Kuznetsova faces Dementieva in final

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Svetlana Kuznetsova improved her chances of reaching the number one spot later this year by reaching her second final of 2008 in Dubai.

The world number three from St Petersburg overcame Jelena Jankovic, the world number four, 5-7 6-4 6-3 in the semifinals.

She will now face compatriot Elena Dementieva, who put out Italy’s Francesca Schiavone, in an all-Russian final on Saturday.

In the first set I was playing the right shots but at 5-3 I lost concentration and let her get back, Kuznetsova said.

The same happened in the second set when I got to 3-0. I let her get back. I tried to change that and as the match went on and on I went better and better. In the third set I served better too.

Jankovic was still pleased with her overall improvement, having finished last year exhausted, and begun this year with limited preparation. I started this year healthy but not well prepared because of a back problem. But then I started getting all the injuries probably, because I wasn’t well prepared.

My whole body was falling apart, but now that’s not the case — I am just tired.

Kuznetsova will play the 13th all-Russian WTA Tour singles final when she takes on Dementieva, the former US and French Open runner-up, in the final.

It is also the second all-Russian final in successive weeks, following Maria Sharapova’s victory over Vera Zvonareva in last week’s final in Doha.

The unseeded Dementieva joined her compatriot in the final by winning 5-7 7-5 6-2 against Schiavone, the Italian who on Thursday created a sensation by ending Justine Henin’s four-year unbeaten run in Dubai.

Dementieva said: For sure it was two very difficult matches (against Ana Ivanovic) and today, and I lost a lot of energy. But we are not playing the final until the night and it will be enough time. E-mail to a friend

Kuznetsova faces Dementieva in final – found here.

Buddy Miles, drummer for Jimi Hendrix, dead at 60

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Buddy Miles, a drummer who played with Jimi Hendrix and sang in the claymation commercials featuring the California Raisins in the 1980s, died Tuesday. He was 60.

Miles, who had been suffering from congestive heart failure, died in Austin, publicist Duane Lee said.

Miles, who was born in Omaha, Nebraska, was performing with his father’s jazz-influenced combo by the age 11. He then went on to play for The Delfonics, The Ink Spots and Wilson Pickett, according to his Web site.

He co-founded the band Electric Flag in 1967. He also co-founded the Band of Gypsys with Hendrix and Billy Cox, the Web site said.

Miles was drummer on Hendrix’s landmark Electric Ladyland album before officially joining Band of Gypsys a few months later. Miles is best known for Them Changes, a song he wrote and performed.
Buddy Miles, drummer for Jimi Hendrix, dead at 60 – found here.

Oil hits record high above $103

SINGAPORE (AP) — Oil prices briefly surpassed $103 a barrel for the first time Friday as persistent weakness in the U.S. dollar and the prospect of lower interest rates attracted fresh money to the oil market.

Light, sweet crude for April delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange jumped to a new trading record of $103.05 a barrel in electronic trading before slipping back to $102.07 a barrel, down 52 cents, by midday in Europe.

On Thursday, the contract jumped $2.95 to a record settlement price of $102.59 a barrel.

Prices were supported by comments Thursday from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, who said the American economy is not immediately threatened with stagflation, a combination of economic weakness and rising inflation.

Investors chose to see the comments as confirmation of their beliefs that the Fed will continue cutting interest rates to try to shore up the economy.

It seems that further interest rate cuts, additional dollar weakness and more investment buying will anchor oil to higher prices, energy risk management firm Cameron Hanover said in its daily report. It can’t go on forever, but it looks like it can go on for a while.

Lower U.S. interest rates tend to weaken the dollar, and crude futures offer a hedge against a falling dollar.

Due to the weakening dollar and the rising fear of inflation, investors have put money into commodities, oil included, said Victor Shum, an energy analyst with Purvin Gertz in Singapore.

Commodities, as tangible assets, do not face as much inflationary threat as opposed to holding a currency, Shum said. Even though the value of money is changing, the asset continues to have an intrinsic value.

In London, Brent crude futures fell 85 cents to $100.05 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.

Shum warned that a price bubble may be emerging in the crude futures market as investors ignored market fundamentals that have shown continuous increases in U.S. crude supply while several recent forecasters have lowered oil demand growth predictions for this year due to the slowing economy.

We’ve seen seven straight weeks of builds in crude oil inventories. The oil market fundamentals are softening and yet we see record highs being set, day in and day out, Shum said.

Shum warned of the possibility of a sharp correction at some point, though unlikely in the near term.

Right now, there’s a lot of trading based on emotion — emotions are high and that could keep crude oil at elevated levels, but the market faces the risk of a price collapse.

The Japanese government on Friday urged the oil cartel OPEC to increase output to help ease record prices.

The high crude prices are gradually damaging the global economy. This will damage the economies of oil-producing countries, Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Akira Amari said.

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries holds its next policy meeting on March 5. It is likely to decide to keep current production levels unchanged, or even cut production, according to reported comments by OPEC President Chakib Khelil.

Khelil noted that oil inventories were growing, and that the recent rally in oil prices has been driven by the U.S. dollar’s weakness and speculative trades amid geopolitical risks.

Several OPEC ministers are just itching for a reason, any reason, to cut output. A number of OPEC countries have become as addicted to high prices as the West has become to their oil, Cameron Hanover’s report said.

The ministers may not be able to find any reason to cut production now, especially if oil prices keep rising. If they cannot, they will plan another meeting in five weeks and will cut output at the first hurdle.

