Tech, banks take US stocks higher

NEW YORK — U.S. stocks rose Monday as big technology companies like Apple continued to rally. Investors bought stocks and sold bonds and gold after Congress agreed to a deal that will keep the government operating for the rest of the fiscal year.

Tech companies have set the pace all year and are up more than twice as much as the rest of the market. Apple and Facebook, which will report their first-quarter results in the next few days, helped lead the way.

Investors were relieved that the threat of a government shutdown appears to have been averted, so they bought riskier stocks and sold government bonds, gold, and high-dividend stocks.

The S&P 500 index picked up 4.13 to close at 2,388.33. The Dow Jones industrial average lost 27.05 to 20,913.46 as Boeing and IBM lagged.

Thanks to the tech gains, the Nasdaq composite rose 44 to 6,091.60, and set another record high. The Russell 2000 index of small-company stocks gained 6.93  to 1,407.36.

Court won’t revisit net neutrality ruling

WASHINGTON — A federal appeals court says it won’t reconsider its ruling to uphold the government’s “net neutrality” rules that require internet providers to treat all online traffic equally.

The decision Monday means the rules favored by consumer groups but despised by telecom companies will remain in place. But the Trump administration has signaled that it intends to scrap the Obama-era policy.

A divided three-judge panel ruled 2-1 last year to preserve regulations that ban service providers from favoring some content over others. 

Cable and telecom industry companies like Comcast, Verizon and AT&T say the rules threaten innovation and undermine investment in broadband infrastructure.

Consumer spending flat for 2nd month

WASHINGTON — U.S. consumers cut back sharply on buying durable goods such as automobiles in March, leaving overall spending unchanged for a second straight month. A slowdown by consumers was a major reason overall economic growth slowed so sharply over the winter.

Consumer spending was unchanged in March after also being flat in February and posting only a modest rise of 0.2 percent in January, the Commerce Department reported Monday. For the January-March quarter, the sharp slowdown in consumer spending was a key reason growth, as measured by the gross domestic product, slowed to an annual rate of just 0.7 percent, the poorest performance in three years.

Economists believe growth will bounce back in the current April-June period, helped by continued strong job gains, rising wages and increased consumer confidence. Many analysts are looking for a second quarter surge to growth of 3 percent or better and they are forecasting growth for the entire year of around 2.3 percent, up from 1.6 percent GDP growth in 2016, the poorest showing in five years.

Reports: Fox New pursues Tribune

NEW YORK — Fox News owner 21st Century Fox and a New York investment firm are in talks to buy TV station operator Tribune Media, according to several reports.

A successful bid would keep Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc., another TV station operator that is also reportedly pursuing the company, from snatching up Tribune. Blackstone, a private equity firm, is said to be putting cash toward creating a joint venture, while 21st Century Fox would contribute some TV stations, according to the reports.

21st Century Fox owns and operates the Fox network, FX cable channel and 28 TV stations. Adding Tribune would give 21st Century Fox control over more local TV stations, most of them in major cities. Tribune owns or operates 42 stations across the nation, including WPIX in New York, KTLA in Los Angeles and WGN in Chicago. It also has stakes in the Food Network and job-search website CareerBuilder.

Several of the stations that Tribune owns are affiliated with Fox and air the network’s primetime shows such as “Empire” and “The Simpsons.”

Tribune, Twenty-First Century Fox Inc. and Blackstone declined to comment Monday. The possible deal was first reported by the Financial Times.

Factories grow at slower pace in April

WASHINGTON — American factories grew for the eighth straight month in April but at a slower pace than in March.

The Institute for Supply Management, a trade group of purchasing managers, said Monday that its manufacturing index slipped to 54.8 from 57.2 in March and 57.7 in February. The April reading was weaker than economists expected and was the lowest since December’s 54.5. But it was still solid: Anything above 50 signals that manufacturing is growing.

Bradley Holcomb, chair of the ISM’s manufacturing survey committee, noted that every monthly reading in 2017 has been higher than any reading in 2016. “We’re still in very, very good shape,” he said.

New orders and hiring grew more slowly in April, but production and export orders sped up.

Construction spending slips in March

WASHINGTON — U.S. builders trimmed construction spending slightly in March, one month after building activity hit an all-time high.

