U.S. House passes Iran sanctions bill to slash oil exports

By Timothy Gardner

WASHINGTON | Thu Aug 1, 2013 9:54am BST

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The House of Representatives easily passed a bill on Wednesday to tighten sanctions on Iran, showing a strong message to Tehran over its disputed nuclear program days before President-elect Hassan Rouhani is sworn in.

The vote also highlighted a growing divide between Congress and the Obama administration on Iran policy ahead of international talks on the nuclear program in coming months. Iran insists the nuclear program is purely for civilian purposes.

The bill, which passed 400 to 20, would cut Iran's oil exports by another 1 million barrels per day over a year to near zero, in an attempt to reduce the flow of funds to the nuclear program. It is the first sanctions bill to put a number on exactly how much Iran's oil exports would be cut.

The legislation provides for heavy penalties for buyers who do not find alternative supplies, limits Iran's access to funds in overseas accounts and penalizes countries trading with Iran in other industrial sectors.

Existing U.S. and EU measures have already reduced Iran's oil exports by more than half from pre-sanction levels of about 2.2 million barrels per day (bpd), costing Tehran billions of dollars in lost revenue a month.

Most of the OPEC member's exports head to Asia, where the United States has worked with Iran's top four customers China, India, Japan and South Korea to push them towards alternative suppliers. The four have cut purchases from Iran by more than a fifth in the first half of this year, over and above the reductions made last year.

CHINA

The success of any toughening of the sanctions will depend on China, Iran's top customer, which has repeatedly said it opposes unilateral sanctions outside the purview of the United Nations, such as those imposed by the United States.

The country reduced oil purchases from the Middle Eastern nation by 21 percent last year, but that was partly on account of differences in the first quarter over the renewal terms of annual contracts and shipping delays.

Chinese officials have said refiners are likely to cut shipments 5-10 percent this year from last. They cut imports 2 percent in the first six months of the year.

"I don't think the Chinese government will give in to this kind of pressure," said an official with a Chinese refinery that processes Iranian crude. "There is no chance that Iranian supplies would come to a halt."

For now, relatively steady oil prices have allowed the efforts to continue, but analysts say further sanctions risk pushing up prices and damaging the economies of U.S. allies.

"This is almost like an embargo on Iranian oil imports. It is like giving Iran an ultimatum," a Seoul-based refining source said, after the vote. "I think we can find alternatives but we prefer Iranian crude as the economics are better. If very little Iranian crude is available, overall oil prices would rise."

The bill still has to be passed in the Senate and signed by President Barack Obama before becoming law. The Senate Banking Committee is expected to introduce a similar measure in September, though it is uncertain whether the language to cut exports by 1 million barrels a day will survive.

Critics of the bill said it shows an aggressive signal to Iran that last month voted in Rouhani, a cleric many see as more moderate. He will be sworn in on Sunday.

NO HIGHER PRIORITY

Rep. Ed Royce, a California Republican and Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee who introduced the bill with Rep. Eliot Engel, a New York Democrat, said the United States has no higher national security priority than preventing a nuclear-armed Iran.

Royce said the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's drive to develop a nuclear arsenal was evident. "New president or not, I am convinced that Iran's Supreme Leader intends to continue on this path," he said.

The vote showed a growing disagreement between the White House and Congress on Iran policy. A senior administration official said on Wednesday the White House is not opposed to new sanctions in principle, but wants to give Rouhani a chance.

The Treasury Department last week partially eased sanctions on Iran by expanding a list of medical devices that can be exported there without special permission.

One of the 20 lawmakers to vote against the bill, Jim McDermott, a Washington-state Democrat, said shortly before the vote that the rush to sanction Iran before Rouhani takes office could hurt efforts to deflate the nuclear issue.

"It's a dangerous sign to send and it limits our ability to find a diplomatic solution to nuclear arms in Iran," McDermott said.

A supporter of harsher sanctions disagreed.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei "doesn't see our flexibility and good faith efforts as a sign of good intentions, he sees it as a sign of weakness," said Mark Dubowitz, the head of Foundation of Defense of Democracies, an advocate of sanctions.

