Briefing.com Intraday Commentary

[BRIEFING.COM] Sellers claimed control of the stock market for the second straight session, pushing the S&P 500 2.3% lower Friday. That left stocks down 0.7% for the week.

Stocks actually began the session with a gain after investors reacted positively to a better-than-feared GDP report. However, a closer look at the data revealed conditions are hardly sound. According to the latest data, the U.S. economy contracted at an annualized rate of 3.8% during the fourth quarter, marking the steepest drop in economic activity since 1982. The decline was less severe than the 5.5% drop that was expected, but that was largely due to an unexpected increase in inventories. Consumer spending, which accounts for roughly 70% of economic activity, remains weak as consumption expenditures dropped at a 3.5% annual rate.

Obama congratulates Iraq for peaceful polls

(RTTNews) - U.S. president Barack Obama congratulated Iraq for holding a largely peaceful vote for provincial councils across the country and called the elections an "important step forward".

Obama said the U.S. is "proud to have provided technical assistance, along with the United Nations and other international organizations, to Iraq's Independent High Electoral Commission, which performed professionally under difficult circumstances."

Voting in the provincial elections ended peacefully amid brisk turnout on Saturday evening. Preliminary results from the electoral commission are expected within five days, while the final numbers are due at the end of February.

Sunnis, who boycotted the January 2005 elections, turned out in force. More than 14,000 candidates were running for just 440 seats on 14 provincial councils. The first nationwide vote in four years is seen as a test of stability before a general election due later this year.

Anti-government rallies staged across Russia as economic woes intensify

(RTTNews) - Thousands of people held anti-government rallies across Russia to protest the government's economic course and its handling of the financial crisis

In Far East cities, including Vladivostok and Khabarovsk, several thousand people hit the streets waving banners with slogans like "The crisis is in the heads of the authorities, not in the economy." They demanded the resignation of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's government over growing economic problems and accused authorities of suppressing dissent.

In Moscow, Russian police reportedly detained more than 40 people during one protest alone. Meanwhile, government supporters also held their rallies across the country.

Russia has been hit hard by the international economic crisis following year of economic boom amid record high oil prices. However, with the economy in deep trouble, ordinary Russians have been increasingly concerned about what the future might hold as unemployment and the prices of basic food and utilities have risen rapidly.

BOND REPORT: Treasurys Rally After GDP Shrinks Most Since 1982

By Deborah Levine

Treasurys advanced Friday, pushing yields lower, after the worst quarterly contraction in the U.S. economy since 1982 sent investors seeking the safety of government debt.

Yields on two-year notes (UST2YR), which move inversely to the price, fell 3 basis points to 0.93%. A basis point is 0.01%.

Ten-year note yields (UST10Y) declined 2 basis points to 2.84%.

The fourth quarter's 3.8% annualized decline in gross domestic product would have been worse except the government counts an unwanted buildup of goods in stores as growth, even if no one is buying it.

Economists surveyed by MarketWatch expected GDP to contract 5.5% in the three months ended in December.

"This is nothing to get excited about," said Kevin Flanagan, fixed-income strategist at Morgan Stanley Global Wealth Management. "This will serve as a drag in the first quarter. You can't dismiss the facts of where the economy is and that's going to cap rates."

The report's inflation measure excluding food and energy, closely watched by the Federal Reserve, rose 0.6% in the quarter.

LATIN AMERICAN MARKETS: CORRECT: Mexico, Brazil Stumble As U.S. Economic Picture Dims

By Carla Mozee

Four sessions of consecutive advances by Latin American equities came to an end Thursday as investors sifted through another round of poor economic data from the U.S. and took gains off the table.

Mexico's IPC fell 3% to 19,537.05, zapping its 2.7% rise on Wednesday.

Brazil's Bovespa fell 1.5% to 39,638.42, a day after a 3.9% surge.

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) dropped 2.7% and the S& P 500 Index (SPX) fell 3.3%.

Regional stocks were hammered as their U.S. counterparts suffered from fresh layoff announcements. Coffee retailer Starbucks Corp. (SBUX) and Eastman Kodak Corp. (EK) were among the companies that said they will cut thousands of jobs in a bid to reduce costs to help offset the impact of the economic recession.

