IBM's outlook lifts Dow, Nasdaq amid tech rally

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks edged higher on Wednesday as IBM and other tech companies continued a trend of results that beat Wall Street's expectations and propelled the market to a five-day advance.

Internet search company Google Inc added to the advance, rising 5.1 percent to $738.65 a day after Google reported its core business outpaced expectations. Revenue was also higher than expected.

International Business Machines Corp late Tuesday forecast better-than-anticipated 2013 results and also posted fourth-quarter earnings and revenue that beat expectations. The results helped to allay concerns about the tech sector after Intel Corp gave a weak outlook last week. IBM, the world's largest technology services company, rose 3.8 percent to $203.57.

"Tech companies are really shattering expectations, which is obviously helping markets. There doesn't seem to be an end to this rally," said Todd Schoenberger, managing partner at LandColt Capital in New York.

But gains were limited in the S&P 500 a day after it closed at a level not seen since December 2007. Many investors were also holding off to see earnings from Apple Inc , the most valuable U.S. company which was due to report after the market closes.

McDonald's edged higher 0.2 percent to $93.11 after reporting a rise in fourth-quarter earnings, lifted by an increase in same-store sales. United Tech's earnings fell from the prior year, hurt by large restructuring charges. Shares edged up at $87.91.

On the downside, Coach Inc slumped 15 percent to $51.40 as the S&P's biggest percentage loser after reporting sales that missed expectations.

After the market closes, investors will scour Apple's results for signs the tech giant can continue to grow at an accelerated pace. The stock has been pressured recently by questions raised about demand for Apple's prospects. The stock has fallen 5 percent since the start of the year, compared with gains of 4.6 percent in the S&P 500. It rose 0.4 percent to $507.04 on Wednesday.

"If Apple comes out with a blockbuster number, that would reinforce the argument that stocks are poised to do well in the first part of 2013," Schoenberger said.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> was up 55.48 points, or 0.40 percent, at 13,767.69. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> was up 0.06 points, or 0.00 percent, at 1,492.62. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> was up 10.89 points, or 0.35 percent, at 3,154.06.

Both the S&P 500 and Dow Jones industrial average hit five-year closing highs on Tuesday, with recent gains largely fueled by a strong start to the earning season.

According to the latest Thomson Reuters data, of the 74 S&P 500 companies that have reported earnings so far, 62.2 percent have topped expectations, roughly even with the 62 percent average since 1994, but below the 65 percent average over the past four quarters.

Overall, S&P 500 fourth-quarter earnings rose 2.6 percent, according to Thomson Reuters data. That estimate is above the 1.9 percent forecast from the start of earnings season, but well below the 9.9 percent fourth-quarter earnings forecast from October 1, the data showed.

Republican leaders in the U.S. House of Representatives aim on Wednesday to pass a bill to extend the U.S. debt limit by nearly four months, to May 19. The White House welcomed the move, saying it would remove uncertainty about the issue.

The debt limit issue has hung over the market for weeks, with many investors worried that if no deal is reached to raise the limit, it could have a negative impact on the economy.

(Editing by W Simon and Kenneth Barry)

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IHT Rendezvous: Two Views on Liberal Arts

This week, the IHT education section takes a look at the liberal arts, the largely North American education system that emphasizes a broad base of learning. It is slowly making inroads in Europe and Asia, where university courses have traditionally been more narrowly focused.

In Hong Kong, I met with Rebecca Chopp, the president of Swarthmore College, a top liberal arts colleges in the United States. Professor Chopp was on a whirlwind Asia tour that also included Tokyo, Seoul, Taipei, Shanghai and Suzhou, China. Like most college presidents on the road, she was there to visit alumni, raise funds and recruit students. She was also in a position to explain the pluses of a liberal arts education in a region where it’s still a foreign concept. She said:

“Liberal arts is founded on a whole person, developing a person athletically and academically. Liberal arts is going international. The 21st century is one of entrepreneurship and innovation. There will not be fixed careers. The liberal arts teaches you to think outside the box.”

