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Wal-Mart Stores tops 4Q profit expectations, misses revenue forecasts
By ANNE D'INNOCENZIO
BENTONVILLE, Ark. (AP) - Wal-Mart Stores Inc. reported a 12 percent increase in profit for the fourth quarter as sale for the critical holiday shopping season perked up amid lower gas prices and an improving economy.
The world's largest retailer also announced that it was spending more than a $1 billion this year on a package of initiatives that will increase pay and enhance training for its 1.3 million U.S. workers.
That includes a pay raise for 40 percent of its U.S. workers, about 500,000 people, in the next six months.
As part of the changes, the company is increasing its starting pay to at least $9 an hour in April, and $10 an hour by early February of next year.
But the company said those moves would hurt profits in the short run as it offered a profit outlook below analysts' expectations.Shares of Wal-Mart fell on the reduced profit outlook.
Still, Wal-Mart's results during the holiday quarter were an improvement after the Bentonville, Arkansas-based company has struggled with two years of either declining sales or no growth for a key sales figure.
Sales at stores open at least a year, considered a key indicator of a retailer's health, rose 1.5 percent at Wal-Mart stores, which make up 60 percent of the company's sales. That's a big jump from the 0.5 percent increase that it had in the previous quarter. The holiday quarter marked the first positive quarter since the third quarter of fiscal 2013."
Clearly, our sales benefited from customers having more spending power due to lower gas prices in most of our large markets," said CEO Doug McMillon, according to a transcript of a conference call.
Wal-Mart is a barometer of consumer spending, and its challenges reflect the struggles of its low-income shoppers, who are being squeezed by stagnant wages and reduced government food stamps. But lower gas prices and an improving job picture appear to be finally making low-income shoppers spend a little more.
"We have work to do to grow the business," McMillon said in a statement. "We know what customers want from a shopping experience, and we're investing strategically to exceed their expectations and better position Wal-Mart for the future."
McMillon told The Associated Press in an interview earlier this week that it hopes that by investing more in its workers it will have a better customer experience and hopefully shoppers will spend more.
Expert: Oil Price Wars Fatally Wounded the Petrodollar
"For the first time, too, we see the end of the petro-dollar as a system for recirculating oil revenues to Wall Street."
"The fall in the price of oil has suddenly created huge financial turbulence, which is endangering the global financial system."
Alastair Crooke is a former MI6 official, the director and founder of Beirut-based Conflicts Forum and formerly adviser on Middle East to EU Foreign Policy Chief Javier Solana.
This is an excerpt from an interview that originally appeared in Today's Zaman (Turkish English-language daily)
Crooke, who was in Turkey for the İstanbul Forum, has answered our questions in this regard including the question as to where Turkey stands in the world.
Would you tell us about your ideas in regards to the "financialization of the global order"?
For some time, the international order was structured around the United Nations and the corpus of international law, but more and more the West has tended to bypass the UN as an institution designed to maintain the international order, and instead relies on economic sanctions to pressure some countries.
We have a dollar-based financial system, and through instrumentalizing America's position as controller of all dollar transactions, the US has been able to bypass the old tools of diplomacy and the UN -- in order to further its aims.
But increasingly, this monopoly over the reserve currency has become the unilateral tool of the United States -- displacing multilateral action at the UN.
The US claims jurisdiction over any dollar-denominated transaction that takes place anywhere in the world. And most business and trading transactions in the world are denominated in dollars.
This essentially constitutes the financialization of the global order: The International Order depends more on control by the US Treasury and Federal Reserve than on the UN as before.
When did this start?
It started principally with Iran and it has been developed subsequently. In a book, "Treasury's War," the tool of exclusion from the dollar-denominated global financial system is described as a "neutron bomb." When a country is to be isolated, a "scarlet letter" is issued by the US Treasury that asserts that such-and-such bank is somehow suspected of being linked to a terrorist movement -- or of being involved in money laundering. The author of "Treasury's War" [Juan Zarate], who was the chief architect of modern financial warfare and a former senior Treasury and White House official, says this scarlet letter constitutes a more potent bomb than any military weapon.
This system of reliance on dollar hegemony no longer requires American dependency on the UN and hands control to the US Treasury overseen by Steve Cohen -- a reflection of the fact that the military tools have become less available to the US administration, for domestic political reasons.
But with Ukraine, we have entered a new era: We have a substantial, geostrategic conflict taking place, but it's effectively a geo-financial war between the US and Russia. We have the collapse in the oil prices; we have the currency wars; we have the contrived "shorting" -- selling short -- of the ruble. We have a geo-financial war, and what we are seeing as a consequence of this geo-financial war is that first of all, it has brought about a close alliance between Russia and China.
