May 31, 2012
News Release
Indianapolis, Ind. -- The Indiana Business Confidence Index (BCI) remains at 65 percent, unchanged from December 2011. The BCI is a quarterly measure of the overall confidence Indiana business leaders and employees have in their companys opportunity for growth and success in the coming 12 months.
The latest BCI reflects the fact that there remains a lot of uncertainty in the Indiana business community, said Gerry Dick, president of Grow INdiana Media Ventures, LLC and host of Inside INdiana Business with Gerry Dick. While the states economy has produced signs of recovery, Hoosiers remain concerned about the national economic outlook.
The INdiana Business Councils latest study focuses on challenges facing the Hoosier business community. More than 1,100 members of the statewide, online panel responded to the survey and the results include:
Fifty-six percent of respondents say the national economy is their biggest external challenge.
Attracting talent with the necessary skills remains a challenge for many Hoosier employers.
Many companies also cite improving customer relationships as a major challenge.
To receive more information on the BCI and the study, or to apply to participate on the council, visit www.INdianaBusinessCouncil.com.
The INdiana Business Council is an online panel of approximately 4,000 Indiana business professionals that is surveyed on important business and economic issues throughout the year. Feedback from the panel is analyzed, interpreted and published by Walker and Inside INdiana Business. The INdiana Business Council is a partnership between Inside INdiana Business and Indianapolis-based Walker.
About Inside INdiana Business
More people get their Indiana business news from Inside INdiana Business than from any other source. With a fully-integrated portfolio of television, radio, Internet and permission-based email products, Inside INdiana Business is trusted by an educated and affluent audience around Indiana and the globe. Headquartered in Indianapolis, Inside INdiana Business platform of daily business news products can be watched, heard and read in Indiana, Michigan, Illinois (including Chicagoland), Ohio and Kentucky as well as business centers worldwide.
About Walker
Walker is a privately held consulting firm specializing in customer loyalty and related customer strategies, including innovative approaches to accelerate growth and increase profitability. Helping businesses for 70 years, the firm provides tailored, comprehensive solutions to help companies obtain, segment, value, retain, and grow customers. Walker works with some of the worlds most influential businesses as well as emerging organizations of all sizes. For more information, please visit www.walkerinfo.com.
Source: Inside INdiana Business, Walker
Japan Stocks Fall on U.S. Data as Spain Denies Bailout - Bloomberg
Japanese stocks fell, sending the Topix Index to its longest weekly losing streak since September 1975, after China’s manufacturing and U.S. economic data missed estimates, adding to concern the world’s two largest economies are slowing.
Sony Corp. (6758), which gets 26 percent of its sales in China and the U.S., dropped 3.5 percent. Hitachi Construction Machinery Co. (6305), a maker of heavy equipment, slid 4.2 percent after mining machinery bellwether Joy Global Inc. cut revenue forecasts. Aozora Bank Ltd. dropped 5.4 percent after saying plans to repay public funds won’t be disclosed at its June shareholder meeting.
The Topix slipped 1.5 percent to 708.93 as of the 3 p.m. trading close in Tokyo, capping a ninth week of decline that left it 1.8 percent lower for the five trading days. The Nikkei 225 Stock Average (NKY) dropped 1.2 percent to 8,440.25. About five stocks fell for each that rose. The benchmark dropped 10.3 percent in May, the steepest monthly decline since May 2010.
“The global economy, centered in the U.S. and China, is facing stronger headwinds than expected, and recovery expectations are tapering off a bit,” said Kiyoshi Ishigane, a Tokyo-based senior strategist at Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co., which oversees the equivalent of $70 billion. “Japan’s economy doesn’t have the kind of domestic demand that you need to spur growth, so it’s more vulnerable to overseas economies.”
