Executives were unable to address specific questions about the auction, due to the FCC's quiet period rules. But chief financial officer Braxton Carter said in an interview that the company has a lot of experience bidding in competitive government spectrum auctions.
"In the past, we've have been smart and prudent in how we tackle auctions," he said. "And we haven't allowed ourselves to bid irrationally."
Apple says the fight is about security and privacy for everyone, about the US government trying to compel a public company, using a 227-year-old law, to compromise its most important products, and about setting a "dangerous precedent" that gives the US authority to ask it and other businesses to change their products in the future.
The FBI and the Department of Justice say it's about making sure Americans aren't in jeopardy, about fighting terrorists who are using increasingly sophisticated communication tools, and about a reasonable request to gain evidence from a single iPhone.
Apple CEO Tim Cook says the FBI wants to build a 'master key' that could be used to unlock hundreds of millions of iPhones. The FBI says it's fighting terrorism and Apple just wants to protect its brand.
Unless Apple CEO Tim Cook gives in or the government backs down, a February 16 court order requiring that Apple build a custom version of its iOS software for the iPhone may turn into one of the most important legal battles over the future of security -- digital security and US national security. Apple has until February 26 to challenge the court's order and says it will fight all the way to the Supreme Court if necessary. Cook argues the "very freedoms and liberty our government is meant to protect" are at stake. The FBI and DOJ counter that all Apple cares about is protecting its business model and brand.
The fight has raised a lot of questions about what's at stake, which technologies are involved and why complying with the government's request is harder than you might think. We've put this FAQ together to help you get up to speed, and we'll keep updating it with new questions and answers. Feel free to add your questions to the comments section below.
Can you recap how we got here?
Earlier this week, US Magistrate Sheri Pym ordered Apple to unlock an iPhone 5C used by Syed Farook, one of two terrorists who gunned down 14 people at a party in San Bernardino, California, in December. Apple, which was cooperating with the FBI to help the agency access data on Farook's work phone, refused. Cook argues that the order goes too far and that bypassing the password means creating a "backdoor" in its iOS mobile operating system that could be used to access every other iPhone.
Why is this particular iPhone so important to the FBI?
The FBI wants to know who Farook was communicating with and which websites he might have visited in the days leading up to the December 2 massacre. Access to computers and personal phones owned by Farook and his wife would help, but the couple smashed their personal phones and removed the hard drive from their computer. Farook's iPhone 5C, given to him by his employers at San Bernardino County in southern California, may be one of their last options.
What's the iPhone 5C?
Introduced in 2013, it was Apple's lowest-priced iPhone, starting at $99 on contract. Though it initially came in models with up to 32 gigabytes of storage, Farook had the least expensive model: an 8GB version that was often given away for free with a paid, two-year wireless contract.
Unlike the higher-end iPhone 5S announced the same year, the iPhone 5C doesn't include a fingerprint sensor that you can use instead of typing in a passcode.
Apple already gave the FBI data that was backed up from Farook's phone to the company's iCloud online storage service. What's the FBI hoping to find now?
Apple was able to give the FBI backups only through October 19, when Farook apparently stopped backing up the phone. That leaves a one-and-a-half month gap in the data between October 19 and December 2, when the massacre occurred. The FBI believes Farook might have intentionally stopped the automatic backups to hide something.
What's stopping the FBI from just browsing through the phone?
It's locked with a passcode. The FBI doesn't have the code, and neither does Apple. The passcode is stored only on the device itself. Because of Apple's built-in security, you have up to 10 tries to enter a passcode. After that, the iPhone wipes itself -- that is, removes all the data stored on the device.
Why can't the FBI just pop out the memory card or hard drive, or use the fingerprint scanner to unlock the phone?
The iPhone 5C doesn't have any of those things. Data is stored on a memory chip that's soldered to the phone's motherboard. And the iPhone 5C doesn't have a fingerprint sensor.
Why can't the FBI just use a supercomputer to crack the password or get data off the memory chip?
It's not that simple. iPhones running 2014's iOS 8 software or the newer iOS 9 protect their data using 256-bit AES encryption. That's the same standard that protects US government computers against brute-force attacks intended to crack into a device. It could take years to recover data by attacking the iPhone's memory chip, Stratechery's Ben Thompson explains.
It's important to note, adds Thompson, that "Apple is not being asked to break the encryption on the iPhone in question...but rather to disable the functionality that wipes the memory when multiple wrong passcodes are entered in a row."
