Wall Street jumps; Nasdaq near 12-year high

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NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks climbed on Friday, pushing the S&P 500 to a fresh five-year high and putting the Nasdaq within a hair of a 12-year intraday high, following a batch of encouraging domestic and international economic reports.


Data showing stronger international trade in China and Germany, and a report indicating the U.S. trade deficit had narrowed in December, pointed to improving global demand.


"That may have sent a ray of optimism," said Fred Dickson, chief market strategist at D.A. Davidson & Co in Lake Oswego, Oregon.


The technology sector led the day's gains, with the S&P 500 technology index <.splrct> up 1 percent. Gains in LinkedIn Corp and AOL Inc following their quarterly results helped the sector.


The benchmark S&P 500 <.spx>, up more than 6 percent for the year, is on track for six straight weeks of gains for the first time since August 2012.


But an advance has been tougher in recent days as investors await strong trading incentives to drive the index further upward.


"I think we're in the middle of a trading range and I'd put plus or minus 5 percent around it. Fundamental factors are best described as neutral," Dickson said.


The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> was up 40.94 points, or 0.29 percent, at 13,984.99. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> was up 7.72 points, or 0.51 percent, at 1,517.11. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> was up 27.94 points, or 0.88 percent, at 3,193.08.


The Nasdaq was just 3 points shy of its highest level since November 2000.


Shares of LinkedIn jumped 21.1 percent to $150.31 after announcing quarterly profits and giving a bullish forecast for the year.


AOL Inc shares rose 7.5 percent to $33.77 after the online company reported higher quarterly profit, boosted by a 13 percent rise in advertising sales.


The CBOE Volatility index <.vix>, Wall Street's so-called fear gauge, was down 4.2 percent at 12.94. The gauge, a key measure of market expectations of short-term volatility, generally moves inversely to the S&P 500.


"I'm watching the 14 level closely" on the CBOE Volatility index, said Bryan Sapp, senior trading analyst at Schaeffer's Investment Research. "The break below it at the beginning of the year signaled the sharp rally in January, and a rally back above it could be a sign to exercise some caution."


Data showed Chinese exports grew more than expected in January, while imports climbed 28.8 percent, highlighting robust domestic demand, while German data showed a 2012 surplus that was the nation's second highest in more than 60 years, an indication of the underlying strength of Europe's biggest economy.


Separately, U.S. economic data showed the trade deficit shrank in December to $38.5 billion, its narrowest in nearly three years, indicating the economy did much better in the fourth quarter than initially estimated.


(Additional reporting by Angela Moon; Editing by Bernadette Baum and Nick Zieminski)



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The Lede: Social Media Images From Tunisia, as an Opposition Leader Is Buried

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Video of Friday’s funeral for Chokri Belaid, a Tunisian opposition leader assassinated two days ago, from the independent news site Nawaat.

Last Updated, 3:44 p.m. Activists, bloggers and journalists in Tunisia posted a stream of images on social networks Friday, showing thousands of mourners packed into the largest cemetery in the capital, Tunis, for the funeral of Chokri Belaid, a leading opposition figure whose assassination two days ago triggered a wave of street protests against the Islamist ruling party.

Among those uploading images of the funeral — which took place as the police fired tear gas at protesters and cars were set alight during clashes outside the graveyard — were my Times colleagues Kareem Fahim and Tara Todras-Whitehill, Thierry Brésillon of the French news site Rue 89, and Tunisian activists including Selim Kharrat of the rights organization Al Bawsala.

In video streamed live during the funeral by the activist blogger Slim Amamou, the 2011 revolutionary chant calling for the downfall of the regime could be heard echoing around the graveyard.

A photograph in a set uploaded to Facebook by the blogger Mon Massir appeared to show that even the late opposition leader’s young daughter was forced to shield her face from the tear gas fired by the police.

After the funeral, as photographs uploaded by Mr. Amamou and the rights activist Amira Yahyaoui showed, the security forces enforced a ban on gathering on the main Avenue Habib Bourguiba in central Tunis.

Emna Chebâane, who also works with the rights organization Al Bawsala, posted video on Facebook showing how the police moved in to clear a small number of protesters from the avenue.

