Santorum celebrates

It's all smiles for the biggest winner on the trail tonight, Thomson Reuters: Reuters Insider
http://reut.rs/xDtXjp

Market Pulse: Germany sells €3.3 billion of 5-year debt

Market Pulse: Germany sells €3.3 billion of 5-year debt, Thomson Reuters: Reuters Insider
http://reut.rs/zWHvLs

US FX OPEN: Euro gains as Greek hopes boost risk appetite - IFR

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Market Briefs

• Greek optimism supports Euro despite lack of real news
• Euro hits fresh 2012 & 2-Mth highs against Dollar
• German exports post steepest drop in nearly 3-Yrs
• German December S/A Trade Surplus EUR 13.9Bln
• Sterling hits 3-Mth high vs Dollar, BoE QE awaited
• Swiss Franc slips vs Euro, EUR/CHF rebounds into 1.21s
• Swiss January Unemployment hits 10-Mth high at 3.4%
• CEE FX supported by risk appetite, Zloty eyes NBP verdict
• Aussie rises to 6-Mth highs as Greek hopes boost risk
• Risk boost underpins Asian FX but intervention limits gains
• PBOC Yuan fix in focus ahead of Xi Jinping US visit

Looking Ahead - Economic Data

* 12:00 US Weekly Mortgage Market Index, 753.3 pvs
    * 13:15 Canadian January Housing Starts, 195k exp 200k pvs

FX ZAR BRIEFING: USD/ZAR scope for 7.4650 - IFR

LONDON, Feb 8 (IFR) - See TGM2423 for more. The market has extended below 7.5220 (2011 low, posted February 3) which unlocks 7.4650 (September 19 2011 low) for an eventual retest. As the rand is an obvious risk asset, further improvements in sentiment has led to these falls in USD/ZAR. Q4 unemployment rate has surprised by falling to 23.9% on Tuesday, it was expected to edge higher to 25.7% from 25.0% in Q3. Today January business confidence fell slightly to 97.1 from 99.1. Martin.Miller@thomsonreuters.com

nIFRb0MfFP

© Thomson Reuters 2012. All rights reserved

New York Giants Ride Salsa Dancer Cruz’s Second Chance to Super Bowl Title

Pamela Marsh-Williams considers herself an expert on the academic, not the athletic. Yet the assistant provost and dean for undergraduate advising at the University of Massachusetts said she knew what the outcome would be when the New England Patriots gave Victor Cruz a second chance in the Super Bowl.

“You should know, everyone should know, that Victor has the skill and determination to do what is needed to get the job done,” Marsh-Williams said via telephone from her Amherst, Massachusetts, home minutes after Cruz’s New York Giants defeated the New England Patriots, 21-17, in the Super Bowl.

New York’s first seven points were the product of a tight spiral from Super Bowl Most Valuable Player Eli Manning to Cruz, who again got there the hard way.

Cruz had the football in his hands, and then he didn’t. The Giants were driving when his first-quarter fumble at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis was recovered by the Patriots.

This time, Cruz, 25, got a reprieve. It was a second chance born from a too-many-men-on-the-field penalty against the usually disciplined Patriots.

Two plays, two yards and a quick slant later and Cruz was in the end zone, displaying his signature salsa celebration dance.

“I was so happy when Victor scored,” said Marsh-Williams, whose rooting interest was divided between Cruz and Patriots safety James Ihedigbo, also a former UMass player who was covering Cruz on the touchdown play. “It’s an extraordinary story.”

Cruz, a second-year wide receiver at UMass, ran into academic trouble: He was not only kicked off the football team, but dismissed from the university for failing to meet academic standards.

Meeting With Mom

The player scheduled a meeting with Marsh-Williams, whose job it was to inform Cruz and his mother, Blanca, who had driven from her Paterson, New Jersey, home that the decision was final.

“I felt badly for his mother,” Marsh-Williams said. “She was literally distraught and felt that her son had let her down. Never did I think he’d come back.”

He did make it back, taking a circuitous route to the National Football League via Passaic County Community College. When asked about the meeting with Marsh-Williams, Cruz last week recounted it in detail. He remembered his mother’s anguish most of all. And then he parroted the educator’s message.

“A real hard-nosed person,” said Cruz, who finished the Super Bowl with four catches, including the touchdown.

Taking Responsibility

Marsh-Williams told Cruz to grow up and take responsibility, to reassess the opportunity he’d been given to get an education. Mostly, however, she pressed Cruz to consider the sacrifices made by his mother, the woman who feared that absent a college degree he’d wind up back in Paterson, where, as he put it, opportunity doesn’t always knock.

