Adorable vacuum robot can talk to you in three languages
May 8, 2012
By Tecca | Today in Tech – When it comes to robotic vacuum cleaners, Roomba’s still the most well-known model. But there’s a new vacuum robot from Japan that’s attempting to conquer our hearts.
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By Tecca | Today in Tech –
When it comes to robotic vacuum cleaners, Roomba’s still the most well-known model. But there’s a new vacuum robot from Japan that’s attempting to conquer our hearts. And it can not only suck up all the dirt and grime from every corner of your home, but also talk to you in three different languages.
Talk to Sharp’s dinner plate-sized Cocorobo, and it responds to you with the (metallic) voice of a young boy in Japanese, Chinese, or English. It can even speak in Kansai, which is a more laid-back and witty Japanese dialect used in some of the country’s provinces. Ask it “How’s it going?” and it will reply with: “So good.” Adorable! Even its name is endearing: Cocorobo is a portmanteau of “kokoro,” which is the Japanese word for heart, and “robot.”
While it can’t be controlled by your voice, it could be a great companion during lazy Sunday mornings when there’s no one else awake in the house but you. Not that it needs to be controlled: The vacuum is completely autonomous and can navigate around your furniture on its own. And if you want to use its built-in camera to look behind the sofa for your missing remote control, you can see what it sees by using its upcoming Android or iPhone app.
You may have to wait for quite some time before Cocorobo makes it way stateside, though. It will be out in Japan next month for $1,600, and will head to China and other Asian countries next.
(Source)
This article was written by Mariella Moon and originally appeared on Tecca
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Japan Stock Futures Drop as French Socialist Wins Poll
May 6, 2012
Japanese and Australian stock futures fell amid growing concern over Europe’s debt crisis after Socialist Francois Hollande was elected president of France and Greek voters flocked to anti-bailout parties. American depositary receipts of Nissan Motor Co
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Japanese and Australian stock futures fell amid growing concern over Europe’s debt crisis after Socialist Francois Hollande was elected president of France and Greek voters flocked to anti-bailout parties.
American depositary receipts of Nissan Motor Co. (7201), a carmaker that gets almost 80 percent of its revenue overseas, sank 3.4 percent from the closing share price in Tokyo. Those of Canon Inc. (7751), a camera maker that depends on Europe for almost a third of its sales, lost 2.2 percent after the euro fell against the yen, cutting the exporter’s earnings outlook. ADRs of BHP Billiton Ltd. (BHP), the world’s No. 1 mining company, slid 1.7 percent after prices for oil and metals slipped.
Futures on Japan’s Nikkei 225 Stock Average expiring in June closed at 9,150 in Chicago on May 4, down from 9,220 in Singapore. Japanese markets were closed on May 3 and 4 for national holidays. They were bid in the pre-market at 9,140 in Osaka at 8:05 a.m. local time. Futures on Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index lost 1.2 percent today. New Zealand’s NZX 50 Index fell 0.2 percent in Wellington.
“There’s concern that the European debt problem may get serious. The euro is being sold in the currency market and that’s negative for Japanese stocks,” said Toshiyuki Kanayama, a market analyst at Tokyo-based Monex Inc. “In the U.S., the job recovery is getting sluggish, fueling concern that may have a bad impact on consumer spending and housing markets.”
U.S. Employment
Futures on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index (SPX) fell 1.1 percent today. The index sank 1.6 percent in New York on May 4 after a report showed payrolls climbed 115,000 in April, the smallest gain in six months and below economists’ estimates for a 160,000 advance. The jobless rate unexpectedly fell to a three-year low of 8.1 percent as people left the labor force. Concern about Europe’s debt crisis also pushed stocks lower as services and manufacturing output in the euro region shrank.
The euro fell to its lowest level against the yen in almost three months low as Socialist Hollande was elected president and Greek voters flocked to anti-bailout parties, stoking concern austerity efforts in Europe may be derailed.
