European markets close slightly higher after central bank bonanza; Maersk shares up 8%

 LONDON — European markets closed slightly higher on Friday, rounding out a positive week after a deluge of key policy decisions from major central banks.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 index ended up 0.1%, having given back earlier gains of around 0.5%. Mining stocks climbed 1.3% while telecoms dropped 0.8%.

It gained 0.91% on the week in its fifth consecutive week of gains.

A day earlier, on Thursday, the European blue-chip index hitits highest point since January 2022.

Wednesday saw the U.S. Federal Reserve keep interest unchanged in a range between 5.25% and 5.5%, but risk sentiment in markets was boosted as the central bank revealed that policymakers were penciling in at least three rate cuts next year.

On Thursday, both the Bank of England and the European Central Bank also kept their respective interest rates unchanged, but the former pushed back against market expectations by retaining its hawkish guidance that monetary policy is “likely to need to be restrictive for an extended period of time.”

Alongside its decision, the ECB revised down its growth and inflation forecasts for the euro area and announced plans to speed up the shrinking of its balance sheet.

U.S. stocks were mixed on Friday after the Dow Jones Industrial Average notched a fresh record high, as the index heads for its best weekly winning streak since 2019.

Shares in Asia-Pacific also climbed overnight, led by Hong Kong, as markets in the region picked up the baton from Wall Street despite Chinese data showing an uneven recovery in the world’s second-largest economy.

Maersk to pause all container ship traffic through the Red Sea

  Danish shipping company A.P. Moller-Maersk  will pause all container shipments through the Red Sea until further notice, a spokesperson for the company told Reuters on Friday.

"Following the near-miss incident involving Maersk Gibraltar yesterday and yet another attack on a container vessel today, we have instructed all Maersk vessels in the area bound to pass through the Bab al-Mandab Strait to pause their journey until further notice," the company said in a statement.

Maersk on Thursday said its vessel Maersk Gibraltar was targeted by a missile while travelling from Salalah, Oman, to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia and that the crew and vessel were reported safe.

Earlier on Friday Maersk  by Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthi movement that the militia had struck a Maersk vessel sailing towards Israel.

"The vessel was not hit," a Maersk spokesperson told Reuters in an emailed statement following the Houthi claim.

The Houthis had claimed they carried out a military operation against a Maersk container vessel, directly hitting it with a drone. The Houthis, who made the claim in a statement, did not release any evidence.

Maersk said the company was deeply concerned about the highly escalated security situation in the southern Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.

"The recent attacks on commercial vessels in the area are alarming and pose a significant threat to the safety and security of seafarers," it wrote in the statement.

Twilight' Stars: It Was 'About Damn Time' For Robert/Taylor Kiss

The biggest shocker to come out of the MTV Movie Awards on Sunday night (June 5) was hands down that Robert Pattinson treated Taylor Lautner to a smooch almost as passionate as the ones in the Golden Popcorn-winning "Twilight Saga" films.
"It was about damn time, man. It's been up in the air for about three years now. I think we've all been waiting for Rob and Taylor to kiss," Jackson Rathbone told MTV News when we caught up with him backstage at the Gibson Amphitheatre in Los Angeles. "We knew it was coming, and finally it did. Finally, they acknowledged their love for each other." Rathbone's vampire brother Kellan Lutz admitted he was a bit surprised, but their co-star Peter Facinelli shared a little secret about how the RPattz/Taylor smooch went off without a hitch.
"They asked us to show them in practice," Facinelli said.
"We taught them everything they know," Lutz confirmed.
Tinsel Korey hought the Pattinson and Lautner kiss was "totally sexy," but Kiowa Gordon said he "puked a little bit" when his onscreen enemies locked lips. BooBoo Stewart had "no comment," but Julia Jones at least "thought it was cute."
All seemed to have been smoothed over by the time Pattinson, Lautner and their co-stars took the stage to accept the Best Movie award, with Lautner teasingly giving his sparkly co-star a knowing look and a quick tap on the chin before throwing his arm around his shoulder. As Rathbone said, those two should be nominated for a special award at next year's Movie Awards for Best Man-On-Man Kiss.
What did you think of Rob and Taylor's kiss? Tell us in the comments!

U.S. Soccer focused on Gold Cup

The information from U.S. Soccer referred to an "inexperienced lineup" and the upcoming CONCACAF Gold Cup as "more important."
Sorry, but the U.S. national team was playing World Cup champion Spain before 64,121 Saturday night at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass., and its 4-0 loss can't be treated as an afterthought.
"Spain is a great team," understated U.S. coach Bob Bradley. "It's a tough test to play against them at any time and it becomes even tougher on the eve of the Gold Cup. It's what the game at the highest level is all about. It's the best way for our team to improve."
The last time the United States played Spain was at the 2009 Confederations Cup in South Africa, and the Americans scored a spectacular, 2-0 victory, ending Spain's 35-game international unbeaten streak. Six players who played that night were in Bradley's lineup Saturday, and the rest of the U.S. team included players who play professionally in England, Germany and Scotland.
What inexperience?
The Spaniards used five Real Madrid players, three from just-crowned UEFA Champions League king Barcelona, and three from English Premier League teams.
Santa Cazorla (Villareal) scored two goals, Alvaro Negrado (Sevilla), and Fernando Torres, who could not buy a goal this past season for either Liverpool or Chelsea, each scored once.
"We got our butts kicked," said U.S. goalkeeper Tim Howard, who will face the Union with Everton at PPL Park in July. "If we win the Gold Cup in a couple of weeks, nobody will remember this."
And who do you think will remember anything about the Gold Cup?

