America's Largest Rocket Launches Top-Secret Spy Satellite

A United Launch Alliance (ULA) Delta 4 Heavy rocket carrying a payload for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) lifted off from Space Launch Complex-6 here at 11:03 a.m. PDT today. Designated NROL-65, the mission is in support of national defense. This is ULA's eighth launch in 2013, the 24th Delta 4 mission and the second Delta 4 Heavy launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base. Credit: Pat Corkery/United Launch Alliance View full size image

The United States' largest rocket launched a spy satellite on a hush-hush mission Wednesday (Aug. 28).

An unmanned Delta 4-Heavy rocket lifted off the pad at California's Vandenberg Air Force Base at 2:03 p.m. EDT (1803 GMT) Wednesday, carrying a classified payload to a polar orbit for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office (NRO).

"Today's launch is dedicated to the men and women who serve for our nation's freedom," a commentator said a few minutes into the liftoff. [See more photos of today's spy satellite launch]

It's unclear what intelligence the spacecraft, which is known as NROL-65, will collect as it zips around our planet. Because of the clandestine nature of the mission, it entered a planned media blackout about seven minutes after liftoff.

"We are truly honored to deliver this critical asset to orbit," said Jim Sponnick, United Launch Alliance vice president for the Atlas and Delta Programs. "The ULA Delta 4 Heavy is currently the world's largest rocket, providing the nation with reliable, proven, heavy lift capability for our country's national security payloads from both the east and west coasts."

The Delta 4 Heavy, which is built by ULA and first flew in 2004, is the biggest and most powerful American rocket in operation today. The 235-foot-tall (72 meters) launcher generates about 2 million pounds of thrust at liftoff, according to ULA officials.

Wednesday's launch managed to stay on schedule despite the difficulties imposed by the automatic federal budget cuts known as sequestration, which went into effect March 1. The liftoff marked the 364th flight of a Delta rocket overall, and the 24th for the Delta 4 family. Delta 4 rockets have now lifted eight payloads into space for the NRO, which builds and operates the nation's spy satellites.

While the Delta 4 Heavy is the current American heavyweight rocket champ, several other vehicles on the horizon will be even more powerful. For example, NASA is building a giant rocket called the Space Launch System (SLS) to send astronauts toward asteroids, Mars and other destinations in deep space.

The first incarnation of SLS will stand 321 feet (98 m) tall and carry up to 70 metric tons of payload. But NASA plans to develop a 384-foot-tall (117 m) "evolved" version that would be capable of blasting 130 metric tons into space, making it the most powerful rocket ever built.

The SLS is designed to launch a crew capsule called Orion, which is also in development. The duo is slated to fly together for the first time during an unmanned test run in 2017, with the first crewed mission expected to come in 2021.

Orion will be ready to fly before the SLS is up and running. Orion's first test flight is scheduled to take place in 2014, when NASA will use a Delta 4 Heavy to send an uncrewed Orion out to a distance of 3,700 miles (6,000 kilometers) from Earth — farther than any spacecraft built for humans has traveled since the Apollo program ended in 1972.

The private spaceflight company SpaceX is also working on a big rocket, which it calls the Falcon Heavy. That launcher, which is expected to fly for the first time in 2014, will produce nearly 4 million pounds of thrust at liftoff, SpaceX officials say.

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Director of JOELIE BEAUTY AND COSMETICS

Spanx Billionaire Founder Redefines Failure and Inspires Others | Mohamed A. El-Erian

Spanx Billionaire Founder Redefines Failure and Inspires Others

If you haven't already done so, I would strongly suggest that you become familiar with the story of Sara Blakely, the founder of Spanx. Not because she is said to be the youngest self-made female billionaire ever, and not because of an amazing business success that runs counter to conventional wisdom about business training and experience; but because she seems to epitomize the combined power of hard work, persistence, innovation and humility.

I have heard Blakely's story several times, including Sunday on CNN's GPS show with Fareed Zakaria. Every time, I come away with insights that I am eager to share, especially with my 10-year-old daughter.

Blakely's initial claim to fame and fortune is a product that, in her description, makes women's figures look better. The idea came to her as she prepared for an evening out. Frustrated by how she looked in white pants, she took scissors to traditional panty hoses and created what has evolved into a popular range of "body shapers."

Today Spanx offers a rapidly-growing product offering that benefits from increasing adoption (including abroad). It is opening stand-alone stores (five at last count). It is even extending the concept of body shapers to men's undergarments. In the process, Blakely believes -- and others confirm -- those who use Spanx can end up feeling better about themselves.

The journey from initial concept to today's unlikely reality was a long and difficult one.

Blakely faced many obstacles. She confronted a daunting string of early rejections and skepticism that would have probably derailed many (if not most) others. She had very little money to support her entrepreneurship. She also lacked any formal business training. Yet she managed to overcome all this, and shares with us wonderful stories here on how.

So, what made her persevere and prevail in the face of such overwhelming odds?

Having heard her interviewed several times, it comes down to more than steadfast conviction in a brilliant new idea, personal dedication to entrepreneurship, and a desire to make a difference.

Yes, they are all "necessary" conditions; but I doubt they would have also proved "sufficient" given all the headwinds that Blakely faced. Understanding the difference provides important insights for those committed to improving their parenting skills and our education system; and especially so in a world that is yet to overcome harmful conscious and unconscious biases - regarding gender, race, religion, sexual orientation etc. -- that are detrimental to empowering, enabling and enhancing human talent.

Through her upbringing and early employment, Blakely evolved her definition of failure from the traditional construct into a more inspiring and constructive one: Rather than interpret failure as the lack of success, she deemed it to be the lack of trying.

This simple and subtle change was the result of a father who encouraged Blakely and her brother to always extend their thinking, activities and aspirations (he would regularly ask his kids at the dinner table about their failures, commending them for trying); and of a job that exposed Blakely to many rejections (that of selling fax machines door-to-door).

One last point. While I have heard Blakely story several times, I do not know her personally. Yet, having come across other very successful entrepreneurs, I cannot but admire the humbleness that comes across whenever she recounts her story -- all of which makes her success even more inspiring for the rest of us.

