Thieves stole more than $1 million worth of Apple products during a New Years Eve heist

As the world celebrated the New Year, masked men forced their way into an Apple (AAPL) retail store in Paris and made off with an estimated $1.32 million worth of iPads, iPhones and Macs, according to The Wall Street Journal. The suspects are said to have broken in through an employee entrance, slightly injuring a cleaner and a security guard. Apple products have been a hot commodity for thieves this year. In November, more than $1.5 million worth of iPad minis were stolen from a cargo building at John F. Kennedy airport, however the perpetrators were later arrested. The Apple Store heist is currently being investigated by French authorities

Read More..

Poll: Would you buy a blue, pink or yellow iPhone 5S?

A report issued by Topeka Capital Markets on Wednesday morning suggested that Apple (AAPL) has some big changes in store for the next-generation iPhone. According to analyst Brian White, the “iPhone 5S” will be available with two different screen sizes to help Apple better address emerging markets, marking the first time Apple offers a single smartphone model with multiple screen size options. In another first for Apple, White reports that the next iPhone will be available in three new colors — blue, pink and yellow — on top of black and white, which are both currently available. Apple’s most recent iPod touch is available with multiple color options and the new case on the iPhone 5 is aluminum, so it could certainly be anodized — but are consumers interested in different color options for the iPhone? Vote in the poll below and let us know if different iPhone colors would appeal to you.

Read More..

Egypt budget deficit expected to widen to 200 billion pounds: agency

 Egypt's budget deficit in the year to end-June 2013 could widen by 50 percent from the original forecast made in July, according to a figure released by the planning minister on Monday.
"The budget deficit is expected to rise to 200 billion Egyptian pounds ($31.5 billion) in the current fiscal year unless strict economic policies are put in place to confront it," the state news agency quoted Ashraf al-Araby as saying on Monday.
The 2012/13 budget released in July had forecast a deficit of 135 billion pounds compared to an actual deficit of 166.7 billion pounds for the previous year. Economists at the time said that forecast was optimistic.
President Mohamed Mursi earlier this month suspended a series of planned tax increases as the country prepared for a referendum on a contentious new constitution, which was passed on December 22.
The unpopular measures were deemed necessary to secure $4.8 billion Egypt is seeking from the International Monetary Fund, which wants Egypt to rein in its deficit.
The government said last week it would not implement the measures for at least two more weeks to give it time to explain them to different parts of society.
Prime Minister Hisham Kandil said on Sunday he expected talks with the IMF to resume in January.
Al-Araby predicted in November that this year's deficit would be 10.4 percent of gross domestic product, without stating the figure in pounds, up from the original forecast of 8 percent.

Read More..

Egypt's leader sees currency stabilising "within days"