“It was time to stop making excuses,” said Cruz, who joined the Giants as an undrafted free agent.

Giants General Manager Jerry Reese said neither he nor his scouts saw anything special in Cruz.

“Just a local free agent, that’s all,” Reese said. “Anyone who tries to tell you differently is lying.”

Cruz developed into one of Manning’s favorite targets this season. He caught a team-leading 82 passes for a Giants- best 1,536 yards and nine touchdowns, each of them followed by a salsa as a tribute to his mother’s Puerto Rican heritage.

Cruz, who turned down an invitation to appear on the television program “Dancing with the Stars,” instead has the stars talking about his dancing.

During her press conference this week Madonna, who performed at halftime, said she was inspired by Cruz.

Educator’s Reaction

As for Marsh-Williams, whose nerves wouldn’t allow her to watch the waning minutes of the Super Bowl, she’s happy to have played a role in helping to mold the man more than the receiver.

She said she wants the story of Cruz to be told. Again and again.

“I’m certain that more and more players, more and more kids, will put the work in on the field and off the field,” she said. “I never thought he’d make it back to school. Look at him now.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Scott Soshnick in New York at ssoshnick@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Sillup at msillup@bloomberg.net NI NFL NI IN NI PATRIOTS NI MA NI NFLGIANTS NI NY

Super Bowl Sets TV Record: 111.3M Viewers

The New York Giants’ 21-17 win over the New England Patriots in last night’s Super Bowl was seen by an average of 111.3 million people, the biggest audience in U.S. television history, according Comcast Corp. (CMCSA)’s NBC network.

The viewership total for the game at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis narrowly topped last year’s record of 111 million for the Green Bay Packers’ Super Bowl win over the Pittsburgh Steelers, NBC said in a news release.

The game was seen in an average of 47 percent of U.S. homes, the best rating since 1986 when the Chicago Bears’ win over the Patriots drew a 48.3 rating. Yesterday’s 47 rating is the sixth highest in Super Bowl history.

This was the seventh straight year of Super Bowl-record viewership. It peaked at 117.7 million during its final half- hour, as the Giants’ Eli Manning directed a late-game touchdown drive that gave New York the lead, and a desperation game-ending throw to the end zone by New England’s Tom Brady fell incomplete. It was the Giants’ fourth Super Bowl title and second in five years.

An average of 114 million viewers watched the halftime show that featured Madonna, the most for a championship halftime show that featured entertainment, which dates back to 1991. More than four million fewer people watched the Black Eyed Peas at halftime a year ago.

The Giants’ Super Bowl victory in many ways mirrored their upset 17-14 win over New England in the 2008 title game, as Manning led late-game touchdown drives in both contests. Yesterday’s game had a 14 percent higher rating.

The average 30-second commercial during last night’s game sold for $3.5 million, according to NBC.

To contact the reporter on this story: Mason Levinson in New York atmlevinson@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Sillup at msillup@bloomberg.net.

Market Snapshot

Brazil Bovespa 

Mexico IPC

Chile IPSA

FX vs Equities

http://bloom.bg/qWAQ9G#ooid=RycmhvMjo6Sd6DBHvxz35Yf44WWAr-IZ

Shareholders’ Glenxstrata fears

Reuters Breakingviews: Shareholders’ Glenxstrata fears, Thomson Reuters: Reuters Insider

http://reut.rs/ACSmLc

US TECHS: Dollar Index; Dixie needs to whistle through 79.50/79.60 - IFR Today 13:16

BOSTON, Feb 6 (IFR) - Especially Stateside, traders have the "Do Not Disturb" sign hanging from their desks after the Super Bowl which certainly has reeled in trader animal spirits. However, traders are keeping at least one weary eye on the Greek drama should it turn tragedy. The Dollar Index continues consolidation and earlier it appeared as if the Dixie wanted to whistle through key resistance in the 79.50/79.60 zone which would ignite an attempt to return towards the recent highs. The 8-day moving average trading pivot at 79.06 is support and needs to hold on a closing basis for the DXY to move higher.