The Commerce Department says construction spending slipped 0.2 percent in March to a seasonally adjusted $1.218 trillion.

In February, it rose 1.8 percent to a record high of $1.22 trillion. The small decline in March reflected drops in nonresidential construction and in the government sector, which offset a strong increase in residential activity.

Residential construction was up 1.2 percent to the highest level since June 2007, a period dating back to the housing boom of the past decade. Nonresidential building fell 1.3 percent in March as spending on office buildings and the category that covers shopping centers both fell. Government activity dropped 0.9 percent with weakness in the state and local level.

Airbnb strikes deal with San Fran

SAN FRANCISCO — San Francisco and Airbnb have reached a deal to end a lawsuit over a law that fines the company for booking rentals not registered with the city.

Under the settlement announced Monday, residents looking to list a rental can apply for a city registration number through Airbnb’s website.

The company will provide a monthly list of all San Francisco listings to the city, so officials can verify that units are registered. Airbnb will deactivate listings after the city notifies it of an invalid registration.

Critics complain Airbnb’s business model encourages landlords to take already scarce rentals off the market. Supporters say they couldn’t live in San Francisco without the extra money made in rentals.

City Attorney Dennis Herrera calls the deal a “game changer” in protecting the housing supply.

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An investor checks stock information on his mobile phone in front of an electronic board showing stock information at a brokerage house in Beijing, February 16, 2016.[Photo/Agencies]

The total revenue and net profit of listed A-share companies in 2016 registered double-digit year-on-year growth as supply-side structural reform deepened and many upstream companies reduced overcapacity.

All 3,204 companies listed on the Shanghai and Shenzhen bourses completed releasing their annual reports by April 30.

The revenue of the listed companies totaled 32.5 trillion yuan ($4.7 trillion) last year, increasing 10.2 percent year-on-year; their net profit totaled 2.8 trillion yuan, increasing 11.2 percent year-on-year, according to Choice, an information service provider owned by Eastmoney.com.

A total of 2,195 A-share companies in 2016 achieved positive net profit growth year-on-year, and 620 saw their net profit double.

“The good result was achieved because of China’s supply-side structural reform and improvements in the global economy,” said Li Shuguang, a law professor at China University of Political Science and Law, who is specialized in the stock market.

Li said China pushed forward with reduction of overcapacity, destocking and deleveraging, which was good for listed companies, especially upstream companies in the coal and steel industries.

Companies in upstream and midstream industries such as coal, steel, chemical, construction and building materials, made the largest improvement in business performance. For example, A-share listed steel companies made a loss in the first quarter of last year and became profitable in the following three quarters.

Dong Dengxin, a finance professor at Wuhan University of Science and Technology, said upstream companies such as in the coal and steel industries effectively reduced overcapacity with policy encouragement in the second half of 2016.

“But they will again face the challenge of overcapacity this year,” said Dong.

The net profit growth of companies in industries, such as mechanical equipment, public utilities and finance declined in 2016.

The performance of listed companies on the main board of the Shanghai and Shenzhen bourses was steady and good, and the revenue and net profit of companies on the small and medium-sized enterprise board and ChiNext board achieved high growth.

The revenue of main board companies last year totaled 28.7 trillion yuan, increasing 6.7 percent year-on-year; their net profit totaled 2.4 trillion yuan, increasing 4.3 percent year-on-year.

The revenue of SME board companies in 2016 increased 22.4 percent comparing with that in 2015, and their net profit increased 36 percent year-on-year.

ChiNext board companies achieved 33.2 percent growth in revenue and 36.7 percent growth in net profit.

Dong said the first-quarter performance of Chinese A-share listed companies in 2017 would be weaker than their overall performance in 2016 because of the new pressure on upstream companies and the slow growth of the Chinese banking industry.

Hong Hao, chief strategist at BOCOM International Ltd, said the revenue and net profit of Chinese listed companies would see slower growth in 2017, but internet companies with new technology would be bright spots in the economy.

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NEW YORK, May 1, 2017 /PRNewswire/ —  Pomerantz LLP is investigating claims on behalf of investors of  Intra-Cellular Therapies, Inc. (“Intra-Cellular” or the “Company”) 
                                    ITCI, -24.10%
                                           Such investors are advised to contact Robert S. Willoughby at rswilloughby@pomlaw.com or 888-476-6529, ext. 9980.

