House Republicans were expected to announce their own plan Tuesday to end the partial government shutdown and avert a default on the national debt. But House Speaker John Boehner came to the microphones and kept things very vague.
OMG!
Jon Bon Jovi just walked an Australian super fan down the aisle at her Las Vegas wedding on Saturday!! Aww, as if throwing on the white gown and marrying the man of your dreams isn't magical enough already, this must've just blown her mind!!!
Branka Delic married Gonzalo Cladera at the Sin City's Graceland Wedding Chapel, which happens to be the same place JBJ tied the knot himself back in 1989.
Coincidence? Not really! Branka loves the New Jersey rocker so much that she purposefully chose a chapel that once housed Jon's love! In fact, she even made an online petition in hopes of getting the Living On A Prayer singer to give her away himself!
We doubt anyone thought he'd take her up on the incredible offer, but we guess dreams really do come true!
Jon wound up stopping in at the chapel on the way to performing at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, and we're sure he changed their lives forever!
Congratulations to the newlyweds!!! Hopefully Gonzalo isn't stressing out about who Branka might be imagining every time she closes her eyes on their honeymoon!
Ch-ch-check more AH-Mazing pictures from the ceremony (below)!
[Image via David Bergman/Bon Jovi.com.]
Tags: branka delic, cute!, fan, gonzalo cladera, graceland wedding chapel, jon bon jovi, las vegas, sin city, wedding, wedding waltz
London (AFP) - London shares closed in positive territory on Monday with investors on edge over the approaching US debt deadline that has for now failed to overly alarm markets.
Adding to the volatility was a disappointing batch of Chinese economic data, while on the corporate front shares in French car giant Peugeot plunged.
The benchmark FTSE 100 index gained 0.32 percent to 6,507.65 points.
"It's hard to think about anything else but the budget negotiations in the United States this week! The October 17 date is nearing fast," economists from brokerage Aurel BGC in Paris said.
But Barclays analyst Renaud Murail said that despite the "absurd" situation in Washington, the market "refuses to reverse in the belief that a default will be avoided."
EU Economic Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn has warned that failure to raise the borrowing limit would "have potentially dramatic consequences on the world economy and on the still nascent recovery in Europe."
China and Japan -- which between them hold more than $2.4 trillion of US debt -- have also urged the United States to get its house in order and avert a default.
Back on the trading floor, Lloyds Banking Group (LBG) was the most traded stock by volume, with 79.74 million units changing hands, followed by telecoms giant Vodafone which saw 50.45 million units switch owners.
Precious metal group Johnson Matthey was the star performer after a broker upgrade from JPMorgan Cazenove, dealers said.
The upgrade created a stir among investors and the share price rose by 5.88 percent to close at 2,987 pence.
Builders' merchant Travis Perkins was also in demand and was up 5.07 percent to 1,763 pence after an upgrade from Bank of America.
Brewing giant SABMiller was the biggest faller after a broker downgrade from Citigroup, slipping 1.46 percent to 2,970 pence.
Glencore Xstrata was also under heavy selling pressure after a gloomy assessment from Liberum, dealers said.
The downgrade pushed shares in the Anglo-Swiss miner down 1.40 percent to 331.20 pence.
On the currency markets, sterling stole a march on both the dollar and the single currency.
The pound rose to $1.5997 at 5:15pm from $1.5938 at the same time on Friday, while it also edged up to 1.1782 euros from 1.1761 over the same period.
Tommy Hilfiger
Ends the Denim Debate
NEVER WASH YOUR JEANS
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Hilfiger was out in L.A. last night when we asked if it's okay not to wash your jeans all the time ... and Tommy says he NEVER washes his. Ever.
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WASHINGTON (AP) — World finance officials pledged on Saturday to deal with new risks to the global recovery while they kept up pressure on the United States to address the biggest threat of all — a market-rattling default on U.S. debt.
The International Monetary Fund's policy committee said the United States needed to take "urgent action" to address the budget impasse that has blocked approval of legislation to increase the government's borrowing limit before a fast-approaching Thursday deadline.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew, who has shuttled between the global finance talks and negotiations with Congress over the debt ceiling, has warned that he will exhaust his borrowing authority Thursday and the government will face the prospect of defaulting on its debt unless Congress raises the current $16.7 trillion borrowing limit.
Across town from the global finance meetings Saturday, an effort at the Capitol to pass a one-year extension of the borrowing limit failed to get sufficient votes. But in a more hopeful sign, negotiations to end a partial government shutdown, now in its 12th day, and raise the debt ceiling began between Democratic and Republican Senate leaders.
