US stocks fall on broad concern about Europe

A trader rushes across the floor of the New York Stock Exchange Monday, March 25, 2013. U.S. stock markets are opening higher after Cyprus clinched a last-minute bailout that saved it from bankruptcy. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

A trader rushes across the floor of the New York Stock Exchange Monday, March 25, 2013. U.S. stock markets are opening higher after Cyprus clinched a last-minute bailout that saved it from bankruptcy. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Trader Edward Curran, center, works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange Monday, March 25, 2013. U.S. stock markets opened higher after Cyprus clinched a last-minute bailout that saved it from bankruptcy. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Trader Peter Mancuso, left, works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange Monday, March 25, 2013. U.S. stock markets opened higher after Cyprus clinched a last-minute bailout that saved it from bankruptcy. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Trader James Riley, right, works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange Monday, March 25, 2013. U.S. stock markets opened higher after Cyprus clinched a last-minute bailout that saved it from bankruptcy. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Specialist Mario Picone, left, works with traders at his post on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange Monday, March 25, 2013. U.S. stock markets are opening higher after Cyprus clinched a last-minute bailout that saved it from bankruptcy. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Stocks reversed an early rise on Wall Street Monday as traders returned to worrying about the European economy.

Optimism about a deal to prevent financial collapse in Cyprus had briefly pushed the Standard & Poor's 500 index to within a quarter-point of its record closing high, but stocks soon turned negative.

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq composite index both closed down 0.3 percent. The Dow Jones industrial average slipped 0.4 percent.

Stocks turned negative about an hour into the trading day Monday as the initial euphoria about Cyprus' deal to secure 10 billion euros in emergency funding was overshadowed by renewed concerns about the European economy.

The fear intensified after a top European official indicated that investors in struggling banks may be forced to take losses ? an element of the Cyprus agreement that had previously been seen as unique to that country.

All ten industry groups in the S&P 500 closed lower, with industrial and materials companies posting the biggest losses. Network technology company VMware Inc. dove after the website Business Insider reported that PayPal and eBay will remove its software from 80,000 servers. The stock fell $3.65, or 4.6 percent, to $76.50.

Among the biggest drags on the S&P 500 index were software maker Red Hat Inc., online marketplace eBay Inc. and Textron Inc., an aerospace and defense contractor.

Europe still needs a long-term economic fix, said David Kelly, chief global strategist at J.P. Morgan Funds. Business activity in the 17 nations using the euro has declined continually since September 2011, according to research by Markit, a data provider. The region's economy shrank 0.6 percent in 2012, according official government statistics.

Business activity in nations that use the euro contracted more quickly in March, according to Markit's closely-watched survey of purchasing executives, which was published Thursday. The index had its worst decline in four months.

European policy makers have avoided a financial crisis by flooding the market with cash, but they haven't addressed economic hardship on the ground, Kelly said. In granting Cyprus' emergency rescue, for example, lenders demanded economic reforms, debt payments and a banking overhaul that will result in heavy losses for bank bondholders and shareholders. In addition, people with more than 100,000 euros in their accounts will lose up to 40 percent of their deposits.

Kelly said that's tough to swallow for people facing high unemployment and government cutbacks in Greece, Italy, Spain and other countries that received bailouts.

"If they're going to end up broke anyway," Kelly said, it will be "harder and harder for people to make the sacrifices that Europe is demanding of them." That could lead voters in bailed-out countries to resist lenders' terms, increasing political and economic instability in Europe and weighing on global markets, he said.

That concern intensified Monday after a key official indicated that the Cyprus rescue may serve as a model in other nations with struggling banks.

"If the bank can't do it, then we'll talk to the shareholders and the bondholders, we'll ask them to contribute in recapitalizing the bank, and if necessary the uninsured deposit holders," said Jeroen Dijsselbloem, who chairs meetings of finance ministers from nations that use the euro, in an interview with the Financial Times and Reuters. Dijsselbloem's office confirmed the remarks.