It was not hard to imagine what the kind of protest the authorities were concerned about might look like. Two days earlier, when an ambulance carrying Mr. Belaid’s body to the morgue had passed through the same street, thousands of protesters swarmed around the vehicle. Video posted on YouTube late Wednesday by Jadal, a Tunisian news site, showed that scene.

Video recorded on Wednesday in Tunis as protesters gathered around an ambulance carrying the body of Chokri Belaid, a murdered opposition leader.

There were reports of protests in other parts of Tunisia on Friday, as many workers observed calls for a nationwide strike.

Video uploaded to YouTube by a blogger who said he was in the town of Sousse appeared to show the security forces, and officers in plain clothes, firing tear gas and dragging protesters away from a traffic circle pictured in a Wikipedia entry on the old town.

Video uploaded to YouTube on Friday, said to show the police cracking down on protesters in the Tunisian town of Sousse.

Two clips posted online earlier Friday by the same blogger appeared to show the divisions in Sousse, between supporters and opponents of the new government, which have emerged nationwide. One clip showed a loud march in favor of Ennahda, the Islamist party that now rules Tunisia; in another, a second group of protesters declared that they were committed to “bringing down the regime and avenging the death of Chokri Belaid.”

Video said to show supporters of Tunisia’s Islamist ruling party, marching in Sousse on Friday.

Video of antigovernment protesters, said to have been recorded in the Tunisian city of Sousse on Friday.

Video shot by bloggers for the independent news site Nawaat showed what they described as a demonstration in the city of Bizerte in honor of Mr. Belaid, outside the local headquarters of Ennahda. According to a description on Nawaat’s French-language live blog, the video shows an Islamist calling for calm and telling the demonstrators that the nation’s secularists have lost the struggle for power.

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Father Gives Daughter $200 to Quit Facebook

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Spending too much time on Facebook? More than half of Facebook users say they’ve taken vacations from the site. Now comes the story of a 14-year-old who did better — she managed to get paid for quitting.


Rachel Baier, a high school freshman in Massachusetts, went to her dad with a deal: no Facebook for the rest of the school year in exchange for cash.






“She approached me. She has been frustrated she hasn’t been able to find a babysitting job and she has been looking for ways to get cash,” Baier told ABC News. “So she asked, ‘If I didn’t use Facebook for so long would you pay me?’”


RELATED: Facebook Vacation: 61 Percent of Users Take Breaks From Site


Baier, knowing that his daughter spends hours and hours on the site every day, thought she was joking at first. “I said, ‘Go away, you can’t live without Facebook!’” But Rachel was serious. Her dad drew up the paperwork. “I went back and thought about it, and said if you are going to do it, we are going to sign a contract. And she said okay.”


The contract says that from Feb. 4, 2013 through June 26, 2013, Rachel will have her Facebook account deactivated. She will receive $ 50 halfway through and the remaining $ 150 on June 26, which is the last day of ninth grade.


Baier says that he thinks his daughter will keep her part of the bargain. “She has deactivated a few times for the weekend,” he said “She has spent two to three years on Facebook for 24/7, she realizes there is a lot of talk and noise.”


RELATED: Mom Has Son Sign 18-point Agreement for iPhone


Rachel, who was at school when we spoke to her father, told him she doesn’t worry about being left out by friends.


“I asked her about that. She said, ‘Dad, I see my friends at school. I am in the loop and I can still text them,’” Baier said.


But even if Rachel does have a moment of weakness and yearn to see her Newsfeed, her dad now holds the keys to the castle. “Part of the agreement,” he says “was that she allowed me to change the password. She can’t get back in and turn it back on.”


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Social Media News Headlines – Yahoo! News





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Jessica Simpson Takes Her Bump For a Workout!

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By Maggie Coughlan





02/07/2013 at 04:00 PM EST







Jessica Simpson


Bruja/Juan Sharma/Pacific Coast News


Now that's a bump!

While heading to the gym on Wednesday, an expectant Jessica Simpson was photographed in Los Angeles wearing a form-fitting black top that showed off her growing belly.

Shielded by sunglasses, Simpson, 32, looked relaxed in comfy green sweatpants and her hair up in a high ponytail.

The Weight Watchers spokeswoman is expecting her second child with fiancé Eric Johnson. The couple are already parents to 9-month-old daughter, Maxwell Drew.

