Pacific Rim free trade talks fall short of deal – Reuters

Pacific Rim trade ministers failed to clinch a deal on Friday to free up trade between a dozen nations after a dispute flared up over auto trade between Japan and North America, New Zealand dug in over dairy trade and no agreement was reached on monopoly periods for next-generation drugs.

Trade ministers from the 12 nations negotiating the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which would stretch from Japan to Chile and cover 40 percent of the world economy, fell just short of a deal at talks on the Hawaiian island of Maui but were confident an agreement was within reach.

“The undergrowth has been cleared away in the course of this meeting in a manner that I would say is streets ahead of any of the other ministerial meetings that we have had,” New Zealand Trade Minister Tim Groser said.

“You can see clearly that there are one or two really hard issues, and one of them is dairy.”

Australian Trade Minister Andrew Robb said the problem lay with the “big four” economies of the United States, Canada, Japan and Mexico. “The sad thing is, 98 percent is concluded,” he said.

Failure to seal the agreement is a setback for U.S. President Barack Obama, given the trade pact’s stance as the economic arm of the administration’s pivot to Asia and an opportunity to balance out China’s influence in the region.

The talks, which drew about 650 negotiators, 150 journalists and hundreds of stakeholders, had been billed as the last chance to get a deal in time to pass the U.S. Congress this year, before 2016 presidential elections muddy the waters.

The TPP seeks to meld bilateral questions of market access for exports with one-size-fits-all standards on issues ranging from workers’ rights to environmental protection and dispute settlement between governments and foreign investors.

The result frustrated negotiators who had toiled through the night to cross off outstanding disputes. U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman said resolved issues included protection for regional food specialties.

STICKING POINTS UNCHANGED

Despite the progress made, issues pegged as sticking points going into the talks were still blocking a deal after four days of discussions. No date was set for ministers to meet again.

New Zealand has said it will not back a deal that does not significantly open dairy markets, with an eye to the United States, Japan and Canada, as well as Mexico.

John Wilson, chairman of the world’s largest dairy exporter, New Zealand dairy cooperative Fonterra (FCG.NZ), arrived to attend the talks late on Thursday to press home the case.

Ministers also remained apart on how long to protect data used to develop biologic drugs.

U.S. drugmakers want 12 years protection, but Australia has only five and Chile has none at all. “For us it’s vital to have an agreement that balances public policy goals for intellectual property in medicines,” said Chilean vice minister for trade, Andres Rebolledo.

“The U.S. was on one side of the issue, while practically every other country were on the other side,” a source from a non-U.S. negotiation nation said.

“Neither side was prepared to move and all claimed it as a red line issue.”

Japan and the United States had largely agreed on the rules of origin for cars, which determine when a product is designated as coming from within the free trade zone and therefore not subject to duties. But they ran into problems trying to get buy-in from Canada and Mexico, which are closely tied in to the U.S. auto industry.

Mexican Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo said Mexico was the world’s fourth-biggest auto exporter and he made no apologies for standing up for his country.

Japanese automakers source many car parts from Thailand, which is not a member of the TPP, and strict rules would upset existing supply chains.

(Reporting by Ami Miyazaki and Krista Hughes; Additional reporting by Dave Graham and David Ljunggren; Editing by Dan Grebler and Ken Wills)

Photo

Hillary Rodham Clinton spoke to the press after a town hall-style meeting in Nashua, N.H., this week.Credit Ian Thomas Jansen-Lonnquist for The New York Times

Updated, 9:52 p.m. | Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign released a letter on Friday from her doctor attesting to Mrs. Clinton's good health and fitness to serve as president based on a full medical evaluation.

The letter from Dr. Lisa Bardack of Mount Kisco, N.Y., summarized Mrs. Clinton's history of treatment for a brain concussion, blood clots affecting her legs and brain on separate occasions, an underactive thyroid gland and a family history of heart disease.

Mrs. Clinton, 67, regularly takes thyroid hormone to bring her levels to normal as well as the anticoagulant drug Coumadin to help prevent new blood clots, Dr. Bardack wrote. Mrs. Clinton also takes antihistamine drugs for seasonal pollen allergies and vitamin B-12.

Mrs. Clinton has faced questions about her health since 2012, when, as secretary of state, she suffered a concussion and a blood clot — known as a transverse sinus venous thrombosis — in her brain. Those were a result of a series of events caused by a stomach virus Mrs. Clinton acquired while traveling abroad. While alone in her home after returning, she became dehydrated and then fell from a faint, striking her head. She subsequently experienced double vision and temporarily wore glasses with a Fresnel Prism to ease the difficulty with her eyesight.

Mrs. Clinton was treated at George Washington University Hospital in Washington, and then went to NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia hospital in Manhattan before returning to her home in Chappaqua, N.Y.

The concussion symptoms and double vision resolved within two months and Mrs. Clinton stopped using the prism, Dr. Bardack wrote.

