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Kenji Saito cooks at his ramen noodle shop in Tokyo, Japan April 12, 2019. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-hoon
April 24, 2019
By Linda Sieg and Kwiyeon Ha
TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan’s Heisei era, which began when Emperor Akihito inherited the throne on Jan. 7, 1989, and ends when he abdicates on April 30, saw economic stagnation, disasters and technological change.
Generations of Japanese lived through those decades. Their differing views and experiences will shape the legacy of the Heisei years.
WARTIME EXPERIENCES
For decades, Haruyo Nihei kept her wartime memories locked away: mothers and infants burnt alive by incendiary bombs; herself struggling under corpses of fleeing victims; her sister’s body covered with maggot-infested burns.
But in 2002, almost six decades after World War Two ended and 13 years after Akihito took the throne, she decided to speak out. The trigger: a visit to a new museum about the March 10, 1945, U.S. firebombing that killed an estimated 100,000 people in Tokyo.
Nihei, now 82, still hopes that by recounting her experience as an eight-year-old in the final days of the conflict, she can convey the horrors of war to young Japanese who know only peace.
“Children today … don’t know anything about war and that’s wonderful. But if they don’t know about how Japan fought a war some 70 years ago, we may follow a mistaken path again,” Nihei told Reuters before speaking to students at the museum.
Preventing Japan from forgetting the tragedy of war has been a consistent priority of Akihito, in the name of whose father, Hirohito, Japanese troops fought World War Two.
Nihei said she admired Akihito’s efforts, including trips to overseas battle sites such as Saipan in 2005 to pray for war dead from Japan and other countries.
“When I saw the image of the emperor and empress (bowing at a seaside cliff) on Saipan, I felt they were truly sorry for the sins the Emperor Showa had committed,” she said, referring to Hirohito by his posthumous name. “I was moved.”
But she worries the wartime past has little resonance for today’s Japanese youth.
“I want them to study about the past properly and link that to the future,” she said.
BURST BUBBLE
For Kenji Saito, Heisei was a time of shocking change and liberating opportunity.
Saito, a former computer systems engineer, was on a business trip in November 1997 when he got a phone call.
“Don’t you work for Yamaichi?” a relative asked.
Media had reported Yamaichi Securities, Japan’s oldest and fourth-largest brokerage, was headed for collapse under the weight of losses hidden for years after the “bubble economy” of soaring asset prices burst.
The image of Yamaichi’s then-president Shohei Nozawa apologizing and crying as he begged for jobs for the firm’s nearly 8,000 employees became a symbol of the financial turmoil that ushered in Japan’s “lost decade” of stagnation.
The Heisei era also saw the unraveling of a lifetime employment system that was once a pillar of the country’s post-war rise.
“No one ever thought Yamaichi would collapse,” said Saito, who had joined the firm as a 22-year-old college graduate.
After the brokerage failed, he worked for a computer systems company run by his former boss. By 2005, he’d had enough of the corporate rat race and left to start a ramen shop that has since expanded to 10 restaurants.
The economic stagnation of much of the era has left a gloomy taste for many, but Saito said he felt liberated.
“I think for myself and can act on my own,” he said. “For me, the Heisei years were good.”
Still, he worries too many Japanese lack entrepreneurial spirit. “People want stability. To put it negatively, they lack the spirit to challenge.”
FUTURE ANGST
A massive natural disaster, technological change, and anxiety about the future are what university student Yuri Harada thinks of when she ponders the Heisei era.
Harada was 11 when a massive 9.0-magnitude earthquake and tsunami hit northeast Japan on March 11, 2011, triggering a nuclear meltdown in Fukushima.
“Even in Tokyo, the shaking was strong and students panicked,” said Harada, 19 and a student at Waseda University. She walked three hours to get home because trains had stopped and later saw the devastation on TV. “It was really shocking.”
In elementary school, Harada longed for a smartphone, just beginning to spread in Japan. At first, her parents said it was too costly, but by the time she was in junior high, the devices were ubiquitous.
