Bernanke & Co. increases lending rates to 5.25%

Finally, the much awaited decision regarding the interest rates has ended. The Federal bank has increased the lending interest rate to 5.25% i.e. a quarter percent increase. The Fed has increased its interest rate for the 17th time since its start in January 2001.

"The extent and timing of any additional firming that may be needed to address these [inflation] risks will depend on the evolution of the outlook for both inflation and economic growth, as implied by incoming information," the central bank said in its statement.
Source : CNNMoney.com

But according to Keith Hembre, chief economist with First American Funds suggested that this might be the last increase in the interest rates. But Fed says that a risk of inflations still remains, following which traders have backed out from the bet i.e. they would increase the rate for the 18th time in August.
Following the interest rate hike at 2:15 PM (ET), DJIA rose by 1.98% to +217.24 , NASDAQ increased by 2.96% ending the day at +2174.38 up by 62.54 points since the previous closing, whereas Standard & Poor's 500 index(S&P500) shot up by 2.16% closing at +1272.87 up by 26.87 points since its previous closing. Hence, the above trade market scenarios clearly shows that Mr.Bernanke had made a very good decision while increasing the lending rates and in turn helping the market shoot up by 62 points.
But even though America had a good trading day, it was totally the opposite on the other side of the globe. India's SENSEX had a strong start in its first innings and rose upto 194 points but due to interest rate hike fear the market closed at a mere 32 points above its previous closing. Will the hike in NASDAQ fuel the rise in SENSEX? This'll be known on Friday itself, the last trading day for this week! May the investors have a great weekend.

Paypal v/s GBuy, Google's new online payment option.

It has been about 1 year now that Google's Gbuy is under rigorous testing by big merchants. Paypal which is the commonly used online payment system used by millions world over will soon face a tough competition by Gbuy. It was announced that Gbuy would be launched on 28th June '06 but after exhaustive search over the internet I didn't find any news about the launch! Is Google sceptical about its new system or is getting ready to enter the market with a BIG BANG! Even though the world awaits Gbuy. Paypal, an Ebay holding is confident about its market share and trusts its members. But let me warn you Mr.Meg Whitman (CEO of Ebay) that these are the same people who were loyal to MSN's Hotmail but switched over to Google's Gmail after they were enticed with the 2 GB inbox space. So if I were you I would not believe them. Anyways, even though people prefer Paypal for online transactions, VISA and Mastercard are the ones which are highly trusted for any sensitive transactions and are still considered the market leaders.
So if Google has stepped into the market, where is Microsoft? Are they still attending the 'My name is Bill Gates, I am leaving Microsoft!' farewell party? If not then are Mr.Ozzie and Steve Balmer working on any plans to step into the online payment system. I would say hurry up guys!

Mittal-Arcelor deal through!

Are the global businesses on a shopping spree? Nokia filled its shopping cart with the Seimens deal a week ago and the latest addition is MittalArcelor deal. Mittal merged with its rival Arcelor for about $33 billion! making it the worlds largest steel producer with a capacity of more than 100 MT which is 3 times the capacity of Nippon which currently holds the second spot in steel production. But this deal is not 100 percent sweet for LN due to certain conditions some of which are LN cannot increase its family held share of 44.5% in the new company for 5 years, secondly, the new company will be headed by an Arcelor employee instead of Laxmi Mittal himself, the board would consist of 18 members of which 12 would be from Arcelor itself and the rest i.e. 6 from Mittal Steel. Previously, when LN was supposed to sell his stake in DoFASCO in Canada has made a decision i.e. not to sell anything and hold on to it. Hence the total workforce of the Mittal empire considering all its acquisitions is estimated around 320,000 employees. Now thats a long payroll list.
Even though this merger looks a bit bitter in some areas, it is very good for India, Inc. as it shows the entrepreneurial spirit of Indians.