"If anything, it's only going to be massively intensified sanctions that get him to blink."

But Trita Parsi, the president of the National Iranian American council, said the House action undermines the U.S. strategy which has long been one of good cop - bad cop.

The White House has taken a softer stance toward Iran's nuclear program and Congress has taken a tougher one. But now there are signs that the good cop cannot control the bad cop, he said.

"The impression on the Iranian side is not that it's good cop bad cop, but complete chaos and mayhem," Parsi said.

'TOO MUCH'

The bill also further denies Iran's government access to foreign currency reserves, and targets Iranian efforts to circumvent international sanctions against its shipping business.

"I think it's too much. Asian countries don't have much oil resources and they need to import a lot from the Middle East," said a trader with a North Asian buyer of Iranian crude. "If the United States keeps pushing further, it would be a big burden for Asian refineries."

While the bill has more steps to clear before becoming law, other buyers, apart from China, have already begun voicing their inability to reduce dependence on Iranian oil much further.

"Cuts in our imports from Iran have been the maximum as compared to other Asian countries," an Indian industry executive said. "At this moment there is no scope for further reduction."

India cut its Iranian oil imports by 43 percent over the first half of the year. That's more than the 27 percent cut by South Korea and 22.5 percent by Japan.

Turkey would also struggle to cut its crude oil imports from Iran any further, a Turkish official said.

(Additional reporting by Warren Strobel, Meeyoung Cho in Seoul, Florence Tan and Manash Goswami in Singapore, Nidhi Verma in New Delhi, Orhan Coskun and Humeyra Pamuk in Ankara; Editing by Philip Barbara, Ron Popeski and Tom Hogue)

Source: http://feeds.reuters.com/~r/Reuters/UKTopNews/~3/5Vg0t_3RjLE/story01.htm

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Protesters to Congress: Get moving on immigration

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Forty-one pro-immigrant activists were arrested outside the Capitol Thursday after blocking traffic while pushing for passage of comprehensive immigration legislation.

Among the activists were leaders from a range of immigration groups and unions including the United Farm Workers and AFL-CIO.

After marching by the Capitol, the activists joined hands and sat down on Independence Avenue, a major street that runs through the congressional complex, displaying a banner demanding "Immigration Reform Now!"

Police officers handcuffed them and led them away. Capitol Police said in a statement that the activists were being processed on charges of blocking passage.

The march came as Congress prepares to leave Washington for a five-week summer recess without House action on immigration legislation. Advocates promised that Thursday's action was a taste of things to come as they aim to keep up the pressure throughout August on the House's GOP majority.

"When you want policymakers to see the light, sometimes you've got to raise the heat, and that's what we're doing today," said Frank Sharry, executive director of America's Voice, who was among those arrested.

Several Democratic lawmakers joined the marchers but did not participate in the civil disobedience. Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz., promised: "What is happening today is going to be repeated around the country."

Numerous chants and signs displayed by protesters sought to direct political pressure at the House GOP. "GOP, do you want our vote?" asked one banner. "Republicans, remember, we're voting in November," protesters chanted.

Immigration legislation is in limbo in the House after the Democratic-controlled Senate passed a far-reaching bill in June that included billions for border security, new workplace enforcement requirements, a revamped legal immigration system and a path to citizenship for the estimated 11 million immigrants living in the country illegally.

Many House Republicans are opposed to granting citizenship to people who crossed the border illegally or overstayed their visas to be in this country. GOP leaders have rejected the Senate-passed bill and said that the House will proceed with narrow, single-issue bills, starting with border security.

But that process may not begin until October, and it's uncertain whether the House will ever get to the point of entering negotiations with the Senate on final legislation that could get to President Barack Obama's desk.