Here’s a tidbit that didn’t make it into my article: The first semester for every student at Swarthmore is pass/fail. You cannot get an A (or a D, for that matter). Professor Chopp was frank about her own less-than-stellar academic beginnings, so maybe she is particularly forgiving of freshmen who are finding their way. She said that this system encouraged risk-taking — not something all academically driven students are wont to do. With a pass/fail system an aspiring doctor can try an art class, with no fear that it will bring down his or her grade-point average, or an artist can try a science class.

Speaking of doctors, Professor Chopp addressed a common (and inaccurate) worry about the liberal arts: that they lead to impractical degrees in obscure subjects that don’t lead to good careers. She points out that Swarthmore graduates who apply to medical school have a higher-than-average chance of getting in (81 percent).

A private liberal arts college in the U.K.?

In London, D.D. Guttenplan visited the leafy campus of Regent’s College, which is something of an anomaly in Britain. Once it gets government approval, probably next month, Regent’s will be only the second private university in the country (after the University of Buckingham).

Regent’s is also different because it is structured something like a U.S. liberal arts college – with a looser curriculum, small-group teaching, points for speaking up in class and a very international student body. (Only 15 percent come from Britain.)

Lawrence Phillips, who heads Regent’s American College (one of its specialist schools), said in an interview:

“I came here out of specific concerns about the narrowness of British universities, producing business graduates who can’t write and historians who can’t count.”

Mr. Guttenplan also spoke to foreign students like Lisa Marie Nyvoll, who said, “In Norway, you only study a single subject, and I wanted something more flexible.” You can read the full article here.

The liberal arts model is shaped like an inverted pyramid — broad on top, and then tapering down to a point. The traditional European or Asian model is shaped like a telescope — narrow and focused all the way through.

By the middle of high school, most European or Asian students have chosen their field of study and are taking courses and exams that will get them into their desired course. Meanwhile, there are 19-year-olds in America still debating whether they want to major in chemistry and minor in music. Many students and parents I meet in Europe and Asia are surprised to hear that some American students don’t declare their majors until the end of their second year – about half-way through their four-year degrees.

Do private U.S.-style colleges have a place in Britain, which has its own proud academic culture? Which system better prepares students for the real world? One that gives students three years of intense study in one field? Or one that takes four years to produce literate scientists and numerate writers?

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Canada wants RIM organic growth, may have to review handset sale

OTTAWA (Reuters) – The Canadian government wants BlackBerry maker Research in Motion to continue to be a global leader and grow organically, and Ottawa may have to review a future sale of its handset business, Industry Minister Christian Paradis said on Tuesday.

“We hope to see RIM remain a global leader and player, and make sure it grows organically,” Paradis told Reuters by phone from Germany, where he is meeting with industrial leaders.

He also said the government did not intend at present to open up Canada’s telecommunications sector further to foreign investment.

(Reporting by Randall Palmer Editing by W Simon)

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Adrienne Maloof Steps Out with Sean Stewart

TV Watch
Buzz

By Tim Nudd

01/22/2013 at 10:00 AM EST

Adrienne Maloof and Sean Stewart

Splash News Online

After her bitter divorce battle, Adrienne Maloof is apparently getting back into the dating scene with a little help from rock royalty two decades her junior.

The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star, 51, has been getting close with Sean Stewart, 32, son of the legendary British rocker Rod Stewart.

"Adrienne is enjoying dating," a source close to Maloof tells PEOPLE.

The pair were spotted kissing as they left the Crustacean restaurant in Beverly Hills on Saturday. Maloof later told TMZ.com of their age difference: "Age is just a number."

She added: "It's about how good of a person you are. ... [Sean] is a very funny guy. He's very giving, he mentors at the mission, works with at-risk children, and gives his time and money to get children off the streets."

Stewart has had his share of bumps in the road, too. He appeared on season 2 of Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew after battling substance abuse.

The Stewart men have a thing for older women. Rod's first big hit, back in 1971, was "Maggie May," which told the autobiographical story of a young man involved with an older woman.

• Reporting by RAHA LEWIS

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Flu season fuels debate over paid sick time laws

NEW YORK (AP) — Sniffling, groggy and afraid she had caught the flu, Diana Zavala dragged herself in to work anyway for a day she felt she couldn't afford to miss.

A school speech therapist who works as an independent contractor, she doesn't have paid sick days. So the mother of two reported to work and hoped for the best — and was aching, shivering and coughing by the end of the day. She stayed home the next day, then loaded up on medicine and returned to work.