“I feel as if the advance of technology corresponded with my growing up,” she said.
Japan is in the midst of a historic labor shortage, but Harada recalled the “employment ice age” her elders suffered through after the economic bubble burst. She is concerned a potential downturn could wreck the job market again.
“Frankly … I worry whether this sellers’ market will persist,” she said.
Longer-term, she worries whether Japan’s social stability will crumble.
Japan this month introduced a visa program to let in more blue-collar workers, a big step in the immigration-shy country.
“If we don’t do this properly, we could follow the same path” as Western countries gripped by anger over immigration, said Harada, who has studied abroad and majors in international relations.
Such fears cloud her hopes for the new “Reiwa” imperial era, which begins on May 1.
“I’d like to be optimistic, but I can’t,” she said.
(Writing by Linda Sieg; Editing by Gerry Doyle)
Source: OANN
President Donald Trump propped up the stock market in the face of Democrats talking about wanting to impeach him in a Tuesday evening tweet.
A short time after the S&P 500 and Nasdaq indexes closed at record highs, Trump posted this:
“You mean the Stock Market hit an all-time record high today and they’re actually talking impeachment!? Will I ever be given credit for anything by the Fake News Media or Radical Liberal Dems? NO COLLUSION!”
Trump was cleared of conspiring with Russia to win the 2016 election as part of the Mueller report released last week, but the report did not definitively say whether he obstructed justice during the Russia investigation that lasted nearly two years. Democrats have pounced on that and some are calling for him to be impeached.
Source: NewsMax America

Spanish Prime Minister and Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE) candidate Pedro Sanchez is pictured before a televised debate ahead of general election in Sebastian de los Reyes, outside Madrid, Spain, April 23, 2019. REUTERS/Juan Medina
April 23, 2019
By Belén Carreño and John Stonestreet
MADRID (Reuters) – The main contenders in Spain’s parliamentary election traded verbal blows over jobs and national identity on Tuesday, as Socialist frontrunner Pedro Sanchez said he had no plans to include center-right Ciudadanos in any governing alliance.
A day after an inconclusive first televised debate, the leaders of the four main parties represented appeared to step up efforts to grab extra votes ahead of Sunday’s ballot – and tempers frayed.
The election is the country’s most divisive in decades and, with no single party close to winning a parliamentary majority, its outcome is uncertain. Polls have showed that up to four in 10 voters have yet to decide whom to cast their ballot for.
Outgoing Prime Minister Sanchez looks best placed to form a government if his Socialist Party wins the around 30 percent of the vote that surveys have suggested.
But he would need to team up with one or more other party to form a parliamentary majority, and on Tuesday he distanced himself from one option.
“Entering an alliance with a party that has put cordon sanitaire around the Socialist Party is not part of my plans,” he said in reference to Ciudadanos at the start of the debate.
Ciudadanos has previously said it will not join any coalition led by Sanchez, and its leader Albert Rivera – together with Conservative Partido Popular’s (PP) Pablo Casado – renewed the two-pronged attack they had directed at the prime minister on Monday.
The economy made a late appearance as an election topic in a wide-ranging and at times chaotic debate that also took in immigration, housing and gender equality.
But as on Monday, one of the most emotive issues remained Catalonia and the region’s botched 2017 independence bid, which came close to triggering a constitutional crisis.
Casado called Sanchez “the favorite candidate of the enemies of Spain” and Rivera told him: “Many Socialists are disappointed with you because you want to liquidate Spain.”
Sanchez, who became prime minister in June, has been more open to dialogue with Catalan separatists than his conservative predecessor Mariano Rajoy.
But he reiterated on Tuesday that he was ruling out any moves toward independence by the region, and that its pro- and anti-secessionist factions needed to negotiate with each other.
‘NERVOUS’ OR LOOKING ON?
