Wall Street rallies on upbeat data

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks hit five-year highs on Friday after jobs and manufacturing data showed the economy's sluggish recovery is still on track.

The Dow industrials hit 14,000 for the first time since mid October 2007 and the S&P hit its highest level since December that year. The S&P gained 5 percent last month, its best start to a year since 1997.

Employment grew modestly in January, with 157,000 jobs added in the month, slightly below expectations for 160,000. Still, figures for both November and December were revised upwards.

Separate reports showed the pace of growth in the U.S. manufacturing sector picked up in January to its highest level in nine months, U.S. consumer sentiment rose more than expected last month, and December construction spending came in higher than forecasts.

"All the data seems to keep pointing to a slowly, steadily improving economy," said Eric Kuby, chief investment officer at North Star Investment Management Corp in Chicago.

Market sentiment is pointing to weaker bond prices as stocks are moving up, and the economy seems to be confirming that trend, he said.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> rose 138.31 points or 1 percent, to 13,998.89, the S&P 500 <.spx> gained 12.26 points or 0.82 percent, to 1,510.37 and the Nasdaq Composite <.ixic> added 22.82 points or 0.73 percent, to 3,164.95.

With the day's gains, major averages were on track for a fifth straight week of gains. The S&P 500 is also coming off its best monthly performance since October 2011.

Corporate earnings were also in focus, with a trio of Dow components reporting profits that beat expectations.

Exxon Mobil was little changed at $89.88 after its results while Chevron added 0.7 percent to $115.97.

Drugmaker Merck & Co fell 2.9 percent to $42 after a cautious 2013 outlook.

Generic drugmaker Perrigo reported a better-than-expected second-quarter profit and its shares were up 6.2 percent at 106.75, the largest advancer on the S&P 500.

Of the 252 companies in the S&P 500 reporting earnings so far, 69 percent have exceeded expectations, according to Thomson Reuters data. That is a higher proportion than over the past four quarters and above average since 1994.

Overall, S&P 500 fourth-quarter earnings are estimated to rise 4.4 percent according to the data, up from a 1.9 percent forecast at the start of the earnings season but well below a 9.9 percent profit growth forecast on October 1.

Dell Inc gained 4.8 percent to $13.86 after sources said the company was nearing an agreement to sell itself to a buyout consortium led by its founder Michael Dell and private equity firm Silver Lake Partners.

Shares of Zoetis surged in their trading debut after the company's initial public offering was priced at $26, above the expected range. After spiking as high as $31.74, it pared its gains to trade at $30.74.

(Reporting by Rodrigo Campos; Editing by Nick Zieminski)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/p-500-posts-biggest-monthly-gain-since-october-001324077--sector.html

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Google tours the Grand Canyon's panoramas

Devin Coldewey , NBC News ? ? ? 14 hrs.

Street View is usually used to check out an address or street before you drop by, but recently,?Google has been adding picturesque and remote locations to the service. The latest to get the virtual tour treatment is the Grand Canyon, captured with a backpack-mounted panoramic camera rig.

Everyone's favorite road trip destination is not the first big departure from street photography that has come to Google's popular mapping service.?Early last year brought river and trail views from the Amazon ? then California's state parks got a thorough drive-through ? and then the?Kennedy Space Center.

The rough and extensive trails of the Grand Canyon didn't permit the Street View cars, of course, and not even Google's?trike or trolley would fit. Instead, some brave Googlers strapped the whole "Trekker"?360-degree photo setup to their backs and set out for a nice hike ? with 40 pounds of equipment on their backs.

You can't argue with the results: 9,500 panoramic images of one of the most beautiful natural environments on Earth. You can mosey along the trail at your own pace and zoom in on features you find interesting ? no need to worry about wind chill, weather, or when you need to get back to the hotel.

If you're interested, you can start where Google starts you, or just zoom in on the park and drag the Street View figure to wherever looks good. There's more information and links at the Google blog post describing the Grand Canyon update.

Want more? Google's World Wonders page links to dozens more historic sites and panoramic views.

