Latest News

Goldman set to finance an Extended Stay bid

2010-11-14T00:19:00.001-08:00

It would provide the financing for the bidding group led by Starwood Capital Group, the paper said.

Starwood's group has agreed to invest USD 905 million in Extended Stay, and is bidding against a team led by investment companies Centerbridge Partners and Paulson & Co.

An investor group led by David Lichtenstein's Lightstone Group bought Extended Stay in June 2007. Extended Stay was forced into bankruptcy last year after its projected cash flows declined amid the recession and it could not keep servicing more than USD 7 billion in debt.

Goldman was not immediately available for comment. Starwood declined comment.

Stocks rise, dollar falls to kick off week after finance leaders pledge to balance trade

2010-11-14T00:18:00.000-08:00

NEW YORK (AP) - Stocks rose Monday after world finance leaders pledged to better balance global trade.

But with no concrete plans in place to avoid a currency war in the future, the dollar resumed its fall Monday. The weaker dollar is helping drive stocks and commodities higher as the cheaper currency makes them more attractive investments.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose nearly 65 points in afternoon trading. The Dow is again approaching its highest closing level of the year. Stocks extended their gains slightly after a report showed a bigger-than-expected jump in sales of existing homes.

The National Association of Realtors said sales of previously occupied homes rose 10 percent last month. However, sales remain extremely weak compared with where they were just a year ago, which is likely keeping enthusiasm over the news in check.

Shaun Ahmad, president of capital markets at mortgage investment firm RoundPoint Financial Group, said anytime sales jump more than expected, it is a positive sign for the housing market.

However, he added, expectations are very low right now and "there's a significant housing overhang." Home sales won't climb back to more historical levels until a large inventory of homes can be sold, Ahmad said.

Homebuilders rose after Monday's report, including Toll Brothers Inc. and D.R. Horton Inc. Toll shares rose 11 cents to $18.51. D.R. Horton rose 16 cents to $10.77.

The Dow rose 63.92, or 0.6 percent, to 11,196.48 in afternoon trading.

For the second time in the past week, the Dow eclipsed its highest closing level this year only to quickly pullback. It closed at 11,205.03 on April 26. If the Dow can finish above that level Monday, it would be its highest close since September 2008 — just before the credit crisis sent the market tumbling.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 6.26, or 0.5 percent, to 1,189.34, while the Nasdaq composite index rose 17.59, or 0.7 percent, to 2,496.98.

Bond prices rose slightly, sending interest rates lower. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which moves opposite its price, fell to 2.54 percent from 2.56 percent late Friday.

Gold rose $13.80 to $1,338.90 an ounce. Oil rose 10 cents to $81.79.

AOL and Michael Eisner’s Vuguru Team Up To Create Original Content for AOL

2010-11-12T07:04:00.000-08:00

(NYSE: AOL) and Vuguru, an independent studio that finances world-class story-driven content for digital and emerging platforms, today announced that Vuguru will develop and produce a minimum of six original scripted series for distribution by AOL. The partnership is part of AOL’s strategy to provide high-quality content and engaging video experiences for its millions of users. This announcement further demonstrates AOL’s commitment to the fast-emerging video space, and its conviction that online viewers value quality.

Founded by Michael Eisner, who served as Chairman & CEO of The Walt Disney Company for more than two decades after presiding over Paramount Pictures and before that, helping to take the ABC network from number three to number one in primetime, Vuguru is an ideal partner for AOL to help drive well-produced, compelling entertainment content across the Web.

"Until now, there’s been a gap in the online video consumer experience between user-generated video and the high production values of TV and film" said Tim Armstrong, Chairman and CEO of AOL. "In joining forces with Vuguru and other premier studios and production companies, AOL is uniquely able to bridge that gap by bringing top quality, original video to the millions of users who come to our site each day. The magical combination of AOL’s impressive reach with one of the most visionary content creators will help us become a market leader in this largely untapped space"

Eisner expressed, "The Internet’s next growth phase will be powered by professional, high-quality, story-driven content and the key to success is delivering that content to as many users as possible. With AOL’s best-in-breed distribution strength, I couldn’t have asked for a better partner to help reach that goal" Added Vuguru’s President Larry Tanz, "AOL’s significant commitment to premium video content is inspiring to Vuguru which is equally focused on the same"

Original Online Programming Promises to Set "New Bar"

Vuguru will develop and produce a minimum of six high-quality, scripted video series over the next year, with AOL as its launch partner in the U.S.

With production values that far exceed the production costs, the six shows will set a new bar for original online entertainment. Each project will be produced as a continuous story of approximately 90 minutes in length with cliff-hangers or natural breaks so that they can be segmented for episodic distribution. The shows will be professionally written and produced and feature talent consistent with the caliber of Vuguru and AOL.

Partners Join Forces to Maximize Audience Engagement

In addition to rethinking the way that high-quality video content is produced and delivered, the deal is unique in that AOL and Vuguru will work together to package and sell these productions to maximize audience engagement and advertiser interest. Joining forces in this way will also help the two companies take advantage of the widely accepted industry rule that video monetizes at four times the value of traditional online content.

AOL is investing considerably in video and it’s paying off. In the past 3 months, video playbacks on the AOL network have grown 90%* Additionally, AOL acquired 5Min Media which had nearly 23 million unique viewers and more than 140 million video streams (including ad and content videos) in the U.S. in September 2010**. The company’s recently announced original video franchises are performing well. "You’ve Got" the video feature that launched on the new AOL.com November 1st, generated more than 2M playbacks in its first week.*** For comparison, that puts "You’ve Got" on-pace with a top 10 web series****.

About AOL
AOL Inc. (NYSE: AOL) is a leading global Web services company with an extensive suite of brands and offerings and a substantial worldwide audience. AOL’s business spans online content, products and services that the company offers to consumers, publishers and advertisers. AOL is focused on attracting and engaging consumers and providing valuable online advertising services on both AOL’s owned and operated properties and third-party websites. In addition, AOL operates one of the largest Internet subscription access services in the United States, which serves as a valuable distribution channel for AOL’s consumer offerings.