What is encryption? Did Apple create 256-bit AES encryption?
Encryption simply means that information isn't stored in a way that people or computer programs can easily read. It's in code, and to decode it, you need a decryption key. AES, short for Advanced Encryption Standard, is a particularly robust form of encryption that the US government recommends companies use, and one that's been broadly adopted worldwide since it was introduced by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in 2002.
Why can't the FBI crack the passcode on the iPhone?
Farook's iPhone was set to automatically erase itself after 10 wrong passcodes were entered in a row. That's a commonly enabled feature on work-issued phones.
Even if the FBI could disable the auto-wipe function, breaking the passcode could take a long time -- a very long time. The iPhone requires a minimum delay of 80 milliseconds between each passcode entry, and wrong entries can extend the delay by minutes at a time. Assuming Farook used a six-digit passcode, Apple estimates it could take 5.5 years to guess. But he might have used a custom combination of letters and numbers. We could die of old age waiting for that.
Besides, there's also the issue of connecting the supercomputer to the iPhone. A unique key built into the iPhone means you can enter passcodes only on the phone itself.
What exactly does the FBI want Apple to do?
The court order asks Apple to create a new, custom version of iOS that runs only on this specific iPhone and that makes three changes to the software. The first two changes would bypass or disable the auto-wipe function and the delay that limits how quickly new passcodes can be entered. The court also asks Apple to add a way to attach a cable or wirelessly connect to the iPhone so the FBI can automatically enter passcodes. That way, the FBI can use a supercomputer to bombard the phone with passcode guesses until it finds the right one.
Is it even possible for Apple to comply with the order?
Security consultant Dan Guido thinks so. But that's not the point, says Apple's CEO. Cook argues that Apple can't just bypass those protections for a single phone and expect other phones to stay safe and secure. "Once created, the technique could be used over and over again, on any number of devices," Cook wrote in an open letter to customers earlier this week. "In the physical world, it would be the equivalent of a master key, capable of opening hundreds of millions of locks."
Even if Apple did produce a version of iOS that could be used only with Farook's phone, it might be easy for bad actors, like malicious hackers and governments, to use or rewrite that code for other phones, senior Apple executives told us Friday.
If only the FBI and Apple have access to the custom version of iOS, how can bad actors get it?
Senior Apple executives believe that if Apple made a "master key" for the iPhone, it would be an irresistible prize for hackers, and that its own servers would inevitably be hacked. They referenced a joke often attributed to former Cisco CEO John Chambers: "There are two types of companies: those that have been hacked, and those who don't know they have been hacked."
Apple also worries that employees inside law enforcement, or inside Apple itself, could steal the technology.
Could the software be used on newer iPhones, which have added security features?
According to Apple, yes. Though all iPhones newer than the iPhone 5C (and the iPhone 5S) have a protection called the Secure Enclave, senior Apple executives told us the Secure Enclave could be disabled or bypassed using a custom version of iOS.
Apple's also worried it will create a precedent if it complies with the government's request; that the government might ask it to defeat any security feature that keeps law enforcement from accessing a newer model of iPhone. If you give a mouse a cookie...
Hasn't Apple complied with requests to unlock phones before?
Apple did help law enforcement officials by allowing them to bypass the lockscreen -- as long as there was a valid subpoena or a search warrant. It had data extraction technology that let the company's engineers bypass a user's passcode and pull information like contacts, calls and messages. And it did so without having to unlock the phone.
But the release of iOS 8 in 2014 changed that. The new software came encrypted by default, which means Apple no longer had the ability to extract data "because the files to be extracted are protected by an encryption key that is tied to the user's passcode, which Apple does not possess," the company wrote in a privacy statement on its website.
The bottom line is that to decrypt the data from Farook's iPhone 5C, you'd need his passcode.
Does the court order let Apple look for another way to get the info the FBI wants?
Yes, it specifically lets Apple find "an alternate technological means" to help the FBI break into the phone. But that alternative doesn't have much wiggle room. It still requires that Apple disable the auto-wipe and passcode delay and create the ability for the FBI to remotely enter passcodes into the phone. Apple believes introducing those security weaknesses could jeopardize other iPhones as well.