But the mommy mogul is doing more than just expanding her family, she's also taking on a maternity-focused business venture. Simpson recently partnered with Destination Maternity to feature her designs at over 800 stores.

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Southern diet, fried foods, may raise stroke risk

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Deep-fried foods may be causing trouble in the Deep South. People whose diets are heavy on them and sugary drinks like sweet tea and soda were more likely to suffer a stroke, a new study finds.


It's the first big look at diet and strokes, and researchers say it might help explain why blacks in the Southeast — the nation's "stroke belt" — suffer more of them.


Blacks were five times more likely than whites to have the Southern dietary pattern linked with the highest stroke risk. And blacks and whites who live in the South were more likely to eat this way than people in other parts of the country were. Diet might explain as much as two-thirds of the excess stroke risk seen in blacks versus whites, researchers concluded.


"We're talking about fried foods, french fries, hamburgers, processed meats, hot dogs," bacon, ham, liver, gizzards and sugary drinks, said the study's leader, Suzanne Judd of the University of Alabama in Birmingham.


People who ate about six meals a week featuring these sorts of foods had a 41 percent higher stroke risk than people who ate that way about once a month, researchers found.


In contrast, people whose diets were high in fruits, vegetables, whole grains and fish had a 29 percent lower stroke risk.


"It's a very big difference," Judd said. "The message for people in the middle is there's a graded risk" — the likelihood of suffering a stroke rises in proportion to each Southern meal in a week.


Results were reported Thursday at an American Stroke Association conference in Honolulu.


The federally funded study was launched in 2002 to explore regional variations in stroke risks and reasons for them. More than 20,000 people 45 or older — half of them black — from all 48 mainland states filled out food surveys and were sorted into one of five diet styles:


—Southern: Fried foods, processed meats (lunchmeat, jerky), red meat, eggs, sweet drinks and whole milk.


—Convenience: Mexican and Chinese food, pizza, pasta.


—Plant-based: Fruits, vegetables, juice, cereal, fish, poultry, yogurt, nuts and whole-grain bread.


—Sweets: Added fats, breads, chocolate, desserts, sweet breakfast foods.


—Alcohol: Beer, wine, liquor, green leafy vegetables, salad dressings, nuts and seeds, coffee.


"They're not mutually exclusive" — for example, hamburgers fall into both convenience and Southern diets, Judd said. Each person got a score for each diet, depending on how many meals leaned that way.


Over more than five years of follow-up, nearly 500 strokes occurred. Researchers saw clear patterns with the Southern and plant-based diets; the other three didn't seem to affect stroke risk.


There were 138 strokes among the 4,977 who ate the most Southern food, compared to 109 strokes among the 5,156 people eating the least of it.


There were 122 strokes among the 5,076 who ate the most plant-based meals, compared to 135 strokes among the 5,056 people who seldom ate that way.


The trends held up after researchers took into account other factors such as age, income, smoking, education, exercise and total calories consumed.


Fried foods tend to be eaten with lots of salt, which raises blood pressure — a known stroke risk factor, Judd said. And sweet drinks can contribute to diabetes, the disease that celebrity chef Paula Deen — the queen of Southern cuisine — revealed she had a year ago.


The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, drugmaker Amgen Inc. and General Mills Inc. funded the study.


"This study does strongly suggest that food does have an influence and people should be trying to avoid these kinds of fatty foods and high sugar content," said an independent expert, Dr. Brian Silver, a Brown University neurologist and stroke center director at Rhode Island Hospital.


"I don't mean to sound like an ogre. I know when I'm in New Orleans I certainly enjoy the food there. But you don't have to make a regular habit of eating all this stuff."


___


Marilynn Marchione can be followed at http://twitter.com/MMarchioneAP


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Wall Street dips on renewed euro zone fears

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NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks fell on Thursday as comments by the ECB president on the euro raised worries about Europe's outlook and curbed investors' appetite for risky assets.


The euro currency dropped against the safe-haven dollar and yen after European Central Bank President Mario Draghi said the exchange rate was important to growth and price stability, which investors took as a sign the bank is concerned about the euro's advance in recent days.


Materials shares were among the weakest performers on the S&P 500, with the S&P 500 materials index <.splrcma> down 0.7 percent, while housing stocks also declined. A housing sector index <.hgx> was off 1.4 percent.


