Nikkei leads gains in Asian shares |
- Nikkei leads gains in Asian shares
- Giant volcano with glacier on Mars may have been a nice place for life (VIDEO)
- Next Media Video: Massive Mars volcano covered on ice might have been site for life
- Biden to attend Ukraine leader’s inauguration
- IEA: Energy supply requires US$40t investment to 2035
- Kim Kardashian ‘miserable on honeymoon’
| Nikkei leads gains in Asian shares Posted: 02 Jun 2014 05:54 PM PDT
Japan's Nikkei rose 1.0 per cent to hit a two-month high while MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was flat, not far from one-year high hit last week. Asian shares were bolstered by the US Institute for Supply Management's manufacturing activity index May rising to 55.4 in May from 54.9 in April. The data initially caused some confusion in US trade because the ISM initially announced a far weaker 53.2 and took nearly three hours to issue a correction. In the end, though, the corrected figure was nearly in line with expectations. Coupled with other data showing a rise in construction spending, it suggested a healthy recovery after the first quarter's weather-related contraction. The data followed a gauge of China's factory activity showing expansion at the fastest pace in five months in May, helping to lift MSCI's world index to a 6-1/2-year intraday high about 1.5 per cent away from its lifetime record set in late 2007. "On the whole, the world's economy is looking up, growing at a moderate pace," said Ayako Sera, senior market economist at Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank. As solid gains in equity prices undermined the allure of safe-haven assets, gold flirted with four-month low of US$1,240.65 (RM4,009.45) an ounce hit yesterday, having fallen for five days in a row. It last traded at US$1,244.79. Silver also stood near one-year low of US$18.60 hit on Friday, changing hands at US$18.74. The yield on the 10-year US Treasuries posted the largest daily advance in more than six weeks on Monday, jumping back to 2.53 per cent compared to 11-month low of 2.40 per cent hit on Thursday. Global bond yields had fallen sharply in the past few weeks partly on expectations that the European Central Bank will adopt a series of easing measures at its meeting on June 5. Such expectations have driven the euro down, and the common currency stood at US$1.3596, just a hair above its 3 1/2-month low of US$1.3586 hit on Thursday. In contrast, the dollar index rose to its highest level since February 13 at 80.681, and last stood at 80.631, helped by the solid US data. Against the yen, the dollar rose to ¥102.49 overnight, its highest in a month, though the currency is still stuck in a familiar range. The dollar's resurgence put some emerging market currencies under pressure. The Brazilian real fell to two-month low of 2.2770 to the dollar also due to the worsening economic outlook in the biggest economy in South America and uncertainty on the central bank's currency intervention programme. The South African rand also hit a two-month low of 10.6960 to the dollar on Thursday, hurt by a recent raft of weak data. In Asia the Indonesian rupiah hit a three-month low of 11,785 to the dollar on an unexpected trade deficit in April. In Asia, the Australian and Indian central banks hold policy meetings later in the day, though neither of them is expected to change its policy rate. ― Reuters  |
| Giant volcano with glacier on Mars may have been a nice place for life (VIDEO) Posted: 02 Jun 2014 05:54 PM PDT RHODE ISLAND, June 3 — The slopes of a giant Martian volcano, once covered in glacial ice, may have been one of the most recent habitable environments yet found on Mars, according to research by Brown University scientists using data from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Volcano Arsia Mons is the third tallest volcano on Mars, nearly twice as tall as Mount Everest. About 210 millions years ago, when a glacier covered the volcano and the surrounding region, eruptions along its northwest flank caused massive amounts of ice to melt and form lakes within the glacier. Englacial lakes are bodies of water that form within glaciers like liquid bubbles in a half-frozen ice cube. According to researchers, these lakes could have persisted for hundreds or even a few thousand years, which may have been long enough for them to be colonised by microbial life forms. According to Kat Scanlon, a graduate student at Brown who led the work, the discovery is interesting because the Arsia Mons sites are much younger than the habitable environments turned up by Curiosity and other Mars rovers. While 210 million years ago might not sound terribly recent, she said, the other sites were all likely more than 2.5 billion years old. — Reuters
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| Next Media Video: Massive Mars volcano covered on ice might have been site for life Posted: 02 Jun 2014 05:51 PM PDT Duration: 00:41, Published 3 Jun 2014 The slopes of a giant Martian volcano, once covered in glacial ice, may have been one of the most recent habitable environments yet found on Mars, according to research by Brown University scientists using data from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. — Reuters |
| Biden to attend Ukraine leader’s inauguration Posted: 02 Jun 2014 05:50 PM PDT