Apple had another possible solution: If the FBI placed Farook's phone near a known Wi-Fi network (like the one at his home or his workplace), it might automatically create a new iCloud backup with the missing information. That idea was foiled when investigators reset Farook's iCloud password. Senior Apple executives said Friday that was their best idea for helping the FBI get what it wanted. But now we'll never know if it could have worked.
Apple and the FBI also discussed checking to see if the iPhone was backed up to any other computers, and looking over Verizon call records to see who else Farook might have called. But the government determined Farook's phone hadn't been synced with other computers, and the FBI wanted more data than the carrier's call logs could provide. (This is detailed in footnote 7, page 18, of the DOJ's filing on Friday, which we've posted here.)
What kind of data could the FBI get from Farook's iPhone if it defeats the passcode?
The FBI should be able to access Farook's text messages, iMessages, photos, videos, contact list and call history, plus any audio recordings he might have made. That's the type of data that Apple has agreed to help law enforcement recover (PDF).
Separately, the FBI may be able to see if Farook had any additional email accounts or social-networking accounts. Then the government would have to subpoena the relevant companies for that data.
Why did Apple turn on encryption in the first place?
There are several theories. The New York Times suggests that Cook personally believes it's part of his civic duty to do the right thing by customers where privacy is involved.
The same NYT report says Apple was growing tired of complying with law enforcement requests to hack into its own phones, and decided encryption would "put the keys squarely in the hands of the customer, not the company."
There's also money at stake. After Edward Snowden revealed the extent of government surveillance in 2013, many tech companies were under pressure to show customers that they hadn't been selling their data to the government. As sociology professor Kieran Healy notes, Apple is in a strong position to do that, because the primary thing Apple sells is hardware -- not information. That might get people to buy phones from Apple instead of the competition.
What's the 227-year-old law the government is relying on in its case?
It's using the All Writs Act, which was signed into law by President George Washington in 1789, to get Apple to change its software. The act helped establish the judiciary system in the US, giving federal courts the power to issue orders, which were known as "writs" at the time.
Though the law was drafted with quill pens, it's been used in recent times. In analyzing the current standoff, lawyers and commentators often cite a 1977 case in which law enforcement asked for the help of the New York Telephone Company to monitor phone calls made by suspected gamblers. The Supreme Court ruled for law enforcement in that case.
Over time, use of the All Writs Act has been more or less limited to situations where no other law, statute or provision can be applied, usually because it's extraordinary. As Popular Mechanics notes in an explainer, "the shooter's iPhone passcode is certainly an extraordinary situation, which explains why a law from 1789 is at play in a case about smartphones."
Some also believe the government has been waiting for the right opportunity to force Apple to give it access to iPhone data. "The law operates on precedent, so the fundamental question here isn't whether the FBI gets access to this particular phone," Julian Sanchez, a surveillance law expert at the libertarian-leaning Cato Institute in Washington, DC, told The Guardian earlier this week. "It's whether a catch-all law from 1789 can be used to effectively conscript technology companies into producing hacking tools and spyware for the government."
Where can I read the court order and the DOJ's 40-page request for myself?
We've posted those documents in two stories. You can find the three-page court order here and the DOJ's February 16 request here.
What's next?
Apple had five business days from February 16 to challenge the court's order, but it asked for a three-day extension. Now it reportedly has until February 26 to file. There may well be a lot of legal back and forth, as you'd expect, and the case could even go through the federal court system all the way up to the US Supreme Court. It's up to Apple and the government to decide if they want to appeal, but Apple said it will pursue the case as far as it needs to go, because it's not backing down.
Following the U.S. government's declaration that hoverboards currently being sold are unsafe, Swagway, one of the most high profile hoverboard brands, is telling consumers to stop using its device.
"In complying with the CPSC's requirements, we ask customers who have purchased a Swagway to refrain from using their boards in the interim," a Swagway spokesperson told Mashable on Saturday.
Although the advisory from Swagway doesn't constitute an official recall of the product (something the CPSC is urging all hoverboard manufacturers to consider), the stunning move on Swagway's part is a major step toward acknowledging the U.S. government's safety concerns. Although, at this point, the company has not offered any details on possible refunds to customers who purchased the device.
"We will issue a recall if necessary, as soon as we fully understand the exact specifics that need to be addressed according to the CPSC requirements and will offer a remedy for our customers accordingly," says Swagway's spokesperson.