But former President Bill Clinton told a reporter that his wife's concussion "required six months of very serious work to get over" and that she had "never lowballed" the severity of her head injury.

Follow-up testing in 2013 showed "complete resolution of the effects of the concussion, as well as total dissolution" of the blood clot, Dr. Bardack wrote. Mrs. Clinton did not release statements from a neurologist, neurosurgeon or other specialist involved in her medical care in Washington or New York.

Mrs. Clinton is the first presidential candidate in this cycle to make public a medical history. But in the past many candidates have released copies of extensive records, agreed to personal interviews or allowed their doctors to be interviewed.

Nick Merrill, a spokesman for Mrs. Clinton, did not reply to an email request to interview Dr. Bardack.

While Mrs. Clinton experienced blood clots in 1998, 2009 and 2012, tests showed that she did not have any underlying disorder that put her at an increased risk of the clots. Tests are performed to monitor the dose of Coumadin she takes and ensure that she has not experienced side effects, Dr. Bardack wrote.

Mrs. Clinton's electrocardiogram was reported as normal, as were her blood lipids. Cancer screening tests, including mammography, breast ultrasound, colonoscopy and gynecological examination were normal.

Dr. Bardack did not disclose Mrs. Clinton's height and weight, which are standard items in medical histories.

She said Mrs. Clinton eats a diet rich in lean protein, vegetables and fruits. She exercises regularly, including yoga, swimming, walking and weight training.

Find out what you need to know about the 2016 presidential race today, and get politics news updates via Facebook, Twitter and the First Draft newsletter.

Clinton Opens Up On Health, Money – Wall Street Journal

July 31, 2015 7:21 p.m. ET

Hillary Clinton released a flurry of documents Friday that included a physician's declaration of her personal health and a batch of financial information, in a bid to rebut accusations of secrecy surrounding her presidential campaign.

The financial documents showed Mrs. Clinton and her husband earned $ 139 million in adjusted gross income over the past seven years, including $ 28 million last year, when they paid an effective tax rate of more than 35%. The release coincided with a voluminous release of Clinton emails from her time as secretary of state.

The disclosures helped illuminate both her personal finances and some lingering questions regarding her health. According to a Clinton aide, they were designed to demonstrate the campaign's commitment to transparency at a time when Mrs. Clinton has faced criticism over secrecy.

In a statement accompanying the tax release, Mrs. Clinton noted that she and her husband have now made public the details of their personal finances going back to 1977. Mrs. Clinton also became the first candidate to release a personal health summary.

The tax disclosures underscored the lofty incomes of the Clintons in recent years, thanks largely to big fees for speeches made around the world. The returns also reflected the relatively high tax rates for the couple, largely because much of their income is taxed as wages and not as investment income, such as capital gains or dividends.

The Clintons' 2014 return showed they earned about $ 28 million and paid tax of almost $ 10 million that year. Gifts to charity totaled about $ 3 million, almost all of it to the Clinton Family Foundation. Mrs. Clinton reported gross speaking fees of about $ 10.5 million before expenses, and gross earnings as an author of about $ 5.6 million.

The former president reported about $ 9.7 million in gross speaking fees and about $ 6.4 million in gross consulting fees.

The statement said the Clintons paid an effective federal tax rate of more than 35% in both 2013 and 2014 and about $ 44 million in federal taxes since 2007. During that period they made almost $ 15 million in charitable contributions, the campaign said.

Mrs. Clinton gave 41 speeches for which she received an honorarium in 2013, according to the newly-released details. Almost all of the speeches were for $ 225,000 each. More than a dozen were sponsored by financial services firms. The former president gave a similar number of speeches. At least nine overseas speeches were for fees of $ 500,000 or more. The Clintons previously released details of their speaking fees for 2014 and part of 2015.

In a statement, Mrs. Clinton said she and her husband have "come a long way from my days going door-to-door for the Children's Defense Fund and earning $ 16,450 as a young law professor in Arkansas—and we owe it to the opportunities America provides."

She also made another pitch for a tax-code overhaul to help more middle-class families achieve financial success—a theme she has been pushing in recent weeks. "I want more Americans to have the chance to work hard and get ahead, just like we did. And reforming the tax code can help," she said.

Clinton aides made a point of declaring the Mrs. Clinton has now released more financial information than former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.

The Bush campaign replied with a statement of its own, calling the Clinton financial disclosures "a failed attempt to distract from the fact that Secretary Clinton's emails—which she has gone to extraordinary lengths to hide from the American people—are now being released under a federal court order. Governor Bush is running the most transparent campaign in the entire field."

Mrs. Clinton also sought to clear up any unease over her physical condition. In a public letter, her personal physician declared Mrs. Clinton to be in "excellent physical condition," saying she had overcome a blood clot discovered in her head after she suffered a concussion in late 2012.

The Democratic presidential candidate currently has a thyroid condition and seasonal allergies but is "fit to serve as president of the United States," according to the letter from Dr. Lisa Bardack, chairman of the Department of Medicine at the Mount Kisco Medical Group in Mount Kisco, N.Y., and Mrs. Clinton's personal physician since 2001.