Thunder fighting to survive

NORMAN — In what may have been the lowest point in the short history of the Oklahoma City Thunder, Kevin Durant sat alone. After his team gave up a 15-point lead that led to an overtime loss to Dallas in Game 4 of the Western Conference Finals Monday, Durant faced the media by himself. His coach had just left and his sidekick, Russell Westbrook, was nowhere in sight.
But Durant sat there, with a hand over his face, and answered every question that was shot at him — even the ones that visibly brought up the memories of the painful collapse.
“This is basketball, man,” Durant said. “Our youth has nothing to do with what we were doing on the floor. We’ve showed we can play on this level. They played good defense. We missed some shots. Our youth has nothing to do with it.”
Durant didn’t have the type of game he had wanted — or expected — from himself in Game 5. He had 29 points, but didn’t score a point in the final 10 minutes, including overtime. He tallied 15 rebounds as he battled Tyson Chandler in the paint, but he was also one turnover away from a different kind of triple-double.
“I was trying to play with so much force and play so hard,” Durant said. “Early on, I was getting the ball where I wanted to and they were just playing straight-up defense. But later on, I got the ball where I wanted to and I seen three or four guys around me, and I had to make a pass. Some passes were tipped. A few of those, my swipe move, I didn’t get the foul and I got the turnover.”
Dallas made the decision early on that Durant was not going to beat them.
“The guys that are getting the ball a lot are facing tremendous pressure,” Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle said. “We’re game planning like crazy for the guy. We’re chasing him, we’re double-teaming him out to half-court a lot of the time. He’s receiving a lot of attention.”
One thing is for sure, Durant will see the same attention tonight in Game 5 at the American Airlines Center in Dallas. It will be up to coach Scott Brooks to figure out a way to get his star the ball in easier scoring positions.
What hurts the situation even more is that Durant doesn’t have to look too far to see how a superstar is supposed to play in the clutch. The Mavericks’ Dirk Nowitzki has nearly put to rest the talk of him being soft in the postseason with the way he has bullied Thunder defenders throughout the series. He’s scored 40 points or more twice. Dallas won both of those games.
But it’s more than Nowitzki outplaying Durant. It’s the Mavericks’ supporting cast outplaying the Thunder, especially late in games.
“He is a tough cover,” Westbrook said. “The way he knocks down shots, we couldn’t double because of his shooters they have around him. It was tough.”
If the Thunder want their season to continue for at least one more game, they will have to go on the road, in front of a hostile crowd, and show they have learned from their most recent failure.
“I think we can,” Thabo Sefolosha said. “We have bounced back a lot of times. We are playing against a very good team. We have to make some adjustments and keep fighting. It’s not over yet. We have a lot of basketball to play and we have to keep pushing.”
When the season started, the Thunder had championship aspirations, despite their age. Those aspirations turned to expectations after the trade deadline brought them Kendrick Perkins.
Now Oklahoma City is just fighting to survive.
“I feel upset because I think I let (the fans) down,” Durant said. “I let the city down. I just want to come back next game and play even harder. I think I played hard, but push it up another level for these fans and try to bring it back to OKC.”

Hines Ward scores, takes home mirror ball trophy on 'Dancing with the Stars'

It's all over but cleaning up the tons of confetti on the dance floor of "Dancing with the Stars" Season 12, and by winning it all, Pittsburgh Steeler Hines Ward, with his partner Kym Johnson, upheld the tradition of the dancing football star. Hines was the odds-on favorite to take home the trophy after weeks of outstanding dancing, along with showing a captivating smile and personality. And I have to say: I called it last week!!
If there was a shocker for the night, it was that Chelsea Kane and Mark Ballas, tied with Hines and Kym atop the leaderboard, were eliminated and had to settle for third place. It just proves that DWTS is as much a personality contest as a dancing competition.
Kirstie Alley and Maks Chmerkovskiy did their level best to wow the judges and viewers with continued improvement in dancing, while Kirstie gained confidence, endurance and a new figure. I think that Maks was hoping to break into the circle of mirror ball winners after 10 years, but Hines and Kym became a team that was just too tough to beat. Hopefully, the rumors are wrong and he'll be back next season to show off his best moves -- and bare chest.The two-hour finale was just as bloated with commercials and padded with repeats and look-backs as ever, although there were a few surprises. Josh Groban's appearance to surprise Petra Nemcova with her favorite song as she waltzed with Dmitry Chaplin was one, and Chris Jericho's spot-on impression of over-the-top judge Bruno onioli was another. The audience was packed with stars of ABC shows, celebrities, including Sarah Palin, and family and friends of the contestants. All in all, it was exactly what we've come to expect on "Dancing with the Stars." Now, how many weeks is it until the next season starts in September?

Josh Groban Receives Glowing Reviews for Current "Straight To You" Tour

BURBANK, CA--(Marketwire - May 24, 2011) - On May 12^th, Josh Groban launched the North American leg of his 2011 "Straight To You" World Tour and is receiving some of the best reviews of his career. With a set designed by the award-winning British multi-media creative and digital agency Knifedge, which has pioneered the use of projection with live theater events, the tour gives fans the feeling of an intimate theater setting through stage design, lighting, and projection, as well as through the spontaneity and interactivity Groban delighted his fans with during last year's "Before We Begin" shows. Groban is not only performing an ever-changing set-list of fan favorites from his best-selling albums and his recent platinum-seller Illuminations, he is also taking questions from the audience via text, which concert-goers are given instructions on how to send before and during each show.
"Groban's genuine boy-next-door demeanor in the midst of violins, french horns, percussion, cello, piano, guitars, bass and drums makes him and his music all the more endearing. He appears truly comfortable performing, like it's his second home." - The Dallas Morning News
"Listening to Groban's commanding tenor navigate 'Oceano' and 'Alla Luce,' for example, was to us the same as admiring a painting at the Museum of Fine Arts -- it wasn't necessary to understand the lyrics to understand the song. ... Sometimes beauty, in and of itself, can be both motive and reward. And regardless of the context you're coming from, it can be pretty inspirational, too." - Houston Press
"Groban has boyish charm that belies his big voice. If you want to dismiss him as popera, be my guest; but do take a moment to listen to his voice sometime, just for its qualities and tone, and tell me it doesn't draw you in." -Dallas Voice
"Impeccable vocals, wit, make Groban concert memorable. Groban proved to be quite the showman, but his vocals truly made the show memorable. He managed to belt powerful and enunciated lyrics, then quickly switch to a soothing falsetto. Few performers have the ability to perform that way live without a hitch." - Wichita Eagle
"That had been one of the purposes of the stage set created for his 'Straight To You' tour -- to allow for more interaction between Groban and his fans, whether it be answering questions audience members could text in before the show or getting down among the adoring. But it's simply the case of a talented artist putting his instrument to its best and most effective use. And Groban sings with such obvious emotion and sincerity -- not to mention skill -- that it's difficult not to be won over." - Tulsa World