Debt Crisis
The Topix has fallen 19 percent from this year’s high on March 27 as voter opposition to austerity measures in Europe raised concern the debt crisis is worsening, and as China’s growth slowed. The gauge is nearing a 20 percent drop from this year’s peak, which to investors signals the beginning of a bear market. The declines have cut the value of shares on the Topix to 0.84 times book value, the lowest since October 2008.
Stocks fell as China’s purchasing managers’ index slid to 50.4 from 53.3 in April, the statistics bureau and logistics federation said today. The weakest reading since December compares with the 52.0 median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey of 27 economists. A reading above 50 indicates expansion. A separate gauge from HSBC Holdings Plc and Markit Economics showed a seventh straight contraction.
Companies that do business in China fell. Murata Manufacturing Co., which gets 48 percent of its revenue in China and Taiwan, lost 2.8 percent to 3,955 yen. Trading company Emori & Co. (9963), which depends on China for 41 percent of its sales, dropped 1.3 percent to 913 yen.
U.S. Jobs Data
A U.S. Labor Department report due today is projected to show nonfarm payrolls increased by 150,000 workers in May while the unemployment rate held at 8.1 percent.
Futures on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index (SPXL1) slid 0.4 percent today. The index fell 0.2 percent in New York yesterday, when data showed the U.S. economy grew more slowly in the first quarter than previously estimated and business activity expanded in May at the slowest pace since September 2009.
The U.S. payroll report “is going to be important obviously on the day, but the big issue is how Europe is going to play out,” said Andrew Pease, Sydney-based chief investment strategist for the Asia-Pacific region at Russell Investment Group, which manages about $150 billion. “Spanish bond yields are about 6.5 percent and that tells you something that can’t be ignored. While Spanish yields are that high, you have to have a fairly cautious attitude toward adding risk to your portfolio right now.”
No Spain Bailout
The International Monetary Fund said it’s not preparing financial aid for Spain, and the country denied it’s in talks about a bailout. The nation’s 10-year debt yields were at 6.56 percent, near the 7 percent level that prompted bailouts in Greece, Ireland and Portugal.
Japanese exporters also fell after the yen touched its highest level against the euro since December 2000. A strong currency erodes the value of overseas revenue when companies repatriate earnings.
Sony, the nation’s largest exporter of consumer electronics, declined 3.5 percent to 1,013 yen, and Honda Motor Co. (7267), Japan’s second-biggest automaker by market value, fell 2.1 percent to 2,459 yen.
Machinery Makers Fall
Machinery makers fell after Joy Global, the maker of P&H and Joy mining equipment, cut forecasts for full-year earnings and revenue as mining companies ease capital expenditure amid concern over the slowdown in China. Hitachi Construction slid 4.2 percent to 1,449 yen. Komatsu Ltd. (6301), Japan’s largest construction machinery maker, lost 4.3 percent to 1,798 yen.
Aozora Bank, the Japanese lender controlled by Cerberus Capital Management LP, fell 5.4 percent to 157 yen after saying it won’t announce proposals for repayment of public funds at its June shareholders meeting.
Among stocks that rose, Janome Sewing Machine Co. jumped 17 percent to 62 yen. Operating profit is poised to more than double this fiscal year, the Nikkei newspaper reported.
The Nikkei 225 Volatility Index (VNKY) rose 5.5 percent to 27.65, indicating traders expect a swing of about 7.9 percent on the benchmark gauge over the next 30 days.
To contact the reporter on this story: Yoshiaki Nohara in Tokyo at ynohara1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Nick Gentle at ngentle2@bloomberg.net.
Money is flying out of Spain - Int'l Business Times
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Spain's Economy Minister Luis de Guindos said the data was more a reflection of the troubles of the banking sector to fund itself externally than deposits flying abroad.
The capital flight data predates the nationalization of Spain's fourth biggest lender Bankia (MC:BKIA) in May when it became clear the bank could not handle losses from bad real estate investments, compounded by a recession.
Spain's center-right government has contracted independent auditors to assess the health of its financial system in an effort to restore faith in its banks.
