Nidhruvi blog

Futures higher on Caterpillar results, data eyed

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Stock index futures were slightly higher on Thursday, a day after the S&P 500 closed at a 29-month high as several bellwether companies reported strong results.

Three Dow components posted quarterly results early Thursday, including Procter & Gamble Co (PG.N), AT&T Inc (T.N) and Caterpillar Inc (CAT.N).

Heavy machinery maker Caterpillar climbed 2.6 percent to $98.27 before the bell after its profit topped consensus expectations.

Profits at AT&T and P&G also beat estimates, but fell from a year ago. AT&T's wireless subscriber growth was below the consensus view.

AT&T fell 2.9 percent to $27.91 premarket, while P&G lost 2.8 percent to $64.24.

"The results from these major companies look pretty good, and that gives us a clue as to what we can expect in the first half of 2011," said Kim Caughey Forrest, senior equity research analyst at Fort Pitt Capital Group in Pittsburgh.

Overseas, ratings agency Standard & Poor's cut Japan's long-term debt rating by one notch to AA minus, saying the government lacked a coherent plan to tackle its mounting debt.

"A lot of people didn't believe that a country with as big an export base as Japan could be downgraded, and this is complicating the whole story line of how we should handle our own debt situation," Caughey Forrest said.

S&P 500 futures rose 1.5 points and were above fair value, a formula that evaluates pricing by taking into account interest rates, dividends and time to expiration on the contract. Dow Jones industrial average futures added 22 points, and Nasdaq 100 futures rose 5 point.

Initial jobless claims are seen rising to 405,000 in the latest week, an increase of 1,000 from the previous week. Data on December durable goods, which are seen rising, is also expected. December pending home sales data will come later in the morning.

A pair of Nasdaq stalwarts will report results after the bell. Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) is seen posting a dip in profit, while Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O) is expected to report impressive fourth-quarter sales.

On Wednesday, gains in technology and commodity shares helped lift markets as investors largely ignored the U.S. Federal Reserve's lukewarm assessment of the economy. The Dow hit the 12,000 level for the first time since June 2008, though it later fell below that level.

(Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)

Europe debt fears drag the euro below $1.30

LONDON – Worries that Portugal or even Spain will have to seek outside help to deal with their debts sent the euro below $1.30 on Tuesday for the first time since mid-September.

In Europe, the FTSE 100 index of leading British shares was down 18.36 points, or 0.3 percent, at 5,532.59 while Germany's DAX fell 25.09 points, or 0.4 percent, at 6,672.88. The CAC-40 in France was 32.39 points, or 0.9 percent, lower at 3,604.6753.

Wall Street was poised for further declines at the open — Dow futures were down 106 points, or 1 percent, at 10,933 while the broader Standard & Poor's 500 futures fell 10.60 points, or 0.9 percent, at 1,175.90.

Europe's debt crisis again dominated the markets' focus, with the bond markets in particular considering the likelihood of further bailouts, following the weekend's euro67.5 billion ($89 billion) rescue package for Ireland.

Although Portugal is widely considered to be the most at risk of a bailout given the size of its debts relative to its economy, the major worry in the market is a possible bailout for Spain.

Most analysts think European authorities can handle bailing out the relative minnows of Greece, Ireland and Portugal but Spain — at around 12 percent of the eurozone economy — would be different matter altogether.

The Spanish yield on ten-year bonds rose another 0.16 percentage point Tuesday to 5.58 percent, while Portugal's was up 0.07 at 7.10 percent.

"The question of whether Portugal will get a bailout of its own seems to have been swept aside as investors ponder whether the authorities can afford to pre-emptively bailout Spain as they look well into the distance to review how much debt the local banking system has coming due over the next 12 months," said Andrew Wilkinson, senior market analyst at Interactive Brokers.

Even Italy and Belgium appeared to be affected by the tensions. Italy's yield was up 0.10 percentage point to 4.74 percent and Belgium's rose 0.11 percentage 0.11 to 3.97 percent.

In light of these bond market jitters, the euro was again sold off heavily.

By mid-afternoon London time, the euro was trading a further 1 percent lower on the day at $1.2987, having fallen as low as $1.2968. That was the first time it had fallen below $1.30 since Sept. 16.

Trading across financial markets will likely be complicated by the month's end, when investors square off positions, but most analysts think December will continue to be dominated by Europe's debt crisis.

"Traders certainly won't be taking their eyes off the somewhat perilous state of the eurozone, and this is certainly going to cast a shadow over December," said Anthony Grech, head of research at IG Index.

The other theme in the markets is the quickening pace of the U.S. economic recovery following encouraging Black Friday retail sales figures. Black Friday is the day after Thanksgiving, the unofficial start to the Christmas shopping season, when retailers dream about profits — "being in the black."

The National Retail Federation, a trade group, estimated that 212 million shoppers visited stores and websites during the first weekend of the holiday season, up from 195 million last year.