Despite the day's decline and weakness earlier this week, the stock market has been in an almost uninterrupted uptrend for most of the year, with the S&P 500 gaining more than 5 percent for 2013.


Many investors could see buying opportunities in the decline.


"I don't think there's the systemic risk that we had some time ago of bank failures in Europe and so forth. They seem to be ahead of that sort of crisis," said Dan Veru, chief investment officer of Palisade Capital Management, in Fort Lee, New Jersey.


The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> was down 67.95 points, or 0.49 percent, at 13,918.57. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> was down 6.31 points, or 0.42 percent, at 1,505.81. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> was down 16.76 points, or 0.53 percent, at 3,151.72.


Top U.S. retailers reported strong January sales after offering compelling merchandise that drew in shoppers facing a hit to their take-home pay from higher payroll taxes.


Macy's Inc rose 1.5 percent to $40.09 after reporting January same store sales rose 11.7 percent.


But Ann Inc dropped 6.7 percent to $30.59 after forecasting fourth-quarter sales below analysts' expectations.


Fund manager David Einhorn's Greenlight Capital on Thursday said it has sued Apple Inc and said the company needs to do more to unlock value for shareholders. Apple shares gained 0.6 percent to $457.43.


Akamai Technologies Inc lost 15.6 percent to $35.06 as the worst performer on the S&P 500 after the Internet content delivery company forecast current-quarter revenue below analysts' expectations.


(Additional reporting by Angela Moon; Editing by Kenneth Barry and Nick Zieminski)



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At War Blog: U.S. and Allies Conduct Drills in Persian Gulf, a Signal to Iran

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Deterring Iran is a delicate balance of diplomacy, sanctions and military muscle-flexing, all intended to send a strong signal – without proving so provocative that the region is pushed toward war. One piece of the effort – halting the proliferation of illicit weapons – got a practice run in the Persian Gulf this week.

Although the exercise did not explicitly name an adversary, geography certainly pointed to Iran, as well as to militants of Al Qaeda still operating in the region. The exercise, which ended Thursday, included a headquarters simulation to test the policy-making and coordination among the American military and two dozen nations that joined, as well as an extensive component of military drills at sea, in the air and on land.

Pentagon officials do not hide the fact that halting suspected smugglers, and boarding their vessels and inspecting them, is in some ways easier than knitting together a coalition of countries to operate under the decade-old Proliferation Security Initiative.

While there may be quiet agreement that Iran is a threat to regional stability, many nations – especially Iran’s neighbors – want to avoid any appearance of belligerence that might make relations even worse. In fact, several of the countries in this week’s exercise declined to officially confirm their participation.

That alliance cohesion problem is not new. When the Proliferation Security Initiative was begun by the administration of President George W. Bush, South Korea initially refused to join, for fear of angering North Korea. The government in Seoul eventually reversed the decision, and South Korea is among the nonproliferation program’s current members, a number that has expanded to 102 nations from the original 11.

Separate from this current multinational exercise, American and Yemeni officials disclosed last week that a joint operation had interdicted a boat carrying a large load of explosives and weapons, including shoulder-launched antiaircraft weapons. Intelligence indicated that the shipment came from Iran and was destined for Houthi insurgent militants inside Yemen.

Even before the proliferation exercise ended this week, the American military’s Central Command announced the scheduling of another exercise to practice mine countermeasures and maritime security in waters of the Middle East. Those skills would be necessary if Iran tried to close the Strait of Hormuz. More than 20 nations will participate in the exercise, set to begin in May.

But budget difficulties in Washington may make sustaining a large American military presence in the region more difficult. The Pentagon announced this week that, temporarily at least, there would be only one aircraft carrier strike group on patrol in the region, down from the usual two. The reason: the Defense Department needs to save money.

Related Coverage:

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Twitter acquires social TV analytics company Bluefin Labs

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SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Twitter Inc said on Tuesday it has agreed to acquire advertising analytics company Bluefin Labs.


Terms of the deal were not disclosed.






Twitter Chief Operating Officer Ali Rowghani said in a blog post announcing the deal: “Bluefin‘s data science capabilities and social TV expertise will help us create innovative new ad products and consumer experiences in the exciting intersection of Twitter and TV.”