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Director of Joe Lie Beauty And Cosmetics

The Various Stages of So-Called 'Talent Management'

It is argued that the main differentiator between successful companies and failing ones is the crop of talent that leads them. Thus, three things are important; identifying the talent, developing it, and retaining it. The changing environment of business has prompted worries about talent shortages and getting talent into the right place, and specifically that talent management is of strategic importance and can differentiate a business when it becomes a core competence – and when its talent significantly improve strategy execution and operational excellence. (however is this the truth though?)

 Attraction

The first stage in keeping talent is attracting it in the first place. To this end, companies have to position themselves as a good employer, but provide an excellent place to work and develop an employee's career (very proper). This includes the notion of 'employer branding', which is the process of managing the organisations reputation and image as a great employer in the eyes of potential recruits. Talent management frameworks do not just treat advertising for staff as a one way process, where the company selects  from a pool of applicants, but sees it as a two-way process whereby talented people also consider carefully who they work for. Organisations discuss how the potential applicants react to 'signals' from the recruiting organisation which is send out during its application process, and varies at all levels within the organisation.

Selection

Selection is arguably distinct from attraction in that this is where the company begins to identify 'talent' from within the pool of people who have applied, others argue that attraction and selection are indistinguishable. I believe that there is a REAL lack of evidence on how recruiters manage the selection process, and how that impacts upon retention rates and general business outcomes. The challenge is how to select talent, rather than just identify competent employees and of course this varies depending on the level of the job being recruited for.

Development

Development of talent is much more focused on individuals and personal development. Similar to attraction and selection, it is a two-way process; talented staff will have demands about what development they need for their career, they will not accept a one-size-fits-all approach. Thus, within the talent management framework, development strategies will often be highly personalised, involving outside organisations, for training and learning whilst focusing on skill building (in many cases) for employees. Onboarding  is a key process as part of the talent induction into a new job, it is developed as a technical part of organisational learning through 'getting to know' the values and philosophies of an organisation.

Engagement

Talent management can be positioned as being about more than ministering a set of simple factors, and more about developing an engaging culture within an organisation and designing a strategy based around the values that the business wants to project and one that matters to employees. Do you believe that this is more important in the long term for employees than simple things such as pay ?

Retention

If the recruiting organisation can attract, select, develop and engage its top talent, it should not find itself losing key talent to competing organisations; retention should become a self-fulfilling prophecy that builds up talent. The difficulty in analysing retention is difficult, partly because it is sometimes a subjective distinction between retention and attrition, and partly because it can only be measured over long periods of time.

Other approaches to talent management

There have been many that claim that talent development and retention is the new frontier of competitive advantage, and retention of key employees is the defining factor for commercial success; as a result of this, attention has been given to the most effective strategies to do this. Yet, underlying this is the suggestion that the importance of talent management to retention works better in a globalised workplace.

Factors such as rates of pay, the type and amount of training provided, the speed and visibility of promotion, the working conditions and access to mentors and senior leaders are all postulated as being critical components; but there is limited ability to explain why and how these factors impact upon retention.

As an example of this, successful talent management and retention strategies are vital for succession planning it is said. However using talent management as a way of managing succession planning brings the idea of retention into focus; it is using talent management as a way of retaining the best talent to take over the lead of the organisation in the future, rather than simply keeping talent for an ill-defined idea of competitive advantage…

I do not fully say that existing talent management is either wrong or misdirected with its topics on attraction, selection, development, engagement and retention, however I do believe that it needs to be extended and supported instead of HR professionals just following the 'guru's' and HR institutes.

The idea that talent management as a framework genuinely offers strategic and operational benefits to organisations of all kinds is probably true (have you seen evidence of this, though?). However I equally believe that these benefits will only come to fruition if both organisations and HR professionals can successfully marry the conceptual underpinnings of talent management with widely applicable, practical methodologies for its use.

Goay Joe Lie

Director of Joe Lie Beauty And Cosmetics

10 Brands That Will Disappear in 2014

Is your favorite brand amongst the ones shown above? Prepare to say goodbye to them, if 24/7 Wall St. editor Douglas A. McIntyre's prediction is correct.

Each year, 24/7 Wall St. identifies 10 important brands sold in America that we predict will disappear before 2014. This year's list reflects the brutally competitive nature of certain industries and the importance of not falling behind in efficiency, innovation or financing. [...]

We continue to use the same methodology in deciding which brands will disappear. The major criteria include:

1. Declining sales and losses;
2. Disclosures by the parent of the brand that it might go out of business;
3. Rising costs that are unlikely to be recouped through higher prices;
4. Companies that are sold;
5. Companies that go into bankruptcy;
6. Companies that have lost the great majority of their customers; and
7. Operations with withering market share.

Each brand on the list suffers from one or more of these problems. Each of the 10 will be gone, based on our definitions, within 18 months.

Read the list and Douglas' analysis over at 24/7 Wall St: Link

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Director of Joe Lie Beauty And Cosmetics

Stocks end near lows; Dow skids 200 points

JeeYeon Park CNBC

16 hours ago

Stocks finished near their session lows Thursday, with the Dow dropping more than 200 points, as the market continued to speculate about when the Federal Reserve, responding to an improved economy, will start to reduce its generous stimulus to the markets.

(Read more: S&P could trade at 1,900 'relatively easily': Pro)

The major indexes posted their biggest two-day losses since June. Meanwhile, the 10-year Treasury yield jumped to 2.82 percent, its highest level in two years, before pulling back to 2.75 percent.

"A lot of uncertainty creates volatility," said Todd Salamone, director of research at Schaeffer's Investment Research. "We had some bellwether names with disappointing earnings, and economic data that sparked tapering worries. We also broke below a support level on the S&P 500 at 1,685, which is the level where we entered August and the peak back in May."

The Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbled 200 points, dragged down by a 7 percent drop in Cisco. The blue-chip index fell through its 50-day moving average and is on track for its biggest weekly drop in nearly four months.

The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq also fell more than 1 percent each. 