Given the fairly buoyant anecdotal evidence, traders are keen to see if the monthly consumer confidence survey from the Conference Board later Tuesday surprises to the upside. The consensus in the markets is that the main index rose to 53 in November from October's 50.2.

Earlier in Asia, Chinese shares trimmed some losses after volatile trading that took the Shanghai benchmark down 3.4 percent at one stage on worries over fresh inflation-fighting measures. However, the Shanghai Composite Index closed down 1.6 percent to 2,820.18 while the Shenzhen Composite Index for China's smaller, second exchange fell 2.4 percent to 1,307.83.

Soaring prices in China, the world's No. 2 economy, are so far limited mostly to food, but analysts say price pressure could spread to other areas unless Beijing hikes interest rates and further tightens credit. Investors worry that might slow economic growth or reduce the amount of money flowing through the economy that is helping to finance stock trading.

Japan's Nikkei 225 stock average dropped 1.9 percent to close at 9,937.04 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 0.7 percent to 23,007.99. Australia's S&P/ASX200 index shed 0.7 percent to 4,584.4.

The Nikkei's slump came after government figures that showed Japan's factories cut production for the fifth straight month in October, although the decrease wasn't as bad as expected. Unemployment worsened slightly and consumer spending fell in October, adding to Japan's struggle to keep its nascent economic recovery alive.

Benchmark oil for January delivery was down 78 cents to $84.95 a barrel at late afternoon Singapore time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

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Associated Press writer Pamela Sampson in Bangkok contributed to this report.

Kansas football player D.J. Marshall beats cancer

LAWRENCE, Kan. – For coaching, the Kansas Jayhawks have Turner Gill. For inspiration, Gill and everyone else connected with the program has D.J. Marshall, a living example of courage and grace in the face of danger.

Near the once-promising defensive end's collarbone is a scar where doctors removed a swollen lymph node and discovered cancer. Another scar on his chest marks the spot where surgeons implanted a small port to deliver chemotherapy.

It wasn't just Marshall's football career that was threatened. When he was diagnosed a year ago this month with Hodgkin's lymphoma, his life seemed in danger, too.

But after six months of painful treatment and a year of prayer, Marshall's recovery appears complete. Even though there are no guarantees he'll regain enough physical strength to play football again, he crossed one more important threshold this week when he finally rejoined his teammates at practice.

"I'm excited for him. I know he's excited about it. And he's looking forward to moving on to the future," Gill said. "It's been an inspiration for everybody to know that you have hope. You don't ever give up, you always get back up and keep going again. You keep believing, you have faith. You have faith in your doctors, you have faith in your family, you have faith in your teammates, you have faith in your coaches. He's demonstrated that."

After the ordeal that has so radically changed his outlook on life, football doesn't seem nearly so important to Marshall anymore.

But most importantly, the cancer he battled for a year now "just feels like another bump in the road," he said.

It started with a bump on his shoulder. Team doctors told Marshall not to worry, so he ignored it. But when fall practice opened, something felt wrong. He lost 35 pounds. He was getting tired too easily and couldn't keep up with teammates.

Coaches at first were critical. They told him to quit getting distracted by girls.

"I had people tell me I was the worst scholarship player here," he said, "and that I was giving the least amount of effort, that I was never going to play."

He went to Lawrence Memorial Hospital looking for answers and had a biopsy. He was in a car with his parents, who had driven up from Mesquite, Texas, when the call came. He had Hodgkin's lymphoma.

D.J's mother broke down. Then D.J. broke down. They weren't sure what Hodgkin's was, but they knew it was a form of cancer.

"Just the fact that someone tells you it's cancer, you feel like it's life and death automatically," Marshall said.

He began treatment at Cancer Treatment Centers of America in Tulsa, Okla., in November 2009. Dr. George River, a medical oncologist at the center, gave him an encouraging prognosis — 77 percent chance of recovery.

"I'm going to send you through hell, but you can make it out," Marshall recalls being told.

Once every two weeks, he would drive from Lawrence to Tulsa for eight hours of chemotherapy and physical therapy.

The pain from chemotherapy felt like "the worst arthritis ever," he said. After each treatment, every bone in his body would ache for days. His resolve during the 12 treatments amazed Dr. River, who was used to hearing patients whine and complain.

"It was a rough treatment. He got banged up," Dr. River said. "But he never lost faith, he never lost his enthusiasm."

David Marshall was there for every treatment. He says it felt as though he was watching his son grow from a boy to a man.

"He really showed me how mature he was in the way he handled this," the elder Marshall said.

Heather Marshall drew strength from watching her son make his stand.

"I saw a part of him, a strength in him that I hadn't seen before," she said.

As if chemotherapy wasn't enough, Marshall was also taking 21 credit hours — a rare course load for a member of the football team. But classwork helped take his mind off the pain and the worry about what might happen if treatment didn't work.

"When he told me he had 21 hours, it just kind of put my mouth to the ground," said Joe Semple, Marshall's roommate and teammate. "I couldn't believe that he was putting this workload on himself."

