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The Economy Index Points to Slowing Economy The Index of Leading Indicators rose 0.1 percent in June Investment Manager News MergerTalk M&A boom brings more deals, but premiums shrink Around the World China Curbs Credit China clamps down on bank lending second time in two months to slow growth Archive |
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The Economy
Index Points to Slowing Economy
(Reuters) - A key gauge of future U.S. economic growth rose slightly in June, suggesting the economy will cool further in the second half of 2006, a private research group said Thursday. The U.S. Index of Leading Indicators rose 0.1 percent in June to 138.1, just below market expectations for a 0.2 percent rise, the Conference Board said. June’s increase follows two straight months of declines. “The Leading Economic Indicators suggest that the economy could cool even more in the third and fourth quarters of the year,” Ken Goldstein, labor economist at the Conference Board, said in a statement. “The Leading Economic Indicators started to soften a year ago and, but for the interruption caused by the hurricanes and flooding and their aftermath, it has continued through June,” Goldstein said. The coincident index, a barometer of current economic activity, increased 0.2 percent in June, building on a 0.1 percent rise in May and a 0.2 percent gain in each of the four prior months, the board said.
Fed Feeling ‘Uncertainty’ on Rate Policy
Top Lawmakers Optimistic on Pension Reform
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Investment Manager News
MergerTalk
(Reuters) - Merger volume set a record in the first half of the year, but dealmakers had become more discriminating shoppers than during other deal booms. Companies now fetch less in auctions than in the past. The average premium – the difference between the takeover price and the seller’s stock price the day before news of the deal hits – hovered around 20 percent in the first half of 2006, according to research firm Dealogic. That’s down from 31 percent in the first half of 2000 – the last M&A peak. In the United States, premiums averaged 24 percent, above the 16 percent for European mergers, Dealogic said….Bankers saw several reasons for the tempered premiums, such as an increase in the use of cash rather than stock as the favored currency in acquisitions, greater discipline by buyers, rich valuations among likely takeover candidates, and media coverage of potential deals.
Comerica May Sell Munder
FASB Votes to Begin Project on Lease Accounting
Citigroup Seeks Analysts for Emerging Markets Push
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Around the World
China Curbs Credit
(Bloomberg) - China clamped down on bank lending for the second time in two months to cool an economy that surged 11.3 percent in the second quarter. The central bank will raise the amount of deposits banks need to hold as reserves by 0.5 percentage point to 8.5 percent starting on August 15, the People’s Bank of China said in a statement [Friday]. China’s government said on July 18 it would stop “unsustainable” investment in factories and real estate that threatens to fuel inflation and derail the world’s fastest growing major economy. Central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan will drain funds from lenders as a record trade surplus floods the nation with cash and strains relations with the U.S. and Europe.
UK Economy Expands at Fastest Pace in Two Years
Germany Avoids Europe Budget Fine
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