American Idol' Finale: The Case For Lauren

We realize this is a futile effort. Everyone knows that Scotty McCreery, the clean-cut, mild mannered, country kid with the aw, shucks grin from Garner North Carolina, has this contest pretty much sewn up. And we’re not just talking about Tuesday night’s DialIdol results that has him leading with twice as many votes as Lauren Alaina. Let’s face it, he’s never been in the bottom three, and a source tells THR that earlier this month, Scotty led his fellow finalists by a country mile over the number two vote-getter that week. So Wednesday night’s result show should come as a surprise to, well, nobody.
Even so, this should not dissuade Lauren Alaina’s fans from harnessing their power and influence to put the Georgia peach in the winner’s column. There’s still time! But even beyond tonight’s four-hour window, we’d like to offer top five reasons why Lauren is the better choice for Season 10.
5) Lauren has versatility. Her range not only suits the country genre she so clearly loves, but it has pop undertones that would work very well with what we like to classify as “crossover” potential. Think: Taylor Swift, Carrie Underwood.
4) Look at the Top 40 and the iTunes charts these days -- the biggest sellers of the past two years are female: Pink, Lady Gaga, Adele, Katy Perry, Ke$ha, Rihanna, Beyonce, and, yes, Jennifer Lopez. Girls are huge sellers in multiple genres, or, in the words of Beyonce, “run the World.”
3) The top two bests-selling most beloved Idols? Women. The aforementioned Carrie Underwood and Kelly Clarkson, ‘natch. And can’t you just see Lauren fitting nicely into that coffee klatch?
2) Despite nearly losing her voice last night, Lauren soldiered on and did more than “work it out,” as Randy Jackson would say. She put heart, soul and every muscle she had into that performance Tuesdya night, showing true poise and professionalism. The show must go on, and it did. Some say Scotty is the more mature of the two. We say, who cares?
1) It has been far too long since a girl won American Idol. The last one was season 6’s Jordin Sparks who won in 2007 and, incidentally, has multiple singles still being played on the radio. No, the closest Idol had to a female winner was last year’s Crystal Bowersox.
Bottom line: Lauren has marketability and the most potential to strengthen the Idol brand by selling music, and isn’t that really what this exercise is all about?
As always, we welcome your thoughts, Idol Worshipers...

Television Review: 'Too Big to Fail'

A tale of the 2008 financial meltdown comes to HBO, with straightforward direction by Curtis Hanson and a sizable cast led by William Hurt."Too Big to Fail," which premieres Monday on HBO, is the latest of that network's high-toned original films ("Recount," "The Late Shift," "From the Earth to the Moon," the upcoming "Game Change") in which a large cast of medium-big-to-big-named actors assume the skin of the real people to put you backstage at history. In this case — the story of the 2008 financial meltdown and the attempt to keep us all from ruin — the paint is barely dry on the actual events. Indeed, their ongoing consequences will affect the next election.

Directed by Curtis Hanson ("L.A. Confidential," "8 Mile") from a screenplay by Peter Gould ("Breaking Bad") and based on Andrew Ross Sorkin's book of the same name, "Too Big to Fail" is pretty consistent low-key entertainment if not exactly enlightening (because it is an impersonation of the truth) or gripping (because we already know how it sort of ends). Structurally, it is a little like an episode of "House," a series of surgeries and injections requiring further surgeries and injections but without the tidy fourth-act cure, and a little like a disaster movie, where the disaster is still rumbling on at the movie's end, just not as awfully as it might have, and a little like a samurai movie, where the soldiers carry cellphones instead of swords, minus the action. Hanson's direction is admirably straightforward; he doesn't try to compensate for what is basically a story of rich white men talking about money with overcomposed or flashy visuals or an unsettling sound design.In some respects I am a bear of little brain. Fannie Mae will always be the title of a Buster Brown song to me, and at first much of the matter here and many of the many characters went by in a blur of blue suits and gobbledygook — much like my experience of the crisis itself, for that matter. Eventually, the players resolve vaguely into teams, after which watching is less about keeping the many facts straight than tracking the energy flow.

Still, the filmmakers have tried to touch all the important bases, and there are possibly six lines in the film that do not prompt one to ask, "Will this be on the test?" (There is one about doughnuts, one about oatmeal, one about a hawk, one about a frog, one about Christian Science and one about Al Capone's gun; they are supposed to add a dash of naturalism, and they stick out a mile.) Because they have a lot to tell you, movies like "Too Big to Fail" inevitably have something of the shorthand quality of a Presidents Day pageant: "Who has chopped down my cherry tree?" "It was I, with my little hatchet." "God bless you, Mr. President!"

Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson (William Hurt) is our hero here, flanked by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke (Paul Giamatti) and then-president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York Timothy F. Geithner (Billy Crudup). Of the bankers and money men — played by the power-suited likes of Tony Shalhoub, Bill Pullman, Michael O'Keefe and Matthew Modine — only James Woods' Dick Fuld, the CEO of Lehman Brothers, constitutes more than a cameo, in part because Lehman was the firm that was allowed to fail and in part because Fuld's famously difficult demeanor guaranteed him screen time. As support staff on Team Paulson, Topher Grace, Cynthia Nixon, Joey Slotnick and Ayad Akhtar all do heavy lifting lightly.