China understands that Russia constitutes the first domino; if Russia is to fall, China will be next. These two states are together moving to create a parallel financial system, disentangled from the Western financial system. It includes replicating SWIFT [Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication] and creating entities such as the Asian Development Bank. One of the principal tools in the hands of Washington to control the global system was always the International Monetary Fund [IMF].
Nations have to go to the IMF to ask for financial help, when in difficulties, but recently it was China -- and not the IMF -- which bailed out Venezuela, Argentina and Russia as their currencies crashed. China became concerned when the ruble crashed on Dec. 16-17, and intervened to halt a run on the currency. The IMF and the World Bank were no longer at the center of the global financial order. They had been displaced by China.
What would you say about the prospects of success of this new order?
It is too early to say that it will be successful, but it is a very important shift that is taking place. It has already started to have an effect. Take Russia: European and American leaders thought that Russia would weaken because of sanctions and the fall of the ruble, but China intervened and stopped the collapse in the ruble. In short, China is operating as a backstop to a financial system that is in the process of shifting dramatically away from Western control. And it affects the Middle East.
Why does it affect the Middle East?
Because the consequences of these oil and currency wars are influencing other countries -- many energy producers in the Middle East and elsewhere and emerging markets have seen their currencies crash as the dollar gets stronger. There is a huge move of capital out of emerging markets and out of Middle Eastern states whose currencies consequently have been adversely affected. For the first time, too, we see the end of the petro-dollar as a system for recirculating oil revenues to Wall Street.
For the first time, it has turned negative: It is sucking liquidity out from Wall Street, not putting it in. The fall in the price of oil has suddenly created huge financial turbulence, which is endangering the global financial system.
Why has the oil price dropped?
There was a decision by Saudi Arabia to reduce the price of oil for two reasons: to hurt Iran and to put pressure on Russia to change its stance and drop its support for President [Bashar al-]Assad. The Saudi determination to get rid of Assad remains extremely strong in Riyadh. They only reduced output by 100,000 barrels a day in the first month, and then it started an avalanche: The market had been artificially inflated by the oil companies lending crude oil to financial investors who want a hedge against inflation and currency fluctuations.
Investors were borrowing physical oil, which made them feel safe, and knew that the oil companies would eventually repurchase the physical oil from them in due time. With the fall of the price of oil, all of this purely investment demand vanished, and the price dropped further. One sees something similar in the gold market, where only 10 percent of gold transactions involve the transfer of ownership of actual gold. The other 90 percent are simply paper bets on the price of gold, but which never result in the purchase or sale of actual gold.
This answers my question when I was reading about Jack Lew...our treasury secretary telling Greece they better take the deal.......
Construction starts on new homes fell 2% in January, data released Wednesday by the U.S. Commerce Department shows.
Housing starts (groundbreakings) dropped to a seasonally adjusted, annual rate of 1.065 million, below December's downwardly revised estimate of 1.087 million.
January's numbers kept up a strong trend in multi-family housing, with builders continuing to bet that the demand for these units will remain strong. Starts on buildings with five or more units rose in January, to 381,000, above December's revised estimate of 340,000. At the same time, single-family housing starts decreased slightly, falling from December's revised 727,000 to a (seasonally adjusted, annual) rate of 678,000.
Builder confidence in the market for newly-constructed, single-family homes dropped by two points in February to a level of 55, according to the latest National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index, released Tuesday. A reading of 50 or higher means that more builders rate conditions are good than poor, and the measure has now hit that mark for eight straight months.
The number of building permits issued fell slightly in January, to a (seasonally adjusted, annual) rate of 1.053 million, 0.7% down from December's 1.06 million. That level was still 8.1% above the pace one year earlier. Single-family permits stood at 654,000 in January, 3.1% below December, while buildings with five units or more hit a permit rate of 372,000 in January, up from 360,000 the month before.
As West Coast port dispute slows trade, US labor secretary urges sides to quickly reach a deal
By JUSTIN PRITCHARD
(AP:LOS ANGELES) LOS ANGELES (AP) - The nation's top labor official is bringing a clear message to dockworkers and their employers amid a contract dispute that has crippled international trade through West Coast seaports:
Reach a deal - and fast.U.S. Labor Secretary Thomas Perez held what his office characterized as "positive and productive meetings" Tuesday with both the dockworkers union and the maritime association representing companies that own, load and unload massive ships laden with U.S. exports and imports from Asia.
It was his first full day in San Francisco, which is home to both the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and Pacific Maritime Association, representing shipping lines that carry cargo and port terminal operators that handle it once ships dock. Perez renewed his efforts Wednesday, with political and economic pressure rising to get a contract and free cargo bottlenecks at 29 ports that handle about $1 trillion of trade annually.
