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Nikkei falls from 6-wk high, shaken by euro zone doubts
* Investors also mull U.S., Japanese earnings* China data weighs on exporter sharesBy Lisa Twaronite and Hideyuki SanoTOKYO, Oct 18 (Reuters) - Japan’s Nikkei share average fell 1.6 percent in thin trade on Tuesday, slipping from a six-week high on concerns that Europe’s plan to contain its debt crisis might not be as fast and comprehensive as some investors had expected.Shares in Olympus Corp continued to plunge in volatile trading, ending down 9 percent and having lost 43 percent of their value since it ousted its CEO, with the camera maker under pressure to disclose details of payments to advisers in the buyout of a UK-based medical equipment firm.Exporters, which had benefited from optimism on the euro zone’s debt plan, underperformed the overall market and were also pressured by news that China’s economic expansion slowed in the third quarter to its weakest pace since early 2009.”The China data wasn’t so bad, only slightly below expectations, but investors worried that it would be taken as a reason to sell by overseas markets later in the session, and lately the Japanese market has taken most of its cues from overseas factors,” said Masayoshi Okamoto, head of dealing at Jujiya Securities.Germany deflated hopes for a quick end to Europe’s debt woes, when its finance minister said on Monday that a summit of EU leaders next Sunday would not produce a “definitive solution” to the region’s sovereign debt crisis.But some strategists said that expectations for Europe’s plan could rise again as quickly as they fell.”Stocks rallied in recent sessions on positive news from Europe and expectations of more to come, and then they corrected, but the weekend meeting could reassure investors and prompt them to buy back shares,” said Yutaka Miura, senior technical analyst at Mizuho Securities.The Nikkei average closed down 1.6 percent at 8,741.91, while the broader Topix index lost 1.4 percent to 751.24. More than six shares fell for each one that rose.Volume on the main board was 1.17 billion shares, the lowest since late December. Turnover on the main board was also the lowest since then, with Olympus accounting for one-eighth of the total.Support for the Nikkei is seen around 8,689, a 38.2 percent retracement of its rally to Monday’s six-week closing high from its Oct. 5 low, and then at its 25-day moving average, now around 8,650.”As long as the Nikkei stays above its 25-day moving average, I think the market’s uptrend will continue,” said Toshiyuki Kanayama, an analyst at Monex Securities, adding that he thinks the market is in a rising trend after forming a double bottom in late September to early October.UNDER PRESSUREOlympus continued to trade heavily, ending the morning session 1 percent higher, only to give back the gains in the afternoon and crash to a fresh 2-1/2 year low of 1,281 yen before ending at 1,417 yen.Ousted Chief Executive Michael Woodford has accused the board of firing him for probing allegations of improper payments related to acquisitions, according to media reports.The company told investors on Monday that it may take legal action against Woodford, accusing him of disclosing confidential information in media interviews.Investors are also focused on this week’s U.S. corporate earnings, including those from Apple Inc , Intel Goldman Sachs and Bank of America .Japanese companies will also release earnings beginning in the final week of October. Analysts are generally upbeat on the past quarter as companies are recovering from the damage from the earthquake and nuclear accident in March.Still, the yen’s strength and signs of slowdown in the global economy are hurting some companies, especially exporters.Yaskawa Electric , which cut its operating profit outlook for the year to March to 14 billion yen from 20 billion yen on the strong yen and slow sales of motors used in chipmaking equipment, saw active trade, dropping 1.6 percent to 617 yen.KDDI Corp fell 4.3 percent to 558,000 yen, while rival Softbank shed 2.9 percent to 2,475 yen after Japanese business daily FujiSankei Business i reported that the nation’s biggest phone operator NTT DoCoMo is considering a cut of about 20 percent in its fees for smartphones.Docomo shares fell 2.3 percent to 136,500 yen. -
EU court: ban on Internet sales can sometimes be justified
French judges had asked the ECJ for a clarification on the issue. A court adviser had said in March a ban on Internet sales restricted competition.”A clause in a selective distribution contract banning the distributors of the company Pierre Fabre Dermo-Cosmétique from selling its products online amounts to a restriction on competition by object, unless that clause is objectively justified,” the court said.”Such a ban may not benefit from a block exemption but may, if certain conditions are met, benefit from an individual exemption,” it said.It is now up to French judges to assess whether there are legitimate reasons for PFDC’s ban.PFDC, maker of the Avene, Klorane, Galenic and Ducray brands, requires distributors to sell its products only in shops and with a qualified pharmacist.Luxury brand owners have long argued that bricks-and-mortar outlets are key to protecting their image and exclusivity, while online retailers and markets such as eBay have challenged such claims. -
UPDATE 2-Reuters/Ipsos: Romney leads US Republicans, Cain 2nd