About Vuguru LLC
Vuguru LLC is an independent studio that develops and finances scripted, story-driven content for digital and international platforms. Founded by Michael Eisner’s Tornante Company and backed by Canada’s Rogers Media, the studio brings premium content opportunities to advertisers and distribution partners, enabling them to connect with target audiences. Vuguru’s inaugural series Prom Queen pioneered the online serial space with its unique format and distribution. Follow-up series have included Prom Queen: Summer Heat, Sam Has 7 Friends, The All-For-Nots, Foreign Body and two seasons of the Emmy-nominated Back on Topps. Vuguru programming has been distributed in over 40 countries around the world.

*Internal Data
**comScore September 2010 Video Metrix.
***Internal Data
****source: http://www.visiblemeasures.com/mashable

Google Inc Target Price Set To $725

2010-11-12T06:42:00.001-08:00

Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) stock has been on a roll lately, and that development has been noticed by analysts at Macquarie. That firm today say they have initiated coverage on “GOOG” with a rating of “Outperform.” The firm set its target price to $725 per share.

Google shares are currently trading for $615.76 per share, down slightly for the day. Google stock is on a roll because Google, Inc. remain on a roll. One area of growth for Google is India. Google plans on doubling its engineering headcount in India, said the newspaper. Google plans on hiring a total of 300 engineers in India. This move will double its engineering headcount in the country, the Economic Times said.

Google has to fight hard to keep its employees. According to theWall Street Journal, as competitors attempt to pick off its employees, Google is taking steps to hold onto them, including yesterday’s announcement of a 10% across the board pay raise for everyone at Google. The company continues to hire new employees and make acquisitions, said the Wall Street Journal.

Kaufman Bros remains bullish on Google stock. That firm says that Google CPC gains appear to have accelerated in October 2010. After Efficient Frontier’s data indicated that Google’s CPC rose 22% year-over-year last month, up from 11% in Q3, Kaufman Bros. has more confidence in its Q4 estimates for Google. The firm said it expects the company’s pay increases to pressure 2011 EPS by 6%, but it maintains its Buy rating and $650 target on shares of GOOG.

One bit of negative news that relates to Google today comes from Fox. Fox has said “no way” to Google TV, according to CNet. News Corp (NYSE:NWS) is reportedly following in the steps of NBC, CBS ( and ABC with its decision to block full episodes of its shows from appearing on Google TV, said the website. Multiple sources indicated that executives at Fox didn’t reject the platform as soon as the other networks because it was evaluating the offering, which allows users to view Web content and video on their home TVs. One source says Fox felt Google’s “footprint was too small.”

Google Product Ads Available To All Advertisers

2010-11-12T06:41:00.000-08:00

Google Product Ads are now being offered to all advertisers over the coming week. They are a way for advertisers to give Google a feed of products, have images of those products appear in the ads, and to pay on a cost-per-acquisition basis.

Google has been offering the ads since last year, in a closed beta test involving about 800 advertisers. Now, anyone will be able to take part in the program. Advertisers see the option appearing within their accounts, some beginning today and everyone should have it by the end of the week.

The company expanded how often they appeared toward the end of last year. The ads are especially notable in that they show images of products. In the example below, you can see “traditional” AdWords that lack images at the top, while the arrow points to the new format:

In a roundtable discussion with the press today at Google, where I’m currently at, Google provided an update about the ads. Some highlights:

They’re designed to be purchased on a CPA basis, where you pay only when a product is actually sold. However, CPC (cost-per-click pricing) is allowed.
They’re designed for merchants to put in a product feed, and Google will automatically use that to trigger the ads against keywords it determines.
One CPA price for all products can be given, or advertisers can set different CPA pricing for different products.
Advertisers can pay on a percentage basis (IE, Google might get, say, 5% of a sale — or 2% – or 20%, whatever you set) ~~or set cost basis (Google might get $2 per sale, $5 per sale, $20 per sale, etc)~~. Added: Google has contacted us to clarify that only percentage basis is available for CPA ads.

Important point: only “managed advertisers,” larger accounts with ad reps, can bid on a CPA basis. Otherwise, they have to pay on a CPC basis.

Google has a blog post appearing any moment on this, and I’ll link over when it appears. I’ll also add some additional details, but we’re all being kicked out of the roundtable room right now. :)

Google will Now Dominate "cost per action" Affiliate Marketing

2010-11-12T06:36:00.000-08:00

Summary

Yes, AdWords is dying and mobile is ramping up. But Google has already moved and will soon dominate cost-per-action (retail/sales & leads) affiliate marketing.Google is tapping a totally new revenue stream. And ValueClick's Commission Junction unit will suffer. As will advertisers not working with Google's Google Affiliate Network will be compelled to make a switch.

Analysis

Even in times that weren't that tough, Google has made moves to bite the hands that have fed it. Namely, cost-per-action (CPA) affiliates. All as Google finds new ways to serve the changing appetites of small and large advertisers who want sales (retailers) or business leads. And Google isn't slowing down.

In a little-known move, Google created its own mortgage comparison shopping "super affiliate" in late 2009 . But today we find Google on track to dominate a market that just three years ago it had no offering in.

Cost-per-acquisition/action (sale/lead) marketing. It's doing so using its control over Web search -- which it dominates obviously. And it's just as big as the Geo/Local opportunity in my estimation. Consider how the pay for performance model is even more appealing to advertisers when they pay **only on a sale or lead**. (not clicks)

Here's an explanation of what Google is now doing for its Google Affiliate Network advertisers and why it's so huge:

Google is now offering *preferred* search ad placement and superior search ad terms to the advertisers who agree to use Google Affiliate Network (GAN). Google is literally inserting product images of GAN advertisers' products into the space occupied by cost-per-click AdWords ads. Yes, actual product images (making them cost-per-action 'display' advertisements) that appear where (formerly)*only* cost-per-click AdSense advertisements are running.

Ever see that before? We haven't. And that's what makes this a sizable shift -- for non-GAN advertisers (ie. those working with VCLK's CJ unit), GAN advertisers and, of course, Google.

Google is tapping a totally new revenue stream. It's literally becoming, itself, an affiliate of its advertisers. And placing ads directly in AdWords results slots. Of course, it does this with the endorsement of its advertisers.

And here's where it gets rich for Google: Many of Google's advertisers (if not all) are competing with their own cost-per-click/Adwords campaigns in the same space. They're participating in AdWords.

