saturninamlqsol-blog

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UPDATE 1-William Hill's Tel Aviv operation hit by disruption

* Company has no plans to relocate from Tel AvivLONDON, Oct 18 (Reuters) - Britain's biggest betting shop operator William Hill said that senior managers at its online marketing team in Tel Aviv had been disciplined following disruption this week and its chief marketing officer in Israel had resigned.The company said William Hill Online (WHO) management were in Tel Aviv working to resolve the issues. Its Tel Aviv office is already scheduled to be closed from Wednesday until next week through the Jewish holiday period.William Hill was responding to a report by British newspaper The Sun which said nearly 200 staff had walked out of its online support centre in Tel Aviv, which handles almost all the marketing and customer support services for its online operations.The report said staff in Tel Aviv had believed William Hill was looking to close down the operation and relocate it to either Britain or Gibraltar.William Hill said it was not looking to relocate the operation and said the disruption had not affected the availability of any of its websites."William Hill Online is committed to its sales and marketing operation in Tel Aviv and contrary to media reports has no intention of relocating this operation," the company said in a statement on Thursday."The vast majority of employees of the marketing team in Tel Aviv have good working relationships with the business and with colleagues across William Hill Online," it added.William Hill runs its online operation as a joint venture with online gambling software provider Playtech , which holds a 29 percent stake in the operation.The online business contributed 91.1 million pounds to William Hill's operating profit last year.Shares in William Hill were down 4 percent to 231.9 pence at 1242 GMT. Playtech were down 1.9 percent to 263.5 pence.

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Yuan weakens vs dlr, China signals yuan appreciation pauses

* Opportunity to iron out domestic opposition for yuan rise* Yuan seen moving between 6.3375/dlr and 6.40 in near term* Yuan at 6.3813, still up 3.27 percent so far this yearBy Lu Jianxin and Jacqueline WongSHANGHAI, Oct 18 (Reuters) - The yuan closed down against the dollar on Tuesday after the central bank set a weaker mid-point, a move traders said signalled that the government was initiating a pause in yuan appreciation.China appears to hold the view that the yuan's exchange rate had been politicised after the U.S. Senate approved a controversial bill one week ago aimed at forcing Beijing to push the yuan higher against the dollar, traders said.In a related development, data on Tuesday showed China's economic expansion slowed in the third quarter to its weakest pace since the second quarter of 2009, offering an easy excuse for the country to slow yuan appreciation.And a pause in the yuan's rise could offer China's small exporters a breather after it rose around 30 percent versus the dollar since the Chinese currency's landmark revaluation in 2005 pushed many of them out of business, they said.Millions of Chinese work in tiny companies producing clothes, shoes, toys and other daily commodities that have an annual profit margin of less than 10 percent and could run into bankruptcy if the yuan appreciated at an annual ratio of 5 percent or more, traders said."The government apparently feels frustrated with U.S. politicians who appear never to be happy with what China has done about yuan appreciation," said a trader at a Chinese commercial bank in Shenzhen."While stopping yuan appreciation to watch what will happen next in the United States, it is a good opportunity for the government to iron out some domestic opposition to the rise."Spot yuan closed at 6.3813 versus the dollar, down from Monday's close of 6.3706. It has still risen 3.27 percent since the start of this year and 6.97 percent since it was depegged from the dollar in June 2010.Before trading began, the PBOC set the mid-point of the day at 6.3749, slightly weaker than Monday's 6.3710. The central bank uses the reference rate to signal the government's intentions for the yuan, which can rise or fall 0.5 percent from the mid-point in a day.OLD PATTERNChina had let the yuan appreciate as much as nearly 4 percent from the beginning of this year to Tuesday last week -- just ahead of the U.S. Senate's approval of its yuan bill.In contrast with previous years, the yuan's appreciation this year took place without U.S. prodding as China used the exchange rate to help it battle against imported inflation.Previously, China had let the yuan appreciate more as political concessions to the United States, most typically, ahead of major political events such as the meeting of the two nations' leaders or global summits.Such an old pattern is seen returning now, with traders saying it has become increasingly difficult to predict the yuan's movements in the future."As the yuan falls prey to politics, you don't know when it will appreciate or depreciate as its value will be less based on economic and market fundamentals," said a European bank dealer in Shanghai.Many traders said they were no longer sticking to their predictions made at the start of this year that the yuan could rise 5 to 6 percent versus the dollar for the year.In the near term, however, they expected the yuan to move between 6.3375 and 6.40 against the dollar. The 6.3375 level is the yuan's record high hit on Oct. 11, right ahead of the U.S. Senate's approval of its yuan bill.Offshore, one-year dollar/yuan non-deliverable forwards (NDFs) were bid at 6.3940 in late trade, up slightly from 6.3895 at the close on Monday.They implied yuan depreciation of 0.30 percent in 12 months from Tuesday's PBOC mid-point, compared with depreciation of 0.23 percent they implied on Monday.