Softbank May Raise Spending 11% for Network Expansion

Summary (6/30/2007) Softbank Corp., which owns Japan’s third-largest mobile-phone company, plans to boost capital spending at least 11 percent this year to expand its network and catch up with bigger rivals NTT DoCoMo Inc. and KDDI Corp. The company will raise spending to about 432.9 billion yen ($3.5 billion) in the 12 months ending March 2008, from 389.8 billion yen a year earlier, Tokyo-based Softbank said in a financial statement submitted to the Ministry of Finance on June 22. The mobile-phone unit will increase spending at least 26 percent to about 387.9 billion yen, according to the document.Chief Executive Officer Masayoshi Son failed to meet his network expansion plans last fiscal year. By the end of March, Softbank had 29,404 base stations, which transmit mobile-phone signals, missing the company’s own target and trailing DoCoMo’s number of stations by 36 percent. (Bloomberg) http://www.mobilemediajapan.com/

Moving the Market

[BRIEFING.COM] Market participants spent the session focusing on word the government may be close to creating a "bad bank" that will purchase risky assets from existing banks. Divesting risky assets would help banks protect against further asset write-downs, and increase cash on their books. That would help limit the need to raise additional capital, which can be dilutive to shareholders.

Helping financial companies restore their health is largely seen as the first step in repairing the financial system and the broader economy. The financial sector responded by gaining 13%, leading the broader market more than 3% higher.

Wells Fargo (WFC 21.19, +5.00) provided the most support to the financial sector and the broader market. It gained 31%, marking its best single-session performance in months. Wells Fargo won kudos after announcing it is maintaining its dividend, and has no plans to ask for additional TARP capital. Wells Fargo reported a loss of $0.79 per share including items, but a profit of $0.41 per share after excluding the items. The consensus called for earnings of $0.33 per share.

Public trusts business, CEOs, less than ever

Edelman's latest business Trust Barometer finds that corporations and their CEOs have lost considerable credibility with the public in recent months.

The company, a large public relations firm, has put out the Trust Barometer for ten years, with this year's survey including the opinions of 4,475 college-educated people who regularly follow current events, or "informed publics."

According to the findings, 62 percent of respondents say that they trust corporations less than they did a year ago, while only 17 percent said that they trust information provided by a company CEO. The poll found that 38 percent say they trust business to do the right thing, down 20 percent from last year's survey. Also, the poll showed only 13 percent who trust corporate or product advertising, breaking last year's record low of 20 percent.

Venture capital investments down in '08

Venture capital investments were mostly down in 2008, although a couple of categories continued to see growth.

In the latest MoneyTree Report by PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association, overall venture capital investments were down eight percent from 2007, while fourth quarter of 2008 investments were at their lowest point since early 2005.

"As we emerge from an extremely difficult year, the venture capital industry is holding
its own and taking steps to adjust to the new reality," Mark Heesen, president of the
NVCA, said in a statement.

Aims and Scope

Recent advances in wireless technology have led to mobile computing, a new dimension in data communication and processing. Many predict a new emerging, gigantic market with millions of mobile users carrying small, battery-powered terminals equipped with wireless connection, and as a result, the way people use information resources is predicted to be radically transformed. The International Journal of Mobile Information Systems (IJMIS) presents visionary concepts and stimulating ideas in mobile information systems at both the theory and application levels. The objectives of the journal are to be a source for mobile information systems research and development, and to serve as an outlet for facilitating communication and networking among mobile information systems researchers, practitioners, and professionals across academics, government, industry and students. The journal is published multiple times a year, with the purpose of providing a forum for state-of-the-art development and research, as well as current innovative activities in mobile information systems. The main goal will be to provide timely dissemination of information.
http://www.iospress.nl/loadtop/load.php?isbn=1574017x

Phone Information

The phone information pages cover many of the phones produced but will not always be up to date with the latest phones due to the large number released. The primary aim of the phone information pages is to offer an archive of information after the phone manufacturers replace a phone and remove it's information from their website. If there are any phones that we have missed let us know and we'll try and get the information and add it.