The deal was reported first by Business Insider.


In the past year the privately held microblogging service has made the integration of Twitter and television the centerpiece of its growth strategy.


Under Chief Executive Dick Costolo, the company has encouraged marketers to incorporate Twitter “hashtags” into their TV ads to generate online chatter, while also nudging its 200 million monthly users to discuss ads that are being aired.


(Reporting by Gerry Shih; Editing by Eric Walsh)


Social Media News Headlines – Yahoo! News





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Miley Cyrus: My Short Hair Is Here to Stay - Forever!

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Style News Now





02/06/2013 at 03:45 PM ET











Jessica Simpson PhotosGetty; WireImage (2)


Hope you weren’t too attached to Miley Cyrus‘s long hair, because she has a message for you: “I could never see myself having long, long hair again.”


“I’m feeling it!” the star tells E! News of her close crop. “My fiancé [Liam Hemsworth] loves it. It’s so much easier to go shave the sides once a week, rather than getting your roots done and all this stuff.”


And it’s not just that she prefers the low maintenance of her new do: she actually hates the way she looks with long locks. “I do not like looking back at [photos of my long hair],” she says. “I wished somebody would have ripped those [extensions] out of my head. I do not miss that in any way.”


Though we initially found the chop surprising, it’s definitely growing on us (no pun intended) — and we love that Cyrus keeps finding new, fun ways to style her shorter do. Tell us: Do you love Cyrus’s awesome attitude about her hair as much as we do?


–Alex Apatoff


PHOTOS: VOTE ON MORE CELEB HAIRCUT AND COLOR CHANGES HERE!




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Critics seek to delay NYC sugary drinks size limit

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NEW YORK (AP) — Opponents are pressing to delay enforcement of the city's novel plan to crack down on supersized, sugary drinks, saying businesses shouldn't have to spend millions of dollars to comply until a court rules on whether the measure is legal.


With the rule set to take effect March 12, beverage industry, restaurant and other business groups have asked a judge to put it on hold at least until there's a ruling on their lawsuit seeking to block it altogether. The measure would bar many eateries from selling high-sugar drinks in cups or containers bigger than 16 ounces.


"It would be a tremendous waste of expense, time, and effort for our members to incur all of the harm and costs associated with the ban if this court decides that the ban is illegal," Chong Sik Le, president of the New York Korean-American Grocers Association, said in court papers filed Friday.


City lawyers are fighting the lawsuit and oppose postponing the restriction, which the city Board of Health approved in September. They said Tuesday they expect to prevail.


"The obesity epidemic kills nearly 6,000 New Yorkers each year. We see no reason to delay the Board of Health's reasonable and legal actions to combat this major, growing problem," Mark Muschenheim, a city attorney, said in a statement.


Another city lawyer, Thomas Merrill, has said officials believe businesses have had enough time to get ready for the new rule. He has noted that the city doesn't plan to seek fines until June.


Mayor Michael Bloomberg and other city officials see the first-of-its-kind limit as a coup for public health. The city's obesity rate is rising, and studies have linked sugary drinks to weight gain, they note.


"This is the biggest step a city has taken to curb obesity," Bloomberg said when the measure passed.


Soda makers and other critics view the rule as an unwarranted intrusion into people's dietary choices and an unfair, uneven burden on business. The restriction won't apply at supermarkets and many convenience stores because the city doesn't regulate them.


While the dispute plays out in court, "the impacted businesses would like some more certainty on when and how they might need to adjust operations," American Beverage Industry spokesman Christopher Gindlesperger said Tuesday.


Those adjustments are expected to cost the association's members about $600,000 in labeling and other expenses for bottles, Vice President Mike Redman said in court papers. Reconfiguring "16-ounce" cups that are actually made slightly bigger, to leave room at the top, is expected to take cup manufacturers three months to a year and cost them anywhere from more than $100,000 to several millions of dollars, Foodservice Packaging Institute President Lynn Dyer said in court documents.


Movie theaters, meanwhile, are concerned because beverages account for more than 20 percent of their overall profits and about 98 percent of soda sales are in containers greater than 16 ounces, according to Robert Sunshine, executive director of the National Association of Theatre Owners of New York State.


___


Follow Jennifer Peltz at http://twitter.com/jennpeltz


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