The film's main argument, really, is that we should look kindly upon Paulson and the best he tried to do; the other characters we rate by whether they help or hinder him. What moral voice there is here mostly comes out of his mouth. "We've been late on everything," he admits, and admits also that no one in power wanted to regulate the financial industry because "We were making too much money." (That's about as pointed as the film gets on the subject of corporate greed.) Hurt, who (like his costars) seems to be playing the script rather than imitating the person whose name he bears, is a tall tower of movie-star appeal, and it does not hurt our opinion of Paulson that Kathy Baker plays his wife, although she has not much to do but sympathize.

31 Modern Warfare 3 trailer screens: New York

Modern Warfare 3 is being created by three separate US studios: Infinity Ward, Raven Software and Sledgehammer Games. So it's something of a surprise to see New York get quite such a violent battering in the first trailer.Activision's teaser footage for the game , which was release last night, shows The Big Apple getting pulverised - both in the handily subtitled 'America' part, and later on in the video.

Here, we've grabbed 31 stills of the action, in which you can see some very cool naval manoeuvres (can you spot the Statue Of Liberty in the background?) as well as a major attack on what appears to be Wall Street.You can check out similarly revelatory screens from the London, Paris and Berlin sections of the Modern Warfare trailer through the links.

Modern Warfare 3 is due for release worldwide for PC, 360 and PS3 on November 8.

Paul Feig: Open to ‘Bridesmaids 2

For two weeks in a row Bridesmaids has far surpassed box office expectations, and has already been dubbed the first comedy smash of 2011. This is especially impressive in that going into release, the film had three strikes against it: 1) It was a comedy with no A-listers to grab notice. 2) As an R-rated comedy, it couldn’t depend on the huge youth market to boost box office receipts. 3) It’s a female-fronted comedy, which means it had to fight the chick-flick label at every turn (not to mention unfair yet potentially deadly Sex and the City 2 comparison).  So, basically Bridesmaids succeeded despite the popular wisdom of many media watchers (including Nikki Finke) – but why?
To put it simply, it’s riotously hilarious. While critics are arguing the particulars, the overall opinion is that the writer, Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumulo, laid some amazing groundwork with a script that was relateable and hysterical. Then Judd Apatow did his thing by adding in some signature gross-out slapstick (the intro awkward sex scenes, the explosive dress shop scene) – that would get word-of-mouth spreading like wildfire. Next, Paul Feig, the creator of Freaks and Geeks, came into to wrangle a cast of sidesplitting performers that included Wiig, Maya Rudolph, Jon Hamm, Chris O’Dowd and Melissa McCarthy. But beyond getting laughs out of his whip-smart cast, he wrung out some poignancy in the payoff, making a film that was as funny and moving as Apatow’s mega-hit The 40-Year-Old Virgin. When you look at it like this, Bridesmaids‘ box office makes a lot of sense – except that risks like this (that ignore the three strikes listed above) are rarely taken. This one was a go largely because of the influence of Apatow.
Of course, now that Bridesmaids has proved bankable, producers all over Hollywood will rush to churn out similar fare in hopes of pulling in audiences in droves. And Bridesmdaids’ own producers may well be on the bandwagon. According to Feig, who recently spoke with Vulture about the comedy’s smashing opening, the possibility of a sequel has already been raised:

Who knows? I mean, it depends how we do in the next couple weeks, but I know there’s definitely … it’s already been brought up. So, um, you know, when you get a group that’s this deep and this good, it’s a crime to not use them again. You just want to make sure that you do it as well as you did the first one and try to make it better, even. So, we’re up for the challenge.

As much as I’d love to see some of these characters again, I cringe at the idea of a sequel because – yes – most sequels are unforgivably bad. But notably, Apatow hasn’t looked to repeat his past successes through that means. Of course, he does do spin-offs like Get Him to the Greek (spawned from Russell Brand’s character from Forgetting Sarah Marshall) and he has been looking to make a spin-off feature centered on the squabbling married couple played by Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann from Knocked-Up. So, maybe that’s a more probable production that a straight-up sequel.
We’ve previously reported that Melissa McCarthy, the breakout comedienne of the cast, has already lined up two new vehicles for her go-for-broke comedy stylings. While one is a road movie about a woman seeking to hijack the Stanley Cup to inspire her ailing husband, the other is said to be a rom-com re-teaming with Feig. Could this be the possible Bridesmaids “sequel”? Is it possible that rather than retread Wiig’s storyline (and thereby detract from Bridemaids’ narrative), producers will spin-off and follow up on Megan’s tale? Maybe with her onscreen lover/real-life husband, Ben Falcone? Now, that’d be something I’d like to see! For her part, McCarthy would be game, saying:

I will show up wherever these guys tell me to go. If it’s a play in their backyard, I will gladly do it. I’ll do kids’ parties for them, I’ll do bar mitzvahs; I’m in.

Well, for my part – if McCarthy’s involved – I’m in too!
Would you be interested in Bridesmaids 2?

Your comments: 'Real Housewives of New Jersey' is back!

Danielle Staub may be gone, but it didn't take long for Melissa Gorga to bring the drama to the world of the "Real Housewives of New Jersey." Teresa Giudice and Melissa have already mixed it up in the first episode, and there promises to be a lot of drama to follow.
The show has its fans and its hater. NJ.com user counting crow wrote:
I am soooooooooo happy I watched!! After the most horrendous season in history, I think the RHNJ are BACK!! I have no idea how they are going to go UP from the premiere episode, but you can bet your bottom dollar I will be watching. My Monday nights finally have meaning again!!! LOL.