As contract talks have stalled, so too has the flow of trade. Dozens of ships are anchored off Southern California, in San Francisco Bay and in Washington's Puget Sound. They are waiting for dock space that is taking weeks to free up due to employers locking out workers or work slowdowns alleged by the companies.
The two sides already have reached tentative agreements on key issues including health benefits and what jobs the union can retain in the future.
And their wage proposals are not far apart. Under the prior contract, which expired in July, average wages exceed $50 an hour, according to the maritime association."
Spokesmen for the union and maritime association declined to comment, citing a media blackout.
The issue that brought talks to a stalemate is whether to change the system for arbitrating allegations of work slowdowns, discrimination and other conflicts.
The union is pushing changes that would let either side dismiss an arbitrator when the contract expires, typically after six years. Both sides would then have to agree on a replacement. Motivating the demand is a desire to replace the arbitrator who handles grievances in Los Angeles and Long Beach.
The maritime association wants to keep the current system, under which arbitrators effectively have lifetime appointments. The association has argued that reappointment pressure might cause arbitrators to sacrifice their independence because of worries they might offend one side and jeopardize their future.
According to the Employee Benefits Research Institute, in 1991, just 11% of workers expected to retire after age 65. That jumped to 33% last year. Another 10%, don't plan to retire at all.
Meanwhile, the percentage of workers who expect to be able to retire before age 65 has dropped dramatically, from 50% in 1991 to just 27% last year.
Still, there are many who refuse to remain idle as they age. It's a choice.
The number of energy jobs cut globally have climbed well above 100,000 as once-bustling oil hubs in Scotland, Australia and Brazil, among other countries, empty out, according to Swift Worldwide Resources, a staffing firm with offices across the world.
Tens of thousands of workers who migrated to oil and gas boomtowns worldwide in the years of $100-a-barrel crude, While much of the focus on layoffs has centered on the U.S., where the shale fields that created the glut have seen the steepest cutbacks, workers in oil-related businesses across the globe are suffering, he said.
Job Insecurity
"The issue is one of uncertainty, of whether there's a job out there," Read said in a phone interview. "For seven years, there was a shortage of staff. Now for the first time, there's a surplus. Currently almost no one is hiring."
The outlook isn't brightening. Citigroup Inc. said oil could drop to "the $20 range" by April as oversupplies build. U.S. crude rose 2.6 percent to $50.10 at 10:18 a.m. in New York.
Libyan oil output plunges amid renewed violence there.
Transocean's CEO steps down as the company slashes its dividend by 80%, to 60 cents a share from $3 previously. The company was associated with the fire and explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig in 2010.
Cleveland Federal Reserve president Loretta Mester says a June rate hike is a "viable option."Income inequality is historically high, but it has actually not risen since the financial crisis began.
Robert Shiller - the guy who predicted the housing bust and won the Nobel prize - looks at stocks vs. their long-term earnings. By that measure, they're expensive now.
Looks like good news for the neighbors of so-called "zombie properties" that have been abandoned by homeowners in foreclosure.
New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman plans to introduce legislation this session that would force banks and other mortgage lenders to maintain the vacant properties while they are in foreclosure. The banks would face fines for noncompliance.
The bill would also require lenders to tell homeowners that they can stay in their homes until ordered out by a judge. Often homeowners abandon the house as soon as they get a notice of foreclosure, leaving behind unkempt lawns, fallen tree limbs, broken windows and other signs of disrepair.
State lawmakers failed to enact a similar law last year.
Called the Abandoned Property Neighborhood Relief Act, the proposed bill would also create a registry of these vacant properties to help municipalities enforce local laws regarding property maintenance. Any fines imposed under the law would go into a fund to help municipalities hire more code-enforcement officers.
Statewide, the problem of zombie properties has increased nearly 50 percent in 2014 compared to 2013, Schneiderman said. There were about 16,700 zombie foreclosures across the state last year.
Nationally, New York comes in behind Florida and New Jersey with the third-highest number of zombie properties, according to RealtyTrac.
"The greater New York metro area had by far the highest number of zombie foreclosures of any metropolitan statistical area nationwide, with 19,177 - 17 percent of all properties in foreclosure and up 73 percent from a year ago," according to RealtyTrac's first-quarter Zombie Foreclosure Report.
Hackers steal up to $1 billion from banks
Cybersecurity firm says international hacking ring steals up to $1 billion from banks
By Mae Anderson, AP Technology Writer
NEW YORK (AP) -- A report from a cybersecurity firm says an international hacking ring has stolen up to $1 billion from banks around the globe in what would be one of the biggest banking breaches known.