The euro weakened to as low as 103.24 yen today in Tokyo, compared with 106.20 yen at the close of stock trading on May 2. The dollar also depreciated to 79.67 yen from 80.37 yen, cutting the value of some overseas income at Japanese companies when repatriated.
Crude Below $100
Oil fell below $100 a barrel for the first time since February. Crude oil for June delivery sank 4 percent to $98.49 a barrel in New York on May 4, the lowest settlement since Feb. 7.
The London Metal Exchange Index of prices for six industrial metals including copper and aluminum fell 0.4 percent on May 4. The Thomson Reuters/Jefferies CRB Index of raw materials slipped 1.4 percent.
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index (MXAP) gained 9 percent this year through May 4, compared with an 8.9 percent advance by the S&P 500 and a 3.5 percent increase by the Stoxx Europe 600 Index. Stocks in the Asian benchmark are valued at 1.3 times book value, compared with 2.2 times for the S&P 500 and 1.4 times for the Stoxx 600, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. A number below 1 means companies can be bought for less than value of their assets.
To contact the reporters on this story: Norie Kuboyama in Tokyo at nkuboyama@bloomberg.net; Satoshi Kawano in Tokyo at skawano1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: John McCluskey at j.mccluskey@bloomberg.net
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After foreign haul, ‘Battleship’ faces choppy seas
May 4, 2012
By RYAN NAKASHIMA | Associated Press – LOS ANGELES (AP) — “Battleship,” the first in a string of movies based on Hasbro board games, has survived an armada of tomato-throwing critics and chugged to $170 million in ticket sales overseas. Yet it faces choppy seas as it steams toward its U.S. debut on May 18.
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By RYAN NAKASHIMA | Associated Press –
LOS ANGELES (AP) — “Battleship,” the first in a string of movies based on Hasbro board games, has survived an armada of tomato-throwing critics and chugged to $170 million in ticket sales overseas.
Yet it faces choppy seas as it steams toward its U.S. debut on May 18. What might sink “Battleship” is competition from other hotly expected blockbusters, including the superhero adventure “The Avengers,” which opens Friday, and Sony’s long-awaited “Men in Black III,” which rolls out May 23.
“It could drown in amongst all of those big titles,” says Blake Howard, director of Australian review site Castleco-op.com.
He says the movie’s “popcorn escapism” was good enough to succeed in a regular year. This summer, it has unusually tough competition.
The hit-or-miss fate of a given Hollywood big-budget movie doesn’t normally matter that much. Media company analysts discount the studios as too volatile to be given much credit inside large conglomerates.
But “Battleship” is the first board game movie since “Clue” tanked in 1985. It’s a barometer for the appetite of audiences for a handful of other Hasbro board game movies, including Universal‘s own “Ouija,” due out next year, as well as “Risk” and “Candy Land,” which are in the works at Sony Corp.’s movie studio.
Universal Pictures took the unusual step of releasing “Battleship” in international markets five weeks before its U.S. debut. Part of that was to avoid competing with “The Avengers,” the Disney/Marvel movie that brings together “Iron Man,” ”The Incredible Hulk” and other superheroes from previous films. It also wanted to give a wide berth to European Cup soccer starting June 8.
The overseas haul for “Battleship” goes part way to justifying its reported $209 million price tag. But after subtracting splits with theater owners and marketing costs, it is estimated to need about half a billion dollars at box offices to turn a profit.
That’s tough given the competition. In a little more than one week, “The Avengers” snagged $304 million abroad, far more than “Battleship” did in three weeks. “The Avengers,” fuelled by gushing reviews and a fan base that has been building since “Iron Man” in 2008, could break the domestic opening weekend record of $169 million.
Both movies squarely target the young males that make or break Hollywood movies in the all-important summer movie season.
“Battleship” has mixed momentum coming to the U.S. Just 48 percent of critics on review site Rotten Tomatoes gave it a positive review, compared with 93 percent for “The Avengers.” The most generous critics have still heaped cynicism on the board-game tie-ins, such as a scene in which American soldiers use a grid to fire blindly at alien ships in a strained nod to the board game.
