Financial thoughts

An Australian court has temporarily banned Samsung from selling its new Galaxy tablet computer in the country, another setback for the South Korean electronics giant in a global patent battle with Apple Inc. that accuses it of slavishly copying the iPad and iPhone.

Federal Court Justice Annabelle Bennett on Thursday granted a temporary injunction against sales of Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Australia. The decision prevents Samsung Electronics Co. from selling the device in Australia in its current form until a further court order, or until a pending patent lawsuit between the warring technology giants is resolved.

The ruling is a blow for Samsung, which had hoped to launch the new product in time for Christmas sales. It comes after courts in other countries including Germany and the Netherlands made judgments that upheld Apple’s claims that its intellectual property had been appropriated by Samsung.

The patent battle spanning 10 countries has underlined the perception of Samsung as an efficient imitator among technology companies rather than a pace setter. Over the years, the company has grown to become the global No. 1 in TVs and No. 2 in smartphones by sales. But unlike archrival Apple Inc., it has not mesmerized consumers with its originality and innovation.

In April, Cupertino, California-based Apple Inc. sued Samsung in the United States, alleging the product design, user interface and packaging of Samsung’s Galaxy devices “slavishly copy” the iPhone and iPad.

Suwon, South Korea-based Samsung Electronics Co No teletrack payday loans. fought back with lawsuits of its own, accusing Apple of patent infringement of its wireless telecommunications technology.

Apple filed the Australian lawsuit in July, accusing Samsung of copying its touch screen technology. In her ruling Thursday, Bennett said she was granting the temporary injunction in part because she felt Apple had a sufficient likelihood of winning the trial against Samsung.

The judge’s full orders will not be published until Friday. It was not immediately clear whether Samsung could _ or would _ attempt to sell a variation of the device that removed the features Apple objected to in the Australian lawsuit.

“We are disappointed with this ruling and Samsung will be seeking legal advice on its options,” Samsung said in a statement. “Samsung will continue its legal proceeding against Apple’s claim in order to ensure our innovative products remain available to consumers.”

Samsung, which filed its Australian countersuit in September, said it remained confident it could prove Apple violated its wireless technology patents.

“We will continue to legally assert our intellectual property rights against those who violate Samsung’s patents and free ride on our technology,” the company said in a statement.

An attorney for Apple declined to comment after the hearing.

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Russia’s influential finance minister resigned Monday following a televised confrontation with President Dmitry Medvedev, who had angrily demanded that Alexei Kudrin immediately explain his criticism of Medvedev’s policies or step down.

The open tension within Russia’s leadership follows the announcement over the weekend that Prime Minister Vladimir Putin plans to return to the presidency next year and Medvedev would then take his old job as prime minister. Russia will have a presidential vote despite the backroom maneuvering, but Putin is sure to win it.

The departure of Kudrin is likely to unsettle investors. He has been finance minister since 2000 and his tight hold over the budget has been seen as the key to Russia’s economic stability.

“It is difficult to see how Mr. Kudrin’s resignation can be anything but market-negative,” said Neil Shearing, chief Emerging Markets economist at Capital Economics Ltd in London. “With oil prices starting to slide and financial markets still jittery, now is not a good time for the government to lose its arch-fiscal hawk.”

Speaking over the weekend, Kudrin said he would refuse to serve if Medvedev was made prime minister because of disagreements over policy, including plans to substantially boost military spending.

Addressing Kudrin on Monday, Medvedev called the minister’s remarks “irresponsible chatter” and “improper,” especially since they were made in the United States while the minister was in Washington for meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

“If you disagree with the course set by the president and being implemented by the government, you have only one choice: Resign,” Medvedev said.

Kudrin said he would decide only after talking to Putin.

“You can seek the advice of whomever you want, but as long as I’m president, such decisions are made by me,” Medvedev retorted.

The Kremlin said Medvedev signed a decree on Kudrin’s resignation. Kudrin confirmed that he had quit in brief remarks reported by state news agencies.

Kudrin has been widely credited with helping Russia weather the 2008-2009 global financial crisis. During Putin’s presidency from 2000 to 2008, Kudrin stashed some of the revenue from Russia’s oil exports in a stabilization fund, despite strong opposition from other ministers who wanted to spend the money. But when the financial crisis hit and oil prices sank sharply those savings proved crucial in reducing the blow to Russia’s economy.

Some market analysts speculated that Kudrin’s departure could have a greater effect on Russia’s economy than the 2012 presidential election itself.

“It is unlikely that Mr. Kudrin’s replacement will share his predecessor’s credentials and clout,” Shearing wrote in a note to investors.