Duncan.Balsbaugh@Thomsonreuters.com /jmm

Brazil awards key airport concessions for $14 bln

 By Leonardo Goy and Carolina Marcondes
SAO PAULO, Feb 6 (Reuters) - Brazil took a significant step on Monday toward upgrading its notoriously bad infrastructure, by awarding $14 billion in private contracts for improvements at three key airports to accommodate soaring passenger traffic and prepare for the 2014 World Cup.
The concessions, awarded to large Brazilian contractors in association with international airport operators, are viewed as a small but hopeful sign that the government of President Dilma Rousseff is beginning to take a more market-based approach to logjams that for decades have hindered investments in Brazil's aging and overburdened infrastructure.
Under the arrangement, the consortiums paid a combined 24.5 billion reais ($14.21 billion) - much more than expected - for the right to build and operate new terminals at two airports in São Paulo state and the main airport in Brasília, the capital.
They will operate the terminals in conjunction with Infraero, the state agency that currently runs the airports. Brazilian officials have touted the arrangement as a hybrid that will allow for greater participation of private capital without formally being a privatization - which would be heresy to many activists in Rousseff's left-leaning Workers' Party.
Monday's auction, held on the floor of a packed São Paulo stock exchange, attracted strong interest from 11 consortia whose bids greatly surpassed minimums set by the government for the proposals. Outside, demonstrators from public-sector labor unions protested a move they fear could eliminate long-protected jobs and benefits for workers at Infraero.
Brazilian companies Invepar and OAS along with South Africa's ACSA won the concession to overhaul the busiest and most valuable of the three airports, known as Guarulhos, which is São Paulo's primary international gateway. The consortium won with a bid of 16.2 billion reais - nearly five times the minimum value set by the government.
Brazil's Triunfo Participações TPIS3.SA and France's Egis Airport Operation won the concession to expand Viracopos airport, also near São Paulo, with a bid of 3.8 billion reais.
Brazil's Engevix and Argentina's Corporación America won the concession for a new airport terminal in Brasília with a bid of 4.5 billion reais.
The size of the bids raised doubts among some investors worried about the eventual return on the investments.
Triunfo shares tumbled nearly 4 percent after securing the Viracopos concession while Ecorodovias ECOR3.SA and CCR Rodovias CCRO3.SA, two companies that lost out in the auction, rose 5.7 percent and 1.9 percent, respectively.

HISTORY OF INFRASTRUCTURE PROBLEMS
Economists have long criticized the drag that poor infrastructure has on Brazil, Latin America's largest economy and its biggest and most populous country.
Despite economic growth that averaged over 4 percent for most of the past decade, roads, ports, factories, and other facilities have suffered crippling delays that raise production and distribution costs. That, in turn, worsens Brazil's long struggle against high inflation.
Brazil's growth has led to a surge in air travel, with millions from the country's emerging middle class taking to the skies. Passenger traffic has more than doubled over the past decade, according to government figures, making Brazil one of the most promising aviation markets in the world.
While that has fueled heady growth for a crop of ambitious new airlines such as Gol GOLL4.SA GOL.N and Azul, many carriers now complain that future growth will not be possible without significant airport expansion.
For passengers, the constraints translate into long lines and delays. At Guarulhos, for instance, travelers must endure notoriously long queues at airline counters, in bathrooms, and even in the parking lot outside, where drivers park on curbs and atop medians because of a dearth of space.
The headaches are prompting the government to scramble for solutions as it looks ahead to major sporting events that will put Brazil in the global spotlight. Officials from FIFA, soccer's governing body, have already questioned Brazil's preparations for the World Cup - just over two years away - in terms of airports, stadiums, hotel rooms, and other facilities necessary to accommodate the crush of visitors.
Brazil will also host the Olympic Games in 2016.
For Rousseff, now in her second year in office, the decision to grant the concessions is a reversal of the long-standing policy of her party and that of her predecessor and mentor, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Lula, under whom Rousseff served as a minister and chief of staff, opposed efforts during his two terms to allow private partners to manage Brazilian airports.
Rousseff, however, has proven more flexible as her administration seeks to appease the demands of Brazil's fast-growing consumer class. Because her electoral base consists of the tens of millions of working-class Brazilians empowered by the recent growth, the expectations of those voters are evolving as they look for better public services.
Still, the structure of the airport contracts, which retain a 49 percent stake for a state agency in the new operating companies, suggest that the government is unwilling to pursue blanket privatizations like those of a centrist administration in the 1990s. Back then, the government sold off electricity, communications, mining, oil, and other state-owned companies.
($1 = 1.71 Brazilian reais)

(Writing by Paulo Prada and Brad Haynes; Editing by Todd Benson and Mark Porter)
((paulo.prada@thomsonreuters.com)(+55 11 5644 7728)(Reuters Messaging: paulo.prada.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))

GLOBAL MARKETS-Stocks, euro stall on Greece concerns Today 13:25

  By Rodrigo Campos

NEW YORK, Feb 6 (Reuters) - Concern Greece might not accept the terms of a proposed new bailout deal brought a rally in global shares to a halt on Monday, while the euro pared earlier losses as some shorts covered their bets.