Devin Coldewey is a contributing writer for NBC News Digital. His personal website is coldewey.cc.

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/technolog/google-street-view-tours-grand-canyons-stunning-panoramas-1B8204258

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Video: Obama administration proposes contraception rule change

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Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/newsnation/50669396/

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Report warns of U.S. state inactivity on consumer health reforms

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Only 11 of the 50 U.S. states have moved to implement new consumer safeguards under President Barack Obama's healthcare law, raising questions about how major health insurance reforms will be enforced, a report released on Friday says.

The report by the nonpartisan Commonwealth Fund found 39 states have yet to pass laws or issue regulations on seven reforms, including coverage for people with preexisting medical conditions, a ban on coverage waiting periods and limits for out-of-pocket consumer costs.

The report coincides with the start of a new legislative year for most states and comes 11 months before the reforms are scheduled to take effect under Obama's Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which is opposed by many states with Republican leadership.

The law would expand health coverage to more than 30 million people beginning on January 1, 2014, partly by creating new state-based online health insurance markets, or exchanges. These would allow families to buy private coverage at subsidized rates. Seventeen states won conditional approval to operate their own exchanges, while more than 30 have opted for an exchange run by the federal government.

The Commonwealth Fund, which focuses on ways to improve the $2.8 trillion U.S. healthcare system, said states that fail to act on key market reforms could end up lacking the authority to enforce the changes in their home insurance markets and ultimately cede control of those areas to the federal government.

Other reforms that many states have yet to address would restrict insurers from charging more according to a beneficiary's gender, age and health conditions; require coverage of 10 essential health benefits; require plans to cover at least 60 percent of costs; and stipulate that insurers accept every individual and employer that applies for coverage.

"Because insurance regulation falls to the states, states need to take action to make sure they can enforce the law and ensure their residents can fully benefit from it," Commonwealth Fund vice president Sara Collins said in a statement.

The report said that only Connecticut has passed legislation addressing all seven of the new reforms. California has done so for six of the seven. Nine states -- Arkansas, Maine, Maryland, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Utah, Vermont and Washington -- have passed laws or issued regulations covering at least one.

The 11 states cited as having taken action on insurance market reform include only nine of the 17 states that have been approved by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Resources to operate their own exchanges.

(Reporting by David Morgan; Editing by David Gregorio)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/report-warns-u-state-inactivity-consumer-health-reforms-050613101.html

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Film Society to screen Oscar-nominated short documentaries tonight ...

Film Society to screen Oscar-nominated short documentaries tonight; has nothing to do with the Super Bowl

Posted by Ken Korman on Thu, Jan 31, 2013 at 3:52 PM

A temporary respite from Super Bowl madness can be found at the Prytania theater at 7:30 p.m. tonight, Thursday, January 31, as the New Orleans Film Society sponsors a one-time screening of this year's Oscar-nominated documentary shorts. The three-hour program compiles five films made by American directors and will include a much-needed intermission.

Inocente paints a vivid portrait of a talented but homeless teenage artist at the time of her first gallery show; King's Point delivers a harrowing vision of what's it's really like to live in a seniors home in Florida; Monday's at Racine explores the meaning of physical beauty in our culture through the story of a salon that opens its doors for free to female cancer patients one day each month; Open Heart tells the story of a group of children from Rwanda as they travel 2,500 miles to the Sudan for treatment at the only free pediatric heart clinic on the entire continent of Africa; Redemption presents a series of small, personal portraits of those who survive in New York City by collecting bottles and cans.

Ticket prices at $8.50 for NOFS members and $10.50 general admission. More information here.

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Promotion

Tags: Oscar-nominated short documentaries; New Orleans Film Society, Prytania Theatre

Speaking of Oscar-nominated Short Documentaries; New Orleans Film Society, Prytania Theatre

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Australian general gets key US Army post

FORT SHAFTER, Hawaii (AP) ? Maj. Gen. Richard Burr salutes with his palm facing out, like he's shielding his eyes from the sun. He wears a wide-brimmed felt "slouch hat" with a brown and green camouflage uniform.

