Wall Street flat near five-year highs, Travelers rallies

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks were little changed near five-year highs on Tuesday as investors held back from making large bets ahead of earnings from key tech companies.

Both the Dow and S&P 500 closed at their highest levels so far in this earnings season, with the gains largely coming on better-than-expected results. But despite bullish statements from major companies, many investors are worried economic uncertainty in the fourth quarter hurt earnings and revenues.

Weaker-than-expected economic data had little impact on stocks. Existing-home sales unexpectedly fell in December, dropping 1 percent, according to the National Association of Realtors. Analysts were looking for a rise of 1.2 percent.

Recently Apple Inc and Intel Corp gave weak outlooks, calling the tech sector' outlook into question. Three tech companies are due to report after the market's close: Google Inc, International Business Machines and Texas Instruments.

"Markets are quiet today with many investors taking a wait-and-see approach to tonight's tech earnings," said Douglas DePietro, managing director at Evercore Partners in New York. "There's still room for us to rise from here, but right now most of the action is in specific stocks."

Four Dow components reported early on Tuesday, and three rose on the results. Insurer Travelers Cos was the stand-out, climbing 3.4 percent to $78.90 as the S&P 500's biggest percentage gainer after it forecast higher premiums across its business.

DuPont, the largest U.S. chemical company by market capitalization, reported revenue that was ahead of Wall Street expectations, while Verizon Communications Inc also posted revenue that beat forecasts.

Shares of DuPont were up 0.6 percent at $47.24 while Verizon rose 0.3 percent to $42.67.

On the downside, Johnson & Johnson, the diversified health company, fell 0.5 percent to $72.87 after forecasting 2013 earnings below expectations.

The Dow Jones industrial average was down 6.07 points, or 0.04 percent, at 13,643.63. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was down 1.56 points, or 0.10 percent, at 1,484.42. The Nasdaq Composite Index was down 2.52 points, or 0.08 percent, at 3,132.19.

Monday was a market holiday for Martin Luther King Jr. Day in the United States. President Barack Obama at his inauguration for a second term on Monday called for aggressive action on climate change, economic equality and the federal budget.

Markets have recently been pressured by uncertainty stemming from Washington about the federal debt limit and spending cuts that could hamper U.S. growth.

Republican leaders in the House of Representatives said they aim to pass on Wednesday a nearly four-month extension of the U.S. debt limit, allowing the government to borrow enough to meet its obligations during that period.

Overall, S&P 500 fourth-quarter earnings rose 2.5 percent, according to Thomson Reuters data.

U.S. shares of Research in Motion jumped 8.2 percent to $17.13 a day after its chief executive said the company may consider strategic alliances with other companies after the launch of devices powered by RIM's new BlackBerry 10 operating system.

(Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Kenneth Barry)

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What Obama Wants and What Congress Will Give Him

President Obama offered a passionate defense of a progressive agenda in his inaugural address Monday, laying out the legislative priorities for the next four years that will likely be echoed in his State of the Union address next month. That includes unfinished business from his first term, such as immigration (which has a future in Congress) and climate change (which doesn’t). There was a pledge to protect the rights of gay citizens to marry (which may be decided by the Supreme Court) and to reduce the waiting time to vote (which may be decided by the states).

The people who hold the key to the president’s vision are the members of Congress with whom he will have to work. Here’s a look at how they might respond to his legislative proposals:

Climate change and sustainable energy: “We will respond to the threat of climate change, knowing that the failure to do so would betray our children and future generations,” Obama said, rehashing failed pieces of his first-term agenda. “Some may still deny the overwhelming judgment of science, but none can avoid the devastating impact of raging fires, and crippling drought, and more powerful storms,” he added. Obama tried to push a sweeping cap-and-trade climate bill through Congress in his first term, but it died in the Senate in 2010. Since then, cap-and-trade has become politically toxic and is considered dead on arrival in Congress. The only way Obama could take action would be by using his executive authority to roll out controversial environmental regulations that would cut carbon pollution from existing coal plants. But that would generate massive push-back from industry and Environmental Protection Agency critics on Capitol Hill. At least Obama acknowledged that the path to sustainable energy “will be long and sometimes difficult.”

Immigration reform: The president has made no secret of the fact that he is going to make comprehensive immigration reform a top priority of his second term. There is some bipartisan support, especially in the Senate, for legislation, but several sticking points remain. Lawmakers disagree on whether there should be a path to citizenship or merely legal status for illegal immigrants, and whether it should be presented as a comprehensive bill or several smaller pieces of legislation. And for immigration reform to pass in the House, Speaker John Boehner might have to violate the Hastert rule and bring legislation to the floor without the majority backing of his conference. Obama voiced support for one specific policy, arguing that immigration reform would be incomplete “until bright young students and engineers are enlisted in our workforce rather than expelled from our country.” Easing the path to citizenship for high-skilled workers enjoys broad bipartisan support in the House and Senate, but will get caught up in the debate about the size of legislation.

Equal pay for women: “For our journey is not complete until our wives, our mothers, and daughters can earn a living equal to their efforts,” Obama said Monday. In 2009 Obama signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Restoration Act, and with so much else on the agenda now, it’s hard to imagine the president expending much more energy on this issue in the next four years, let alone Congress. To wit, Republicans last year blocked the Paycheck Fairness Act, which would have beefed up protections for women in the workplace. The law has long been considered problematic in the business community because it would open employers up to lawsuits for situations that may not be well defined, like the definition of “fair pay.”

Voting reform: Obama said that the country’s “journey” would not be complete “until no citizen is forced to wait for hours to exercise the right to vote.” It’s also a pledge he made during his acceptance speech on election night, telling the voters who waited in long lines that “we have to fix that.” But the president is largely powerless to invoke change on this issue because the nitty-gritty of the voting process is the jurisdiction of state and local governments. Although some Democrats, including Sens. Barbara Boxer of California and Chris Coons of Delaware, introduced legislation to address long wait times, those efforts are likely to be blocked by a generation of Republicans elected on the promise to protect the 10^th Amendment and states’ rights.

Gay rights: Obama said that his work would not be complete “until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law — for if we are truly created equal, then surely the love we commit to one another must be equal as well.” The administration will go head-to-head with Congress this year on the issue of gay marriage. Nearly two years ago, Obama ordered the Justice Department to stop defending the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act. Boehner announced shortly thereafter that the House of Representatives would take up defense of the law. A lawsuit, United States v. Windsor,has made its way to the Supreme Court, which has scheduled arguments for March. An affirmation of the administration’s position could pave the way for Obama to move more aggressively on gay marriage, which he now supports. If the courts do not back up his decision to no longer defend DOMA, he is unlikely to get sufficient support from Congress to repeal the law. Any further efforts to boost workplace protections for gays and lesbians in discrimination statutes have been blocked in Congress so far.