Wall Street had opened higher, following gains in Europe and Asia. Traders were relieved that international lenders agreed early Monday to release emergency rescue funds for Cyprus. The European Central Bank will continue to support the nation's foundering banks. In exchange, Cyprus will take major steps to shrink its troubled banking industry and cut its budget.

At first, the deal to save Cyprus' banks erased the latest source of anxiety for investors, who have traded for more than three years under the cloud of a debt crisis in Europe. The fear is that a heavily indebted country will default on its financial obligations and be forced to exit the shared currency. That could cause the region to unravel, deepening the recession there and roiling international financial markets.

Concern about Cyprus last week pushed U.S. stock indexes to only their second weekly loss this year. Investors watched closely as the small, Mediterranean island scrambled to satisfy its lenders and prevent its banks from collapsing.

Traders expect more turbulence from Europe before the crisis has been resolved, said Anthony Conroy, head trader at ConvergEx Group, which provides technology to support big traders like investment advisers and hedge funds. Given the uncertainty, it's not surprising that stocks would veer between positive and negative, he said.

"When you have concern, you have volatility, and you're seeing volatility in here," Conroy said.

European stocks were up when Wall Street opened Monday, but turned lower shortly after Wall Street's gains evaporated. France's CAC-40 closed down 1.1 percent, London's FTSE 100 fell 0.2 percent and Germany's DAX lost 0.5 percent.

Earlier, Asian stocks closed mostly higher on optimism about the Cyprus deal.

The S&P 500 closed down 5.2 points at 1,551.69. The loss was offset in part by big jumps for Apollo Group Inc. and McGraw-Hill Cos. Computer maker Dell Inc. also supported the index as a bidding war broke out among investors who want to take the company private.

The Dow fell 64.28 points to 14,447.75. The Nasdaq dropped 9.7 to 3,235.30.

As the final week of trading this quarter kicks off, the indexes are holding onto most of the gains built during the long rally earlier this month. The Dow is up 10 percent, the S&P 500 nearly nine percent.

Conroy expects stocks to maintain their recent gains as short-term dips draw more traders into the market. Kelly agreed, noting that stocks typically decline in the last week of a strong quarter, as investors seek to lock in their gains.

Among the companies making big moves:

? Apollo Group soared after the for-profit education company said its quarterly net income exceeded Wall Street's expectations. The stock rose $1.21, or 7.1 percent, to $18.25.

? Dollar General's quarterly net income rose as the operator of discount stores attracted more customers and sold more goods. The stock rose $1.01, or 2 percent, to $51.08.

? Dell rose 37 cents, or 2.6 percent, to $14.51. The company received competing bids from activist investor Carl Icahn, who offered $15 per share for a majority stake; and buyout firm Blackstone Group, which proposed a deal worth $14.25 per share. Founder Michael Dell had been in talks to take the company private for about $13.65 per share.

? McGraw-Hill Cos. rose strongly after it said it will resume an accelerated share buyback program capped at $500 million. The media company will use cash generated by the recent sale of its education business. Its stock rose $1.66, or 3.4 percent, to $50.03.

___

Daniel Wagner can be reached at www.twitter.com/wagnerreports .

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-03-25-Wall%20Street/id-36c650d937a84e39a3eeee9bef11dab1

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Rand Paul rising: 2016 in sight? (+video)

Sen. Rand Paul is getting lots of attention since his filibuster on drones and his enthusiastic reception at the Conservative Political Action Conference.?Can he convert that into a serious run for the presidency?

By Brad Knickerbocker,?Staff writer / March 23, 2013

U.S. Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) at National Harbor, Maryland, March 14. In a speech before the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce March 19, Paul unveiled his immigration policy and outlined his platform for reform.

Kevin Lamarque/REUTERS

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Rand Paul is the junior US senator from Kentucky, a medical doctor from Bowling Green who never held elective office until two years ago.

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Yet Senator Paul ? a libertarian Republican like his father, former congressman Ron Paul ? is getting more attention than any of the other would-be presidential candidates at the moment.

It was announced this week that Paul will headline the Republican Party of Iowa?s annual ?Lincoln Dinner? in May. That?s Iowa, where precinct caucuses early in a presidential election year kick off the selection of delegates to the party convention. It?s a big deal.