“The only thing to do is raise the white flag and surrender to the film’s awesome silliness,” writes British reviewer Jason Best with the What’s On TV website.
American patriotic militarism is accepted overseas, but not relished, and international audiences appear to have overlooked a heavy dose of it in “Battleship” to get their special effects-laden action movie fix. It probably helped that a Japanese co-star, pop icon Rihanna and a disabled veteran helped the American hero save Earth from outer-space invaders.
“I think it literally just comes down to: People like explosions and action movies abroad,” says Oliver Lyttleton, a U.K.-based writer for The Playlist blog.
He believes that won’t prevent the movie from losing money. “I don’t think we’ll see a Battleship 2.”
Executives from Hasbro Inc. and Universal, a division of Comcast Corp., declined to comment ahead of the domestic release.
The movie represents the hopes of both companies for a big franchise, a series that sells billions of dollars in toys and tickets, the way “Transformers” did for Hasbro and Viacom Inc.’s Paramount Pictures.
Given the results so far, a more realistic benchmark for “Battleship” is “G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra.” The Hasbro toy-inspired movie from 2009 generated $300 million in ticket sales worldwide, about half of it overseas. That was good enough to spawn a sequel, “G.I. Joe: Retaliation,” which hits some overseas theaters June 21.
“Battleship” also doesn’t have to be as big as Warner Bros.’ “Harry Potter” to become a bankable franchise. If it makes some money, it could add to Universal‘s relatively successful series, such as the “Bourne” and “Fast Five” movies.
“If they have three really strong franchises and a bunch of other movies in their slate that are going to perform well, that’s absolutely fine,” says Paul Dergarabedian, the box office president of Hollywood.com.
But he added, “in order to warrant the investment of a franchise built around it, it’s going to have to do quite well here in North America.”
___
Online:
Blake Howard‘s review: http://bit.ly/IKPVl0
Jason Best’s review: http://bit.ly/J1yhpC
Oliver Lyttleton’s review: http://bit.ly/J0T2Aa
For the Earth-concious billionaire: A million dollar electric sports car
May 2, 2012
By Tecca | Today in Tech – Ultra-expensive luxury vehicles aren’t exactly known as being fuel efficient. The Bugatti Veyron, for example, gets a shameful 10 miles per gallon
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By Tecca | Today in Tech –
Ultra-expensive luxury vehicles aren’t exactly known as being fuel efficient. The Bugatti Veyron, for example, gets a shameful 10 miles per gallon. The Rimac Concept_One sports car wants to shake up those preconceptions — it’s an electric sports car that puts other electric vehicles to shame by virtually every measure other than price. That’s the only catch: This two-door beast will set you back just under $1 million. But hey, if you’re going to spend a million dollars on a sports car, it might as well be Earth-friendly.
As you’d expect, the Concept_One is blazing fast — it boasts a top speed of 190 mph, and can accelerate to 62 mph in 2.8 seconds. Where this supercar really shines, though, is in its range. According to Rimac, the 1,066 hp engine can power the Concept_One for a full 372 miles on a single charge, nearly double the range of the bargain-priced SIM-Lei Japanese concept car.
Only 88 of these electric vehicles are being made, so if you want one, you’d better act fast. After all, getting the paperwork done on that second, third, and fourth mortgage so you can afford the $980,000 price tag is going to take some time.
[Rimac via Mashable]
This article was written by Fox Van Allen and originally appeared on Tecca
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Eastman Kodak 1Q loss widens
April 27, 2012
Associated Press – NEW YORK (AP) — Eastman Kodak Co. said Friday that its first-quarter loss widened on hefty charges related to its reorganization under bankruptcy protection and a drop in sales. The Rochester, N.Y.-based company , which filed for bankruptcy protection in January, said its net loss swelled to $366 million, or $1.35 per share, for the January-March period.
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Associated Press –
NEW YORK (AP) — Eastman Kodak Co. said Friday that its first-quarter loss widened on hefty charges related to its reorganization under bankruptcy protection and a drop in sales.