I dont break promises(sometimes I do!), in my previous blog I did mention that I'll update you about my trip to Kuwait, so here it is. Today after a good stock market day, I went out to visit some places in Kuwait City. Even though it was 45 degrees celcius at 17:30 PM I braved the heat. On my way I took some pics of which I particularly liked these, the one on the left is the 'Kuwait Stock Exchange' which can be considered as the hub for trading! One more thing I would like to add is that I havn't met a single kuwaiti who is interested in stock market, even though they are millionaires in their own way. Even the newspaper 'Kuwait Times' has a small place on the advert page about the stock martket, that is immensely horrifying! anyways after the stock exchange I took another pic which is called the 'Liberty Tower' erected after the war with IRAQ!l, Finally I took a shot of an a very good architectural design (donno what is it called something in arabic) which caught my attention as soon as I reached the center of the city. Anyways, I dont feel like writing more on it ...... will be back with more pics....

Nokia + Siemens = Nokia Siemens Networks

Thats right Nokia has merged with Germany based Siemens in a combined value of Euros. 25 billion. Following the merger share prices of Nokia and Siemens have jumped by 3.1% to Euros 16.14 and by 8.3% to Euros 68.03 respectively. But as we all know for every action there is equal and opposite reaction, this merger will slash jobs by 9000 from a combined workforce of 60,000 in a drive to cut costs by Euros 1.5 billion annually. Under pressure from its investors, Siemens has sold its mobile handset divison to Taiwan based BenQ.

This has been the next merger following the merger between Alcatel of France and Lucent Technologies of the USA. Also some of the researchers are optimistic about the recent deal here is what Gartner says:

"This looks like a stronger merger than that of Alcatel and Lucent. It improves the portfolio in mobile infrastructure and though there are some overlaps, the combined group will increase market share," she said.
"The story in fixed line is a little foggier, but there will be efficiencies there as fixed-mobile convergence takes place." says Bettina Tratz-Ryan a research director at Gartner.

The 50-50 partnership, which will be called Nokia Siemens Networks, will have €15.8 billion in annual sales, placing the new group in the network industry's premier league. According to Nokia, the merged company will rank No3 in the market, behind market-leader Ericsson and the newly-merged Alcatel-Lucent.

What if...?

Last night when I was surfing the vast expanse of the internet, I bumped upon this video which truely explains that what if Microsoft had introduced Apple iPod in the market. So I have included some of the many pics from this video. The video states clearly that Microsoft does not leave a sinle blank space on its packaging box and instead of focusing on the hardware it would have blabbered about its software which is in the iPod! So I would recommend you all to check out the video here.

Bull-ocks! to the Bear ...

SENSEX

FTSE

NASDAQ

Three cheers for the Stock Market! After an all time low from 10th May due to a move to increase the interest rate in the USA, the world market took a sharp plunge and the investors were almost on the verge of breaking apart. But from 15th June onwards the investors shrugged the interest rate dilemna and continued to invest, breathing life into the already dead stock market. Referring to the above graphs from FTSE(London), NASDAQ and SENSEX (in no particular order), it can concluded that the market is out of the correction period and is ready to play the game again.

I am in Kuwait with my father for a trip to the east, but the market phenomena does not bother the people in Kuwait (well as far as I know). I met my fathers colleague here, who has stepped out of the market in 2001, due to huge losses he incurred. Finding this as an oppurtunity to share views with a market veteran led me to belive that this sharp rise in world market is only a short-term happiness as it might change its direction if the U.S. govt decides to increase the interest rates further (NOTE: this guy is a true pesimist! I hate him.) Anyways, people try to go with the ,market of investing now I would suggest you to be with what you have. No one knows where will it take us. Happy Summer! Its 48 degrees celcius here.

Indian Stock Market Jinxed!

After an all time hight of 12,612 points on 10th May 2006, Indian Stock Market has taken a downturn fall since then. Falling almost by 25% it has been the hardest hit market over the last month amid the increasing interest rates and the sluggish global growth. According to the sources the market shed another 4.2 percent reaching 9,080 points the lowest in this year. But amid this chaos investors are still investing with an optimistic hope of gaining some day. Is the 666-dilemna taking place or is it another conspiracy in the making? Would you answer us Mr.Chidambaram (Indian Finance Minister)?

