Wall Street slightly higher on China data; S&P near resistance level

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks inched higher on Thursday, helped by stronger-than-expected exports in China, the world's second-biggest economy, but gains were capped as the S&P 500 hovered near a 5-year high.

Financial and telecommunications stocks were the day's top gainers, while the material sector was the biggest drag. The S&P 500 material sector index <.gspm> was off 0.3 percent. The financial sector index <.gspf> rose 0.6 percent and the telecom sector <.gspl> was up 0.5 percent.

The benchmark Standard & Poor's 500 index was near a five-year closing high of 1,466.47. On Friday, the index had ended at the highest close since December 2007.

"The market is technically right at the level of resistance, near 1,465-1,467. A solid breakthrough above the level would be the start of a next leg higher, but it looks like it is going to be difficult to break above that level for now," said Randy Frederick, managing director of active trading and derivatives at Charles Schwab. He cited concerns about the earnings season and upcoming debt ceiling talks.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> was up 9.84 points, or 0.07 percent, at 13,400.35. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> was up 2.55 points, or 0.17 percent, at 1,463.57. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> was down 2.01 points, or 0.06 percent, at 3,103.80.

In company news, shares of upscale jeweler Tiffany dropped 3.6 percent to $60.98 after it said earnings for the year through January 31 will be at the lower end of its forecast.

U.S.-traded Nokia shares jumped 17.3 percent to $4.40 after the Finnish handset maker said its fourth-quarter results were better than expected and that the mobile phone business achieved underlying profitability.

Herbalife Ltd stepped up its defense against activist investor Bill Ackman, stressing it was a legitimate company with a mission to improve nutrition and help public health. The stock was up 1.4 percent to $40.47.

Data showed China's export growth rebounded sharply to a seven-month high in December, a strong finish to the year after seven straight quarters of slowdown, even as demand from Europe and the United States remained subdued.

In the U.S., claims for unemployment benefits rose last week, though seasonal volatility made it difficult to get a clear picture of the labor market's health.

Also, U.S. wholesale inventories rose more than expected in November and sales rose by the most in more than 1-1/2 years. The market's reaction to both reports was muted.

(Reporting By Angela Moon; Editing by Nick Zieminski)

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World Briefing | Americas: Colombia: Former President’s Ties to Militia Under Investigation

Colombia’s chief prosecutor’s office has opened a preliminary criminal investigation into former President Álvaro Uribe over allegations he sponsored a deadly far-right militia as a regional governor in the 1990s. The inquiry ordered last Wednesday was made public Tuesday by Mr. Uribe’s lawyer, Jaime Granados. Mr. Uribe denounced it on Twitter as defamation based on the testimony of “manipulated prisoners.” The case stems from 2011 accusations by a leftist congressman, Ivan Cepeda, that a far-right militia that killed suspected rebel sympathizers operated from a ranch owned by Mr. Uribe and his brother Santiago. The prosecutor in charge of the case is Martha Lucia Zamora and she says it is based on the testimony of former militia members. Mr. Granados says it is built on lies. Mr. Uribe was president from 2002 to 2010.

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Lawyers in Ohio football rape case want trial moved

(Reuters) – Attorneys for two Ohio teenage football players accused of raping a 16-year-old student have asked that the trial be moved because potential witnesses are afraid to come forward in defense of the boys, one of the lawyers said on Monday.

Walter Madison, the attorney for one of the accused rapists, Ma’lik Richmon, said social media efforts to bring the alleged rape into the national spotlight have led to an atmosphere of intimidation and coercion.

“This has a chilling effect on witnesses who could come forward to be part of this process so my client can get a fair and full proceeding,” he told Reuters. “So, we’re left without the opportunity to make our case. That’s pretty serious.”

Richmond and Trenton Mays, both 16 and members of the Steubenville High School football team, are charged with raping a 16-year-old fellow student at a party last August.

The two students are set to be tried as juveniles in February in Steubenville, a city of 19,000 about 40 miles west of Pittsburgh.

Madison said his client’s mother has had to change her cell phone number multiple times due to threats and harassment.

Last week, the online activist group Anonymous made public a picture allegedly of the rape victim, being carried by her wrists and ankles by two young men, and of a video that showed several other young men joking about an alleged assault.

Madison said that Richmond is not seen in the video.

A county sheriff under fire for how he has handled the high school rape investigation faced down a crowd of protestors on Saturday and said no new charges will be brought against anyone involved in the case.