Before last weekend, Kudrin had been mentioned as a possible prime minister under Putin if Putin returns to the presidency.

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Consumers are spending more to fill their tanks, feed their families and pay the rent. At the same time, the number of people applying for unemployment benefits has reached the highest level in three months.

The latest government data show that inflationary pressures and a depressed job market are hurting an economy that barely grew in the first half of the year.

Higher prices could also keep the Federal Reserve from taking major steps to stimulate the growth next week when policymakers meet.

When prices rise, consumers cut back on big purchases, such as appliances, furniture and vacations. Mixed reports on manufacturing Thursday and flat retail sales in August suggest that may already be happening.

A decline in demand forces businesses to put off hiring and even lay off workers. In August, the economy added zero net jobs. Unemployment benefit applications have increased in three of the past four weeks.

“Unless spirits improve soon, businesses will ramp up layoffs, consumers will pull back, and the economy will fall back into recession,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics.

Consumer prices rose 0.4 percent in August, according to the Labor Department’s Consumer Price Index. Prices for food, energy, rent, and clothing all increased. Excluding volatile food and energy costs, core prices increased 0.2 percent.

Some inflation can be healthy for the economy because it encourages people to spend and invest rather than sitting on their cash. More spending drives corporate growth, which makes businesses more likely to hire people.

For the 12 months that ended in August, core prices surged 2 percent. That’s the biggest year-over-year increase in nearly three years, and it’s at the high end of the Federal Reserve’s informal inflation target.

Rising inflation is a key reason Macroeconomic Advisors lowered its growth estimate for the July-September quarter from 1.9 percent to 1.6 percent. The economic consulting firm said higher prices will reduce consumer spending.

Economists don’t expect prices to rise much further, mostly because employers aren’t hiring much or handing out big raises. Still, the spike in prices over the past year has cut into consumers’ pay and limited their purchasing power.

“In an environment where you’re now looking at zero job growth, it will be difficult to have much success passing on any additional costs,” said Tom Porcelli, chief U.S. economist at RBC Capital Markets.

Unemployment benefit applications rose to 428,000 last week, the Labor Department said in a separate report. And the four-week average, a less volatile measure, rose for the fourth straight week to 419,500, the highest level in eight weeks.

Applications need to fall below 375,000 to indicate that hiring is increasing enough to lower the unemployment rate. They haven’t been that low since February.

The unemployment rate stayed at 9.1 percent for the second straight month in August. It has been above 9 percent for all but two months since May 2009 _ one month before the recession officially ended.

U.S. factories have helped drive growth over the past two years. But manufacturing began to falter this spring, slowed by supply chain disruptions caused by the Japan crisis and diminished consumer demand.

Overall factory output rose in August for the second straight month, according to a report from the Federal Reserve. The gain was driven by strong auto production. Carmakers have rebounded over the past two months, mostly because supply chains are flowing more freely.

Many economists took that as a positive sign in the otherwise gloomy data.

Still, two regional surveys from Federal Reserve banks showed manufacturing contracted in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic this month.

“The common thread among all of today’s data is one of weakness,” Porcelli said.

The Fed will discuss additional stimulus measures at its two-day meeting next week. Most economists expect it will announce a plan to shift money out of short-term securities and into longer-term Treasury bonds. The move could lower rates on mortgages, auto loans and other consumer and business loans.

But some Fed officials are worried the Fed’s policies could push inflation higher. Last month, three board members opposed the Fed’s decision to keep interest rates near zero for the next two years, unless economic conditions changed dramatically. It was the first time as many members dissented from a decision in almost 20 years.

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke acknowledged last week that rising commodity prices had pushed up inflation this year. But he said it was likely to moderate in coming months.

There are some signs that core inflation, which the Fed pays close attention to, could level off soon. Cotton prices have come down from the spring, and clothing costs are expected to follow. New-car prices were unchanged for the second straight month in August, after rising earlier this year.

“The combination of disappointing growth but rising core inflation puts the Fed in a difficult situation,” said Michelle Meyer, an economist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

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AP Business Writer Daniel Wagner contributed to this report.

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Australia avoided recession with its economy growing 1.2 percent in the three months through June after shrinking in the previous quarter due to natural disasters at home and abroad, according to government figures Wednesday.

Storms and record flooding early this year destroyed crops worth billions of dollars on Australia’s east coast and disrupted coal and iron ore exports. Earthquakes also devastated two key Australian trading partners, Japan and New Zealand.

The economy expanded 1.4 percent in the year through June, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said. It contracted 0.9 percent in the January-March quarter. A recession is generally defined as two consecutive quarters of contraction.