Advocates believe the August recess could be critical in marshaling public opinion in favor of an immigration overhaul, and various groups on the side of reform ? from business to labor to evangelicals ? are making plans to reach dozens of House Republicans in their home districts. Those opposed also intend to make their voices heard, although their coalition is smaller.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/protesters-congress-moving-immigration-182814093.html

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Enormous 33 pound mushroom found in China

By The Christian Science Monitor
Wednesday, July 31, 2013 7:17 EDT

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheRawStory/~3/L_3kOpnMs4I/

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Trade Fight Over Solar Benefits a Bystander

[unable to retrieve full-text content]A U.S. tariff ruling against China created a loophole that has benefited Taiwanese manufacturers.

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/31/business/global/solar-trade-dispute-leaves-taiwan-the-clear-winner.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

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Insight: For nuns and analysts alike, bank commodity earnings are a mystery

By Cezary Podkul

NEW YORK (Reuters) - When the Reverend Seamus Finn got an email from Goldman Sachs last week, the giant Wall Street bank was addressing an issue that was already on his mind.

"We were getting ready to go back to them and talk to them about commodities anyway," said Finn, who heads up faith-consistent investing for the Missionary Oblates, a Washington DC-based Catholic group that owns Goldman shares.

Driven by a determination to invest in a socially conscious way, Finn's group has been concerned about banks' commodities activities since 2008, when a spike in energy and agricultural products caused food riots in Africa. The issue is whether banks' trading activities artificially drive up food prices.

The pre-emptive message from Goldman, sent ahead of last week's Senate hearing on banks' commodity activities, asserted that the firm's investments in physical assets such as aluminum warehouses do not drive up prices. But it left unanswered many of Finn's questions about what the bank is doing in the sector.

(Goldman moved on Wednesday to address criticism of its Metro International metals business, announcing it would offer customers immediate access to stored aluminum.

The statement sent to Finn and later released widely did not address one of his broader concerns: that no one outside the banks themselves knows for sure how big their commodity trading arms are, how much they trade, or how much money they make.

"We would like more disclosure on that," Finn said.

He is unlikely to get his wish. While the country's largest banks are required to disclose their activities in some consumer-facing businesses such as mortgages, there is no similar requirement for them to do so on the commodities side.

Commodity "revenue" figures reported to securities and banking regulators can differ wildly - and may not provide an accurate reflection of the size of the business.

Most banks report some numbers, but one of the biggest - Morgan Stanley - hasn't put a dollar figure on its commodities revenues in more than a decade, reporting only the year-on-year percentage change in its securities filings. None provide cost, salary or bonus figures, making it impossible to guess at relative profitability.

"I don't think you have any banks that are properly disclosing commodities revenue," said George Kuznetsov, head of research and analytics at Coalition, a British consulting firm that employs more than 100 researchers to scrutinize public disclosures and conduct interviews to estimate trading revenues for investment banks.

The issue is becoming increasingly important as politicians press the banks for more insight into the risks they are taking by owning metals warehouses or chartering oil tankers, and as some seek buyers for their physical commodities holdings. On Friday, JPMorgan said it was selling out.

"Their physical commodities activities are not comprehensively or understandably reported...they're often buried in arcane regulatory filings," Senator Sherrod Brown, Democrat for Ohio, said at last week's hearing.

AS INSTRUCTED

The lack of clarity over trading operations has long been a vexing issue across other desks as well, such as foreign exchange and equities. But the current debate over whether banks should be allowed to continue trading so actively in raw material markets has only sharpened focus on this area.

In sum, it's big money: the top ten global banks collectively made about $6 billion trading commodities last year, down 24 percent from in 2011, according to Coalition.

The banks say that they are providing regulators and investors with all the information they are required to give.

"Our disclosures are in line with all relevant reporting requirements and provide investors with all material information," said a spokesman for Morgan Stanley. He said the bank provides data on the main drivers of results across its three core business lines but does not break down earnings to a "product" level like commodities.

Critics say the disclosures still leave much to be desired.

"They really don't tell us much," said Robert McCullough, an energy economist who spent six years litigating an electricity market manipulation case against Morgan Stanley.

"If you wanted an estimate of what their position was in electricity in 2001, six years of litigation was not sufficient to get it," he said.