Activists say there had been a cover-up by local officials to protect the integrity of the high school’s football program.

Meanwhile, a petition to the White House calling for the two rape suspects to be tried as adults reached 25,000 signatures Monday, the threshold required to receive a response from the Obama Administration.

Moving the case to the adult court system would allow for a jury trial and a more severe penalty, the petition says.

“This is a serious offense and this needs to be an example for everyone that this type of behavior should not, and will not be tolerated in our society,” it says.

The petition, created December 25, more than doubled its number of supporters overnight. It had 11,000 signatures on Sunday.

It was submitted to the White House through its online petition website, We The People. Now that it has the required 25,000 signatures, the Obama Administration will give an official statement at some point in the future. The petition has no legal impact.

(Editing by Paul Thomasch and Andrew Hay)

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Ned Wertimer, The Jeffersons' Ralph the Doorman, Dies at 89

By Stephen M. Silverman

01/09/2013 at 11:45 AM EST

The cast of The Jeffersons, with Ned Wertimer (back row, far right)

Everett

TV has lost one of its most familiar character actors: Ned Wertimer, best known as the tip-hungry Ralph the doorman on The Jeffersons, died Jan. 2 at a nursing facility outside Los Angeles, the result of a fall in his Burbank home last November, his manager announced late Tuesday. He was 89.

With more than 100 small-screen credits to his name, as well as Broadway (Bye Bye Birdie) and film (Mame and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End) roles, Wertimer was known to audiences of such shows as Gunsmoke, McMillan and Wife, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, WKRP in Cincinnati and Mork & Mindy, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

But it was on all 11 seasons of The Jeffersons, from 1975 to 1985, that he made his strongest mark.

Born in Buffalo, N.Y., Wertimer held a business degree from Wharton, which he earned after service as a pliot in World War II. But he also got the performing bug while in school, and starting in the late '40s began landing roles on Broadway.

With TV a new medium – and many shows shot live in New York at the time – Wertimer became a pioneer, and used his gift for improv to joke with Lamb Chop, Charlie Horse and the other puppets on The Shari Lewis Show.

By the mid-'60s he moved to Hollywood, as had most of TV production. Besides his acting, he was also heavily involved with his unions, SAG and AFTRA, and served as a longtime member of the board of directors of their Federal Credit Union, according to the Reporter.

Among his survivors, the trade paper also reports, are his wife Skyne, a professor emerita at California State University Long Beach; his sister-in-law Eleanor; and a niece and three nephews.

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Wall Street rises as Alcoa gives lift to earnings season

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wall Street rose on Wednesday after Alcoa got the earnings season under way with better-than-expected revenue and an encouraging outlook for the year.

Alcoa Inc said it expects global demand for aluminum will continue to grow in 2013, though the company kept a cautious tone as worries lingered over a looming U.S. budget confrontation. Shares of Alcoa, the largest aluminum producer in the United States, rose 0.5 percent to $9.18.

Still, investors are wary about the outcome of the fourth-quarter earnings season. Profits were expected to beat the previous quarter's lackluster results, but analyst estimates were down sharply from where they were in October. Earnings were expected to grow by 2.7 percent, according to Thomson Reuters data.

But the lowered expectations leave room for companies to surprise investors even if their results aren't particularly strong, analysts said.

"Clearly no one is expecting a stellar earnings season. With the number of companies that lowered guidance over the last few weeks, I think there's some concern that we could see companies disappoint," said Kate Warne, investment strategist at Edward Jones in St. Louis.

"However, based on the fact that many companies have lowered guidance, that means they've put the bar so low they could crawl over it, and I would expect what we'll see is some relief as earnings come in."

The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> gained 67.00 points, or 0.50 percent, to 13,395.85. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> rose 5.50 points, or 0.38 percent, to 1,462.65. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> added 10.07 points, or 0.33 percent, to 3,101.88.

Among other earnings, Constellation Brands , whose labels include Robert Mondavi and Ravenswood wines, rose 0.4 percent to $36.30 after it reported higher profit and raised its earnings forecast.

Apollo Group Inc slid about 10 percent after it reported lower student sign-ups for the third straight quarter and cut its operating profit outlook for 2013. Apollo's shares were last at $18.83.

Dish Network Corp late Tuesday announced a bid for Clearwire Corp that trumped Sprint Nextel Corp's $2.2 billion offer, setting the stage for a battle over the wireless service provider.

Clearwire was up 7.5 percent at $3.14, while Sprint lost 2 percent to $5.85.

