<div>US job growth slowed sharply in October with the unemployment rate ticking higher to 7.3 per cent as a partial shutdown of the government kept workers at home, undercutting an already lethargic labour market. Non-agricultural payrolls are expected to have risen by only 125,000 jobs last month, according to Reuters, down from an increase of 148,000 in September. Economists estimate the 16-day federal shutdown reduced payrolls by as much as 50,000 jobs, and they expect them to bounce back in coming months. Even so, it would only suggest the labour market remains on its gradual recovery course.<br /><br /><strong>Tax Smart</strong><br />Twitter, Facebook and 10 other tech firms have enough stock-option tax breaks to avoid paying billions of dollars in taxes on the next $11.4 billion of US income they collectively earn, Citizens for Tax Justice (CTJ) recently said. CTJ had analysed US Securities and Exchange Commission 2012 filings for these firms. Twitter (which just debuted on NYSE) has $107 million of unused stock option deductions and Facebook has $2.2 billion ­—­ the latter’s next $6.2 billion in US earnings could be tax free, CTJ said. Firms paying their employees in corporate stock options can take a tax deduction for the difference between what the employees pay for the options and what the stocks are worth when the options are exercised later — and this becomes an effective tax avoidance tool.<br /><br /><strong><img width="150" vspace="8" hspace="8" height="150" align="right" src="/image/image_gallery?uuid=6eac35a9-a46f-4c7f-9f3a-d42097645cb0&groupId=520986&t=1384166001079" alt="" />Hammer And Tongs</strong><br />Impressionist and modern art achieved strong prices on 6 November as Sotheby’s held one of its biggest auctions ever, in a dramatic turnaround from two nights of disappointing sales at Christie’s earlier. Led by Giacometti’s sculpture “Grande tete de Diego” and Picasso’s oil “Tete de femme”, which fetched $50 million and $39.9 million, respectively, the sale totalled more than $290 million, with 81 per cent of 64 lots finding buyers. It was Sotheby’s best Impressionist and modern art result apart from its May 2012 sale at which one of the versions of Munch’s “The Scream” sold for a record $120 million. The strong sales were likely to calm market jitters that followed Christie’s results, which fell far short of expectations. As the hammer came down on the final lot, applause and whoops broke out in the salesroom. Auctioneer Tobias Meyer responded to the reaction, saying, “So the market is alive, huh?”<br /><br /><strong><img width="150" vspace="9" hspace="9" height="150" align="right" src="/image/image_gallery?uuid=777046de-6441-47eb-84fb-99fc8dfc038d&groupId=520986&t=1384165915244" alt="" />Not Just Baristas</strong><br />Starbucks is looking for thousands of good men — and women. The coffee chain said it would commit to hiring at least 10,000 veterans and spouses of active military in five years. It also said five new and existing US Starbucks cafés on or near military bases will share a portion of each sale with NGOs that help veterans re-enter the workforce. Many US firms have committed to hiring thousands of military veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. “This demographic represents one of the most underutilised talent pools in our country,” said former US defence secretary Robert Gates, now a Starbucks director.<br /><br /><strong><img width="150" vspace="9" hspace="9" height="150" align="right" src="/image/image_gallery?uuid=3580eb1c-daa5-4e5e-bc45-12ffbb670bfe&groupId=520986&t=1384165955253" alt="" />Another Stimulus?</strong><br />The euro zone’s economic recovery lost a little momentum in October, as the purchasing managers’ indices (PMIs) from Markit showed only modest growth in German and French businesses. Data from non-euro zone Britain impressed again, however, and German industrial orders jumped underlining the uneven nature of overall European recovery. Taken as a whole, the PMIs pointed to fragile economic growth that will do little to ease the pressure on the European Central Bank (ECB) to take some action. With surprisingly low inflation last month, speculation in markets and among economists has grown that the ECB is primed to stimulate the economy again.<br /><br /><strong>Love’s Libor Lost</strong><br />Four European banks recently paid a heavy price in a clean-up of the financial industry, with Rabobank being fined $1 billion and three other lenders preparing for possibly huge legal costs after a string of scandals. Dutch Rabobank said it would pay regulators in the US, UK and the Netherlands €774 million after 30 employees were involved in “inappropriate conduct” linked to interest rate manipulation. CEO Piet Moerland resigned, becoming the second CEO of a bank involved in the rate rigging scandal to quit following Bob Diamond’s departure from British bank Barclays last year. The other banks in the fray are Deutsche Bank, UBS and Lloyds Banking Group.<br /><br /><strong><img width="150" vspace="9" hspace="9" height="150" align="right" src="/image/image_gallery?uuid=860a2952-2846-41fb-b1f8-a93b196fb41d&groupId=520986&t=1384166027766" alt="" />P(l)ay On</strong><br />Sony Corp plans to charge a monthly fee of $9.99 in the US and €6.99 in Europe for playing multiplayer online games on its new PlayStation 4 (PS4) console, the Nikkei business daily reported. Multiplayer games can be played for free on PlayStation 3. Sony plans to charge 500 yen ($5.00) a month for multiplayer games in Japan when the new console debuts in February. The $9.99 monthly option was announced by the company in June this year, according to a spokeswoman for Sony Computer Entertainment America. Sony plans to make PS4 more attractive by including more social networking functions.<br /><br /><strong>Inked! </strong><br />Ukraine recently signed a $10-billion shale gas production-sharing agreement with US Chevron, another step in a drive for more energy independence from Russia. The deal to develop its western Olesska field followed a similar shale gas agreement with Royal Dutch Shell in January. “The agreements with Shell and Chevron...will enable us to have full sufficiency in gas by 2020 and, under an optimistic scenario, even enable us to export energy,” said Ukranian President Viktor Yanukovich. The highest end of expectations for Olesska’s potential reserves would match around three years of European Union’s gas demand.<br /><br /><strong><img width="150" vspace="9" hspace="9" height="150" align="right" src="/image/image_gallery?uuid=216f49d9-55d4-46f0-9d8b-6bf0c0f6ae49&groupId=520986&t=1384166051731" alt="" />Fifth Gear</strong><br />Huawei Technologies will invest at least $600 million in 5G research over the next four years, the Chinese telecommunications equipment manufacturer said in a statement. “While we continue to evolve our existing 4G network capabilities, we plan to invest a minimum of $600 million over the next five years on research and innovation for 5G mobile network technologies to ensure that we are meeting consumers’ demands for increasingly faster and better connections,” Eric Xu, Huawei’s current rotating chief executive, said on the company’s website. This figure does not include investment in 5G products, he said. The company sees 5G networks ready for commercial deployment by 2020, delivering data speeds 100 times faster than 4G networks.<br /><br /><strong>Mission Statement</strong><br />Samsung Electronics vowed to double its dividend yield, invest in new technology and boost marketing as it sought to topple Apple in the mobile devices segment and ease investor concerns over its sagging share price. The world’s leading maker of smartphones, memory chips and TVs recently outlined its strategy at a meeting with analysts designed to reassure investors that it is listening to complaints about low returns and poor use of capital. <br /><br />(This story was published in BW | Businessworld Issue Dated 02-12-2013)</div>
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