BP and its Chinese partner win a deal to develop the prized Rumaila field, but tough Iraqi bargaining deters other oil giants

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Iraq’s Oil-Field Auction Falls Short

Most Asian markets advanced Tuesday, shrugging off another rise in Japanese unemployment as oil powered above $73 a barrel to eight-month highs, boosting resource stocks. Overnight gains on Wall Street underpinned sentiment, helping the region’s markets to…

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Wall Street – Business – Unemployment – Investing – Asian people

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Asian stocks gain as oil jumps above $73

PERTH (Reuters) – Oil prices jumped more than 2 percent to an eight-month high above $73 a barrel on Tuesday, as a sudden spike in Brent buying pinned on fund positioning cemented the market’s best quarterly gain since 1990.

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Oil spikes to 8-month high

It’s seems an unlikely combination, but is the deal between Toyota and Aston Martin, announced yesterday, such a bad idea? Under the plan, Aston Martin will sell a version of the tiny Toyota iQ (pictured above) called the Cygnet to existing clients. The price is likely to be around $30,000. “Small is beautiful these days,” Ulrich Bez, Aston Martin’s chief executive said yesterday reports the Times of London. “We have to move on from the preconceived ideas regarding what Aston Martin is about.”

Predictably, most comments on car blogs have been pretty harsh, ranging from outright rage to disbelief. But why not? The iQ, while not exactly a popular sight on Japan’s roads–I think I’ve seen four since it was released late last year–is a fun, innovative car. In Cygnet form, may be useful for Aston Martin when fuel economy regulations get stricter in the years ahead. Aston Martin when fuel economy regulations get stricter in the years ahead. It may also help Aston Martin enthusiasts assuage concerns, assuming they have any, about the environmental damage caused by their 4.8 liter V8 or 6.0 liter V12 Vantages. And as it’s only going to be sold to Aston Martin owners, it’s not as if the hoi polloi will be able to get their hands on one easily.

From Toyota’s point of view, even a small association with a brand like Aston Martin, won’t do any harm. New president Akio Toyoda insisted on June 25, at his first press conference as Toyota chief, that cars must be more than just appliances for getting from A to B.

Interestingly, the move seems to have stemmed from a racing friendship built up between Toyoda and Bez. At the June 25 press conference, the Japanese exec name-checked Bez when asked about his love of racing. Under the pseudonym Morizo, Toyoda has been known (most recently in May) to drive a Lexus LF-A in races at Germany’s Nürburgring circuit. Bez, a fellow racer, got in touch with Toyoda after seeing an iQ on show at the track. When asked if he would quit racing now he is boss of the world’s biggest carmaker, Toyoda admitted his colleagues were urging him to hang up his racing overalls but (somewhat unconvincingly) said that driving around the ‘Ring was a good way to test new cars. If the Aston Martin deal works out, perhaps he can use that as an additional argument if he wants to keep racing.

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Toyota, Aston Martin team up to make the Cygnet

NEW YORK (Reuters) – A U.S. federal jury returned a $1.67 billion verdict against Abbott Laboratories in a patent suit brought by Johnson & Johnson related to arthritis treatments, the drug companies said on Monday.

Jury returns $1.67 billion drug verdict against Abbott

May data show employers are hanging on to contract workers as they remain wary of hiring full-timers

Source:
Now Hiring: Contract Workers?

A federal judge in Los Angeles has declined to act on a Securities Exchange Commission request for an injunction that would keep the assets of a Southern California financier frozen until the resolution of his fraud trial. Judge Philip S. Gutierrez said…

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LA judge: no action on financier’s frozen assets

When Microsoft launches its Windows Marketplace later this year, it will apparently allow buyers to return mobile apps they don’t like.

According to this story, users of Windows Mobile devices who buy apps through the store will be able to return them within 24 hours. My initial reaction: I am not sure that’s a good idea.

Surveys show that most Apple App Store users rarely use mobile apps they download for more than a day. That makes sense: You may download a game today, and play it for a couple of hours. By tomorrow, you are sick of it, and you move on to something else.

So Microsoft’s generous return policy could backfire: People may download a game, play it, and then return it. Essentially, users might use this policy to take independent app developers for a ride. The developers will get less money — and might be less willing to create apps for Microsoft.

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Microsoft to Allow For Mobile App Returns?

HONG KONG (Reuters) – Asian stocks and the Australian dollar rose on the last day of the second quarter, as investors kept adding to bets global economic activity is rebounding, having driven Chinese shares to the highest in a year.

Excerpt from:
Asia stocks gain as risk taking persists

PERTH (Reuters) – Oil prices jumped more than 2 percent to an eight-month high above $73 a barrel on Tuesday, as a sudden spike in Brent buying pinned on fund positioning ushered out the market’s best quarterly gain since 1990.

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Oil spikes to 8-month high on brief Brent bid frenzy

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Oil Prices Tumble

After a long beta test, Mozilla today released Firefox 3.5 for windows, Mac, and Linux. Though the new version has some nice features, it’s potential may only be revealed over time.

The latest edition of Firefox offers a considerable boost in speed, especially in running JavaScript programs. I don’t do any formal testing, but it is definitely much faster that Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 8 (which is not saying all that much) on Windows, and seems roughly on a par with Google’s Chrome 2.0 and Apple’s Safari 4.0.

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Firefox 3.5: Big Gains May Be in the Future

Oil prices jumped above $73 a barrel Tuesday in Asia as a weakening U.S. dollar and attacks on oil installations in Nigeria helped push prices to eight-month highs. Benchmark crude for August delivery was up $1.06 to $72.55 a barrel by midday Singapore time…

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Asia – Singapore – United States Economy – US – Business

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Oil jumps above $73 on dollar fall, Nigeria attack

Action Economics expects the June employment report to show job losses moderating to 340,000, with the unemployment rate rising to 9.6%

Source:
A Warming Trend for Jobs in June

Action Economics expects the June employment report to show job losses moderating to 340,000, with the unemployment rate rising to 9.6%

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Jobs: A Warming Trend in June