As the hospital visits progressed, the drives to Tulsa became harder and harder. Only constant support from friends, family and caregivers carried him through, Marshall said.

But in May, he reached the finish line. Doctors told his father D.J. was done with treatment.

"We went to the chapel on the second floor and just sat there for about 10 minutes thanking God for getting us to this point," David Marshall said. "You can't put into words how it feels."

Marshall does not dwell on the triumph of his recovery. He has new dreams, different goals. Before, it was all about making the NFL. Graduating was hardly on his mind.

Now he talks about teaching after graduation. Maybe getting a master's degree. Maybe owning his own business. He also wants to meet Mark Herzlich, the Boston College linebacker who was treated for bone cancer last year. It would be nice to talk to someone who can relate.

Cancer survivors among college football players are rare.

"I just feel like my mind is so much different than everyone else's," Marshall said.

Of course, football is also in the near future. The months he took off from training were the longest he'd been away from the sport since he first started playing at 8 years old.

If everything works out, he could be on the field next April for the Jayhawks' spring game.

"I've seen him play in spring games and stuff like that," his father said. "But when he makes his first college football game, it's going to be something for me."

Vitamin D Shortage Not Tied to Stroke Deaths in Blacks: Study

SUNDAY, Nov. 14 (HealthDay News) -- New research suggests that vitamin D deficiency does not boost stroke death rates among black patients, even though it appears to double the risk for whites.

The authors expressed some surprise at the findings, given that prior research has revealed that blacks are overall more prone to vitamin D deficiency and more likely to experience a stroke, compared with white patients. Blacks also have a 60 percent higher risk of dying from a stroke than whites, they added.

"We thought maybe the lower vitamin D levels might actually explain why blacks have higher risks for stroke," study author Dr. Erin Michos, an assistant professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, said in a news release from the American Heart Association. "But we did not find the same relationship between vitamin D and stroke in blacks."

Michos and his colleagues are slated to present their findings Monday at the American Heart Association annual meeting in Chicago.

Stroke is the third most common cause of death in the United States, the authors noted.

Their analysis stems from a review of health records of approximately 8,000 adults obtained from the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey of Americans (NHANES-III) conducted between 1988 and 1994.

Almost 7 percent of the white patients were vitamin D-deficient, compared with more than 32 percent of the black participants. Whites with too little Vitamin D had twice the risk of dying from stroke as whites with adequate levels of the vitamin, which is obtained from fortified dairy products, fatty fish and exposure to sunlight.

The findings held up even after accounting for a host of socioeconomic and stroke risk factors, such as a history of diabetes, high blood pressure, cholesterol, body-mass index, smoking, physical activity and/or alcohol use.

Blacks could have a natural resistance to the negative effects of vitamin D deficiency, Michos said. This could explain why blacks have fewer bone fractures than whites, despite the higher incidence of low vitamin D levels, Michos added.

More information

For more on vitamin D, visit the U.S. National Institutes of Health.

Iraqi president: I won't sign Aziz death order

PARIS – Iraqi President Jalal Talabani says he won't sign off on a death penalty sentence against Tariq Aziz, seen by many as the international face of Saddam Hussein's government.

"I cannot sign an order of this kind because I am a Socialist," Talabani told France 24 TV, in an interview aired Wednesday. "I feel compassion for Tarik Aziz because he is a Christian, an Iraqi Christian."

"In addition, he is an elderly man — aged over 70 — and this is why I will never sign this order," Talabani said in Arabic through a translator.

The 74-year-old Aziz was the highest-ranking Christian in Saddam Hussein's inner circle. He was convicted and sentenced to death by hanging on Oct. 26 for his role in persecuting members of the Shiite religious parties that now dominate the country.

Aziz has already been convicted in two other cases, receiving a combined 22 years in prison. In an interview with The Associated Press this summer, Aziz predicted he would die in prison.

In the long-running case for which he received the death penalty, Aziz was accused of being part of a campaign of persecuting, killing and torturing members of the Shiite opposition and religious parties banned under Saddam. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is a member of one of the religious parties central to the case.

The death sentence came two months after Aziz was transferred from U.S. to Iraqi custody. Under Iraqi law, Aziz had 30 days to appeal the death sentence.

Aziz's supporters have argued that he was not responsible for the crimes he's accused of but is being persecuted simply because he was a member of Saddam's regime.

The pursuit of criminal cases against former members of Saddam's regime demonstrates the deep hatred that exists even today among the country's current Shiite leadership and within the Shiite population as well.

Although Aziz was not Sunni, his death sentence as well as the death sentences against other figures of Saddam's regime is seen as a form of persecution against the country's Sunni minority.

Some Western officials including Italy's foreign minister have urged Iraq to call off the death penalty for Aziz.

Talabani was speaking in Paris, where he attended a meeting of the Socialist International this week.

France is "delighted" with Talabani's decision, in keeping with its call for the abolishment of the death penalty around the world, French Foreign Ministry spokesman Bernard Valero said.