Biden will lead the US delegation to Kiev for Saturday's event and also meet with Ukrainian leaders to discuss "how the United States can assist Ukraine with fighting corruption, strengthening its democratic institutions, and putting its economy back on a path towards sustainable growth," a statement said. The vice president will also meet with Ukraine leaders to discuss the president-elect's agenda and the crisis in eastern Ukraine. US President Barack Obama is also scheduled to meet with Poroshenko in Poland tomorrow, during a trip officials said was designed to underscore the US security commitment to eastern Europe amid the worst East-West crisis in years. The United States has stood strongly by Ukraine as it battles a separatist insurgency in the east which Washington says is directed by Moscow. The showdown between Washington and Moscow over the fate of Ukraine has brought relations to their lowest level since the Cold War. Washington has been pursuing a campaign to isolate Putin over its annexation of Crimea — which has included the cancellation of the G8 summit in Sochi this month, and Moscow's de facto expulsion from the group. The White House said further details about Biden's trip would be released at a later date. — AFP |
| IEA: Energy supply requires US$40t investment to 2035 Posted: 02 Jun 2014 05:50 PM PDT
More than half of that amount will be needed to compensate for declining output at mature oil and gas fields, and the remainder on finding new supplies to meet rising demand, the Paris-based agency said in a report today. The world will increasingly rely on countries that restrict foreign companies' access to their oil reserves, as North American shale output tails off from the middle of next decade, it predicted. "Declines and retirements set a major reinvestment challenge for policy makers and the industry," said the IEA, which advises 29 of the most industrialized nations on energy policy. "In the case of oil, the focus for meeting incremental demand shifts towards the main conventional resource-holders in the Middle East as the rise in non-OPEC supply starts to run out of steam in the 2020s." While a boom in shale oil is pushing US production to its highest level in almost 30 years, diminishing the biggest crude consumer's reliance on imports, this output surge is forecast to fade, restoring the importance of supplies from the Middle East and the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. Upstream spending Spending on extracting oil and gas worldwide will climb by 25 per cent to US$850 billion a year by 2035, with most of this concentrated in natural gas, according to the report. Global markets will tighten if investments in the resource-rich Middle East are too slow, pushing oil prices US$15 a barrel higher on average in 2025, it warned. Brent futures averaged US$108.70 a barrel last year. "The prospects for a timely increase in oil investment in the Middle East are uncertain," according to the agency, which estimates that more than 70 per cent of global oil and gas reserves are under the ownership of state-controlled entities. OPEC, whose largest producer is Saudi Arabia, currently accounts for 40 per cent of global oil supplies. "Decisions to commit capital to the energy sector are increasingly shaped by government policy measures and incentives, rather than by signals coming from competitive markets," according to the IEA. About half of the US$40 trillion spent on energy through to 2035 will be on extraction, refining and transporting fossil fuels, the report indicated. Two-thirds of the total will be spent in emerging economies, according to the agency. Investment needed in renewable energy will total US$6 trillion, with another US$1 trillion in nuclear power. Annual spending on satisfying global energy requirements will increase to US$2 trillion by 2035, up from US$1.6 trillion last year, the agency projected. Spending on energy efficiency through 2035 pushes the total required investment to US$48 trillion, according to the IEA. ― Bloomberg |
| Kim Kardashian ‘miserable on honeymoon’ Posted: 02 Jun 2014 05:41 PM PDT
The reality TV star married rapper Kanye West last month in a star-studded ceremony in Florence, Italy. Radar Online reports Kanye surprised his bride with the couple's trip to the Emerald Isle. But a source tells the outlet Kim confided in her mother Kris Jenner about the lack of luxury shopping on the island. "Staying at a five star resort in Cork, Ireland, wasn't enough for Kim," the source said. "She complained during phone calls to Kris that she was bored and just wanted to go shopping, but the lack of high end retailers really irked her. Kanye did plan a bike riding outing, but they brought two assistants with them." Kris allegedly urged Kim to just relax and enjoy her honeymoon with her new husband. But the reality star apparently didn't want to hear it, and wasn't thrilled about some of the other things Kanye had planned. "Kanye had planned an outing in Dublin that included a private tour of Trinity College, but Kim persuaded him not to go," the source claimed. "The idea of going to old museums as Kim says, would have just bored her to death. All she wants to do is shop. There isn't a lot going on with her other than that." Radar reports Kim landed back in Los Angeles on Sunday. Spokespersons for the couple had not commented on the claims at press time. — Cover Media |
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