European stocks fall to lowest in almost 4 weeks

Reuters

Published: February 27, 2007

LONDON: European stocks tumbled to their lowest in almost four weeks on Tuesday, dragged lower by heavyweight miners after the main Chinese index took a beating and by banking shares.

Among major movers, Standard Chartered sank following its results, while EADS gained after its board agreed on a restructuring plan for its Airbus unit.

"We're seeing a little bit of correction, a little bit of profit taking, but it's nothing serious. You've seen some excellent results in the last few days," said Thomas Muehlberger, fund manager at Bayern Invest in Munich.

"A lot of people are concerned about the situation in China. The feeling is we'll have very high volatility in that market."

The FTSEurofirst 300 index of leading European shares fell as much as 1.5 percent to 1,529.74 points, its lowest level since Feb. 1.

The move followed a lower Wall Street session as crude oil hovered above $61 a barrel as tensions continued over Iran's nuclear ambitions. The stand-off weighed on investor risk aversion, helping send the yen sharply higher against the dollar and euro.

In China, the Shanghai Composite fell nearly 9 percent, its biggest drop in a decade, as profit-taking by local funds snowballed ahead of a parliamentary session next week.

Across Europe, Britain's FTSE 100 slipped 0.9 percent, while Germany's DAX and France's CAC 40 both fell 1 percent.

MINERS TUMBLE

Mining stocks pulled the European market lower, with BHP Billiton down 3.5 percent and Rio Tinto down 3.4 percent, spooked by worries over Chinese growth and higher South African taxes.

In the banking sector, Barclays fell 2.8 percent while Deutsche Bank slid 1.5 percent. Standard Chartered fell 3.3 percent after its earnings broadly matched analysts' forecasts.

EADS proved a rare bright spot, adding 1.1 percent after its board approved a shake-up for Airbus which is expected to include job cuts and factory sales as it tries to stay competitive with its archrival Boeing.

Among other companies reporting earnings, Spain's Repsol fell 1.6 percent after its adjusted net profit dropped, while Air Liquide slid 1.8 percent despite posting a higher-than-expected result.

Britain's GKN jumped 10 percent to its highest level since May 2002 after the engineer posted annual results at the top end of forecasts and said the outlook for major markets was positive.

"GKN's resilient 2006 augurs well for the future," UBS said in a broker note, adding the results suggest the company's restructuring is delivering ahead of plan.

Today in Business

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The mystery of the vanishing bees

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REUTERS

Toni Morrison -

"Make a difference about something other than yourselves."

http://www.springbreakrooms.com/?GCID=S14312x162&keyword=panama%20city%20beach

	There are a few things you do need to keep in mind when coming to Panama City Beach for Spring Break. •  Spring Break Policies. Every hotel has different policies, and some are pretty detailed, so read carefully in their disclaimer before you book •  Have your I.D at ALL times. Everyone checks everywhere you go so don't think you'll just walk in to these places. •  Mind your manners. The police are everywhere and are constantly watching. Be fun, but be smart. Send Map to Printer (Hint: to get entire map print landscape style)

Is it too late to book a spring break vacation?

According to this article, spring break vacations are getting booked quickly but a little flexibility can really help you. This late in the game, however, makes it very difficult to save money on a spring break trip.

For students at Purdue, spring break in Cancun is most popular but Amsterdam is also drawing college students (I wonder what they do there). Not that I should talk considering that I blogged about Amsterdam's best coffee shops (not that I've ever been to Amsterdam).

Posted by James Trotta at February 22, 2007 12:49 PM

sonorous:

yielding sound; impressive in sound.

Disney Mini Parks As Stand-Alone Urban Centers

The Walt Disney Co. is thinking about creating smaller theme parks, as well as stand-alone hotels, retail, dining and entertainment centers in urban areas where families already travel. The ideas are "blue sky concepts" that will not be executed unless the new businesses could achieve a high return on invested capital, says Jay Rasulo, chairman of Disney's Parks and Resorts.

Disney could locate versions of its Downtown Disneyland--a high-end retail, dining and entertainment district--in urban areas far from its parks. They would give Disney the chance to reach out to parents who feel their children are still too young to appreciate a trip to a Disney theme park.

The company also is exploring alternatives to full-size theme parks, including "a smaller, deeply immersive park" that would offer consumers a more interactive experience -- at higher prices. It's also looking into expanding its water-park offerings beyond Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach and possibly adding ships to its two-vessel cruise lines.

 

MSNBC/Reuters - Read the whole story...

the power of fire & smoke

Today's one of those days when you just scratch your chin.
We woke up 3 hours early, at 4:15pm, and at 4:30 started smelling smoke.
Thought something got blown under and was burning in the radiators; nope.
At the last radiator, I look at the window and black smoke is billowing from the neighbour to the South's window.
Go over the front door, open it the hallway is 1/4 filled with smoke.
Get dressed, and get ready for the cold.
4-5 minutes later open the doorway the hallway is now black.
We duck and run to the stairwell and down the stairs.
We look up, and see the smoke just plowing out of the neighbours windows.
We stand in the cold and watch.
The alarm never went off.
The fire department was more concerned about getting our buildings fire alarm to work.
then running upstairs to put out the fire I tell them is raging.
OK, unfair statement, I'm sure 2-3 guys were marching up the stairs to check it out like they always do.

Last night at 3am, like random routine every couple months the fire alarm went off for 20minutes and boy in this building it is loud;

(Once it did that 3 nights in a row; bot was the fire department happy)

Each unit has a HUGE squawk box;

and like routine the fire department is out here hanging out at our building,

There's never a fire, just the loud warnings.

Back outside the building there is now 7 firetrucks, 6 cop cars, 3 ambulances and 5 related agency SUVs
which equals about 20-30 emergency personal.
The firemen pulled the hose up 8 stories; and fought it for 10 minutes.
Out it went.
Back it came.
Out it went.
The buses are now hear, so we go and sit our ass down in a nice warm cozy bus.
Moral of this story:
1) Thank god for Concrete.
2) That they taught us in school to get as close as possible to the floor in case of a fire and get the fu*k out of bad situations.

i'd line up too

On January 12th, 2007 McDonald's Corp. (NYSE: MCD) began selling the 'Mega Mac' in Japan. The Mega Mac contains four meat patties � twice the amount of the regular Big Mac.

In the first four days it went on sale, McDonald's sold 3.32 million Mega Mac hamburgers in Japan, doubling the company's expectations. Fearing that they wouldn't be able to keep up with demand, they started limiting the number of Mega Macs sold. Japanese Mega Mac lovers are actually lining up outside of the store to get a taste of this 754 calorie monster of a hamburger.