Confused? Don't be: Just continue to pay Google even if you're slowing down your cost-per-click AdWords spending.

Indeed, pay Google an inflated cost-per-click price since Google itself (through the GAN division) is now competing for search terms with other advertisers. The price of that limited amount of space, in Google's auction, now goes up... for all advertisers competing for that search term.

Hence, although the AdWords market is slowing down Google can prop it up -- with demand it creates for itself.

Competing affiliate networks like Commission Junction (a Valueclick company) can't match these benefits. In fact, Google's "bundling" strategy threatens to give Google a position of power in yet another online advertising market. CPA affiliate marketing.

So while I appreciate the Geo/Local market representing an opportunity the new "GAN aspect" is also worth mentioning.

Jefferies Initiates Coverage On Aetna (AET)

2010-11-12T06:23:00.001-08:00

Jefferies & Co. is initiating coverage on Aetna Inc. (NYSE: AET) with a Hold rating and a $33 price target on shares.

In a note to clients, Jefferies writes, "Historically, the four national, diversified MCOs (UNH, WLP, AET, CI) have been the most aggressive companies to repurchase their stock. We expect management teams will continue to view stock repurchase as a way of indirectly returning capital to shareholders. Some companies prefer this method since the investor can choose when to recognize gains for tax purposes. Many companies are also more hesitant to initiate a dividend since it locks a company into a cash outflow commitment. UNH has been an early mover in raising its dividend to a meaningful level. We anticipate that others may follow suit, but companies' willingness to be aggressive on dividends will also be limited by political scrutiny."

Shares of AET lost 8 cents yesterday to close at $31.83.

Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades (AET, MO, BBBY, BA, CLWR, ETN, HUM, MPEL, NVDA, ZQK, RSG, HOT, UNH, WM, WSM) Read more: Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades (AET, MO, BBBY, BA, CLWR, ETN, HUM, MPEL, NVDA, ZQK, RSG, HOT, UNH, WM, WSM) - 24/7 Wall St. http://247wallst.com/2010/11/12/top-analyst-upgrades-and-downgrades-aet-mo-bbby-ba-clwr-etn-hum-mpel-nvda-zqk-rsg-hot-unh-wm-wsm/#ixzz154sWbUqS

2010-11-12T06:22:00.000-08:00

These are some of this Friday’s key analyst upgrades, downgrades, and initiations seen in Wall Street research calls.

Aetna Inc. (NYSE: AET) Started as Hold at Jefferies.

Altria Group Inc. (NYSE: MO) Cut to Hold at Citigroup.
Bed Bath & Beyond, Inc. (NASDAQ: BBBY) Started as Neutral at Robert W. Baird.
Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA) Cut to Market Perform at Bernstein.
Clearwire Corporation (NASDAQ: CLWR) Raised to Neutral at BofA/Merrill Lynch.
Eaton Corp. (NYSE: ETN) Raised to Conviction Buy List at Goldman Sachs.
Humana Inc. (NYSE: HUM) Started At Hold By Jefferies
Melco Crown Entertainment Ltd. (NASDAQ: MPEL) Raised to Buy at Daiwa.
MetLife, Inc. (NYSE: MET) Cut to Equal-weight at Morgan Stanley.
NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ: NVDA) Raised to Buy at Needham.
Quiksilver Inc. (NYSE: ZQK) Cut to Underperform at FBR.
Republic Services, Inc. (NYSE: RSG) Started as Outperform at William Blair.
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. (NYSE: HOT) Started as Neutral at Janney.
UnitedHealth Group, Inc. (NYSE: UNH) Started as Hold at Jefferies.
Waste Management, Inc. (NYSE: WM) Started as Outperform at William Blair.
Williams-Sonoma Inc. (NYSE: WSM) Started as Outperform at Robert W. Baird.

You can join our free daily email distribution list to hear more about dividend trends, analyst upgrades and downgrades, top day trader and active trader alerts, news on Buffett and other investment gurus, IPOs, secondary offerings, private equity, and more.

LOOK FOR SHARES OF UNITEDHEALTH TO POTENTIALLY PULLBACK AFTER YESTERDAY'S 0.83% RISE (UNH)

2010-11-12T06:16:00.000-08:00

Nov 12, 2010 (SmarTrend(R) News Watch via COMTEX) -- UnitedHealth (NYSE:UNH) traded in a range yesterday that spanned from a low of $36.74 to a high of $37.50. Yesterday, the shares gained 0.83%, which took the trading range above the 3-day high of $37.28 on volume of 5.4 million shares. Often times after large one-day gains, short term traders will seek to take profits and, as such, investors should be cautious.

Shares of UnitedHealth are currently trading above their 50-day moving average (MA) of $35.40 and above their 200-day MA of $32.43. Look for the MA to provide support for a short-term pullback in the shares.

SmarTrend currently has shares of UnitedHealth in an Uptrend and issued the Uptrend alert on September 13, 2010 at $34.97. The stock has risen 6.3% since the Uptrend alert was issued.

SmarTrend has the shares in an Uptrend and expects the share price to pullback toward the $37.28 support level. Afterwards, we expect it to move upward with its peers in the SmarTrend Health Care Plans industry.SmarTrend analyzes over 5,000 securities simultaneously throughout the trading day and provides its subscribers with trend change alerts in real time. To get a free trial of our trading calls and maximize your trading results, please visithttp://www.mysmartrend.com

Swiss Shipper Finds Resistance Futile in U.S. Bribery Probe

2010-11-12T02:06:00.000-08:00

Congress should clarify ambiguities in the law that â??have had a chilling effectâ?? on U.S. businesses, some of which have â??ceased foreign operations rather than face the uncertainties of FCPA enforcement,â?? the institute said in a paper last month.

