Airbnb NYC rentals 60 percent illegal, state A.G. says

The majority of Airbnb Inc. rentals recently offered in New York City appeared to be illegal, the state Attorney General's Office said amid a probe of whether the home-sharing service is complying with the law and collecting taxes.

More than 60 percent of the 19,522 listings available through the service in the city as of Jan. 31 offered rental of an "entire apartment" for periods of less than 30 days, according to an affidavit the office said it filed Monday with a state court in Albany.

Under New York law, residents can rent only part of homes they are sharing, not the entire property, for a period of less than 30 days, according to the Attorney General's Office.

Used in Philadelphia and throughout the world, Airbnb has been challenging a probe by New York into whether property managers or brokers have been using the service to skirt the law and avoid collecting or paying lodging taxes.

The San Francisco-based online service, said to have been valued at $10 billion in a financing deal with TPG Capital, said on its website Sunday that a subpoena by the attorney general for company records has "demanded personal information about thousands of New Yorkers."

The company said it would oppose the attorney general's request in arguments Tuesday in Albany after failing to resolve the dispute through negotiations. This month, the company said it favored changes to state law that would allow it to collect more than $21 million in taxes.

"Taking on an attorney general who is determined to fight innovation and attack regular people isn't easy and we won't succeed without standing together," David Hantman, the company's head of global policy, said on the website. "We'll do everything we can to keep you informed about this case and our work to fix the bad law that made it possible."

In a statement Monday, a spokesman for Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, Matt Mittenthal, said that Airbnb had resorted to "name-calling and public relations to confuse the issue."

"Airbnb is simply looking out for its bottom line at the expense of a law that protects quality of life for building residents and safety for tourists," he said.

Source:

www.philly.com

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Alibaba’s IPO likely to be on US market

NEW YORK —Alibaba Group, China’s online commerce giant, confirmed Sunday that it plans to begin the process of becoming a public company in the United States.

In a post on its corporate blog, the company said it aims to be listed on a US stock market to become “a more global company.”

The blog post highlights that the company is on its way toward setting up its long-awaited initial public offering, one that could set records as the biggest ever. Among China’s burgeoning contingent of Internet titans, Alibaba is unique — part eBay, part Google, part PayPal.

Its IPO could eventually raise more than the $16 billion Facebook reaped in its public debut nearly two years ago. Analysts speculate that the company could fetch a valuation well north of $130 billion.

The offering is expected to make some of Alibaba’s executives extremely wealthy, including Jack Ma, the former English teacher who founded the company in 1999.

Alibaba’s offering has drawn virtually all of Wall Street, as banks have regularly courted top officials such as Ma and Joseph Tsai, a former American corporate lawyer who now serves as the company’s executive vice chairman.

According to a person briefed on the matter, the company plans to work with at least five major banks on its planned offering: Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, and Morgan Stanley. Citigroup is also expected to play a role, the person added.

The blog post also shows that the company has snubbed its hometown exchange, the Hong Kong stock exchange. The Asian market’s operator has refused to bless Alibaba’s partnership structure, in which a group of insiders will maintain control of the board despite owning a minority of shares overall; the Hong Kong exchange’s rules prohibit dual classes of shares and other arrangements that give shareholders more than one vote per share.

Alibaba said that, at some point, it might be open to a dual listing that includes China.

“We wish to thank those in Hong Kong who have supported Alibaba Group,” the company said. “We respect the viewpoints and policies of Hong Kong and will continue to pay close attention to and support the process of innovation and development of Hong Kong.”

News Source: www.bostonglobe.com

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S&P 500 ends at record on jobless data

New York - US stocks mostly rose on Thursday, with the S&P 500 closing at yet another record on better-than-expected jobless claims data and the European Central Bank's move to keep rates unchanged.

But the overall sentiment was cautious ahead of Friday's all-important US nonfarm payrolls report and tensions between Ukraine and Russia.

The CBOE Volatility Index or VIX, Wall Street's so-called fear gauge, ended up 2.3 percent at 14.21.The VIX generally moves inversely to the performance of the S&P 500 and is often used to hedge against a market decline.

Trading volume was also lower than average, with about 6.4 billion shares traded on US exchanges, according to data from BATS Global Markets, below the daily average of about 7 billion in the past month.

“We had a bit of a selloff in midday session and late afternoon, but the fact the S&P 500 managed to set another record shows how much resistance this market has to geopolitical overhang that is clearly not over, resistance to bad news,” said Tim Ghriskey, chief investment officer of Solaris Asset Management in Bedford Hills, New York.