She described Mrs. Clinton as a healthy 67-year-old woman who has suffered from deep-vein thrombosis in 1998 and 2009, an elbow fracture in 2009 and a concussion, which was well documented in 2012.

The symptoms of the concussion, including double vision, resolved within two months, allowing her to stop using special glasses. Testing in 2013 found no lasting effects, the doctor said, and she tested negative for clotting disorders. However, Dr. Bardack wrote that as a precaution she continues to take a daily drug to prevent clotting.

The Clinton campaign released the medical summary just hours before the tax forms and on the same day the State Department made public thousands of Mrs. Clinton's emails as secretary of state. The campaign cast the releases as part of an unprecedented disclosure, but critics saw a flood of information on a summer Friday afternoon that would be challenging to absorb all at once.

Write to John D. McKinnon at john.mckinnon@wsj.com and Laura Meckler at laura.meckler@wsj.com

Wall Street ends lower as weak oil weighs – Reuters

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange July 28, 2015.

Reuters/Brendan McDermid

Wall Street ended on a sour note on Friday as a drop in energy stocks eclipsed wage data that supported expectations that the U.S. Federal Reserve might hold off on an interest rate.

Exxon Mobil (XOM.N) shares dropped 4.58 percent while Chevron (CVX.N) lost 4.89 percent after reporting poor quarterly earnings due to weak oil prices.

The drop in those stocks, as well as additional declines in crude prices amid oversupply concerns, contributed to a 2.6 percent decline in the energy index .SPNY, its deepest one-day drop since January.

“It's all about rotation (between sectors). That’s what this market has been about since we’ve been in such a tight trading range this year,” said Dennis Dick, head of markets structure and a proprietary trader at Bright Trading LLC in Las Vegas.

Initially helping share prices, U.S. labor costs in the second quarter recorded their smallest increase in 33 years, with the Employment Cost Index edging up a less-than-expected 0.2 percent.

“The magnitude of the miss was definitely a bit of a surprise, especially as people were really gearing up for a September hike. This definitely puts a lower probability on that,” said Stanley Sun, interest rate strategist at Nomura Securities International in New York.

Earlier in the week, many investors considered positive comments by the Fed about the economy as a signal that a rate rise could come as early as September.

The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI ended down 0.31 percent at 17,690.46. The S&P 500 .SPX finished 0.22 percent lower at 2,103.92 after opening with a gain. The Nasdaq Composite .IXIC edged down 0.01 percent to 5,128.28.

More stocks rose than fell in the S&P and Nasdaq.

For the week, the Dow rose 0.7 percent, the S&P added 1.2 percent and the Nasdaq increased 0.8 percent. For July, gains for the Dow, S&P and Nasdaq were 0.4 percent, 2 percent and 2.8 percent, respectively.

Despite the S&P’s negative close on Friday, half of the 10 major S&P 500 sectors were higher, with the utilities index’s .SPLRCU 0.98 percent rise leading the advancers.

Stocks are a tad expensive and valuations will be a concern if earnings don’t continue to grow in the second half of the year, said Steve Freedman, senior investment strategist at UBS Wealth Management.

With more than half of the S&P 500 companies having reported their second-quarter results, analysts expect overall earnings to edge up 0.9 percent and revenue to decline 3.3 percent, according to Thomson Reuters data.

Coca-Cola Enterprises (CCE.N) jumped 12.41 percent after a Wall Street Journal report said the independent Coca-Cola bottling company is in merger talks with two European bottlers.

LinkedIn (LNKD.N) slumped 10.52 percent after the social network’s second-quarter results failed to connect with investors.

Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by 1.72 to 1. On the Nasdaq, winners beat losers by 1.33 to 1.

The S&P index posted 40 new 52-week highs and 8 new lows; the Nasdaq Composite saw 100 new highs and 82 new lows.

Some 6.8 billion shares changed hands on U.S. exchanges, just above the daily average of 6.7 billion this month, according to BATS Global Markets.

(Additional reporting by Tany Agrawal; Editing by Bernadette Baum and Nick Zieminski)

Wage Growth Weak Despite Tightening Jobs Market – Fox Business

Stagnant wage growth remains the fly in the ointment amid a strengthening U.S. labor market that has seen robust job creation and an unemployment rate that has fallen to its lowest level in seven years.

Compensation costs, which include wages and benefits such as health care coverage, for civilian workers barely moved during the second quarter, rising just 0.2% on a seasonally adjusted basis, according to a report released Friday by the Department of Labor. It was the weakest increase since 1982.

Wages and salaries, which make up about 70% of compensation costs, were also little changed at 0.2%, and benefits, which make up the remaining 30% of compensation, rose even less at 0.1%, the government said.

In another troubling long-term trend, compensation costs for civilian workers have leveled off in 2015 from the prior year, increasing 2% for the 12-month period ending June 2015, unchanged from the 12-month period ending June 2014.