?Senator Rand Paul?s 13-hour filibuster earlier this month caught the attention of Republicans across the nation who are seeking GOP leaders who will stand up to Barack Obama,? Iowa Republican Party Chairman A.J. Spiker told the Washington Post. ?As the ?First in the Nation? state, we immediately extended an invite to Senator Paul to allow him to introduce himself to Iowa Republicans.?

(It should be noted that Mr. Spiker was a Ron Paul supporter during the 2012 presidential campaign.)

Writing in Politico this week, James Hohmann listed ?five reasons why Paul will be a force to be reckoned with ahead of 2016, even if the odds of him winning the nomination are long.?

The reasons: He has a stronger organization than any other Republican; He?s perceived as principled; He?s more cautious than voters realize; He appears to have fewer skeletons than his father; He can play the inside game in a way his dad never could.

For any politician, appearing principled and yet flexible (without flip-flopping) is required for success.

One of the hottest topics in the Republican National Committee?s ?autopsy? report on how to secure a better future for the GOP was the need to ?embrace and champion comprehensive immigration reform.?

Paul?s position here has shifted notably in that direction. As a candidate for the Senate in 2010, he favored an electronic fence along the whole 1,969-mile US-Mexican border, and he questioned the 14^th Amendment to the US Constitution granting citizenship to children born in the US to illegal immigrants.

This past week, he told the US Hispanic Chamber of Commerce that he supports a legal status for illegal immigrants to remain in the US, working and paying taxes while they go through the citizenship process ? not specifically a ?pathway to citizenship,? as even some Republicans are urging, but a far cry from the hard line ?self-deportation? urged by Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

At last weekend?s Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), Paul edged out Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida in the presidential straw poll 25-23 percent among a long list of possible candidates. His speech to the assembled conservative activists was enthusiastically received (more so than Rubio?s rather flat offering) ? especially by the college students and other young activists who comprised the bulk of those voting in the poll.

It?s those young voters the GOP needs to attract. But at CPAC, was it more than the charged-up Paul loyalists ? a mix of libertarians and some tea partyers ? that were bused in to such events to cheer (and vote for) Ron Paul in 2011-12?

At the moment, it?s not just those loyalists who seem to be fascinated with Rand Paul.

Washington Post pundit Dana Milbank ? usually more inclined to tweak if not pummel right-leaning politicians ? confesses ?with some trepidation? that he ?stands with Rand? (the mantra Sen. Paul supporters tweeted by the thousands during his drone filibuster).

He mentions Paul?s apparent shifts on immigration and same-sex marriage (something to do with the tax code), the drone filibuster (?a stance Democrats would have championed if a Republican were president?), and Paul?s vote to confirm Chuck Hagel as Defense Secretary ? one of only four by Republicans.

?Taken together, these pleasant surprises suggest that Paul is more complex than his tea-party caricature and more savvy than the libertarian gadfly his father had been,? Milbank writes. ?In his?speech to CPAC, the younger Paul didn?t even mention the Federal Reserve or the gold standard [Ron Paul favorites]. He has spoken, instead, of reaching out to minorities, young voters and other Democratic constituencies.?

?It?s very early days in the 2016 presidential race, of course, and a lot could change as Republican hopefuls jockey for position.

But Paul ?seems to demonstrate the interest in expanding his support beyond libertarian conservatives, something his father rarely did, and he will have three years to experiment with how to find the right formula,? writes political polling guru Nate Silver on his New York Times ?FiveThirtyEight? blog.

That doesn?t make him as likely a nominee as a more traditional candidate like Sen. Rubio, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, or Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, Silver writes. ?But his odds look better than the 20-to-1 numbers that some bookmakers have placed against him.?

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/sKfVKEH4UyA/Rand-Paul-rising-2016-in-sight-video

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Broke and ashamed: Many won't take handouts despite need

On college campuses, many students striving to make the grade don't have enough food to eat. Trying to tackle this challenge, colleges are now bringing food pantries onto campuses, hoping to help students through these tough times. NBC's Diana Alvear reports.