All key S&P sectors were firmly in negative territory, led by techs and financials.

(Read more: Cramer: 'Giant reset' looming for markets)

"The S&P's tight range of the last 13 trading days bounded by 1,709 to 1,682 has been clearly broken," wrote Elliot Spar, market strategist at Stifel Nicolaus. "The decline of the last few days is the averages catching up on the downside to the correction that many leading sectors and stocks have been going through for the last two months. I expect the 1,650 area on the S&P to stem this decline."

On the economic front, manufacturing growth in New York and mid-Atlantic region weakened in August, according to the New York Federal Reserve and the Philadelphia Federal Reserve. And industrial production was unchanged in July as a decline in manufacturing output and utilities counteracted an uptick in mining activity, according to the Federal Reserve.

Consumer prices edged up 0.2 percent in July, matching expectations, according to the Labor Department.

On the upside, weekly jobless claims fell 15,000 to a seasonally adjusted 320,000, hitting the lowest level in nearly six years, according to the Labor Department. Economists polled by Reuters had expected a reading of 335,000. 

(Read more: The really bad newsbehind the jobless claims drop )

And homebuilder confidence rose near an eight-year high in August, according to the National Association of Home Builders. Homebuilders including Lennar and DRHorton turned higher following the report.

Earlier, St. Louis Fed President James Bullard reiterated his comments from Wednesday that the central bank should wait for further evidence that the economy is firming before winding down its asset-purchase program. 

"The committee still needs to see more data on macroeconomic performance from the second half of 2013 before making a judgement in this matter," Bullard said at an event hosted by the St. Louis Fed.

(Read more: Worst case for Fed taper: mere market 'indigestion'?)

Among earnings, Wal-Mart Stores declined after the world's largest retailer reported disappointing quarterly sales and cut its outlook for the year.

Kohl's climbed even after the department store chain forecast current-quarter earnings below expectations after reporting a decline in second-quarter profit.

Cisco Systems posted earnings and revenue that edged above Wall Street expectations but shares tumbled heavily after the network equipment maker said it would cut 4,000 jobs in the face of uncertain demand for its products. Analysts were mixed on the stock: at least three brokerages cut their price targets for the company, while two firms lifted their targets.

Dell, Applied Materials and Nordstrom are among notable companies slated to post earnings after the closing bell.

Billionaire investor Warren Buffet's Berkshire Hathaway sharply reduced its holdings of Kraft Foods and Mondelez during the second quarter, according to Berkshire's quarterly filing with the SEC. Kraft Foods and Mondelez were created by a split up for Kraft Foods last October.

Meanwhile, Berkshire raised its stake in automaker General Motors to 40 million shares and reported a new stake in satellite television provider Dish Network of nearly 550,000 shares, worth approximately $24 million.

Apple was stuck below $500 after breaking above that level on Wednesday for the first time since January. RBC raised its target price on the iPhone maker to $525 from $475. 

Goay Joe Lie

Director of Joe Lie Beauty And Cosmetics

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/13/carl-icahn-apple-tweet_n_3750230.html?utm_hp_ref=business

Carl Icahn Tweet Boosts Apple's Stock Price By 3 Percent

Today we got a lesson in the power of Twitter, the power of Carl Icahn, or both.

A single tweet on Tuesday by the billionaire hedge-fund manager boosted the stock price of Apple, the biggest U.S. company by market capitalization, by 3 percent in a matter of minutes. At about 2:21 p.m. ET, Icahn tweeted:

While Icahn hasn't disclosed how much money he invested in the tech giant, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday evening that his stake in Apple is now worth over $1 billion.

Icahn followed up with a tweet a few minutes later suggesting he would agitate for Apple to give more of its $147 billion cash pile to investors:

Almost immediately, Apple's stock, which was already about two percent higher on the day, jumped another 3 percent -- worth about $10 billion in market value. (Story continues after chart.)

Author and investor Eric Jackson observed:

Obviously, the biggest winner here is Icahn, who got yet another boost to his ego. He has been on Twitter less than two weeks and is getting a quick lesson in the instant gratification it provides. Except instead of a few retweets and LOLs like the rest of us saps get, his tweets create $10 billion in paper wealth.

Apple shareholders are also happy with the stock's big jump. Apple itself may not be so thrilled, on the other hand, as it now is being pushed to give back cash more quickly than it wanted. That could involve, gasp, bringing some cash home from overseas.

The big losers here are Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, who earlier on Tuesday warned that Apple would "not be nearly so successful" without Steve Jobs, calling Jobs "irreplaceable." Ellison's declaration made nary a dent in the stock, in contrast with Icahn's.

The other big loser today is Icahn's bitter rival, hedge-fund manager William Ackman, who has lost an estimated $400 million in a war with Icahn and other hedge-fund managers over the weird-shake-marketing-thing Herbalife. Icahn claims he has made $500 million betting in favor of Herbalife, in direct conflict with Ackman, who calls the company a pyramid scheme.

Ackman has been in the news the past couple of days for a short-lived beef with J.C. Penney, and news that Herbalife is under investigation for a safety issue from a couple of years ago.

Icahn found a way to snatch the spotlight back for himself, in less than 140 characters.

UPDATE: 6:37 p.m. -- This story has been updated to include Carl Icahn's stake in Apple.

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Director of Joe Lie Beauty And Cosmetics

Stocks post worst week since June; Dow drops 1.5%

JeeYeon Park CNBC

Aug. 9, 2013 at 4:38 PM ET

Stocks finished the week in negative territory, with major indexes logging their worst week since June, as investors found little reason to buy following the market's recent highs and amid ongoing worries about when the Fed may start to wind down its stimulus program.

"This is continuation of a sideways market that we've been experiencing for much of the week," said Cam Albright, director of asset allocation at Wilmington Trust Investment Advisors. "There's no big catalyst that's out there that's pushing us forward or backwards." 

(Read more: Marc Faber expects a crash—but likes these stocks)

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 72.81 points to finish at 15,425.51, dragged by Disney and Home Depot. The Dow was down more than 130 points at its session low.