It's an issue that's been vexing analysts and economists for months.

"The weak gain in employee compensation is quite surprising given the many labor market readings suggest the labor market is tightening," said Kathy Bostjancic, an economist with Oxford Economics.

Although the momentum seems to be in favor of a September interest rate hike, the first in nearly a decade by the Federal Reserve, stubbornly weak wage growth could give central bankers pause about raising borrowing costs as workers' paychecks remain in a holding pattern.

"This report was a bit of a shock since it is not what is expected in a gradually tightening labor market. The central question is whether this very sharp and unexpected decline in wages and salaries will trigger alarm bells at the Fed, causing a delay for the first rate hike," said Ozlem Yaylaci, an economist with IHS Global Insight.

Simple Supply and Demand

The laws of basic economics suggest that as the unemployment rate has fallen precipitously in the past year to 5.3% from 6.1% a year earlier, and as job creation has flourished, averaging about 250,000 per month over the past 12 months, wages should have risen accordingly.

Simple supply and demand holds that if the job market tightens by virtue of strong monthly gains and a falling unemployment rate, then workers' wages should rise because employers will have to compete with one another to find qualified workers.

But that hasn't been the case.

One of the reasons cited for the lack of wage growth despite the tightening job market is the degree of so-called “labor market slack” that emerged in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, which threw an estimated 8.8 million Americans out of work.

While the U.S. has numerically regained all of those jobs, the quality and description of those replacement positions has in many cases changed dramatically. Many full-time employees who lost their jobs during the financial crisis have indeed returned to work but at part-time or temporary jobs that pay lower salaries, offer less hours and don't provide the same level of benefits as their pre-recession jobs.

The slack keeps wages low because it creates a huge supply of workers who would gladly leave their low-wage, part-time or temporary jobs for a high paying fulltime position with benefits. The latter is the one that moves wages higher.

If employers know they can always dip into that large pool of part-time and temporary workers to fill their openings they have no incentive to raise wages in order to attract qualified employees.

Follow Dunstan Prial on Twitter @DunstanPrial

UPDATE 1-Honda profit up 20 pct as robust US sales, weak yen offset quality costs – Reuters

* Q1 net profit 186.04 bln yen vs 155.60 bln yen year ago

* Number beat analysts’ estimate of 145.75 bln yen

* North America car sales up 11 pct, global sales up 4.9 pct

* Strong China performance helps Asia sales climb 19 pct (Adds sales details, recall costs context)

By Minami Funakoshi

TOKYO, July 31 (Reuters) – Honda Motor Co said on Friday its quarterly net profit jumped 20 percent, beating estimates, as strong sales in the United States and a weak yen helped it absorb the impact of higher quality-related costs.

April-June net profit at Japan’s third-biggest automaker rose to 186.04 billion yen ($ 1.50 billion), from 155.60 billion yen a year earlier. Honda reported the first-quarter results under international accounting standards for the first time.

That result beat an average estimate of 145.75 billion yen in a survey of 11 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters. Like other Japanese automakers, Honda has benefited from the cheaper yen, which boosts the value of repatriated earnings.

Honda is still soaking up hefty quality-related costs as it continues to recall cars equipped with air bag parts made by top supplier Takata Corp. The Tokyo-based automaker has recalled tens of millions of cars globally since 2008 to replace potentially faulty inflators, including almost 5 million vehicles just two months ago.

Regulators have linked eight deaths – all on Honda’s cars – to Takata’s inflators, which can explode with too much force and send metal fragments inside the vehicle. Honda, which didn’t break out details of quality-related costs for the first quarter, restated its earnings for last year to reflect additional costs for the expanded recalls.

Honda said on Friday that its global car sales rose 4.9 percent to 1.147 million.

Sales in North America advanced 11 percent in the first quarter, driven by increased production of its popular HR-V compact sport utility vehicle (SUV) at its new plant in Mexico. The U.S. market – its biggest – has been buoyant, with a range of automakers reporting higher sales there.

Meanwhile, car sales in Asia jumped 19 percent, thanks partly to a strong performance in China helped by the refreshed Vezel SUV and other models. The gains in Asia and North America more than cancelled out a 27 percent drop in Japan and a 16 percent decline in Europe.

Honda its financial forecasts unchanged for the year ending March 2016, calling for a modest 3.1 percent rise in net profit to 525 billion yen.

($ 1 = 124.1000 yen) (Editing by Kenneth Maxwell and Chang-Ran Kim)

Honda’s profit jumps 20% on strong US sales – BBC News

• 31 July 2015
• From the section Business

Honda makes popular cars like the Civic and Accord models

Japanese car giant Honda’s net profit jumped 20% in the first quarter on strong sales in its biggest market, North America, and cost-cutting moves.

Its net profit rose to 186bn yen ($ 1.5bn; £960m) in April to June from 155.6bn yen a year ago – widely beating expectations of 145.7bn yen.