"It's a balancing act" between physical health and financial well-being, she said.

An unusually early and vigorous flu season is drawing attention to a cause that has scored victories but also hit roadblocks in recent years: mandatory paid sick leave for a third of civilian workers — more than 40 million people — who don't have it.

Supporters and opponents are particularly watching New York City, where lawmakers are weighing a sick leave proposal amid a competitive mayoral race.

Pointing to a flu outbreak that the governor has called a public health emergency, dozens of doctors, nurses, lawmakers and activists — some in surgical masks — rallied Friday on the City Hall steps to call for passage of the measure, which has awaited a City Council vote for nearly three years. Two likely mayoral contenders have also pressed the point.

The flu spike is making people more aware of the argument for sick pay, said Ellen Bravo, executive director of Family Values at Work, which promotes paid sick time initiatives around the country. "There's people who say, 'OK, I get it — you don't want your server coughing on your food,'" she said.

Advocates have cast paid sick time as both a workforce issue akin to parental leave and "living wage" laws, and a public health priority.

But to some business owners, paid sick leave is an impractical and unfair burden for small operations. Critics also say the timing is bad, given the choppy economy and the hardships inflicted by Superstorm Sandy.

Michael Sinensky, an owner of seven bars and restaurants around the city, was against the sick time proposal before Sandy. And after the storm shut down four of his restaurants for days or weeks, costing hundreds of thousands of dollars that his insurers have yet to pay, "we're in survival mode."

"We're at the point, right now, where we cannot afford additional social initiatives," said Sinensky, whose roughly 500 employees switch shifts if they can't work, an arrangement that some restaurateurs say benefits workers because paid sick time wouldn't include tips.

Employees without sick days are more likely to go to work with a contagious illness, send an ill child to school or day care and use hospital emergency rooms for care, according to a 2010 survey by the University of Chicago's National Opinion Research Center. A 2011 study in the American Journal of Public Health estimated that a lack of sick time helped spread 5 million cases of flu-like illness during the 2009 swine flu outbreak.

To be sure, many employees entitled to sick time go to work ill anyway, out of dedication or at least a desire to project it. But the work-through-it ethic is shifting somewhat amid growing awareness about spreading sickness.

"Right now, where companies' incentives lie is butting right up against this concern over people coming into the workplace, infecting others and bringing productivity of a whole company down," said John A. Challenger, CEO of employer consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

Paid sick day requirements are often popular in polls, but only four places have them: San Francisco, Seattle, Washington, D.C., and the state of Connecticut. The specific provisions vary.

Milwaukee voters approved a sick time requirement in 2008, but the state Legislature passed a law blocking it. Philadelphia's mayor vetoed a sick leave measure in 2011; lawmakers have since instituted a sick time requirement for businesses with city contracts. Voters rejected a paid sick day measure in Denver in 2011.

In New York, City Councilwoman Gale Brewer's proposal would require up to five paid sick days a year at businesses with at least five employees. It wouldn't include independent contractors, such as Zavala, who supports the idea nonetheless.

The idea boasts such supporters as feminist Gloria Steinem and "Sex and the City" actress Cynthia Nixon, as well as a majority of City Council members and a coalition of unions, women's groups and public health advocates. But it also faces influential opponents, including business groups, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, who has virtually complete control over what matters come to a vote.

Quinn, who is expected to run for mayor, said she considers paid sick leave a worthy goal but doesn't think it would be wise to implement it in a sluggish economy. Two of her likely opponents, Public Advocate Bill de Blasio and Comptroller John Liu, have reiterated calls for paid sick leave in light of the flu season.

While the debate plays out, Emilio Palaguachi is recovering from the flu and looking for a job. The father of four was abruptly fired without explanation earlier this month from his job at a deli after taking a day off to go to a doctor, he said. His former employer couldn't be reached by telephone.

"I needed work," Palaguachi said after Friday's City Hall rally, but "I needed to see the doctor because I'm sick."

___

Associated Press writer Susan Haigh in Hartford, Conn., contributed to this report.

___

Follow Jennifer Peltz at http://twitter.com/jennpeltz

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Wall Street flat near five-year highs, Travelers rallies

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks were little changed near five-year highs on Tuesday as investors held back from making large bets ahead of earnings from key tech companies.