The S&P 500 dropped 6.06 points to end at 1,691.42. And the Nasdaq slid 9.02 points to close at 3,660.11. This week marks the weakest weekly volume on the S&P 500 since August since 2006.

For the week, the Dow tumbled 1.49 percent, the S&P 500 slumped 1.07 percent, and the Nasdaq declined 0.80 percent. IBM was the worst weekly performer on the Dow, while Alcoa rose.

Most key S&P sectors finished in the red for the week, led by telecoms and financials, while materials finished higher.

Major averages have been dented this week amid uncertainty about when the Fed may start winding down its stimulus program. The Dow and S&P 500 have declined more than 1 percent each for the week. The Dow is poised to log its first weekly drop in seven. 

(Read more: Art Cashin: The market 'check engine light' is on)

Most recently, Dallas Fed president Richard Fisher reiterated on Thursday that the central bank will likely begin cutting back on its massive bond-buying stimulus in September as long as economic data continues to improve.

"The assumption has been that September is a likely start date and the only thing that would hold them back is very disappointing economic news between now and then," said Albright. "But I'm not sure if the market is prepared for an abrupt end of the QE program … the concept of tapering has led market participants to believe this would be a more drawn out event." 

China's benchmark Shanghai Composite rallied 1 percent for the week to close above the 2,050 mark, lifted by better-than-expected industrial output numbers for July, plus a healthy increase in fixed asset investment in the first seven months of the year. Meanwhile, Chinese consumer prices were unchanged in July on the previous month, and producer prices fell an annualized 2.3 percent.

"More spending is called for, while further acceleration in credit growth is discouraged. This approach requires significant improvement in capital allocation efficiency to work. There is no quick magic, and so patience and tolerance is still required," analysts at SG Global Economics wrote in a research note.

(Read more: China's factories remain in deflation, producer prices show)

Meanwhile, a marginally weaker yen helped Japan's benchmark Nikkei index rebound from the previous day's one-month low. Dollar-yen traded at the 96.60 handle, after hitting a new seven-week low overnight.

JCPenney held losses after hedge-fund manager Bill Ackman sent a second letter to the retailer's board, demanding a new meeting of the board and called for chairman Thomas Engibous to be replaced.

Meanwhile, sources close to JCPenney said Ackman's facts in the letter are incorrect.

BlackBerry soared after Reuters reported that the troubled smartphone maker is looking to the possibility of going private. Shares have plunged more than 30 percent in the last three months amid increasing competition from Apple and Samsung.

Among earnings, Priceline.com surged after the travel website posted earnings that beat expectations and handed in a strong outlook. The stock is on the cusp of crossing above $1,000 a share. At least nine brokerages lifted their price targets on the company.

Lions Gate rose after the entertainment company posted earnings and revenue that topped Wall Street estimates. 

(Read more: Taking stock of S&P quarterly earnings)

On the economic front, June wholesale inventories slipped 0.2 percent in June, missing expectations for a gain of 0.4 percent, according to a Reuters poll. Inventories declined 0.5 percent in the month prior. 

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Director of Joe Lie Beauty And Cosmetics

US becoming 'refiner to the world' as diesel demand grows

Patti Domm CNBC.com

15 hours ago

David J. Phillip / AP file

In this Nov. 21, 2007 photo, Shell Oil Company's Deer Park refinery and petrochemical facility is shown in the background as vehicles travel along Highway 225 in Deer Park, Texas.

Running at their highest levels in six years, U.S. refineries are finding strong demand for diesel fuel, used widely in cars outside of the United States, and other distillates, like jet fuel.

"Any companies with refining assets on the Gulf Coast are expanding their export terminals," said Fadel Gheit, senior energy analyst at Oppenheimer, citing Valero, Shell and Marathon Petroleum. "The profitability is not that clear, but the trend is very clear."

The U.S. became a net exporter of petroleum products just two years ago and is now the largest exporter in the world.

The product of choice for export is diesel because the margins are much higher and demand is growing, and U.S. refiners have an advantage over foreign counterparts. Natural gas to fire up refineries is abundant and much cheaper in the U.S., and the expansion of U.S. oil production has made oil more plentiful and cheaper than if refiners had to buy it on the world market.

Gulf Coast product margins

The race is on to add capacity, and mainly for diesel. Diesel demand is growing at twice the rate of gasoline, demand for which has been declining in the U.S. Gasoline demand has been declining and is expected to continue declining, as drivers shift to more fuel-efficient vehicles.

(Watch this: Epperson: Crude oil inventories down 1.32 million barrels)

Valero, the world's largest independent refiner, completed building two new hydrocrackers, one last year at its refinery in Port Arthur, Texas, and another last month in St. Charles Parish, La. Each cost about $1.5 billion and can process 60,000 barrels of petroleum feed stocks a day.

"We're talking about expanding them to make them even larger and we may expand an existing hydrocracker at another existing refinery," said Valero spokesman Bill Day.

Valero in the Atlantic basin

Gulf Coast refineries have had an advantage compared to their counterparts on the East Coast, where a lot of refining capacity has been shut down over the past several years because of their reliance on then much higher priced Brent crude. The addition of pipeline capacity and rail shipments from the middle of the country has brought more U.S. crude into the Gulf, displacing African oil. Rail has also benefited East Coast refiners, who now receive mid-continent crude.

(Read more: China data may wrong-foot oil bears)

Andrew Lipow, president of Lipow Oil Associates, said that imports are headed predominantly to New England and the East Coast. Exports, he said, depart from the Gulf Coast.

"We rarely are shipping gasoline from the Gulf Coast to the state of Maine or Boston," Lipow said. "Those imports are being supplied by Canada and Europe. If we were to supply them off the Gulf Coast, we'd need an American flagged tanker to do it, which is expensive."

He said it's cheaper to import from Europe and Canada than bring in oil from the Gulf Coast to Latin America and the Caribbean.

Government data show the U.S. exported 1 million barrels a day of diesel fuel for the week ended Aug. 2, about the same as the last several weeks, but up from 840,000 barrels a week earlier in the summer. The U.S. industry has increasingly found foreign buyers for petroleum products, mostly diesel but also jet fuel and some gasoline.