Michael Koehler, an assistant professor of business law at Butler University in Indiana, assails settlements reached without judges having input on questions such as whether employees of state-owned companies are foreign officials. Many instances of â??clear-cut bribery,â?? as in Siemens, are resolved through lesser books-and-records or internal controls charges, he said.â??Egregious Casesâ??â??The most egregious cases are not being resolved under the FCPAâ??s anti-bribery provisions,â?? said Koehler, who writes the FCPA Professor blog. â??These untested and dubious legal theories have increased the compliance burden on companies.â??The Sarbanes-Oxley Act, passed in 2002, added to the burden with tougher standards for internal controls. Companies also faced more exposure to FCPA charges as businesses expanded internationally.The U.S. and 37 other countries are fighting transnational bribery through the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.FCPA enforcement is a rising priority at the Justice Department, where about 15 lawyers work full-time on probes and another 30 to 40 handle them part-time. The SEC has assigned more than 30 lawyers to FCPA cases, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation has an entire squad of agents on foreign anti- bribery cases.FBI AgentsA typical corporate probe involves a couple of prosecutors and FBI agents working with lawyers and accountants hired by a company, said Steven Tyrrell, a former Justice Department fraud section chief whoâ??s now at Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP.â??Law firms and companies set out to see how big their problem is so they can then figure out the appropriate way to proceed with the government,â?? Tyrrell said.Companies often voluntarily disclose internal probes to the Justice Department and turn over documents, e-mails and employee interviews to prosecutors. They would rather do their own investigations than have a grand jury bring in subpoenaed witnesses, said Peter Clark, who prosecuted the first FCPA cases during his 25 years at the Justice Department.â??The government isnâ??t going to tell you what occurs in a grand jury,â?? said Clark, now at Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP. â??In an internal investigation, the companyâ??s lawyers are interviewing employees and agents, and the company is able to have a full view of whatâ??s being learned.â??German RaidAfter German authorities raided Siemens in 2006, the company helped prosecutors unravel years of bribery around the world while overhauling its corporate culture. Two years later, Siemens admitted funneling $806 million in bribes to foreign officials from 2001 to 2007 through direct payments, slush funds, shell companies and cash-stuffed suitcases.Two subsidiaries pleaded guilty in the U.S. to anti-bribery charges, with Siemens and a third unit admitting internal controls violations. In paying $1.6 billion to U.S. and German authorities, Siemens avoided an FCPA bribery conviction that would have barred it from public contracts in the European Union.Siemens, with 475,000 workers in 190 countries, oversaw an internal probe with interviews of 1,750 workers and reviews of 82 million electronic documents and 38 million financial transactions.Compliance ProgramUnder its plea agreement, Siemens hired a monitor for four years to oversee its compliance program. Monitors are often imposed in so-called deferred prosecution agreements, where prosecutors file criminal charges they agree to withdraw after a period if the company meets required improvements in governance and compliance.The Justice Department reached deferred prosecution agreements, or DPAs, in at least 23 cases since 2005 and non- prosecution agreements with financial penalties, or NPAs, in 13 cases. The department doesnâ??t say how many cases it declines to prosecute.An internal investigation can help move prosecutors â??from believing a conviction is necessary to believing that a DPA or an NPA or even a declination may be appropriate,â?? said Denis McInerney, chief of the departmentâ??s fraud section.â??And we absolutely do decline on cases,â?? he said.The Justice Department uses a nine-step guide on business prosecutions in deciding how to resolve cases. The criteria include the seriousness of the crimes, a companyâ??s history of wrongdoing, its willingness to cooperate, the extent of compliance programs, and the harm that charges would bring to employees and others. Prosecutors use federal sentencing guidelines to set fines.Angola, AzerbaijanIn the Panalpina case, the company admitted bribing government officials in Angola, Azerbaijan, Brazil, Kazakhstan, Nigeria, Russia and Turkmenistan. The bribes from 2002 to 2007 let its clients, most in the oil and oil-services business, avoid the customs process, pass off phony documents or smuggle contraband including medicines and explosives, Panalpina said in a statement of facts.After an â??initial reluctance to cooperateâ?? in 2007, the internal probe included â??a comprehensive review of operations in nine countriesâ?? and a â??detailed review of 102 additional issues in another 36 countries,â?? according to a memo filed in federal court in Houston by prosecutors and Panalpina.Transparency CriticsThe OECDâ??s Working Group on Bribery criticized the Justice Department for failing to make clearer the thinking behind deferred-prosecution or non-prosecution agreements.â??Publishing more detailed reasons for entering in DPAs and NPAs would give more insight into the DOJâ??s choice of settlement agreements and thus enhance accountability and transparency of the process,â?? OECD said in a report last month.Lawyers who defend companies in FCPA cases also say the department doesnâ??t offer clear benefits for companies that voluntarily disclose wrongdoing.

Some general counsels and boards of directors have questioned whether it makes sense to disclose wrongdoing that the Justice Department might not otherwise uncover, said Robert Tarun of Baker & McKenzie LLP.

â??A number of really quality companies will ask off-the- record if itâ??s really worth it for our company to completely do an investigation, fully cooperate, and still get a fine within the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines range when the U.S. might never be able to prove any of the allegations,â?? Tarun said.â??Extraordinaryâ?? Resourcesâ??The DOJ and SEC could spend 10 years on some of these cases where companies have cooperated to track down evidence in foreign jurisdictions,â?? Tarun said. â??The resources that have been expended through deputized lawyers is extraordinary.â??

Why Oil Could Top $100 a Barrel

2010-11-12T01:47:00.000-08:00

Oil prices have hovered around $78 a barrel most of the year, providing little excitement as other commodities, including copper, gold, and cotton, have enjoyed record runups. Global economic growth has not been brisk enough to drive up oil demand substantially, U.S. inventories have been ample, and the Saudis have been pumping enough to guarantee a plentiful supply.
A change in the oil markets may now be upon us. Crude may climb past $100 next year as central banks pump cash into their economies to revive growth, predict JPMorgan Chase JPM and Bank of America Merrill Lynch BC. The Federal Reserve's decision to buy $600 billion of Treasuries from commercial banks should lower U.S. interest rates and weaken the dollar further. Investors may turn increasingly to oil and other commodities to get a decent return.

The Federal Reserve's actions are "likely to push prices upwards," says Antoine M. Halff, head of energy research at Newedge USA in New York and former principal administrator at the International Energy Agency. "The past few years have shown that the more cheap money in the system, the more money flows into commodities, in particular energy." Since the start of September, oil prices have climbed 17 percent, to a recent $86.96.