The prospect that Spain might not be able to handle losses at its banks has hammered shares and the Euro, although both regained some stability Thursday.
Mr. De Guindos said that the future of the euro would be at stake in the next few weeks in Spain and Italy, adding that the rumors that Spain was negotiating financial assistance with the International Monetary Fund were "complete nonsense."
"The battle of the Euro is being fought right now in Spain and Italy," he said at an event in the north-eastern region of Catalonia.
He also said Germany should help correct imbalances in the euro zone created by a loose monetary policy over the last 10 yrs, and by the non-respect by Berlin of the stability and growth pact in Y 2003.
Paul A. Ebeling, Jnr.
Paul A. Ebeling, Jnr. writes and publishes The Red Roadmaster's Technical Report on the US Major Market Indices, a weekly, highly-regarded financial market letter, read by opinion makers, business leaders and organizations around the world.
Paul A. Ebeling, Jnr has studied the global financial and stock markets since 1984, following a successful business career that included investment banking, and market and business analysis. He is a specialist in equities/commodities, and an accomplished chart reader who advises technicians with regard to Major Indices Resistance/Support Levels.
Grieving family's anguish as conwoman makes money 'collecting' cash for their two-year-old's gravestone after he fell to his death from moving car - Daily Mail
- Levi Brailsford died after apparently unbuckling his harness and climbing out of the moving car
- A woman claiming to be a 'family friend' has been going door-to-door asking for cash, homeowners have claimed
- The boy's father Kevin said: People shouldn't give this woman any money because we don't know who she is'
By Rob Cooper
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Tragic: Levi Brailsford who died after falling out of his grandmother's moving car
A conwoman has been going door-to-door pretending she is collecting 'donations' for a two-year-old's gravestone after he fell to his death from a moving car.
Levi Brailsford's grieving family claimed the woman has been calling at houses across Bristol using the ruse to trick people into handing over cash.
The boy died in Stockwood, Bristol, on May 11 after unbuckling his harness and apparently opening the door of the moving vehicle.
The family, who recently held the boy's funeral, said they have not asked anyone to collect money on their behalf.
Residents living in Redland, Bristol, said they had been called by a woman claiming to be fundraising for Levi's funeral and headstone.
The boy's family have been contacted by friends with similar stories about a mystery woman asking for donations.
Levi's father Kevin said: 'If it was legitimate and the proceeds were coming to us for our son, there would be no problem with it.
'But we haven't asked anyone to do it and for anyone to make any money in my poor boy's name is very upsetting for us all. People shouldn't give this woman any money because we don't know who she is.
'I've had a lot of phone calls about it and I was so worried I told our family liaison officer at the police.'

Tribute: One of the bears that was left at the scene of Levi's death holds a message to the tragic two-year-old
Among the messages was a note from Levi's parents, Kevin and Andrea, who have been left devastated by the accident

Grief: The dead boy's family have been rocked by fresh claims that a conwoman has been going door-to-door claiming she is collecting money for them
The 33-year-old from Stockwood, Bristol, said: 'We will be raising money for the air ambulance with a sponsored walk in June, but that is still being organised.'
Jo Broome, who lives in Redland, said: 'A female, reporting to be a "family friend" of the Brailsford family is scouring the Redland area asking for donations to help pay for the funeral and headstone.
'She was very thin, had blondish hair tied back in a very tight ponytail and a very gruff voice. Her complexion was very white looking and she was about 5ft 4ins.

Wellwishers: Friends of the boy's family leave flowers at the spot where he tragically fell to his death
'She had a paper cutting of the story in a clear plastic envelope and was taking the name of anyone who had donated some money for the funeral on a scrap piece of paper.'
South Bristol Cemetery was packed last Friday as the two-year-old was laid to rest.
His father Kevin and mother Andrea, 29, released balloons into the sky, followed by scores more from family and friends.