A genetic Entrepreneur

Yes, as the heading suggests genes play an important role in becoming a successful entrepreneur. This was studies by the scientists in United States and Britain. They say that family influence and the upbringing of the child hardly plays any role in helping the child to become a successful entrepreneur. This is an excerpt from MSNBC "By comparing self-employment in 609 pairs of genetically identical twins and 657 pairs of non-identical twins, Spector and scientists at Imperial College London and Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland analyzed the impact of genetics and environment on entrepreneurs". The researchers presented their findings at The London School of Business and believe genes can play a vital role in the persons personality traits and abilities that influence to become an entrepreneur. The full article can be found here.

Summer Tour 2006

Hi guys, I have started my Summer Tour 2006. I'll be travelling to Kuwait and India this time. I started my journey from the UK on 9th June and after those 6 tiring hours, I finally reached Kuwait. At the Airport to my surprise my VISA was not present at the airport, but after calling and stuff for another 25 minutes I finally got my VISA(thanx for the free phone service!). I'll be staying in Kuwait for about 2 months now, because I get free accomodation due to my father's contacts. But people let me aware you of something, its 46 degree celcius here and is expected to increase to about 56 degrees celcius. God! thats a lot. Anyways, keep checking this post as I'll be updating it regularly.

Cheers!

Vodafone : A major mess!

The other day I was going through an article about the recent loss of vodafone for the year 2005. Vodafone announced a net loss of about $41 billion, which has almost shook the telecom world. Arun Sarin the Chief Executive is still optimistic about Vodafone's rise in the next 3 years and here is what Arun Sarin says "outperforming its challengers in an increasingly challenging marketplace". What does he mean by that statement, on one side investors in Vodafone are almost half dead and Mr.Sarin is still having hopes even after such a mammoth loss? Also investors are persuading Arun Sarin to sell the 45% stake in Verizon Wireless, but Mr.Sarin says he is content to keep it. On the other hand Sarin is planning to cut 400 jobs from the British headquarters and outsource most of its IT and in turn save $377 million by 2007. I n order to plant his faith among his investors Sarin has increased the dividend by 49% and announced to return $17 billion in cash to shareholders. Vodafone's market status can be checked here.

Is NASDAQ-Euronext the next big thing?

If you are in business or even a business enthusiast, you might be aware of the NASDAQ-Euronext merger. This means one single global trading floor, buy/sell stocks, futures, MF's etc from any part of the globe. But there is one thing i.e. bothering me is, what will be the standard opening and closing trading times. As its a different time zone on the other side of the globe. Will they try to put into action a new time-zone just for NASDAQ-Euronext trading? How are they going to do that?

How the hell I didn't win?

I did not win 3 continous games in NFS Underground 2 which has really demoralised me! I just want to win the next time I play with this guy ... or else! Anyways, its 4:00 AM now and still I dont feel like sleeping.

04:16 AM - Introduced 'BlogBoard' on my blog. Main purpose of BlogBoard is to list the blogs maintained by 'Entrepreneurs'

05:03 AM - Going to sleep for another 6 hours.

10:55 AM - Good Morning everybody! After 5 hours 52 mins of sleep, I am back!

New domain 'theLectureNotes.com' bought!

OK! I finally bought the domain name for my latest venture or lets say a business trial. Its called the lecturenotes.com. Well, atleast it is a start for the new idea which I am confident of working well this time. As I said earlier keep a watch because theLectureNotes.com will be commissioned on 1st October 2006!

Is Entrepreneurship a by-product of the DotCom Bust?

The other day I was going through various entrepreneurial websites, like youngentrepreneurs.com and others. I found out that people in the real world are setting up companies and websites just to attract investments which according to me are totally worthless. There was a company which I was reading about and had done very well in the market, its message was clear to the new entrepreneurs i.e. 'Never Hesitate, never borrow and never procrastinate'. I am actually supporting the 'Never Borrow' statement because this is where new stratups fail to launch or establish a firm base in today's business arena. I am myself working on a project which is scheduled to launch on 1st October 2006. I am really struggling here to make this happen this time, as last time my idea didnt even launch, it skipped the scheduled launch date and everything was a disaster and for all this mess I blame mismanagement of my time, my priorities and especially my HUGE ego wall which always acts as barrier in the business world. So here I am all new and revived and filled with positive energy. Confident for a successful launch on 1st October 2006.