According to Bank of America Merrill Lynch, U.S. exports rose to 2.6 million barrels per day by the end of 2012, from 1.3 million in 2007. Wednesday's data showed exports of 2.9 million barrels per day in the past week. The U.S. imported 700,000 barrels of gasoline per day in the week, while exporting 258,000 barrels a day of finished gasoline.

Valero says it is responsible for about 20 to 25 percent of U.S. exports, and it exports 15 to 20 percent of the diesel it produces, and about 8 percent of the gasoline, Day said. In the second quarter, Valero was producing 1.3 million barrels a day of gasoline and 910,000 barrels of distillates, which include fuel oil, jet fuel and diesel.

(Read more: Energy futures prices)

"Export is our safety valve. We cannot make a lot more product that can be sold into the U.S.. Demand is not growing," said Gheit.

(Read More: Big oil struggles to reap profits from US energy boom)

Refined product export growth

Analysts also say U.S. petroleum products are probably slightly more expensive because of the export market, but it's hard to say how much. While refined products can be exported, raw crude oil cannot be.

"If the U.S. did not allow petroleum product exports, you would have much lower petroleum prices here at home. You would lose refining capacity but you would have lower prices domestically and you would have a higher price internationally," said Francisco Blanch, head of global commodity and asset allocation research at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

"There are a number of reasons that U.S. refiners are very competitive. The fact that crude cannot be exported is one of the reasons," he said.

John Kilduff, oil analyst with Again Capital, said the price of diesel and crude are both higher because of the ability of U.S. refiners to meet some of the demand from abroad. "The U.S. was the bread basket to the world. Now we're the refiner to the world," he said.

Blanch said he expects gasoline demand in the U.S. to drop fairly dramatically over the next 15 as years as drivers switch out of old cars, and new cars become ever more fuel efficient.

"In some ways, it's a good thing the U.S. is exporting this. It is improving the balance of payments of the U.S.," he said.

Blanch said the U.S. move toward energy independence also gives the U.S. a growth advantage over Europe and Japan.

(Watch this: Santelli: The good news on energy)

"We calculate that it may lead to as much as 1.5 percent of GDP additional output for the U.S. relative to Europe every year, as long as the current natural gas price differential persists," he said.

Lipow said if there were no exports of refined product, consumers would be paying the price of a less healthy refining industry. "If we didn't export this stuff, we would simply shut down refineries and prices may or may not be higher or lower than they are today, but we would certainly lose capacity," he said. "If we were to shut down those refineries, they get shut down forever so if other refineries were offline, there'd be no slack in the system and we would end up with gasoline shortages."

—By CNBC's Patti Domm. 

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Director of Joe Lie Beauty And Cosmetics

GlobalPost, NEED TO KNOW Embassies staying shut. Diplomatic...

NEED TO KNOW

Embassies staying shut. Diplomatic staff across Africa and the Middle East are getting some uneasy vacation time as the United States and other countries warn their missions to close for the rest of the week due to threats against their safety. A total of 21 US embassies followed orders not to open yesterday and 19 of them will keep the shutters down until at least Saturday. Meanwhile the UK, France and Germany have temporarily closed their embassies in Yemen.

The reasons for all this caution haven't been revealed, other than that it's possibly Al Qaeda-related. But to listen to US lawmakers briefed on the situation, alarm bells are ringing the loudest they have in years, with intelligence agents reporting a level of terrorist chatter "very reminiscent of what we saw pre-9/11." And, so the same lawmakers took the opportunity to remind us, aren't we lucky that the National Security Agency is there to pick it all up.

WANT TO KNOW

The plot thins. A court in Turkey has cleared at least 21 of the nearly 300 people accused of plotting to overthrow the government in a long-running and controversial case.

The authorities say hundreds of army officers, academics, journalists and lawyers belonged to a shadowy terrorist movement named Ergenekon that conspired to sow violence and trigger a military coup. Skeptics say the five-year trial has become a witch hunt aimed at eliminating the ruling Justice and Development Party's critics. Amid tight security and behind closed doors, the remainder of the verdicts are still coming in.

Got milk? You might not want it, at least if where you got it from was New Zealand: Fonterra, the world's biggest dairy exporter, has apologized after some of its products were found to be contaminated with bacteria that can lead to a potentially fatal form of food poisoning. The company says a dirty pipe at one of its processing plants allowed botulism-causing bacteria to enter batches of whey protein that were later exported to China, Vietnam, Saudi Arabia and more countries for use in baby formula and other products.

So far no one has been reported ill, but China, Vietnam and Russia — which didn't even receive any of the contaminated products — have banned Fonterra's imports as a precaution. And New Zealand's government is asking questions about how one of its biggest economic powerhouses could let something like this happen.

"We're seeing war on these kids." As civil war continues to displace, kill and wound Syrians, Israel is patching up some of the youngest victims. In ways no one wants to talk about, more than 100 Syrians have been extricated from the combat zone and transported to Israeli emergency rooms.

The Israeli army locates critically wounded victims, carries them to Israeli hospitals — and, at the end of treatment, takes them back. GlobalPost reports from one intensive care unit, half-hour south of Israel's northern border, where children bear the scars of Syria's battlefield.

STRANGE BUT TRUE

From lab to fork. In London, scientists are preparing to unveil — and eat — the world's first test-tube hamburger, produced entirely from synthetically grown meat. Let's get one thing clear: this ain't your grandma's Quorn. This is stem cells extracted from cows, grown into muscle tissue, mixed with beetroot juice and breadcrumbs, and soon, fried up as a history-making lunch.

The team that has spent months, and hundreds of thousands of dollars, developing the Frankenburger hopes lab-grown meat will one day help feed the world's hungry and reduce our carbon footprint — provided they can get it tasting right. Bon appetit.

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Director of Joe Lie Beauty And Cosmetics

Elastic Numbers Make It Hard to Get a Handle on the Economy

A TORRENT of economic numbers rained down from Washington last week. They provided a sharper historical perspective on the economy back to 1929.