Burgeoning demand from China and India for Australian minerals and energy carried Australia through the global financial crisis with only two quarters of contraction, the first in December 2008.

Treasurer Wayne Swan said the rebound from natural disasters added half a percentage point to growth in the three months through June, the strongest quarterly growth in four years.

“Despite being hit by the most costly natural disasters in our history, the Australian economy has continued to forge ahead of most others in the developed world,” Swan told reporters.

“Today’s figures send a really powerful message: that even the biggest natural disasters in our history and the worst global downturn in 50 years can’t knock us off course,” he said.

But the recovery in mining had not been as fast as the government had expected in May when Swan drafted the national budget for the current fiscal year that ends on June 30, 2012.

Some coal mines in Queensland state had yet to return to full production since they were inundated by flood water and rail connections to ports destroyed.

“The impact of the natural disasters has been bigger on our economy than we expected,” Swan said.

The government forecast in its May budget that flooding and cyclones in Australia combined with earthquakes in Japan and New Zealand had cut economic growth in the fiscal year to June 30, 2011 by 0.75 percentage point to a yearly figure of 2.25 percent. Swan said that year figure was down to 1.8 percent.

Flooding in eastern Australia since November killed 35 people, damaged or destroyed more than 35,000 houses and inundated crops as well as coal mines.

An earthquake devastated New Zealand’s second largest city, Christchurch, and killed at least 169 people on Feb. 22. Japan’s northeast coast was laid waste by an earthquake and tsunami on March 11, killing more than 25,000 people.

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A tropical depression far out in the Atlantic is forecast to become a hurricane this week, but it’s too early to know if it’ll strike the U.S. or anywhere else.

The new depression is forecast to become Tropical Storm Katia _ the name that replaced Katrina in the rotating storm roster because of the catastrophic damage from the 2005 storm. That could come early Tuesday.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said Monday the depression south of the Cape Verde Islands could reach hurricane strength Thursday, still far out in the Atlantic.

Hurricane Center spokesman Dennis Feltgen said it’s too early to know if it would hit the U.S.

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World stock markets rose Thursday as worries eased that the U.S. might be slipping toward recession, while the resignation of Steve Jobs _ the creative force behind Apple Inc. _ sent ripples through the technology sector.

Oil prices hovered above $85 a barrel. The dollar fell against the euro but was up against the yen.

European shares rose in early trading. Britain’s FTSE 100 was 0.4 percent higher at 5,227.99 and Germany’s DAX gained 0.9 percent to 5,732.91. France’s CAC-40 rose 1.1 percent to 3,172.51.

Wall Street was set to open higher, with Dow Jones industrial futures up 0.2 percent at 11,288. S&P 500 futures rose 0.1 percent at 1,173.80.

Asian markets got a boost from U.S. data showing a surge in demand for cars and planes in July that offered an unexpectedly upbeat sign of life in the world’s biggest economy.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 climbed 1.5 percent to close at 8,772.36. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was 1.4 percent higher to 19,744.50 as strong half-year earnings from China National Offshore Oil Corp. and Bank of China Ltd. on Wednesday boosted sentiment.

South Korea’s Kospi rose 0.6 percent to 1,764.58 and Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 was 1.1 percent higher at 4,212.80. Benchmarks in Singapore, Indonesia and Thailand also gained, while indexes in Taiwan, India and the Philippines dropped.

Shares of Asian technology companies that are direct competitors of Apple rose though the gains weren’t dramatically out of line with broader market movements.

Samsung Electronics Co. rose 2.4 percent following a court ruling in the Netherlands involving the company’s ongoing global patent fight with Apple over smartphone and tablet technology and news of Jobs’ departure. The court ruling Wednesday was seen as largely positive for Samsung.

Lee Min-hee, an analyst at Dongbu Securities in Seoul, said that Samsung could ultimately benefit from the departure of Jobs as it may erode Apple’s competitiveness in marketing and product development.

“I think it’s a good impact on Samsung Electronics in competition,” Lee said.

Samsung is both a supplier of components to Apple as well as a competitor in smartphones and tablet computers.

The resignation of Jobs, who is widely credited with turning an ailing Apple into a phenomenally successful technology company, appears to be the result of an unspecified medical condition for which he took a leave from his post in January online cash advance.

Apple’s chief operating officer, Tim Cook, was quickly named CEO of the company Jobs co-founded in his garage 35 years ago and which nowadays is known for hit consumer gadgets such as the iPhone and iPad.

Taiwan’s FoxConn Technology Co., which makes the iPhone and iPad for Apple at a massive manufacturing campus in southern China, plummeted 7 percent.