The company said a weaker yen helped offset higher quality-related costs.

Honda recalled another 4.5 million vehicles earlier this month over faulty airbags made by troubled firm Takata.

Japan’s third biggest car maker has been the hardest hit by the continuing saga over a deadly defect in airbags made by the equipment parts maker, with 24.5 million of its cars being recalled since 2008.

Seven people have been killed in Honda cars which were fitted with Takata air bags.

“There is a possibility that Honda will need to recognize additional provisions when new evidence related to product recalls arise,” the company said in a statement on Friday.

“However, it is not possible for Honda to reasonably estimate the amount and timing of potential future losses as of the date of this report.”

Honda also reported sales up by 15.5% to 3.7tn yen, led by a nearly 27% increase in sales in North America.

The company still expects to make a net profit of 525bn yen, up 3% from the previous year.

Clinton to ask Congress to lift trade embargo against Cuba – Washington Post

MIAMI — Hillary Rodham Clinton will ask Congress on Friday to seize what she calls a “decisive moment” and lift the five-decade-old trade embargo against Cuba.

The Democratic front runner was speaking Friday in South Florida, home to many Cuban-Americans. For years, it has been the base of powerful anti-Castro sentiment that has made the embargo untouchable, especially for Republicans, like those running Congress and running to oppose her for president in 2016.

“We have arrived at a decisive moment. The Cuban people have waited long enough for progress to come,” Clinton will say, according to excerpts from her upcoming speech released by her presidential campaign.

“Even many Republicans on Capitol Hill are starting to recognize the urgency of moving forward. It's time for their leaders to either get on board or get out of the way.”

Ahead of the speech, the Clinton campaign blasted former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, probably the Republicans Clinton worries about most, for clinging to what Clinton calls a failed policy of isolating communist Cuba.
Both Bush and Rubio have said the embargo gives the United States leverage against an abusive regime, and criticized as naive efforts to remake the U.S.-Cuba relationship.

Clinton strongly supports President Obama’s second-term overture to Cuba, which has seen restored diplomatic ties and the easing of some travel restrictions. The embargo, however, would require congressional action to lift — something unlikely to happen at least until after the 2016 election.

“The Cuba embargo needs to go, once and for all. We should replace it with a smarter approach,” Clinton will say, according to the excerpts. She wants outreach to the Cuban private sector, among other things, because she believes that engagement and commerce will put pressure on the Castro regime. Obama has said that with the embargo in place, the regime has an easy scapegoat for Cuba’s economic woes.

“Today I am calling on Speaker Boehner and Senator McConnell to step up and answer the pleas of the Cuban people,” Clinton will say in the 11 a.m. address at Florida International University.

“By large majorities, they want a closer relationship with America. They want to buy our goods, read our books, surf our Web, and learn from our people. They want to bring their country into the 21st century. That is the road toward democracy and dignity. We should walk it together.”

Anne Gearan is a national politics correspondent for The Washington Post.

Ricketts, Foley leading trade missions to Japan – Columbus Telegram

LINCOLN — Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts and Lt. Gov. Mike Foley will travel to Japan in September for back-to-back missions to promote foreign trade and investment, the governor announced Thursday.

Foley will lead a delegation Sept. 9-11 to promote Nebraska’s beef and pork products in the country, which is Nebraska’s largest export partner.

Ricketts will lead a separate delegation of state business leaders to the annual Midwest U.S.-Japan Association Conference in Tokyo, from Sept. 12-16. Ricketts will address the conference on Sept. 14.

“This is the perfect opportunity to continue building on our current relationships and reaffirm our commitment as a key player in Japan and the world marketplace,” Ricketts said.

Ricketts said Japan continues to be one of Nebraska’s top export customers and business investors. Brenda Hicks-Sorensen, director of the Nebraska Department of Economic Development, will join the governor’s trade mission to meet with companies and find networking opportunities.

The conference will include about 300 top industry and government officials, with speakers from the United States and Japan. Top executives from Sony, Mitsubishi, Toshiba Corp., Toyota and other Japanese companies participate in the conference each year.

The trade mission is the second of the governor’s administration. Ricketts traveled in June to Italy, Belgium and Denmark to promote the state.

The Nebraska Department of Agriculture is organizing the first part of the trade mission led by Foley. The group will meet with retailers, distributors, importers and restaurateurs in Tokyo, and participate in several promotional events sponsored by the U.S. Meat Export Federation. The delegation will also meet with food bloggers and media members to promote Nebraska’s offerings.

“These folks are highly influential in consumer purchasing decisions in Japan, so it’s important to have a direct dialogue,” Ricketts said.

More than 20 percent of Nebraska’s beef exports and more than 50 percent of the state’s pork exports end up in Japan, the governor’s office said in a news release. In 2014, Nebraska’s beef exports to Japan reached the $ 276 million mark while pork exports totaled $ 235 million.