The Rochester, N.Y.-based company, which filed for bankruptcy protection in January, said its net loss swelled to $366 million, or $1.35 per share, for the January-March period. In the year-ago period, it lost $246 million, or 91 cents per share.
Revenue fell 27 percent to $965 million, partially as a result of the company’s decision to stop selling digital cameras and focus on its other businesses and lower demand for its traditional products. The company also lost $61 million in revenue related to a tax refund sharing agreement for intellectual property licensees.
At the same time, selling, general and administrative expenses dropped 27 percent to $227 million, as Kodak cut spending for unprofitable business lines and consolidated its operations into two business segments.
Kodak noted that profitability improved, at least somewhat, at its two remaining businesses.
Losses at the company’s consumer business fell to $164 million from $187 million a year ago on cost cuts and a jump in demand for ink used in inkjet photo printers. Meanwhile, losses at Kodak’s commercial business totaled $64 million, down from $67 million, as a result of lower operating costs, the company said.
“Kodak is focusing on its opportunities, reducing costs, and fine-tuning the balance between liquidity and growth to enable the enterprise to emerge from its Chapter 11 restructuring in 2013 as a leaner, stronger, and sustainable business,” Antonio Perez, Kodak’s chairman and chief executive, said in a statement.
Kodak, founded in 1880, filed for bankruptcy protection in January after being hurt first by Japanese competition and then by its inability to keep pace with the shift from film to digital technology over the past decade.
The company subsequently announced plans to stop making digital cameras, pocket video cameras and digital picture frames, saying that it sees home photo printers, high-speed commercial inkjet presses, workflow software and packaging as the core of its future business.
Since 2005, Kodak has poured hundreds of millions of dollars into new lines of inkjet printers. Once the digital camera business is phased out, Kodak said its consumer business will focus on printing and it will seek a company to license its digital camera brand.
Stock Futures Slide Amid Debt, Economic Worries
April 23, 2012
FOX Business: The Power to Prosper Stock-index futures followed European markets deep into the red on Monday as traders fretted about political developments that threaten to derail progress on fighting Europe’s debt crisis and weak economic data. Today’s Markets As of 8:18 a.m.
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FOX Business: The Power to Prosper
Stock-index futures followed European markets deep into the red on Monday as traders fretted about political developments that threaten to derail progress on fighting Europe’s debt crisis and weak economic data.
Today’s Markets
As of 8:18 a.m. ET, Dow Jones Industrial Average futures fell 135 points to 12853, S&P 500 futures dipped 14.9 points to 1360 and Nasdaq 100 futures dropped 24 points to 2650.
Market participants had a slew of headlines from across the globe to digest to kick off what may be a busy trading week.
Markit’s eurozone PMI gauge suggested the 17-member currency bloc’s economic output contracted at the swiftest pace in five months in April. The measure came in at 47.4, down from 49.1 in March. Readings above 50 point to expansion, while those below indicate contraction.
Germany, Europe’s powerhouse economy, saw activity in its important manufacturing sector contract at a the swiftest pace in 33 months. Meanwhile, France’s key service-sector activity slumped to a six-month low.
“Germany’s economy continued to rest on a knife edge of recession in April, with modest service sector growth only just counterbalancing the escalating manufacturing downturn,” Tim Moore, a senior economist at Markit said in a note accompanying the data.
Also on the European front, talks aimed at bringing the Netherlands’ deficit in-line with a fiscal compact agreed to by all members of the eurozone broke down, threatening to force the resignation of Prime Minister Mark Rutte, according to multiple news reports.
The developments in the Netherlands “not only threatens early elections in the Netherlands, but also poses a significant threat to the effective ratification of the fiscal compact, the central plank in (German) Chancellor Merkel’s strategy for addressing the eurozone crisis,” analysts at Nomura wrote in a note to clients.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy came in second to Socialist candidate François Hollande in a preliminary election contest. Sarkozy is a major part of the eurozone’s drive to enforce tough austerity measures in its bid to fight the debt crisis. As a result, analysts said a loss by Sarkozy could be destabilizing.