Mainland Chinese shares saw their biggest gain in 10 months with the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index adding 2.9 percent to 2,615.26 while the Shenzhen Composite Index gained 1.9 percent to 1,166.79. Shares in financial, coal and real estate companies led the advance.

Property shares benefited from speculation that China’s central bank might raise down payment requirements on some home loans, which would reduce the risk of default.

“Real estate is still a good form of investment, so property companies gained today,” said Liu Kan, an analyst at Guoyuan Securities, based in Shanghai.

Poly Real Estate gained 5.4 percent while property industry leader China Vanke gained 3.4 percent.

In other sectors, mining shares were down as gold prices came off their recent highs amid improved economic news. Hong Kong-listed Zijin Mining Group, China’s largest gold miner, lost 2.7 percent. Australia’s Newcrest Mining Ltd. dropped 2 percent.

Stronger durable goods orders resulted in Wall Street reversing course to close with gains Wednesday.

The Dow added 1.3 percent to 11,320.71. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose 1.3 percent to 1,177.60. The Nasdaq rose 0.9 percent to 2,467.69.

The U.S. Commerce Department said orders for durable goods rose 4 percent in July, much better than the 2.4 percent increase economists had expected. The rise in orders was due to higher demand for autos and aircraft.

Benchmark oil for October delivery was up 45 cents to $85.62 in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Crude lost 28 cents to settle at $85.16 on Wednesday. In London, Brent crude for October delivery was up 71 cents to $110.86 on the ICE Futures exchange.

In currencies, the euro rose to $1.4457 from $1.4421 in late trading Wednesday in New York. The dollar was up at 77.06 yen from 77.01 yen.

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Asian stocks moved higher Friday after investors starved of positive economic news latched onto a slight drop in U.S. unemployment claims to propel Wall Street dramatically higher.

Global markets have fluctuated wildly this week as signs the U.S. might be headed toward recession rattled investors already unnerved by Europe’s worsening debt crisis.

Oil prices hovered above $85 a barrel amid the stock market rally. The dollar held steady against the yen and rose against the euro.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 stock average was up 0.2 percent 8,997.55 and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 1.3 percent to 19,857.62. South Korea’s Kospi was 0.7 percent higher at 1,829.27.

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 gained 1.2 percent to 4,191.80, while benchmarks in New Zealand, the Philippines and mainland China also rose.

On Thursday, the Dow Jones industrial average shot higher following news that the U.S. job market might have gotten a little better. The Labor Department reported that the number of people applying for unemployment benefits fell below 400,000 last week for the first time since April.

That was enough to catapult Wall Street to one of its biggest points gains of all time. The Dow finished at 11,143.31, up 423.37 points, or about 4 percent. It had already fallen 634 points Monday, risen 429 Tuesday and fallen 519 Wednesday. Never before has the Dow had four 400-point swings in a row.

The S&P 500 finished up 4.6 percent and the Nasdaq composite index climbed 4.7 percent.

“Buyers moved into the market to snap up beaten-down blue chips and a stronger-than-expected unemployment claims figure eased some concern about the slowing economy,” said Ben Potter, strategist at IG Markets in Melbourne.

Markets also were soothed after France, Italy, Spain and Belgium jointly banned short-selling on select stocks. The practice, while legitimate, has been blamed for contributing to market volatility.

The European Union’s markets supervisor, the ESMA, announced the measure late Thursday following two days of market gyration that saw French banks’ market value fall and rise by billions of euros.

The stocks of French banks have been hammered because of concerns they will be hit with massive losses from European sovereign debt they hold. One European nation after another has struggled with debt, with Spain and Italy the latest.

The leaders of Germany and France announced they will meet Tuesday to discuss the financial crisis on the continent.

France is trying to assure financial markets that it will not be downgraded from AAA. Standard & Poor’s rating agency stripped the United States of its top-notch AAA credit rating last Friday.

Benchmark crude for September delivery was down 48 cents to $85.24 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Crude rose $2.83 to finish at $85.72 on Thursday.

In currencies, the dollar was stable at 76.83 yen. The euro dropped to $1.4197 from $1.4216 late Thursday in New York.

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HSBC said Sunday it will sell 195 retail bank branches, most located in upstate New York, to First Niagara Bank in a deal worth about $1 billion.

The sale is part of HSBC’s strategy, presented to investors in May, to shift focus away from retail banking to commercial and corporate banking, and to target investment in high-growth economies.

HSBC, which is still dealing with the legacy of bad loans in the U.S. from the 2002 acquisition of consumer lender Household International Inc., said in May that it intended to trim its costs by up to $3.5 billion within three years.