Friday's news that all hoverboards now on the market are deemed unsafe by the federal government took many by surprise, despite the rash of fire incidents linked to a number of hoverboards. In most of those incidents, the specific brand of the exploding hoverboard was unclear. However, at least one incident in New York was linked to a Swagway by Michael Brown in Chappaqua, who filed a class action lawsuit against the company after his device burst into flames soon after charging.
The status of that particular lawsuit is unclear, but with the CPSC's official safety notice now a matter of public record, it's possible that other hoverboard manufacturers and retailers could find themselves the target of legal actions by unhappy hoverboard customers.
At present, there are no official sales numbers for hoverboards in the U.S. (there are simply too many brands that aren't being tracked). But the product was one of the most popular electronic devices this past Christmas shopping season.
The hoverboard involved in the Chappaqua incident.
As for Swagway, when directly asked if it planned to order a recall of the device, the company's response referenced Swagways "in transit" rather than the devices that have already been sold.
"We believe our products in transit exceed the new safety standard and are confident that we've addressed any safety concerns as expressed by the CPSC," says Swagway's spokesperson. Nevertheless, until the company receives official safety certification from UL, as advised by the CPSC, it doesn't matter what claims Swagway makes with regard to safety. When and if that happens, the change would be notable. In January, UL singled out Swagway as one of the companies using counterfeit UL marks on its products.
Hours after the news about the CPSC's safety enforcement broke nationally on Friday, Swagway was still sending messages on social media touting its products. And, as of this writing, the company's Facebook and Twitter feeds include no advisory regarding the use of its products, which may be confusing to some customers.
Despite that, for now, Swagway's stance is pretty clear: If you own a Swagway, the company is asking you to stop using it.
"Once we receive feedback on our application to the new safety standards," says Swagway, "we will at that time be able to provide more direction at that time."
MACD's rising on this 60 minute chart but are making a lower high, which is a negative divergence.
The futures are at a critical level of resistance right now and if they breakthrough they could run another 20 points just hitting the bears' "buy stops". However, the market is making some negative divergences on various short term chart, from the 60 minute up to the 6 hour chart. I'd love to see them run those stops before rolling over but time is running out as they need to do it today or risk a deeper pullback to reset those charts and allow for another attempt later this week.
It's not an easy call here to know what they have planned for today. But if I were SkyNet I'd do one of the following... I'd rollover and start a move down that looks like a small pullback that gets the bulls buying the dip but each attempt at a breakout that followed on the move back up would fail making a lower high. It would scare the bears out thinking it's going to scream higher with each pullback and then lower high rally. Then I'd just roll it over and start dropping to never look back (well, down to make a new "lower low" at least).
Or the 2nd scenario is to do a quick squeeze up about 10 points or so over the horizontal resistance level to runs most of the stops and then fall back to put in a topping tail for the day, but holding the former resistance level as new support. Then I think most bulls would be expecting another higher high the next day or so, maybe up to 1960-1970? But instead I'd just drop the market back below that new support line after hours and start a series of lower lows and lower highs all week until it's clear that the high was already put in on Monday (today) and the market is headed south again. This should trick both bulls and bears with the up's and down's confusing them as they both were expecting 1960-1970 or higher before rolling over, but instead got tricked with a high in the low 1950's.
I do think that once we top this week the next several weeks into March will be down, so missing the exact high to short at won't be the end of the world if the right trading strategy is used. I think taking small shorts today, tomorrow, etc... might be the best plan as it should either go up a little higher to get a better shorting opportunity or go down and then you would be happy to have caught the top.
Jewel-Osco no longer sells Essential Everyday Parmesan Cheese. The U.S. supermarket chain took the product known as Essential Everyday 100% Parmesan Cheese off the shelves as one independent investigation conducted by Bloomberg found it contains 8.8 percent cellulose or wood pulp.
The Bloomberg investigation was published on February 16th and covered parmesan cheese from several brands and producers. According to the experts in the industry, the results of the Bloomberg investigation mirror concerns voiced nationwide. It’s possible that 20 percent of the parmesan cheese produced in the U.S. is mislabeled as it contains various percentages of cellulose. None of the parmesan cheese labels mentioned the wood pulp.
Cellulose is an additive commonly used in foods such as parmesan cheese to prevent it from clotting. The wood pulp derived additive is used predominantly in grated parmesan cheese such as the Essential Everyday 100% Parmesan Cheese. As a result of the Bloomberg investigation, Jewel-Osco no longer sells Essential Everyday Parmesan Cheese.