Japan is Nebraska’s third largest export market. Nebraska posted merchandise exports of more than $ 735 million to Japan in 2014, representing 9.3 percent of the state’s total merchandise exports.

“We don’t want to take the market for granted,” said Greg Ibach, director of the Nebraska Department of Agriculture. “There is room to grow our market share, but we must keep in mind that our competitors are trying to do the same thing.”

SoulCycle files for IPO – USA TODAY

Victoria’s Secret Angel Martha Hunt is among the many celebs that have tried fitness trend SoulCycle. SoulCycle filed for IPO on Thursday.(Photo: Dimitrios Kambouris, (Credit too long, see caption))

SoulCycle, the fitness company with a cult-like following, says “We aspire to inspire.” On Thursday, SoulCycle aspired to raise a whole lot of cash.

The New-York-based company announced plans to sell stock publicly on an exchange, filing for initial public offering (IPO) with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The SEC documents, which include the “inspire” quote, provide a first glance into the financials of the previously privately-held brand.

“Great brands often begin with an authentic and powerful origin story, and at SoulCycle, we created a radically innovative business that has resonated with consumers and the press since day one,” the filing said. “We believe our riders' engagement with our brand will continue to attract new riders and allow us to maintain what we believe to be our leading, industry-defining position.”

A SoulCycle spokeswoman was unable to comment further, citing IPO quiet-period restrictions.

The company — which has celebrity fans like Kelly Ripa and Anderson Cooper — provides gyms and fitness classes centered around stationary bikes, in combination with a quirky atmosphere of zen, Eastern-inspired sayings and party elements, like loud music and disco balls. Classes, while pricey, sometimes sell out in minutes.

SoulCycle raked in about $ 25 million in net income in 2014 and $ 112 million in revenue, the filing said, netting out to about $ 4 million per gym or “studio.” Studios currently average 72,000 rides per week and 30% of weekly rides are reserved within the first 15 minutes of availability, the company said.

As part of the filing, SoulCycle detailed expansion plans that could come with the inflow of IPO cash.

The company wants to expand into online classes. It also wants to expand it’s existing 38 studios by 10 or 15 per year up to at least 250. That will involve moving both abroad and domestically, beyond its current core cities of Washington D.C., New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco.  Despite ambitious expansion plans, the company said studios in the New York City, Los Angeles and San Francisco still generated approximately 97% sales last year.

STOCKS THURSDAY:How markets did

There’s still a long way to go until investors can buy into the SoulCycle “tribe.” The deal, which is being underwritten by  Goldman Sachs,  Merrill Lynch, Citigroup, William Blair, Cowen and Company and RBC Capital Markets, will need to go through regulatory approval and pricing before hitting the markets. 

Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1I5Nsgk

LinkedIn’s revenue beat fails to connect with investors – Reuters

LinkedIn Corp (LNKD.N), operator of the biggest social networking site for professionals, reported a better-than-expected 33 percent rise in quarterly revenue on Thursday, driven by strong growth in its business serving recruiters.

LinkedIn’s shares were down 3.9 percent in after-hours trading, however, as investors focussed on the company’s widening losses and an underwhelming full-year revenue forecast.

LinkedIn has been spending heavily to acquire businesses and build up its sales and development teams in an effort to leverage off its 380 million members.

The company bought lynda.com, a leader in the training video market, for $ 1.5 billion in May in its biggest deal ever.

LinkedIn said it now expected the business to contribute about $ 90 million to 2015 revenue – more than double its original forecast. But while the extra $ 50 million was a positive surprise, the company raised its overall revenue forecast by only about $ 40 million.

“There are some near-term challenges that they need to overcome, which is the weakness in display advertising,” Monness, Crespi, Hardt & Co analyst James Cakmark told Reuters.

Total costs jumped about 53 percent to $ 792 million.

LinkedIn has also been investing to improve its mobile presence and is developing new products for China, where it now has about 10 million members, up from 4 million last February.

“If any U.S.-based Internet company has a chance to succeed in China in the near term I think it’s LinkedIn,” Axiom Capital analyst Victor Anthony told Reuters.

Overall membership at the end of the second quarter was up 21 percent from a year earlier.

Revenue in LinkedIn’s Talents Solutions business, which sells services to recruiters, rose 38 percent to $ 443 million.

The business accounted for 62 percent of total revenue. LinkedIn also gets revenue from advertising and premium subscriptions.

LinkedIn, which gets 38 percent of its revenue from outside the United States, said that excluding the impact of the strong dollar revenue would have risen 38 percent in the period.

The net loss attributable to shareholders widened to $ 67.7 million, or 53 cents per share, from $ 1 million, or 1 cent per share. Revenue rose 33.3 percent to $ 711.7 million.

Excluding items, the company earned 55 cents per share. Analysts had expected earnings of 30 cents per share on revenue of $ $ 679.8 million, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

LinkedIn said it expects full-year revenue of about $ 2.94 billion, up from an earlier forecast of about $ 2.90 billion.