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WRAPUP 1-French credit review threatens euro zone rescues

The U.S. ratings agency said late on Monday it may slap a negative outlook on France's Aaa rating in the next three months if the costs for helping bail out banks and other euro zone members stretch its budget too much.The warning, which sent the risk premium on French government bonds shooting up to a euro lifetime high, came as European Union leaders are preparing measures to protect the region's financial system from a potential Greek debt default.That plan includes a new rescue plan reducing Greece's debt, strengthening the capital of banks with exposure to troubled euro zone sovereigns and leveraging the euro zone's rescue fund to prevent market contagion to bigger economies.German leaders on Monday doused market hopes of a miracle cure at Sunday's Brussels summit, saying no one should expect a "definitive solution".Finance Minister Francois Baroin insisted that France's AAA status was not at risk but acknowledged that the 1.75 percent growth forecast on which the government has based its 2012 budget was over-optimistic and would have to be revised down."It (France's AAA credit rating) is not in danger because... we will even be ahead of schedule on passing deficit reduction measures," Baroin said on France 2 television.Asked if next year's growth forecast would have to be reduced in light of weak economic prospects, he added: "It is probably too high compared to the development of the economic situation. We will not adapt it today."We will adapt it, that much is clear."France and Germany, the two strongest economies among the 17 euro zone members, form the backbone of the 440-billion-euro EFSF rescue fund and are drafting a crisis-fighting strategy for Sunday's summit.Without France's triple-A rating, the whole edifice of rescue measures for troubled peripheral euro zone states would begin to crumble, putting more weight on Germany, where there is a strong public backlash against bailouts.Moody's said Paris' progress on crucial fiscal and economic reforms as well as potential adverse developments in financial markets and the economy would be taken into account in the review.Monday's review was only a preliminary step, but a negative outlook would be a sign that Moody's could downgrade its rating on France in the next couple of years. Moody's placed the United States's Aaa rating on negative outlook in August.The two other major ratings agencies, Standard & Poor's and Fitch, reaffirmed Paris' triple-A rating in August when French banks came under fierce market pressure over their exposure to the weakest euro zone sovereigns.FRENCH SPREAD HITS RECORDIn early market reaction on Tuesday, the spread on French 10-year bonds over benchmark German bunds jumped to a 16-year high of 101 basis points, more than 1 percentage point.Safe-haven German Bund futures rose on ebbing hopes of a quick solution to the euro zone debt crisis after Moody's warning on France's triple-A rating.European shares fell, partly due to news that China's growth slowed slightly more than expected in the third quarter.The ratings review was a potential embarassment for conservative President Nicolas Sarkozy, who is expected to run for re-election next April and faces a strong challenge from Socialist candidate Francois Hollande, who won a primary election run-off on Sunday.French Prime Minister Francois Fillon made clear in a television interview on Monday that if growth fell short of official forecasts next year, the government would take further austerity measures.Ahead of a 48-hour general strike expected to bring Greece to a standstill just as parliament votes on a new set of controversial austerity measures, Prime Minister George Papandreou appealed for unity on Monday."This is maybe the most crucial week for Greece and Europe," he said during a meeting with the Greek president.Hours later, a deputy from Papandreou's party quit his seat in protest against what he called "unjust" steps. The lawmaker will be replaced by another socialist, so Papandreou's four-seat majority in the 300-strong assembly is unchanged.Greece's overall debt is forecast to climb to 357 billion euros ($491.4 billion) this year, or 162 percent of annual economic output -- a level economists agree is unsustainable.To reduce this mountain, euro zone leaders are racing to convince banks to accept "voluntary" writedowns of up to 50 percent on their sovereign holdings. At the same time, they are trying to agree on a blueprint for recapitalising financial institutions at risk from the deepening crisis.Negotiations with the Institute of International Finance, representing the banks, were to continue in Brussels on Tuesday with Deutsche Bank chief Josef Ackermann, who is also chairman of the IIF, resisting pressure on both fronts.Ackermann has objected to efforts to force banks to raise more capital and IIF lead negotiator Charles Dallara told Reuters on Monday that bigger writedowns on Greek bonds could only happen if policymakers addressed broader sovereign debt issues in Europe.