In Asia, another PMI survey by HSBC showed China’s manufacturing sector contracted at a slower rate in April from the month prior.
There are also a slew of corporate earnings on tap for this week, with 176 companies set to report.
ConocoPhillips (COP) reported weaker-than-expected adjusted quarterly profit, knocking sales lower. Kellogg (K) also posted a disappointing quarterly profit, and pared back its full-year outlook.
Commodities were to the downside. Crude oil traded in New York sold off by $1.12, or 1.1%, to $102.75 a barrel. Wholesale New York harbor gasoline dipped 0.57% to $3.12 a gallon.
In metals, gold fell $12.70, or 0.8%, to $1,630 a troy ounce.
Foreign Markets
European markets tumbled 2.2%, the English FTSE 100 fell 1.6% to 5680 and the German DAX sold off by 2.7% to 6570.
In Asia, the Japanese Nikkei 225 slipped 0.2% to 9542 and the Chinese Hang Seng dropped 0.79% to 20624.
Stock Futures Slip After Rally
April 18, 2012
FOX Business: The Power to Prosper Stock-index futures signaled Wall Street may pull back as traders take a breather following Tuesday’s surge and mulled unexpectedly hawkish commentary from global central banks. Today’s Markets As 8:00 a.m.
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FOX Business: The Power to Prosper
Stock-index futures signaled Wall Street may pull back as traders take a breather following Tuesday’s surge and mulled unexpectedly hawkish commentary from global central banks.
Today’s Markets
As 8:00 a.m. ET, Dow Jones Industrial Average futures fell 29 points to 12995, S&P 500 futures dipped 2.8 points to 1381 and Nasdaq 100 futures dropped 6 points to 2707.
The S&P 500 soared 1.6% in a broad-based rally on Tuesday as traders cheered generally upbeat first-quarter earnings from several big companies and brushed aside worries about the eurozone debt crisis. The mood across American and European trading desks was decidedly dimmer on Wednesday.
Minutes from the Bank of England showed that only one individual on the central bank’s policy-setting board pushed for additional quantitative easing to help sooth financial markets and boost the Great Britain’s economy. Traders were expecting more support for additional easing, according to analysts at Nomura.
The Riksbank, which is Sweden’s central bank, also held interest rates steady. Some analysts there were anticipating a rate cut, but it was “a very close call,” Barclays Capital said in a research note. Barclays also noted that the Riksbank’s commentary was also generally more upbeat than was expected.
Overall, market participants are beginning to question whether global central banks are going to reduce stimulus plans as the economy starts to recover and inflationary headwinds tick higher. They also remained cautious about the debt situation in Spain, with a long-term debt sale just looming just a day away. Indeed, Germany paid a record low interest rate on its two-year notes at an auction on Wednesday as traders shifted into the safe-haven asset, according to data from the Wall Street Journal.
European blue chips slid 1.7%, while the greenback climbed 0.43% as tracked by the dollar index.
In earnings news, Halliburton (HAL), the world’s second-biggest oilfield servicing company, said its profits and revenue climbed on a year-to-year basis in the first quarter, coming in ahead of analysts’ expectations. Yahoo (YHOO) posted earnings that beat expectations after the closing bell on Tuesday, boosting its shares. However, Dow component Intel (INTC) fell after offering relatively week gross margin forecast for the second quarter. IBM (IBM), another blue chip, also dipped after missing revenue expectations in its first quarter.
American Express (AXP) and EBay (EBAY) are both set to post results after the close of trading on Wednesday.
Commodities were mostly in the red. Crude oil traded in New York fell 10 cents, or 0.1%, to $104.11 a barrel. Wholesale New York Harbor gasoline slid 4 cents, or 1.4%, to $3.19 a gallon.
In metals, gold slumped $9.80, or 0.59%, to $1,641 a troy ounce. The yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury fell 0.01-percentage point to 1.992%.
Foreign Markets
European blue chips slid 1.7%, the English FTSE 100 dropped 0.48% to 5739 and the German DAX dipped 0.91% to 6739.