 Egypt's pound fell to a record low on Monday as the president signalled his government would allow it to depreciate slowly for several more days to stop a drain on foreign reserves that has driven the economy into crisis since the fall of Hosni Mubarak.
Hit by a new bout of political turmoil in the last month, the pound had weakened to a record low on Sunday at a new dollar auction brought in by the central bank. It fell further at a second auction on Monday, last trading at 6.37 to the dollar on the interbank market.
The drop means the central bank has allowed the pound to slide by almost 3 percent over the last two days after limiting its decline to only 6 percent since the uprising that removed Mubarak from power almost two years ago.
The pound's fall, which is certain to increase the price of imported staples such as tea and sugar, underlines the economic crisis facing President Mohamed Mursi as his administration tries to contain the political fall-out of his move to fast-track a contentious new constitution passed into law last week.
Egyptians panicked by street clashes between Mursi's Islamist backers and his more secular-minded opponents on the streets of Cairo and other cities have rushed to change their pounds into dollars in recent weeks, fearing it would be devalued further.
"The market will return to stability," Mursi told Arab journalists on Sunday evening, the state news agency MENA reported.
The pound's fall "does not worry or scare us, and within days matters will balance out," he said.
Having just sold their last dollar bills, dealers at one Cairo foreign exchange bureau did not bother changing their price board when the new low appeared on their trading screens.
"He took our last dollars," said one of the traders, pointing to a man walking out of the door.
Outside, another man told a friend his dollar hunt had failed. "They have no dollars. What can I do?" he said by mobile phone. "I went to many dealers and could not find dollars."
The fall has been driven mainly by ordinary citizens who have been trying to turn their savings into foreign currency, worried that the pound will weaken further because of the latest political turmoil.
The crisis wiped 10 percent off the value of Egyptian stocks when it erupted in late November. But the main index has mostly recovered since then, climbing in the two sessions since the introduction of the new foreign currency system.
Market participants attribute the rise to buying by Arab and international investors using the cheaper pound to bargain hunt.
FREE FLOATING POUND
The auctions are part of a shift announced on Saturday and designed to conserve foreign reserves, which the bank says are now at "critical" levels that cover just three months of the food, fuel and other goods Egypt imports.
Bankers have described the new system as a move towards establishing a free market value for the pound, which has been tightly controlled since a managed devaluation which ended in 2004.
The head of the Egyptian banking federation said the new system was an "important first step" towards a free float.
In remarks to MENA, Tarek Amer, who is also chairman of Egypt's largest bank, state-owned National Bank of Egypt, said the new system was a success on its first day and had "significantly reduced" demand for dollars.
The central bank has sold about $75 million at each of Sunday's and Monday's auctions.
The run on the pound prompted officials last week to impose controls on how much cash could be physically carried out of the country. Security men at one Cairo bank branch had to remove one customer angered by a $10,000 limit on how much currency he could withdraw, witnesses said.
The changes announced on Saturday include regular foreign currency auctions and also limit how much foreign currency companies can withdraw at a time.
The central bank had spent more than $20 billion - or more than half of its reserves - over the past two years to defend the currency. The reserves fell by a further $448 million in November to about $15 billion.
Prices of imports have already started to rise. Pyramid Oil Field, a firm that imports chemicals for use in water treatment and oil fields, had put up its prices by 10 to 15 percent last week, fearing a further weakening of the pound.
"This instability obliges you to increase the price, to have a safety factor," said Ashraf el-Gamal, president and managing director of the company, told Reuters. "From now on, the contracts will be of a very short validity."
To be on the safe side, he was projecting that the pound would weaken to stand at 9 against the euro, compared to a previous level of 8.
ECONOMY FRAGILE
Prime Minister Hisham Kandil said on Sunday that the economy was in "a very difficult and fragile" situation, adding that he expected talks with the International Monetary Fund on a $4.8 billion loan to resume in January.
Egypt won preliminary approval in November from the IMF for the loan, but delayed seeking final approval until January after it suspended a series of tax increases to allow more time to explain a heavily criticized package of economic austerity measures to the public.
Kandil's efforts to revive the economy have been hit by the latest turmoil, which scared off tourists who had begun to return. On the eve of the anti-Mubarak revolt, Egypt's tourism industry accounted for one in eight jobs.
Mursi hoped that the passage of a new constitution would stabilise Egypt's politics, giving him space to implement economic reforms and attract investment. The constitution, written by Mursi's Islamist allies, was approved in a popular referendum in December.
But it remains the focus of controversy, and the opposition is likely to seize upon austerity measures demanded under an IMF deal as a stick to beat the Muslim Brotherhood ahead of a parliamentary vote expected in early 2013.
Two-fifths of Egypt's 84 million population live around the poverty line and depend on subsidies that are straining the treasury.
Gamal of Pyramid Oil Field said he knew of at least three foreign companies that were hesitant to make large investments in the country because of the instability.
"They are feeling insecure because of everything that is happening," he said. "One is looking to invest billions."

Read More..

Egypt budget deficit expected to widen to 200 bln pounds: agency

Egypt's budget deficit in the year to end-June 2013 could widen by 50 percent from the original forecast made in July, according to a figure released by the planning minister on Monday.
"The budget deficit is expected to rise to 200 billion Egyptian pounds in the current fiscal year unless strict economic policies are put in place to confront it," the state news agency quoted Ashraf al-Araby as saying on Monday.
The 2012/13 budget released in July had forecast a deficit of 135 billion pounds compared to an actual deficit of 166.7 billion pounds for the previous year. Economists at the time said that forecast was optimistic.
President Mohamed Mursi earlier this month suspended a series of planned tax increases as the country prepared for a referendum on a contentious new constitution, which was passed on December 22.
The unpopular measures were deemed necessary to secure $4.8 billion Egypt is seeking from the International Monetary Fund, which wants Egypt to rein in its deficit.
The government said last week it would not implement the measures for at least two more weeks to give it time to explain them to different parts of society.
Prime Minister Hisham Kandil said on Sunday he expected talks with the IMF to resume in January.
Al-Araby predicted in November that this year's deficit would be 10.4 percent of gross domestic product, without stating the figure in pounds, up from the original forecast of 8 percent.

Read More..

Nigerian forex reserves up 34.4 pct yr-on-yr by December 24

Nigeria's foreign exchange reserves rose 34.45 percent year-on-year to $44.25 billion by December 24, latest figures from the central bank showed on Monday.
The forex reserves of Africa's second biggest economy were down from their year peak of $44.64 billion on December 7. Reserves stood at $44.03 billion a month ago and $32.91 billion the same the same time last year.
Nigeria's central bank has been on a drive to increase foreign exchange reserves this year in a bid to protect Africa's biggest crude exporter from oil price shocks and to defend the naira currency.

