A 0.6% increase in wholesale inventories lifted the markets higher during the midday with the Dow rising 24 points to 12,485. Nasdaq gained 11 points to 2842.
On the upside
Billionaire investor Carl Icahn acquired additional shares of Navistar International (NYSE: NAV) to increase his stake to 11.87%.
Cantor Fitzgerald initiated coverage of Neonode (Nasdaq: NEON) with a Buy rating.
Shares of Zalicus (Nasdaq: ZLCS) continued climbing after a Seeking Alpha contributor wrote yesterday that the company was one of five biotechnology stocks poised for growth.
On the downside
TheStreet Ratings affirmed its Hold rating on US Steel (NYSE: X).
TheStreet Ratings reiterated its Hold with a ratings score of C on Exelon (NYSE: EXC).
Shares of Quicksilver Resources (NYSE: KWK) continued falling after TheStreet Ratings downgraded the company to a Sell rating yesterday.
In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of nearly 5 to 4 on the NYSE and by nearly 7 to 5 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks rose 3 points to 763.
Wholesale Summer Headwear From Got Apparel - Owen Sound Sun Times
Visors
Visor is perhaps the first thing that comes to our head when planning to go out to play or watch a ball game. In situations when you want to feel light yet have eyes protected from sunrays, a visor fulfills the need. Visor is a very convenient headgear to keep sun from eyes and forehead. Professional and armature golfers wear visors as their signature style of being a golfer. Most visors are made of polyester and cotton to ensure comfort and practicality for the wearer.
Bandanas
Bandana is a popular piece of headgear. It’s a square or triangular piece of cloth worn on head for style and to protect head from beating sun. Bandanas are very popular among bikers and hikers. It helps them keeping their hair tied to avoid any distraction when ridding or doing any activity that demands full concentration. In fact many national sportsmen wear bandanas as an essential requirement for continuous performance in the field. Different colors of bandanas allow the wearer to make a unique fashion statement. It is one of the most popular headwear in the summer for youth and mature and people.
Baseball Caps
Baseball cap is the third most popular headwear in all seasons of the year. As the name suggests, the origin of these caps can be traced back to baseball caps. The uniqueness and popularity of the game allowed baseball cap to enter mainstream clothing and became a hot summer item. Baseball caps with a round crown and pointing brim make them very desirable for youngsters and the game lovers. Baseball caps, as a headwear, give the wearer a reliable protection from sun in summers. US Navy and US Coast Guards recognize this performance factor and have used baseball caps as an essential part of their uniforms. Baseball caps are also used by various notable armed and security forces around the world.
Summer headwear should be purchased knowing the functions of your preferred headwear and how it complements to your personal unique style. These three items of summer headwear go along with most styles and personalities with no compromise on the comfort summers demand.
Death of a village: faint voice tells of wholesale slaughter - The Age
Grim scene: Children lie covered in white sheets stained with red paint, mimicking blood, during a protest by peace campaigners in Beirut. Photo: Reuters
A survivor tells of 'family after family' being murdered by Assad loyalists. Ruth Sherlock reports from Beirut.
A survivor tells of 'family after family' being murdered by Assad loyalists. Ruth Sherlock reports from Beirut.
THE voice of Laith al-Hemary's brother whispered on the mobile phone: ''There are shouts and screams coming from outside. They are killing everyone they find.''
Then the line went dead. This was the last time Mr Hemary, 30, spoke to his brother before he was killed inside the family home in the Syrian hamlet of al-Qubayr on Wednesday.
He was among 78 victims believed to have died in a frenzied onslaught in the village, about 24 kilometres from the city of Hama. The full horror of the atrocity was disclosed in videos of mutilated children's bodies and charred corpses.
In a few hours, almost the entire population of al-Qubayr was massacred in what appears to have been one of the bloodiest incidents since the start of the Syrian uprising. Forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad were responsible, said opposition activists.
They said regular forces were working in tandem with a pro-government militia, known as shabiha, recruited largely from Mr Assad's minority Alawite sect.
The regime's troops began the attack with a heavy artillery barrage, said the activists. Then shabiha militiamen entered the hamlet armed with sticks, guns and knives.
They attacked homes and farmhouses, shooting and slaughtering all the inhabitants they could find.
Mr Hemary and his cousin were among only a handful of survivors.
''I could see thick smoke rising from Qubayr,'' he said. ''I called my brother constantly on the mobile. He was hiding in our home. He told me cars full of shabiha had come to the village and were attacking everyone and burning houses.''
At 5.10pm local time, three hours after the attack began, Mr Hemary's brother's voice died away and he stopped answering his calls.
Pushing open the door of his home several hours later, Mr Hemary found the bloodied bodies of his mother, three sisters and three brothers on the ground.
''They had been beaten on the head by sticks and stabbed with knives,'' he said. ''I went to other homes. I saw family after family slaughtered by knives.''
Another witness, Abu Hisham al-Hamawi, whose home is on the outskirts of al-Qubayr, said that minutes before the attack he witnessed shabiha militiamen from nearby Alawite villages pass by his home on their way to al-Qubayr.
''I knew some of them from school,'' he said. ''I know their names. I know their villages. I know exactly who they are. They are shabiha, no doubt.''