Unspoken agenda: The irony is that Obama spent more time talking about issues he will have a hard time moving the needle on than the issues sitting on his near-term agenda. Among them, several more rounds of fiscal battles that threaten to crowd out Obama’s second-term agenda won only passing reference. Obama said, “We must make the hard choices to reduce the cost of health care and the size of our deficit” before defending Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid as commitments that strengthen the country. He offered perhaps one hint the he could be more likely to cut Medicare than insurance subsidies when he said, “we reject the belief that America must choose between caring for the generation that built this country and investing in the generation that will build its future.”

Also absent from Obama’s remarks was any mention of guns, although he did say that Americans’ won’t be complete until all children, including those from Newtown, know they are cared for. Education and investments in infrastructure similarly got short shrift, and health reform received no explicit shout-out even though its implementation is likely to be among the most significant changes that occur during his second term.

One word that could dominate the first 100 days of Obama’s second term was not even mentioned once: debt. 

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European shares test two-year highs, yen volatile before BOJ

LONDON (Reuters) - European shares inched towards two-year highs on Monday, as a political attempt to break a budget impasse in the United States and expectations of aggressive Japanese stimulus bolstered the appetite for shares.

U.S. House Republican leaders said on Friday they would seek to pass a three-month extension of federal borrowing authority in the coming days to buy time for the Democrat-controlled Senate to pass a plan to shrink budget deficits.

European shares <.fteu3> were supported by the news <.eu>, but with no clear response from the Democrats and a thin session expected due to a market holiday in the United States, the impact on assets such as bonds and commodities was limited.

By 1500 GMT London's FTSE 100 <.ftse>, Paris's CAC-40 <.fchi> and Frankfurt's DAX <.gdaxi> were up 0.4 to 0.6 percent, leaving the pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 within touching distance of a two-year high and MSCI's world index <.miwd00000pus> steady at a 20-month high. <.l><.eu/>

Expectations that the Bank of Japan will deliver a bold monetary easing plan at the end of its two-day meeting on Tuesday also supported shares and created choppy conditions in the currency market.

According to sources familiar with the BoJ's thinking, the government of new Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and the central bank have agreed to set 2 percent inflation as a new target, supplanting a softer 1 percent 'goal'.

The yen, which has fallen 13 percent against the dollar over the last two months as the shift in Japanese policy has taken shape, touched a new 2-1/2 year low in early trading but then firmed as traders cut short positions given the BOJ has often fallen short of market expectations.

"Investors are being mindful that the moves we have seen over the course of the last month or two are just worth locking in at least until we understand how the BOJ are really going to play in the future," said Jeremy Stretch, head of currency strategy at CIBC World Markets.

CURRENCY WARS

Japanese equities have surged in recent weeks in anticipation of a more aggressive monetary policy stance, but not everyone is happy.

The slump in the yen has prompted Russia's deputy central bank governor to warn of a new round of 'currency wars' and the medium-term risk of running ultra-loose monetary policies is likely to be a theme of the World Economic Forum in Davos, which opens on Wednesday.

With little in the way of economic data or debt issuance and U.S. markets shut for the Martin Luther King public holiday, the rest of the day was expected to be a fairly quiet for investors.

As the first European finance ministers' meeting of the year got under way, most euro zone government bonds were trading virtually flat and the euro was steady at $1.3316.

Market pressure on Europe is now less intense thanks to the European Central Bank's promise to prevent a collapse of the euro. Policymakers are set to discuss Cyprus's plight and plans for the euro zone's bailout fund to directly recapitalize banks.

French Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici said as he arrived at the Brussels meeting that a proper recapitalization strategy was very important.

"Negotiations will be complex, and a final decision is unlikely to emerge soon. Risks for sovereign spreads in the periphery should be limited, but we have some concerns that the long-term solution may fall short of what a real banking union needs," said UniCredit economist Marco Valli.

POLITICAL GAME

The efforts by Republican lawmakers to give the U.S. government leeway to pay its bills for another three months dented demand for safe haven assets and pushed German government bond yields near the top of this year's range.

The U.S. Treasury needs congressional authorization to raise the current $16.4 trillion limit on U.S. debt sometime between mid-February and early March. A failure to achieve that could lead to a debt default.

"This is part of the political game, it remains to be seen whether the Democrats will accept it," KBC strategist Piet Lammens said, adding that investors' working scenario was that a solution to raise the ceiling would be eventually found anyway.

One of the key factors that drove 2-year German yields higher last week was also the prospect of sizeable early repayments of the 1 trillion euros euro zone banks took from the ECB roughly a year ago.

The central bank will publish on Friday how much banks plan to return at the optional first repayment date on January 30. A Reuters poll on Monday showed around 100 billion euros are expected to be repaid although some predict it could be as high as 250 billion.

OIL OVERSUPPLY

German markets showed no reaction after the country's center-left opposition party edged Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives from power in a regional election on Sunday, reviving its flagging hopes for September's national election.

The Bundesbank's latest report delivered an upbeat message on the country's economy, saying a recent slump should be short-lived and may have already bottomed out.

Oil prices took their cues from a report in the United States at the end of last week that showed consumer sentiment at its weakest in a year as a result of the uncertainty surrounding the country's debt crisis.

Concerns about demand overshadowed supply disruption fears reinforced by the Islamist militant attack and hostage-taking at a gas plant in Algeria, a member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.

Brent futures were down by 40 cents to $111.47 per barrel by mid-afternoon. U.S. crude shed 43 cents to $95.13 per barrel after touching a four-month high last week.

"The over-riding fundamental feeling in the market is that crude oil is over-supplied in 2013," said Tony Nunan, an oil risk manager at Mitsubishi.

Last week's data showing a pick-up in the Chinese economy helped keep growth-sensitive copper prices steady at roughly $8,056 an ounce. Gold, meanwhile, reversed Friday's losses to stand at $1,688 an ounce.

(Additional reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta, Marious Zaharia and Anooja Debnath; Editing by Peter Graff)

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Exxon Mobil boss meets Iraqi leader in Baghdad

BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq’s prime minister met with the head of Exxon Mobil on Monday to discuss the firm’s plans in the country, raising the possibility that Baghdad could be mending its dispute with America’s largest oil company.

Exxon is helping to develop one of Iraq’s largest oil fields, but it has infuriated Baghdad by signing separate deals with the OPEC member’s largely autonomous Kurdish region to hunt for crude there too.

Baghdad and the Kurds have been at loggerheads for years over rights to develop Iraq’s vast oil wealth, but tensions have been on the rise in recent months. The Kurds, who have their own armed forces, have signed dozens of deals with foreign oil companies since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.