BOND REPORT: Treasurys Decline As Stimulus Package Grows

By Deborah Levine

Treasurys declined Wednesday, pushing yields up, as the size of the government's stimulus package grew to nearly $900 billion.

Ten-year note yields (UST10Y) rose 2 basis points to 2.56%. A basis point is 0.01%.

A larger spending plan leads to more debt issuance, making investors demand higher yields.

President Barack Obama's stimulus proposal may be voted on by the House of Representatives later Wednesday.

Reports that the government is moving closer to creating a "bad bank" to buy up toxic assets that have wreaked havoc on the global financial system is also reducing investors' desire for the relative safety of U.S. debt.

Wells Fargo Posts $2.55 Billion Loss; Wachovia's Loss $11 Billion

DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC) swung to a fourth-quarter loss on a $5.6 billion credit reserve on slumping loan quality.

The company also reported that Wachovia, the struggling bank it bought Dec. 31 and didn't include in its bottom line, lost $11 billion in the period.

Wells Fargo agreed in October to acquire Wachovia days after federal regulators brokered a deal for the struggling bank to be acquired by Citigroup Inc. (C).

Wachovia has been weighed down by surging credit losses, notably related to its purchase several years ago of California-based mortgage lender Golden West. That saddled Wachovia with more-exotic loans that have been going bad fast as the housing market continues to deflate.

NY Times' 4Q Net Down 48%; May Sell New England Sports Stake

DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

New York Times Co.'s (NYT) fourth-quarter net income plummeted 48% as weak online advertising sales added to its print-advertising woes.

The publisher of The New York Times and The Boston Globe also said it is exploring a sale of its 18% stake in New England Sports Ventures LLC, owner of baseball's Boston Red Sox and Fenway Park as well as 80% of New England Sports Network. It bought the stake in 2002 and is considering a sale as the cash- strapped company looks to raise capital.

It also warned that crumbling equity markets have "adversely" affected the status of its pension plans, leaving it underfunded by an estimated $625 million. It said it will have to fund the deficiency over seven years, assuming harsh conditions continue.

That is not good news for a company already grappling to restructure debt and cut costs in efforts to boost its liquidity. New York Times got a $250 million cash infusion earlier this month from Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim and is nearing a deal to raise as much as $225 million from a sale-leaseback of its share of its midtown Manhattan headquarters.

BOND REPORT: Treasurys Under Pressure Ahead Of Fed Meeting

By Deborah Levine

Treasurys were little changed on Wednesday, recovering from earlier losses as the size of the government's stimulus package grew to nearly $900 billion.

Traders are also focused on what the Federal Reserve will say when the central bank ends its policy meeting later on.

Yields on the two-year note (UST2YR), which move inversely to the price, rose 1 basis point to 0.88%. A basis point is 0.01%.

Ten-year note yields (UST10Y) were little changed at 2.53%.

A larger spending plan leads to more debt issuance, making investors demand higher yields.

President Barack Obama's stimulus proposal may be voted on by the House of Representatives later Wednesday.