In Asia, the Japanese Nikkei 225 rallied 2.1% to 9667 and the Chinese Hang Seng rose 1.1% to 20781.
Japanese Stock Drop as Europe Debt Crisis Concern Flares
April 8, 2012
Japanese stock futures dropped as U.S. employers added fewer jobs than forecast, damping the outlook for a recovery in the world’s biggest economy and denting the earnings prospects for Asian exporters. American depositary receipts of Kyocera Corp
Originally posted here:
Japanese stock futures dropped as U.S. employers added fewer jobs than forecast, damping the outlook for a recovery in the world’s biggest economy and denting the earnings prospects for Asian exporters.
American depositary receipts of Kyocera Corp. (6971), an electronics maker that gets more than half of its sales overseas, lost 1.5 percent from the closing share price in Tokyo as the yen strengthening against the dollar. Those of Mitsubishi Corp., Japan’s largest commodities trader by market value, slid 1.3 percent after oil prices slid. Shares of Nachi-Fujikoshi Corp. may be active after the bearing maker posted lower profit.
“The results of the employment data may be a disappointment to investors,” said Hideyuki Ishiguro, assistant manager of investment strategy at Okasan Securities Co. in Tokyo. “People in the markets expected U.S. jobs would improve.”
Futures on Japan’s Nikkei 225 Stock Average (NKY) were bid in the pre-market at 9,540 in Osaka at 8:05 a.m. compared with 9,680 at the close on April 6. Markets in Australia, New Zealand and Hong Kong are closed today for a holiday.
Futures on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index (SPXL1) sank 1.2 percent today after the Labor Department said on April 6 that U.S. employers added 120,000 jobs in March, the lowest number in five months. The data also showed the unemployment rate fell to 8.2 percent as people left the labor force, while workers put in fewer hours. Markets in the U.S. were closed April 6 for a national holiday.
The yen appreciated to as high as 81.24 against the dollar today in Tokyo, compared with 82.27 at the close of stock trading on April 6. Against the euro, Japan’s currency strengthened to 106.30 from 107.55. A stronger yen cuts the value of some overseas income for Japanese companies.
Crude oil for May delivery dropped as much as 1.2 percent to $102.03 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange today.
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index (MXAP) gained 9.7 percent this year through April 6, compared with an 11.2 percent advance by the S&P 500 and a 5.9 percent increase by the Stoxx Europe 600 Index. Stocks in the Asian benchmark are valued at 1.4 times book value, compared with 2.3 times for the S&P 500 and 1.4 times for the Stoxx 600, according to Bloomberg data. A number below 1 means companies can be bought for less than value of their assets.
To contact the reporters on this story: Norie Kuboyama in Tokyo at nkuboyama@bloomberg.net; Toshiro Hasegawa in Tokyo at thasegawa6@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Nick Gentle at ngentle2@bloomberg.net.
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Capital gains on grandma's stock
April 7, 2012
My husband received 100 shares of stock from his grandmother back in the 90s. The stock split, and a company spun off, and that company was acquired by a private Japanese company in 2007. The Japanese company paid cash for the stock, and we received this cash payment in December 2008.
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My husband received 100 shares of stock from his grandmother back in the 90s. The stock split, and a company spun off, and that company was acquired by a private Japanese company in 2007. The Japanese company paid cash for the stock, and we received this cash payment in December 2008. Now we have to declare capital gains on this cash. How on earth do we figure out those capital gains? I understand we’re supposed to figure the difference between the sale price and the purchase price all the way back when the stock was purchased by his grandmother, but we have no way to get the initial purchase price. Can you help us figure this out?
The capital gain or loss on the sale of a stock is computed by taking the difference between the proceeds received from the sale and the tax basis of the stock. The tax basis of the stock is the original purchase price plus any associated costs to purchase the stock such as brokerage fees or transaction fees. The difficulty in your situation (as you have alluded to) is determining the tax basis for stock that may have been purchased years or decades ago before your husband received it. The tax basis for your husband’s stock will be determined based on how he received it from his grandmother. In general, if his grandmother gifted the stock to him, the tax basis will be the tax basis that she had before she gifted it or the fair market value of the stock on the date of the gift. If your husband inherited the stock from his grandmother, the tax basis will generally be the fair market value of the stock on the date of her death.