Recently, the Kurds began trucking oil pumped from their self-rule region into neighboring Turkey, prompting allegations of smuggling and threats of lawsuits from Baghdad. Iraq’s central government does not recognize the Kurdish agreements, which offer more generous terms than its own. It believes it should manage the country’s oil policy and wants all exports to travel through state-run pipelines.

Iraq announced the meeting between Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and Exxon Chairman and CEO Rex Tillerson in a brief statement following the talks in Baghdad. It offered few specifics, saying that the men discussed the company’s activities and working conditions in Iraq.

Tillerson said Exxon was eager to continue and expand its work in Iraq and “will take important decisions in this regard,” according to the statement.

The Exxon chief also met with U.S. Ambassador Robert S. Beecroft during his visit to the Iraqi capital, said embassy spokesman Frank Finver. He would not provide further details.

Exxon spokesman Alan Jeffers declined to comment to The Associated Press. Ali al-Moussawi, a spokesman for the prime minister, would not elaborate on the government’s statement.

Exxon, based in Irving, Texas, reached a deal with the Kurds to hunt for oil in their largely autonomous region in late 2011. That deal is particularly contentious from Baghdad’s point of view because it includes the exploration of land claimed by both the Kurds and Arabs.

Dueling claims to disputed territories running along the Kurdish region are seen as one of the gravest threats to Iraq’s long-term stability. An exchange of fire in one disputed city in November prompted a military standoff, with both sides sending reinforcements and heavy weapons into the contested area.

Exxon and Royal Dutch Shell signed a deal to develop Iraq’s 8.6-billion-barrel West Qurna-1 oil field in 2009. But Exxon has been looking to get out of that contract so it could focus on the Kurdish deal instead.

A spokesman for the Kurdish regional government, Safeen Dizayee, downplayed the significance of Monday’s meeting.

“What is important is the results of this meeting, not the meeting itself,” he said. “We have not seen any change in Exxon Mobil’s policies regarding its work in Kurdistan.”

Iraq sits atop the world’s fourth largest proven reserves of conventional crude, with about 143.1 billion barrels. Oil revenues make up 95 percent of the country’s budget — a portion of which is earmarked for the Kurdish region.

___

Associated Press writers Sameer N. Yacoub in Baghdad and Mohammed Jambaz in Irbil contributed to this report.

___

Follow Adam Schreck on Twitter at http://twitter.com/adamschreck

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Wall Street Week Ahead: Earnings, money flows to push stocks higher

NEW YORK (Reuters) - With earnings momentum on the rise, the S&P 500 seems to have few hurdles ahead as it continues to power higher, its all-time high a not-so-distant goal.

The U.S. equity benchmark closed the week at a fresh five-year high on strong housing and labor market data and a string of earnings that beat lowered expectations.

Sector indexes in transportation <.djt>, banks <.bkx> and housing <.hgx> this week hit historic or multiyear highs as well.

Michael Yoshikami, chief executive at Destination Wealth Management in Walnut Creek, California, said the key earnings to watch for next week will come from cyclical companies. United Technologies reports on Wednesday while Honeywell is due to report Friday.

"Those kind of numbers will tell you the trajectory the economy is taking," Yoshikami said.

Major technology companies also report next week, but the bar for the sector has been lowered even further.

Chipmakers like Advanced Micro Devices , which is due Tuesday, are expected to underperform as PC sales shrink. AMD shares fell more than 10 percent Friday after disappointing results from its larger competitor, Intel . Still, a chipmaker sector index <.sox> posted its highest weekly close since last April.

Following a recent underperformance, an upside surprise from Apple on Wednesday could trigger a return to the stock from many investors who had abandoned ship.

Other major companies reporting next week include Google , IBM , Johnson & Johnson and DuPont on Tuesday, Microsoft and 3M on Thursday and Procter & Gamble on Friday.

CASH POURING IN, HOUSING DATA COULD HELP

Perhaps the strongest support for equities will come from the flow of cash from fixed income funds to stocks.

The recent piling into stock funds -- $11.3 billion in the past two weeks, the most since 2000 -- indicates a riskier approach to investing from retail investors looking for yield.

"From a yield perspective, a lot of stocks still yield a great deal of money and so it is very easy to see why money is pouring into the stock market," said Stephen Massocca, managing director at Wedbush Morgan in San Francisco.

"You are just not going to see people put a lot of money to work in a 10-year Treasury that yields 1.8 percent."

Housing stocks <.hgx>, already at a 5-1/2 year high, could get a further bump next week as investors eye data expected to support the market's perception that housing is the sluggish U.S. economy's bright spot.

Home resales are expected to have risen 0.6 percent in December, data is expected to show on Tuesday. Pending home sales contracts, which lead actual sales by a month or two, hit a 2-1/2 year high in November.

The new home sales report on Friday is expected to show a 2.1 percent increase.

The federal debt ceiling negotiations, a nagging worry for investors, seemed to be stuck on the back burner after House Republicans signaled they might support a short-term extension.

Equity markets, which tumbled in 2011 after the last round of talks pushed the United States close to a default, seem not to care much this time around.

The CBOE volatility index <.vix>, a gauge of market anxiety, closed Friday at its lowest since April 2007.

"I think the market is getting somewhat desensitized from political drama given, this seems to be happening over and over," said Destination Wealth Management's Yoshikami.

"It's something to keep in mind, but I don't think it's what you want to base your investing decisions on."

(Reporting by Rodrigo Campos, additional reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak and Caroline Valetkevitch; Editing by Kenneth Barry)

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Loneliness Is Bad for Your Health, Study Suggests

NEW ORLEANS — Feeling lonely? New research suggests you might want to reach out. Not only is loneliness an unpleasant condition, it can harm the body’s immune system.

The new study, presented Saturday (Jan. 19) here at the annual meeting of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, reveals that people who are lonely experience more reactivation of latent viruses in their systems than the well-connected. Lonely people also are more likely than others to produce inflammatory compounds in response to stress, a factor implicated in heart disease and other chronic disorders.

“Both, in different ways, indicate that the immune system is a little out of whack,” said study researcher Lisa Jaremka, a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute for Behavioral Medicine Research at Ohio State University College of Medicine.

The lonely body

Jaremka and her colleagues were interested in immune links to loneliness because feeling socially disconnected is associated with poor health and chronic disease. They recruited 200 female breast cancer survivors, average age 51, and 134 overweight, middle-age adults with no major health problems.

In the first study, the researchers analyzed the blood of the breast cancer survivors for antibodies against cytomegalovirus, a herpes virus. These common viruses can remain dormant and symptomless inside the body. Even when active, they may not cause symptoms, but they do trigger the immune system to produce antibodies, or protective proteins that help the immune system hunt down the rogue viruses. Higher antibody levels indicate higher levels of activated virus. The participants also filled out questionnaires about their loneliness and social connectedness. [7 Personality Traits That Are Bad For You]

The results revealed that the lonelier the participant, the higher the levels of cytomegalovirus antibodies in the blood.