He said al-Qubayr had not been a politically active area during the 16-month Syrian uprising, nor had it been a stronghold of the Free Syrian Army, which continues to battle Syrian loyalist forces.
''This is a farming community,'' he said. ''They are very poor people, a lot of them are shepherds. There are only a few families in the village and all of them are now dead.''
Al-Qubayr is near four Alawite villages, placing it in the demographically sensitive heart of Syria's uprising. ''But we have never had a problem with them before now,'' said Mr Hamawi.
''We have not even had a relationship, or any tensions.''
A former soldier who joined the rebel Free Syrian Army said he reached the village within hours of the massacre but left quickly because government troops were still in the area. ''I went into houses and saw children without a head and others without arms,'' he said.
The number of victims could not be confirmed but people from the nearby village of Maarzaf said they had buried 57 corpses. A further 30 bodies were missing and had not yet been buried, said activists.
With almost no foreign reporters in Syria, the accounts cannot be independently verified.
TELEGRAPH, GUARDIAN
US wholesale stockpiles grew 0.6 percent in April - AP - msnbc.com
WASHINGTON — U.S. wholesale businesses restocked faster in April, responding to a strong gain in sales. The increase could be a good sign for economic growth in the April-June quarter.
The Commerce Department says stockpiles grew 0.6 percent at the wholesale level in April, double the March gain. Sales by wholesale businesses jumped 1.1 percent in April, nearly three times the March sales gain.
Stockpiles at the wholesale level stood at $483.5 billion in April. That's 25.6 percent above the post-recession low of $384.9 billion in September 2009.
It would take roughly five weeks to exhaust all wholesale stockpiles at the April sales pace. That's considered a healthy time frame and suggests businesses will keep restocking to meet demand.
When businesses step up restocking, they order more goods. That generally leads to increased factory production and higher economic growth.
Slower growth in inventories held back growth in the January-March quarter. In the first three months of this year, the economy grew at an annual rate of 1.9 percent.
The increase in wholesale inventories was bigger than economists had forecast. That could signal that inventory growth will pick up and boost economic growth in the April-June quarter.
But stockpile growth largely depends on the spending habits of U.S. consumers and businesses.
Weaker job creation in April and May could force some to scale back spending. And pay has risen just 1.7 percent over the past 12 months. That's slower than the rate of inflation for that period.
Sluggish job growth and weak pay raises threaten to drag on consumer spending, which would weaken growth. Consumer spending accounts for 70 percent of economic activity.
One positive change: Gas prices have tumbled since early April. That could give Americans more money to spend on appliances, vacations and other discretionary purchases.
Many businesses cut back on restocking last summer fearing that the economy was on the verge of another recession. When it became clear that it wasn't, they raced to rebuild stockpiles and keep pace with consumer demand.
Stockpiles at the wholesale level account for about 27 percent of total business inventories. Stockpiles held by retailers make up about one-third of the total. Manufacturing inventories represent about 40 percent of the total.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
U.S. April Wholesale Inventories Rise 0.6%, Sales Climb 1.1% - Businessweek
Inventories at U.S. wholesalers rose in April at a faster pace than the prior month as companies strove to keep unsold goods in line with demand.
The 0.6 percent gain in stockpiles followed a 0.3 percent increase in March, the Commerce Department reported today in Washington. Sales climbed 1.1 percent in April after rising 0.4 percent a month earlier.
Moderating economic growth combined with a global slowdown may encourage companies to refrain from building up inventories in anticipation of a pickup in sales. Wholesalers had goods on hand to last 1.17 months at the current sales pace, unchanged from the prior month.
“We’re in an uncertain situation with everything going on in Europe,” Jay Bryson, senior global economist at Wells Fargo Securities LLC in Charlotte, North Carolina, said before the report. “You don’t want to be building a lot of inventory. If things don’t turn out really badly and we continue to grow, businesses will wake up.”
The median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of 28 economists called for a 0.4 percent gain. Forecasts ranged from no change to an increase of 1.1 percent.
Wholesalers make up about 30 percent of all business stockpiles. Factory inventories, which comprise about 38 percent of the total, were little changed in April after a 0.1 percent rise, the Commerce Department said on June 4. Retail stockpiles, which make up the rest, will be included in the June 13 business inventory report.
Durable Goods
Wholesalers’ inventories of durable goods, or those meant to last several years, rose 1.1 percent, today’s report showed. Sales of durable goods increased 0.1 percent, led by car sales, which jumped 3.8 percent.
Stockpiles of non-durable goods fell 0.1 in April following a 0.6 percent decline in March.
Stockpiles contributed less to economic growth in the first three months of 2012 than in the fourth quarter. The world’s largest economy expanded at a 1.9 percent annual rate in the first quarter, slower than the fourth quarter’s 3 percent pace. Stockpiles contributed 0.21 percentage point to gross domestic product during the period, down from 1.81 percentage points in the final three months of 2011.
Customers remain cautious, said Tim Johnson, senior vice president of Big Lots Inc. (BIG) (BIG), a Columbus, Ohio, retailer that sells excess and closeout goods.
“We still see a consumer out there who is making some tough choices,” Johnson said at a June 5 conference. “We think there is still a little bit of anxiety, a little bit of caution on the part of the consumer.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Lorraine Woellert in Washington at lwoellert@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Christopher Wellisz at cwellisz@bloomberg.net
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