Oil analysts are also watching OPEC for signs of its intent. Cartel members may seek a higher price as the depreciation of the greenback erodes the profitability of their dollar-denominated exports. Saudi Arabia's Oil Minister, Ali Al-Naimi, said in Singapore on Nov. 1 that a range of $70 to $90 a barrel should be satisfactory for consumers. The kingdom had previously indicated a target of $75 a barrel. "Al-Naimi spoke of a $70-to-$90 range for the first time," says Francisco Blanch, head of global commodity research at Bank of America Merrill Lynch Global Research in New York. "The next threshold is $90 if Al-Naimi says he won't be putting any more oil in the market until we get to that level." Later, however, OPEC's secretary-general said the group was satisfied with a range of $70 to $85.

Growth in emerging markets will help reduce stockpiles of crude oil in 2011, says David Greely, head of energy research at Goldman Sachs GS in New York. The Paris-based IEA figures global oil demand will climb from 86.9 million barrels a day this year to 88.2 million in 2011. Hedge funds and other large speculators are getting into the act: They increased their wagers on rising crude prices in late October, according to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

There are still skeptics about $100-a-barrel oil, such as Sarah A. Emerson, managing director of Energy Security Analysis in Wakefield, Mass. There's plenty of crude to satisfy world demand without spurring a dramatic climb in prices, says the energy analyst. "This is a well-supplied market, and that won't be changing anytime soon," Emerson says. "At the end of the day, fundamentals matter."

Fixing American Finance

2010-11-12T01:46:00.000-08:00

Shares of Accenture ACN, the big tech consulting firm, were selling for $40 on the afternoon of May 6 when the stock suddenly seized up. For 22 seconds there were no recorded trades. Then came a transaction below $10. In the next eight seconds, Accenture quivered like a fibrillating heart, its price changing more than 80 times before flat-lining at one penny. Then just as abruptlyâ??"Clear!"â??the share price rebounded to $40 and stayed there. The super-low trades have since been reversed by the exchanges but the record of them lives on in Bloomberg's database.
Accenture was just one of the many companies whose shares were wracked by the May 6 crash, known to many as the "flash crash," which briefly reduced the value of U.S. stocks by more than $800 billion. The vast liquidity that automated trading systems supposedly provide the stock market vanished instantly that day, as computer programs shut down in confusion. Now it's becoming clear that May 6 was not a one-time convulsion. The New York Times reported on Nov. 9 that more than a dozen individual stocks, including Progress Energy PGN, Citigroup C, and Washington Post Co. WPO, have suffered mini-crashes in the months since. As Andrew W. Lo, director of the Laboratory for Financial Engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, told the Times, "The U.S. equity markets have become the Wild, Wild West."

There's a familiarâ??and odd, and unfortunateâ??echo here. Banks on Wall Street and Main Street overlent, leading to the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. Then they got bailed out. Then they paid big bonuses. Now they are cranking up their trading operations in a way that imperils the financial system once again. Gary Gensler, a former Goldman Sachs GS executive who heads the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, last month compared one firm's trading strategy in the May 6 crash to driving on "autopilot into a ravine."

Fixing this is not a matter of patching up the current system, as the Securities and Exchange Commission is already doing. It's time to step back and consider the proper role of finance in the American economy. Right now finance is an erratic master. It ought to be a quiet, efficient servant.

Harvard University economist Benjamin M. Friedman asks the right questionâ??"Is our financial system serving us well?"â??in an essay in the fall 2010 issue of Daedalus, the journal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Friedman points out that from the 1950s through the 1980s, profits earned by financial firms excluding insurance and real estate accounted for 10 percent of total U.S. profits. Finance's share of profits grew to 22 percent in the 1990s and to an astonishing 34 percent from 2001 to 2005. Fantastically high salaries and bonuses attracted more than a quarter of Harvard's graduating job seekers to investment banks, hedge funds, private equity firms, and the like. That, Friedman notes, was "just before the surge in borrowing, securitization, and derivatives finance began to transform itself into a world-class crisis."

The bigger the financial sector gets, the more dangerous it becomes. The high-frequency trading that contributed to the May 6 crash is a case in point. High-frequency traders are engaged in a costly technological arms race to decrease the "latency" of their trades so they can exploit fleeting arbitrage opportunities before their rivals do. Peter Duffy, chief technical officer of Glasgow-based Sumerian, a trading analytics firm, says one of his firm's clients in the City of London has more computing power in one segment of its equity-trading operation than the entire British nation had in 1985. In high-frequency equity trading, says Duffy, the goal is to take in market data, process it, and get a buy or sell order back out all in less than 2 milliseconds.
These vast resources are being spent on a zero-sum game. Any incremental gain for the seller is a loss for the buyer, and vice versa. Backers of high-frequency trading say they add liquidity to the market, making it easier for ordinary investors to buy or sell without causing the market to move against them. But liquidity is worth nothing if it goes away when it's most needed, like a swimming pool that dries up just as you jump off the high dive. In the May 6 crash, spreads widened beyond belief. Trades were done at prices from as low as one penny a share to as high as $100,000 a share.
One proposed solution gathering support is a transactions taxâ??possibly just a few cents per $100â??that would throw sand into the gears of high-frequency trading. The European Parliament came out in favor of the concept earlier this year. Britain already has a half-percent "stamp duty" on stock sales that traces its origins to 1694; it hasn't kept London from being one of the world's chief financial centers.
Last year in Pittsburgh the G-20 leaders asked the International Monetary Fund to look into the idea of taxing stock sales. In a detailed review released in September, IMF economist Thornton Matheson concluded that a global transactions tax would be feasible, though not the ideal solution either for raising money or for dampening debt-fueled speculation. "The buildup of hidden financial risks in the recent crisis," Matheson writes, "resulted predominantly from excess leverage, risk concentration and product innovation such as asset securitization, which would have been largely unaffected by a transactions tax."
Maybe the answer is something more drastic than a transactions tax. As Matheson writes in the IMF document, there are other options for attacking debt-fueled speculation. These include demanding higher margin and collateral. Or taxing debt on the balance sheet, which would encourage companies to sell shares to pay down debt. Or limiting the deductibility of corporate interest payments so companies are no longer encouraged to load up on debt. Market structures could be made safer, too. Adam Sussman, head of research for the TABB Group, a New York-based financial markets research and advisory firm, says the high-frequency arms race was inadvertently launched by the SEC itself in 2006 when it approved a regulation allowing exchanges to bypass other exchanges that didn't respond quickly, even if they had the best prices. Says Sussman: "The SEC was basically guaranteeing that we would see more strategies that depended on speed."
Any effort to make finance safer, especially via new taxes, will be vociferously opposed by Wall Street and the banks, whose profits are amplified by leverage. Of course, the financial industry has powerful allies in Washington. When the SEC toughened its trading rules after the crash last May, Eric Cantor, who's set to become House majority leader, scolded the agency. "I am concerned that this was done before conducting a holistic review of the causes of the disruption," Cantor, a Virginia Republican, wrote to the SEC on May 21. Bloomberg News reported on Nov. 9 that high-frequency trading firms with names like Getco, Hard Eight Futures, and Quantlab Financial have more than quadrupled their political giving over the last four years; Cantor was one of the high-frequency traders' top recipients, getting $23,000 since the start of 2009 for himself and his political action committee. Cantor wasn't available to comment for the Bloomberg News story, his spokesman John Murray said.
Most taxes are a necessary evil. Taxes on labor income discourage work. Taxes on dividends and capital gains discourage investment in new factories, office buildings, equipment, and software. What would new taxes on Wall Street discourage? High-frequency trading and overleverage. Hmm. They just might be the rare taxes that the public would support.