“It’s definitely indicating that the immune system is compromised in some way,” Jaremka told LiveScience. “It’s unable at that time, for whatever reason, in this case loneliness perhaps, to keep that virus under control.”

In a second study, the researchers measured inflammatory proteins called cytokines in 144 of the breast cancer survivors as well as the healthy though overweight middle-age adults. The participants gave a blood sample and then were subjected to the stress of having to give an impromptu speech and do mental math in front of a panel of people in white lab coats. To up the anxiety, the panel gave the participants no encouragement.

“No matter what they say and no matter what jokes they crack, no matter how much they smile, the panel just stares at them, basically,” Jaremka said.

The researchers also triggered the participants’ immune systems with a harmless compound from bacterial cells before taking a second blood sample.

The lonelier the person, the higher the levels of cytokine interleukin-6 after the stressful speech. This cytokine is important for healing in the short term, because it promotes inflammation — think of the redness and swelling that accompanies a healing cut. However, when cytokines react too readily, inflammation can be harmful. Chronic inflammation has been linked to coronary heart disease, arthritis, Type 2 diabetes and even suicide attempts.

Loneliness and stress

Researchers have long known that chronic stress has a similar inflammation-producing, immune-disrupting effect on the body. Loneliness, in fact, may act as its own source of chronic stress, Jaremka said. Earlier research shows that close and connected relationships are necessary to help people thrive; without them, people are under a constant stressful cloud of missing this crucial social connection.

People who are lonely also tend to react more strongly to negative events in their lives, Jaremka said. If lonely people experience daily life as more stressful, it may cause chronic stress, which in turn disrupts the immune system.

Solving the problem is harder than telling lonely hearts to go out and seek more close friends, Jaremka said — it’s easier said than done. But if researchers can figure out how loneliness results in poor health, they may be able to come up with treatments that disrupt the links, in essence making loneliness less of a burden, at least physically. 

The study shouldn’t be seen as all doom and gloom, Jaremka said. The flip side is that those who feel close to friends and family can know that their health is likely getting a boost from those relationships.

“People who feel socially connected are experiencing positive outcomes,” she said.

Follow Stephanie Pappas on Twitter @sipappas or LiveScience @livescience. We’re also on Facebook & Google+.

Copyright 2013 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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Robots find rare whales in weather humans can’t

BOSTON (AP) — The Outer Fall area in the central Gulf of Maine is believed to be a mating ground for the endangered North Atlantic right whale, but it’s not always hospitable to humans. On a recent trip, endless, steep swells jostled the research boat Endeavor, while gusts transformed the steady sleet into eye-stinging projectiles.

The miserable conditions, though, were exactly what whale-detecting robots being tested on the voyage were built to beat.

The torpedo-shaped underwater robots, called gliders, can read calls from four types of endangered whales and relay their locations in real time. And they can do it in weather too harsh for the plane and boat surveys now relied on to find the whales.

On a three-week trip between November and early December, the gliders developed by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution located nine right whales. The robots also led the Endeavor into an area where researchers were able to observe the whales firsthand, once the waters calmed.

“The system worked, quite frankly, beyond my expectations,” said WHOI scientist Mark Baumgartner, a project co-leader.

The gliders are primarily about protecting whales, since knowing where the often-hard-to-find whales are can help regulators devise rules that prevent often fatal human contract, such as ship strikes.

The robots are about six feet long with short wings. They aren’t new, but their ability to almost instantly recognize the whales is.

In 2005, they were deployed in the Gulf of Maine carrying recorders scientists needed to retrieve and listen to before they could figure out what whales the glider had found. Seven years and about $ 1 million later, the gliders boast a processor that so far recognizes a total of 15 of the distinctive calls made by four types of endangered baleen whales: right, fin, humpback and sei.

A second after hearing the call, the glider identifies the whale it thinks it heard and surfaces every two hours to transmit the data via satellite, Baumgartner said.

Scientists can react to the data and direct the gliders, which are GPS-equipped, to a wide range of locations during the five weeks it can stay at sea. That mobility is an advantage over an existing system which uses stationary underwater microphones placed on buoys near a shipping lane into Boston to listen for right whales.

The gliders also measure various environmental conditions like temperature and salinity that can offer clues why whales are in certain places at certain times. For instance, high concentrations of algae — which draw the tiny crustaceans that baleen whales eat — can indicate whales go there to feed.

But their indifference to bad weather is perhaps the gliders most critical feature.

“We know we’re not seeing where all the whales are, and flying is expensive and dangerous. The gliders offer this fantastic opportunity to find another way of locating whales,” said Peter Corkeron, leader of the large whale team at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Northeast office, which will use data collected from the gliders.

The gliders can’t replace planes and boats because they can’t replace human observation. The right whales, for instance, are tracked individually, and that’s impossible without a person to identify the animals by distinctive, hardened patches of skin on their nose and jaw.

Such extensive efforts to find and learn about the animals reflect just how rare they’ve become, particularly the North Atlantic right whale. The animal has a population of around 550, and no one wants to push it to extinction.

One of its primary protections regionally is mandatory, seasonal speed restrictions for vessels traveling in three areas off the coast of New England. But those restrictions, enacted in 2008, expire in 2013, and there’s pressure now to determine if the rules have worked and should remain in place, said Mike Asaro, a marine mammal policy specialist at NOAA.

The gliders can augment efforts to protect the whales while ensuring shipping companies aren’t slowing down — and losing money — for nothing, he said.

“The more information we get on where right whales are, and the better able we are to predict where they are going to be, we can put those speed restrictions in the best possible spot,” he said.

The gliders need more time to prove their reliability, Asaro said. But he and Corkeron agree it’s had a strong start.

“You’ve got something that can move around the place and locate whales,” Corkeron said. “It’s huge step forward.”

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Wall Street little changed; Intel drags, Morgan Stanley up

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks opened little changed on Friday, a day after the S&P 500 rose to its highest level in five years, as a weak outlook from Intel offset a fourth-quarter profit at Morgan Stanley.

Shares of Intel Corp slumped 6.1 percent to $21.30 after the tech company forecast quarterly revenue that was below analysts' estimates and hiked capital spending plans for the year.

That was offset somewhat by a 5-percent gain in shares of Morgan Stanley , which reported a fourth-quarter profit after a year-earlier loss, helped by higher revenue at the bank's institutional securities business. Its stock jumped 5.3 percent to $22.84.

The earnings season so far has been mixed, but that could change with a barrage of releases scheduled for next week, said Doug Cote, chief market strategist, ING Investment Management in New York.