Global finance officials were nervously monitoring those talks during their three days of discussions, held around the annual meetings of the 188-nation IMF and its sister lending agency, the World Bank.
At a concluding news conference, World Bank President Jim Yong Kim stressed the urgency for Washington policymakers to reach agreement on raising the debt ceiling before the Thursday deadline.
Kim said if the debt ceiling is not increased, the economic fallout could include increased interest rates, slower global economic growth and falling business confidence. Such an outcome, he said, would have a "disastrous impact" on poor nations.
Mario Draghi, head of the European Central Bank, said Saturday that he found it "unthinkable that an agreement won't be found."
Draghi expressed hope that a resolution could be found soon.
"If this situation were to last a long time, it would be very negative for the U.S. economy and the world economy and could certainly harm the recovery."
Asked what might happen if the U.S. budget debate were not resolved for six months or more, Singapore Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam, the chairman of the IMF committee, said it would be harmful to the entire world because it would be a blow to the confidence that is needed for businesses to make investment decisions.
Adopting language used Friday by the Group of 20 major economies, the IMF's policy panel in its closing statement said, "The United States needs to take urgent action to address" the uncertainties created by the budget impasse.
The IMF panel called on emerging economies, which have been key in recent years to global growth, to undertake the reforms they need to better withstand the adjustments that will come as central banks such as the Federal Reserve begin the process of withdrawing the economic support that has kept interest rates at ultralow levels.
Emerging market economies benefited from investment flows as investors poured money into those nations during the period when rates were low in the United States and other major economies. But many of the emerging economies have been rocked in the past few months as the investment flows reversed as investors rushed for the exits following the Fed's signals in June that U.S. higher rates could be coming.
Countries such as India and Indonesia have been among the hardest hit as their currencies and stock prices tumbled.
In addition for the need for developing countries to improve their economic fundamentals to withstand the transition, the IMF called on the Fed and other major central banks to pursue interest-rate policies that are "carefully calibrated and clearly communicated."
Critics have charged that the Fed has botched its communications strategy and left investors confused while Fed officials contend that the economy has not improved as expected, and because of that, it delayed an expected initial reduction in bond purchases at the September meeting.
Now with the hit to the U.S. economy from the partial government shutdown and the uncertainty over the debt ceiling, many economists believe the Fed will not start trimming its $85 billion in monthly bond buys until next year after Vice Chair Janet Yellen, who was nominated this week to succeed Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, takes over in February. Her nomination by President Barack Obama must win Senate approval.
Many economists believe that once the transition has been accomplished, the global economy should actually begin growing at better rates in part because less support from the Fed will mean the U.S. economy is doing better and serving as a market for foreign products.
"A while ago there was an excess of exuberance and now perhaps an excess of pessimism," Alexandre Tombini, the head of Brazil's central bank, told the International Monetary Fund's policy-setting panel Saturday.
Lew told finance ministers that the United States understands the role it plays as "the anchor of the international financial system." He assured the finance officials that the administration was doing all it could to reach a resolution with Congress to reopen the government and increase the borrowing limit.
Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov, whose country currently holds the rotating chair of the G-20, told reporters that no emergency plans had been discussed by the group to deal with the potentially catastrophic impact on the global economy of a U.S. debt default.
"We trust the U.S. authorities will find a way out of this complex situation," Siluanov said. Other finance leaders attending the meeting said they saw the risk of default as remote.
NEW YORK (AP) -- Shares of oil and natural gas company Antero Resources Corp. soared in its trading debut.
The stock added $8.15, or 18.5 percent, to $52.15 in midday trading Thursday after rising as high as $55.02 earlier.
Antero priced its initial public offering of approximately 35.7 million shares at $44 each. That is above the 30 million shares the company originally said it was going to offer, and the pricing tops the $38 to $42 per share projected price range given in September.
Antero raised about $1.57 billion in the offering.
The selling stockholder is giving the underwriters a 30-day option to buy up to an additional 3.4 million shares to cover any excess demand. The company is giving the underwriters a 30-day option to buy up to an additional 1.9 million shares.
Denver-based Antero said that it plans to use net proceeds to repay outstanding borrowings under its credit facility. It won't receive any proceeds from shares sold by the selling stockholder.
The shares are trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the "AR" ticker symbol.
The offering is expected to close on Wednesday.