My opinion of the new girl, Melissa...I think she's absolutely gorgeous, her children are ridiculously adorable, and I can't have too much hate for her since she was, at one time, residing in Bayonne. That being said, she's a Grade A troublemaker!!! Give Teresa a break, and shame on Joe the brother (non-juicy version)...your sister is your blood. He looked like such a drunken idiot at the party. ugh. In the middle of the episode my mother goes, "They make all Italians look so bad!" and im like no im pretty sure italians do that on their own (i'm 100% so shutty to all the haters ready to bash me).

Another user said that New Jersey residents should boycott this show (as well as "Jersey Shore") because it makes residents look back. NJ.com user Woolfland agreed and responded:

Taziki, you are exactly right. As an Army brat, I have lived all over the world and have found most people very wonderful and pleasant. I've lived in New Jersey for 20 years and the real people here are wonderful....some of the best people I've ever known. What you're seeing on TV is a representation of a very small existence....remember, most of the JS cast are NOT from New Jersey.

Many of my native NJ friends are embarrassed and ashamed of these shows as they certainly depict NJ in the worse possible way. Sadly, most of the country will never know what I do....that NJ truly deserves its name as the Garden State as it has beautiful mountains, gorgeous beaches and lush farmlands. In fact, most of the state is still rural land sandwiched between NYC and Philly. I don't believe California is full of nuts....I've been there, it's beautiful. My advice, come see for yourself.....come to NJ......Cape May is a great place to start.

Are H-P shares finally cheap enough?

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Hewlett-Packard Co. saw its shares tumble to their lowest valuation in at least ten years on Tuesday, though some analysts are still wondering if the stock is cheap enough — given the company’s current struggles. H-P HPQ -7.79%  shares slumped more than on Tuesday afternoon after the company lowered its earnings and revenue forecasts for its third fiscal quarter and entire fiscal year. Read more about H-P's results.

Those forecasts stem mostly from the company’s on-going struggles with its consumer PC and services businesses, as well as effects from the recent natural disasters in Japan. The news put the stock to its lowest level in nearly two years and pushed the shares below the lowest price targets of 30 industry analysts surveyed by FactSet Research. The stock is now down more than 14% for the year.

“A near-term catalyst is tough to identify, [and] we view the shares as washed out at current levels,” said Citigroup analyst Richard Gardner, in a research note. Gardner has a buy rating and $65-a-share price target on H-P’s stock.

Abhey Lamba of ISI Group downgraded H-P to a hold rating and cut his price target on the shares to $40 on Tuesday following the results. He said the stock “is likely to remain at current levels, despite an attractive valuation.”

Before the market opened, H-P lowered its 2011 earnings forecast to $5 a share. Analysts surveyed by FactSet estimate that H-P will earn $5.64 a share in its 2012 fiscal year.

But even with H-P giving the market little to rally around, and its stock looking depressed, several analysts say the shares, may represent an opportunity for investors who can stomach the challenges the company is currently facing.

Apotheker addressed the services issue on a conference call before the market opened Tuesday, saying H-P has “not yet shifted our services mix to higher-value, higher-margin and higher-growth categories.” Apotheker also said H-P will hire an executive vice president to focus on IT services and report directly to the CEO.

Shaw Wu, of Stern Agee, called H-P’s outlook and comments on the services business the main reason why the stock has sold off, and driven the overall price of the shares down to more attractive levels.

“Even though it [H-P’s stock] had already underperformed over the last few months, investor confidence has clearly been shaken and it will likely take a few quarters for Apotheker and the H-P management team to win it back,” Wu said. “Yes, the stock is inexpensive, but looks like it is getting more so. Though at these depressed prices, it looks interesting even on lower forward estimates.”

Wu has a buy rating on H-P’s stock and cut his target price on Tuesday to $53 a share from $56.

Auriga analyst Kevin Hunt trimmed his price target on H-P to $45 a share from $46 and maintained his hold rating on the stock. Hunt said he doesn’t see any sustainable growth opportunities for H-P’s business right now, and thinks it may take the rest of the year for H-P’s shares to qualify as “cheap.”

“It does look pretty cheap on traditional metrics,” Hunt said. “But H-P can’t be considered a growth company anymore, which is how most of tech is viewed.”

Hunt added that H-P “kind of falls into the value trap bucket now, where a stock is cheap, but cheap for a good reason.”

Bill O'Reilly, Jon Stewart debate Common White House controversy

FOX News Channel and Comedy Central political pundits Bill O'Reilly and Jon Stewart don't often see eye to eye. The controversy surrounding rapper Common's invitation to the White House Poetry event on May 11th is no exception.

O'Reilly and Stewart had it out on FOX's "The O'Reilly Factor," debating whether or not the rapper's invitation was appropriate. Common has voiced his support of Joanne Chesimard (aka Assata Shakur), a member of the Black Liberation Army, who was convicted of killing a New Jersey State Trooper in 1977.FOX News Channel and Comedy Central political pundits Bill O'Reilly and Jon Stewart don't often see eye to eye. The controversy surrounding rapper Common's invitation to the White House Poetry event on May 11th is no exception.

O'Reilly and Stewart had it out on FOX's "The O'Reilly Factor," debating whether or not the rapper's invitation was appropriate. Common has voiced his support of Joanne Chesimard (aka Assata Shakur), a member of the Black Liberation Army, who was convicted of killing a New Jersey State Trooper in 1977.convicted murderers.

Watch the war of words below. Who do you think won the battle?

May 21st Doomsday: Judgment Awaits?

Ah, Judgment Day! That special time of year when you go home to see the folks for Thanksgiving and your grandmother tells you that you look “puffier” than the last time she saw you…
Oh, wait, Judgment Day means talking about Doomsday? My bad! In that case, I hope you’re in the mood for a little Rapture!

