Casino operators Las Vegas Sand (LVS.N) and Genting Singapore paid the Singapore government $420 million in levies and taxes in the seven months to end-November 2010, a cabinet minister said on Tuesday.
“While the IRs have brought in new revenues, collections from other gaming activities such as lotteries, horse and sports betting and fruit machines operated by clubs have fallen,” Second Minister for Finance Lim Hwee Hua told Parliament.
Total bank lending rose 1.7% to $318.5 billion in November from $313.3 billion in October, central bank data showed on Friday. Housing loans to consumers rose 1.7% to $110.9 billion from $109.1 billion in October.
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Visitor arrivals to Singapore in November rose 16.1% from a year earlier to 963,000, the highest figure ever recorded for the month of November, the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) said on Thursday.
The number was, however, lower than October’s 978,000 visitors as well as the record 1.1 million achieved in July.
LIVEPHISH.COM OFFERING FREE MP3 DOWNLOADS OF
11/18 PRINCETON PERFORMANCE WITH
THE
SCORCHIO QUINTET
 Trey Anastasio |
As of this morning, fans can head over to LivePhish.com and grab a
free download of Trey
Anastasio and The Scorchio Quintet, live from Richardson
Auditorium in
Princeton, New Jersey on November 18.
A few songs from the performance are missing, including “Love Is Freedom,” “Water in the Sky,” and a new Trey
Anastasio/Amanda Green song called “Julie.” The files are only available in Mp3 format for now. Check out
the tracklisting below.
Tracklisting
1. Summer of ’89
2. Divided Sky
3. Greyhound Rising
4. Bar 17
5. Gone
6. Stash
7. Flock of Words
8. Strange Design
9. Wolfman’s Brother
10. Let Me Lie
A decline in the growth rate of Singapore’s exports isn’t worrying as it comes after the stronger-than-expected expansion last month while 2010 growth still looks to be robust, says CIMB economist Song Seng Wun; government data show November non-oil exports rise 10% on-year compared with 34.5% in October.
The number is less than half of the 22.8% expansion forecast in a Dow Jones poll of economists.
Shares of Singapore Airlines <SIAL.SI>, the world’s second-biggest carrier by market value, fell as much as 1.6% this morning after it said it filled less space available on its planes for passengers and cargo in November, traders said.
The airline’s overall load factor in November was 70.1%, lower than the 71.1% recorded in October, and November 2009′s 72.3%.
UOB KayHian downgrades Singapore Airlines (C6L.SG) to Hold from Buy and cuts its target price to $15.90 from $18.00 after the carrier’s November passenger traffic growth was a "dismal" 1.1% on year.
"For the past two months, growth averaged 0.3% and 4Q is a traditional peak period for SIA. This number does not lend much confidence to SIA’s growth prospects."
Singapore Airlines (SIAL.SI), the world’s second-biggest carrier by market value, said on Wednesday it filled 70.1% of the space available on its planes for passengers and cargo last month.
The figure was lower than the 71.1% recorded in October, and November 2009’s 72.3%.
Demand for private homes in Singapore remains strong, based on just-released official data showing developers sold 1,909 new units in November, 80.4% more vs October’s 1,058. For the first 11 months of 2010, 15,018 units were sold, beating the 2007 high of 14,811.
“The momentum will certainly continue as a lot of developers view the release of land by the government as an opportunity to buy,” says an analyst from a foreign house; but expects firm demand to result in more housing-market curbs, which would continue to weigh on shares of developers.
Singapore’s Neptune Orient Lines (NEPS.SI) (NOL), the world’s sixth-largest container shipping firm, carried 6% more containers in the four weeks to Nov 12 compared with a year ago.
NOL said in a statement it shipped the equivalent of 220,800 40-foot containers (FEU) on its vessels in the period, up from 208,000 a year earlier, due mainly to higher volumes carried on the intra-Asia and Asia-Europe trade lanes.
The average revenue in the period from each container was $3,649, up 25% from the year ago period.
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Web pundits are lining up to sound the death knell for Google TV, the marriage between Web- and channel-surfing that spawned some pricey hardware products from Logitech and Sony. TechCrunch noted that Sony has dropped the price of its Google TV-enabled Blu-ray player from $399 to $299. PC Magazine learned Sony also pared its Google TV set prices. The 46-inch, Google TV-enabled Sony TV is now $1,199, down $200. The 40-inch set is available for $898, a $100 discount.<br><br>
Its been almost 10 years since the 911 emergency service has been updated, but according to several news sources, the FCC is proposing a few more changes. First, the new system would allow people in need of urgent assistance to contact 911 via text message or video streamlined directly from their mobile phones. About 70 percent of 911 callers are dialing from their cell phones, so the move makes perfect sense.<br><br>
For those of you who just cant get enough of Apple and were hoping to take home the Steve Jobs doll this holiday season, well, youll have to settle for the Apple iPad instead. Apples law firm has ordered the Chinese Manufacturer M.I.C. Gadget to cease production of their action figure immediately, claiming the company has not consented to the use of Apples copyrights and trademarks. M.I.C. Gadget had created and sold out its first production run of 300 dolls.<br><br>
Christmas is the season of giving, and Hollywood is hoping you also give back this holiday season. A few of your favorite celebrities are actually dying a little for the cause, including Kim Kardashian, Lady Gaga, Justin Timberlake, and Dave Chappelle, to name a few. And by dying, I mean each celebrity will be sacrificing their digital lives meaning theyll be giving up Facebook and Twitter. And in order to get them back, fans will have to collectively donate $1 million. Sounds a little crazy, right? Well, Wednesday also happens to be World AIDS day, and all proceeds will benefit Alicia Keys charity, Keep A Child Alive, which finances medical care and support services for children and families affected by HIV/AIDS in Africa and India.