The investigation concerns whether Intra-Cellular and certain of its officers and/or directors have engaged in securities fraud or other unlawful business practices. 

[Click here to join a class action]
On May 1, 2017, Intra-Cellular reported that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration had raised questions “relating to certain findings observed in nonclinical animal toxicology studies” of lumateperone, the Company’s proposed schizophrenia treatment, and “requested additional information to confirm that the nonclinical findings are not indicative of a safety risk associated with long term exposure in humans.” 

On this news, Intra-Cellular’s share price has fallen as much as $5.97, or 43.2%, during intraday trading on May 1, 2017.

The Pomerantz Firm, with offices in New York, Chicago, Florida, and Los Angeles, is acknowledged as one of the premier firms in the areas of corporate, securities, and antitrust class litigation. Founded by the late Abraham L. Pomerantz, known as the dean of the class action bar, the Pomerantz Firm pioneered the field of securities class actions. Today, more than 80 years later, the Pomerantz Firm continues in the tradition he established, fighting for the rights of the victims of securities fraud, breaches of fiduciary duty, and corporate misconduct. The Firm has recovered numerous multimillion-dollar damages awards on behalf of class members. See www.pomerantzlaw.com

        CONTACT:Robert S. Willoughby  
Pomerantz LLP  
rswilloughby@pomlaw.com
To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/shareholder-alert-pomerantz-law-firm-investigates-claims-on-behalf-of-investors-of-intra-cellular-therapies-inc–itci-300448811.html
SOURCE  Pomerantz LLP

Copyright (C) 2017 PR Newswire. All rights reserved

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The Islamic Research and Training Institute (IRTI) and the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) organized a regional consultation workshop on Sukuk Model Law project.
The workshop was organized in partnership with the Monetary Authority of Brunei Darussalam (AMBD) and was held in Brunei capital.
It was aimed to identify the best practices from the South East Asian experience with Sukuk, as well as to understand the challenges for countries in the region aspiring to issue Sukuk.
Participants included senior officials of financial authorities from the IDB member countries in the ASEAN region, namely Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Bangladesh and Maldives, as well as from Hong Kong, South Korea, Singapore, Philippines, Sri Lanka and Cambodia.
Specialist law firms, banks, academics and consultants with expertise in Islamic finance also participated in the event.
Speaking during the event, IRTI Director General Prof. Mohamed Azmi Omar said: “Facilitating IDB member countries in mainstreaming and creating an enabling environment for Islamic finance is a key part of IDB’s mandate. The Sukuk Model Law project is expected to contribute significantly in harnessing the global best practices and expertise to create a global benchmark and toolkit for Sukuk issuance.”
The project aims to create a model Sukuk law and guidelines that allow IDB member countries and other jurisdictions a basis for a legal framework for Sukuk issuance and regulation.
This was the second of four regional consultations on the Sukuk law. The first regional consultation was held in Dakar, Senegal, in partnership with the Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO) in January. Two more regional consultations are planned for Europe/Central Asia and the MENA regions.

The Islamic Research and Training Institute (IRTI) and the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) organized a regional consultation workshop on Sukuk Model Law project.
The workshop was organized in partnership with the Monetary Authority of Brunei Darussalam (AMBD) and was held in Brunei capital.
It was aimed to identify the best practices from the South East Asian experience with Sukuk, as well as to understand the challenges for countries in the region aspiring to issue Sukuk.
Participants included senior officials of financial authorities from the IDB member countries in the ASEAN region, namely Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Bangladesh and Maldives, as well as from Hong Kong, South Korea, Singapore, Philippines, Sri Lanka and Cambodia.
Specialist law firms, banks, academics and consultants with expertise in Islamic finance also participated in the event.
Speaking during the event, IRTI Director General Prof. Mohamed Azmi Omar said: “Facilitating IDB member countries in mainstreaming and creating an enabling environment for Islamic finance is a key part of IDB’s mandate. The Sukuk Model Law project is expected to contribute significantly in harnessing the global best practices and expertise to create a global benchmark and toolkit for Sukuk issuance.”
The project aims to create a model Sukuk law and guidelines that allow IDB member countries and other jurisdictions a basis for a legal framework for Sukuk issuance and regulation.
This was the second of four regional consultations on the Sukuk law. The first regional consultation was held in Dakar, Senegal, in partnership with the Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO) in January. Two more regional consultations are planned for Europe/Central Asia and the MENA regions.