According to Harold Camping, the 89-year-old leader of the Christian fundamentalist network Family Radio Worldwide, the day to repent is upon us, as the world will be ending on May 21, 2011.
According to the website, and the countdown clock, we’ve got 4 days to shape up because “The Bible guarantees” Judgment Day will be coming for us. Well— the actual destruction of Earth will take up to six months to come to fruition, but still you get the point.
It should also be stated that Camping has a previous history of some rather inaccurate predictions when it comes to the end of the world. You see, he used to be certain that the world would end come September of 1994, but once that date failed to pan out he went back to studying the Bible and realized his error— May 21st, 2011 it is!
We know our boy Ashton Kutcher has been prepping for this day. Are you??

From Housewife To Stripper

Now that Danielle Staub, 48, is no longer raking in the big bucks as a reality TV star on The Real Housewives of New Jersey, she's taken her career in a different direction.
She's dancing totally nude at Scores gentleman's club in Manhattan.
This isn't the first time Staub has stripped. She was a dancer at a Miami gentleman's club two decades ago. More recently, she appeared in a celebrity sex tape.
The scandal-prone Staub has signed a three-year deal to appear at the club and on the club's website.
Stripping won't be Staub's only source of income. She's also slated to appear in an upcoming VH1 reality TV series with Heidi Montag from The Hills and Jake Pavelka of The Bachelor. The program will follow the trio as they attempt to open a restaurant together.
Before she became famous, Staub had a scandalous past in Florida. Charles Kipps' Cop Without a Badge details Staub's dealings in the criminal world. In the book, Staub is quoted as having said she had sex with 1,000 men.
These days, Staub isn't the only celebrity making money from stripping. Actor Channing Tatum's past stint as a male stripper is being turned into a movie directed by Steven Soderbergh.
Last week, it was revealed Staub's newest boyfriend is reality TV star and musician Ray J. No word yet on what Ray thinks of his lady's latest gig.

Purdy: Sharks coach should like this prediction

Todd McLellan is a happy guy these days. For the first time since he began coaching the Sharks in 2008, his team is more or less officially expected to lose a playoff series. They will be the lower-seeded team Sunday in Canada when they face off against the Vancouver Canucks, who had the best record in the NHL this season.

"I think most people see us as an underdog," McLellan said the other day, barely hiding his delight -- and provoking a rare question to the coach of a team that has been so successful:
How big an underdog would he like the Sharks to be?
"I don't know," McLellan responded. "How big are underdogs?"
I guess the next part will be easy, then. I'm picking the Canucks to win in six games.
It's not at McLellan's request. It's because the Canucks have shown over the past month that they can back up their excellent regular-season record. They have a terrific core of defensemen who will give the Sharks fits, a pair of icy-eyed skilled Swedish twin forwards and a gritty American centerman at the top of his game.
Not that Vancouver will roll. The Canucks and the Sharks are the two best teams left in the playoffs. This series is the de facto Stanley Cup finals. And I expect the Sharks to come up just a little short, especially after draining themselves in Thursday's epic Game 7 against Detroit while Vancouver has been resting since Monday.
McLellan, of course, knows exactly what he is doing by casting his Shark men as scrappy, plucky guys whom nobody expects to win. He has never been able to play that psychological card. Ever since the NHL lockout ended, the Sharks have flown the flag as a perpetually underachieving team.
As McLellan noted: "We have this anchor that everybody throws at us, fairly or unfairly."
It's a little of both. The Sharks are the only team in this year's conference finals who were also there last year, which means something. Also, since 2004, just three NHL teams -- the Sharks, Red Wings and Flyers -- have been able to reach the conference finals three times. By comparison, Vancouver hasn't been there even once since 1994. So it's totally wrong to label the Sharks as miserable flops worthy of scorn.
At the same time "... well, any follower of our beloved Los Tiburones can finish the next sentence. For all of their impressive regular-season victories and their better-than-reputed playoff success, the Sharks have yet to reach the Stanley Cup finals. Let alone win the big, silver beer mug. And until they do, they will always have that sentence to finish.
Vancouver, incidentally, is in much the same situation -- although the franchise does have two appearances in the finals. As the only western Canadian team never to win a Cup, though, the Canucks will be feeling the heat from all over British Columbia. Which is why McLellan believes that "maybe we'll play more free" with the Sharks players no longer being reminded every day that they need to validate their promise.
The Sharks have shown the hockey world much fine stuff over the past month. Coming back from a four-goal deficit to win Game 3 in Los Angeles. Grinding out those four one-goal victories over Detroit, including the stomach-acid special Thursday. And you get the sense that, unlike some Sharks teams in the past who seemed to expect that their talent entitled them to win a playoff series, this one understands that it takes sustained effort to get the job done.
Joe Thornton has led the parade in that department, by the way. I stick to the statement that was written here last autumn when there was speculation after Rob Blake's retirement about who should take over the team's captaincy: To me, there is no way the Sharks will win the Stanley Cup unless Thornton is the captain.
So far, he has proved me right. Thornton has led on and off the ice, from his defensive commitment to the calm words in the dressing room before every overtime. He would never concede this, but at age 31 as a husband and new father, Thornton also is realizing that there are only so many kicks at the can left. There is no guarantee the Sharks will ever get a chance again.
His teammates realize it, too. After the Detroit clincher, someone asked Joe Pavelski if he felt a sense of relief.
"There's no relief," Pavelski said. "We've been here before. There's a higher job ahead."
The job is going to be a bear. The Sharks had only one win in four meetings with Vancouver in the regular season, and that was in a shootout. Those two Swedish twins, Henrik and Daniel Sedin, will be making life rugged for the Sharks' defensemen. Daniel is the twin most likely to win the Most Valuable Player award this season. He led the league this season in scoring the first goal of games -- with 12 -- and was a clutch performer.
Meanwhile, Vancouver's leading playoff scorer is Ryan Kesler, who joined Pavelski as the prime heart-and-soul players on the USA Olympic team in 2010. Kesler will plant himself in front of the goal and dare anyone to move him out. Let's just say Sharks goalie Antti Niemi will be growing very acquainted with Kesler's back
The Sharks have a chance to counteract all this if Thornton can get Patrick Marleau to keep raising his game and if Devin Setoguchi keeps firing accurately at the net. But they will need secondary scoring, too, plus more spectacular work from Niemi.
It should be a fun and riveting series. But the underdog won't win this time. Hope that cheery forecast makes McLellan smile.