Stocks rise, dollar falls to kick off week after finance leaders pledge to balance trade

2010-11-12T01:34:00.000-08:00

(AP) - Stocks rose Monday after world finance leaders pledged to better balance global trade.

Shaun Ahmad, president of capital markets at mortgage investment firm RoundPoint Financial Group, said anytime sales jump more than expected, it is a positive sign for the housing market.

Homebuilders rose after Monday's report, including Toll Brothers Inc. and D.R. Horton Inc. Toll shares rose 11 cents to $18.51. D.R. Horton rose 16 cents to $10.77.

The Dow rose 63.92, or 0.6 percent, to 11,196.48 in afternoon trading.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 6.26, or 0.5 percent, to 1,189.34, while the Nasdaq composite index rose 17.59, or 0.7 percent, to 2,496.98.

Bond prices rose slightly, sending interest rates lower. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which moves opposite its price, fell to 2.54 percent from 2.56 percent late Friday.

Gold rose $13.80 to $1,338.90 an ounce. Oil rose 10 cents to $81.79.Material stocks got a lift from higher commodity and energy prices. Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. shares jumped $2.29, or 2.4 percent, to $96.34. Dow component and aluminum maker Alcoa Inc. rose 19 cents to $12.91.

The dollar fell against other major currencies. It hit a fresh 15-year low against Japan's yen. The euro again climbed above $1.40 early in the day before sliding back slightly below that level in afternoon trading.

Global finance ministers met over the weekend and agreed to avoid competitive devaluations of their currencies, but they didn't lay out specific guidelines. There has been growing concerns that countries would artificially drive the value of their currencies lower. Weakening a national currency can help a country boost exports because goods become cheaper overseas.

Right now, a weaker dollar could help U.S. companies at the expense of foreign economies.

"Our ability to export is strengthened," Cameron Short, a senior vice president at Stifel Nicolaus, said about the weakening dollar. That could help U.S. companies with future sales, boosting their profitability.

While a weaker currency can lift a country's economic growth, it also creates imbalances in global trade. That can lead to protectionist responses from other countries, threatening to slow or halt a broader global economic recovery.

Leaders from the countries whose finance ministers met over the weekend gather next month. More details about how countries can work together to avoid a currency war could be worked out then.

Other economic reports could further sway trading throughout the week, culminating with the government's first estimate on third-quarter gross domestic product. The report, the broadest measure of the nation's economy, is due out Friday.

Corporate earnings, which helped drive stocks modestly higher last week, could also play a central role in the coming days. Companies including DuPont, Procter & Gamble, 3M and Colgate-Palmolive all release results during the week.

Goldman set to finance an Extended Stay bid

2010-11-11T09:28:00.000-08:00

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. is close to a deal to provide financing of USD 2.2 billion to one of the groups bidding for mid-priced US hotel chain Extended Stay, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday.It would provide the financing for the bidding group led by Starwood Capital Group, the paper said.Starwood's group has agreed to invest USD 905 million in Extended Stay, and is bidding against a team led by investment companies Centerbridge Partners and Paulson & Co.An investor group led by David Lichtenstein's Lightstone Group bought Extended Stay in June 2007. Extended Stay was forced into bankruptcy last year after its projected cash flows declined amid the recession and it could not keep servicing more than USD 7 billion in debt.

Goldman was not immediately available for comment. Starwood declined comment.

Senate Finance Committee OKs a health bill

2010-11-11T09:26:00.000-08:00

The Senate Finance Committee approved its version of health care reform by a 14-9 vote Tuesday afternoon, clearing the way for it to be merged with another committee’s bill for a vote by the full Senate.

Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine was the only Republican to vote for the legislation. She did so with reservations, however, and said Democrats shouldn’t count on her vote if the bill is changed significantly before it comes to the floor.

“My vote today is my vote today,” Snowe said. “It doesn’t forecast what my vote will be tomorrow.”

The legislation aims to provide health insurance to more Americans by expanding Medicaid, providing tax credits to help low- and middle-income Americans purchase coverage, and creating new health insurance exchanges for individuals and small businesses. It also would require employers that don’t offer coverage to help pay for their employees’ government-subsidized coverage.

The bill also includes insurance market reforms. Individuals could not be charged more or denied coverage because of pre-existing conditions. Insurers could no longer drop coverage when individuals get sick.

The legislation is projected to cost $829 billion over 10 years, but the Congressional Budget Office projects it would reduce the federal deficit by $81 billion because it curbs the growth of spending on federal health care programs, and raises revenues through new taxes on health insurers, pharmaceutical companies and medical device companies.

Committee chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) said the legislation is “a balanced plan that can pass the Senate.”

“We don’t have quite the degree of bipartisan support that I would hope for,” he said, but he appreciated the effort committee members put into the bill.

Tuesday's vote followed two years of work on the bill, including 20 hearings on health care, and closed-door meetings among six members who tried to fashion a bipartisan compromise.

Sen. Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.) said the bill “is the wrong kind of reform” because it will raise the cost of insurance for many Americans.

“The Finance bill spends too much and does too little to bring down health care costs,” Enzi said.

Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) said he also has some problems with the legislation, primarily its lack of a government-run option in the health insurance exchanges. That is needed, he said, to provide competition to private insurers.

But Rockefeller voted for the bill despite these reservations because “the dialogue is now for real.”

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce said the committee’s bill was the best of any of the bills passed by the five congressional committees that has addressed the issue. But it contends more needs to be done to address the bill’s negative impacts on businesses.

The bill “increases premiums, raises taxes and creates a new entitlement that will add to the nation’s growing debt,” said Bruce Josten, the chamber’s top lobbyist.

Health insurance companies are concerned about the bill’s “workability and cost,” said Karen Ignagni, president and CEO of America’s Health Insurance Plans.

Fujii is Japan finance minister

2010-11-11T09:18:00.000-08:00

Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama appointed veteran lawmaker Hirohisa Fujii as finance minister after taking office on Wednesday, a choice that soothed some analysts concerns that the new government's spending plans will inflate huge public debt.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirofumi Hirano confirmed the appointment.

Mr Fujii, 77, a fiscal conservative who has expressed concern about the size of Japan's public debt, is a 20-year veteran of the finance ministry and served as minister in the early 1990s.

Mr Fujii's caution over intervening in currency markets and his backing for ultra-loose monetary policy means he is seen as a technocrat who is unlikely to rock markets.

Mr Hatoyama's Democratic Party of Japan defeated the Liberal Democratic Party in an election on Aug 30 to oust the long-ruling LDP for only the second time in its 54-year history.

Mr Katsuya Okada, 56, a one-time trade ministry technocrat known for his deep policy knowledge and strait-laced 'Mr Clean' image, was named foreign minister. -- REUTERS, AFP

World finance chiefs grasp for solutions in finance firestorm

2010-11-11T09:09:00.000-08:00

In the face of a financial firestorm growing out of control by the day, finance chiefs from the Group of Seven nations meet in Washington on Friday in desperate straits for an answer.

Financial authorities in the major powers have already pumped massive amounts of liquidity into the global banking system in an effort to unclog credit markets and joined in a coordinated cut in interest rates.
But panic is still gripping markets, which have hit multiyear lows in the United States and most other countries amid an extraordinary loss of confidence.
The G7 meeting will bring together finance ministers and central bankers of the United States, Germany, Japan, France, Britain, Italy and Canada.
US President George W. Bush agreed to host finance ministers from the G7 on Saturday. Bush vowed to take "strong action" against the crisis and emphasized "our common desire to work with our European friends to develop a best-as-possible common policy."
Marc Chandler, analyst at Brown Brothers Harriman, said despite the grim outlook, the G7 still has some options to help calm the storm.
"We are hesitant to spread rumors, but there is increasing speculation that the G7 meeting could take another major step and that is to guarantee all interbank lending," he said.
"This talk is having a demonstrable impact on the interest rate markets. It is difficult to evaluate the likelihood, but it is important to note that officials generally recognize that current measures are not yet sufficient to turn the corner of the crisis."
Chandler said such a move "would seem to be an effective way of easing the crisis in the money markets, which is spilling over and hurting innocent bystanders, like corporations and exacerbating the downside risks to the economy."
John Ryding, an economist at RDQ Economics, said the move by Britain to inject capital into troubled banks offered a "glimmer of hope," especially after Washington said it would consider similar actions.
"It will require the G7 finance ministers on Friday to see the actions that need to be taken but the pieces of the puzzle to the solution of the financial crisis will be in front of the finance ministers when they meet in Washington," Ryding said.
"For this, we have to thank the UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown and his Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling. Our hats are off to them and, if Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson follows their advice, we could finally have found our wider firebreak."
But in a sign that unity was weak, the head of the International Monetary Fund, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, said that European Union countries should work together and avoid unilateral steps to fight a global financial crisis.
"Cooperation and coordination in actions is the price of success. All kinds of cooperation have to be recommended," Strauss-Kahn said at a news conference ahead of the annual meetings this weekend of the IMF and World Bank. Unilateral action "has to be avoided, if not condemned," he said.
BNP Paribas analysts said there were positive signs.
"Signs of hope are finally emerging that a globally coordinated approach to the financial crisis could be agreed between policy makers at Friday's G7 meeting," they wrote in a research note.
"Indeed, the UK's three-pronged approach to the crisis announced Wednesday has been gaining praise, and there are also suggestions that the US could adopt similar measures.
"Speculation that a coordinated approach could be close has been heightened by reports that Bush has called German Chancellor (Angela) Merkel to explain the importance of coordinated measures. Germany's reluctance has so far prevented the eurozone adopting a coordinated approach."
The US approved a 700-billion-dollar rescue package for financial firms last week that will see the Treasury buy up toxic debt from banks in a bid to encourage them to continue lending.
On Wednesday, leading central banks unleashed coordinated interest rate cuts on Wednesday in their latest attempt to counter the financial problems, caused by bad debts linked to declining house prices in the United States. Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso on Tuesday urged the G7 to send a "strong message" on the market turmoil. "If the G7 fails to send a strong message, it will have a big impact which I am concerned could spread to Japan," Aso told reporters.

Are Banks Open On Veteran's Day 2010?

2010-11-11T08:53:00.001-08:00

Well, to answer the question - it depends. There are some individual banks that may be open on Veteran's Day but for the most part they will be closed.

The Federal Reserve Bank is also closed on Veteran's Day, so even if your bank is open, your transactions might not be credited to your account until the next business day.
In addition, if your bank is open and you need to send a wire, the wire won't go out until the next business day. You can always head online and do whatever business needs to be done, but keep in mind that many of your transactions will not post until 11/12/2010.
If you usually get paid on Wednesday, Veteran's Day 2010 may delay your paycheck. However, most employers will pay you prior to a holiday if payday falls on a Holiday.
Are banks open on Veteran's Day 2010? It depends. However, call your bank, but don't hold your breath. Most banks aren't open on Veteran's day, and even if they are, you won't be able to get some business done.

Are Banks Open On Veteran's Day 2010?

2010-11-11T08:47:00.000-08:00

Well, to answer the question - it depends. There are some individual banks that may be open on Veteran's Day but for the most part they will be closed.

