Apple iPhone 5 Release Date 2012: Is Launch In June Or October? A Breakdown Of Rumors, Features and Specs [PHOTOS]

Photo: Courtesy

iPhone 5 Concept - Design by Federico Ciccarese

Federico Ciccarese's gorgeous iPhone 5 concept design. When the phone is faced down, it emphasizes its similarity to Apple's "magic mouse," which is known for its beautifully curved "teardrop" design.

Photo: Courtesy

Currency Pair Overview Dollar Strengthens On Very Light Volumes

Overall, the Asian session saw the majors losing a few pips compared to the greenback. However, the moves came on very light volume and are likely to be retested somewhere later. The European calendar is packed with releases coming from the U.K., with some likely to move the entire currency market during the European trading hours. 

The Euro (Eur/Usd) managed to close higher for the first time in the last six days of trading. The euro gained 25 pips on Tuesday, after most of the day the pair traded in a 100-pip range. However, the moment was short lived because the euro continued to decline during the Asian trading hours. 

The Pound (Gbp/Usd) traded between the 20 and the 100-day simple moving averages on Tuesday, but eventually the pair managed to break slightly above the resistance area. As it was the case with the other majors, most of the gains came during the U.S. open. In tonight’s Asian session, the pound traded side-ways above the 20-day moving average. 

The Aussie (Aud/Usd) gained 110 pips on Tuesday, retracing almost half of the declines seen during the Monday trading session. Most of the gains came during the U.S. open, after the aussie moved side-ways during the overnight trading hours. In tonight’s Asian session, the aussie bounced off the 20-day moving average and fell 35 pips. 

The Australian consumer price index came in at 0.1 percent for the March quarter 2009, which is below what economists had forecasted, but higher than the 0.3% drop in the December quarter 2008. The CPI rose 2.5% through the year to March quarter 2009, compared to an annual rise of 3.7% to December quarter 2008

The Cad (Usd/Cad) struggled to break above the 1.2420 resistance line during the overnight session. The pair broke the swing point only during the interest rate decision, when the BoC voted to reduce the interest rate by 25 basis points. However, the market quickly retraced the move, causing the cad to fall 150 pips in a very short time-span. In the Asian session, the cad gained 30 pips on almost no volume at all. 

The Swissy (Usd/Chf) traded in a small, volatile range on Tuesday. During the overnight session, the swissy remained in a 30-pip range. However, the U.S. open helped the pair break lower, but at the end of the session, the swissy was again trading near the resistance line. During tonight’s Asian session, the swissy extended the range seen on Tuesday. 

The Yen (Usd/Yen) picked up 80 pips during the Tuesday trading session, helped by the positive U.S. markets. Also on Tuesday, the pair re-tested the 200-day moving average during the late U.S. session, but the move was rejected due to the market’s light momentum at that time. The resistance area will most likely be tested again, during Wednesday’s trading. 

Photo: Courtesy

iPhone 5 Concept - Design by Federico Ciccarese

Ciccarese's iPhone 5 concept design is beautiful when you can see it, but when it's turned off, the brilliant Apple logo shines bright through the darkness. Apple should seriously consider adding this gorgeous feature.

Photo: Courtesy

Tupperware first quarter profit beats forecast

Tupperware Brands Corp on Tuesday reported a quarterly net profit above its forecast and raised its outlook for the year, sending its shares up 11.7 percent in after-hours trade.

Tupperware, which makes food storage containers that are sold at in-home parties, reported first-quarter net income of $25.6 million, or 41 cents per share, down from $32.1 million, or 51 cents per share, a year earlier.

Excluding one-time items, the company reported earnings of 45 cents per share, up 7 cents from the prior year. The results also beat the company's forecast of net earnings of 29 cents to 34 cents per share.

Revenue fell 14.8 percent to $462.8 million, Tupperware said, hurt by fluctuations in foreign currencies.

In local currency, sales rose by 1 percent over the first quarter of 2008.

Analysts had expected the company to report earnings of 34 cents a share on revenue of $459.50.

The company said it saw strong double-digit increases in its Tupperware Russia, Indonesia, Brazil and Venezuela businesses.

We continued to achieve double-digit local currency sales growth in the 49 percent of our business that came from emerging markets, with sales up 10 percent in local currency, Rick Going, chairman and chief executive said in a statement.