Let’s take a look at each of these situations in more detail starting with the easier of the two. If your husband inherited the stock from his grandmother, you can look up the historical stock price on his grandmother’s date of death and use that as the starting point for your tax basis. In general, inherited securities receive a “step-up” or “step-down” in basis to the value on the date of death so you won’t need to go all the way back to his grandmother’s original purchase date(s) to determine the tax basis. Once you’ve determined the date of death value you can make adjustments to the tax basis from that date forward to account for any capital changes that may have occurred since you inherited the stock. If there were no capital changes, the date-of-death value becomes your tax basis.
For tax purposes, capital changes are changes that the company goes through that effect the value of their stock price and your tax basis in that stock. Examples of capital changes include stock splits, stock redemptions, mergers and acquisitions, etc. There are several ways to find out what capital changes have occurred for a company and how they affected your stock. Some publicly traded companies provide details on their corporate web site. If the company is no longer publicly traded or the information is not available through their web site, the task becomes more difficult and will require more work to find the information you need. There are reference materials that track the capital changes of companies. These materials can be expensive and difficult to find but some libraries may have them. If you use a tax preparer to do your return, see if they have access to this information. I believe many of the larger CPA firms and tax law firms have them. Another source may be your or your grandmother’s broker. Brokers may have access to this type of information through their research departments but I don’t know how easy it is for their clients to access this information.
If your husband received the stock as a gift, determining the starting point for your tax basis will likely involve more work. In this case you will need to know the fair market value of the stock when the gift was received. To make things a little less confusing, we’ll refer to your husband’s grandmother as the donor for purposes of this discussion. If the fair market value of the stock on the date of the gift was higher than the donor’s tax basis (for the stock), the starting point for your tax basis would be the same as the donor’s basis. Therefore, you would need to try to trace the value of the stock from its original purchase plus any capital changes since then to determine the correct tax basis.
If the fair market value of the stock on the date of the gift is lower than the donor’s tax basis, the starting point for your tax basis would be either the fair market value as of the date of the gift or the donor’s basis depending on what you end up selling the stock for. If you sell the stock for more than the donor’s basis, you should use the donor’s basis to compute your gain. If you sell the stock for less than the fair market value of the stock on the date of the gift, you should use the fair market value on the date of the gift as your basis. If you sell the stock for an amount between the donor’s tax basis and the fair market value of the stock on the date of the gift, you will record no gain or loss for the sale.
In the end, if your husband received the stock as a gift, you will need to determine to the best of your ability the original purchase date(s) and then trace the history forward to determine his grandmother’s tax basis in the stock. If possible see if there is any way to find old trade confirmations, account statements and tax returns that may provide you with information about the purchase date(s) and value. Also, try to work with your or your grandmother’s broker to see how they can help. Unfortunately, if all else fails, you may have to consider recording the tax basis as zero and paying capital gains on the entire amount of your proceeds. I would consider this a viable option if the time and expense of determining the basis outweighs your potential tax savings.
Market Snapshot: Stock futures, dollar sink after jobs data
April 6, 2012
By Polya Lesova, MarketWatch NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — U.S. stock futures and the dollar slumped Friday, while Treasury prices surged after government data delivered an unwelcome surprise on a day when most markets were closed: Only 120,000 jobs were created in March, well below market expectations.
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By Polya Lesova, MarketWatch
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — U.S. stock futures and the dollar slumped Friday, while Treasury prices surged after government data delivered an unwelcome surprise on a day when most markets were closed: Only 120,000 jobs were created in March, well below market expectations.
Equity futures had been slightly higher, but turned sharply lower after the Labor Department report — the first time since November that job growth dropped below the 200,000 level. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch expected a rise of 210,000.
The unemployment rate fell to 8.2% from 8.3%, mostly because more people dropped out of the work force.
Read more about the jobs report.
Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average
/quotes/zigman/8750834 DJM2
-1.06%
dropped 132 points to 12,846 and those on the Standard & Poor’s 500 stock index
/quotes/zigman/900181 SPM2
-1.17%
fell 15.30 points to 1,374.90.
U.S. added 120,000 jobs in March
The U.S. economy added 120,000 jobs last month, less than expected and an indication that momentum could be slowing. Phil Izzo and David Wessel have the details. Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Nasdaq 100 futures
/quotes/zigman/4225619 NDM2
-1.13%
declined 30 points to 2,723.70.
The U.S. stock market is closed for the Good Friday holiday, but U.S. stock futures gave an indication of how the market may open on Monday when traders return from the long Easter weekend.
As the stock market’s traditionally worst six-month period (May through October) is approaching and after a blowout first quarter, some on Wall Street see a stock slide looming.
Read more about the outlook for stocks.
U.S. equities closed this week with losses. The Dow
/quotes/zigman/627449 DJIA
-0.11%
fell 0.1% on Thursday, posting a weekly loss of 1.2% for its worst week since mid-December. The S&P 500
/quotes/zigman/3870025 SPX
-0.06%
also ended marginally lower yesterday, registering a loss of 0.7%.
Read more about Thursday’s action.
The jobs report “likely means that QE3 [a third round of quantitative easing] is alive and about to be implemented, but that is not all,” said Kevin Giddis, fixed-income strategist at Morgan Keegan & Co., in emailed comments. “There are increased worries about the euro zone and investors appear to [be] more defensive in their spending,” he noted.
/conga/story/misc/dc.html
201558
This week, concerns about the euro-zone debt crisis were rekindled by a poor bond auction in Spain, which triggered a spike in borrowing costs for the southern European nation.
“The bottom line is that as long as Europe is unsettled, as long as the job market is less than steady, as long as the Fed keeps pumping new stimulus into the market, yields will stay low and investors will stay where the water is calm…in Treasurys,” Giddis said.
Bonds rally
Investors sought the perceived safety of government bonds Friday; the bond market is open for a holiday-shortened session.
Treasury prices rallied, pushing yields lower.
The yield on benchmark 10-year Treasury notes
/quotes/zigman/4868283/delayed 10_YEAR
0.00%
, which move inversely to prices, sank 13 basis points to 2.05%. The yield was at 2.193% shortly before the release of the jobs data.
Read more about the action in the bond market.
In the currency markets, the dollar fell against other major currencies, posting a particularly steep drop against the Japanese yen, which tends to be seen as a safe-haven currency.
Read Currencies.
The dollar index
/quotes/zigman/1652083 DXY
-0.26%
, which tracks the performance of the greenback against a basket of rivals, dropped to 79.826 in afternoon trade from 80.084 before the data. The index traded at 80.101 late Thursday.
The dollar
/quotes/zigman/4868099/sampled USDJPY
+0.0154%
fell 0.8% against the Japanese unit to 81.57 yen, while the euro
/quotes/zigman/4867933/sampled EURUSD
+0.0052%
gained 0.3% to $1.3096.
The commodity markets are closed on Friday.
US
: CBOT Consolidated
$
12,841.00
-137.00
-1.06%
Volume: 32.00
April 6, 2012 1:13p
US
: CME GLOBEX
Volume: 1,370
April 6, 2012 8:14a
US
: CME GLOBEX
Volume: 189.00
April 6, 2012 8:14a
US
: DJ-Index
Volume: 109.53M
April 5, 2012 4:30p
US
: S&P Base CME
Volume: 538.04M
April 5, 2012 4:37p
US
: ICAP Sovereign Debt
Volume: 0.00
April 6, 2012 1:20p
US
: ICE Fut Elec
Volume: 0.00
April 6, 2012 5:00p
US
: ICAP Currencies
Volume: 0.0000
April 6, 2012 5:29p
US
: ICAP Currencies
Volume: 0.0000
April 6, 2012 5:29p
Polya Lesova is MarketWatch’s New York deputy bureau chief.