Both the Dow and S&P 500 closed at their highest levels so far in this earnings season, with the gains largely coming on better-than-expected results. But despite bullish statements from major companies, many investors are worried economic uncertainty in the fourth quarter hurt earnings and revenues.

Weaker-than-expected economic data had little impact on stocks. Existing-home sales unexpectedly fell in December, dropping 1 percent, according to the National Association of Realtors. Analysts were looking for a rise of 1.2 percent.

Recently Apple Inc and Intel Corp gave weak outlooks, calling the tech sector' outlook into question. Three tech companies are due to report after the market's close: Google Inc, International Business Machines and Texas Instruments.

"Markets are quiet today with many investors taking a wait-and-see approach to tonight's tech earnings," said Douglas DePietro, managing director at Evercore Partners in New York. "There's still room for us to rise from here, but right now most of the action is in specific stocks."

Four Dow components reported early on Tuesday, and three rose on the results. Insurer Travelers Cos was the stand-out, climbing 3.4 percent to $78.90 as the S&P 500's biggest percentage gainer after it forecast higher premiums across its business.

DuPont, the largest U.S. chemical company by market capitalization, reported revenue that was ahead of Wall Street expectations, while Verizon Communications Inc also posted revenue that beat forecasts.

Shares of DuPont were up 0.6 percent at $47.24 while Verizon rose 0.3 percent to $42.67.

On the downside, Johnson & Johnson, the diversified health company, fell 0.5 percent to $72.87 after forecasting 2013 earnings below expectations.

The Dow Jones industrial average was down 6.07 points, or 0.04 percent, at 13,643.63. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was down 1.56 points, or 0.10 percent, at 1,484.42. The Nasdaq Composite Index was down 2.52 points, or 0.08 percent, at 3,132.19.

Monday was a market holiday for Martin Luther King Jr. Day in the United States. President Barack Obama at his inauguration for a second term on Monday called for aggressive action on climate change, economic equality and the federal budget.

Markets have recently been pressured by uncertainty stemming from Washington about the federal debt limit and spending cuts that could hamper U.S. growth.

Republican leaders in the House of Representatives said they aim to pass on Wednesday a nearly four-month extension of the U.S. debt limit, allowing the government to borrow enough to meet its obligations during that period.

Overall, S&P 500 fourth-quarter earnings rose 2.5 percent, according to Thomson Reuters data.

U.S. shares of Research in Motion jumped 8.2 percent to $17.13 a day after its chief executive said the company may consider strategic alliances with other companies after the launch of devices powered by RIM's new BlackBerry 10 operating system.

(Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Kenneth Barry)

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An Appointment With Kim Dotcom

Paul Spain is the host of the weekly NZ Tech Podcast, one of New Zealand’s leading locally produced podcasts and often appears on TV and video as a commentator on consumer and business technology topics.

AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND — It’s been said that Kim Dotcom is a villain. Many, particularly those in the film industry and law enforcement, believe it. To others, he is a hero standing up for the rights of Internet users everywhere.

[More from Mashable: Kim Dotcom’s Mega Begins Early Rollout]

I wanted to find out for myself where he stood.

I arrived at the Dotcom Mansion early Sunday afternoon New Zealand time. It was just a few hours after the launch of Kim Dotcom’s new website Mega.co.nz and one year since his mansion was raided and he was arrested by New Zealand police in conjunction with a U.S. request to extradite him.

[More from Mashable: Kim Dotcom’s Mega Loses Web Domain Before Debut]

A friendly Kim Dotcom greeted each of us in a small media gathering, before sitting at the head of the table flanked by Ira Rothken, his California-based attorney.

I expected a prepared statement. That wasn’t the case. Dotcom shared his excitement about the 250,000 Mega signups in the first two hours and soon led into Q&A session for the remaining 45-minutes. He proved to be extremely adept in the way he responded to questions, working effortlessly to position Mega as an innovator. He indicated a desire to help the film industry succeed in the world of digital downloads and streaming — rather than being just a company out to line its own pockets.