The companies expect the all-cash transaction to be completed early next year. First Niagara, a unit of First Niagara Financial Group Inc. of Buffalo, N.Y., said in a statement that it expects to retain most of the 1,900 workers currently employed by the affected banks.

HSBC Bank USA, a subsidiary of British banking company HSBC Holdings PLC, operates more than 470 bank branches in the U.S., including about 370 in New York. It has total assets of $197 billion through its retail, commercial, global and private banking segments and its wealth management divisions.

The 195 banks being sold represent about $15 billion in deposits, and HSBC will receive a premium of 6.67 percent of the deposits transferred when the deal closes, the company said in a statement. Based on May 31 figures, that would be about $1 billion.

When the deal is completed, First Niagara expects to have $38 billion in assets, $30 billion in deposits and 450 branches in Pennsylvania, upstate New York and New England.

The sale involves 183 branches in upstate New York, four in Westchester County, N.Y, two in Putnam County, N.Y., and six in southern Connecticut. The retail banks will remain open during the transition. HSBC will continue to provide commercial banking services in the region.

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Eight of 90 banks have flunked stress tests that project how they would fare in another recession, and 16 more barely passed, Europe’s banking regulator said Friday.

The failing banks should “promptly” take steps to strengthen their financial cushions against losses, the European Banking Authority said as it released the results.

The banks that barely passed may also face pressure to strengthen their finances along with the ones that failed.

The EBA lacks the power, however, to force banks to raise more capital _ whether from investors or governments _ or to make them merge or sell businesses. Only their national governments can do that.

The tests are a key element in fighting Europe’s debt crisis. Officials want to identify weak banks and make them strengthen their finances so they could survive a possible default on government bonds by Greece or another heavily indebted country.

The test, run by national banking regulators, simulated what would happen to bank finances during a recession where growth falls more than 4 percentage points below EU forecasts. For the 17-country eurozone, that would be a drop of 0.5 percent this year and 0.2 percent next year.

Some said the tests were not tough enough because they did not include a scenario in which Greece defaults on its government bonds. That is considered a key risk for Europe’s economy.

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Saint John is in the grips of the most sensational crime to come along in decades, a senior source in New Brunswick legal circles said Wednesday.

The grisly murder of high profile businessman Richard (Dick) Oland — a one-time beer executive with Moosehead — is the talk of the Maritime city with many wondering when an arrest is going to be made.

“The Olands are a big deal with Saint John. The only ones that would trump them are the Irvings,” the source said, referring to the legendary Irving oil family.

Oland’s body was discovered nearly a week ago in his Saint John office and as of Tuesday still no warrant had been issued for the arrest of the person or persons involved in the axe murder, the Toronto Star has learned.

“There have been no applications for any kind of warrant for anything,” said the source, adding on Wednesday that that was not a particularly good sign.

“They may get it solved but we are a long ways into it now and there doesn’t seem to be a whole lot going on,” the source said. “The case could break wide tomorrow but as each day lapses the trail goes colder and colder and the person who is the perpetrator will be so much more difficult to be interviewed successfully.”

Saint John Police Chief Bill Reid issued a brief statement Wednesday in which he refused once again to comment on how Oland was murdered. The Star reported Tuesday he was bludgeoned to death with an axe.

“The Saint John Police Force will not be commenting on any media reports; only those which we have released or authorized,” Reid stated. “Information respecting the manner of death and any apparent motive, suspects or persons of interest must remain with the investigational team at this time faxless cash advance.”

Reid said the department’s first obligation was to the family of Richard Oland, and the integrity of the investigation, a statement that was seen by some as being in deference to the family.

“That’s in deference to a very high profile New Brunswick family,” the source said.

Norm McFarlane, former mayor of Saint John, said people there are “devastated” by Oland’s death and patiently waiting for someone to be arrested “and get what they deserve.”

Oland was a member of the family that owns Moosehead Breweries Ltd., but left the company in the 1980s.

In a strange twist, Joel Levesque, a spokesperson for Moosehead Breweries in Saint John, contacted the Star to complain that Oland’s connection with Moosehead should not be a focus of the story and even suggested that people were confusing Richard with his brother Derek, Moosehead’s owner and executive chairman.

“While there is certainly a family connection between the late Mr. Oland and the brewery that deserves mention and cannot be denied, it definitely should not be the focus of headlines and stories,” said Levesque, who described himself as a senior public affairs counsel.

“I would like to point out that Richard Oland left Moosehead in 1981 and put his association with the brewery behind him,” Levesque said. “Most of his accomplishments as a business and community leader have taken place since that time. People are confused about the connection, with some even thinking it is Richard’s brother Derek, Moosehead’s owner and executive chairman, who is dead.”

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