Read More..

Markets calm despite looming fiscal cliff

Markets appeared Monday to take in stride the ongoing failure of U.S. politicians to agree to a budget deal in time to avoid automatic tax increases and spending cuts that many economists think could tilt the world's largest economy back into recession.
With just hours to go before the U.S. falls off the so-called "fiscal cliff," Republicans and Democrats remained divided over taxes and spending, raising the prospect that markets will start 2013 without a clear idea of America's budget policy.
Unless an agreement is reached and approved by Congress by the start of New Year's Day, more than $500 billion in 2013 tax increases will begin to take effect and $109 billion will be carved from defense and domestic programs.
Discussions in the Senate broke off Sunday night without agreement. Senators are due to reconvene at 11 a.m. EST (1600 GMT) to try to hammer out a deal before the deadline.
"With precisely zero headway made on the fiscal front resulting from the early weekend return by Congressional lawmakers, hopes are fast-fading of any sort of compromise before the end of 2012," said Andrew Wilkinson, chief economic strategist at Miller Tabak & Co.
However, it's not the first time that budget discussions in the U.S. have gone down to the wire only for a deal to be eventually reached.
Many investors remain confident that some sort of deal will be struck in time following positive noises coming out from late Sunday discussions between Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican, and Vice President Joe Biden, a Democrat.
Even if a deal is not reached in time, many investors think that the possible damage can be contained for a while at least.
A backup proposal that would address only a few issues is expected to be presented by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Democrat, if a bipartisan deal is not reached.
"It is likely that many of the fiscal cliff measures allow a certain amount of room within which the government can introduce measures to refrain from any tax increases," said Joshua Mahony, an analyst at Alpari.
The prospect of counter-measures to offset the "fiscal cliff" impact helps explain why markets were fairly calm in Europe and Asia, and Wall Street was poised to open higher on the last day of a year that's seen many indexes post strong gains, partly through rising hopes over Europe's 3-year debt crisis.
In Europe, the FTSE 100 index of leading British shares closed down 0.5 percent at 5,897.81. For the year as a whole, the FTSE ended 5.8 percent higher.
The CAC-40 in France closed 0.6 percent higher on the day at 3,641.07. In 2012, it rose 15.2 percent.
Those European indexes that were open only traded for half the day. Others, including Germany's DAX, were closed. The DAX was one of the world's best-performers in 2012 with its annual rise of 29.1 percent.
U.S. stocks opened solidly despite the "fiscal cliff" uncertainty, with the Dow Jones industrial average up 0.1 percent at 12,149 and the broader S&P 500 index up 0.4 percent at 1,407.
Despite the recent worries, U.S. stocks have had a strong 2012, with the Dow up around 6 percent so far and the S&P 11.5 percent higher.
Developments over the U.S. budget will likely be one of the big issues in financial markets in 2013, especially in the early part, alongside Europe's ongoing efforts to contain its debt crisis and the state of the Chinese economy, now the world's second biggest.
Clearly, the full imposition of the "fiscal cliff" measures would hobble the U.S. economy that has shown some signs of late of a more sustainable economic recovery. Waning U.S. economic growth would have an impact worldwide.
Some economists predict the effects of the "fiscal cliff" could eventually throw the U.S. economy back into recession — although if the deadline passes, politicians still have a few weeks to keep the tax hikes and spending cuts at bay by repealing them retroactively once a deal is reached.
Still, the failure to adhere to the deadline following weeks of squabbling and procrastination could be view negatively by the major credit rating agencies and weigh on investor confidence going into 2013.
"I think the market reaction to that will be very negative. This means the U.S. will never be able to bring its house in order. And the deficit will continue to accumulate," said Francis Lun, managing director of Lyncean Holdings in Hong Kong. "No meaningful reform and no solution in sight. You can throw confidence out of the window."
Earlier in Asia, the picture was fairly subdued in those markets that were open — among others, markets in Japan, were closed for the New Year's holidays. After a stellar performance in December, Japan's Nikkei ended the year almost 23 percent higher.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng, trading for a half-day, closed marginally lower at 22,656.92, to also end the year nearly 23 percent higher.
Mainland Chinese stocks rose Monday after a private survey showed the country's manufacturing growth at its strongest level in 18 months in December. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.5 percent to close at 4,648.90.
There was also a fairly calm atmosphere in other financial markets, with the euro down just 0.2 percent at $1.3190. Despite the endless debate over its future, the euro has actually ended the year modestly higher against the dollar.

Read More..