Up to Thursday close of $ 227.15, LinkedIn’s shares had fallen about 1 percent this year.

(Reporting by Devika Krishna Kumar and Kshitiz Goliya in Bengaluru; Editing by Ted Kerr)

Nasdaq up 0.3% after GDP news; Dow, S&P 500 flat – USA TODAY

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.(Photo: Spencer Platt, Getty Images)

Stocks cut early losses Thursday, with the Nasdaq climbing and the Dow and S&P 500 finishing flat as investors digested a batch of mixed corporate earnings and a report of slightly lower than expected but decent economic growth.

Getting a 0.3% boost on the day was the Nasdaq, up 17 points to 5128.79.

The Dow Jones industrial average finished basically flat — down a mere 0.03%, about 5 points, to 17,745.98 — after being down as much as 110 points.Also virtually flat was the S&P 500, up less than one-tenth of a point to 2108.63.

Blue chips comprising the Dow had strung together two straight sessions of triple-digit point gains following a five session losing streak, which was its worst skid since January.

The latest reading that the nation’s economy grew at a 2.3% pace in the second quarter fell short of the 2.5% estimate economists surveyed by Bloomberg expected.

The report on gross domestic product showed a rebound from the 0.6% growth in the first quarter, revised up from a previous estimate of a contraction of 0.2%.

Wall Street was looking for a stronger economic rebound, as that would likely result in stronger corporate earnings. And with the stock market current valuation above its long-term average, better earnings is what it will likely take to propel the U.S. stock market higher.

Dow component Procter & Gamble (PG) was the leading loser after the blue-chip company gave less-than-robust forward guidance.

The consumer products maker reported adjusted earnings per share of $ 1, topping the 95 cents forecast. But in what is becoming a trend in the second quarter earnings season, the earnings per share beat was not coupled with a beat on sales and revenue. P&G fell shy on revenue. Also hurting shares were a tepid forecast for its new fiscal year. P&G shares were down more than 3%.

The broad market is also being weighed down by Facebook (FB), which reported earnings results after the closing bell Wednesday. The social media giant beat on earnings, revenue and user growth, but its expenses jumped sharply, souring Wall Street on its shares despite good results. Facebook shares tumbled 2.7%.

In the bigger earnings picture, the second-quarter earnings season has been solid, with earnings "beats" well above the long-term average and the estimate for final profit growth ticking back into the black earlier this week, after expectations of a 3% contraction back on July 1. Earnings are now seen rising 0.8% in the second quarter and that number could rise if more companies post good results.

Wall Street is still keeping an eye on mainland China's volatile stock market. Overnight, the hard-hit Shanghai composite index fell 83.40 points, or 2.2%, to 3705.77. The stock index made news Monday when it tumbled 8.5%, its biggest one-day loss in eight years. After a brief 3%-plus bounce back Wednesday, the index remains under pressure and deep in bear market territory, after losing about one-third of its value since its June peak.

"China was in the red last night … as big selling at the end of the day hit the Shanghai composite," Paul Hickey, co-founder of Bespoke Investment, noted in a client report before the opening bell.

Stocks in Europe, however, were trading in the green. The FTSE 100 in London was up 0.6%, the German DAX was 0.6% higher and the CAC 40 in France was up 0.4%.

Oil prices were also firmer. UWest Texas Intermediate crude was up 20 cents, or 0.4%, to $ 48.99. Oil, of course, is still under pressure from oversupply and slowing demand around the globe.

The first read of gross domestic product showed it rose 2.3% in the second quarter, most economists surveyed by the Wall Street Journal expected it to gain 2.5%-2.7%. Newslook

Consumers Priming US Economic Pump – Wall Street Journal

July 30, 2015 1:10 p.m. ET

It looks like Americans might be willing to spend a bit more of the money rattling around in their pockets.

The Commerce Department on Thursday reported that gross domestic product grew at 2.3% annual rate in the second quarter, which was less than economists expected. But it also came with an offsetting upward revision to first-quarter GDP, now reckoned to have grown 0.6% instead of contracting 0.2%. What's more, second-quarter GDP would have been stronger if it hadn't been for companies drawing down inventories and a decline in investment spending. The latter is unlikely to get repeated in the current quarter.

One way to cut through the noise on the GDP report is to look at consumer spending. This bounces around less than categories like inventories and also says more about where the economy is headed.

The good news here is that real, or inflation-adjusted, personal consumption expenditures grew at a 2.9% annual rate in the second quarter, up from 1.8% in the first. That pickup was driven by a change in the personal saving rate, which slipped to 4.8% from 5.2%.

Though the evidence is still tentative, it may be that increasing confidence in the job market is making consumers more willing to spend the money they have been spending on gasoline. Indeed, a June survey from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York showed people put the odds of losing their job over the next year at 14% versus 15% in March.