NBC News

Ashyle Horton, 22, was reluctant take help from a University of Arkansas food pantry because of the stigma of need. That program, like others, works to decrease the shame of seeking assistance.

By JoNel Aleccia, Senior Writer, NBC News

Ashyle Horton had volunteered in the past for the program that runs the University of Arkansas campus food pantry, but showing up as a client was an entirely different experience.

?I was very fearful and nervous,? said Horton, 22. ?It felt so weird going to a food pantry to get help.?

The graduating senior says she desperately needed the pasta, rice and other staples on the food bank shelves, but she worried that others might judge her, that they would think she ought to be able to get by on her own.

?I never thought that I would be struggling as much as I have this year,? said Horton, whose already-stretched income dropped abruptly when her hours were cut at the disability services agency where she works.

Suddenly, she found herself among the 50 million people in the U.S. who live in food-insecure households each year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Pushing past the stigma of need was a hurdle for Horton ? as it is for many who find themselves in that situation, says Angela Oxford, director for the Fayetteville school?s Center for Community Engagement.

Oxford is among the ranks of local, state and federal experts ? officials from program managers to academic researchers???who work to reduce the onus of needing help.

Amber Kelsall, a volunteer at the University of Portland State's student food pantry, on helping students in need.

?There is a stigma in that people just want to be able to take care of themselves,? Oxford said. ?People don?t want to have to get assistance.?

Across the U.S., safety-net programs aimed at reaching the nearly 1 in 7 Americans living in poverty struggle to reach those in need. Food stamp enrollment climbed to record levels following the recent recession, with nearly 48 million participants in December 2012.?

Still, 1 in 4 people who are eligible for food stamps don't sign up, on average, the USDA says. Participation drops sharply in certain subgroups, as well. Only 34 percent of seniors and 60 percent of working poor households who could receive food stamps actually do, the USDA says.

That?s largely because of the perceived shame of taking a hand-out, researchers say.

?Stigma seems to be a big barrier to participation,? said Colleen Flaherty Manchester, an assistant professor of management at the University of Minnesota who studies the issue. ?We find it to be quite substantial.?

In fact, psychological barriers appear to be three times greater than time costs ? the effort and hassle it takes to enroll???in determining whether people seek benefits, Manchester said.

?I think it has to do with feelings of reduced self-efficacy, reduced self-esteem, psychological pressure from going against the social norm,? she said.

Angela Oxford, the director of the center for community engagement for the University of Arkansas describes how the campus food pantry was created.

Federal officials have tried to tackle the stigma issue in recent years. First they gave the Food Stamp Program a catchy new name -- SNAP, or Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Then they traded conspicuous food stamp coupons for discreet electronic benefit cards.

The USDA now runs cheery radio ads touting SNAP as a nutrition program, not a welfare plan, and the agency has worked to ease red tape and to reach out to underserved populations.

As a result, some experts say that stigma about receiving benefits is less than it was a dozen years ago, when states like New York erected complicated barriers to simply apply for the aid.

?I think stigma in general has been falling as a quotient in affecting social behavior,? said Thomas Fomby, a professor of economics at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, who has just launched a research project into the causes of hunger in North Texas.

Others, however, say there?s still considerable room for improvement.

?Have you ever been to a DHS office?? asked Oxford, referring to state department of human services offices. Even with improvements, potential participants may face long lines, complicated paperwork and embarrassing questions about income and assets.

But critics of the federal food program believe that it should be more difficult to get government benefits. They take aim at SNAP's ballooning numbers and its $78 billion a year cost.

Portland State University student Leaf Zuk tells NBC's Diana Alvear he was embarrassed when he first came to the school's food bank ?and discusses what he feels is an unhealthy stigma associated with poverty in America.

?It remains a program that discourages work, rewards idleness and promotes long-term dependence,? the conservative Heritage Foundation?s Robert Rector and Katherine Bradley wrote last summer.

Other critics argue that it should be the role of churches and charities, not the government, to provide food to people in need.

That would include the Arkansas campus food pantry, which is one of 50 college and university programs that have sprung up nationwide. There, as elsewhere, the emphasis is on offering help without rubbing it in, Oxford said.