Yet the deluge of statistics did little to clarify an urgent question: How strong is the economy right now?

It's a basic issue — one that affects the life of every American, the policy decisions of the Federal Reserve, the strategies of businesses and the performance of the markets. Unfortunately, the answer is by no means clear.

There are plenty of fresh numbers, though. On Friday morning, the Labor Department said the unemployment rate dropped in July to 7.4 percent, from 7.6 percent the previous month, and a total of 162,000 new nonfarm payroll jobs were created.

This is good news, but perhaps not as good as it seems. Even at 7.4 percent, unemployment remains uncomfortably high, and the government on Friday also revised downward job creation numbers for the previous two months, from 195,000 per month, to 176,000 for May and 188,000 for June. The Fed, acknowledging things are not as good as they could be four years after a major recession, reaffirmed its loose monetary policy. That policy, based on the assumption that the economy still needs emergency support, has helped hold interest rates to relatively low levels, and helped propel the stock market to new highs last week.

Gross domestic product numbers released on Wednesday also suggested that the economy was still ailing. In the second quarter of 2013, the Bureau of Economic Analysis said, the growth rate of G.D.P. was 1.7 percent, on a seasonally adjusted, annualized basis. That's just a preliminary number, subject to extensive revision. For the first quarter, the bureau now says G.D.P. grew at a 1.1 percent rate — after a series of reductions from its initial estimate of 2.5 percent.

But how weak is the economy? The numbers don't appear to fit a coherent pattern. Even with the downward revisions in the labor figures, the current level of job creation is greater than would typically be expected from a weak economy. The lackluster G.D.P. picture is hard to reconcile with the decline in the unemployment rate we've been seeing, said Joseph G. Carson, director of global economic research at AllianceBernstein. "During similar tepid growth environments in the past, unemployment has sometimes even increased rather than declined," he said.

Something's wrong with the numbers. "Growth in the private sector, which has been running at 3.3 percent, probably helps to explain the drop in the jobless rate," he said. He believes the overall G.D.P. figures aren't yet really capturing reality and that it's likely that G.D.P. growth over the last two years has actually been stronger than reported. Mr. Carson is optimistic about the second half of this year. "I think the economy will be picking up, and the numbers will start to show that."

The numbers are remarkably malleable, as the Bureau of Economic Analysis demonstrated last week.

In addition to the normal range of monthly and weekly economic reports, the bureau issued an ambitious revision of its statistics, adjusting a vast range of figures going back more than 80 years. Its revision showed that the recent recession was a little less severe than earlier reported, and the recovery has been a bit stronger. The economy shrank at an average annual pace of 2.9 percent, not 3.2 percent, in the recession that started in December 2007 and ended in June 2009. And from the recession's end through 2012, the economy grew at an average annual rate of 2.2 percent, not 2.1 percent as previously published.

Those numbers would still classify the recession as the worst since World War II, and the recovery as the weakest. Further revisions will be made as needed, and, given the anomalies in the current data, it seemed likely that some future changes will be significant. Ben S. Bernanke, the Fed chairman, alluded to this possibility in Congressional testimony last month.

"We all should keep in mind that these are very rough estimates and they get revised," Mr. Bernanke said. "For example, you get somewhat different numbers when you look at gross domestic income instead of gross domestic product."

IN theory, G.D.I. and G.D.P. should be equal. One measures gross income, the other gross production, and as a matter of basic accounting they ought to match. But they don't, not in real time, because they are collected from different sources using different deadlines and definitions. G.D.P., for example, depends heavily on sales receipts, while G.D.I. relies on data from paychecks, which are often issued well after sales are made, said J. Steven Landefeld, director of the bureau. "G.D.I. and G.D.P. are both the bureau's children," he said. "We're proud of both, and we know they're different."

Early G.D.I. numbers have provided a better indicator of cyclical changes in the economy — of the onset and the end of the last recession, in particular — than have early readings of G.D.P., according to research by Jeremy J. Nalewaik, a Fed economist.

What are the G.D.I. numbers telling us now? It depends on how you look at them. The Economic Cycle Research Institute, an independent forecaster, said that the economy fell into another recession "sometime in the middle of 2012 and it is still in a recession now," according to Lakshman Achuthan, the institute's chief operations officer. He relied in part on G.D.I. data. But the vast majority of mainstream economists reject this interpretation, and Mr. Landefeld said G.D.I. numbers might sometimes exaggerate economic trends.

The G.D.P. and G.D.I. numbers available right now indicate that the economy is growing, but Mr. Achuthan said that the historical revisions made last week "are a reminder that these numbers are all a moving target, and that they will change."

Mr. Carson of AllianceBernstein is far more sanguine, saying the economy appears to be growing modestly. But he agrees that the data isn't allowing clear visibility. "We've gotten so many new numbers," he said. "They help a bit. Now the past has become a little less foggy, but as for the present, there's still plenty of fog to go around."

Goay Joe Lie

Director of Joe Lie Beauty And Cosmetics

Business news and markets: live - Telegraph

• UK construction PMI at three-year high
• RBS appoints Ross McEwan as CEO
• Markets rise ahead of US jobs numbers
• Berlusconi conviction upheld, Italy in crisis

This also resulted in a solid increase in employment and the strongest degree of positive sentiment about future output since May 2010.

^{Source: Markit}

09.56 More on Berlusconi and what that ruling actually means (see 08.58).

OpenEurope says Berlusconi will only have to serve one year in reality - with house arrest or community service the most likely options, given his age.

But more importantly the Supreme Court also said the five-year public office ban was excessive under Italian law and had to be cut down - so it referred it back to the Court of Appeal for review.

In other words, it seemed Il Cavaliere had at least temporarily dodged the ban - arguably more important than the prison sentence from his point of view.

And the twist that emerged last night - Berlusconi will not be able to stand at the next election. OpenEurope explains:

Under Italy's new anti-corruption law, which was passed at the end of 2012 by Mario Monti's technocratic government, Berlusconi will not be allowed to stand for election for at least six years (so not at the next election even if Letta's government saw through the entire five-year parliamentary term).

