| New energy bill brightens farmers' futures
The new, Congress-approved energy bill could mean bright futures for seed dealers, John Deere, and farmers across the Midwest. The bill requires better fuel efficiency for your car and increases ethanol production by six-fold - 36 billion gallons of ethanol per year by 2022.
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Panel II: Iran and the Gulf
At first glance a free trade agreement seems an odd format. Neither the GCC states nor Iran can offer each other much economically. All are energy exporters and importers of manufactured goods. There are few opportunities for synergies. For Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Bahrain, the GCC states that have large Shi'ite populations and so are terrified of Iran's rise, the deal could serve as a sort of political tribute, a kind of pledge of cooperation with the region's superpower. Such a deal might be hard to swallow for these states but open defiance could invite Iran to make more direct efforts to influence its neighbors.
Elsewhere in the GCC, Qatar, the UAE and Oman are more likely to view the FTA offer with legitimate interest. None of these states has appreciable Shi'ite interests and so all feel less threatened by Iran than the states that do.
Heard on the street: Parsvnath Developers, IFSL, F&O segment
Are you a Sai Baba devotee who also happens to be stock market investor? If yes, you may have possibly taken a fancy for Parsvnath Developers which has just bagged a contract for constructing Sai Ashram at Shirdi in Maharashtra. The counter has been in the thick of action ahead of the company's announcement on Monday.
Though the price has moved sharply, analysts feel one can not really link the rally with the latest development. They, in fact, say the market has probably been discounting the progress that the company has achieved in some of its projects — besides the Shirdi contract — an IT park in Gurgaon and pharma SEZ in Nanded.
Parsvnath Developers was the one of the top gainers, ending 8.5% up at Rs 574.2 on Monday after touching a new peak of Rs 598 intra-day.
Investors Should Step Back And Look at Shaken AIG
No wonder the stock plunged 12%. (It bounced modestly Tuesday, after Warren Buffett's public comments calmed some nerves in the insurance market). But at these panic-stricken levels, AIG looks interesting. Yes, we are in the midst of a global credit crunch and all financial stocks, including those in the more stable insurance industry, need to be viewed in that light. But you can get too caught up in the day-to-day noise on Wall Street. Sometimes it makes sense for an investor to take a step back and look at the bigger, longer term picture. AIG is one of the world's biggest insurance companies. Major investors recently include some very highly regarded money managers, including those at Growth Fund of America, Dodge & Cox, Davis Advisers and Legg Mason.
Election rout rattles Japanese investors
While gridlock continues, equities will languish," he added. The Japanese currency showed resilience in the face of Abe's election drubbing. The dollar slipped to 118.52 yen in Tokyo morning trade, down slightly from 118.60 in New York late Friday. But analysts warned of potential turbulence ahead. "Political instability and economic reform policy backlash are likely to be negative for the yen," predicted Barclays Capital analyst Toru Umemoto. If the (central) bank skips an August rate hike, it will also be negative for the yen, added Umemoto. As well as the election result, investors were unnerved by fresh losses on Wall Street where fears of a housing slump and a potential credit crunch pushed the Dow Jones index down 1.54 percent on Friday. Since taking office, Abe has appeared to focus more on constitutional and educational reform than on the economy compared with his market-friendly predecessor Junichiro Koizumi.
Grain shoots higher on USDA reports
Washington, D.C. Commodity prices shot higher today after the government reported that demand for grain is staying strong and last years corn harvest was smaller than previously thought.
The U.S. Agriculture Departments final crop report for 2007 put corn production at 13.1 billion bushels, down 1 percent from the November estimate.
Meanwhile, the government raised its estimate of how much of the corn crop will be used for livestock feed by 300 million bushels. That was the big surprise, the shocker, Don Roose, president of U.S. Commodities Inc.
The report suggests livestock farms are not reducing production despite the soaring cost of feed, he said. .
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