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Schools are locked into contracts that force them to pay high prices for minor items, such as £2,000 for a sink and £8,000 for a window blind.

Private Finance Initiative (PFI) contracts include what are called life-cycle costs. These mean schools keep paying for minor items throughout the duration of a PFI contract. Over years, even modest payments add up to large amounts.

One teacher told the Times Educational Supplement, “We have an annual PFI bill of £132,478. We have been paying £88 a year for the installation of a new sink for 14 years now. With nine years left on the PFI contact, that sink will cost £2,024.”

A blind for a room at Bristol Metropolitan Academy will end up costing £8,154 under the PFI contract. Oasis Academy Brislington, also in Bristol, will pay £2,211 for a water tap.

National Audit Office started an investigation with a focus on schools. It was originally due to conclude in summer, but this has been deferred after the announcement of the general election.

The investigation found that Newman RC College, a secondary school in Oldham, was charged £48 for security guards to open the premises to allow pupils to use the toilet before a trip. The same school had to pay more than £400 for caretakers to fit notice boards.

PFI investors make profits from contracts that run for decades. They make money from not only charging interest on repayments but also from schools paying for services such as security, cleaning and maintenance, in annual payments called unitary charges.

Anything that falls outside the contract, such as a new fire extinguisher or changing the use of a room, usually results in extra charges.

Every state school in England would have to pay more than £1 million to clear the debt owed to PFI companies that built new schools.

Taxpayers had already paid £7.5 billion in unitary charges for school PFIs to the end of 2014-15.

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‘Don’t vote for me’ candidate of the week

In Scotland the Tories are embroiled in an embarrassing row with one of their own local election candidates over whether he agreed to stand.

Thomas Williamson will be on the ballot paper when voters in the Shetland Island’s Lerwick North ward vote for their councillors.

But the man, “Skerries Tom”, has told the Shetland Times that he never agreed to be a Tory candidate—and has asked residents not to vote for him.

He said he had received a phone call from some “buggers doon sooth”—a Tory official asking whether he would stand as a paper candidate in order to boost their national vote share.

This was a tactic that the local paper said hadn’t been employed on the islands by parties before.

Williamson said the conversation was obscured by a “crackling line” and that he had been cut off, only discovering that he was a candidate when the official notice of the poll was published. He called his candidacy a “cock up”.

The Tories insist he did agree to stand.

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Tories back sexist bosses’ dress codes

The Tories have quietly pushed to one side demands that employers should not be allowed to force women to wear heels in the workplace.

“We are clear that the law to deal with this sort of discrimination is adequate,” a government spokesperson claimed, citing the 2010 Equalities Act.

Nicole Thorp initiated a parliamentary petition after being sent home from the PwC accountancy firm, where she was temping, for not wearing heels to work. The petition was signed by 152,000 people.

The 2010 Act is vague and open to vast interpretation, leaving the door open to sexist employers.

It states that bosses can’t make “significantly more demands” on women workers than on men when it comes to dress codes.

And there’ll be little change as long as the Tories are in government—another reason to get rid of them.

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Owen Jones uses Tory spin doctor’s service

Owen Jones has launched a crowd funding operation. The apocalyptically titled “Stop A Tory Landslide Fund” was raising cash for Labour candidates—though which ones was unclear. There are many crowd funding sites available, but Jones chose the site founded and run by former Tory spin doctor Steve Hilton.

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Blair’s hopefully slight return?

Tony Blair has said he “almost feels motivated” to return to frontline politics to fight Brexit, as he urged voters to back pro-EU candidates of any party. Brexit is now “bigger than party allegiance”. Since being responsible for the murder of a million Iraqis didn’t get him kicked out of Labour, Troublemaker presumes calling for voting for parties other than Labour won’t either.

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The three Tory policy stooges

Meet the men writing the Tory manifesto.

• Millionaire Tory MP George Freeman claimed £7,000 in taxpayer’s cash for hotel stays despite owning a £600,000 flat a mile from Westminster. He defended cuts to Personal Independence Payments, saying benefits must be reserved for “really disabled people”.
  