Thursday's milestone marked the S&P 500's fourth record closing high over the past six sessions.

Weekly applications for US unemployment insurance fell to 323,000, the lowest in three months, a sign of strength in a labour market that has been hobbled by severe weather. New orders for US factory goods, however, fell more than expected in January and shipments also slipped, adding to signs of a recent slowdown in manufacturing activity.

Friday's nonfarm payrolls report, due at 8.30am EST (13h30 GMT), is likely to show job growth in the United States picked up enough in February to encourage the Federal Reserve to continue scaling back its monetary stimulus. But the gain was likely to be tepid, given the unrelentingly harsh winter.

The day's biggest gainers were stocks in basic materials, financial and industrial sectors, often associated with strong economic fundamentals. The S&P basic materials index was up 0.4 percent, the S&P financial index was up 0.7 percent and the S&P industrials index was up 0.6 percent.

But the Nasdaq 100 fell 0.2 percent, led lower by Staples, which lost 15.3 percent to $11.35. The largest US office supplies retailer forecast a decline in sales. Staples also said it would close up to 225 stores in the United States and Canada by 2015.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 61.71 points or 0.38 percent, to end at 16,421.89. The S&P 500 gained 3.22 points or 0.17 percent, to finish at 1,877.03. The Nasdaq Composite dropped 5.848 points or 0.13 percent, to close at 4,352.125.

Crimea's parliament voted to join Russia and its Moscow-backed government set a referendum for 10 days' time on the decision in a dramatic escalation of the crisis in the Ukrainian Black Sea peninsula.

US President Barack Obama took steps to punish those involved in threatening Ukraine while European Union leaders agreed to suspend visa and investment talks with Russia.

An index of Moscow stocks lost more than 2 percent after the vote in Crimea, but pared the losses and closed down 1 percent. The rouble weakened 0.3 percent versus the US dollar. A US-traded Russian ETF fell 1.1 percent to $23.37.

The European Central Bank decided not to take any action at its meeting on Thursday because economic and monetary conditions had not changed enough to warrant it. The euro hit its highest level against the US dollar since late December.

Among individual stocks, Costco Wholesale dropped 2.8 percent to $113.26 after the warehouse retailer reported a bigger-than-expected 15 percent decline in quarterly profit as unusually deep discounting in the holiday shopping season hurt margins. - Reuters

News Source: www.iol.co.za

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U.S. jobless claims at three-month low

A job-seeker completes an application at a career fair held by civil rights organization National Urban League as part of its annual conference, in Philadelphia July 25, 2013.

(Reuters) - The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits fell more than expected and hit a three-month low last week, a sign of strength in a labor market that has been hobbled by severe weather.

Other data on Thursday showed a second straight month of declines in new factory orders in January, likely as harsh weather disrupted activity in some regions of the country.

Initial claims for state unemployment benefits dropped 26,000 to a seasonally adjusted 323,000, the Labor Department said on Thursday. That was the lowest level since the end of November and the drop more than unwound the prior week's rise.

"Initial claims returned to a more normal level, consistent with a healthy labor market turnover," said Yelena Shulyatyeva, an economist at BNP Paribas in New York.

Economists had forecast first-time applications for jobless benefits falling to 338,000 in the week ended March 1.

The four-week moving average for new claims, considered a better measure of underlying labor market conditions as it irons out week-to-week volatility, slipped 2,000 to 336,500.

The claims data has no bearing on Friday's employment report for February as it falls outside the reference period for the survey. While unseasonably cold weather has dampened hiring in recent months, the drop in new filings for jobless benefits suggests labor market fundamentals remain strong.

Nonfarm payrolls are forecast to have increased by 150,000 jobs in February, according to a Reuters survey of economists, up from the weather-depressed gains of 113,000 in January and 75,000 in December.

Freezing temperatures have also weighed on home building and appeared to be a drag on manufacturing as well.

In a separate report, the Commerce Department said new orders for manufactured goods declined 0.7 percent after falling 2.0 percent in December. Shipments fell for a second straight month in January.

Factory activity is also being held back as businesses place fewer orders while working through stocks of unsold goods accumulated in the second half of 2013.

Factory orders fell across most categories in January, with big declines in transportation, primary metals and electrical equipment, appliances and components. Orders for machinery also fell.

