New Line on Credit
Popularized in the Developing World, Microloans Help Finance Budding Businesses
By Krissah Williams
Washington Post Staff Writer

http://tinyurl.com/y54psp

After Toyota and Honda now Nissan announces to build Hybrids and sell them in the US. What are Ford and GM waiting for? That ethanol will save them and make the US less dependent on foreign oil?

«Dec. 11 (Bloomberg) -- Nissan Motor Co., Japan's second-
largest carmaker, will develop its own gasoline-electric hybrid
cars by 2010, to compete in a segment where it lags Toyota Motor
Corp. and Honda Motor Co.
Nissan, the last of Japan's top three automakers to develop
a hybrid, will start selling the vehicles in the U.S. and Japan
in fiscal 2010, the company said in a statement today. The
Tokyo-based automaker will also produce electric cars.
``Nissan has been working on an advanced battery and
components that may be more efficient, high-powered and compact
than the ones on the market now, helping it catch up with
rivals,'' said Koji Endo, a senior analyst at Credit Suisse
Group in Tokyo, who rates Nissan ``outperform.'' ``Nissan also
has an advantage as it can share the cost and time to develop
technology with its partner Renault.''
Nissan and Renault SA, which have had an equity alliance
since 1999, are jointly working on engines that run on diesel,
bio-ethanol and natural gas, as well as hydrogen-powered fuel
cells.
The company expects to earn money on hybrids that will go
on sale in 2010, said Chief Operating Officer Toshiyuki Shiga in
an interview. The company will sell the Altima hybrid at a loss
in order to meet government-mandated emission regulations for
its entire product line-up.
Hybrid vehicle sales were 0.5 percent of the 62.2 million
new cars, light trucks, vans and wagons sold last year globally,
according to an estimate by CSM Worldwide in Tokyo.
In an effort to cut emissions, the company also plans to
develop a gasoline-powered car that can run 100 kilometers on
three liters of fuel. It plans a fuel-cell vehicle by the early
part of the next decade, it said.
The carmaker will begin selling a two-liter diesel engine
in Europe next year and develop diesel engines for North America,
Japan and China. The diesel engines for Europe will be developed
and produced by Renault. Diesel engines emit about 20 percent
less carbon-dioxide than gasoline engines. Particulate matter or
soot produced by engines running on high-sulfur diesel
aggravates asthma and other breathing problems and creates more
smog, according to the Environmental Protection Agency in the
U.S.
From 2010, Nissan plans to introduce gasoline engines with
carbon dioxide emissions the equivalent of current diesel engine
levels.
Nissan will start selling its U.S. Altima hybrid, which
uses Toyota components, from early 2007. Toyota was the first
automaker to sell a hybrid, with the Prius model in 1997,
followed by Honda in 1999. Ghosn has said fuel savings from
hybrids, which cost about $3,000 more than similar gasoline-only
vehicles, aren't convincing enough for most carbuyers.
Nissan initially plans to sell the Altima Hybrid in
California, New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont, Rhode
Island, Maine and New Jersey, the eight U.S. states with the
strictest emissions rules.

India's Benchmark Index Slides, Banking Stocks Lead Fall - primarily sparked by the Reserve Bank of India's move to raise the cash reserve ratio by 50 basis points...

See http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/061211/india_markets.html?.v=3

IMHO, if you were waiting to buy Indian shares/funds, wait for this bout of selling to subside and get them 5-10% lower in a few weeks.

Also, there is new India Index Fund/Note that is due to be released around Dec 20, 2006 and that could be a better choice than the closed-end fund IFN in Cara 100 list. See
http://india.seekingalpha.com/article/22095

This morning the drama in the HB sector continues. On Friday, well after markets closed, KB Home filed an SEC 8-K revealing that they were going to take charges of almost $400M in Q4 releated to land and inventory impairments. They also announced that they would be restating earnings from 2003 onward as a result of the option backdating scandal.

This morning, the UBS analyst for this sector, Margaret Whelan releases a report in which she raises her price target for KB Home. Of course, she can't upgrade because, like the other notorious shill analyst in this sector, Stephen Kim, she has always had a buy on these stocks.

In pre-market, at least, no one is fooled this time around.

WCI Communities Director Buys $1.6 million of Stock: Guess who else has been buying? / NewMarket Director Sells
By Maurice Barnfather
Updated: Thursday , November 16, 2006 23:19 PM

http://tinyurl.com/y6ovga

The above link is a lead-in to ONE possible scenario that should be investigated by investment researchers much smarter than I...

With the new U.S. Democratic-controlled Congress scheduled to convene in January 07, isn't it possible that there is momentum building to direct large expenditures toward rebuilding the hurricane ravaged Gulf Coast, particularly New Orleans, that blue-dog democratic stronghold? Such a possiblity would be a financial boon to the Home Builders and give the Democrats a much-needed foothold in the South leading up to the 2008 elections.

We are all well aware of the U.S. Democratic Party's "socialistic" tendencies to spread the wealth around and with the Bill and Melinda Gates Charitable Foundation snapping up shares in a raft of homebuilders, anything is possible.

Or the old adage..."the best time to buy is when the crowd is selling" or "buy the rumor, sell the news"

Just a thought.

Bill,

What do you think this amendment would do to the US? Economically? Globally? Otherwise?

http://libertyamendment.org/

-Quentusrex

Goldman Hires Amaranth Traders

The bizarre thing? Two days ago I was thinking about this and wondering where these guys ended up.

Wasn't there a rumour that the Amaranth position was well known and the big banks drove down the NG futures, crashing Amaranth and then the banks bought back the contracts cheap?

Well, I guess the contracts weren't the only thing Goldman got out of the whole dirty deal.

The more you look the dirtier every corner of the entire capital markets seems.

Mike
NYC

From Seeking Alpha:

Goldman Seeking Alpha -- Hires Amaranth Traders

Over the weekend, The Wall Street Journal Online published a story saying Goldman Sachs will hire 17 traders from Amaranth Advisors, a hedge fund that gained international notoriety for its collapse in September, losing 70% of its $9.5b in assets. Bloomberg reports some Amaranth traders have already started working at Goldman. The hires include 14 credit specialists in New York and three in Singapore, who will all be led by Gregg Felton, former manager of Amaranth's debt investments. Goldman is seen taking on more risk despite the Amaranth implosion, as its Global Alpha Fund is down nearly 12% y-t-d through November, compared to a 14% gain by the S&P 500 Index. A Goldman spokesman declined to comment on the Amaranth hires and the Alpha Fund. The WSJ said Amaranth's letters to investors acknowledged its credit team as being its most profitable in early 2006.
• Sources: Bloomberg, The Wall Street Journal

I enjoyed this quote from John Hussman's weekly market comment.

http://www.hussmanfunds.com/wmc/wmc061211.htm

Though CNBC briefly seemed professional in the wake of the 2000-2002 market plunge, airing short conversational spots where the anchors emphasized journalistic responsibility, that tenor has now been replaced by carnival-barking shows like “Mad Money,� complete with its lightning round, featuring a shrill whine of irresponsible speculative “plays� backed by death-metal guitar music, and “Fast Money� promoted by spots that promise, for example, “Tonight, the boys get down and dirty with a hot commodity...� I wish I was making this up.