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Super Bowl XLVI
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Super Bowl XLVI
Football fans across America and around the world will be glued to their TV on
Sunday February 5, watching the biggest and final NFL football game of the year
at the Superdome in Indianapolis, Indiana - Super Bowl XLVI between the New
England Patriots and New York Giants. Wagers are high in Las Vegas over the game
this year with hundreds of millions of dollars at stake. Non-gambling activities
for Super Bowl weekend is projected to reach nearly $100 million. Giants will be
looking for a double or nothing title after their win over the Patriots in Super
Bowl XLII, in 2008. Football fans are expected to begin the weekend long of
football fever partying, as early as today.
The Senate approved legislation - by a vote of 96 to 3 - to curtail insider
trading of securities by lawmakers and officials in the executive branch,
responding to pressure by the White House in the wake of reports that some
members of Congress have used privileged information for financial gain. The
newly passed legislation prohibits lawmakers, their families and staff from
buying and selling securities based on their knowledge of nonpublic information.
The bill requires lawmakers and staff to report stock and commodities
transactions within 30 days of buying and selling the securities. Additionally,
it requires information about trading of lawmakers and staff to be published in
a searchable online database. Additionally part of the bill - by a vote of 60 to
39 - includes a measure introduced by Senator Charles Grassley, Republican of
Iowa, that would require so-called 'political intelligence' firms to register
and report with the House and Senate about who their clients are as well as,
other details. These firms frequently provide financially sensitive political
information to hedge-fund clients that make investment decisions based on the
data. An amendment introduced by Senator Richard Shelby, Republican from
Alabama, seeking to require top executive-branch officials to comply with the
same new disclosure rules as Congress, was also approved. The amendment will
require top executive-branch and agency officials to have the same 30-day
electronic-disclosure requirements that the legislation is seeking to impose on
Congress. “What is good for the goose should also be good for the gander,”
Shelby said. Lawmakers narrowly rejected an amendment introduced by Senator Pat
Toomey, Republican of Pennsylvania and Senator Claire McCaskill, Democrat of
Missouri, seeking to permanently ban earmarks — provisions in legislation that
direct taxpayer funds to be spent on specific projects, typically in a
lawmaker’s home state. Currently, such earmarks are temporarily banned. A
measure introduced by Senator Sherrod Brown, Democrat of Ohio, that would have
forced lawmakers and their senior staff to divest themselves of any individual
stock holdings or put them in a blind trust outside of their control - was
rejected. With that provision, lawmakers could have continued to invest in
widely held mutual funds but, by a vote of 26 to 73, the provision was rejected.
“Members of Congress not only have the privilege of serving, but they are
compensated well for it. There’s no reason they need to be in the business of
buying or selling stocks that could be influenced by their actions,” Brown
commented. “Appearances matter. It will keep us from picking winners and
losers.” Lawmakers never got a chance to review an amendment introduced by
Senator Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky, that sought to have lawmakers lose
their federal pensions if they become lobbyists after they step down from
Congress. “It got ditched and [Paul] got three other amendments in the package,”
said Paul’s spokeswoman Moira Bagley.
Labor Department reported that the U.S. gained 243,000 jobs in January and the
unemployment rate dipped to 8.3% as most sectors of the economy added workers.
Since last April, the increase in hiring was the biggest and provides further
evidence that the economy continues to strengthen after a slowdown last summer.
In the past five months, the U.S. has added an average of 183,000 jobs a month.
Last month, jobs were added in manufacturing and construction, professional
services, retail, health care and food and restaurant establishments. The Labor
Department additionally issued its annual 'benchmark' changes to employment data
over the past 21 months. The newly revised data show that the U.S. gained 1.82
million jobs in 2011, up from an initial estimate of 1.64 million. For December,
the increase in payrolls was revised up to 203,000 from an initial report of
200,000 and for November, payrolls were revised up to 157,000 from 100,000. As
of last month, 12.76 million people were officially classified as unemployed and
5.5 million have been without a job for more than six months - little changed
data from December. If the data includes people with part-time positions who
cannot find full-time jobs and those who have recently given up looking for
work, the unemployment rate is an even higher at 15.1%. The U.S. would need to
add about 250,000 jobs a month for several years to bring the unemployment rate
back down to pre-recession levels. In the seven years prior to the 2007-2009
recession, jobless rate ranged from 3.8% to 6.2%. In January, Labor Department
reported average hourly earnings rose by 4 cents or 0.2%, to $23.29, in line
with expectations. Additionally, average workweek remained unchanged at 34.5
hours.
Institute for Supply Management reported its services index in January reached
56.8%, up from 53.0% in December, and striking highest reading since February.
The new orders index jumped 4.8 points and employment index surged higher by 7.6
points to 57.4% - with readings over 50% indicating expansion.
The Commerce Department reported factory orders rose 1.1% in December, with data
bolstered by an upward revision to November where orders were revised to a 2.2%
increase from an initially reported 1.8% rise. Shipments rose 0.7% during
December, striking biggest gain since July as well as the seventh consecutive
monthly increase. In December, unfilled orders rose 1.4% striking biggest gain
since March 2008 and inventories increased 0.1%. Durable goods rose 3.0% in
December, unrevised from initial estimate released last week and nondurable
goods orders fell 0.4% in same month. Orders for so-called "core" capital
equipment, capital goods excluding aircraft and defense, rose 3.1% in December,
and were up 10% for 2011. A key component of investment in the gross domestic
product calculations, shipments of core capital equipment rose 3.1% in December
and were up 9.1% compared with a year earlier.
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February
3, 2012
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Top of the page | |
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Total for Year |
Last Week |
$207,545.00 |
$15,148.00 |
|
| |
Total for Year |
Last Week |
$54,280.00 |
$7,557.50 |
|
| |
Total for Year |
Last Week |
$477,923.89 |
$44,196.66 |
|
| |
Total for Year |
Last Week |
$395,980.00 |
$47,570.00 |
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| |
Total for Year |
Last Week |
$0.00 |
$0.00 |
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