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From a single hashtag, a protest circled the world

It turns out, with enough momentum and a keen sense of how to use social media, it actually is.The Occupy movement, decentralized and leaderless, has mobilized thousands of people around the world almost exclusively via the Internet. To a large degree through Twitter, and also with platforms like Facebook and Meetup, crowds have connected and gathered.As with any movement, a spark is needed to start word spreading. SocialFlow, a social media marketing company, did an analysis for Reuters of the history of the Occupy hashtag on Twitter and the ways it spread and took root.The first apparent mention was that July 13 blog post by activist group Adbusters (r.reuters.com/suc54s) but the idea was slow to get traction.The next Twitter mention was on July 20 (r.reuters.com/tuc54s) from a Costa Rican film producer named Francisco Guerrero, linking to a blog post on a site called Wake Up from Your Slumber that reiterated the Adbusters call to action (r.reuters.com/vuc54s).The site, founded in 2006 "to expose America's fraudulent monetary system and the evil of charging interest on money loaned," is a reference to the biblical verse Romans 13:11 that reads in part: "The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed."Guerrero's post was retweeted once and then there was silence until two July 23 tweets -- one from the Spanish user Gurzbo (r.reuters.com/wuc54s) and one from a retired high school chemistry teacher in Long Island, New York named Cindy tweeting as gemswinc. (r.reuters.com/xuc54s)Gurzbo's post was not passed along by anyone but Cindy's was, by eight people, including a Delaware-based opponent of the Federal Reserve, a vegan information rights supporter, a Washington-based environmentalist and an Alabama-based progressive blogger.Again, there was relative silence for nearly two weeks, until LazyBookworm tweeted the Occupy hashtag again on August 5. (r.reuters.com/zuc54s) That got seven retweets, largely from a crowd of organic food supporters and poets.HASHTAG REVOLTThe notion of Occupy Wall Street was out there but it was not gaining much attention -- until, of course, it did, suddenly and with force.Social media experts trace the expansion to hyper-local tweeters, people who cover the pulse of communities at a level of detail not even local papers can match.In New York, credit goes to the Twitter account of Newyorkist, whose more than 11,000 tweets chronicle the city in block-by-block detail. His was one of the first well-followed accounts to mention the protests in mid-September.Trendistic, which tracks hashtag trends on Twitter, shows that OccupyWallStreet first showed up in any volume around 11 p.m. on September 16, the evening before the occupation of lower Manhattan's Zuccotti Park began. Within 24 hours, the tag represented nearly 1 of every 500 uses of a hashtag.The first two weeks of the movement were slow, media coverage was slim and little happened beyond the taking of the concrete park itself. But then a demonstration on the Brooklyn Bridge prompted hundreds of arrests and the spark was ignited.On October 1, #OccupyBoston started to show up on Twitter. Within a couple of weeks, #OccupyDenver and #OccupySD and others appeared.The Occupy Wall Street page on Facebook started on September 19 with a YouTube video of the early protests. By September 22, it reached critical mass."Newcomers today, welcome! Feel free to post. Advertise your own pages of resistance. Network until it works," read one posting meant to inspire protests elsewhere.For young activists around the world, who grew up with the Internet and the smartphone, Facebook and Twitter have become crucial in expanding the movement.They are pioneering platforms like Vibe that lets people anonymously share text, photos and video over short distances for brief periods of time -- perfect for use at rallies."No one owns a (Twitter) hashtag, it has no leadership, it has no organization, it has no creed but it's quite appropriate to the architecture of the net. This is a distributed revolt," said Jeff Jarvis, a journalism professor at City University of New York and author of the well-known blog BuzzMachine.Some reports say the protesters have raised as much as $300,000 in donations to cover everything from pizza to video equipment but others put the figure much lower.The Alliance for Global Justice, which calls itself "the fiscal sponsor for Occupy Wall Street," has raised $23,200 via WePay.com.OCCUPY EVERYWHEREAs of Monday afternoon, Facebook listed no fewer than 125 Occupy-related pages, from New York to Tulsa and all points in between. Roughly 1 in every 500 hashtags used on Twitter on Monday, all around the world, was the movement's own #OWS.The websites keep proliferating -- We Are the 99 Percent, Parents for Occupy Wall Street and Occupy Together, even the parody Occupy Sesame Street (concerned mostly with the plight of monsters living in garbage cans).Online streaming video has also been a huge resource for the protesters, using cheap cameras and high-speed wireless Internet access.Supporters, opponents and the merely curious got the chance last Saturday to watch the Occupy Wall Street protesters decide whether to occupy a major public park, Washington Square Park, in the Greenwich Village area.They saw warnings the police were about to arrive in riot gear and with horses, vans and buses to take away protesters if there were mass arrests. Local media reported about 10 arrests among the 3,000 or so people in the park.As the seconds to a possible confrontation ticked down, the tension led to various reactions from those watching online."Anyone arrested is a political prisoner," said one."Here comes Czar Bloomberg's Cossacks," said another, in reference to New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg and the appearance of the mounted police.There were "we are watching" messages of support from cities across the United States and some who found it the best entertainment going on a Saturday night."So much more exciting than a TV show" was one comment.