SIM card

In addition to the battery, GSM cellphones require a small microchip, called a Subscriber Identity Module or SIM Card, to function. Approximately the size of a small postage stamp, the SIM Card is usually placed underneath the battery in the rear of the unit, and (when properly activated) stores the phone's configuration data, and information about the phone itself, such as which calling plan the subscriber is using. When the subscriber removes the SIM Card, it can be re-inserted into another phone and used as normal.
Each SIM Card is activated by use of a unique numerical identifier; once activated, the identifier is locked down and the card is permanently locked in to the activating network. For this reason, most retailers refuse to accept the return of an activated SIM Card.
Those cell phones that do not use a SIM Card have the data programmed in to their memory. This data is accessed by using a special digit sequence to access the "NAM" as in "Name" or number programming menu. From here, one can add information such as a new number for your phone, new Service Provider numbers, new emergency numbers, change their Authentication Key or A-Key code, and update their Preferred Roaming List or PRL. However, to prevent someone from accidentally disabling their phone or removing it from the network, the Service Provider puts a lock on this data called a Master Subsidiary Lock or MSL.
The MSL also ensures that the Service Provider gets payment for the phone that was purchased or "leased". For example, the Motorola RAZR V9C costs upwards of CAD $500. You can get one for approximately $200, depending on the carrier. The difference is paid by the customer in the form of a monthly bill. If the carrier did not use a MSL, then they may lose the $300–$400 difference that is paid in the monthly bill, since some customers would cancel their service and take the phone to another carrier.
The MSL applies to the SIM only so once the contract has been completed the MSL still applies to the SIM. The phone however, is also initially locked by the manufacturer into the Service Providers MSL. This lock may be disabled so that the phone can use other Service Providers SIM cards. Most phones purchased outside the US are unlocked phones because there are numerous Service Providers in close proximity to one another or have overlapping coverage. The cost to unlock a phone varies but is usually very cheap and is sometimes provided by independant phone vendors.
Having an unlocked phone is extremely useful for travelers due to the high cost of using the MSL Service Providers access when outside the normal coverage areas. It can cost sometimes up to 10 times as much to use a locked phone overseas as in the normal service area, even with discounted rates.
For example, in Jamaica, an AT&T subscriber might pay in excess of US$1.65 per minute for discounted international service while a B-Mobile (Jamaican) customer would pay US$0.20 per minute for the same international service. Some Service Providers focus sales on international sales while others focus on regional sales. For example, the same B-Mobile customer might pay more for local calls but less for international calls than a subscriber to the Jamaican national phone C&W (Cable & Wireless) company. These rate differences are mainly due to currency variations because SIM purchases are made in the local currency. In the US, this type of service competition does not exist because some of the major Service Providers do not offer Pay-As-You-Go services. [Needs Pay-As-You-Go references, rumored T-Mobile,Verizon provide one, AT&T does not as of 12/2008]

Car phone

A type of telephone permanently mounted in a vehicle, these often have more powerful transmitters, an external antenna and loudspeaker for handsfree use. They usually connect to the same networks as regular mobile phones.

Culture and customs

Between the 1980s and the 2000s, the mobile phone has gone from being an expensive item used by the business elite to a pervasive, personal communications tool for the general population. In most countries, mobile phones outnumber land-line phones, with fixed landlines numbering 1.3 billion but mobile subscriptions 3.3 billion at the end of 2007.
In many markets from Japan and South Korea , to Scandinavia, to Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan and Hong Kong, most children age 8-9 have mobile phones and the new accounts are now opened for customers aged 6 and 7. Where mostly parents tend to give hand-me-down used phones to their youngest children, in Japan already new cameraphones are on the market whose target age group is under 10 years of age, introduced by KDDI in February 2007. The USA also lags on this measure, as in the US so far, about half of all children have mobile phones.[14] In many young adults' households it has supplanted the land-line phone. Mobile phone usage is banned in some countries, such as North Korea and restricted in some other countries such as Burma.[15]
Given the high levels of societal mobile phone service penetration, it is a key means for people to communicate with each other. The SMS feature spawned the "texting" sub-culture amongst younger users. In December 1993, the first person-to-person SMS text message was transmitted in Finland. Currently, texting is the most widely used data service; 1.8 billion users generated $80 billion of revenue in 2006 (source ITU). Many phones offer Instant Messenger services for simple, easy texting. Mobile phones have Internet service (e.g. NTT DoCoMo's i-mode), offering text messaging via e-mail in Japan, South Korea, China, and India. Most mobile internet access is much different from computer access, featuring alerts, weather data, e-mail, search engines, instant messages, and game and music downloading; most mobile internet access is hurried and short.
The mobile phone can be a fashion totem custom-decorated to reflect the owner's personality.[16] This aspect of the mobile telephony business is, in itself, an industry, e.g. ringtone sales amounted to $3.5 billion in 2005.[17]