Hard drive maker Seagate Technology rose 4.6 percent to $32.83 after it raised its second-quarter revenue forecast.

(Editing by Kenneth Barry)

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India Ink: In Maharashtra, Fight Over Restaurant Bill Erupts into Riot

What started out as a skirmish over a restaurant bill escalated into riots that left five people dead from police gunfire and injured over 200 in Dhule, a city about 350 kilometers northeast of Mumbai.

“It all happened within a span of about 30 minutes,” said Mohan Pawar, the additional superintendent of police for Dhule, who was among those injured in the weekend violence.

Mr. Pawar said by telephone that the incident began on Sunday after a group of four men between the ages of 20 and 25 refused to pay their bill at a restaurant in Dhule’s Machhi Bazaar Chowk (Fish Market Square). The young men began to argue with their waiter, and then the argument quickly turned serious as the restaurant owner and others in the area got involved.

Mr. Pawar said the violence was fueled by religious tensions, as the owner of the restaurant was Hindu while the four customers were Muslim. According to local media reports, the police are looking at the inflammatory content of speeches made by a few Muslim politicians in October that might have inflamed the rioters.

Dhule is normally a peaceful city but has some history of communal violence. In October 2008, riots between the Hindu and Muslim communities shook the city for several days.

Mr. Pawar said that the four men had left restaurant but returned with a crowd from their neighborhood. In the meantime, the restaurant owner had also gathered a crowd, Mr. Pawar said, and within 20 minutes a mob had gathered. Stones were pelted, houses and shops were burned, and motorcycles, bicycles and hand-drawn carts were destroyed.

Two police officers at the nearby station arrived at the scene, but they were unable to curb the violence, Mr. Pawar said.

The riots then spread in the Machhibazar, Palabazar and Madhapura areas of the city. The police sent two platoons of the riot control police, along with a larger police force. Rioters heaved stoned, bricks, acid and soda water bottles at the police officers, according to a statement from the chief minister of Maharashtra, Prithviraj Chavan.

The police tried to use batons and tear gas to control the crowd and then resorted to opening fire on the rioters, killing five. Four died on Sunday while one succumbed to injuries on Tuesday, said Mr. Pawar.

The injured include 11 police officials, 102 police officers and 100 civilians, according to Mr. Chavan’s statement. The district superintendent of police was among those injured. On Tuesday, Mr. Chavan asked Ahmad Javed, the Maharashtra additional director general of police, to visit Dhule.

The city has been under curfew since 4 p.m. on Sunday, but Mr. Pawar said the curfew was likely to be lifted on Wednesday.

Mr. Chavan has asked the additional district magistrate to investigate the riots and submit a report within two months. He has also said that the government will pay for the treatment of the injured and bear the funeral expenses of those killed by the police.

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Disney joins JAKKS, LA billionaire to bring toys to life

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Walt Disney toys are sold around the world. Now, children can find them in the cloud as well.

The media giant is teaming up with toy company JAKKS Pacific and Patrick Soon-Shiong, Los Angeles’ wealthiest person, on a new line of toys – with a nifty technological twist designed to link the goodies that kids lug home from the store with Disney’s stable of well-known animated characters.

“DreamPlay“, developed by Soon-Shiong’s NantWorks company, and JAKKS works via an app that can be downloaded on Apple Inc devices like the iPad, or smartphones and tablets running Google Inc Android software. When a device’s camera is trained on any toy specifically designed to work with DreamPlay, it triggers one of thousands of preset animations that appear on the device’s screen and seem to be unfolding in the real world.

With viewers’ eyes locked on the tablet or smartphone screen, fairies appear to glide in and out of buildings, animated critters start playing musical instruments, mythical characters prance on a toy piano’s keyboard.

Disney, which licensed its characters to DreamPlay, and its partners hope that children will take to the new approach, which is intended to extend and expand the life of the toy. But it remains to be seen if the concept will prove to be more than a novelty, and be able to arrest a child’s infamously short attention span.

The three will demo their concept on Tuesday at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, but Reuters got a sneak peak at the technology on Monday.

In a showroom in the 20th floor of a Santa Monica, Calif. building, visitors to JAKKS’ demonstration are treated to an animated version of Sebastian – the red Jamaican crab from Disney’s “Little Mermaid” movie – who pops up onscreen on an iPad seconds after the tablet’s camera is trained on a real-life set of toy bongo drums.

The animated crab pounces on the drums and proceeds to bang out a calypso song onscreen, with both Sebastian and the physical drum set appearing together as if the two shared the same cartoon.