"There were some good reports but the real big bellwether companies are not coming in strong," said Cote.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> edged up 8.02 points, or 0.06 percent, at 13,604.04. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> slipped 1.20 points, or 0.08 percent, to 1,479.74. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> lost 7.52 points, or 0.24 percent, to 3,128.48.

Overall, S&P 500 company earnings are expected to have risen 2.3 percent in the fourth quarter, Thomson Reuters data showed. Expectations for the quarter have dropped considerably since October, when a 9.9 percent gain was estimated.

On Thursday, the S&P 500 rose to its highest since late 2007, and that could prompt investors to lock in recent gains, analysts said.

Economic data out of China provided some support to the market, though the focus remained on U.S. corporate earnings. The country's economy grew at a modestly faster-than-expected 7.9 percent in the fourth quarter, the latest sign the world's second-biggest economy was pulling out of a post-global financial crisis slowdown which saw it grow in 2012 at its weakest pace since 1999.

General Electric reported a better-than-expected rise in earnings on Friday, spurred by robust demand in China and oil-producing countries. Shares were up 2.4 percent to $21.82.

Despite the gains in Morgan Stanley, financial stocks sagged as Capital One Financial reported disappointing profit. Capital One slumped 7.4 percent to $57.06, while the KBW bank index <.bkx> slipped 0.4 percent.

Research In Motion climbed 4.7 percent to $15.61 after Jefferies Group boosted the BlackBerry maker's rating and price target.

(Editing by Bernadette Baum)

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Flu Season Arrives on West Coast

Some areas of the West Coast, which had seen less flu activity than the rest of the nation earlier, have finally been hit by the flu season.

As of Jan. 12, the region of the country that includes California, Arizona and Nevada reported elevated flu activity, up from normal flu activity the week before, according to new numbers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The rest of the country is also experiencing higher than normal flu activity. Forty-eight states reported widespread flu activity, up from 47 states the week before. Widespread flu activity means that more than 50 percent of areas in those states are experiencing flu. [See Flu Activity Still High: How Long Will it Last?]

Thirty states are now reporting high levels of flu activity — up from 29 states the previous week. Ten states are reporting moderate levels, which is down from 16 states the week before.

Nine children died a result of the flu during the week of Jan. 6 to Jan 12, bringing the total number of child deaths from flu this season to 29.

Nationally, the percentage of people visiting the doctor for flulike illness was 4.6 percent, up from 4.3 percent the last week of December. Health officials said visits to the doctor for flu can dip during the holiday season.

The best way to protect yourself from the flu is to get vaccinated. This year’s vaccine is 62 percent effective against the disease.

The CDC will hold a press conference about flu season at noon today.

Pass it on: The entire United States is experiencing higher than normal flu activity.

Follow Rachael Rettner on Twitter @RachaelRettner, or MyHealthNewsDaily @MyHealth_MHND. We’re also on Facebook & Google+.

Copyright 2013 MyHealthNewsDaily, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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Wall Street climbs, boosted by eBay results, rosy data

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wall Street rose on Thursday, with the S&P 500 hitting a five-year intraday high, as investors were cheered by rosy economic data and better-than-expected results from online marketplace eBay .

In encouraging signs for the labor and housing sectors, data showed the number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits fell to a five-year low last week, while residential construction jumped in December.

"It reminds us that although the situation on the job front hasn't improved significantly, slowly but surely it is getting better," said Andres Garcia-Amaya, global market strategist at J.P. Morgan Funds, in New York.

EBay's shares rose 3 percent to $54.50 a day after it reported holiday quarter results that just beat Wall Street expectations. It gave a 2013 forecast that was within analysts' estimates.

The S&P climbed above an intraday peak set in September to its highest since December 2007.

Gains were capped by weakness in the financial sector, with Bank of America and Citigroup down more than 2 percent following results.

Bank of America's fourth-quarter profit fell as it took more charges to clean up mortgage-related problems. Citigroup posted $2.32 billion of charges for layoffs and lawsuits, while its new chief executive cautioned the bank needed more time to deal with its problems.

Bank of America fell 3.7 percent to $11.36, while Citigroup dropped 2.3 percent to $41.50.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> gained 61.49 points, or 0.46 percent, to 13,572.72. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> added 6.36 points, or 0.43 percent, to 1,478.99. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> rose 18.19 points, or 0.58 percent, to 3,135.73.

Overall, S&P 500 corporate earnings for the fourth quarter are expected to see a 2.3 percent gain, Thomson Reuters data showed. Expectations for the quarter have moderated significantly since October.

With investors anticipating the current earnings season to be lackluster, their focus will be on the corporate earnings outlook for the months ahead, analysts said.

Shares of Boeing extended recent declines after the United States and other countries grounded the company's new 787 Dreamliner after a second incident involving battery failure. That comes in the wake of a series of other recent mishaps that have raised safety-related concerns about the aircraft. Boeing slipped 0.8 percent to $73.77 and is down nearly 2 percent for the week so far.

(Editing by Bernadette Baum)

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Wall Street off five-year highs, Boeing weighs

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks fell off five-year highs on Wednesday as concerns about global economic growth offset strong bank results and shares of Boeing weighed on the Dow after two Japanese airlines grounded their Dreamliner fleets.

Goldman Sachs shares hit an 18-month high as its earnings nearly tripled on increased revenue from dealmaking and lower compensation expenses, while JPMorgan Chase said fourth-quarter net income jumped 53 percent and earnings for 2012 set a record.

JPMorgan shares were last down 0.8 percent at $46 and Goldman added 2 percent to $138.26.

Concern about global economic growth was weighing on the markets, said Peter Jankovskis, co-chief investment officer at OakBrook Investments in Lisle, Illinois.

A slow economic recovery in developed nations is holding back the global economy, the World Bank said on Tuesday, as it sharply scaled back its forecast for world growth in 2013 to 2.4 percent from an earlier forecast of 3.0 percent.

Shares of Dow component Boeing fell 3.5 percent to $74.25 on concerns about the safety of its new Dreamliner passenger jets. Japan's two leading airlines grounded their fleets of 787s after an emergency landing, adding to safety concerns triggered by a ream of recent incidents.

"It's certainly going to pull averages down, given Boeing's large market cap, but I don't see it as having broader market implications," Jankovskis said.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> fell 61.79 points or 0.46 percent, to 13,473.1, the S&P 500 <.spx> lost 4.39 points or 0.3 percent, to 1,467.95 and the Nasdaq Composite <.ixic> dropped 2.72 points or 0.09 percent, to 3,108.06.

Losses on Nasdaq were limited by gains in Apple shares, which were up 2 percent at $495.75.

Talks to take Dell Inc private were at an advanced stage, with at least four major banks lined up to provide financing, two sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters. Shares fell 3.6 percent to $12.69 after jumping more than 21 percent over the past two sessions.