The hackers have been active since at least the end of 2013 and infiltrated more than 100 banks in 30 countries, according to Russian security company Kaspersky Lab.
After gaining access to banks' computers through phishing schemes and other methods, they lurk for months to learn the banks' systems. Then the hackers have programmed ATMs to dispense money at specific times or set up fake accounts and transferred money into them.
Most of the targets have been in Russia and Eastern Europe. But Kaspersky says banks in the U.S., Asia and elsewhere in Europe were also targeted.
Three weeks ago a LaRouche organizer spoke to Jack Matlock, the former Reagan era Ambassador to the Soviet Union about our Schiller Institute petition, and at that time, he was not so concerned about the danger of nuclear war between the USA and Russia. But yesterday, on the heels of the US plan to arm and train the Ukrainian Nazis, Ambassador Matlock warned a Washington, DC, audience of exactly that danger in the current US policy toward Russia! https://larouchepac.com/20150213/jack-matlock-lambastes-us-policy-toward-russia. Let's awaken our fellow citizens to the reality that it is the financial breakdown and economic collapse that is driving the war policy, and that if Americans act with courage and dignity, as we have seen recently in Greece, then yes, indeed, Obama can be dumped, the war can be stopped, and we can rebuild the world. Join us- humanity depends on it. Contribute generously, sign the petition, hold a house meeting, kick your Congressman's behind, and, as LaRouche will tell you - operate with a future orientation! Thank you, Susan 703-297-8379
From a Fragile Peace Agreement to a New Renaissance?
With the ceasefire agreement reached yesterday between Putin, Hollande, Poroshenko, and Merkel, the real question remains: Will Europe and the world plunge into general war, or will a genuine alternative be achieved?
What drove this extremely fragile agreement was the recognition by some in Europe that the world was on the cusp of a world war. The issue is war or no war. Clearly, the French are breaking out of the war momentum, and some in Germany are shaky, but aligning with the French. One way or the other, the outcome of war or no war will shape a whole new process globally.
What is far too often ignored is the fact that the entire drive for war is because London and Wall Street are in a panic over the bankruptcy of their entire system. There is nothing that can be done to save that Empire system, but we are at the point where that system is either replaced altogether, or we plunge into general war or general chaos. That is the nature of the moment. The bankruptcy of the London/Wall Street system is the key to everything.
The Saudis are an extension of that British Empire System, and the chaos and dark age genocide we are seeing in the Middle East is just an extension of what the British and Wall Street have in store for the entire planet, unless they are stopped. As we can see in the stonewalling against debt forgiveness for the Greek people, who have been subjected to horrible suffering, these people would rather destroy the planet than lose their system and lose their power.
The Minsk agreement is in jeopardy of being sabotaged and turned into a trigger for general war, so long as Nuland and her Nazi legions remain on the scene and in power in Kiev. Obama is a just a patsy for the British, but under these circumstances, the patsy factor is significant. Obama, under the influence of people like Nazi Nuland, can be the trigger for a total war. There is strong evidence that Nuland is a Nazi, and she must be thrown out as part of any sane war-prevention effort. This is no time to evade the obvious truth.
So far, within the United States, the voices of opposition to war have been largely suppressed or confined to the edges. This pattern was breached significantly yesterday with a speech to 200 dignitaries at the National Press Club by former U.S. Ambassador to the Soviet Union Jack Matlock attacking the policy of the West, and specifically Obama, toward Russia over Ukraine. Matlock, and the moderator of the event, Ambassador Chas Freeman, also broached the overriding reality--the danger of nuclear war.
The fight in Europe over the future of the British Empire, ostensibly centered on Greece and the demands for a continuation of the Troika austerity genocide, is going to blow back big into the United States, because of Wall Street's ties to the entire London bankrupt system. The Republican Party is going to be hit very hard because of their undying loyalty to Wall Street. Anyone believing that the British System will survive on the basis of either kicking Greece out of the euro, or forcing Greece to bend to the Troika, is insane. It is the entire system that is bankrupt beyond repair. Either there is a total orderly shutdown of Wall Street and London, or we have war or chaos. Wall Street is in jeopardy and that extends to the GOP.
The Empire System is collapsing, and the danger is a plunge into chaos, as we saw in Europe during the Dark Age.
A complete change is needed, on the model of how Europe changed with the actions of Joan of Arc and the emergence of the Cusa Council of Florence. Cusa created the basis for Kepler and Leibniz. If you take up Vernadsky's concept of the noosphere and the absolute distinction between mankind and animals, and work your way back to Kepler, you have the foundations for the kinds of changes in thinking that are required to survive this onrushing crisis for mankind.
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