What are the advantages of ebook readers compared to proper books?

In 1455, Johannes Gutenberg printed a Bible and changed the world forever. He set in motion an industry that remained fundamentally unchanged for 600 years.
Movable type was his great innovation - individual characters arranged in a frame and used to press ink onto paper. It’s only now, with the advent of ebooks and digital readers, that we are in a position to leave print behind.
Dedicated ebook readers such as Amazon’s Kindle are rapidly falling in price, and so are books that can be read on them.
Supplied as a digital download, they don’t consume the planet’s forests, needn’t be carried to shops by sea, air or road, and are more flexible than their printed equivalents, as you can choose how they are displayed.
But can an electronic book ever replace the printed page in our homes, on the move or even on the beach in summer?
In truth, this new technology has significant problems alongside its many advantages. In this article we will look at the pros and cons, allowing you to choose whether digital or paper books are best for you.
Carry on readingJilly Cooper’s latest hardback has 739 pages and Ken Follett’s 864. Penguin’s latest translation of War and Peace runs to more than 1,300 pages. None of these can be easily carried around for any length of time, unless you buy them as ebooks.
Download all three to a Kindle and it still won’t weigh more than 247 grams - roughly the same as a single slim paperback - and there will be room inside for hundreds more books besides.
Amazon also makes Kindle software for iPhone and Android smartphones, as well as Windows and Mac computers and iPad tablets. They all synchronise online, so if you buy a book on one it can be downloaded in seconds onto any other device you own.Likewise, Apple’s iBooks app is available on the iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch music player, and if you own more than one your books are synchronised between them.

Digital portability only stretches so far, though, as all the major ebook services’ platforms are incompatible with one another.
Books bought from iBooks can’t be read on a Kindle, for example, and if you bought an ebook from Waterstones for the Sony Reader you couldn’t read it on the iPad or Kindle. The only real exception is that, at the moment, you can buy a book on the Kindle and read it using the Kindle app on an iPad.

IMF’s Strauss-Kahn Charged With Attempted Rape in New York

May 15 (Bloomberg) -- Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the head of the International Monetary Fund and a potential candidate for the French presidency next year, was charged with attempted rape and a criminal sex act on a woman in a New York hotel, the police said today.

The charges stem from an incident that allegedly occurred yesterday against a 32-year-old female at a Sofitel hotel in midtown Manhattan, the New York Police Department said in an e- mailed statement early today. Strauss-Kahn was arrested on an Air France flight at John F. Kennedy airport, the police said. He also was charged with unlawful imprisonment.

Strauss-Kahn, 62, denies the charges and will plead not guilty, his lawyer Benjamin Brafman said in an e-mailed statement to Bloomberg News today.

He will appear in a Manhattan court later today, New York Police Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne told BBC television in an interview.

The alleged victim is a maid at the hotel, Browne said, according to the New York Times. The assault occurred about 1 p.m. yesterday when the woman entered the $3,000 a night suite - - Room 2806 -- Strauss-Kahn had checked into on May 13, Browne said, the Times reported.

The maid managed to escape from the room and notified colleagues who called the police, Browne told the Times. When officers arrived, Strauss-Kahn was not there and appeared to have left in a hurry, Browne said. His mobile phone had been left behind, Browne told the newspaper.

European Bailouts

Strauss-Kahn had been scheduled to attend a meeting of euro area finance ministers in Brussels tomorrow. The meeting will take place as officials discuss the possible increase of a 110- billion euro ($155-billion) loan package to Greece amid concerns the country may be unable to return to markets to finance its debt next year.

“For the fund, this is terrible news at a time when its leadership needs to portray stability, wisdom, and confidence,” Bessma Momani, a professor in the department of political science at the University of Waterloo in Canada, who specializes in the IMF and its policies, said in an e-mail.

The IMF “remains fully functioning and operational” following Strauss-Kahn’s arrest, the Washington, DC-based organization said in a statement on its website today.

Immunity?

“Mr. Strauss-Kahn has retained legal counsel, and the IMF has no comment on the case; all inquiries will be referred to his personal lawyer and to the local authorities,” Caroline Atkinson, the director of external relations at the IMF, said in the statement.

New York police said Strauss-Kahn doesn’t have diplomatic immunity. The French Foreign Ministry in Paris said the IMF will have to examine what immunity Strauss-Kahn may have. A French consul visited Strauss-Kahn in detention late yesterday, ministry spokesman Bernard Valero said in a phone interview.

Strauss-Kahn, a former French finance minister and member of France’s opposition Socialist Party, has consistently been among the most popular possible candidates to contest France’s 2012 presidential election, opinion polls show.

President Nicolas Sarkozy would have trailed Strauss-Kahn by 5 percentage points in the first round of the presidential voting if the election had been held at the end of last month, a CSA poll for 20 Minutes newspaper, BFM Television and RMC radio showed April 28.

French Presidency

Strauss-Kahn, whose term at the IMF expires next year, over the last several months has declined to say whether he was planning to run for president. The vote will be held in April and May 2012.

Any prospect of getting elected has now has vanished, said Laurent Dubois of the Paris Political Studies Institute. “It’s a tsunami,” Dubois said in a phone interview. “There is no way he can recover from this and run for president.”