U.S. consumer prices were flat in December, pointing to muted inflation pressures that should give the Federal Reserve room to prop up the economy by staying on its ultra-easy monetary policy path.

(Editing by Bernadette Baum)

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Wall Street knocked lower by debt limit worries, Apple

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks fell on Tuesday on worries over the debate brewing in Washington over raising the U.S. borrowing limit, while Apple's stock extended its fall on concerns of weaker demand for its products.

Economic data offset some of the negative tone after retail sales rose more than expected in December. But manufacturing activity in New York state contracted for the sixth month in a row in January.

On Monday, President Barack Obama rejected any negotiations with Republicans over raising the U.S. debt ceiling. The United States could default on its debt if Congress does not increase the borrowing limit.

Resolving the debt ceiling debate is more a question of how than if. Investors don't expect a U.S. default, but they are also wary of another eleventh-hour agreement like the one in August 2011.

"The concern is just the uncertainty and the negotiating going down to the last minute," said John Fox, co-manager of the FAM Value Fund, in Cobleskill, New York.

Apple fell for the third day in a row, weighing on the Nasdaq after reports on Monday of cuts to orders for iPhone parts. Apple was down more than 2 percent at $491.96. The stock fell below $500 for the first time in almost a year on Monday.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> slipped 29.55 points, or 0.22 percent, to 13,477.77. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> fell 4.35 points, or 0.30 percent, to 1,466.33. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> gave up 18.82 points, or 0.60 percent, at 3,098.68.

Although Tuesday's economic data was mostly positive, reaction in the market was likely to be limited since investors' attention centered on the negotiations over the debt ceiling and spending cuts, said Hugh Johnson, chief investment officer of Hugh Johnson Advisors LLC in Albany, NY.

"'Fiscal Cliff Two' is now the principal focus of investors," he said.

An expected lackluster earnings season also kept investors from taking aggressive bets. Analyst estimates for the quarter have fallen sharply since October. S&P 500 earnings growth is now seen up just 1.9 percent from a year ago, Thomson Reuters data showed.

Homebuilder Lennar reported a sharp rise in quarterly profit, but the stock fell 2.2 percent to $40.11 on worries that growth in orders was slowing.

Shares of Dell rose 3.1 percent to $12.67 the day after sources said the company is in talks with private equity firms on a potential buyout.

Facebook added 0.6 percent to $31.11 ahead of a major news event at its headquarters. The secretive nature of the event has triggered a guessing game about what the company could unveil.

(Editing by Kenneth Barry)

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New Brain Cell Linked to High Blood Pressure

High blood pressure has just gotten a new culprit: a newly discovered brain cell.

While the usual suspects of heart risk — weight problems, stress, smoking, those salty slices of bacon — do contribute to high blood pressure, researchers think they’ve discovered a new cluster of neurons that also play a role.

Researchers from Sweden spotted the previously unknown cluster of nerve cells in the brains of mice, finding the cells affected the animals’ blood pressure and other cardiovascular functions. If these neurons also exist in human brains, scientists and doctors may have a new avenue for tackling hypertension (chronically high blood pressure) and other heart problems.

These cells, which are part of a family of nerves known as parvalbuminergic neurons, are located in the hypothalamus of the mouse brain, a region that helps control involuntary functions such as thirst, body temperature and blood pressure.

Jens Mittag, a molecular biologist at Sweden’s Karolinska Institutet, and his team focused on mice that had mutations in a cell receptor for thyroid hormone. This defect prevented their hearts from responding normally to stressful stimuli, such as environmental temperature changes. [10 Odd Facts About the Brain]

Thyroid hormone problems have been known to affect the heart directly in humans. To determine whether the hypothalamus also played a role, Mittag and his team scanned the brains of the mutated mice, finding the hypothalamus was missing a significant number of parvalbuminergic neurons.

Here’s what the researchers think is happening: The thyroid hormone, produced by the thyroid gland in the brain in the neck, is partly responsible for making these special neurons. Mice with a lack of thyroid hormone activity didn’t successfully form these parvalbuminergic neurons during embryonic development.

The researchers confirmed the role of these neurons in another experiment in which they destroyed these cells in other mice with the help of a virus. This action led to hypertension and heart-rate problems in the presence of temperature changes.

“There’s lots of anatomical areas in the brain that we know regulate the control of cardiovascular function. These are the first neurons in the hypothalamus on the cellular level that we know regulate these parameters,” Mittag told LiveScience.

“I have no idea why no one has stumbled over these cells before,” he added. “I guess we were lucky to be the first to describe them.”

Before scientists can think about targeting these neurons for hypertension treatment in humans, further studies are needed to confirm that these cells are present in human brains and perform the same jobs.

In the meantime, Mittag said the study underscores the importance of making sure that pregnant women produce a sufficient amount of thyroid hormone. Without it, the brain of the fetus may not develop properly and, according to this study, cardiovascular issues from a lack of parvalbuminergic neurons may be just one more problem for the fetus that can be caused by insufficient thyroid hormone production in the mother.

The research was detailed online Dec. 21 in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

Follow LiveScience on Twitter @livescience. We’re also on Facebook & Google+.

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Wall Street sags as demand worries hit Apple

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wall Street fell on Monday as shares of Apple were hit by demand concerns, while investors faced a busy week for earnings in what is expected to be a lackluster quarter.

Apple slid more than 3 percent after a report that the tech company has cut orders for LCD screens and other parts for the iPhone 5 this quarter due to weak demand. The stock was down 3.5 percent at $502.30. [ID:nL2N0AJ14E] It was the biggest drag on the S&P 500 and Nasdaq composite indexes.

"They've had great growth, but the growth is going to slow because we have some formidable competitors we didn't have when the iPhone first came out," said Alan Lancz, president at Alan B. Lancz & Associates Inc in Toledo, Ohio

Apple suppliers Cirrus Logic tumbled 4.8 percent to $30.04 and Qualcomm lost 1.4 percent to $64. The S&P tech sector gave up 0.9 percent.

Earnings season picks up the pace this week with reports expected from companies including Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, Intel and General Electric.

Overall earnings are expected to grow by just 1.9 percent in this reporting period, according to Thomson Reuters data. Thirty-eight S&P 500 companies are due to report results this week.

"Expectations have been lowered from where they were a few weeks ago. Whether they're low enough is going to be the key question," said Lancz.

Analysts say the focus will be on what kind of guidance companies offer now that a deal has been reached on the "fiscal cliff."

Investors will be watching a news conference from President Barack Obama, scheduled for 11:15 a.m. (1615 GMT). Obama is expected to focus on looming budget and borrowing due dates, White House officials said.