The rightist candidates also attacked Sanchez over unemployment. Casado compared Spain’s economy to thrice bailed-out Greece and Rivera called the country “the European joblessness champion”.
The Ciudadanos leader also repeatedly told Sanchez he looked “nervous.”
Spain’s jobless rate has nearly halved from its 2013 peak, and growth in the euro zone’s fourth-largest economy has consistently outpaced the bloc’s average since shortly after it exited recession in the same year.
The bulk of the recovery took place under Sanchez’s PP predecessor, Mariano Rajoy, though unemployment has continued to fall since Sanchez took office almost a year ago and hit a 10-year low in the last quarter of 2018.
But the jobless rate remains above 14 percent, and a stretched pension system and the labor market are overdue for structural reform.
“This country’s problem is short-term employment,” said Pablo Iglesias of far-left Podemos Unidas.
For Pablo Simon, professor of political science at Carlos III University in Madrid, Casado and Rivera and failed to land telling blows on Sanchez.
The Socialist leader “saw the bulls and stayed behind the barrier, as he did yesterday, letting the others slug it out though he did venture into the ring a little more,” he said.
Publication of official opinion polls ended six days before the election and in Monday’s final survey, by GAD3 in ABC newspaper, the Socialists scored 31.5 percent of the vote, giving Sanchez far more leeway than others to pitch for coalition partners.
However, he may well need to bring separatist lawmakers on board, which would complicate any broader alliance.
A putative coalition of PP, Ciudadanos and the far-right Vox of Santiago Abascal scored a combined 45 percent – putting them short of a parliamentary majority.
Vox was not invited to the debate as it is not currently represented in Spain’s parliament.
(Additional reporting by Andres Gonzalez; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
Source: OANN

FILE PHOTO: Cranes line the London skyline on construction sites in London, Britain August 17, 2016. REUTERS/Neil Hall
April 23, 2019
LONDON (Reuters) – British employers are their most worried about the economy since the 2016 Brexit referendum, but they also plan to hire extra staff, according to a survey that showed the surprising strength of the jobs market.
More firms were downbeat about the outlook for jobs and investment than were optimistic for only the second time since the Recruitment and Employment Confederation began its surveys in June 2016, the month of the referendum.
But in the short term, companies planned to increase their headcount, especially for temporary workers, possibly reflecting their reluctance to make longer-term commitments to investment.
“The more positive figures on hiring for temporary workers suggest that many businesses are turning to agency work to help them navigate the unpredictability they currently face,” Neil Carberry, the REC’s chief executive, said.
“This might be driven by waiting to see whether permanent hiring is justified, or by using additional labor to meet demand rather than making big capital investments.”
Britain’s economy slowed in the run-up to the original Brexit date of March 29, and as growth in much of the rest of the world has also weakened. But job creation has roared ahead, pushing the unemployment rate down to its lowest since 1975.
The REC survey of 600 employers took place between Jan 2 and March 22.
The deadline for Britain’s departure from the EU has been delayed until Oct. 31.
(Reporting by William Schomberg, editing by Andy Bruce)
Source: OANN

FILE PHOTO: Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., April 23, 2019. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
April 23, 2019
By Noel Randewich and Stephen Culp
(Reuters) – Wall Street set a record high on Tuesday, confirming that a decade-old bull market is still kicking following a slump late last year, even as corporate earnings stagnate and the U.S.-China trade dispute drags on.
The widely followed S&P 500 marked its highest ever close, beating its previous record closing high on Sept. 20, and the Nasdaq beat its Aug. 29 all-time closing high.
The S&P 500 has rallied 25% from Dec. 24, reversing a steep selloff caused by fears of higher interest rates and uncertainty around U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade war with Beijing. Dec. 24 marked the bottom of last year’s selloff.
The S&P 500 has slightly underperformed European stocks over the same time period.
(Graphic: S&P 500 vs. world indices Image link: https://tmsnrt.rs/2W3escq).