Veterans Day Quotes and Sayings

2010-11-11T08:43:00.000-08:00

Regard your soldiers as your children, and they will follow you into the deepest valleys.

Look on them as your own beloved sons, and they will stand by you even unto death! Sun Tzu

In the beginning of a change, the patriot is a scarce man, and brave, and hated and scorned. When his cause succeeds, the timid join him, for then it costs nothing to be a patriot. Mark Twain

The only war is the war you fought in. Every veteran knows that. Allan Keller

Valor is stability, not of legs and arms, but of courage and the soul. Michel de Montaigne

Courage is almost a contradiction in terms. It means a strong desire to live taking the form of readiness to die. G.K. Chesterton

I think there is one higher office than president and I would call that patriot. Gary Hart

The most persistent sound which reverberates through men’s history is the beating of war drums. Arthur Koestler

Balkh Province Contacts with China

2010-11-07T09:03:00.000-08:00

The name Daxia appears in Chinese from the 3rd century BCE to designate a mythical kingdom to the West, possibly a consequence of the first contacts with the expansion of the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom,

and then is used by the explorer Zhang Qian in 126 BCE to designate Bactria.The reports of Zhang Qian were put in writing in the Shiji ("Records of the Grand Historian") by Sima Qian in the 1st century BCE. They describe an important urban civilization of about one million people, living in walled cities under small city kings or magistrates. Daxia was an affluent country with rich markets, trading in an incredible variety of objects, coming as far as Southern China. By the time Zhang Qian visited Daxia, there was no longer a major king, and the Bactrian were suzerains to the nomadic Yuezhi, who were settled to the north of their territory beyond the Oxus (Amu Darya). Overall Zhang Qian depicted a rather sophisticated but demoralized people who were afraid of war.Following these reports, the Chinese emperor Wu Di was informed of the level of sophistication of the urban civilizations of Ferghana, Bactria and Parthia, and became interested in developing commercial relationship with them:The Son of Heaven on hearing all this reasoned thus: Ferghana (Dayuan) and the possessions of Bactria (Daxia) and Parthia (Anxi) are large countries, full of rare things, with a population living in fixed abodes and given to occupations somewhat identical with those of the Chinese people, but with weak armies, and placing great value on the rich produce of China" (Hanshu, Former Han History).These contacts immediately led to the dispatch of multiple embassies from the Chinese, which helped to develop the Silk Road.

Balkh Province Indo-Greek Kingdom

2010-11-07T08:57:00.000-08:00

The Bactrian king Euthydemus and his son Demetrius crossed the Hindu Kush and began the conquest of Northern Afghanistan and the Indus valley.

For a short time, they wielded great power: a great Greek empire seemed to have arisen far in the East. But this empire was torn by internal dissensions and continual usurpations. When Demetrius advanced far into India one of his generals, Eucratides, made himself king of Bactria, and soon in every province there arose new usurpers, who proclaimed themselves kings and fought against each other.Most of them we know only by their coins, a great many of which are found in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India. By these wars, the dominant position of the Greeks was undermined even more quickly than would otherwise have been the case. After Demetrius and Eucratides, the kings abandoned the Attic standard of coinage and introduced a native standard, no doubt to gain support from outside the Greek minority.In India, this went even further. The Indo-Greek king Menander I (known as Milinda in India), recognized as a great conqueror, converted to Buddhism. His successors managed to cling to power until the last known Indo-Greek ruler, a king named Strato II, who ruled in the Punjab region until around 55 BCE.^[9]Other sources, however, place the end of Strato II's reign as late as 10 CE.

Balkh Province Greco-Bactrian Kingdom

2010-11-07T08:42:00.000-08:00

The famed Bactrian Empire of a thousand cities,

wallowing in wealth (opulentissimum illud mille urbium Bactrianum imperium)The many difficulties against which the Seleucid kings had to fight and the attacks of Ptolemy II of Egypt gaveDiodotus, satrap of Bactria, the opportunity to declare independence (about 255 BCE) and conquer Sogdiana. He was the founder of the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom. Diodotus and his successors were able to maintain themselves against the attacks of the Seleucids—particularly from Antiochus III the Great, who was ultimately defeated by the Romans (190 BCE).The Greco-Bactrians were so powerful that they were able to expand their territory as far as India:"As for Bactria, a part of it lies alongside Aria towards the north, though most of it lies above Aria and to the east of it. And much of it produces everything except oil. The Greeks who caused Bactria to revolt grew so powerful on account of the fertility of the country that they became masters, not only of Bactria and beyond, but also of India, as Apollodorus of Artemita says: and more tribes were subdued by them than by Alexander...." The Greco-Bactrians used Greek language for administrative purposes, and the local Bactrian language was also Hellenized, as suggested by its adoption of the Greek alphabet and Greek loanwords. In turn, some of these words were also borrowed by modern Pashto, the language of Afghanistan.

Balkh Province Alexander the Great and the Seleucid Empire

2010-11-07T08:35:00.000-08:00

Alexander conquered Sogdiana and Iran. However, in the south, beyond the Oxus, he met strong resistance.

After two years of war Bactria became a province of the Macedonian empire, but Alexander never successfully subdued the people. After Alexander's death, the Macedonian empire was eventually divided up between generals in Alexander's army. Bactria became a part of the Seleucid Empire, named after its founder, Seleucus.The Macedonians (and especially Seleucus I, and his son Antiochus I), established the Seleucid Empire, and founded a great many Greektowns in eastern Iran, and the Greek language became dominant for some time there.The paradox that Greek presence was more prominent in Bactria than in areas far closer to Greece can possibly be explained by the supposed policy of Persian kings to deport unreliable Greeks to this the most remote province of their huge empire.

Balkh Province Achaemenid Empire

2010-11-07T08:32:00.000-08:00

Bactria has belonged to Iranian empires since a very early stage, in fact it is suggested by E. Herzfeld that Bactria belonged to the Median empire.

And it was annexed to the Persian Empire by Cyrus the Great in 6th century BCE and together with Margiana it formed the twelfth satrapy of Persians. After Darius III of Persia had been defeated by Alexander the Great and killed in the ensuing chaos, his murdererBessus, the satrap of Bactria, tried to organize a national resistance based on his satrapie but was captured by other warlords and delivered to Alexander. He was then tortured and killed