Avon and Somerset Police spokeswoman Claire Stanley said: 'Both police and the family of Levi are aware of a woman who claims to be collecting on behalf of them for a headstone.
'None of these collections has been sanctioned by the family.'
Money matters: Martin Lewis sells MoneySavingExpert website for £87million - Daily Mirror
Personal finance journalist Martin Lewis secured his own multimillion-pound fortune today by agreeing the sale of his website for up to £87 million.
MoneySavingExpert.com, which was set up by Mr Lewis in 2003 and now sends a weekly email to around five million subscribers, is to be bought by price comparison website MoneySupermarket.
Mr Lewis, who is well known as a television pundit on money matters, will receive £60 million upfront in a mixture of cash and shares and a further £27 million conditional on meeting targets over the next three years.
He plans to donate £10 million to charity from the deal, including £1 million to Citizens Advice, while he will retain full control over the website.
According to Google Analytics, the MoneySavingExpert website attracted 39 million unique visitors and around 277 million page impressions in the year to October 31. It generated revenues of £15.7 million over the same period.
Mr Lewis said the deal, which needs the approval of MoneySupermarket shareholders, ensured the website would be around for many years to come.
He added: "MoneySavingExpert.com has become part of people's daily lives, far bigger than the man who founded it, and now is the right time for it to stand on its own two feet."
Mr Lewis said he chose Moneysupermarket because it is not owned by any product providers and had signed up to an editorial code which ensures the website's content will be free from commercial pressures.
He will stay as editor-in-chief for the next three years, with the help of Moneysupermarket's resources and the website's existing 42-strong staff.
"After that, the door is open for me to carry on, and I hope to do so, though perhaps with fewer hours than now, so I can spend more time on my media work and other projects I'm passionate about. These include getting financial education on the curriculum," Mr Lewis said.
Ukraine’s business class and Viktor Yanukovych - United Press International
WASHINGTON, June 1 (UPI) -- Faced by the choice in the 2010 Ukrainian presidential elections of Yulia Tymoshenko and Viktor Yanukovych, the majority of Ukraine's big business backed the latter. Some, such as Viktor Pinchuk and Dmitri Firtash, supported him because Tymoshenko, as prime minister, had tried to take their business away and others, such as Rinat Akhmetov, because they feared her populist, anti-elite rhetoric.
In addition, many of the 5 million middle-class professionals and businessmen who voted for Serhiy Tihipko and Arseniy Yatseniuk in the 2010 elections, who together received third and fourth places and a combined 20 percent of the vote, refused to support either candidate. Tymoshenko received 3 million fewer votes than Viktor Yushchenko five years earlier because many of these natural "orange" voters didn't like her and saw her as part of the failed Yushchenko team.
Most big businessmen in Ukraine have been repaid for their support to Yanukovych in the 2010 elections and their business empires have grown. Others who earlier supported the opposition have been warned to halt their support that denies Ukraine's political forces a level playing field. The lack of political pluralism gives Yanukovych's authoritarianism a very different face to that of former President Leonid Kuchma under whom Ukraine's business elites were free to support opposition political forces.
Although threatened by a tougher authoritarian regime, Ukraine's big businessmen and oligarchs are beginning to understand that it is important to not have all one's eggs in one basket. This is a rapid process of disengagement from the authorities who only came to power two years ago. Under Kuchma, Ukraine's big business elites only began to put their eggs in different baskets and hedge their bets in 2003-04, a decade after he came to power.
Oligarch Akhmetov is most closely associated with the Donetsk clan and his business empire grew when Yanukovych was the regional governor. In 2011, Akhmetov began distancing himself from Yanukovych by negotiating an alliance with Yatseniuk, leader of the liberal Front for Change party.
Yatseniuk inherited the pragmatic wing of Our Ukraine that which had always disliked Tymoshenko. In February 2010, Yatseniuk told the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine that he had 45 Our Ukraine deputies ready to join a grand coalition with the Party of Regions in return for him becoming prime minister.