But as the S&P 500 has recovered, corporate earnings growth has slowed, and even shrunk, following a surge last year on the back of deep U.S.corporate tax cuts. Analysts on average expect earnings per share for the quarter to fall 1.3% year over year, according to I/B/E/S data from Refinitiv.
(Graphic: Q1 earnings expectations link: https://tmsnrt.rs/2W65kUo).
While expectations for first-quarter EPS have improved over the past three weeks, forecasts for full 2019 EPS growth have become less optimistic, now at 3.0% growth, down from 3.3% at the start of the month. That is partly due to uncertainty related to global trade.
(Graphic: S&P 500 2019 earnings expectations link: https://tmsnrt.rs/2W4aRe7).
Higher stock prices and expectations for slower earnings growth have pushed forward price/earnings multiples back up to the levels that worried some investors the last time Wall Street peaked. The S&P 500’s forward PE stands at almost 17, up from 14 at the start of the year, according to Datastream.
(Graphic: S&P 500 forward P/E Image link: https://tmsnrt.rs/2W1xtvZ).
Since the S&P 500’s September high, utilities have been the top performing S&P sector, up 9%, followed by consumer services and real estate, both up 7%.
(Graphic: S&P 500 sectors link: https://tmsnrt.rs/2IEn0Ue).
Buoyed by bets about the upcoming rollout of 5G telecommunications infrastructure, chipmaker Xilinx has been the top-performing S&P 500 stock since Sept. 20, up 74%, while CenturyLink’s 47% loss has made the telecoms service provider the worst performer.
(Graphic: S&P 500 top performers link: https://tmsnrt.rs/2ICbNDo).
(Graphic: S&P 500 bottom performers link: https://tmsnrt.rs/2IzHFZz).
Among the top 10 performers since Sept. 20, only Twitter has a forward PE that has declined during that time.
(Graphic: Forward PEs of top S&P 500 stocks link: https://tmsnrt.rs/2W0QfUd).
With the Federal Reserve widely viewed as “on pause” after hiking interest rate four times last year, the 10-year U.S. Treasury yield has dropped to 2.6% from highs of over 3.2% last November.
(Graphic: S&P 500 and 10-year Treasury yield Image link: https://tmsnrt.rs/2W4gLfh).
(Reporting by Noel Randewich in San Francisco and Stephen Culp in New York; Editing by Alden Bentley and Leslie Adler)
Source: OANN

FILE PHOTO: A Cargill logo is pictured on the Provimi Kliba and Protector animal nutrition factory in Lucens, Switzerland, September 22, 2016. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse
April 23, 2019
By Jonathan Stempel
(Reuters) – Four of the largest U.S. beef-packing companies were accused in a lawsuit on Tuesday of violating federal antitrust law by conspiring to drive down prices they paid ranchers for cattle, even as retail beef prices hovered near record levels.
Tyson Foods Inc, Cargill Inc, the JBS USA unit of Brazil’s JBS SA and National Beef Packing Co were accused of colluding since Jan. 2015 to suppress the price of “fed” cattle, which is cattle raised specifically for beef production, with a goal of improving margins and profitability.
The 104-page complaint by the Ranchers Cattlemen Action Legal Fund United Stockgrowers of America (R-CALF) and four cattle-feeding ranchers was filed in Chicago federal court, and seeks compensatory, punitive and triple damages.
It resembles litigation in the same court in which companies, including Tyson and JBS, have been accused of conspiring to fix prices of broiler chickens and pork.
Tyson said the lawsuit was “baseless,” and that as in the chicken and pork lawsuits there was no merit to the claim it colluded. “Tyson wants its suppliers to succeed,” it added.
The other defendants did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
According to the complaint, Tyson, Cargill, JBS and National Beef conspired to suppress prices through such tactics as importing foreign cattle at a loss, closing slaughter plants, and reducing slaughter and purchase volumes.
The conspiracy “encouraged an apprehension amongst producers that they might not be able to ‘get their cattle dead’” unless prices were cut, and led to an artificial 7.9 percent average reduction in fed cattle prices, the complaint said.