U.S. stocks edged lower, tracking European equities, while a gauge of global shares hovered near break even after four straight sessions of gains. Declines were not enough to derail an uptrend of five consecutive weeks of gains on both the U.S. benchmark S&P 500 index and global stocks measured by MSCI.

So far this year, the S&P is up 6.8 percent and global stocks have gained 8.6 percent.

The Greek debt crisis remained a concern to markets as political leaders had not agreed to accept unpopular public wage cuts and other measures to qualify for a new bailout from the European Union and Internation Monetary Fund. Greece needs the cash by March to meet big debt repayments and avoid an unruly default.[nL5E8D6191]

The slow progress to sort out Greece's cash problems has angered the country's European partners and undermined investor confidence across markets.

"It's inevitable the risk profile that Greece represents is definitely going to cool the market tone. There is absolutely no way around that," said Peter Kenny, managing director at Knight Capital in Jersey City, New Jersey.

"That lack of clarity, the protracted nature of this crisis and the fact that it simply will not go away, it's a bit unnerving to people who have seen the (U.S. stock) market tack on some very nice early-year gains, and it forces people to want to be a little cautious."

& lt;^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Key sticking points in Greek bailout talks: [nL5E8D325I]

Euro zone crisis in graphics: http://r.reuters.com/hyb65p

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^>  

In afternoon trading in New York, the Dow Jones industrial average .DJI dropped 35.12 points, or 0.27 percent, to 12,827.11. The S&P 500 Index .INX dipped 1.98 points, or 0.15 percent, to 1,342.92. The Nasdaq Composite .IXIC shed 3.40 points, or 0.12 percent, to 2,902.26.

The FTSEurofirst 300 .FTEU3 index of top European shares closed down 0.14 percent. Global stocks measured by MSCI .MIWD00000PUS were barely changed.

The euro EUR= hit a session high above $1.31 as its earlier decline reached key technical levels, prompting investors to cover their short positions. The single currency fell to a low of $1.3026 according to Reuters data.

"Headlines out of Europe are affecting sentiment on the euro. Earlier, we had hit stop losses in the euro and we saw it trim some losses. But it's more of the same," said Brian Dolan, chief currency strategist at Forex.com, as investors still awaited the outcome on Greece's debt deal.

The underlining sentiment in markets remained positive due to strong January economic data from the United States, China and Germany. An easier monetary stance from the world's major central banks that appears set to continue at key meetings this week also supports investor sentiment. [nL5E8D33EU]

Data on German industrial goods orders, released on Monday, extended the run of good data. A better-than-expected 1.7 percent rise for December was propelled by demand from outside the euro zone, which more than made up for a drop in orders from within the currency bloc.

U.S. Treasuries prices zigzagged on follow-through selling after Friday's better-than-expected jobs report and the safe-haven appeal of U.S. debt.

The benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note US10YT=RR was up 5/32, with the yield at 1.9048 percent.

(Additional reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak and Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss; editing by Dan Grebler and Andrew Hay) ((rodrigo.campos@thomsonreuters.com)(+1.646.223.6344)(Reuters Messaging: rodrigo.campos.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))

((Multimedia versions of Reuters Top News are now available for:

• 3000 Xtra: visit Reuters Top News
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Greeks delay bailout talks as Merkel demands action

• Greek leaders baulking at pay and spending cuts
• Merkel says time is of the essence
• Paperwork snag delays party talks - source
• Merkel, Sarkozy want escrow account for interest
• Unions call 24-hour strike against more austerity

(Adds comments from pensioner, socialist party)

By Lefteris Papadimas and Daniel Flynn

ATHENS/PARIS, Feb 6 (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel told Greece on Monday to make up its mind fast on accepting the painful terms for a new EU/IMF bailout, but the country's political leaders responded by delaying their decision for yet another day.

Failure to strike a deal to secure the 130 billion euro ($170 billion) rescue - much of which Germany will fund - risks pushing Athens into a chaotic debt default which could threaten its future in the euro zone.