According to Dean Sommer who is a cheese technologist with the Center for Dairy Research (Madison, Wisconsin), it is sufficient to use 2 to 4 percent cellulose to prevent grated parmesan cheese from clumping. However, more than enough producers use well above 4 percent cellulose in an unjustified manner. Moreover, cellulose doesn’t appear on the products’ labels.
Jewel-Osco no longer sells Essential Everyday Parmesan Cheese with the supermarket chain recalling the product from all the 185 stores nationwide this Wednesday. Mary Frances Trucco with Jewel-Osco declared for Bloomberg that:
“Our supplier of the parmesan cheese is aware of the issue, and we look forward to learning more about their investigation”.
Meanwhile, the U.S. supermarket chain is replacing the Essential Everyday 100% Parmesan Cheese with the company’s Signature Brand. The Bloomberg investigation was sparked by concerns of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The federal regulator looked into Castle Cheese for similarly high levels of cellulose or wood pulp.
The Bloomberg investigation conducted independent tests on other grated parmesan cheese as well. Among them, Walmart’s Great Value Brand, Whole Foods 365 and Kraft’s grated parmesan cheese were under scrutiny.
The independent lab results showed that Walmart’s Great Value 100% Grated Parmesan Cheese contained 7.8 percent cellulose. Kraft’s product contained 3.8 percent cellulose, while Whole Foods contained 0.3 percent cellulose.
Following the U.S. government's declaration that hoverboards currently being sold are unsafe, Swagway, one of the most high profile hoverboard brands, is telling consumers to stop using its device.
"In complying with the CPSC's requirements, we ask customers who have purchased a Swagway to refrain from using their boards in the interim," a Swagway spokesperson told Mashable on Saturday.
Although the advisory from Swagway doesn't constitute an official recall of the product (something the CPSC is urging all hoverboard manufacturers to consider), the stunning move on Swagway's part is a major step toward acknowledging the U.S. government's safety concerns. Although, at this point, the company has not offered any details on possible refunds to customers who purchased the device.
"We will issue a recall if necessary, as soon as we fully understand the exact specifics that need to be addressed according to the CPSC requirements and will offer a remedy for our customers accordingly," says Swagway's spokesperson.
Friday's news that all hoverboards now on the market are deemed unsafe by the federal government took many by surprise, despite the rash of fire incidents linked to a number of hoverboards. In most of those incidents, the specific brand of the exploding hoverboard was unclear. However, at least one incident in New York was linked to a Swagway by Michael Brown in Chappaqua, who filed a class action lawsuit against the company after his device burst into flames soon after charging.
The status of that particular lawsuit is unclear, but with the CPSC's official safety notice now a matter of public record, it's possible that other hoverboard manufacturers and retailers could find themselves the target of legal actions by unhappy hoverboard customers.
At present, there are no official sales numbers for hoverboards in the U.S. (there are simply too many brands that aren't being tracked). But the product was one of the most popular electronic devices this past Christmas shopping season.The hoverboard involved in the Chappaqua incident.
As for Swagway, when directly asked if it planned to order a recall of the device, the company's response referenced Swagways "in transit" rather than the devices that have already been sold.
"We believe our products in transit exceed the new safety standard and are confident that we've addressed any safety concerns as expressed by the CPSC," says Swagway's spokesperson. Nevertheless, until the company receives official safety certification from UL, as advised by the CPSC, it doesn't matter what claims Swagway makes with regard to safety. When and if that happens, the change would be notable. In January, UL singled out Swagway as one of the companies using counterfeit UL marks on its products.
Hours after the news about the CPSC's safety enforcement broke nationally on Friday, Swagway was still sending messages on social media touting its products. And, as of this writing, the company's Facebook and Twitter feeds include no advisory regarding the use of its products, which may be confusing to some customers.
Despite that, for now, Swagway's stance is pretty clear: If you own a Swagway, the company is asking you to stop using it.
"Once we receive feedback on our application to the new safety standards," says Swagway, "we will at that time be able to provide more direction at that time."
Xiao Gang, China’s top securities regulator, in 2012.
HONG KONG — As China’s economic woes intensified, the nation’s top securities regulator appeared to have the support of the Communist Party leadership, even when his efforts to stabilize the stock markets faltered and in some cases made matters worse. Just weeks ago, he issued a lengthy defense of his record and the securities agency aggressively denied reports he had offered to resign.