Tyson, Cargill, JBS and National Beef controlled more than 81 percent of the market for U.S. fed cattle in 2017, with more than $48 billion of beef sales in that fiscal year, the complaint said.
The lawsuit is meant to “prevent the Big 4 packers from capturing the U.S. cattle market from independent U.S. cattle producers,” R-CALF Chief Executive Bill Bullard said in a statement provided by the group’s lawyers. “We hope U.S. cattle ranchers can be compensated for years of significant losses.”
The case is Ranchers Cattlemen Action Legal Fund United Stockgrowers of America et al v Tyson Foods Inc et al, U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois, No. 19-02726.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; editing by Bill Berkrot)
Source: OANN

FILE PHOTO: A woman stands in front of the logo of Snap Inc. on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) while waiting for Snap Inc. to post their IPO, in New York City, NY, U.S. March 2, 2017. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson
April 23, 2019
(Reuters) – Snap Inc on Tuesday beat Wall Street targets for quarterly revenue as its photo-messaging app Snapchat added users for the first time in three quarters, backed by the popularity of its original shows and the launch of a new Android app.
The owner of Snapchat said the number of daily active users on the app rose to 190 million in the first quarter ended March 31 from 186 million three months earlier, but it was slightly down from 191 million from a year earlier.
The figure, widely watched by investors and advertisers, also beat analysts’ average estimate of 187.2 million, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.
In an effort to increase the amount of time users spend on the app, Snap, which faces stiff competition from Facebook Inc’s Instagram, launched over 50 new shows in the reported quarter.
It also rebuilt its Android app, which had more bugs and a worse user experience than its iOS app. The targeting of Android users is a change of tune for Snap, which prioritized development on the Apple ecosystem through its stock market launch in 2017.
Snap’s revenue, which it earns from selling advertising on the app, jumped 39 percent to $320.4 million and beat Wall Street’s average estimate of $306.6 million.
Revenue growth was helped in part by new ad formats like unskippable commercials on its original shows, which are housed on the Discover page, a panel on the app that contains publisher content along with influencer content.
Snap’s focus on privacy and communication between friends has helped it avoid problems with misinformation and spread of unsavory content, which have plagued Facebook and Google’s YouTube, two of its rivals for digital ad dollars.
Average revenue per user jumped 39 percent to $1.68 during the quarter from a year earlier.
The company’s net loss narrowed to $310.4 million, or 23 cents per share, from $385.8 million, or 30 cents per share, a year earlier.
Excluding items, the company lost 10 cents per share in the quarter.
For the second quarter, Snap said it expects revenue of $335 million to $360 million. That compares with the average analyst estimate for revenue of $348.5 million, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.
Earlier this month, Snap launched a gaming platform within its Snapchat app featuring original and third-party games such as Zynga Inc’s Tiny Royale.
(Reporting by Vibhuti Sharma in Bengaluru and Sheila Dang in New York; Editing by Arun Koyyur)
Source: OANN

FILE PHOTO: Traffic is pictured at twilight along 42nd St. in the Manhattan borough of New York, U.S., March 27, 2019. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri
April 23, 2019
By Richard Leong and Trevor Hunnicutt
(Reuters) – American middle class consumers are enjoying the strongest wage growth in a decade, but higher gasoline prices are eating a good chunk of that increase for many, and it looks like pump prices are headed higher.
Gasoline pump prices have already jumped about 25% this year, the fastest rate in three years. Trump administration sanctions against Iranian crude oil exports had something to do with that, and this week’s move to tighten sanctions could soon send prices even higher.
Crude oil prices hit their highest in about six months on Tuesday.
Some analysts expect the national average pump price, currently near $2.85 a gallon, will climb above $3 a gallon for the first time since 2014. Few goods prices aggravate U.S. consumers as much as high gasoline prices.