Speaking in Paris, Merkel expressed the exasperation spreading among euro zone leaders at seemingly endless arguing in Athens that has yet to produce a definitive acceptance of the austerity and reform conditions demanded by the lenders.

"I honestly can't understand how additional days will help. Time is of the essence. A lot is at stake for the entire euro zone," she told a news conference with President Nicolas Sarkozy.

But leaders of the three parties in the coalition government appeared to need at least one additional day.

The office of Prime Minister Lucas Papademos, a former central banker who heads a government of politicians, said that a meeting of leaders from the conservative, socialist and far-right parties due on Monday had been postponed to Tuesday.

A statement issued shortly after Merkel spoke gave no reason for the delay but said Papademos would hold further talks with the "troika" of lenders - the European Commission, European Central Bank and IMF - later on Monday.

The party leaders, positioning themselves for a likely general election in April, have baulked at accepting another package of deeply unpopular wage and pension reductions, job cuts and tougher tax enforcement measures.

PATIENCE WEARING THIN

Merkel made clear that her patience was wearing thin on a deal that affects not only Greece but the wider currency bloc, which fears that a default would hit much larger economies such as Spain and Italy.

In a fresh sign of mistrust, the German leader said she and Sarkozy agreed Greece should deposit revenue to meet future interest payments in a special escrow account to guarantee that creditors were paid consistently.

"We want Greece to stay in the euro," she said. But she added: "I want to make clear once again that there can be no deal if the troika proposals are not implemented. They are on the table ... Something needs to happen quickly."

Greeks watched the events with the same angry exasperation
they have shown throughout the nation's nearly three-year
crisis, mixed with fear of the consequences of leaving the euro. 

"We must stay in the euro, but I want politicians to pay, I want them to feel the austerity," said Chryssa Karatza, a 65-year-old public sector pensioner and mother of two.

Karatza lives on a 1,000-euro monthly pension and takes care of her grandchild as her 42-year-old daughter works long hours to make ends meet. But with unemployment near a record high at 18.2 percent in October, she fears the worst for her daughter.

"I dread the moment when she comes home and says she was fired," Karatza said.

The troika wants 15,000 public sector jobs cut by the end of this year, as part of a 150,000-job reduction by the end of 2015, public administration minister Dimitris Reppas said.

The PASOK socialist party held Germany responsible for much of Greece's suffering.

"The problem today is the depressing imposition of Germany's strategy on the euro zone," party spokesman Panos Beglitis told Real FM radio. "Nobody is listening to us. We are lonely."

In Brussels, the European Commission defended the troika's demand for a cut in the minimum wage.

Commission spokesman Amadeu Altafaj said the Greek minimum wage averaged 871 euros a month, compared with 748 euros in Spain, which is not under an EU/IMF rescue programme, and 566 euros in Portugal, which has received a bailout.

One government official said the entire Greek side had to agree terms of the rescue, which would be the second for Athens since 2010, with international lenders before the next meeting of the Eurogroup of euro zone finance ministers.

No date has yet been set for the Eurogroup meeting, and the Commission spokesman said it would be held only when Greece had made its commitments to the deal.

EU officials say the full package must be agreed with Greece and approved by the euro zone, ECB and IMF before Feb. 15 to allow time for complex legal procedures involved in the bond swap to be completed in time for a March 20 bond redemption. In some euro zone countries, including Germany and Finland, parliamentary approval is required to raise the bailout money.

Leaders of the PASOK socialist party, the conservative New Democracy and the far-right LAOS party still have to agree on unresolved problems.

These include labour market reform and shoring up domestic banks. Greece needs the bailout money by mid-March to meet big debt repayments but tempers are rising in the European Union over what it sees as Greek dithering on implementing reforms.

WORN DOWN

Greeks have been worn down by a deep recession, now in its fifth year, and wave after wave of austerity measures imposed under the first bailout.

Alarmed by the prospect of yet more budget cuts, Greece's two main trade unions said they would call a 24-hour strike for Tuesday in protest against policies they say have only driven the economy into a downward spiral. [nA8E7NT025]

With Greece facing 14.5 billion euros of debt repayments in March, a bill it cannot meet without further bailout funds, the stakes could not be higher.

Papademos said after five hours of talks on Sunday that party chiefs had agreed measures including wage cuts and other reforms as part of spending cuts worth 1.5 percent of gross domestic product.

Hopes rose on Monday that they had also made progress on recapitalising domestic banks, which are up to their necks in Greek government bonds now worth a fraction of their face value.