But on Saturday, with no warning, Beijing abruptly fired the securities chief, bowing to criticism of the country’s bungled attempts to stem a market rout that started last summer. The dismissal of Xiao Gang, coming in the form of a terse statement from state-run media, represents a rare public reversal for the Communist Party — and a gamble by its leader, Xi Jinping, whose management of the economy has come under growing scrutiny.
Underperforming officials in China often get shuffled to other less-influential jobs or are allowed to resign quietly. Most officials who have been fired of late have been ensnared by the broad crackdown on corruption by Mr. Xi.
Mr. Xi appears to be betting now that in heeding public opinion and replacing Mr. Xiao in such a high-profile fashion he can buy time to limit damage to the party’s reputation from the stock market mess and the broader economic slowdown. But if the problems continue, he risks further undermining faith in his leadership and his government’s ability to navigate a difficult economic transition.
For decades, the party oversaw spectacular growth, buttressing its authoritarian rule and cementing China’s role in the global economic hierarchy. Now growth has fallen to its slowest pace in a quarter-century and the party’s failed attempts to control the markets and the currency are unnerving investors around the world. Mr. Xiao’s dismissal came days before global finance ministers are to meet in Shanghai, expecting answers from China’s leaders on how they will restore global confidence in their ability to competently manage the economy.
Replacing Mr. Xiao is only a first step to cleaning up the mess in the markets. His successor will need to follow up with swift action, to improve the functioning of China’s equity markets and wean them off state intervention, without doing further damage to the economy
“This will be a positive for the stock market, but the key will be the economic policies issued by the government in the next few months,” said Chen Bo, an Beijing-based investor and independent political scholar. Without them, he said, the “short term gains in the stock market in the next couple of months could be followed by another serious slump.”
But Mr. Xiao’s replacement, Liu Shiyu, may not necessarily offer the bold change the markets need. Mr. Liu, the chairman of Agriculture Bank of China chairman, has little experience in equity markets.
The shake-up also does little to solve the underlying problem: a government increasingly under the control of one man, President Xi, who is trying to subdue economic turbulence that has increasingly defied its controls. It is this penchant for control, say investors and analysts, that is driving talent away from the technocratic bureaucracy and rewarding officials who fall in line.
“That’s the problem of a very top-down policy style that’s emerging in China now,” said Victor Shih, a professor at the University of California, San Diego, who studies the confluence of finance and politics in China. “No one dares to challenge whatever preconceived notion the top leadership has.”
China has a wealth of talented financial professionals, many educated at top universities in the United States, who are now entering the prime of their careers. But unlike in the United States, where talented people rotate in and out of government, few of them may be willing to take jobs in the China Securities Regulatory Commission, China’s equivalent of the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The pay is too low and the risks are too high. Mr. Xi’s anticorruption drive in recent months has focused on the financial sector and the securities regulator itself, making it a difficult environment even for officials free of graft, said Mr. Chen, an independent, Beijing-based investor and political scholar.
“The professional makeup of the C.S.R.C. is really not even up close to that of the big brokerages,” Mr. Chen said. “This problem isn’t found only in the equities sector. It’s much more widespread than that.”
Mr. Liu is typical for a top financial official. He spent his career working in government committees and at the central bank.
Fred Hu, the chairman of Primavera Capital Group and the former chairman of Goldman Sachs for China, called Mr. Liu a “highly experienced and results-oriented financial official,” but said he would “find himself in a challenging position,” like his predecessor.
”Over and time again the regulators have struggled to meet some of the difficult tasks — modernizing securities markets, engineering rising equity prices, while protecting investors and ensuring market stability,” Mr. Hu said in an email.
While Mr. Liu has little experience with markets, he does have connections. In the mid-1990s, he worked the state-owned China Construction Bank. The bank, at the time, was was headed by Wang Qishan, who is now overseeing the anticorruption campaign as one of seven members of the Communist Party’s ruling Politburo Standing Committee.
“He’s definitely not a bold reformer,” Mr. Shih said of Mr. Liu.
The new securities chief may be in an impossible position, expected to control inherently uncontrollable markets and take the blame if the efforts fail. The push by Mr. Xi’s government to assert state control over the markets and the economy go against the philosophy of China’s early reformers under Deng Xiaoping, the paramount leader who sought to give more space to the market.