SLOWER PRODUCTIVITY

A second report from the Labor Department suggested businesses would probably need to step up hiring to maintain output, after productivity in the fourth quarter was revised down sharply.

Productivity rose at a 1.8 percent annual rate instead of the previously reported 3.2 percent pace. Productivity, which measures hourly output per worker, increased at a 3.5 percent pace in the third quarter.

"Slower productivity might push employers to boost hiring," said Jennifer Lee, a senior economist at BMO Capital Markets in Toronto.

Economists had expected fourth-quarter productivity growth would be revised down to a 2.5 percent rate. Part of the weakness in productivity reflects sluggish economic growth.

The government last week cut its estimate of fourth-quarter gross domestic product growth to an annual pace of 2.4 percent from the previously estimated 3.2 percent rate.

For all of 2013, productivity increased 0.5 percent rather than 0.6 percent. That was the smallest gain since 1993 and compared to a 1.5 percent rise in 2012.

Unit labor costs - a gauge of the labor-related cost for any given unit of output - fell at a revised 0.1 percent rate in the fourth quarter, still showing weak wage-related inflation pressures in the economy. They had previously been reported to have dropped at a 1.6 percent rate.

Unit labor costs declined at a 2.1 percent rate in the third quarter. They were up 1.1 percent in 2013, the weakest reading since 2010.

(Reporting by Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Andrea Ricci)

News Source: www.reuters.com

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Bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox files for bankruptcy, hit with lawsuit

Mt Gox, once the world's biggest bitcoin exchange, filed for bankruptcy protection in Japan on Friday, saying it may have lost nearly half a billion dollars worth of the virtual coins due to hacking into its faulty computer system.

The collapse caps a tumultuous few weeks in which the company has remained virtually silent after halting trades of the crypto-currency, shaking the nascent but burgeoning bitcoin community.

Wearing a suit instead of his customary T-shirt, Mt. Gox's French CEO Mark Karpeles bowed in contrition and apologised in Japanese at a news conference at the Tokyo District Court, blaming his firm's collapse on a "weakness in our system", but predicting that bitcoin would continue to grow.

"First of all, I'm very sorry," he said. "The bitcoin industry is healthy and it is growing. It will continue, and reducing the impact is the most important point."

Angry investors have been seeking answers for what happened to their holdings of cash and bitcoins on the unregulated Tokyo-based exchange.

Gregory Greene, who estimated his bitcoin stake at $25,000, filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in Chicago late on Thursday, saying Mt. Gox had failed "to provide its users with the level of security protection for which they paid.

Baker & McKenzie, a Chicago-based law firm that represents Mt. Gox, declined to comment. It is not yet clear if the firm is representing the exchange in this lawsuit.

Mt. Gox said the exchange, used overwhelmingly by foreigners, had lost 750,000 of its users' bitcoins and 100,000 of its own. At the current bitcoin price of about $565, that would total some $480 million - representing about 7 percent of the estimated global total of bitcoins.

"This may be telling for the level of traceability of the transactions. Bitcoin has been telling us that it is more traceable than cash. The question is, how much more and is there the potential for real recourse in the case of theft," said Moshe Cohen, assistant professor at Columbia Business School in New York.

Mt. Gox said there was a discrepancy of 2.8 billion yen in its bank accounts when it checked on Monday. Junko Suetomi,

News Source: www.financialexpress.com

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Latest airline perk: Safe distance from the masses

• Latest airline perk: Safe distance from the masses

  
  Kamran Jebreili AP

  FILE - In this Sunday, Feb. 10, 2013, file photo the first class section of an Emirates airlines Airbus A380 is ready for boarding at the new Concourse A of Dubai airport in Dubai. When Emirates Airline opened a new concourse at its home airport in Dubai last year, it made sure to keep coach passengers separate from those in business and first class. The top floor of the building is a lounge for premium passengers with direct boarding to the upstairs of Emiratesí fleet of double-decker Airbus A380s. Those in coach wait one story below and board to the lower level or the plane. (AP Photo/Kamran Jebreili) ORG XMIT: NYBZ404

NEW YORK — On flights from San Francisco to Hong Kong, first-class passengers can enjoy a Mesclun salad with king crab or a grilled USDA prime beef tenderloin, stretch out in a 3-foot-wide seat that converts to a bed and wash it all down with a pre-slumber Krug "Grande Cuvee" Brut Champagne.