In terms of financial system risks, the Federal Reserve, which regulates banks, has the power to make on-staff visits and request data sets from the banks on their commodities activities. The agency also keeps on-site staff at the banks who are dedicated to monitoring commodities.

But that is not enough, according to some former examiners.

"There's a sophistication gap between the regulator and the bank that they regulate," said Mark Williams, a former Federal Reserve bank examiner and energy executive who now teaches finance at Boston University.

"The commodities are where the more sophisticated transactions take place," he said.

Y-9C? BECAUSE THEY HAVE TO

One bank filing collected by the Fed is called "FR Y-9C." The detailed questionnaire requires banks to tell the Federal Reserve everything from how much money they spend on postage to how much money they make trading commodities.

But because regulatory accounting rules may vary from the way banks report their earnings to investors, the Fed's questionnaire can often bear little resemblance to banks' Securities and Exchange Commission filings.

Goldman Sachs, for instance, reported only $100 million in "commodity and other" trading revenues to the Fed in 2012. In a separate filing with the SEC, the bank said it made $575 million trading commodities. Industry sources actually pegged Goldman's commodity revenues closer to $1.25 billion for the year.

Asked about the different figures, a spokesman for Goldman Sachs said: "We disclose figures in the way we are required. That may not correspond to the way we actually measure the performance of certain trading businesses." He declined to provide a figure for the bank's commodity trading revenues.

JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup Inc provide similar commodity trading figures to the Fed and the SEC. But like Goldman, both banks warn investors in their SEC filings that the figures don't fully represent their performance because they exclude earnings on interest, an "integral" part of trading revenue.

JPMorgan reported nearly $2.4 billion in commodities trading revenues for 2012, which on paper was more than Goldman and Morgan Stanley combined. But several analysts say actual revenues are likely closer to this year's $1.5 billion target.

Spokesmen for JPMorgan and Citi declined comment.

With so much uncertainty around the headline numbers, attempting to separate banks' paper bets on commodities from physical trading - the segment most at risk from regulators - is all but impossible. Analysts at Deutsche Bank estimated in a report last week that JPMorgan's physical book accounted for somewhere between a third and two-thirds of its overall commodities trading operation.

Some other banks have taken the view that their commodity businesses are too small to merit much attention.

At Deutsche Bank and Barclays Bank, commodities revenues may show up in an occasional earnings transcript or investor presentation, but neither bank discloses in filings how much money it makes trading in the sector. In its 2012 annual report, Deutsche Bank simply notes commodities "revenues were lower" compared to 2011. Barclays makes no mention of the segment's performance in its annual report.

Spokespeople for Deutsche and Barclays declined to comment.

ANALYSTS VS. NUNS

The lack of detail on banks' commodity trading revenues does not seem to worry some on Wall Street. It's just one part of a mosaic of items analysts look at in evaluating the firms.

"It's just not been a significant issue for me," said David Hilder, who covers banks for brokerage Drexel Hamilton.

And some experts say even the limited disclosure by banks is better than the alternative. Many of the big global commodity traders, such as Vitol and Trafigura, are privately held and therefore subject to no disclosure at all.

"The (trading) activity will not go away," said Randall Guynn, a banking lawyer at Davis Polk, who testified at last week's hearing. "You're better off having it in regulated companies where there is some disclosure."

That hasn't stopped some influential groups from calling on banks to step up their reporting.

Last year, the CFA Institute - which confers the Chartered Financial Analyst credential to investment professionals worldwide - endorsed a report calling for banks to improve their risk disclosures to investors. Banks' trading books, in particular, remain "very opaque" to investors, said Vincent Papa, the institute's director of financial reporting policy.

"In many cases, they give you a figure which they deem to be meaningless from an internal management standpoint," Papa said. "They just give it for compliance reasons. That's not beneficial to investors. It's about giving relevant information, rather than just ticking the boxes."

For some of the banks' investors, commodity trading data is very relevant indeed. The Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR) represents $100 billion worth of institutional investors like Finn, the DC reverend. The group openly calls for corporations to avoid speculating on food commodities.