Looking ahead, the Orlando, Florida-based company said it expects fiscal second-quarter net earnings per share to be in the range of 62 cents to 67 cents. For the full year, the company expects net earnings between $1.90 to $2.00 per share.

Analysts on average see $1.96 per share, according to Reuters Estimates.

In after-hours trade, Tupperware shares were at $23.85, after closing at $21.36 on the New York Stock Exchange.

(Reporting by Ilaina Jonas; Editing by Gary Hill)

Photo: ADR Studio

iPhone 5 Concept - Design by Antonio De Rosa of ADR Studio

Yet another ADR iPhone 5 concept features an uneven back that gets larger towards the center and thinner towards the edges, as well as a button smack dab in the middle of the screen.

Photo: Reuters

Beware of rising interest rates and falling U.S. dollar: Gross

Bill Gross of PIMCO, manager of the world's largest bond fund, said on Bloomberg TV that investors should consider bonds denominated in non-dollar currencies that will hold their values like the Canadian dollar, Mexican peso, and the Brazilian real.

He also favors floating-rate bonds and playing credit spreads (i.e., the difference in the yields of bonds with the same maturity but with different credit quality) over investing in fixed-rate bonds.

 

Gross' recommendations stem from his concerns about rising interest rates and the decline of the U.S. dollar. These views are in turn shaped by his negative views of U.S. economic policy.

 

Gross took shots at President Obama's recent compromise with the Republicans as an example of misguided government policy. 

 

Obama's plan extended income tax cuts, put in place a payroll tax cut, and extended unemployment insurance benefits. Many prominent economists applauded the direction of this plan because it will boost the economy in the short-run, even though it will also increase the budget deficit.

 

Gross sees it in a different light. 

 

He thinks the short-term boost is just another misguided program of borrowing from the future in order to spend in the present. Framing it in the context of the jobs market, it's sending the unemployed to shopping malls and grocery stores instead of giving them jobs.

 

A better plan, according to Gross, would be investing in capital equipment and education in order to raise the long-term competitiveness of the U.S. economy; doing so will also create more jobs.

 

Obama's misguided policy is one reason Gross thinks the U.S. dollar will continue to devalue and interest rates (the borrowing cost of the U.S. government) will continue to rise.

 

The Federal Reserve's second round of quantitative easing (QE2) is another reason. 

 

Back in November, Gross called the program a Ponzi scheme and said it signaled the end of the 30-year trend of falling interest rates.

 

Email Hao Li at hao.li@ibtimes.com

 

 

Photo: Reuters

Obama: the Grand Illusionist

President Obama is smooth. He has an incomparable ability to say the correct thing and then doing the exact opposite. For instance, he says the United States cannot continue the boom bust cycle of economic activity and must repent from its proclivity to engender GDP growth off the back of building asset bubbles. He also contends that George W. Bush was disingenuously hiding the size of the true deficit by keeping certain items off budget. In those two statements he is completely correct.

However, he uses the magician’s tactic of deflection to sell his economic gimmickry. First Obama directs your attention towards his promise of removing Bush’s budget tricks and repudiating his fiscal irresponsibility, but then whips out his smoke and mirrors of trillion dollar deficits and accounting games.

Taking a closer look at how the President arrives at his rosy projection of cutting the deficit to “just” $530 billion by the end of 2013 you find he accomplishes it not by keeping expenditures off budget, like his processor, but by utilizing grossly unrealistic economic growth assumptions.

Mr. Obama assumes the contraction in GDP for 2009 will be only 1.2%. That’s a big improvement from the -6.34% annual rate drop of last quarter and far better than the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office’s (CBO) prediction of -2.2% growth for 2009. Then from there things get truly surreal. The Obama administration predicts GDP growth for 2010 will rebound to 3.2% and then increase by more than 4% for each of the next three years!