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Anti-Wall St protesters march through New York

Inspired by the grass-roots Occupy Wall Street movement, protests started in Asia and Europe and rippled around to the United States and Canada. Demonstrations were held in dozens of cities including Washington, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami and Toronto.After weeks of intense media coverage, the size of the U.S. protests have been smaller than Group of 20 meetings or political conventions have yielded. Such events often draw tens of thousands of demonstrators.In New York, organizers said the protest grew to at least 5,000 people as they marched to Times Square in midtown Manhattan from their outdoor headquarters in the financial district. The movement began when protesters set up camp in a Lower Manhattan park on September 17."It's not every day that you get to be at the most significant uprising in a generation," Occupy Wall Street said on its Facebook page. Protesters said they did not have any police permits for the New York demonstrations.Banging drums, the protesters chanted, "We got sold out, banks got bailed out" and "All day, all week, occupy Wall Street" as they marched, staying on the sidewalks as directed by police.Some were disappointed the New York crowd was not larger."People don't want to get involved. They'd rather watch on TV," said Troy Simmons, 47, who joined demonstrators as he left work. "The protesters could have done better today. ... People from the whole region should be here and it didn't happen."The Times Square mood was akin to New Year's Eve, when the famed "ball drop" occurs. In a festive mood, protesters were joined by throngs of tourists snapping pictures, together counting back from 10 and shouting, "Happy New Year."Another 5,000 marched through Los Angeles and gathered peacefully outside City Hall.Police said three people were arrested in Times Square after pushing down police barriers and five men were arrested earlier for wearing masks. Police also arrested 24 people at a Citibank branch in Manhattan, mostly for trespassing.Citibank was not immediately available for comment.At about 8 p.m., police arrested another 42 people for blocking the sidewalk. Protesters complained they had no place to go with a wall of police in riot gear in front of them and thousands of demonstrators behind them leaving Times Square.PROTEST MESSAGEThe protest arrived in Times Square at a time when the area was crowded with tourists and Broadway theatergoers.The Occupy Wall Street movement has been gathering steam over the past month, culminating with the global day of action on Saturday. The protests worldwide were mostly peaceful apart from Rome, where the demonstration sparked riots.But it was unclear whether the movement, which has been driven using social media, would sustain momentum beyond Saturday. Critics have accused the group of not having a clear message.The protesters say they are upset that the billions of dollars in bank bailouts doled out during the recession allowed banks to resume earning huge profits while average Americans have had no relief from high unemployment and job insecurity.They also believe the richest 1 percent of Americans do not pay their fair share in taxes and want a more equitable economic system."These protests are already making a difference," said Jordan Smith, 25, a former substance abuse counselor from San Francisco, who has been at the New York park for 10 days. "The dialogue is now happening all over the world."In Toronto, about 2,000 people gathered peacefully and started to set up a camp in a park. In Washington, Miami, Chicago and Boston hundreds of protesters marched through the streets."I am going to start my life as an adult in debt and that's not fair," student Nathaniel Brown told Reuters Television. "Millions of teenagers across the country are going to start their futures in debt, while all of these corporations are getting money fed all the time and none of us can get any.""TAX WALL STREETIn Miami about 500 protesters turned out carrying posters that read "People not profits,, "This is the 2nd American Revolution" and "Heal America, tax Wall Street."In Los Angeles, Michael Goodblatt, 29, a doctor at UCLA Medical Center, was at the protest with a group of doctors. He said they had all seen first hand how people had suffered during the recession."These are our people and we want to show our support because this affects everyone," Goodblatt said.Hundreds of people have been arrested at rallies in New York. Hundreds more have also been arrested from Boston and Washington to Denver, Chicago, San Francisco, San Diego and Austin, Texas.On Friday, a showdown between protesters and police was averted when the private owner of the publicly accessible Zuccotti Park, Brookfield Office Properties, postponed a cleanup. The Occupy Wall Street movement feared the cleanup was a ruse to remove them from the area.