So the result is that the lose-lose scenario for Prime Minister Enrico Letta's Democratic Party is materialising.

• If the Democratic Party votes to expel Berlusconi, it will put Italy's coalition government at risk;

• If the Democratic Party votes to keep Berlusconi in, it will put itself at risk of internal strains and criticism from angry voters. It would also provide a boost to Beppe Grillo's populism.

09.43 Australia unveils levy on bank deposits

This is very interesting as Australia has unveiled a bank levy to safeguard the country from a banking collapse.

Deposits up to A$250,000 will have to pay a levy of 0.05pc from January 2016.

It will be imposed on banks and not account holders. But banks have warned costs may be passed on to customers.

The news came as the country announced its budget deficit has blown out to Aus$30 billion and revenues are shrinking,

The bank levy is forecast to raise Aus$733m (£429.9m) in the first 18 months.

The government also lowered its growth forecast for the year to 2.5pc, from 2.75pc.

09.18 Berlusconi's conviction could create friction in Italy's coalition government, which was formed with members of Mr Berlusconi's party as well as his sworn opponents from the centre-Left after elections in February produced no clear result.

Berlusconi supporters have said they do not intend to walk out of the cabinet, which would prompt fresh elections, but rising tensions could hurt the attempt by Enrico Letta, the prime minister, to salvage Italy's stuttering economy, creating new instability at the heart of Europe as it tries to recover from a crippling downturn.

Italy's index, the FTSE Mib, is down 0.4pc in Friday's trading.

^{Silvio Berlusconi}

^{Judge Antonio Esposito (C) reads the sentence on Mediaset tax-fraud conviction against former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.}

08.58 In case you missed it over night - Berlusconi has his criminal conviction confirmed.

Italy's supreme court upheld Silvio Berlusconi's four-year jail sentence for tax evasion, as judges backed a sentence delivered by a Milan court in October and confirmed on appeal in May.

Mr Berlusconi is unlikely to see the inside of a prison cell because a 2006 amnesty law cuts three years off sentences for crimes committed before that date. With just one year to serve, he is more likely to be given community service or house arrest.

The judges also declined to confirm the Milan court's decision to ban Mr Berlusconi from political office for five years, deciding to send the decision back to a lower appeal court for reconsideration.

The multi-millionaire media mogul allegedly inflated acquisition costs for broadcast rights at his television company in 2002 and 2003 as part of a complicated tax scam.

Despite facing 17 major trials in the past 20 years, yesterday's ruling marked the first time that Mr Berlusconi has been definitively convicted of a crime, ending the cat and mouse game he has played with judges, winning acquittals, changing laws on fraudulent accounting to escape prosecution and avoiding the statute of limitations leading other trials to reach their time limit.

08.46 Shares in troubled hedge fund manager Man Group have jumped 8.9pc, despite the company reporting that clients pulled $1.3bn from its products over the course of the second quarter and funds under management fell to $52bn at June 30, from $57bn a the end of December. Still, the numbers were not as bad as some analysts had expected, sending Man to the top of the FTSE 250.

On the FTSE 100, despite swinging to £1.4bn first-half profit from a $1.68bn loss a year earlier, RBS shares have lost 4.6pc. The bank did have a strong run yesterday and jumped 5pc, which would explain some of the weakness today. Oriel Securities analysts also highlighted that the so-called net attributable profit of $535m reported today missed expectations.

08.40 In focus today will be US employment report where expectations are for Non-Farm Payroll adds of 185,000, and another tick down in unemployment rate to 7.5pc from 7.6pc.

However, after yesterday's surprise jump in the ISM manufacturing number, better than expected weekly jobless claims, combined with the improved ADP and GDP reports on Wednesday, some analysts are saying the number could be nearer 200,000.

Michael Hewson, senior market analyst at CMC Markets, said:

While we would hope to see an increase in the participation rate to go along with that, the main focus is likely to be on the revisions to previous month's figures in light of the large revisions seen in June.

A good jobs number will certainly add fuel to the September taper fire; however concerns remain over the slide in the PCE inflation component to its second lowest ever level in Wednesday's GDP figures at 0.8pc.

James Bullard, the president of the St Louis Federal Reserve and a member of the rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), is speaking later on. Dr Bullard's comments will be closely scrutinised, with his comments the first from a FOMC member since this week's Fed meeting.

08.29 Nationwide warns on housing supply as prices surge in July

House prices rose 0.8pc last month pushing the annual growth rate to its highest in three years while supply remains 'constrained'.

Britain's biggest building society said July's monthly house price increase of 0.8pc was "robust" and "further evidence of an upturn in the housing market".

The figure was by far the largest rise this year where other months have produced, on average, increases of 0.3pc.

It puts year-on-year growth at 3.9pc, the highest since August 2010. At that period transactions were at extreme lows and recovering from the worst of the banking crisis in 2009.

The society's chief economist Robert Gardner attributed some of the current gains to "a modest improvement in wider economic conditions and modest gains in employment." He said Government schemes to stimulate mortgage lending were also having an effect in boosting demand.

But he focused on housing supply as he discussed today's data, warning that "the supply side of the market remains constrained" with building activity "subdued".

"In the first quarter housing completions in England were down 8pc compared to the same period of 2012 and around 40pc below the average number of quarterly completions in 2007," he said.

^{House prices rose 0.8pc last month}

08.21 William Hill has revealed another bumper set of results.

An "exceptional" Grand National and online growth helped the bookie's revenue rise 20pc in the first half of the year to £752m.

Direct Line, the insurer spun out of RBS earlier this year, has seen pre-tax profits almost double in the first half to £208.8m, thanks to cost cust and fewer claims.

Europe's biggest hedge fund Man Group has suffered in terms of the value of funds it controls, down to $52bn against $57bn six months ago, although it has made a half-year profit of $122m.

^{The Grand National}

08.12 More corporate results this morning.

International Airlines Group, the owner of British airways, remains lossmaking, dragged down by the performance of its Spanish airline Iberia.