How realistic you ask is a 4% growth rate in GDP for the years 2011-2013? Well, let’s look at the past 11 years for some guidance. Starting from the beginning of 1998 thru Q4 of 2008, the average quarterly GDP growth rate was 2.17%. And the average yearly growth rate was just 2.7%. What’s truly amazing about the growth rate over the last 11 years (which was well below trend growth of 3%) is that it encompassed two of the biggest manias in the history of the United States—the equity bubble of the late 90’s and real estate bubble in the middle of this decade. You see, once you know the trick it’s easy. If you want to make deficits appear smaller, just pretend growth will be higher than what should be responsibly expected. Then simply bury your growth expectations in the fine print.

Perhaps part of Obama’s magical act of producing well above trend GDP growth will be to conjure up another asset bubble that equals or rivals that of the previous two. But the sad truth is that whether you use Obama’s overly optimistic projections or that of the CBO’s, deficits as a percentage of GDP will eclipse 100% of total output by 2019 (a record outside the years just after the end of WWll). But during the post war era we controlled the entire world’s manufacturing base and were not facing that wave of entitlement spending which looms straight ahead. Which means the consequences of such an onerous debt will be far dire than what was experienced 65 years ago.

When the veil of illusion is dropped the truth behind what this administration will produce is revealed. Record debt, lack luster growth and robust inflation will be the products of runaway spending and increased government intrusion into the free market. Barack Obama wants you to believe he is a fiscal conservative and that he is providing honesty and transparency in the government. The Administration’s trick is to make opacity appear as transparency and mendacity to appear as truth. But their performance is best viewed through gold (not rose) colored glasses.

Photo: Reuters

UK Inflation At One-Year Low; Retail Prices Drop For First Time Since 1960

Consumer price inflation in the UK fell to its lowest level in an year in March, while retail prices dropped for the first time since 1960.

Annual inflation in March eased to 2.9% from 3.2% in February, a report from the Office for National Statistics showed Tuesday. The annual rate came in line with economists' expectations and reached the lowest since March 2008.

Consumer prices rose 0.2% in March from February as expected by economists. In the previous month, prices were up 0.9%.

The largest downward contribution to the change in the CPI annual rate came from housing and household services. Prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages as well as transport cost also had a downward effect on the annual change in the CPI. At the same time, upward contribution came from recreation and culture category and clothing and footwear.

Excluding food, energy, alcoholic beverages and tobacco, core inflation came in at 1.7% compared to 1.6% in the previous month. March's inflation was the highest since November 2008.

The ONS said the retail price index stood at 211.3, slightly down from 211.4 in February. On a monthly basis, retail prices remained flat in March.

From the previous year, retail prices dropped 0.4% in March, after staying flat in February. The annual rate turned negative for the first time since March 1960. However, prices fell by a less than expected 0.5%.

Housing cost led by depreciation and mortgage interest payments pulled down the annual rate of the RPI. The effect from mortgage interest payments follows February's half percentage point cut in the key interest rate to 1%.

RPIX inflation that excludes mortgage interest payments was 2.2% in March, down from 2.5% in February.

The above target inflation in February had forced the Bank of England Governor Mervyn King to write another open letter to the Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling. King expects sharp decline in CPI inflation, since its peak in September, to resume in the coming months.

King said it is likely that over the next year CPI inflation will move below target, although the profile of inflation could be volatile, reflecting the reversal of the temporary change in VAT on CPI inflation.

The central bank had held the interest rate at 0.5% on April 9. The interest rate now stands at the lowest level since the central bank was established in 1694.

Economist at Commerzbank, Peter Dixon said the inflation rate came below the upper limit of the central bank's target band for the first time since March 2008. Looking forward, the CPI is expected to remain broadly flat over the coming six months, which ought to be sufficient to drive the inflation rate close to zero by late summer.

But Dixon said this would possibly be a temporary phenomenon as the rate starts to pick up again later this year. The economist expects inflation to remain comfortably above 1%, which ought to quash any residual deflation concerns.

Yesterday, British media reports said Darling is expected to announce a reduction of GBP 15 billion in Whitehall spending in the budget statement on April 22. He is also set to downwardly revise the GDP forecast for the British economy.

The Confederation of British Industry on Monday forecast a slow and fragile recovery in the UK with growth resuming only in the spring of 2010. The industry lobby said the recession deepened more than expected in the first quarter of this year, but it is forecast to moderate in the second half of the year. The CBI revised down its GDP forecast for 2009 to a 3.9% contraction compared to an earlier estimate of a 3.3% GDP decline.

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