Greek bank stocks .FTATBNK closed up 11 percent in the afternoon on hopes that lenders would be recapitalised without being nationalised after a debt swap under the latest bailout deal, which will radically cut the value of their bond holdings.

The euro EUR= weakened against the dollar on Monday as the failure of coalition parties to approve the terms of a new bailout package rekindled worries about a chaotic default that could spread to other debt-ridden countries in the euro zone. ($1 = 0.7621 euros)

(Additional reporting by Renee Maltezou, Tatiana Fragou and Harry Papachristou in Athens, Jan Strupczewski and John O'Donnell in Brussels, Annika Breidthardt in Berlin; Writing by David Stamp and Ingrid Melander; Editing by Paul Taylor) ((deepa.babington@thomsonreuters.com)(+30 210 33 76 496)(Reuters Messaging:

deepa.babington.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net)) 

Todos los comerciales del Super Bowl XLVI

Avengers 2012 en el Super Bowl XLVI

Super Bowl XLVI en vivo

Market Pulse: Merger fever fuels mining stocks rally

Market Pulse: Merger fever fuels mining stocks rally, Thomson Reuters: Reuters Insider
http://reut.rs/AxVMvk

Jobs report is a "watershed" moment for economy

Jobs report is a "watershed" moment for economy: Hoffman, Thomson Reuters: Reuters Insider
http://reut.rs/ySjz5H

Rising U.S. employment masks lingering malaise

(The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.)
By Martin Hutchinson
NEW YORK, Feb 3 (Reuters Breakingviews) - A strong U.S. employment report on Friday masked some lingering malaise. January saw 257,000 new private-sector positions created and the jobless rate falling further to 8.3 percent. That’s good news for job-seekers and Obama fans. But labor force participation is well below 2007 levels and long-term unemployment is way too high.
Job increases last month were broadly spread, making for a justifiably positive reaction in financial markets. Even America’s construction sector added 21,000 jobs. Manufacturing, professional and business services, healthcare and the leisure and hospitality sector all added tens of thousands of jobs each, suggesting a job-creation machine finally beginning to fire on all cylinders.
Productivity data released on Thursday suggest robust job gains may continue. Fourth-quarter 2011 nonfarm labor productivity increased only 0.5 percent from the last three months of 2010. That suggests the jobless recovery of 2009 and 2010, with outsourcing and rapid productivity gains, may have morphed into an expansion that involves more hiring, even if economic growth remains modest.
However, aspects of the data remain disquieting. Labor force participation at only 63.7 percent is the lowest since December 1981 and nearly three percentage points below the 1998-2007 average. And long-term joblessness at 42.9 percent of all the unemployed remains close to its peak, far above the pre-2008 high of 26 percent back in 1983.
This combination suggests that, for many people, jobs are not coming back any time soon. To some extent, this may reflect the exceptional downturn in construction, a sector that could eventually re-employ workers even after a long gap. But for some, the future may hold only long-term unemployment followed by an exit from the official workforce. Even in a booming economy, that could make the traditional definition of full employment hard to attain.

Argentina to demand oil, gas fields run at full output - RTRS

Today 19:38

BUENOS AIRES, Feb 4 (Reuters) - Argentina will demand that oil companies in the country operate oil and gas fields at full output, state news agency Telam said on Saturday, a day after the government cut $461 million in annual tax breaks for big fuel firms amid wider austerity.
President Cristina Fernandez' government blames private sector oil companies for the country's waning crude production.
Latin America's No. 3 economy is increasingly dependent on energy imports to meet demand for natural gas and oil, which has surged since 2003, rebounding from a deep economic crisis.
"They should reach full output at gas and oil fields," Telam cited Planning Minister Julio De Vido as saying.
Argentina is preparing for a challenging year as Europe's debt crisis and the sluggish world economy bite into the finances of commodities-producing countries in South America.
Friday's reduction in tax breaks affects companies such as Panamerican Energy, owned by BP BP.L and local firm Bridas; YPF YPFD.BA, the local unit of Spain's Repsol REP.MC; China's Sinopec; and Brazil's Petrobras PETR4.SA.
Argentina is cutting some popular transportation and energy subsidies in a bid to shore up its financial position. The South American country has been shut out of the international capital markets since its 2001/02 debt default.

(Reporting by Magdalena Morales; editing by Todd Eastham) ((simon.gardner@thomsonreuters.com)(+569-9818-8538)(Reuters Messaging: simon.gardner.reuters.net@thomsonreuters.com))

© Thomson Reuters 2012. All rights reserved