No one will eyeball a student?s laptop and cell phone and figure that he or she is a rich kid trying to scam the system, she said. Students can apply discreetly online for food, there?s rarely a long waiting line ? and they don?t get standard-issue boxes of food. Instead, clients are allowed to choose the foods they want from the pantry shelves.

?That?s part of the dignity piece,? Oxford said.

For Ashyle Horton, her need for the food pantry may end with graduation this spring. She has applied for City Year, a national service program, and she hopes to pursue a master?s degree after that. But her months of accepting pasta and rice from the pantry have given her more empathy for others in that situation, she says.

"I don?t like to tell people when I?m in need,? she said. ?I like to help other people.?

Related stories:?

?

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Pia Rizza: Playboy Passes, Porn Company Totally Game!

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Take Better Care of Your Skin with Herbalix

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Himalayan Adventure Foretells Climate's Effects

NEW YORK ? The distribution of water in Asia's highest mountains and driest deserts tells an important story of climate change.

Almost half the world's population gets its water from glacier melt and rainfall in the Himalayas and other lofty peaks, yet little is understood about how climate change will affect these water sources. Now, using sophisticated technology and old-fashioned fieldwork, scientists are looking into the past to solve this mystery.

"We're trying to understand the relationships between climate and glaciers and Earth's water resources from the perspective of Earth's paleoclimate," geologist Aaron Putnam of the Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory said in a talk at the Columbic Club in New York on March 12. He described his recent expeditions along the Silk Road, from the Tien Shan Mountains to the Taklamakan Desert to the Bhutanese Himalayas.

Tien Shan Mountains

Putnam and colleagues set out in 2010 to the Tarim Basin in Northwest China, right in the center of Asia. Within the Tien Shan Mountains, a range that extends some 1,740 miles (2,800 kilometers), the scientists studied masses of soil and rock debris built up by glaciers, called moraines, which held clues to the past climate. [Stunning Scenes: From the Himalayas to the Taklamakan Desert]

To determine the ages of the moraines, the researchers used a technique known as beryllium-10 exposure dating. Cosmic radiation constantly bombards the Earth's surface, changing the form of some of the elements, like beryllium, in rocks. Based on these changes, the scientists could determine how long the moraines had been there, which allowed researchers to reconstruct the glaciers' past positions. "We can see what the ice looked like and know exactly when the ice was there," Putnam said.

Deep in the desert

Next, Putnam and colleagues ventured to the Taklamakan Desert. New roads have made the desert accessible, "so we were able to access lands people had died trying to visit even a decade ago," Putnam said. He described the area as a parched, desolate landscape with endless expanses of sand dunes.

As the researchers trekked through the desert, they noticed silts, mud cracks, remnants of trees, even shells ? all telltale signs of water. To find out when this wet period took place, the scientists used radiocarbon dating, a technique that measures the ratio of different forms of carbon to find an object's age. The scientists also used dendrochronology, a method of determining trees' ages based on their growth rings. The results suggested the wet period occurred from the mid-1100s to the late 1800s.

Putnam and his team then traveled to the easternmost part of the desert to an enormous dry lakebed called Lop Nor. They did radiocarbon dating of shells on the lake's shoreline, finding the shells' ages matched those of the other samples from formerly wet areas. That span of time, from the 12th century to the 19th century, was a cold period in North Atlantic regions. "When it got cold in the North Atlantic, it got wet in the mid-latitude desert regions," Putnam said.

The onset of wet conditions in the Taklamakan Desert corresponds with the rise of Genghis Khan and the Mongol Empire, the largest contiguous land empire in history. The Mongols relied heavily on horses, which would have needed lots of grass to eat. Putnam and his team think the wetting of the desert allowed grasslands to expand, enabling the Mongols to spread throughout Asia. [10 Surprising Ways Weather Changed History]

Atop the Himalayas

Next, Putnam and his colleagues headed south to the Himalayas of Bhutan, an area swept by the monsoon. "We don't know how the monsoon will affect glacier behavior in the Himalayas," Putnam said, adding, "We just needed to go there and use good old-fashioned fieldwork to figure it out." The team made a six-day trek to their study site, a glacier-laden plateau.