But with disclosures being so lacking, ICCR members like Sister Nora Nash of the Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia have little idea whether their investments in big banks like Goldman Sachs comply with this philosophy.

"I would absolutely hope that they would disclose what is happening to those of us who are shareholders," Nash said.

(Additional reporting by Douwe Miedema in Washington D.C.; Editing by Claudia Parsons)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/insight-nuns-analysts-alike-bank-commodity-earnings-mystery-050444040.html

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Samsung announces Galaxy S4 and Galaxy S4 Mini dual LTE network support

KOREAN PHONE MAKER Samsung has announced that it will launch dual-mode time division duplex (TDD-LTE) and frequency division duplex (FDD-LTE) LTE versions of its Galaxy S4 and Galaxy S4 Mini smartphones.

Samsung's popular Galaxy S4 handsets, like models from its competitors, have to deal with a multitude of LTE modes and frequencies. Now the firm has said that it will release Galaxy S4 and Galaxy S4 Mini handsets that support TDD-LTE and FDD-LTE and promise seamless handover of voice and data between the two types of networks.

According to Samsung, TDD-LTE will increase in popularity in the coming years and the firm said that its handsets will have the ability to switch between the widely deployed FDD-LTE networks and the emerging TDD-LTE networks. The firm added that mobile operators will be keen to make use of both networks to balance loads between FDD-LTE and TDD-LTE networks. This could mean that if enough smartphones have the ability to switch between the networks that might gain popularity with mobile operators as a way of saving cash on infrastructure.

Samsung co-CEO and president of its IT and Mobile division JK Shin said, "Samsung continues to accelearate global LTE market deployment, addressing technical challenges faster than anyone else. With today's TDD/FDD LTE seamless handover devices announcement, Samsung again demonstrates the company's commitment to driving better, more convenient customer experiences.

"The first commercially available TDD/FDD [LTE] seamless handover devices will allow customers to fully enjoy the benefits of fast mobile data communications no matter where they are."

While Samsung is pushing ahead with devices that are capable of future LTE deployments, Ofcom only finalised its plans to reuse 2G and 3G spectrum for 4G earlier this month. However the announcement highlights Samsung's ability to produce updated versions of its existing phones with bleeding edge features, unlike most of its rivals. ?

Source: http://feeds.theinquirer.net/c/554/f/434571/s/2f63f37a/sc/5/l/0L0Stheinquirer0Bnet0Cinquirer0Cnews0C22860A60A0Csamsung0Eannounces0Egalaxy0Es40Eand0Egalaxy0Es40Emini0Edual0Elte0Enetwork0Esupport/story01.htm

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Omnicom, Publicis to combine into biggest ad firm

PARIS (AP) ? Omnicom Group Inc. and Publicis Groupe SA say they are combining in a "merger of equals" that will create the world's largest advertising firm, one worth more than $35 billion.

The combined company will be called Publicis Omnicom Group and be jointly led by Omnicom CEO John Wren and Publicis CEO Maurice Levy as co-chief executives. The move is designed to bolster the companies' focus on growing Asian and Latin American markets such as China and Brazil, where they each have ramped up operations to counter lackluster growth in weak European markets.

But although a combined firm will allow for more pricing power in general, the decrease in competition could present regulatory hurdles in the U.S. and Europe. Client conflicts also could be an issue, as rivals such as Coca-Cola Co., PepsiCo, McDonald's, Yum Brands' Taco Bell, Johnson & Johnson and Procter & Gamble now find themselves under the same umbrella.

Rich Tullo, an analyst at Albert Fried & Co. in New York, predicted pushback from regulators in both the U.S. and France. The U.S. could be wary of one company controlling such a large portion of the market, he said, while in France, authorities might not take warmly to any Americanization of a company that is a bright spot in the bruised French economy.

Tullo also questioned whether the combined company could live up to promises like the $500 million in cost savings touted with the announcement, given Europe's shaky financial condition. "That sounds like financial alchemy, if you ask me," he said.