  George Freeman (Pic: Policy Exchange/Wikicommons)

• Privately educated Tory cabinet minister Ben Gummer, whose Tory Lord father John Gummer sent him to the £9,386-a-term Tonbridge School.

• Former Lehman Brothers spin doctor John Godfrey, who spent 20 years working in the City before being made Theresa May’s head of policy.

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New Lockerbie appeal chance

The family of the man convicted of the 1988 Lockerbie bombing is to launch a fresh attempt to clear his name.

Files would be handed to the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC) within the next two weeks.

The SCCRC will decide whether there are grounds to refer the case to the appeal court.

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The things they say

‘BP portrait award shortlist offers up all-female line-up’

The Guardian newspaper describes a line-up of images of women—not by them

‘She asked if she could walk across my lawn and I said no, not really’

Graham Mills from Dudley doesn’t let Theresa May walk on his grass

‘Had second old school Tory MP— in all seriousness —refer to the Prime Minister as “mummy” on the phone. That’s twice in a week’

The Sun’s Harry Cole has the inside scoop on Tory MPs

‘You can’t rule out the use of nuclear weapons as a first strike ‘

Defence minister Michael Fallon

‘I am unlikely to live to see another Labour government’

The former Labour leader Lord Kinnock isn’t optimistic about the general election

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Social media firms are “shamefully far” from tackling illegal and dangerous content, says a parliamentary report.

Hate speech, terror recruitment videos and sexual images of children all took too long to be removed, said the Home Affairs Select Committee report.

It called for a review of UK laws and stronger enforcement around illegal material.

And the government should consider making the sites pay to help police what people post, it said.

The cross-party committee took evidence from Facebook, Twitter and Google, the parent company of YouTube, for its report.

It said they had made efforts to tackle abuse and extremism on their platforms, but “nowhere near enough is being done”.

‘Meaningful fines’

The committee said it had found “repeated examples of social media companies failing to remove illegal content when asked to do so”, including terrorist recruitment material, promotion of sexual abuse of children and incitement to racial hatred.

It said the largest firms were “big enough, rich enough and clever enough” to sort the problem out, and that it was “shameful” that they had failed to use the same ingenuity to protect public safety as they had to protect their own income.

• Social media firms face huge hate speech fines in Germany
• Facebook, Twitter and Google grilled by MPs over hate speech

The MPs said it was “unacceptable” that social media companies relied on users to report content, saying they were “outsourcing” the role “at zero expense”.

Yet the companies expected the police – funded by the taxpayer – to bear the costs of keeping them clean of extremism.

The report’s recommendations include:

• The government should consult on requiring social media firms to contribute to the cost of the police’s counter-terrorism internet referral unit
• It should also consult on “meaningful fines” for companies which failed to remove illegal content within a strict timeframe, highlighting proposals in Germany which could see firms fined up to £44m and individual executives £5m
• Social media companies review urgently their community standards and how they are being interpreted and implemented

“Social media companies’ failure to deal with illegal and dangerous material online is a disgrace,” said committee chairwoman Yvette Cooper.

“They have been asked repeatedly to come up with better systems to remove illegal material such as terrorist recruitment or online child abuse.

“Yet repeatedly, they have failed to do so. It is shameful.”

Ms Cooper said the committee’s inquiry into hate crime more broadly was curtailed when the general election was called and their recommendations had to be limited to dealing with social media companies and online hate.

Home Secretary Amber Rudd said she expected to see social media companies take “early and effective action” and promised to study the committee’s recommendations.

Facebook, Twitter and Google did not respond to a BBC request for comment on the committee’s findings.

The firms had previously told the committee that they worked hard to make sure freedom of expression was protected within the law.

Child protection fines

Last week, the NSPCC called for fines for social networks which failed to protect children.

NSPCC chief executive Peter Wanless said social media sites should face penalties if children saw inappropriate material.

He also said the government should consider age-rating sites in the same way as the British Board of Film Classification rates films.

Internet companies’ voluntary regulations on child protection were “not up to scratch” , he said.

“Online safety is one of the biggest risks facing children and young people today and one which the government of the day needs to tackle head on,” he added.

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By RASNA WARAH
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