REAL, VIRTUAL INTERACTION

DreamPlay allows not just Sebastian, but also Tinker Bell and a host of other well-loved Disney characters to “interact” virtually with specially made toys via image-recognition software. The software was developed by Soon-Shiong, a former cancer surgeon who created drugs to fight diabetes and breast cancer and then sold the companies that produced them for $ 8.6 billion.

Soon-Shiong teamed with JAKKS, a $ 678 million-a-year toy maker and licensee of toys based on the Princess line of dolls, Marvel action figures and other Disney toys, among others.

The technology works via the “cloud” – images and video clips stored on remote servers that are streamed to kids’ mobiles when the app recognizes a particular item.

“It’s a tremendous way to combine great technology and Disney’s magical story telling to extend the time a child can play with a toy,” said Bob Chapek, president of Disney’s consumer products unit. “Kids find out that playing with their toy doesn’t end when they get it home.”

Since taking over in 2011, Chapek has repositioned Disney’s consumer product unit to expand its use of technology with its toys. DreamPlay is the first of what Chapek says are other products that will twin technology with familiar Disney toys, although he won’t name them.

Down the road, Disney may explore new business models, including selling subscriptions to content created specifically to be used with a particular toy, said Chapek.

The market is hardly certain for a product that requires a child to hold up a phone or tablet, and peer through it to play with a toy that’s stationary. Will children want to see Rapunzel endlessly dancing on the keys of a piano or Rosetta, a fairy from Disney’s “Tinker Bell” movies, fly in and out of a cottage?

“The technology may be great, but no one has proven to me yet that a kid will sit in front of an iPhone or iPad instead of playing with a toy that’s right in front of him,” said Sean McGowan, a toy analyst with Needham & Co who downgraded JAKKS to hold in September along with other toy companies, and then downgraded JAKKS to underperform in October.

JAKKS intends to begin selling DreamPlay versions of toys from the Disney Princess line in October. It will then expand its offerings next year, with international sales starting in 2014, said Stephen Berman, JAKKS President and CEO.

DreamPlay toys will be “a couple of dollars” costlier than the regular version, he says.

Target stores and Toys R Us are among the U.S. retailers who will carry the DreamPlay line, Berman says. Top-Toy, the giant Nordic retailer, has also signed on, while Beijing Hualian Group, which operates supermarkets and department stores across China, is coming onboard as well.

“Kids don’t own iPhones or iPads but they all know how to use them,” says Berman. “Kids have so much more imagination than we do. Imagine recording a bunch of the videos and giving the kid an iPad to play with them on a trip to see the grandparents.”

JAKKS will ramp up marketing for the DreamPlay line, said Berman. DreamPlay toys will be prominently displayed at all the partner-retailers, he added, and shoppers will be encouraged to use their smartphones to view them.

Those that aim smartphones at a boxed Tinker Bell, for instance, may get a start as the fairy from “Peter Pan” literally soars out of the box, leaving an empty package behind.

“Technology can help people live better, work better, play better,” said Soon-Shiong as he showed off the line of toys. “This is the way they will play better.”

(Reporting By Ronald Grover; Edited By Edwin Chan)

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How Eva Mendes Helped Ryan Gosling's Mom Get Red Carpet Ready

Stylewatch
Style News Now

01/08/2013 at 11:00 AM ET

Matt Baron/BEImages; Stacie McChesney/NBC/AP

Ryan Gosling looked smokin’ hot in his sleek Gucci suit at Monday night’s Gangster Squad premiere in Los Angeles. But Gosling’s mom Donna (his date for the evening) almost distracted us from his sexiness, because she looked so darn good, too. So what was her secret?

“My mother’s wearing all my girlfriend’s clothes,” Gosling told E! News of his mom’s ruched dress, paisley trench and statement necklace. “I’m wearing Eva Mendes,” Donna confirmed, adding, “She let me raid her closet.”

Gosling and Mendes, who clicked while filming The Place Beyond the Pines together in 2011, were first spotted holding hands in September of that year on a low-key date at Disneyland. Since then, they’ve taken their romance to New York, Los Angeles, Gosling’s native Canada and Paris, with Mendes first meeting Gosling’s mom on a movie date in N.Y.C. last January.

The stars have managed to remain pretty quiet about their relationship to this point, making Gosling’s use of the world “girlfriend” last night all the more poignant. Tell us: Would you ever lend your partner’s mom your clothes? 