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Canada won't be "trigger happy" on rates - Carney

* Canada has room to act if needed on ratesTORONTO, Oct 14 (Reuters) - The Bank of Canada won't be "trigger happy" as it mulls what to do on interest rates, but has room to ease policy if it needs to kick start the economy, central bank Governor Mark Carney said.Speaking in a CBC interview, Carney said the bank's current overnight rate of 1 percent was appropriate for it to meet its 2 percent inflation target. But there is also room to act, if it needs to inject more stimulus to the economy."We have additional room with our overnight rate; it's higher than the lowest level it can go ...," he said.Even if the bank cuts its target rate to the lowest possible level of 0.25 percent, it can still resort to unconventional policy tools."We are not out of bullets when we get to that point, but we're not trigger happy either," he said. "The current level interest rates are appropriate, but we'll judge that as the economy evolves."The interview, which CBC said was recorded on Thursday, was to be broadcast on Friday evening.The Bank of Canada raised rates three times last year from rock-bottom levels as the economy emerged slowly from recession, bringing its overnight rate to 1 percent.Carney also said Europe needed to act within the coming weeks to recapitalize its banks and tipped 1 trillion euros ($1.4 trillion) - or "maybe a little more" - as the amount that might be needed for Europe's financial rescue fund."You need to enhance the capacity... You want to put more on the table than is necessary," he said.He added: "This is an incredibly rich continent. They can easily afford what needs to be done."The euro zone's problems are dominating a meeting of finance ministers from the G20 leading economies in Paris this weekend. Their discussions include efforts to provide more firepower for both the European Financial Stability Fund and the International Monetary fund.

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New Issue-Banque Cantonale prices 180 mln SFR 2018 bond

Borrower Banque Cantonale de Geneve (BCG)Issue Amount 180 million Swiss francsMaturity Date November 7, 2018Coupon 3.125 pctIssue price 100.496Reoffer price 99.796Spread 200 basis pointsUnderlying govt bond Over Mid-swapsPayment Date November 7, 2011Lead Manager(s) UBS, BKB & BCGRatings A(S&P)Listing SIXFull fees StandardDenoms (K) 5Governing Law SwissISIN CH0130720870Customers can right-click on the code forperformance analysis of this new issueFor ratings information, double click onFor all bonds data, double click onFor Top international bonds newsFor news about this issuer, double click on the issuer RIC,where assigned, and hit the newskey (F9 on Reuters terminals)Data supplied by International Insider.