Moreover, low oil prices aren't yet getting entirely reflected at the pump. Crude costs 51% less than it did a year ago, but gasoline futures are down by just 37%. So as the peak summer driving season passes, gasoline prices should fall.

And that should give consumers even more wherewithal to spend more money elsewhere.

GDP set to rebound from early-year freeze – USA TODAY

The Port of Los Angeles in Long Beach.(Photo: Mark Ralston, AFP/Getty Images)

As economic bounce-backs go, roaring back from the first-quarter deep freeze, when the economy contracted 0.2%, the first estimate on second-quarter growth set for release Thursday should help put fears to rest. The expected second-quarter rebound looks like it should go a long way toward putting to rest fears that the early-year slowdown was anything more than a pause caused by bad weather, exacerbated by fallout from a West Coast port strike and a super-strong U.S. dollar.

The median estimate of economists is for growth of 2.5%, Capital Economics says. That’s not quite the 3% pace economists had hoped for heading into the year, but robust enough to put the early-year slump in the rear-view mirror.

Since GDP growth is a backward-looking figure, it’s unlikely to have a major impact on the Federal Reserve’s deliberations on when to start hiking short-term interest rates.

But a stronger number — say, in the 2.5% to 2.8% range — is important for stock investors who are looking for positive catalysts to keep propelling the stock market higher in the face of above-average valuations and coming Fed rate hikes.

“The market is looking to confirm the economy is strengthening sufficient enough to produce the earnings growth to warrant higher share prices,” says Mark Luschini, chief investment strategist at Janney. “Stocks are roughly 17 times forward earnings. While not egregiously valued, they’re clearly not cheap. Profit growth has to do the heavy lifting.”

And if GDP comes in “closer to 2%, worries could creep in that the economy can’t get traction,” he says.

Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1I3vnzk

US economy likely rebounded to solid growth rate in spring – Kansas City Star

After a terrible winter, the economy is improving, with a solid rebound in the spring expected to be followed by stronger growth in the second half of the year.

That’s the view of many economists who think a steadily improving job market will give households more income to spend and boost consumer spending, which drives about 70 percent of the economy.

On Thursday, the government will issue its first of three estimates of economic growth in the April-June quarter, as measured by the gross domestic product. Economists have forecast that GDP grew at a solid 2.7 percent annual rate, according to a survey of economists by data firm FactSet.

The signs of strengthening job gains and expectations of faster growth ahead help explain why the Federal Reserve appears on track to start raising interest rates this year. On Wednesday, the Fed ended its latest policy meeting by keeping a key rate at a record low near zero, where it’s remained since 2008. The Fed said it still needs to see further gains in the job market and feel reasonably confident that low inflation will move back to its 2 percent target rate.

Many economists think the first rate hike will occur in September. Others think it may take the Fed until the end of the year to conclude that the time is right to increase rates for the first time in nearly a decade.

In addition to estimating GDP growth in the April-June quarter, the government on Thursday will release its annual revision to the GDP figures. The revision is expected to address doubts about the process the government has been using to make seasonal adjustments to its GDP estimates. In recent years, in particular, the government appears to have underestimated growth in the January-March quarter.

In advance of the revisions, the government estimates that the economy shrank in the first quarter at an annual rate of 0.2 percent.

Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, is forecasting that growth will accelerate further to around a 3 percent annual rate in the second half of this year. That would be enough to boost growth to 2.5 percent for all of 2015. For 2016, Zandi is forecasting growth of 3.1 percent, which would be the best since 2005.

“We have a strong economy,” Zandi said. “We are going to produce a lot of jobs over the next year.”

The unemployment rate has reached a seven-year low of 5.3 percent, and Zandi predicts it will fall further in coming months as stronger economic growth spurs more job gains.

He said it’s this prospect that will spur the Fed to begin raising rates. Because it takes time for the Fed’s rate policies to affect the economy, it needs to begin raising rates before inflation emerges as a problem, Zandi and other economists have said.

Baidu Approves $1 Billion Share Buyback Over Next 12 Months – Bloomberg

Baidu Inc. approved the buy back of as much as $ 1 billion of stock just days after shares of China's largest search-engine company plummeted on its sales forecast.

The shares will be bought both on- and off-market in the next 12 months, with the program funded from existing cash, Baidu said in a statement on Thursday. It's Baidu's first buyback in almost seven years, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Baidu shares have lost 18 percent this week as the company posted earnings and forecast sales that missed analysts' estimates amid higher costs and a slowing Chinese economy. The market decline wiped out more than $ 12 billion from Baidu's valuation and extended the 2015 share drop to 25 percent.

The board will review the buyback for potential changes in its size and term, it said.

Founder Robin Li wants to tap Baidu's $ 12 billion in cash and equivalents to reshape the business.

For the past decade, Baidu has been China's No. 1 choice for search results and online maps and Li said he is determined to make it the first place consumers go to for movie tickets, home delivery and car services.

China's economy is on course for its slowest pace of annual growth in a quarter-century, and Baidu earns virtually all of its revenue in the country.