Separately, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke will be speaking on monetary policy, recovery from the global financial crisis and long-term challenges facing the American economy at 4 p.m. (2100 GMT).

The Dow Jones industrial average slipped 23.01 points, or 0.17 percent, to 13,465.42. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index fell 4.80 points, or 0.33 percent, to 1,467.25. The Nasdaq Composite Index gave up 15.57 points, or 0.50 percent, at 3,110.06.

Appliance and electronics retailer Hhgregg Inc cut its same-store sales forecast for the full year, sending its shares down 11 percent at $7.02.

Transocean Ltd has disclosed that billionaire activist investor Carl Icahn has acquired a 1.56 percent stake in the offshore rig contractor and is looking to increase that holding. Its shares rose 3.4 percent to $55.92.

The Dow fared better than the other two indexes as Hewlett-Packard rose 1.6 percent to $16.42 after JPMorgan raised its price target to $21 from $15.

(Editing by Kenneth Barry)

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New 3D Map of Civil War Shipwreck Released

On this day (Jan. 11) in 1863, a Union warship was sunk in a skirmish with a Confederate vessel in the Gulf of Mexico.

Exactly 150 years later, a new 3D map of the USS Hatteras has been released that shows what the remains of the warship look like. The Hatteras rests on the ocean floor about 20 miles (32 kilometers) off Galveston, Texas, according to a release from the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, which helped to sponsor the expedition to map the shipwreck.

The Hatteras was sunk in a battle with the Confederate raider CSS Alabama, and was the only Union warship sunk in combat in the Gulf of Mexico during the Civil War.

“Most shipwreck survey maps are two-dimensional and based on observations made by sight, photographs or by feeling around in murky water while stretching a measuring tape,” said James Delgado, with NOAA‘s Office of National Marine Sanctuaries, in the statement. “Thanks to the high-resolution sonar, we have a three-dimensional map that not only provides measurements and observations, but the ability for researchers and the public to virtually swim through the wreck’s exposed remains and even look below the surface at structure buried in loose silt.”

Recent storms have dislodged some of the sediment that covered the ship, 57 feet (17 meters) beneath the surface, so researchers took advantage of the opportunity to map the vessel with state-of-the-art sonar in the fall of 2012, according to the statement.

The map has revealed previously unknown features of the shipwreck, including a largely intact paddlewheel that once propelled the vessel forward. It also shows damage to the wheel’s steering column and the engine room.  

The Hatteras rests in federal waters, and is protected under the Sunken Military Craft Act as a war grave, according to the release.

The ship was part of a blockade to prevent goods from traveling to and from Galveston, which remained one of the last bastions of the Confederacy late into the Civil War, the NOAA noted.

Reach Douglas Main at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @Douglas_Main. Follow OurAmazingPlanet on Twitter @OAPlanet. We’re also on Facebook and Google+.

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Cold Weather Back in Full Force

Reporting Jeff Ray

This morning an icy mix of rain/sleet finally left through our northeast corner. Sunshine is replacing all of that but this brisk north wind will keep highs only in the low 40′s. It’ll be cold and dry for the next several days.

The storms yesterday and last night brought some good rains in Dallas, Ellis, Collin and Hunt Counties. Below you can see some local rainfall amounts reached over 1″. Parts of Dallas as well as McKinney and Waxahachie reported over an inch of rain on Saturday.

Highs today will only reach into the low 40′s in the metro area but stay in the 30′s across Cooke, Montague and Jack Counties. Brisk winds continue out of the north at 15-20mph all day; dying down finally  in the late afternoon and early evening.

Monday morning we’ll wake with lows only in the mid-20′s and a hard freeze going on. It’ll be like that for the next couple of mornings.

This shot of cold weather is going to stick around for most of the week. Highs will only be in the low 40′s for Monday to Wednesday. This is stark contrast to Friday’s high of 71°; its been cold for the most part since the day before Christmas; after three days of above-normal temperatures we fall right back to winter. We’ll also see hard freezes in the nights:

One good thing to say concerns the rain. We had a massive amount of it fall on Tuesday and Wednesday, recorded a little more Thursday and Saturday. We’ve already surpassed the “normal” rainfall for the month, a good start to the new year. Keep in mind that the total rainfall over the last two years has been well below-normal; the driest 2-year period for Texas since the mid-50′s.

Right now we have removed any talk of precipitation on Wednesday and Thursday, this could change as some of the forecast models suggest another strong low coming out of the desert southwest giving us some winter weather. The set-up in fact could produce a high-impact ice storm so we’ll need to watch closely if other forecast models start to produce this weather solution as well.

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Wall Street Week Ahead: Attention turns to financial earnings

NEW YORK (Reuters) - After over a month of watching Capitol Hill and Pennsylvania Avenue, Wall Street can get back to what it knows best: Wall Street.

The first full week of earnings season is dominated by the financial sector - big investment banks and commercial banks - just as retail investors, free from the "fiscal cliff" worries, have started to get back into the markets.

Equities have risen in the new year, rallying after the initial resolution of the fiscal cliff in Washington on January 2. The S&P 500 on Friday closed its second straight week of gains, leaving it just fractionally off a five-year closing high hit on Thursday.

An array of financial companies - including Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase - will report on Wednesday. Bank of America and Citigroup will join on Thursday.

"The banks have a read on the economy, on the health of consumers, on the health of demand," said Quincy Krosby, market strategist at Prudential Financial in Newark, New Jersey.

"What we're looking for is demand. Demand from small business owners, from consumers."

EARNINGS AND ECONOMIC EXPECTATIONS

Investors were greeted with a slightly better-than-anticipated first week of earnings, but expectations were low and just a few companies reported results.

Fourth quarter earnings and revenues for S&P 500 companies are both expected to have grown by 1.9 percent in the past quarter, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Few large corporations have reported, with Wells Fargo the first bank out of the gate on Friday, posting a record profit. The bank, however, made fewer mortgage loans than in the third quarter and its shares were down 0.8 percent for the day.

The KBW bank index <.bkx>, a gauge of U.S. bank stocks, is up about 30 percent from a low hit in June, rising in six of the last eight months, including January.

Investors will continue to watch earnings on Friday, as General Electric will round out the week after Intel's report on Thursday.

HOUSING, INDUSTRIAL DATA ON TAP

Next week will also feature the release of a wide range of economic data.

Tuesday will see the release of retail sales numbers and the Empire State manufacturing index, followed by CPI data on Wednesday.

Investors and analysts will also focus on the housing starts numbers and the Philadelphia Federal Reserve factory activity index on Thursday. The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan consumer sentiment numbers are due on Friday.

Jim Paulsen, chief investment officer at Wells Capital Management in Minneapolis, said he expected to see housing numbers continue to climb.