–Kate Hogan

PHOTOS: SEE MORE GLAM RED CARPET LOOKS IN ‘LOVE IT OR LEAVE IT?’

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Report: Death rates from cancer still inching down

WASHINGTON (AP) — Death rates from cancer are continuing to inch down, researchers reported Monday.

Now the question is how to hold onto those gains, and do even better, even as the population gets older and fatter, both risks for developing cancer.

"There has been clear progress," said Dr. Otis Brawley of the American Cancer Society, which compiled the annual cancer report with government and cancer advocacy groups.

But bad diets, lack of physical activity and obesity together wield "incredible forces against this decline in mortality," Brawley said. He warned that over the next decade, that trio could surpass tobacco as the leading cause of cancer in the U.S.

Overall, deaths from cancer began slowly dropping in the 1990s, and Monday's report shows the trend holding. Among men, cancer death rates dropped by 1.8 percent a year between 2000 and 2009, and by 1.4 percent a year among women. The drops are thanks mostly to gains against some of the leading types — lung, colorectal, breast and prostate cancers — because of treatment advances and better screening.

The news isn't all good. Deaths still are rising for certain cancer types including liver, pancreatic and, among men, melanoma, the most serious kind of skin cancer.

Preventing cancer is better than treating it, but when it comes to new cases of cancer, the picture is more complicated.

Cancer incidence is dropping slightly among men, by just over half a percent a year, said the report published by the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Prostate, lung and colorectal cancers all saw declines.

But for women, earlier drops have leveled off, the report found. That may be due in part to breast cancer. There were decreases in new breast cancer cases about a decade ago, as many women quit using hormone therapy after menopause. Since then, overall breast cancer incidence has plateaued, and rates have increased among black women.

Another problem area: Oral and anal cancers caused by HPV, the sexually transmitted human papillomavirus, are on the rise among both genders. HPV is better known for causing cervical cancer, and a protective vaccine is available. Government figures show just 32 percent of teen girls have received all three doses, fewer than in Canada, Britain and Australia. The vaccine was recommended for U.S. boys about a year ago.

Among children, overall cancer death rates are dropping by 1.8 percent a year, but incidence is continuing to increase by just over half a percent a year. Brawley said it's not clear why.

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Wall Street dips as earnings season begins

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks were little changed at the open on Tuesday as an earnings season expected to show sluggish corporate growth gets under way.

Profits in the fourth quarter are seen above the previous quarter's lackluster results, but analysts' current estimates are down sharply from where they were in October. Quarterly earnings are expected to grow by 2.8 percent, according to Thomson Reuters data.

If earnings growth appears to be "less bad" than expected that would translate into a near-term uptick in the market, according to Eric Wiegand, senior portfolio manager at U.S. Bank Wealth Management in New York.

"But I think there's still ample areas for concern," he said, listing policy worries in Washington and uneven economic activity as a result of Superstorm Sandy during last quarter.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> fell 40.65 points, or 0.30 percent, to 13,343.64. The S&P 500 <.spx> lost 4.28 points, or 0.29 percent, to 1,457.61. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> dropped 5.04 points, or 0.16 percent, to 3,093.78.

German data showed industrial orders fell more than forecast in November due to a sharp drop in demand from abroad, reinforcing concerns that Europe's largest economy may have contracted in the fourth quarter of 2012.

Monsanto Co shares rose 3.2 percent to $99.05 after hitting a more than four-year high at $99.99. The world's largest seed company raised its earnings outlook for fiscal 2013 and posted strong first-quarter results.

Education provider Apollo Group and Dow component Alcoa Inc , the largest U.S. aluminum producer, round out the start of earnings season after the closing bell.

Shares of restaurant-chain operator Yum Brands Inc fell 4.6 percent to $64.78 a day after the KFC parent warned sales in China, its largest market, shrank more than expected in the fourth quarter.

London-traded Vodafone shares rose almost 2 percent after its partner in U.S. joint venture Verizon Wireless said it would be "feasible" to buy out the British group. U.S.-traded Vodafone stock fell 1.5 percent.

Sears Holdings shares fell 1.4 percent to $42.31 a day after the company said its chief executive will step down for family health reasons. The U.S. retailer also reported a 1.8 percent decline in quarter-to-date sales at stores open at least a year.

GameStop shares fell 7.1 percent to $23 after it reported sales for the holiday season and cut its guidance.

(Reporting by Rodrigo Campos; Editing by Nick Zieminski)

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