Omnicom Group Inc., based in New York, owns BBDO Worldwide, DDB Worldwide Communications Group and TBWA Worldwide, among other agencies. Paris-based Publicis Groupe SA runs its namesake agency as well as Leo Burnett Worldwide, Saatchi & Saatchi and DigitasLBi. Their merger creates a company with combined annual revenue of about $23 billion, leapfrogging them over current London-based industry leader WPP PLC.

For the first year, Omnicom Chairman Bruce Crawford will serve as non-executive chairman of the new company. He will be succeeded by Elisabeth Badinter, the current Publicis Groupe chairwoman, and daughter of its founder, for the second year.

Levy is slated to take the non-executive chairman's seat after 30 months, leaving Wren to continue as sole CEO from that point.

Omnicom, which also owns public relations firms such as Fleishman-Hillard, Porter Novelli and Ketchum, reported 2012 profit of nearly $1 billion on revenue of $14.22 billion. Earlier this month, the Madison Avenue giant posted second-quarter earnings that topped analysts' average forecast, though revenue growth of 2 percent fell just short of expectations.

Founded in 1986, Omnicom generates just over half of its revenue from U.S. clients, and about one-quarter from European and British markets combined. The company's stock has risen 31 percent in the last 12 months, recently peaking at $67.43 on the New York Stock Exchange.

Omnicom will benefit from Publicis' strategic shift in the last few years toward digital operations, as the French company beefed up its digital marketing profile with the acquisitions of Digitas, Razorfish, Rosetta, Big Fuel and LBi. Publicis, which had revenue of $8.78 billion in 2012, had targeted generating 75 percent of its revenue in digital and fast-growing countries by 2018, according to a recent investor presentation.

The move gives Publicis, which has faced questions about who will succeed 71-year-old Levy, access to Omnicom's well-regarded senior leadership, said James Dix, an analyst at Wedbush Securities.

Analysts said the deal also represents even more consolidation in an industry that is already dominated by just a few players, a fact that might not sit well with U.S. regulators.

If the Omnicom-Publicis combination goes through, the combined company would account for nearly 40 percent of the U.S. ad industry, twice as much as the nearest competitor, WPP, according to Brian Wieser, an analyst at Pivotal Research Group in New York.

Wieser said Sunday the deal came as a surprise to many in the industry. Omnicom, he said, has "always been viewed as too large to get any larger."

The combined company will have more than 130,000 employees.

One concern is whether Omnicom and Publicis can strike a harmonious balance of power ? something that can be difficult in mergers of similar-sized companies.

"It's not clear yet who really is in the driver's seat," Wieser said. "That will emerge over time."

The fact that the two firms are based in different countries could also become an issue, Dix said. "You have these fiefdoms that keep people from playing together. One company is based in Paris, one is in New York. Where is the power center?" he said in an interview Saturday.

Dix expects that top executives are comfortable with the structure of the deal, but the adjustment may be more difficult for the next level of executives who run the firms' units.

"Now they have to fit together into a broader organization," Dix said. "If you lose clients or have defections of senior executives then you have something that looked good on paper but didn't quite play out."

The combination has been approved by the boards of both companies, but remains subject to regulatory approval in both the U.S. and Europe, and to a vote by shareholders of both companies. The deal is structured so that the shareholders of Publicis Groupe and Omnicom, after special dividends, will each hold approximately 50 percent of the company.

Publicis Groupe shareholders will receive one new share of Publicis Omnicom Group for each Publicis Groupe share they own, together with a special dividend of 1 euro per share. Omnicom shareholders will receive 0.813 new shares of Publicis Omnicom Group for each Omnicom share they own, plus a special dividend of $2 per share. The new company intends to be listed in Paris and on the New York Stock Exchange.

The combination could have a domino effect on the industry, spurring marriages between other ad giants who might fear they can't compete otherwise, said Michael Corty, an analyst at Chicago-based Morningstar. "Within the ad agency industry, this is potentially an earthquake deal."

___

Business News reporters Christina Rexrode and Jon Fahey contributed from New York.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/omnicom-publicis-combine-biggest-ad-firm-220845588.html

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