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Singapore shares may open a tad lower on Tuesday after main Wall Street indices slipped overnight on concerns Europe’s credit woes may spread despite an agreement to bailout Ireland. Singapore’s benchmark Straits Times Index <.FTSTI> ended flat on Monday at 3,158.21 points. Here are some stocks and factors to watch, say Bloomberg and Thomson Reuters:
1972: Pong, the first popular videogame, is released in its original arcade-game form.
If it seems crude by today’s standards, well, it was crude then, too. And it was meant to be. Pong was the brainchild of Nolan Bushnell, a founder of Atari, who was inspired to develop it after playing an electronic table-tennis game at [...]
Singapore shares may see a weak start on Monday after Wall Street fell on Friday, but news of an 85 billion euro ($148.6 billion) rescue package for Ireland may lend some support. Singapore’s benchmark Straits Times Index <.FTSTI> fell 0.04% on Friday to 3,158.08 points, say Bloomberg and Thomson Reuters.
Palm-oil producers: Crude palm oil for February delivery slipped 0.1% in Kuala Lumpur on Nov. 26, snapping its two-day 5.1% advance. Golden Agri-Resources (GGR SP), the world’s second- biggest palm-oil producer, dropped 0.7% to 73.5 cents. Indofood Agri Resources (IFAR SP), the palm-oil unit of Indonesia’s largest noodle maker, declined 3.3% to $2.66. Wilmar International (WIL SP), the world’s No. 1 palm-oil trader, was unchanged at $6.08.
Singapore shares may open a tad higher on Friday as global markets edged up, but trading is likely to be quiet as US markets were closed overnight for the Thanksgiving holiday. Singapore’s benchmark Straits Times Index <.FTSTI> rose 0.71% on Thursday to 3,159.23 points.
Here are some stocks and factors to watch, say Bloomberg and Thomson Reuters:
Shares of Sabana REIT (SABA.SI), which owns industrial properties, makes its Singapore market debut after raising about $491 million in an initial public offering that was 2.5 times subscribed.
Singapore shares may open higher today after Wall Street rallied overnight, as investors put aside worries about swirling global problems and focused on an improvement in the labour market and consumer sentiment. The following companies may have unusual price changes in Singapore trading today, say Bloomberg and Thomson Reuters. Share prices are from the previous close. Singapore’s Straits Times Index gained 0.3% to 3,137.01.
Palm-oil producers: Crude palm oil for February delivery rose 1.7% in Kuala Lumpur yesterday, snapping its two-day drop of 6.3%. Golden Agri-Resources (GGR SP), the world’s second- biggest palm-oil producer, advanced 3.7% to 71 cents. Indofood Agri Resources (IFAR SP), the palm-oil unit of Indonesia’s biggest noodle maker, jumped 4.7% to $2.65. Wilmar International (WIL SP), the world’s largest palm-oil trader, rose 0.2% to $6.03.
Apple has released an update for its devices. The new iOS 4.2 boasts features such as AirPrint, which allows wireless printing for the iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch, in addition to stronger security and device-management capabilities. On the consumer side, iOS 4.2 offers AirPlay, which allows an Apple mobile device to stream multimedia to an Apple TV or supported speakers. And lastly theres Game Center, which turns the various i-Devices into a multiplayer-centric gaming platform, matching players to new opponents and displaying top scores; Google has just released Google Cloud Connect for Microsoft Office to help users build Office documents, save them to Google Docs and share them with other users. The Cloud Connect plug-in is Google’s attempt to bridge the gap between Office and Docs; On-demand sales performance management (SPM) provider Xactly announced that Xactly Express is now available on Force.com, Salesforce.coms enterprise cloud computing platform. Xactly can now provide small to medium-size business customers the incentive compensation management functionality of Xactly Express on a comprehensive Cloud 2 foundation, regardless of whether the customer is currently a Salesforce CRM user. Xactly Express is available for test drive and deployment on AppExchange 2, according to a company release; Business people will attest to the fact that when you’re in a time crunch, there are few things more important than finding a parking place preferably an inexpensive one when you really need it. Well, IBM thinks that solving that problem is important enough to award its highest honor for innovation to a California-based startup, Streetline, which does exactly that. Big Blue on Nov. 18 named Streetline the winner of its Global Entrepreneur of the Year award. The finals of the international IBM SmartCamps competition were held in Dublin, where the company has a large development and manufacturing facility.
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1903: Clyde J. Coleman is issued a patent for an electric automobile starter.
Coleman originally applied for the patent in 1899, but his early designs proved impractical. The need for this kind of starter for an internal combustion engine was obvious. Automobiles were getting larger, and hand-cranking — the method used to get the pistons moving [...]
Save the Date: Susan Boyle — whose gone from Scottish cat lady to global pop star faster than you can say “Hairy Angel!” — has been booked for her first guest appearance on the The View, ABC said this week. It’s no Oprah, but not a bad gig, SuBo! The Britain’s Got Talent runner-up, 49, [...]
Weekend Comment Nov 26: In the mood for an IPO?
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