Fx Currency Trading

Google Checkout Is Based on Its Own Currency

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. - While e-commerce analysts describe what is expected to be a war for the minds and wallets of Internet shoppers between Google Checkout and PayPal, the most important feature of Google Checkout has gone virtually unremarked. Checkout is based on a new currency issued by Google: the Googlerand. "The days of geophysical nation states and the monetary systems to which they are tied are obviously numbered," said Marcy Chung, director of Google's newly created mint. "Future wars won't be fought over oil or piles of sand or competing interpretations of the words of some dead prophet, but over the way people do their shopping and banking online. That's why it was important for us to become the first search engine-slash-
portal to issue its own currency." Officials at Yahoo! and Microsoft, who were apparently caught off guard by Google's latest maneuver in its quest for world domination, were unavailable for comment last night.

FOREX-Yen climbs for 2nd day vs dollar on BOJ outlook

TOKYO, June 21 (Reuters) - The yen climbed against the dollar for a second day on Wednesday after the Bank of Japan chief signaled the central bank is on course to lift interest rates for the first time in six years, possibly as soon as July.

BOJ Governor Toshihiko Fukui said the previous day that policy decisions should be made early if warranted by economic conditions, stoking expectations for a near-term rate rise from virtually zero.

"Yesterday he made some hawkish comments on rates and showed his willingness to stay in office, and this news raised the possibility of an end to the zero interest rate policy in July," said Masafumi Yamamoto, currency strategist at Nikko Citigroup.

The yen sank to an all-time low against the euro and an eight-week trough versus the dollar earlier in the week, partly on worries that a furore over Fukui's private investments would lead to his resignation and delay the first BOJ rate increase.

The US Dollar Emerges as an Unlikely Safe Haven

Hot money flows into and out of foreign countries come in big waves. Losses in one market trigger sales in other markets. And foreign investors, who hold huge stakes in emerging markets such as Brazil, India, Russia, and South Africa, will often influence local investors, when there is a whiff of panic is in the air. If the global tightening campaign is off the mark, and leads to a hard landing, traders could continue to unload risky assets abroad for safer pastures at home.

Tenet Healthcare Receives $340 Mln From Insurers For Hurricane ...

(RTTNews) - Thursday morning, Tenet Healthcare Corp. (THC | charts | news | PowerRating), a provider of healthcare services, revealed it reached an agreement with its property insurers for fiscal year 2005-06 to settle all its claims related to damages and business interruption that it incurred on account of Hurricane Katrina. The company said that it received the total claims of $340 million from the insurers as of today.

The Texas-based company said that all the five hospitals that it operates in New Orleans market, the hospital it operates in Biloxi, Mississippi, and its five Diagnostic Imaging Services outpatient radiology centers and other support property in New Orleans sustained significant damages when Hurricane Katrina made landfall on August 29, 2005. The company said that on account of extensive damage, it had not been able to reopen Memorial Medical Center and Lindy Boggs Medical Center so far.

GLOBAL MARKETS-Stocks down, bonds on hold ahead of jobs data

LONDON, July 7 (Reuters) - European stocks came under pressure on Friday while government bonds and the euro trod water ahead of key U.S. employment data which could offer clues on whether the Federal Reserve will keep raising interest rates.

Economists expect the U.S. non-farm payrolls figures at 1230 GMT to show that 185,000 workers were added in June, up from predictions of around 155,000 made before an upbeat private sector jobs survey released in midweek.

The ADP National Employment Report on Wednesday, which showed stronger than expected private sector job creation in June, boosted investor expectations of further interest rate rises.

But Thursday's U.S. Institute for Supply Management's non-manufacturing headline index for June came in below expectations, forcing markets to scale back their monthly employment forecasts.

Let's debate cold, hard facts

Maybe our extreme weather in recent weeks will have turned more people into climate change believers. And, conversely, more people into sceptics. How can cold and wet have anything to do with global warming, the latter will protest.

The sceptics better believe. The weather is unfolding just as Niwa predicted in its climate change analysis. More violent weather patterns are a consequence of global warming. It is already taking a toll on agriculture and infrastructure.

We should be worried - a lot. Among developed countries, we are by far the most dependent on the primary sector, the economic activity most vulnerable to climate change. Overall the primary sector generates about 17 per cent of our GDP, 15 times the contribution found in most other developed countries.