BA made an operating profit of €175m in the first half of the year, against €13m in the first half of 2012, but losses at Iberia have increased due to restructuring charges. Chief executive Willie Walsh has told Radio 4 that "all parts of the group are improving" and that "overall, I'm very pleased with the results".

On a group level, revenue is slightly up at €8.7bn, while IAG's pre-tax loss is at €506m against €358m a year ago because of those restructuring costs.

08.05 The FTSE 100 has edged 5.44 points higher to 6,684 this morning, helped by well-received numbers from British Airways and Iberia parent IAG, which is up 4.1pc in early trade. However, with US non-farm payroll data coming later today dealers are likely to be cautious: The Federal Reserve has said that unemployment will be a key factor in deciding when it will taper its stimulus measures.

07.55 As chief executive, McEwan will be expected to confirm his intention to stay in post until the privatisation of RBS.

This is expected to take at least five years, however Mr Hester recently said he thought the full return of RBS to the private sector could take a decade.

RBS's board met on Thursday to confirm the appointment, which will also require approval by UK Financial Investments, which manages the taxpayer's holdings in RBS and Lloyds Banking Group.

07.48 Commenting on the appointment this morning, Chancellor George Osborne said McEwan had impressed with his vision of RBS as a strong, UK-centred corporate bank.

I welcome Ross' appointment as the new Chief Executive of RBS. He's impressed me with his vision of RBS as a strong, UK-centred corporate bank that is focused on supporting the British economy.

He's committed to a new culture at the bank that puts the customer first, whether it's the family or small business or large company. I think he'll provide the leadership RBS needs as the bank puts the mistakes of the past behind it, and the government seeks to get the best value for the taxpayer from the money the last government put into the bank.

McEwan's appointment would have required approval from Osborne as the government is the largest shareholder of the lender with an 81pc stake.

Approval would also have been needed by the RBS board, chaired by Sir Philip Hampton, UK Financial Investments, which manages the Government's stake, and both the Prudential Regulatory Authority and the Financial Conduct Authority.

^{Chancellor George Osborne}

07.37 You can read a full profile of the 56-year-old Kiwi who will be taking the reins at RBS here.

07.24 Ross McEwan will become CEO of RBS on October 1, after a handover period with Hester.

McEwan joined the state-backed bank in September 2012 as the chief executive of UK Retail.

Sir Philip Hampton, RBS Chairman said:

With his extensive experience in banking and the leadership that he has shown in his time at RBS, Ross will be a great Chief Executive for the Group. Ross has already become a champion for customers in our business and will continue that role as CEO.

This is a job that is among the most important and challenging in the business world, and Ross has shown that he has the drive and capability to take it on. I conducted an international search for this position so our internal candidates could be benchmarked against the very best in the market. Ross was the strongest candidate.

Sir Philip says RBS is now a "safe and strong bank" adding that the focus was now on returning the bank to private ownership.

07.18 RBS has also increased its PPI provision in the first half by £185m. Its total for PPI charges now amounts to £2.4bn, of which £1.7bn has so far been paid out.

07.12 RBS has also announced pre-tax profit of £1.37bn in the first half of the year, compared with a loss of £1.68bn over the same timeframe last year.

Ross McEwan will take over from Stephen Hester, who has been at the helm since October 2008.

In today's results Mr Hester said:

Working intensely and effectively together, all 122,000 staff at RBS can take credit for the immense improvements made since then, from difficult beginnings and in a challenging environment.

RBS's journey from "bust bank" to "normal bank" is largely done. But no small task remains - to harness the energies and strengths that have driven the Bank's recovery, and to take RBS towards the target of being a "really good bank" for customers, shareholders and society as a whole.

I congratulate Ross McEwan on his appointment as RBS's next Chief Executive. He has made a very positive impact since joining RBS last year and has a track record of strong accomplishment in customer focused banking. We will work closely and well together during the transition period, and he has my warmest best wishes for succeeding in the role. It is good for RBS that my successor comes internally - a broader compliment to the management team who serve the Bank so well.

Ross McEwan will join the bank with a basic salary of £1m. He has asked not to be considered for a bonus in 2013 or 2014.

^{New RBS chief executive Ross McEwan}

07.08 BREAKING: The Royal Bank of Scotland confirms appointment Ross McEwan as the new chief executive of the state-backed lender.

07.06 Fabrice Tourre, the former Goldman Sachs banker, has been found liable for his role in a massive mortgage securities fraud that cost investors $1bn (£661m).

"Fabulous Fab", as he calls himself, was found liable by a nine-member jury for six of the seven charges against him. He now faces potential fines and a possible ban from the financial industry.

The 34-year-old, who had denied wrongdoing, was sued by America's Securities and Exchange Commission in the highest-profile trial to emerge from the financial crisis.

The SEC described Tourre as the "face of Wall Street greed" and claimed he hoodwinked investors into ploughing money into a sub-prime mortgage vehicle called Abacus while he was at Goldman.

The SEC claimed Tourre and the hedge fund Paulson & Co conspired to hook buyers by suggesting that founder John Paulson was also backing the vehicle, on the assumption that house prices would rise. In fact, Mr Paulson had taken a short position, betting that house prices would fall. The manoeuvre ended up making $1bn for the hedge fund.

^{Fabrice Tourre}

07.05 Quite a bit of news over night.

First to Dell - activist investor Carl Icahn is suing the computer maker.

He has filed a lawsuit aimed at blocking changes in timing and terms for shareholder voting on a bid to take computer maker Dell private.

The suit filed in the state of Delaware by Mr Icahn and affiliates urges the court to lay out a series of stumbling blocks to moves that would improve the chances of Michael Dell succeeding in his effort to take the company private.

The litigation seeks to prevent a change in the date by which Dell shares must have been purchased to qualify to vote and to bar those behind the buyout from voting shares bought after February 5 of this year.

The lawsuit also accuses the Dell board of directors of breaching its fiduciary duties.

^{Carl Icahn}

07.00 Good morning and welcome to our daily business and markets live blog, your one stop shop for all the breaking business stories of the day.

Goay Joe Lie

Director of Joe Lie Beauty And Cosmetics