The use of a mobile phone is prohibited in some train company carriages
Mobile phone use can be an important matter of social discourtesy: phones ringing during funerals or weddings; in toilets, cinemas and theatres. Some book shops, libraries, bathrooms, cinemas, doctors' offices and places of worship prohibit their use, so that other patrons will not be disturbed by conversations. Some facilities install signal-jamming equipment to prevent their use, although in many countries, including the US, such equipment is illegal. Some new auditoriums have installed wire mesh in the walls to make a Faraday cage, which prevents signal penetration without violating signal jamming laws.[citation needed]
Trains, particularly those involving long-distance services, often offer a "quiet carriage" where phone use is prohibited, much like the designated non-smoking carriage of the past. In the UK however many users tend to ignore this as it is rarely enforced, especially if the other carriages are crowded and they have no choice but to go in the "quiet carriage".[citation needed] In Japan, it is generally considered impolite to talk using a phone on any train -- e-mailing is generally the mode of mobile communication. Mobile phone usage on local public transport is also increasingly seen as a nuisance; the city of Graz, for instance, has mandated a total ban of mobile phones on its tram and bus network in 2008 (though texting and emailing is still allowed).[18][19]
Mobile phone use on aircraft is starting to be allowed with several airlines already offering the ability to use phones during flights. Mobile phone use during flights used to be prohibited and many airlines still claim in their in-plane announcements that this prohibition is due to possible interference with aircraft radio communications. Shut-off mobile phones do not interfere with aircraft avionics; the concern is partially based on the crash of Crossair Flight 498. The recommendation why phones should not be used during take-off and landing, even on planes that allow calls or messaging, is so that passengers pay attention to the crew for any possible accident situations, as most airplane accidents happen on take-off and landing.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_phone

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_phoneOverview

According to internal memos, American Telephone & Telegraph discussed developing a wireless phone in 1915, but were afraid deployment of the technology could undermine its monopoly on wired service in the U.S.[2]
Japan's first commercial mobile phone service was launched by NTT in 1978. By November 2007, the total number of mobile phone subscriptions in the world had reached 3.3 billion, or half of the human population (although some users have multiple subscriptions, or inactive subscriptions), which also makes the mobile phone the most widely spread technology and the most common electronic device in the world.[3]
The first mobile phone to enable internet connectivity and wireless email, the Nokia Communicator, was released in 1996, creating a new category of multi-use devices called smartphones. In 1999 the first mobile internet service was launched by NTT DoCoMo in Japan under the i-Mode service. By 2007 over 798 million people around the world accessed the internet or equivalent mobile internet services such as WAP and i-Mode at least occasionally using a mobile phone rather than a personal computer.
As of 2007, more than a billion mobile phones are sold each year, including over 100,000 smart-phones.[4]

Mobile phone radiation and health

Since the introduction of mobile phones, concerns (both scientific and public) have been raised about the potential health impacts from regular use.[26] But by 2008, American mobile phones transmitted and received more text messages than phone calls.[27] Numerous studies have reported no significant relationship between mobile phone use and health, but the effect of mobile phone usage on health continues to be an area of public concern.
For example, at the request of some of their customers, Verizon created usage controls that meter service and can switch phones off, so that children could get some sleep.[27] There have also been attempts to limit use by persons operating moving trains or automobiles, coaches when writing to potential players on their teams, and movie theater audiences.[27] By one measure, nearly 40% of automobile drivers aged 16 to 30 years old text while driving, and by another, 40% of teenagers said they could text blindfolded.[27]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_phone

Mobile phone

A mobile phone (also known as a wireless phone, cell phone, or cellular telephone[1]) is a long-range, electronic device used for mobile voice or data communication over a network of specialized base stations known as cell sites. In addition to the standard voice function of a mobile phone, telephone, current mobile phones may support many additional services, and accessories, such as SMS for text messaging, email, packet switching for access to the Internet, gaming, Bluetooth, infrared, camera with video recorder and MMS for sending and receiving photos and video, MP3 player, radio and GPS. Most current mobile phones connect to a cellular network of base stations (cell sites), which is in turn interconnected to the public switched telephone network (PSTN) (the exception is satellite phones).http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_phone