“The approach that they took toward the stock market is telling me that they are not willing to let go control,” Yasheng Huang, a professor of political economy and international Management at M.I.T., said of China’s current leaders in a December interview.
One former Chinese financial official, who requested anonymity so he could freely discuss personnel issues, said Mr. Xiao, the former securities chief, might be heading to a new post to help oversee economic policy under China’s cabinet. The influential magazine Caijing also reported on Saturday that Mr. Xiao may be moving to a new government position.
The shake-up at the securities regulator is also likely to result in renewed questions about the eventual retirement of Zhou Xiaochuan, the head of China’s central bank since 2002.
When Prime Minister Li Keqiang criticized the government’s handling of financial markets at a meeting last Monday of the State Council, China’s cabinet, he cited the government’s management of the currency. The currency falls under the direct purview of the People’s Bank of China.
Mr. Zhou, 68, was widely revered as the man who spearheaded considerable financial deregulation. He also led the country’s currency, the renminbi, to recognition by the International Monetary Fund last November as one of the world’s main reserve currencies.
But Mr. Zhou’s stature suffered following an abrupt 4 percent currency devaluation last August, and continued weakness at the end of the year and into the next. The currency situation greatly alarmed financial markets. Economists and other monetary specialists around the world, including Christine Lagarde, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund, publicly called for the Chinese central bank to communicate better with financial markets.
“He would be a good scapegoat now,” said Minxin Pei, a specialist in Chinese politics at Claremont McKenna College. “Three years ago, it would have been ungrateful” for anyone to suggest that he retire.
Deere & Co. trimmed its revenue and earnings forecast for 2016 as the world's largest supplier of farming machinery continues to trudge through the worst drought in U.S. demand in 15 years.
After a strong run that began last decade for farm equipment and was aided by U.S. tax breaks for equipment, farmers have scaled back their purchases amid lower prices for corn, soybeans and other commodities. Deere's overseas sales also have been hurt by the strong dollar and by economic and political turmoil in Brazil, which had been a strong market for
Deere.
Moline, Ill.-based Deere predicted its equipment sales will fall a steeper 10% this year to more than $23 billion after previously forecasting a 7% decline. The weaker sales outlook followed fiscal first-quarter equipment sales that fell 15% from a year earlier to $4.8 billion. Analysts were looking for $4.9 billion in sales after the company forecast an 11% decline in November.
The company also shaved its net income outlook for the year to $1.3 billion from $1.4 billion previously. The revision implies per-share earnings of about $4.10, according to analysts, who on average had expected the company to earn $4.24 this year.
Deere's stock was recently trading down 4% at $77.02 a share.
Deere is trying to break its profit fall this year with margin-boosting strategies that include cutting equipment inventories and overhead costs, rising prices on equipment and increasing sales of replacement parts and services. Deere acknowledged Friday that executing the plan is becoming more difficult in the face of steep drops in farm and construction equipment. Even with an 11% reduction in first-quarter overhead, Deere's operating profit margin contracted to 7.4% in the quarter ended Jan. 31 from 10.1% a year earlier.
"Our ability to pull costs out relative to any further sales declines will be more challenging," said Tony Huegel, director of investor relations, during a call with analysts on Friday.
Its fiscal first-quarter farm machinery revenue declined 12% from a year earlier to $3.6 billion as operating income from the farm business plunged 46% to $144 million. Deere widened its forecast decline in farm equipment sales for 2016 to a 10% from an 8% decline previously.
The company left its industrywide outlook for retail sales of farm machinery in the U.S. and Canada unchanged at down between 15% and 20% compared with 2015.
Deere's construction and forestry equipment sales during the quarter fell 23% compared with the same period last year to $1.2 billion. Profit from the construction unit plunged 52% to $70 million. Deere now expects construction sales to drop 11% this year from 2015, more than double the decline it had predicted.
"Construction was worse than expected," said Lawrence De Maria, an analyst for William Blair & Co. "We give Deere credit for operating well in a challenging time, but there is little reason for optimism in the next couple of years."
Deere reported a quarterly profit of $254.4 million, or 80 cents a share, down 34% from $386.8 million, or $1.12 a share, a year earlier. Per-share results were helped by lower taxes. Total revenue, including from Deere's finance business, fell 13% to $5.53 billion.
Futures shown 5 waves down in them from Monday's high and are resting at horizontal support