The two-star general in the Australian Defence Force stands out amid the American soldiers donning berets and green and beige fatigues at the U.S. Army's headquarters for the Pacific. But he's responsible for directing their training and exercises as U.S. Army Pacific's deputy commander for operations. The Army is also making Burr their liaison to New Zealand, his homeland Australia and countries in Southeast Asia.

Burr's appointment ? it's the first time a non-American has served in such a high-ranking position at a command like this? symbolizes the Army's push to connect more with allies and friendly nations in the Pacific as it implements the Obama administration's policy to "rebalance" national defense strategy toward the region.

Burr reports to Lt. Gen. Francis Wiercinski, a three-star general and U.S. Army Pacific's top commander since 2011. Wiercinski is responsible for most U.S. soldiers in the region, except those in South Korea.

Burr said his presence in Hawaii tells others the U.S. Army is open to broadening its relationships.

"I think it sends a very positive message to all countries in the region ? not just our two countries ? that stronger partnerships is really the way to go," Burr said in an interview Wednesday, one month after arriving in Hawaii for the new job. "And building from bilateral to multilateral partnerships is the key to a stronger, more stable region."

The position reflects a deepening of an already close relationship between the U.S. and Australia, two nations who fought together in World War II and whose alliance was formalized by treaty in 1951.

More recently, Australia sent troops to fight alongside the U.S. in Afghanistan and Iraq, even when those decisions were unpopular with voters at home.

Burr was among the deployed. He commanded Australian troops in Afghanistan in 2002 and during the invasion of Iraq the following year. In 2008, he commanded all coalition special forces ? including Americans ? in Afghanistan.

The 49-year-old said these experiences mean Americans know him, and know he takes the responsibility of commanding U.S. troops seriously. This helps the U.S. feel comfortable placing him in such a critical position.

"This is quite unique. You're sort of letting someone in to look in your undies drawer. You want to have trust," he said.

So far, Burr has been to Japan where he partnered with a Japanese general to run an annual U.S.-Japan exercise called Yama Sakura. Soon he'll go to Thailand to do similarly for the Cobra Gold exercise involving six nations: Thailand, the U.S., Singapore, Japan, Indonesia, South Korea and Malaysia. Australia will send an observer.

Burr said it's good to have people from different militaries work together daily so they're already used to each other when they have to respond to a natural disaster or go into combat. Nations tend to act as a multinational coalition, whether to deliver humanitarian assistance or send troops to fight, he said.

"My personal view is the more you can organize and practice that in a day-to-day sense, the better you will be at responding to those challenges, which usually happen at short notice," he said.

Ralph Cossa, president of the Pacific Forum CSIS think tank, said putting a foreign officer in the direct line of command shows "unprecedented closeness."

Denny Roy, a senior fellow at the East-West Center in Honolulu, said Australia has long partnered with major powers holding similar values ? first Britain and now the U.S. ? to influence the much more populous, sometimes dangerous, economically larger world to its north.

Burr's appointment shows Australia is firmly in the inner circle of U.S. allies. Being there helps Australia influence its partnership with the U.S. and get its voice heard. It also gives Australia access to the latest intelligence, and helps it understand how the U.S. thinks and acts.

"Australia is in," Roy said. "Australia ought to take this as a very positive vote of confidence and signal of strong partnership between the U.S. and Australia," he said.

Burr said he looks forward to taking in Hawaii's water sports during the couple of years he expects to be in Hawaii, like diving, kayaking and surfing. He's already tried stand-up paddle-boarding.

"Despite coming from Australia, I'm not a surfer. But I will be by the time I leave," he said.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/australian-general-gets-key-us-army-post-093640816.html

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"iPhone Killer" BlackBerry 10 is here: iPhone is Dead!

While the many "stoked" BlackBerry executives and supporters on hand for their big BlackBerry 10 splash today happily patted each other on their backs, I had to look to social media to find anyone calling the new Q10 and Z10 smartphones Apple iPhone killers or raising the topic, anyway.

?

Source: http://www.networkworld.com/community/blog/iphone-killer-blackberry-10-here-iphone-dead?source=nww_rss

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