The journey wasn't easy; it took 25 horses and mules to carry all of the supplies from the deep jungles up to the icy peaks. The team hiked over 15,400-foot-high (4,700 meters) mountain passes, home to creatures like the Himalayan blue sheep, or bharal.

Finally, the team crested Bhutan's Rinchen Zoe plateau. They ventured out onto the glaciers and took ice sample to measure the amount of melt. The scientists used the same beryllium dating method as before to determine the age of the glacial deposits, work that is currently in progress. The team had to leave before the snows came with the approaching winter.

Though the scientists haven't finished their analysis yet, it's clear that the glaciers have substantially receded over the last century, Putnam said, and this will have an impact on the many people who depend on the mountains for water.

With the current global warming trend, Putnam expects to see a northward expansion of the deserts. The insights gained on these expeditions were only possible through fieldwork, Putnam said. "In my opinion, there's no substitute for collecting fundamental data from the natural world," he said.

Follow Tanya Lewis @tanyalewis314. Follow us @livescience, Facebook or Google+. Original article on LiveScience.com.

Copyright 2013 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/himalayan-adventure-foretells-climates-effects-122414311.html

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Florida House passes major campaign-finance re-write ? Central ...

TALLAHASSEE ? The Florida House voted Friday to open the doors to more money flowing directly into the coffers of state candidates as part of a sweeping campaign-finance reform that also shines more light on givers and bans some types of fundraising through slush funds.

The bill, HB 569, moves the contribution limits from $500 per election to $5,000 for candidates for governor, Cabinet-level offices and judges on the Florida Supreme Court. Legislative candidates could accept $3,000 checks directly to their campaign.

It requires more rapid disclosure online of who contributed and where the money was spent, mirroring federal law in the final 10 days before a general election with daily disclosure.

And it outlaws the Committees of Continuous Existence lawmakers have used to raise large sums of money from companies like Florida Blue, U.S. Sugar, AT&T and Disney, which hold out-sized influence over legislation.

Rep. Rob Schenck, the Spring Hill Republican carrying the bill, said no one wanted to admit that no matter what they do, the same money will flow into the political process.

The $500 limit in place since the 1990s, ?just forces more money into the shadowy, third party organizations everybody in this chamber has derided over the last two days,? he said.

?One of the ways to flush out the insects that do that is to raise the limits and therefore shine a brighter light on them to know where the political money is going.?

But critics noted the CCE ban would just re-shuffle where the money winds up, not reduce its influence. The bill passed 75-39 largely along party lines. Rep. Mike Clelland, D-Lake Mary, was the only local Democrat who broke with his party and voted for the bill.

In particular, Democrats objected to a provision allowing candidates to transfer unspent cash into their next campaign ? a $50,000 ?rollover? allowance Republicans reduced to $20,000 in an amendment Friday.

Critics said that would still prohibit challengers from competing against incumbents.

Rep. Dwight Dudley, D-St. Petersburg, called it a ?brazen incumbent protection plan.?

?This approach ensures a smaller pool of people being able to run for office,? he said.

In the 2012 elections, state candidates and committees spent $196 million. Only about 17 percent ? or about $34 million ? of that came directly from the funds the House wants to abolish, called Committees of Continuous Existence, according to an Orlando Sentinel analysis of campaign-finance data.

Of the 53 lawmaker-controlled CCEs, $9.6 million was transferred to other funds and $1.2 million was spent on ?consulting,? a description that can cover anything from salaries to dinners.

With six weeks left in the session, the House has differences to work out with Senate leaders, who want a $3,000 cap for statewide candidates but to keep legislators capped at $500.

The Senate also applies its quicker disclosure requirements to political parties, which the House has refused to consider. More than one-third of total spending in the 2012 cycle came from the state political parties.

Gov. Rick Scott has also expressed skepticism about the higher limits.

Source: http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/news_politics/2013/03/florida-house-passes-major-campaign-finance-re-write.html

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