“It’s an important part of consumers’ psyche,” Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, said of a further rise in energy prices. “They live with it everyday.”
Zandi and other analysts said higher gasoline prices would irritate U.S. motorists heading into the summer driving season, but they do not think a moderate fuel price hike would force people to cut spending in other areas.
For now, consumer spending has remained resilient, with wages growing in a tight job market. Average hourly earnings in the private sector are rising at roughly 3.2% year over year, the strongest in a decade.
Those bigger paychecks helped pay for costlier gasoline after the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and allied producers including Russia reduced output to prop up prices. Retail prices for regular gasoline have risen around 55 cents a gallon so far this year from $2.30 at end of 2018, according to AAA, an automotive advocacy group.
“So far it hasn’t been a particularly large headwind for U.S. consumers,” said Matt Luzzetti, senior economist at Deutsche Bank AG.
The Trump administration called for buyers of Iranian oil to stop purchases by May 1 or face sanctions, ending six months of waivers that allowed Iran’s eight biggest buyers to keep importing limited volumes.
Analysts noted that U.S. domestic crude production is surging and said higher output from OPEC and Russia could help offset losing about 1 million barrels per day of Iranian oil from world markets. But sources on Tuesday said Gulf OPEC members were ready to raise output only if they saw sufficient demand.
(GRAPHIC: U.S. wages, gasoline link: https://tmsnrt.rs/2IC9wbu)
PINCHED CONSUMERS
Some U.S. consumers are already paying $3 a gallon at the pump, and will feel the squeeze if prices rise further. In February, filling a 25.5 gallon tank of a sports utility vehicle with regular gasoline would have cost around $57 on average. That has risen to nearly $73, based on government data.
For a $15-an-hour employee working 35 hours a week, filling up once a week now costs 14% of gross pay, up from less than 11% just 10 weeks ago.
“I’m hyper-aware of the gas pricing,” said Brittany Trotter, a part-time driver for Lyft Inc based in Washington, D.C. She said rising fuel costs have cut her profits and stretched her budget.
Even before the latest Iran news, drivers expected rising prices at the pump to cut their income. A survey in March showed consumers expected prices to rise 4.7% over the next year, the largest figure in nine months, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. The consumers surveyed expected their wages to rise 2.6% over the year, though earnings growth expectations slipped for people with a high school diploma or less education.
(GRAPHIC: U.S. gasoline demand, prices, GDP link: https://tmsnrt.rs/2Dtnnga).
(GRAPHIC: Iran seaborne crude oil & condensate exports link: https://tmsnrt.rs/2DE8CHt).
(GRAPHIC: Russian, U.S. & Saudi crude oil production link: https://tmsnrt.rs/2EUHeFO).
(Additional reporting by Dan Burns; Graphic by Stephen Culp, Richard Leong; Editing by David Gregorio)
Source: OANN

FILE PHOTO: A man walks past an Itau Unibanco logo in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil September 6, 2017. REUTERS/Pilar Olivares
April 23, 2019
SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Any delay in passing pension reform in Brazil is likely to slow the pace of initial public offerings in the country, Itaú Unibanco Holding SA’s head of Global Markets and Treasury said on Tuesday.
Brazil’s Congress is mulling the government’s pension reform proposal, which many view as crucial to stabilizing the country’s rickety public finances and kick-starting growth in Latin America’s No. 1 economy.
Speaking in Sao Paulo, Christian Egan said “there may be room” for follow-on operations from companies with higher valuation levels.
“It’s case-by-case, but IPOs would be unlocked much faster (with the reform approved),” he said.
Egan said there is great interest from foreign investors in Brazil, who are awaiting the for the passing of the pensions overhaul to invest, particularly in areas like infrastructure.
Also on Tuesday, Brazil’s government reached a deal with lawmakers, paving the way for a congressional committee to vote on its pension bill later in the day, boosting investor sentiment and lifting local financial markets.
(Reporting by José de Castro; Editing by David Gregorio)
Source: OANN


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