History of mobile phones

In 1908, U.S. Patent 887,357 for a wireless telephone was issued in to Nathan B. Stubblefield of Murray, Kentucky. He applied this patent to "cave radio" telephones and not directly to cellular telephony as the term is currently understood.[51] Cells for mobile phone base stations were invented in 1947 by Bell Labs engineers at AT&T and further developed by Bell Labs during the 1960s. Radiophones have a long and varied history going back to Reginald Fessenden's invention and shore-to-ship demonstration of radio telephony, through the Second World War with military use of radio telephony links and civil services in the 1950s, while hand-held cellular radio devices have been available since 1973. A patent for the first wireless phone as we know today was issued in US Patent Number 3,449,750 to George Sweigert of Euclid, Ohio on June 10th, 1969.
In 1945, the zero generation (0G) of mobile telephones was introduced. 0G mobile phones, such as Mobile Telephone Service, were not cellular, and so did not feature "handover" from one base station to the next and reuse of radio frequency channels.[citation needed] Like other technologies of the time, it involved a single, powerful base station covering a wide area, and each telephone would effectively monopolize a channel over that whole area while in use. The concepts of frequency reuse and handoff as well as a number of other concepts that formed the basis of modern cell phone technology are first described in U.S. Patent 4,152,647 , issued May 1, 1979 to Charles A. Gladden and Martin H. Parelman, both of Las Vegas, Nevada and assigned by them to the United States Government.
This is the first embodiment of all the concepts that formed the basis of the next major step in mobile telephony, the Analog cellular telephone. Concepts covered in this patent (cited in at least 34 other patents) also were later extended to several satellite communication systems. Later updating of the cellular system to a digital system credits this patent.
Martin Cooper, a Motorola researcher and executive is widely considered to be the inventor of the first practical mobile phone for handheld use in a non-vehicle setting. Using a modern, if somewhat heavy portable handset, Cooper made the first call on a handheld mobile phone on April 3, 1973.[52]
The first commercial citywide cellular network was launched in Japan by NTT in 1979. Fully automatic cellular networks were first introduced in the early to mid 1980s (the 1G generation). The Nordic Mobile Telephone (NMT) system went online in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden in 1981.[53]
In 1983, Motorola DynaTAC was the first approved mobile phone by FCC in the United States. In 1984, Bell Labs developed modern commercial cellular technology (based, to a large extent, on the Gladden, Parelman Patent), which employed multiple, centrally controlled base stations (cell sites), each providing service to a small area (a cell). The cell sites would be set up such that cells partially overlapped. In a cellular system, a signal between a base station (cell site) and a terminal (phone) only need be strong enough to reach between the two, so the same channel can be used simultaneously for separate conversations in different cells.
Cellular systems required several leaps of technology, including handover, which allowed a conversation to continue as a mobile phone traveled from cell to cell. This system included variable transmission power in both the base stations and the telephones (controlled by the base stations), which allowed range and cell size to vary. As the system expanded and neared capacity, the ability to reduce transmission power allowed new cells to be added, resulting in more, smaller cells and thus more capacity. The evidence of this growth can still be seen in the many older, tall cell site towers with no antennae on the upper parts of their towers. These sites originally created large cells, and so had their antennae mounted atop high towers; the towers were designed so that as the system expanded—and cell sizes shrank—the antennae could be lowered on their original masts to reduce range.
The first "modern" network technology on digital 2G (second generation) cellular technology was launched by Radiolinja (now part of Elisa Group) in 1991 in Finland on the GSM standard which also marked the introduction of competition in mobile telecoms when Radiolinja challenged incumbent Telecom Finland (now part of TeliaSonera) who ran a 1G NMT network.
The first data services appeared on mobile phones starting with person-to-person SMS text messaging in Finland in 1993. First trial payments using a mobile phone to pay for a Coca Cola vending machine were set in Finland in 1998. The first commercial payments were mobile parking trialled in Sweden but first commercially launched in Norway in 1999. The first commercial payment system to mimick banks and credit cards was launched in the Philippines in 1999 simultaneously by mobile operators Globe and Smart. The first content sold to mobile phones was the ringing tone, first launched in 1998 in Finland. The first full internet service on mobile phones was i-Mode introduced by NTT DoCoMo in Japan in 1999.
In 2001 the first commercial launch of 3G (Third Generation) was again in Japan by NTT DoCoMo on the WCDMA standard.[54]
Until the early 1990s, most mobile phones were too large to be carried in a jacket pocket, so they were typically installed in vehicles as car phones. With the miniaturization of digital components and the development of more sophisticated batteries, mobile phones have become smaller and lighter.
With its use by Nokia as the default ringtone, The Gran Vals by Francisco Tarrega has become arguably the most recognised tune in the world.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_phone