Dotcom’s opinions and arguments for his cause were strong and generally well thought out, though on occasion seemed less robust. For instance he suggested he’d found a great way films could be funded in the future. His concept involves studios signing up digital streaming distributors around the world to fund a movie ahead of its production.

He felt distributors might pay for streaming rights before production, thereby funding the production. Unfortunately, I feel revenues from streaming (now and for the foreseeable future) are typically so low this would only provide a small fraction of the funds needed to produce a movie. And who wants to risk paying up front for a movie that might be a flop?

When asked about whether he would stay in New Zealand if he succeeds in stopping his extradition to the U.S. later this year, he was non-committal. On one hand he said he loved the country but on another he was worried he’d be persecuted by authorities, and in that case he’d leave. He spoke of journalists, music and movie producers on their way to visit him being harassed by customs officials upon arrival in the country –- including strip searches and even a request to view the content of one visitor’s laptop. I’ve not been able to verify these rather extreme occurrences.

Dotcom has positioned Mega as a service that sits between Dropbox and his previous site Megaupload -– with the added benefits of end-to-end encryption. He and Rothken went to great lengths to highlight that Mega would operate entirely within the law.

Dotcom made little effort to suggest Mega would be less prone to being a haven to copyright materials than Megaupload was. It seems there will continue to be a game of cat and mouse afoot as Dotcom and authorities try to outwit each other.

(A full audio recording of the discussion will be available later today at NZ Tech Podcast.)

In a one-on-one setting with Dotcom, I tried to gain more understanding about the open source elements of the Mega service and his commitment to New Zealand. Interestingly he was reticent to provide solid answers to either question and provided what I felt were just pat answers aimed at fobbing me off.

As we left the compound mid-afternoon, we saw Kim on stage rehearsing for the evening performance he would lead, with the support of musicians, his co-accused and investors in the new Mega. That performance included a dramatization of the raid on his home one year before. It was a gathering filled with media from around the country and a few from abroad. In the public context he continued to sell Mega extremely well –- to the point where someone commented to me that the event at times felt like a religious or marketing conference.

Dotcom currently remains on bail until his extradition hearing due in September. Amongst those in attendance, it appeared widely accepted that the bid to extradite him from New Zealand to the U.S. is likely to fail because of mistakes made by law enforcement and New Zealand spy agency GCSB.

After my visit, I’m left with a number of fairly clear impressions about Kim Dotcom and Mega. How you take these will depend on which side of the fence you stand:

1. Mega’s management team is making every effort to operate in a manner that does not fall afoul of the law (though it could be argued they did the same with Megaupload).


2. Mega will be used to distribute copyrighted materials such as movies, TV shows and music -– though likely to a lesser extent than Megaupload did.


3. Kim Dotcom will continue to draw controversy and be outspoken about the rights of Internet users everywhere. He is not backing down.

Love him or hate him, Kim Dotcom is back in business and, if he’s to be believed, no fair court will be able to stop him.

Dotcom raid being re-enacted at the mansion.

Click here to view this gallery.

Photos by Paul Spain

This story originally published on Mashable here.

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Flu season fuels debate over paid sick time laws

NEW YORK (AP) — Sniffling, groggy and afraid she had caught the flu, Diana Zavala dragged herself in to work anyway for a day she felt she couldn't afford to miss.

A school speech therapist who works as an independent contractor, she doesn't have paid sick days. So the mother of two reported to work and hoped for the best — and was aching, shivering and coughing by the end of the day. She stayed home the next day, then loaded up on medicine and returned to work.

"It's a balancing act" between physical health and financial well-being, she said.

An unusually early and vigorous flu season is drawing attention to a cause that has scored victories but also hit roadblocks in recent years: mandatory paid sick leave for a third of civilian workers — more than 40 million people — who don't have it.

Supporters and opponents are particularly watching New York City, where lawmakers are weighing a sick leave proposal amid a competitive mayoral race.

Pointing to a flu outbreak that the governor has called a public health emergency, dozens of doctors, nurses, lawmakers and activists — some in surgical masks — rallied Friday on the City Hall steps to call for passage of the measure, which has awaited a City Council vote for nearly three years. Two likely mayoral contenders have also pressed the point.

The flu spike is making people more aware of the argument for sick pay, said Ellen Bravo, executive director of Family Values at Work, which promotes paid sick time initiatives around the country. "There's people who say, 'OK, I get it — you don't want your server coughing on your food,'" she said.