"They won't be that surprising if they're good, they'll be rather eye-catching if they're not good," he said. "The underlying drive of the markets, I think, is economic data. That's been the catalyst."

POLITICAL ANXIETY

Worries about the protracted fiscal cliff negotiations drove the markets in the weeks before the ultimate January 2 resolution, but fear of the debt ceiling fight has yet to command investors' attention to the same extent.

The agreement was likely part of the reason for a rebound in flows to stocks. U.S.-based stock mutual funds gained $7.53 billion after the cliff resolution in the week ending January 9, the most in a week since May 2001, according to Thomson Reuters' Lipper.

Markets are unlikely to move on debt ceiling news unless prominent lawmakers signal that they are taking a surprising position in the debate.

The deal in Washington to avert the cliff set up another debt battle, which will play out in coming months alongside spending debates. But this alarm has been sounded before.

"The market will turn the corner on it when the debate heats up," Prudential Financial's Krosby said.

The CBOE Volatility index <.vix> a gauge of traders' anxiety, is off more than 25 percent so far this month and it recently hit its lowest since June 2007, before the recession began.

"The market doesn't react to the same news twice. It will have to be more brutal than the fiscal cliff," Krosby said. "The market has been conditioned that, at the end, they come up with an agreement."

(Reporting by Gabriel Debenedetti; editing by Rodrigo Campos)

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Weightlessness no cure for “morning clumsies,” astronaut says

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) – Like many people, Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield confesses that he’s sometimes clumsy in the morning just after waking up.

The three-time astronaut, now living aboard the International Space Station, was surprised to learn that did not change in the weightless environment of space.

“When I come out of my sleeping berth to go into our galley and our bathroom, I bump into things even though I’m floating weightless,” the 53-year-old pilot told reporters during an in-flight press conference on Thursday.

“You can still have the morning clumsies up here and that surprised me,” said Hadfield, who is in line to become the first Canadian commander of the orbital outpost in March.

Hadfield has been sharing his experiences in orbit with a growing flock of Twitter followers. His “Cmdr_Hadfield” Twitter account has added more than 130,000 new subscribers since the astronaut blasted off on December 19 for a six-month stay on the station.

“What we’re doing on the space station is fundamentally fascinating … It encapsulates where we are in history, with people permanently living off Earth. With these new technologies and communications, we can directly give people the human side of that,” said Hadfield, who now has more than 163,000 followers.

In between Twitter posts about false fire alarms and fixing the station’s toilet, Hadfield has been sharing photographs taken from his unique vantage point 250 miles above Earth.

His favorite subject so far has been so-called noctilucent, or “night shining” clouds that form at the outermost edge of Earth’s atmosphere.

These tenuous patches of ice crystals are barely visible from the planet’s surface, but sparkle clearly in orbit, Hadfield said.

“The light bounces off of those clouds directly into our eyes,” he said.

In addition to the beautiful colors, textures and ripples, Hadfield said the clouds also are a way to monitor changes in the atmosphere and learn more about how the atmosphere interacts with space.

That vantage point from orbit extends beyond visual perception, he added.

“The world just unrolls itself for you, and you see it absolutely discretely as one place. It’s hard to reconcile the inherent patience and beauty of the world with the terrible things that we can do to each other as people and can do to the Earth itself,” Hadfield said.

“With increased communication, with increased understanding comes a more global perspective and it’s one that we feel incredibly honored to see directly and one that we do our best to try to pass on to everybody,” he said.

(Editing by Tom Brown and Dan Grebler)

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Wall Street dips on Wells Fargo, Boeing; S&P up on week

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks dipped on Friday after a record profit at Wells Fargo failed to attract buyers and Boeing shares were pressured by two further problems with its new Dreamliner aircraft.

The benchmark S&P 500 index fell slightly but was still up on the week and just a few points shy of a five-year high set Thursday.

Wells Fargo , the first major U.S. bank to post earnings this season, reported a record fourth-quarter profit as it set aside less money to cover bad loans and made more fees from mortgages. Its shares fell 2 percent to $34.70, erasing Thursday's gains but up 1.6 percent on the month.

Shares of Dow component Boeing fell 2 percent to $75.49 after a cracked cockpit window and an oil leak on separate flights in Japan added to other mishaps earlier in the week and to safety concerns about its new 787 Dreamliner. The US Department of Transportation said the jet would be subject to a review of its critical systems by regulators.

"The market is giving up a little of its rise yesterday," said Peter Jankovskis, co-chief investment officer at OakBrook Investments in Lisle, Illinois.

He said declines in Wells Fargo and Boeing were pressuring the overall market, but the consolidation around current levels showed the market remained resilient.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> fell 21.54 points or 0.16 percent, to 13,449.68, the S&P 500 <.spx> lost 3.54 points, or 0.24 percent, to 1,468.58 and the Nasdaq Composite <.ixic> dropped 4.23 points, or 0.14 percent, to 3,117.53.

Best Buy shares rallied after its results showed a bit of a turnaround in its U.S. stores, though same-store sales were flat during the key holiday season. Shares were last up 12.2 percent at $13.70.

Basic materials shares were pressured after China's annual consumer inflation rate picked up to a seven-month high, narrowing the scope for the central bank to boost the economy by easing monetary policy. The S&P basic materials sector <.gspm> fell 0.7 percent.

Dendreon Corp shares jumped 18.2 percent to $6.03 after Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded the stock to "outperform" from "market-perform" and said the drugmaker could be one of the best performers in 2013.

U.S.-traded shares of India's No.2 software services provider Infosys Ltd jumped 18.3 percent to $51.98 after the company raised its revenue forecast.

(Editing by Bernadette Baum)

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Times Closes Environment Desk on Same Day ‘Extreme Weather’ Hits Front Page

Talk about mixed signals. On the very morning The New York Times signaled its plans to reassign its nine environment desk journalists to other sections, the paper ran a chilling photo of “extreme weather” above the fold on A1. 

RELATED: How Obama Lost Climate Change

No one got fired, but Times managing editor Dean Baquet tells InsideClimate New’s Katherine Bagley that the dedicated environment desk will fold over the next few weeks. “We have not lost any desire for environmental coverage,” Baquet assures, saying that environment stories will be embedded in business, national, and local coverage. “This is purely a structural matter.” There’s no word yet on the fate of the Green blog, which has been edited from the environment desk. 

RELATED: Why Americans Stopped Believing in Global Warming

Lots of environmentalists and science reporters weren’t happy about the news. The Guardian‘s US deputy editor Staurt Millar was one of the many critics who noticed a symbolic disconnect between the paper’s announcement and its current front page, teasing a story about extreme weather becoming the new normal in countries around the world. 

On day NYT closes environment desk, it runs this on front page – extreme weather becoming more frequent and intense nyti.ms/Wxl23H

— