The Finance God's blog

Asia Markets: Asia markets rise, but Hong Kong shares slip

> MUMBAI (MarketWatch) — Most Asia markets rose Monday with exporters and resource firms rebounding from sharp losses, though Hong Kong and Shanghai nudged lower, with financials weak after the summit of the Group of Eight major economies over the weekend.

Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average  gained 0.3%, Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 index rose 07%, and South Korea’s Kospi  put on 0 hechcoursesor about environment.9%, with the Sydney and Seoul indexes having slumped to fresh 2012 lows on Friday.

In China, the Shanghai Composite  finished fractionally lower and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index fell 0.6%.

The performance in Asia came after the Dow Jones Industrial Average  sealed its 12th loss in 13 sessions, amid a lackluster initial public offering from Facebook Inc. , while political uncertainty in Europe also dampened sentiment.

World leaders confirmed their interest in Greece remaining in the euro zone at the G-8 meeting on Saturday, but they also stressed the need for the debt-stricken nation to uphold its financial commitments. Read more on the G8 summit.

The outcome of the summit received a lukewarm reception from some strategists, with Credit Agricole’s Mitul Kotecha saying that while G-8 leaders “made plenty of noises about combating the crisis and shifting focus towards growth, there was, as usual, little concrete news in terms of how they would do this, while the communiqué exposed disagreements.”

Hong Kong financials traded mostly lower in the wake of the summit, with London-based HSBC Holdings PLC  and Standard Chartered PLC    helping lead the retreat with losses of 1% and 2.1%, respectively.

Others financial shares followed lower, with Agricultural Bank of China Ltd.   �

Tech Stocks: Tech stocks get behind Apple’s gains

> SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Tech stocks started the week on a strong note Monday, with the likes of Apple Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Co. posting solid gains, and Yahoo Inc. getting some attention following its plans to sell back half of its stake in Alibaba Group to the Chinese e-commerce giant.

The gains in tech stocks helped give the Nasdaq Composite Index  a lift of 68 points, or 2.5%, to close up to 2,847 and put in its best day since Dec. 20, 2011. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index  rose 2.6% and the Morgan Stanley High Tech 35 Index  closed with a gain of 2.5%.

Facebook’s egg on Nasdaq’s face

Facebook's IPO should have re-established Nasdaq as the go-to market for a new crop of tech companies. Instead, it revealed shortcomings for the exchange. (Photo: Bloomberg)

Apple  flexed its muscles, rising almost $31 a share, or nearly 6%, to $561.28 as several analysts issued reports estimating the company was seeing strong iPhone sales. With Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference starting in San Francisco on June 11, speculation is growing that the company might mark the occasion by showing off the next version of the iPhone.

Among other leading tech stocks, H-P  rose 43 cents a share to $21.82, Advanced Micro Devices Inc.  rose almost 5% to $6.30 a share and hard-drive maker Western Digital Corp.  saw its shares rise by almost 4%, to end up to $35.96.

Yahoo shares managed to rise by 16 cents to close at $15.58 after the Web portal said it would sell about half of its 40% ownership stake in Alibaba back to that company.

Under terms of the deal, Yahoo will receive $7.1 billion in cash and preferred stock. The deal is also seen as making it easier for Alibaba to have an initial public stock offering, and requires the Chinese firm to either buy back one-quarter of Yahoo’s remaining stake in the company, or allow Yahoo to sell its shares when Alibaba holds an IPO.

Yahoo also said it would return most of the proceeds to its shareholders. The shares rose 16 cents to $15.58 as the market assessed the company’s deal with Alibaba. Read more about Yahoo's Alibaba deal.

Facebook Inc.  slumped on its second day of trading as a public company. Facebook shares fell $4.20, or 11%, to close at $34.03. The social-networking leader held its IPO on Friday, but its shares barely closed above their IPO pricing level of $38 at $38.23. Read more about Facebook's slump.

Other social-networking related stocks cut their earlier losses. Zynga Inc. , which had been down as much as 5%, ended the day with a loss of 7 cents a share at $7.09, and LinkedIn Corp. gave up $2.18 a share to end the day at $96.84.

Tech Stocks: Tech stocks get behind Apple’s gains

Rovio’s FB App, Angry Birds Friends, Flies Out Of Beta With Tournament Mode, New Levels & More

Well, well, well. As if you couldn’t get your fix of sling-shotting irascible fowl on every other mobile and social platform known to man, Rovio announced this morning that Angry Birds for Facebook (officially known as Angry Birds Friends) has finally done flown the coop and left the warm nest of its beta. Avian double-speak aside, what does that mean exactly?

It means that, having gone through the requisite user testing, tweaking, and multi-billion-dollar IPO-ing, Rovio’s Facebook app — with a handful of new features in tow — is finally ready for public consumption. As to those features, Angry Birds Friends brings a number of trendy social gaming features to Angry Birds, including tournament mode, new weekly levels, new ways to earn power-ups, rewards, and, of course, tons of social integration.

As Angry Birds fanatics are well aware, Rovio launched Angry Birds Friends in beta earlier this year. On top of those things I mentioned earlier, the beta version of Angry Birds Friends has also been a testing ground for Rovio to test out new business models, like offering $1 power-ups beyond pay-to-download options or the infamous Mighty Eagle.

The game’s port to Facebook likely had the social network excited, considering that Angry Birds has been a presence on Google+ and other Google products for awhile now — not to mention the fact that massively popular games like Angry Birds could mean good things for Facebook’s revenue.

But, as to Angry Birds Friends’ (what an awkward and clunky name to say aloud, by the way) new features, they’re pretty much self-explanatory, but its new tournaments feature allows users to compete with their friends on four different levels — from Monday to Sunday. The pig-popping user with the highest overall score earns a gold trophy, with silver going to second, etc, etc. And, thankfully, unlike crowns, users get to keep their trophies forever. For. Ever.

The “New Weekly Levels” refer, specifically, to those four new levels being offered in tournament mode, although Rovio hinted that it will be launching further levels every week. Third of all, there are those power-ups, which, on top of the daily rewards users can already collect, users can now earn power-ups in tournament mode. Earn three power-up bundles and you’ll receive a shiny gold trophy.

As for context, in case it wasn’t already abundantly clear, Angry Birds is popular. More than five people use it. In fact, earlier this month Rovio announced that its coven of Angry Birds apps had amassed 1 billion downloads. To date, Rovio has released the original, Angry Birds, Angry Birds Seasons, Angry Birds Rio, newer arrival Angry Birds Space, and now, what one might consider its newest arrival, Angry Birds Friends.

If you’d asked me two years ago if Angry Birds merchandising would be extremely popular, and that an Angry Birds movie would be in the works, I would have laughed at you. But, considering I’m wearing an Angry Birds t-shirt right now, eating Angry Birds cereal, and that Rovio’s 2011 earnings were about 10-times its estimated revenues from the year prior, with 30 percent coming from merchandising, well clearly I didn’t get the last laugh.

More on Angry Birds Friends in Rovio’s blog post here.

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Source: Rovio’s FB App, Angry Birds Friends, Flies Out Of Beta With Tournament Mode, New Levels & More

Tech Stocks: Nvidia, Netflix maintain tech gains at close

> SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Gains from Nvidia Corp. and Netflix Inc. highlighted trading in tech stocks Friday and helped the sector edge upward in spite of early broad-market losses that were stoked by a huge trading loss at J.P. Morgan Chase & Co environmental-engineers-laws.

Nvidia  rose 79 cents a share, or more than 6%, to close at $13.21 after the graphics chip maker reported a fiscal first-quarter profit of $60.4 million, or 10 cents a share, compared with earnings of $135.2 million, or 22 cents a share, in the same period a year ago. Revenue dipped to $924.9 million from last-year’s first quarter of sales of $962 million.

However, excluding one-time items, Nvidia would have earned 16 cents a share. Analysts surveyed by FactSet Research had forecast Nvidia to earn 10 cents a share on $916 million in sales. Nvidia also forecast second-quarter sales ahead of Wall Street analysts’ forecasts. Read more about Nvidia's results.

With Nvidia in the lead, other chip stocks advanced. Gains came from Intel Corp. , Micron Technology Inc.  and Broadcom Corp. . The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index  rose almost 1%.

FBI targets corporate espionage

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has launched a new campaign to stop foreign spies from stealing U.S. trade secrets. Photo: FBI.

Netflix shares rose almost $5, or nearly 7%, to close at $77.38. A filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission said Netflix director Jay Hoag acquired 200,000 shares of the online DVD-rental and video-streaming company. The SEC filing said Hoag’s company, Technology Crossover Ventures, acquired the shares on May 8 and 9.

The Nasdaq Composite Index  gave up almost all of its gain to close up by less than one point at 2,933. The broader market spent a good piece of the day digesting banking giant J.P. Morgan  reporting a $2 billion trading loss that the company said was the result of a trader called the “London Whale”. Read more aobut J.P. Morgan's losses.

Among other tech stocks, AVG Technologies  shares rose $1.30, or more than 10%, to close at $14.13. The Inter

New Gastroenterology and Healthcare Resources Published at...

>Mannheim, Germany (PRWEB) April 27, 2012 ScienceIndex.com is a health sciences social network established in 1998 to index the very latest news, headlines, references and resources from science journals, books and websites worldwide http://blogs.hitrss.com/progressor. The site covers news in all fields of biology, business, chemistry, engineering, geography, health, mathematics and society. In the field of Health Sciences, the site has now included the two new categories Gastroenterology and Healthcare. While the Gastroenterology category covers disorders of the stomach, intestines, and associated organs, the Healthcare category covers prevention, treatment, and management of illness by medical health professions. ScienceIndex.com's Health Sciences Category covers the effects of disease and medical treatment on the overall condition of organisms. Its eighteen subsections include Audiology, Dentistry, Dermatology, Endocrinology, Gastroenterology, Healthcare, Immunology, Medicine, Neurology, Nutrition, Oncology, Pathology, Pharmacology, Psychiatry, Psychology, Radiology, Rheumatology, and Surgery. Users can receive alerts if new content has been posted in this category by subscribing to ScienceIndex.com's Health Sciences RSS feed. ScienceIndex.com's Gastroenterology category covers disorders of the stomach, intestines, and associated organs

New Medical Manager Training Certificate for Healthcare Administration...

>Heber City, UT (PRWEB) April 27, 2012 Fast, convenient, inexpensive medical manager training for individuals seeking a medical manager position, but lack experience or a credential, is announced by Mary Lyman of MedConRx. Mary Lyman is pleased to announce that her Medical Manager Training certificate program is now available to individuals. “This training is particularly designed for those who need to earn a credential for their resume quickly, conveniently, and inexpensively,” says Ms Lyman. “The course can be completed in approximately eighty hours, is delivered entirely online, and costs a fraction of what tuition would be at a career college,” continues Ms Lyman. The Bureau of Labor Statistics in the U.S. Department of Labor reports in 2010 that the median income for medical and health services managers is $84,270 per year, or $40.52 per hour. In addition, there are over 300,000 manager jobs in this industry, and that number is projected to increase by 22% between 2010 and 2020, which is a significantly faster growth rate than all job categories. After the student completes the twenty-four modules of medical manager related topics ranging from medical office customer service to conflict resolution in the healthcare workplace, they received a certificate of completion from MedConRx Medical Office Training Center and a program description document, both of which they can include with their resume when applying for a medical administration job, or related positions. Mary explains that this is a relatively quick and low cost way of helping an individual who either works in healthcare administration and wants to pursue advancement, or knows that healthcare administration is their career objective and needs a resume builder. The MedConRx Training is based on the training Mary has developed and implemented in consulting engagements with medical facilities for many years. Her training has not been produced in an academic environment. Rather, it is based on the everyday needs and expectations of medical managers as they deploy their staff members each day to operate a successful medical practice. Mary Lyman BSN, MBA, has over 20 years experience in the healthcare industry, including over 6 years as a medical practice management consultant and trainer. Press release by: Wayne Beeson, providing an entrepreneurial business model to full service online marketing. ...

Source: New Medical Manager Training Certificate for Healthcare Administration...

7 Speed Reading™ Announces that it is ‘Never too Late’ to Start...

>New York City, New York (PRWEB) April 21, 2012 Current statistics show that over 90% of the Western world is literate. However, this doesn’t necessarily mean that everyone is frequent reader. Wanting to get everyone stuck into a good book, the creators of 7 Speed Reading™ today announce that it’s never too late to uncover the joys of literature Data aviation degrees training. “The majority of the Western world can read, but this doesn’t mean everyone is reading for pleasure. The benefits of social reading are well documented, and it is never too late to start enjoying the pleasures of it” says Marc Slater, Managing Director of eReflect, the creators of 7 Speed Reading™ - a software package that is proven to improve reading speeds. “With libraries being free, well stocked and local to most people in urban areas – there is an abundance of reading opportunity at everyone’s fingertips.” Slater and his team share some top tips for making reading a new-found pleasure: Read with family The team at 7 Speed Reading™ has spent many years actively promoting the benefits of families reading together. “The options are endless – from parents reading to their children through to entire families taking turns to read a few pages each, there is a wealth of opportunity for the family to spend some quality time together, turning pages” they say. Join a book group Often directly associated with the local library, book groups are a fun and interactive way to enjoy reading. With group members reading alone and then coming together to discuss the book in question, groups can help and support anyone who may be a little older when embarking on their literary pleasure career. Buy an e-Reader E-readers are an excellent way to always have multiple books at hand, without the bulk. Modern devices can directly connect to Wifi signals, making downloading books a breeze. With some offering top titles

Logitechs Ultrathin Keyboard Cover for new iPad trims down

A lot of people like the concept of being able to use a keyboard with their iPads but one of the problems with cases that integrate a built-in Bluetooth keyboard is they tend to be bulky.