Yet some of the most cherished new international first-class perks have nothing to do with meals, drinks or seats. Global airlines are increasingly rewarding wealthy fliers with something more intangible: physical distance between them and everyone else.

The idea is to provide an exclusive experience — inaccessible, even invisible, to the masses in coach. It's one way that a gap between the world's wealthiest 1 percent and everyone else has widened.

Many top-paying international passengers, having put down roughly $15,000 for a ticket, now check-in at secluded facilities and are driven in luxury cars directly to planes. Others can savor the same premier privileges by redeeming 125,000 or more frequent flier miles for a trip of a lifetime.

When Emirates Airline opened a new concourse at its home airport in Dubai last year, it made sure to keep coach passengers separate from those in business and first class. The top floor of the building is a lounge for premium passengers with direct boarding to the upstairs of Emirates' fleet of double-decker Airbus A380s. Those in coach wait one story below and board to the lower level of the plane.

London's Heathrow Airport took a private suite area designed for the royal family and heads of state and in July opened it to any passenger flying business or first class who's willing to pay an extra $2,500.

"First class has become a way for a traveler to have an almost private jet-like experience," says Henry Harteveldt, an airline analyst with Hudson Crossing. Airlines "will do everything but sing a lullaby."

The 20 percenters

There's a lot of money on the line. At big carriers like American Airlines, about 70 percent of revenue comes from the top 20 percent of its customers.

The special treatment now starts at check-in. American and United Airlines have developed private rooms, located in discrete corners of their terminals in New York, Chicago and elsewhere, that allow for a speedy check-in. Boarding passes in hand, travelers exit through hidden doors leading to the front of security lines.

Some foreign airlines have gone further.

Lufthansa offers first-class passengers a separate terminal in Frankfurt. There's a restaurant, cigar lounge and dedicated immigration officers. For those who choose to shower or take a bath, the private restrooms come with their own rubber ducky — an exclusive plastic souvenir for the international jet set. When it's time to board, passengers are driven across the tarmac to their plane in a Mercedes-Benz S-Class or Porsche Cayenne.

"That sort of exclusivity plays to the ego of people who are in a position to spend that much money on airline flight," says Tim Winship, publisher of travel advice site FrequentFlier.com.

At Heathrow's private suites, designed for up to six people, fliers pass swiftly and privately through their own immigration and security screening. While they're waiting, hors d'oeuvres and Champagne are provided. Steak, sushi or other meals can be delivered from airport restaurants. When it comes time to actually fly, passengers are driven to their plane in a BMW 7 Series sedan and escorted to their seat.

U.S. airlines have copied a bit of that touch. United started in July and Delta Air Lines in 2011 driving their top customers who have tight connections at major airports from one gate to another in luxury cars. No need to enter the terminal, let alone fight the crowd on the moving walkway.

International first class has long been distinguished by gourmet meals, wide seats and giant TVs preloaded with hundreds of movies and TV shows. But in recent years, airlines also upgraded their international business-class sections, ripping apart cabins to install chairs that convert into lay-flat beds. That left little to differentiate first class from business class.

So some airlines scrapped the ultra-premium cabin. Others have cut the number of first-class seats in half, thereby creating a more intimate experience that commands the higher price. For instance, a roundtrip flight in July between New York and Hong Kong on Cathay Pacific costs $1,600 in coach, $7,600 in business class and $19,000 in first class.

Besides privacy, that extra cash provides an outsize seat, attentive service and superior wines and liquors.

News Source: www.tulsaworld.com

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Sturm Ruger misses estimates for first time in four years

Sturm Ruger, the largest publicly traded U.S. firearms maker, reported fourth-quarter earnings that missed analysts' estimates for the first time since 2009.

Per-share profit rose to $1.33 from $1 a year earlier, the Fairfield-based company said late Tuesday without giving a net-income figure. That trailed the $1.38 average estimate of analysts in a Bloomberg survey, and the shares fell 7.9 percent to $62.99 in New York.

The results put an end to 16 quarters of beating analysts' estimates. While enthusiasts have been stockpiling guns amid concern that President Barack Obama's administration would seek tighter firearm regulations, Congress hasn't curbed access and Sturm Ruger's fourth-quarter orders fell to the lowest in 2013.

"It's the overall market weakness," said Brian Ruttenbur, a CRT Capital Group analyst in Stamford. Background checks, which can serve as a general guide to sales, have dropped by 50 percent in the last month or so, he said.