Crude prices are within the range of inflation-adjusted highs set in early 1980. A $38 barrel of oil then would be worth $97 to $104 or more today, depending on the how the adjustment is calculated. A direct comparison with daily Nymex prices is difficult because historical data, gathered before the crude futures contract was created in 1983, are based on average monthly prices posted by oil producers.

In other Nymex trading, heating oil retreated 1.30 cents to $2.8326 a gallon while gasoline futures fell 1.17 cents to $2.4840 a gallon. Natural gas futures slipped 7 cents to $9.373 per 1,000 cubic feet.
Oil hits record high above $103 – found here.

Warner Bros. absorbs New Line

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) — Media giant Time Warner Inc. said Thursday its Warner Bros. Entertainment studio would absorb its New Line Cinema unit, an independent studio that redistributed quirky films like Reefer Madness and made blockbusters like The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

New Line founder Robert Shaye and his co-chief executive, Michael Lynne, decided to leave the 40-year-old studio but were discussing possible future business deals with the conglomerate.

New Line has been our respective life’s work as well as our second family, Shaye and Lynne said in a joint statement. While we’re sad to be leaving, we’re enormously proud to have overseen its extraordinary growth.

New Line will maintain separate development, production and marketing departments but will integrate those functions with its new parent division to cut costs and improve profitability, Time Warner said.

The new alignment also will help the two companies coordinate film releases and let New Line benefit from the international and digital distribution contracts of Warner Bros., the company said.

As an example of lost revenue opportunities, New Line’s The Golden Compass made $70 million domestically through February 24 but raked in $261 million abroad, from which the studio saw limited benefit because it had to sell those distribution rights to various other companies.

The Warner Bros. international network will allow Time Warner to reap such sales directly.

The move marks the first major restructuring effort by Time Warner President and CEO Jeff Bewkes since he took over as chief executive January 1.

Bewkes is under pressure to boost Time Warner’s share price, which stagnated during the tenure of Dick Parsons, who took over as CEO in 2002 after a difficult merger with AOL.

Shares fell 51 cents, or 3.1 percent, Thursday to close at $16.02 but rose 11 cents in after-hours trading.

Media analyst Howard Vogel called the New Line move a relatively easy and simple step to improve efficiency at Time Warner.

But he said it signaled the departure of two industry veterans who had established New Line’s edgy lineup with hits such as A Nightmare on Elm Street in 1984.

New Line was bought in 1994 by Ted Turner’s Turner Broadcasting System, which was acquired by Time Warner two years later.

They never intended to be part of Time Warner and Warner Bros., Vogel said of Shaye and Lynne.

New Line has several potential hits in production, such as the next film in the Rings series, The Hobbit, which is set for release in 2010, and Sex and the City: The Movie due to hit theaters in May.

Among Warner Bros.’ franchises are the Harry Potter series. It also made the recent movies Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street and I Am Legend.

Time Warner’s other divisions include AOL, Time Inc., Time Warner Cable, Home Box Office, Turner Broadcasting System and Warner Bros. Entertainment.
Warner Bros. absorbs New Line – found here.

Rogue trader cost MF Global $142M

NEW YORK (AP) — A rogue trader at MF Global rang up $141.5 million (93.6 million) in losses on the broker’s account this week, the company said Thursday, costing the company almost a fifth of its market value.

The Bermuda-based broker said on Wednesday morning it discovered Evan Dooley, a trader at the company’s Memphis, Tennessee, branch, trading wheat contracts in amounts that exceeded how much he was allowed to trade.

MF Global fired Dooley and liquidated the wheat contracts, which led to a $141.5 million (93.6 million) loss.

An entry-order system that should have blocked the trades failed, the company said.

Dooley had bought a few thousand lots of wheat futures contracts on the Chicago Board of Trade, MF Global said.

The price of wheat has surged in the past month because of constraints to global supply and swelling demand from China. E-mail to a friend

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Rogue trader cost MF Global $142M – found here.

Rogue trader cost MF Global $142M

NEW YORK (AP) — A rogue trader at MF Global rang up $141.5 million (93.6 million) in losses on the broker’s account this week, the company said Thursday, costing the company almost a fifth of its market value.

The Bermuda-based broker said on Wednesday morning it discovered Evan Dooley, a trader at the company’s Memphis, Tennessee, branch, trading wheat contracts in amounts that exceeded how much he was allowed to trade.

MF Global fired Dooley and liquidated the wheat contracts, which led to a $141.5 million (93.6 million) loss.

An entry-order system that should have blocked the trades failed, the company said.

Dooley had bought a few thousand lots of wheat futures contracts on the Chicago Board of Trade, MF Global said.

The price of wheat has surged in the past month because of constraints to global supply and swelling demand from China. E-mail to a friend

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Rogue trader cost MF Global $142M – found here.

Rogue trader cost MF Global $142M

NEW YORK (AP) — A rogue trader at MF Global rang up $141.5 million (93.6 million) in losses on the broker’s account this week, the company said Thursday, costing the company almost a fifth of its market value.

The Bermuda-based broker said on Wednesday morning it discovered Evan Dooley, a trader at the company’s Memphis, Tennessee, branch, trading wheat contracts in amounts that exceeded how much he was allowed to trade.

MF Global fired Dooley and liquidated the wheat contracts, which led to a $141.5 million (93.6 million) loss.

An entry-order system that should have blocked the trades failed, the company said.

Dooley had bought a few thousand lots of wheat futures contracts on the Chicago Board of Trade, MF Global said.

The price of wheat has surged in the past month because of constraints to global supply and swelling demand from China. E-mail to a friend

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Rogue trader cost MF Global $142M – found here.