As you can guess from the name of Logitech's new $99.99 Ultrathin Keyboard Cover for the third-generation iPad and iPad 2, the company is touting the product's new, trimmer design.

No word on the exact weight but we should get a review sample in shortly and will put it on the scale. In the meantime, here's what Logitech has to say about the new accessory:

Extra sleek and thin, the Logitech Ultrathin Keyboard Cover is a stylish, aluminum screen cover that protects your iPad screen and features a built-in keyboard that pairs through Bluetooth. It attaches securely to your iPad with a magnetic clip and its built-in stand holds your iPad at the best angle, whether typing or watching a movie. The ultra-slim keyboard cover also has an instant On/Off feature, which automatically wakes up your iPad when you open the cover, and puts it on standby when you close it.

Your iPad props up in a slot in the keyboard.

Due to their bulkiness, we haven't been all that high on keyboard cases these days, and have been suggesting that folks go with an external Bluetooth keyboard like Logitech's Logitech's Tablet Keyboard for iPad (the company also makes an Android tablet version), which earned a four-star review from CNET editor Scott Stein. But we hope this new "ultrathin" keyboard will change our minds about these types of accessories.

Here's a look at how the new Ultrathin Keyboard Cover actually works because it's hard to tell from the pictures alone:

...

Source: Logitech's Ultrathin Keyboard Cover for new iPad trims down

Want A Google Hangout But Without Google? YC-Alum Meetings.io Has A Solution For You

A startup that launched this week is vying to be the next great leap forward for the world of videoconferencing, the promising-but-still-relatively-niche service that lets groups of people in different locations hold Internet-based conversations with each other: Meetings.io, a Y-Combinator alum, has hit the market with just under $1 million in seed funding from (among others) Yuri Milner and SV Angel, and the promise of making a free group video call as easy as clicking on a link, with nothing else required http://crosscreekim.com/how-get-the-occupational-safety-degree/.

Meetings.io is the latest step in the evolution of videoconferencing services, a classic example of enterprise-focused social networking, which have always held much potential but also frustrations. Starting out as services only for the biggest enterprises that could afford expensive equipment and software, eventually videoconferencing offerings trickled down to Internet-based, mass-market products for anyone (business or consumer) to use with a connected PC or mobile device equipped with a microphone and camera.

But even so, they came with a catch: with Skype, GoTo Meetings and WebEx, you need to download software, and pay fees (as you do with Skype to enable more than a one-to-one conversation); with Google, you need to join its social network to use Hangouts. “But you may not want to do that for someone who may be only a short-term contact,” says co-founder Arend Naylor (via a Meetings.io link).

And that’s before any and all technical glitches.

These are all barriers that Meetings.io is attacking with a very simple, peer-to-peer service aimed not at early adopters and those more technically-minded, but those who need to make a group call for work and without the painful process of setting that up. The aim: “Something lightweight that works without software,” sa

Centon Makes Major Moves in SSD Game

>Aliso Viejo, CA (PRWEB) March 26, 2012 Centon Electronics, Inc. has announced the release of their SATA III 2.5 line. While SSD has become a standard specification for enthusiast PC gamers owing to its features including high-speed read/write performance and high shock resistance that can break through the performance bottleneck of PC systems, the introduction of SATA III SSDs further highlights the advantage of SSD's read/write performance. Twice as fast as the SATA II, Centon’s new line of SATA III will take full advantage of the bandwidth and provide extremely fast data transfer rates that reach as high as 400 MB/s read speed and 300 MB/s write speed. Centon‘s SSD models now address the growing market demand for fast, high density and reliable drives. The 2.5 inch form factor allows the SSD to be used in pretty much any facet. Customers can service the drive and scale the performance without having to power down the entire unit. Centon’s new SSD line utilizes a Sand Force controller that accommodates any end user’s requirements.
    SSD SATA III Interface     2Xnm Multi-Level Cell (MLC)     SandForce® 2281 Controller     99.8 x 69.63 x 9.3 mm dimensions     77g Weight     1500G shock resistant     Standard SATA Power Connector     RAID Support     Slim 2.5" Design     Storage Temperature: (°C): -40 to 85°C     Read Speed: Up to 400 MB/sec     Write Speed: Up to 300 MB/sec     MTBF: 2,000,000+ hrs     OS Compatibility: Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7, and Mac OS X     2 Year Warranty, Toll Free Tech Support, 24 Hour Forum Support ...

Source: Centon Makes Major Moves in SSD Game