Advocates have cast paid sick time as both a workforce issue akin to parental leave and "living wage" laws, and a public health priority.

But to some business owners, paid sick leave is an impractical and unfair burden for small operations. Critics also say the timing is bad, given the choppy economy and the hardships inflicted by Superstorm Sandy.

Michael Sinensky, an owner of seven bars and restaurants around the city, was against the sick time proposal before Sandy. And after the storm shut down four of his restaurants for days or weeks, costing hundreds of thousands of dollars that his insurers have yet to pay, "we're in survival mode."

"We're at the point, right now, where we cannot afford additional social initiatives," said Sinensky, whose roughly 500 employees switch shifts if they can't work, an arrangement that some restaurateurs say benefits workers because paid sick time wouldn't include tips.

Employees without sick days are more likely to go to work with a contagious illness, send an ill child to school or day care and use hospital emergency rooms for care, according to a 2010 survey by the University of Chicago's National Opinion Research Center. A 2011 study in the American Journal of Public Health estimated that a lack of sick time helped spread 5 million cases of flu-like illness during the 2009 swine flu outbreak.

To be sure, many employees entitled to sick time go to work ill anyway, out of dedication or at least a desire to project it. But the work-through-it ethic is shifting somewhat amid growing awareness about spreading sickness.

"Right now, where companies' incentives lie is butting right up against this concern over people coming into the workplace, infecting others and bringing productivity of a whole company down," said John A. Challenger, CEO of employer consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

Paid sick day requirements are often popular in polls, but only four places have them: San Francisco, Seattle, Washington, D.C., and the state of Connecticut. The specific provisions vary.

Milwaukee voters approved a sick time requirement in 2008, but the state Legislature passed a law blocking it. Philadelphia's mayor vetoed a sick leave measure in 2011; lawmakers have since instituted a sick time requirement for businesses with city contracts. Voters rejected a paid sick day measure in Denver in 2011.

In New York, City Councilwoman Gale Brewer's proposal would require up to five paid sick days a year at businesses with at least five employees. It wouldn't include independent contractors, such as Zavala, who supports the idea nonetheless.

The idea boasts such supporters as feminist Gloria Steinem and "Sex and the City" actress Cynthia Nixon, as well as a majority of City Council members and a coalition of unions, women's groups and public health advocates. But it also faces influential opponents, including business groups, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, who has virtually complete control over what matters come to a vote.

Quinn, who is expected to run for mayor, said she considers paid sick leave a worthy goal but doesn't think it would be wise to implement it in a sluggish economy. Two of her likely opponents, Public Advocate Bill de Blasio and Comptroller John Liu, have reiterated calls for paid sick leave in light of the flu season.

While the debate plays out, Emilio Palaguachi is recovering from the flu and looking for a job. The father of four was abruptly fired without explanation earlier this month from his job at a deli after taking a day off to go to a doctor, he said. His former employer couldn't be reached by telephone.

"I needed work," Palaguachi said after Friday's City Hall rally, but "I needed to see the doctor because I'm sick."

___

Associated Press writer Susan Haigh in Hartford, Conn., contributed to this report.

___

Follow Jennifer Peltz at http://twitter.com/jennpeltz

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IHT Rendezvous: China's 'Lamborghini' Coefficient: Who's Getting Richer and Who Poorer?

BEIJING — Search the word Gini, or “jini,” for Gini coefficient, the well-known measure of income inequality, on China’s biggest microblogging site and the first result today was for Lamborghini, the Italian luxury sports car (in Chinese, the two words share a similar sound in the last part of the car’s name.)

That is very ironic because the Gini coefficient measures income inequality and the Lamborghini, which can set a buyer back $300,000, is not an uncommon sight on the streets of big Chinese cities, an object of resentment among ordinary people who view it as a symbol of how a few people are amassing tremendous wealth as many struggle with low incomes, low bank deposit rates, high property prices and persistent inflation.

In other words, income inequality in China is politically sensitive.

(The Gini index is a measure of household income inequality; zero represents perfect income equality and one, perfect inequality, a situation where one person would own all the wealth, as the World Bank explains.)