Ruttenbur rates Sturm Ruger as buy. He is among two analysts with that recommendation, while one says hold and the other says sell, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Revenue rose 28 percent in the quarter to $181.9 million, Sturm Ruger said. That beat analysts' estimates of $179 million. The firm declared a quarterly dividend of 54 cents payable March 28 for shareholders of record as of March 14.

Those payouts vary each quarter because they're based on a percentage of earnings rather than a fixed amount per share, according to a Sturm Ruger statement. The previous dividend was 58 cents a share.

News Source: www.newstimes.com

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BofA under probe over US housing program, forex

Bank of America Corp may have a new mortgage problem on its plate, saying on Tuesday that federal investigators are looking into whether the bank violated requirements of a U.S.government housing program.

The second-largest U.S. bank said the civil division of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York in Brooklyn is investigating Bank of America's compliance with the rules of the Federal Housing Administration's Direct Endorsement Program. Bank of America made the disclosure in its annual report filed on Tuesday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

(Read more: Loan complaints by homeowners rise once more)

Getty Images

Spokesmen for Bank of America and U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch declined to provide additional details on the probe.

The Charlotte, North Carolina-based bank also said in the filing that government authorities in North America, Europe and Asia are investigating the bank's conduct and practices in foreign-exchange markets as part of a broader industry inquiry.

(Read more: Bank of America details new housing probes)

The FHA program has been at thecenter of cases brought by U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, who is Lynch's counterpart in Manhattan. In 2012, Citigroup Inc agreed to pay $158.3 million and Deutsche Bank AG agreed to pay $202.3 million to settle cases, while a third case is pending against Wells Fargo & Co.

Under the program, mortgage lenders such as Bank of America are given the authority to approve home loans that the federal government then insures without further review. If the mortgage defaults and it is later determined that the lender did not follow FHA underwriting standards, the FHA can demand to be reimbursed for any losses.

JPMorgan Chase & Coagreed in early February to pay $614 million to settle claims that it defrauded the FHA and the Department of Veterans Affairs by making sub-standard mortgage loans.

In February 2012, Bank of America agreed to $1 billion in payments to the federal government to settle separate claims that its Countrywide home loan subsidiary made FHA-insured mortgages to unqualified borrowers. That settlement covered loans made before April 30, 2009.

Bank of America raised its estimate of overall litigation costs to as much as $6.1 billion above what it has already set aside, up from an estimate of $5.1 billion at the end of the third quarter, according to its SEC filing.

Getting a capital boost

The bank also disclosed in the filing an agreement with Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc that could give it an additional $2.9 billion in capital.

(Read more: Court approves BofA's $8.5B mortgage settlement)

Berkshire acquired a special class of preferred stock in Bank of America in 2011 as part of a larger $5 billion investment. Under international regulatory capital rules that U.S. regulators finalized in 2013, that preferred stock would not have counted toward the bank's capital ratios.

But in exchange for agreeing not to redeem the preferred stock for five years, Berkshire agreed to change the terms of the investment so that it counts for Tier 1 capital purposes. The new terms include a fixed annual dividend of 6 percent and the removal of a provision that would have let Berkshire receive additional payments if the bank missed a dividend.

The deal is subject to shareholder approval. An amendment will be put to a vote at the bank's annual meeting in May.

News Source: www.cnbc.com

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JPMorgan Chase cutting 8,000 jobs

NEW YORK — JPMorgan Chase plans to eliminate 8,000 jobs this year as its mortgage business shrinks and the giant bank aims to control costs at its branches.

About half of those job cuts had already been announced. JPMorgan Chase now plans to cut more jobs — about 3 percent of its workforce of 251,000 — as it tries to reduce $2 billion in consumer banking expenses by the end of 2016. But the bank said it would add about 3,000 jobs in other areas this year.

The cuts revealed Tuesday are in its mortgage and retail banking businesses. The bank cut 16,500 jobs last year in those areas.

JPMorgan’s mortgage business, like that of other big banks, is declining as fewer Americans refinance their home loans.

In November the company agreed to pay $13 billion to settle a civil inquiry into its sales of low-quality mortgage-backed securities that collapsed in value. It also announced a $4.5 billion settlement with 21 institutional investors over mortgage-backed securities issued by it and Bear Stearns between 2005 and 2008. JPMorgan acquired Bear Stearns in 2008.

News Source: www.bostonglobe.com

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