* Poll shows growing displeasure with ObamaBy Patricia ZengerleWASHINGTON, Oct 12 (Reuters) - Mitt Romney leads the field vying for the Republican presidential nomination, but fewer than one in four of the party’s voters back him as a surging Herman Cain gains ground, according to a released on Wednesday.Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, is holding on to his support but failing to increase it significantly, according to the survey, which also showed Democratic President Barack Obama facing deep unhappiness among voters about his performance.Romney was backed by 23 percent of Republicans in the October poll, up from 20 percent in the most recent comparable carried out in June.Cain, a businessman who has emerged as a surprise top contender after proposing a radical tax reform, nearly tripled his support among Republicans in the same period, leaping to 19 percent from 7 percent four months ago.”In the Republican presidential primary, everybody still says Mitt Romney’s the front-runner,” Ipsos research director Chris Jackson said. “And he is … but he’s certainly not any sort of dominant front-runner.”In the latest poll, Texas Representative Ron Paul was third with 13 percent and Texas Governor Rick Perry, a former front-runner, was fourth with 10 percent.Supporters of former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, who announced last week she would not run for president, have not coalesced behind a single candidate, the survey found.The poll was conducted from Thursday to Monday, before a debate on economic issues on Tuesday night in which Romney and Cain had strong performances and Perry failed to make up the ground he lost when he stumbled through two previous debates.”I think Rick Perry’s boomlet probably really peaked in August and has subsided,” Jackson said.But things could change dramatically before a nominee is chosen to oppose Obama in November 2012. Four years ago this month, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani was the leader among Republican presidential hopefuls, well ahead of his nearest rival, Fred Thompson, who like Giuliani left the race early.Arizona Senator John McCain, the eventual nominee, was in third place in October 2007.The margin of error for Republicans among the 1,113 people polled was 4.8 percentage points, leaving Romney and Cain in a virtual tie.An NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll released on Wednesday found Cain leading the Republican field at 27 percent, up from just 5 percent in a survey in late August. Perry fell to third place with 16 percent, dropping more than 20 points since the August NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll.OBAMA TAKES HEAT FROM VOTERSWhichever Republican eventually wins the nomination to run against Obama in 2012 will face an incumbent facing a very unhappy public.The percentage of Americans who disapprove of the president’s job performance has edged up to 50 percent from 48 percent in the past month and the percentage who strongly disapprove has risen to 34 percent, the highest level since Obama entered the White House.Fewer than half — 47 percent — of Americans approve of the way Obama is handling his job as president, a figure unchanged from a poll conducted in September.Obama has taken a tougher line against political opponents as he has pushed for passage of his jobs bill but the new approach has yet to make a difference among voters.”People are still wildly pessimistic,” Jackson said.The survey showed that 74 percent of Americans believed the country was on the wrong track, compared with 21 percent who believed it was going in the right direction.There was one bright spot for Democrats. More registered voters — 48 percent — said they would back Democrats in congressional races if the November 2012 elections were held today, compared with 40 percent who would support Republicans.But their verdict on how the two parties would handle the struggling economy — the issue expected to be central to the 2012 election — generally favored Republicans.On reducing the deficit, Republicans have the lead at 44 percent to 35 percent for Democrats; they have a 43 percent to 36 percent lead on their ability to make the country globally competitive; and more Americans thought they would generate economic growth, with a 43 percent to 38 percent edge over the Democrats.The two parties were tied on job creation at 41 percent each and close on “dealing with taxes,” with 42 percent for Democrats and 41 percent picking Republicans. On the economy overall, 42 percent favored Republicans and 40 percent chose Democrats.The of 1,113 adults, including 934 registered voters, had a margin of error of 3 percentage points for all respondents and 3.2 points for registered voters.
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andrewtsks asked: Sooo... buried vocals. If you're going to discuss them, I personally feel that Indian Summer are a CRUCIAL reference point. Not sure if you've picked up on my continual references to them over the years on tumblr or not, but if not, here are a bunch of different tumblr posts I wrote about them, the first four being posted in sequence and intended to be read as one long piece, and the last being me talking about a slightly different element of one of the same songs discussed in that four-part piece.
Part 1--Orchard: http://andrewtsks.tumblr.com/post/650452677/indian-summer-orchard-last-night-i-was-talking
Interlude--obscurantism in record cover design: http://andrewtsks.tumblr.com/post/650479149/indian-summer-interlude-this-is-a-picture-of-my
Part 2--Aren't You Angel: http://andrewtsks.tumblr.com/post/650580462/indian-summer-arent-you-angel-for-their-third
Epilogue--Angry Son: http://andrewtsks.tumblr.com/post/650593643/indian-summer-epilogue-angry-son-from-the
Earlier post, also about "Orchard" (but listen to the youtube video--this mp3 is crappy): http://andrewtsks.tumblr.com/post/235377405/hardcorefornerds-indian-summer-orchard-from
As is probably clear from listening to these songs, Slint was a big influence on these guys. But so were Hoover, Moss Icon and Bessie Smith. If you don't know what I'm talking about, you will when you read what I wrote in those posts.
Oh, and while Indian Summer may seem to be too obscure to be influential, I guarantee that they had such a gigantic influence on the 90s underground hardcore/emo scene that some of that influence is cropping up in weird, even unrecognizable places to this day. And hey, their guitarist went on to be in Her Space Holiday, so they are actually sort of connected to that whole chillwave thing. Maybe.
Yeah, Indian Summer. I’m aware of them - them and Julia and Shotmaker, among others, were some of...