So last Friday, when the government announced China’s Gini coefficient figures for the first time in over a decade, there was excitement – and quite a bit of scorn – expressed online and in media reports as well as private conversations. Why?

According to the figures, China today is actually more equal than in 2003, the National Bureau of Statistics said.

From 2003, the Gini coefficient did indeed rise, the bureau said, from 0.479 to a high in 2008 of 0.491. But by 2012 the figure had dropped to 0.474, meaning China is a more equal society today than a decade ago – despite all those Lamborghinis on the street.

At a news conference, Ma Jiantang, the bureau director, called the rate nevertheless “relatively high,” Xinhua reported. “China must accelerate its income distribution reform to narrow the rich-poor gap,” Xinhua said.

Yet the government’s “effective measures” to “bring benefits for its people” after the gobal financial crisis began in 2008 had brought down the measure, it quoted Mr. Ma as saying.

To compare with the United States: In 2011, the Gini coefficient there was also high, at 0.477, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Xinhua quoted the United Nations as putting the “warning level” on the rich-poor gap at 0.4.

Yet in China this weekend, few believed the new figures.

Here are two lively reactions from microblogs, from a journalist and an economist who together have over six million followers:

“Please choose one: 1. Really, thank you Fatherland; 2. That’s a myth; 3. Not sure, but hurry up and increase my salary,” Shi Shusi, a journalist and social commentator, the director of the state-run Worker’s Daily Weekly, said on his Sina Weibo account to nearly 875,000 followers.

Xu Xiaonian, a professor of finance and economics at the China Europe International Business School, wrote on his Weibo account (5.5 million followers): “A journalist rang to ask me to comment on today’s macroeconomic figures. I’d have to be crazy to truthfully comment on false figures. That Gini coefficient, to use the words of Zheng Yuanjie,” a popular children’s story writer, “‘no-one would even dare to write a fairytale like that.’”

A different report, in December, by researchers at the Southwestern University of Finance and Economics in the city of Chengdu, put China’s Gini at 0.61 for 2010.

While people are by and large glad to see the government once again measuring the figure after a decade-long hiatus (which Mr. Ma explained last year was due to the fact that the government did not actually know what people in the cities were earning, as I explored in a Letter from China,) a major problem facing the government is the scale of people’s “hidden income,” estimated by the Beijing-based economist Wang Xiaolu several years ago to be about 9.3 trillion renminbi (nearly $1.5 trillion).

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Google says Wall Street estimates need adjusting

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Google Inc issued a rare advisory to Wall Street on Friday that analyst estimates for its fourth quarter financial results are flawed.

The world’s No.1 search engine, which reports its quarterly results on Tuesday, said most analysts have not adjusted their estimates to reflect the pending $ 2.35 billion sale of the Motorola Home business.

The business must be presented separately from the results of Google’s continuing operations under U.S. accounting rules, Google Treasurer Brent Callinicos wrote in a post on Google’s investor relations Web page on Friday.

“As of this writing, a majority of Wall Street analysts who cover Google have not reflected the Home business as discontinued operations in their estimates,” Callinicos wrote.

The discrepancy means the fourth-quarter net revenue that Google reports on Tuesday could appear to be less than the $ 12.34 billion average that analysts polled by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S are expecting.

Raymond James analyst Aaron Kessler says his fourth-quarter net revenue estimate includes nearly $ 900 million from the Motorola Home business.

“They’re saying that the headline number is going to be less than what most analysts have for Q4,” said Kessler.

The advisory is a rare move for Google, which does not provide financial forecasts and typically has limited interactions with analysts. The company has in the past provided accounting advisories to analysts about the Motorola Mobility business, which Google acquired for $ 12.5 billion in May.

Google bought Motorola Mobility primarily for its large portfolio of communications patents and its mobile phone business.

In December, Google agreed to sell the Motorola Home television set-top box business to Arris Group Inc for $ 2.35 billion in cash and stock.

Analysts expect Google to report adjusted earnings of $ 10.56 per share for the fourth quarter.

“It’s a little surprising that they’re doing this the Friday before the report,” said Kessler. “They should have put it out a week ago if they wanted analysts to change their numbers.”

(Reporting By Alexei Oreskovic. Editing by Andre Grenon)

Wireless News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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