This is the second time since he took the helm of the IMF in November 2007 that Strauss-Kahn has faced allegations of misconduct.

In 2008, he had a relationship with Piroska Nagy, a female economist at the IMF, who quit in August of that year. An investigation by the IMF board, released in October 2008, concluded that while he had made a “serious error of judgment,” he shouldn’t be fired.

Strauss-Kahn apologized to his staff and family, which includes his third wife, French television journalist Anne Sinclair, and four children from his previous marriages.

Management Changes

“For fund critics and challengers of Western leadership in international financial institutions, this is emblematic of poor judgment and may further motivate them to call for serious changes in management,” Momani said.

Last month, officials from the Group of 24, which includes Brazil, China and Mexico, repeated a call for “an open, transparent, merit-based process” for choosing the heads of the World Bank and IMF, “without regard to nationality.” The IMF job is traditionally held by a European, while an American leads the World Bank.

Strauss-Kahn took the helm of the IMF in November 2007, following his loss in the primaries of the French Socialist Party ahead of the 2007 presidential elections.

Strauss-Kahn, who succeeded Spain’s Rodrigo Rato, has helped reshape the agency’s mission and restore its relevance. When he arrived, its emergency lending dropped to $58.7 million in 2006 from $66.4 billion in 2002. Among his first moves there was to cut about 400 jobs.

Financial Crisis

The global financial panic triggered by the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. in September 2008 restored the Washington-based IMF’s relevance as its emergency loans soared to a record of $91.7 billion last year from $1.1 billion in 2007.

Strauss-Kahn gained backing from the Group of 20 to triple the IMF’s resources, and the group has over the past two years given the agency a host of new missions to help avoid another crisis. The IMF is helping the G-20 single out countries whose policies threaten global growth, and has also submitted proposals to fortify the international monetary system.

More recently, he played a key role in efforts to stem the European debt crisis which started last year in Greece, with a pledge to contribute about a third of future bailouts in the region by the European Union. The IMF has co-funded aid packages to Greece and Ireland. He was due to meet with German Chancellor Angela Merkel today.

Emerging Nations

Under Strauss-Kahn, the IMF also approved a plan that will make China the third-strongest voice in the 187-member organization, founded in 1945, while weakening Europe’s influence to make room for emerging countries.

Strauss Kahn has juggled careers as an economics professor, lawyer and Socialist politician. He holds a law degree and a doctorate in economics from the University of Paris.

In 1986, he was elected to the National Assembly and served as industry minister from 1991 to 1993. He returned to office as finance minister under Premier Lionel Jospin in 1997. He cut France’s budget deficit to below 3 percent in 1999, the level required for euro membership.

In November 1999, he resigned as finance minister after magistrates began an investigation into financial irregularities at MNEF, a French student insurance group. The probe covered an allegation that the company had paid him about $100,000 from 1994 to 1996 for legal work on a property deal that he never performed. Strauss-Kahn denied wrongdoing and was cleared by a Paris court in November 2001.

--With assistance from Albertina Torsoli, Helene Fouquet, Vidya Root and James Hertling in Paris. Editors: Kevin Costelloe, Dick Schumacher, Mike Harrison.

Delaware men's lacrosse: Blue Hens storm back but fall just short in NCAA tourney

DURHAM, N.C. -- For the second straight year, the University of Delaware met the challenge but couldn't avoid defeat when it ventured into treacherous Atlantic Coast Conference lacrosse territory.
That left satisfaction and disappointment dwelling in close company as the vanquished Blue Hens digested a 15-14 NCAA tournament first-round loss to defending champion Duke on Saturday in front of 2,572 at Koskinen Stadium.
Two remarkable comebacks put Delaware in a position to leave with such regret."They never quit," Delaware coach Bob Shillinglaw said of his players. "They played their hearts out. I wish we had maybe another 20 seconds. Who knows?"Delaware trailed by as many as six goals three times in the first half but rallied to within 9-7 at halftime and 9-8 early in the third quarter.
Duke then surged ahead 15-10, but Delaware got goals from Grant Kaleikau, Eric  and Taylor Burns 29 seconds apart beginning with 3:45 left to pull within two. Burns then picked up a loose ball and scored on a nifty backhanded scoop with 19 seconds left to make it 15-14.
Dan Cooney, who won 19 of 32 faceoffs, initially gained possession on the last draw but slipped on the wet grass and lost the ball. Delaware backup goalie Ryan Smith eventually got off a length-of-the-field shot as time ran out. It went wide.
"Sports is a game of momentum," said Kaleikau, who plays one especially known for its scoring spurts. "We rode it out. We couldn't get that last one."
The loss came a year after the Hens fell 14-13 in an NCAAtourney opener at nearby North Carolina.
"I don't think anybody thought we were going to be here," senior defender Pat Dowling said of Delaware winning two road games to take the CAA title and reach the NCAA tourney. "And down five goals in the first quarter, everybody thought the game was over. It's bittersweet to come down here and lose so close, but it's a huge accomplishment for the team and for the program."
The game was delayed 45 minutes by lightning between the third and fourth quarters.
No. 14-ranked Delaware (11-7) had rebounded from a 5-0 deficit to beat Towson this spring. No. 6 Duke (13-5) was a significantly greater challenge, but Delaware outshot the Blue Devils 40-30.
"What you saw from them for four quarters was phenomenal ball movement," said Delaware goalie Noah Fossner, who made five saves. "That's what lacrosse offense is supposed to look like."
Duke senior goalie Mike Rock was making just his third start of the year in place of injured sophomore regular Dan Wigrizer (concussion). He had 12 saves.
Duke moved to next Sunday's quarterfinals at 2:30 p.m. at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass., against Notre Dame. The No. 4-seeded Irish beat Penn 13-6 Saturday. It's a rematch of last year's title game won by Duke 6-5 in OT.