Privately, most leaders of the united opposition don't trust Yatseniuk to not again jump ship after the 2012 or 2015 elections as he is cut from the same cloth as Yushchenko and like him not a revolutionary firebrand. Yatseniuk gains from Tymoshenko's imprisonment as his entry into the second round of the 2015 presidential elections is dependent upon her remaining in jail.
This may be Yanukovych's game-plan all along as he could always strike a deal with the moderate Yatseniuk but never with the uncompromising Tymoshenko.
Other big and medium-sized Ukrainian businessmen, aside from Akhmetov, are contemplating distancing themselves from Yanukovych by privately talking of their concerns to Western diplomats and policymakers. Akhmetov is big and powerful enough to distance himself openly while other big business leaders will seek to take this step secretly.
Ukraine's business class is coming to understand that it is caught in a two-fold dilemma.
Firstly, if Yanukovych wins a second term in 2015 the "Family," the name given to the clan that is from his home town of Yenakievo in Donetsk, will take over much of their business interests by 2020. The "Family's" greed is rapacious and without limits.
Yanukovych's son, Oleksandr, entered Ukraine's Top 100 wealthiest people list last year.
Yanukovych says, like Russian President Vladimir Putin, that the county's president should be the wealthiest person in the country. Luke Harding, former Moscow correspondent of The Guardian, wrote in his 2011 book "Mafia State: How one reporter became an enemy of the brutal new Russia" that Putin has accumulated $40 billion wealth after a decade in office -- $10 billion more than Oleg Deripaska, Russia's richest oligarch.
Yanukovych's aim by 2020 of becoming wealthier than any Ukrainian oligarch can only come from corporate raiding other oligarchs as Ukraine doesn't possess Russia's abundant natural resources.
With few reforms to boast of and foreign investment drying up, the size of Ukraine's economy will remain stagnant. Europe's investment houses and investment banks are very depressed about Ukraine's trajectory and future under Yanukovych. The growth of the "Family's" business empire can only therefore grow at the expense of big businessmen -- not from economic growth.
Ukraine's big business may suffer worse difficulties if Yanukovych remains in office. International boycotts of Ukraine began in May when 14 out of 20 countries refused to attend a Yalta summit of Central European leaders. Yanukovych himself is an international persona non grata and will never again receive an invitation for a state visit from the European Union, United States or Canada.
Visa blacklists of Ukrainian officials, which are being discussed, are likely to be extended from Yanukovych to his administration and government. These lists could include some oligarchs who are perceived in Europe and the United States as being close to Yanukovych or behind the imprisonment of Tymoshenko.
Boycotts and visa blacklists could be followed by the more drastic sanction of freezing bank accounts that are held by Ukrainian officials and oligarchs in many EU member states and their offshore zones. Such a radical step might be especially likely if there is violence in Ukraine's 2012 election similar to that which took place in Belarus two years earlier.
Secondly, if the opposition come to power and implement their radical program not only Yanukovych and his cronies but also some oligarchs could end up in jail. The opposition program is more radical than Yushchenko's during the Orange Revolution and calls for the nationalization of assets privatized since 2010. Such actions would inevitably target leading oligarchs.
Ukraine's big businessmen and oligarchs are beginning to distance themselves from Yanukovych only two years into office. They are caught between a hammer and an anvil, set to lose everything if he remains in power or if the opposition throws the rascal out.
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(Taras Kuzio is a Non-Resident Fellow at the Center for Transatlantic Relations, School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University, Washington, where he runs the Ukraine Policy Forum that brings together government policy makers, think tank experts and academics. He has been a frequent political consultant to the U.S. government on Ukraine.)
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(United Press International's "Outside View" commentaries are written by outside contributors who specialize in a variety of important issues. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of United Press International. In the interests of creating an open forum, original submissions are invited.)
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