The Korea Herald

Dazzling Twitter debut sends stock soaring 73 percent

Nov 8, 2013

Shares of Twitter went on sale to the public for the first time Thursday, instantly leaping more than 70 percent above their offering price in a dazzling debut that exceeded even Wall Street's lofty hopes.By the closing bell, the social network that reinvented global communication in 140-character bursts was valued at $31 billion _ nearly as much as Yahoo Inc., an Internet icon from another era, and just below Kraft Foods, the grocery conglomerate founded more than a century ago.The stock's sizz
Google barge mystery solved

Nov 7, 2013

Firm says barge will be space for people to learn about technology
Twitter set for public stock debut on NYSE

Nov 7, 2013

NEW YORK (AP) ― Twitter’s public stock debut, set for Thursday morning on the New York Stock Exchange, has been carefully orchestrated to avoid the glitches and eventual letdown that surrounded Facebook’s initial public offering 18 months ago. Twitter set a price of $26 per share for its initial public offering on Wednesday evening and will begin trading Thursday under the ticker symbol “TWTR” in the most highly anticipated IPO since its Silicon Valley rival’s 2012 debut. The price values Twitte
China’s leaders to meet on economic reform

Nov 7, 2013

BEIJING (AFP) ― China’s new leadership holds a key meeting this weekend that state media are trumpeting as a likely “watershed” for economic reform, but analysts caution details of its decisions are likely to be vague and implementation gradual.The four-day session of the full 376-strong Communist Party standing committee begins Saturday at a closely-guarded private hotel in Beijing.Known as the Third Plenum, it traditionally sets the economic tone for a government’s five-year term. In the past,
Investors lift Dow Jones to another record close

Nov 7, 2013

There weren't any major economic developments or blockbuster earnings. But that didn't stop investors from pushing the Dow Jones industrial average to another record Wednesday.Instead, investors focused on the big economic news yet to come this week _ third-quarter U.S. economic growth on Thursday and the October jobs report Friday. Both reports could signal how much longer the Federal Reserve will continue its $85 billion a month in bond purchases. That program has held down interest rates, kep
Apple details government data requests

Nov 6, 2013

WASHINGTON (AFP) ― Apple on Tuesday released details of government requests for its data while protesting a “gag order” that limits what can be disclosed about U.S. national security orders.The iPhone and iPad maker followed the lead of other U.S. tech giants and released its first report on requests from governments around the world.Most of the requests involve criminal investigations into “robberies and other crimes or requests from law enforcement officers searching for missing persons or chi
China seeks global role for yuan

Nov 6, 2013

BEIJING (AFP) ― With deals from London to Singapore, China is seeking a greater role for its yuan currency in global markets to challenge the hegemony of the almighty dollar.The most attention-grabbing reform planned for Shanghai’s new free trade zone is free convertibility of the yuan ― also known as the renminbi, or “people’s money” ― an unprecedented change which would allow greater use of the currency.But no timetable has been specified, and a true contest between Mao Zedong, Communist China
Rosengren: Fed may keep rate near zero until 2016

Nov 6, 2013

The Federal Reserve will probably keep its main interest rate “quite low for quite some time,” possibly until 2016, amid languid economic growth, Boston Fed President Eric Rosengren said. “You could easily imagine if we have relatively slow growth in the overall economy, even though it picks up from where we are now, that it could be 2016,” Rosengren, who votes on monetary policy this year, said Tuesday on CNBC television. “You’d certainly need to have growth 3 percent or faster if you’d want t
EU expects weak recovery to leave joblessness high

Nov 6, 2013

BRUSSELS (AP) ― Europe’s economy will continue to recover through next year, but at a subdued pace that will leave unemployment near record highs, the European Commission said Tuesday. The Commission, the EU’s executive arm, said rising business confidence and strengthening domestic demand are expected to underpin the recovery as governments also slow the pace of austerity measures such as spending cuts and tax increases. “There are increasing signs that the European economy has reached a turnin
BlackBerry abandons sale, CEO quits

Nov 5, 2013

Fairfax gives up on buyout plan, instead invests $1 billion
Twitter hikes IPO price, could raise up to $2b

Nov 5, 2013

NEW YORK (AFP) ― Twitter boosted its public stock offering to as much as $2 billion Monday, suggesting strong demand for its shares and a higher overall value for the one-to-many messaging platform.The regulatory filing raises the share price for the popular messaging platform to a range of $23 to $25 from an earlier estimate of $17 to $20.The new share price range would give Twitter a market value between $12.76 billion and $13.87 billion.The higher value “says a lot about the success of the co
Gross loses world’s largest mutual fund title to Vanguard

Nov 5, 2013

Bill Gross no longer runs the world’s largest mutual fund. Gross’s Pimco Total Return Fund has shrunk by $37.5 billion since the start of this year, ending last month with $247.9 billion in assets, according to data provided by Pacific Investment Management Co. in Newport Beach, California, and compiled by Bloomberg. The Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund ended October with $251 billion, Vanguard Group Inc. spokesman John Woerth wrote in an email, taking the top spot. Investors are pulling m
Bank of Japan struggles to convince on 2%

Nov 5, 2013

Half a year after Bank of Japan Gov. Haruhiko Kuroda unleashed record monetary easing, economists see the bank failing to meet its inflation target, underscoring the case for stronger steps to revive the economy. While the median estimate of BOJ board members released last week showed the bank expects consumer prices to rise 1.9 percent in the 2015 fiscal year ― in line with a 2-percent-in-two-years goal laid out in April ― just two of 34 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News see the target met in
China to start summit with recovery

Nov 4, 2013

China’s Communist Party leaders will enter a policy-making summit this week with the economy on an upswing, services and manufacturing surveys show. A non-manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index rose to the highest level this year in October, a government report showed Sunday. The increase follows faster-than-estimated growth in two manufacturing indexes last week. Signs of sustained strength in the world’s second-largest economy may give President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang more confide
Blackstone purchases 40% stake in China mall owner

Nov 4, 2013

Blackstone Group LP, the world’s biggest manager of alternative assets including private equity and real estate, agreed to buy a 40 percent stake in Chinese shopping mall developer and operator SCP Co.ICBC International Holdings, a Hong Kong unit of China’s largest bank, also agreed to buy a 6 percent stake in Shenzhen- based SCP, taking its total asset values to more than $2 billion, according to a joint emailed statement Monday. New York-based Blackstone did not disclose the dollar amount of i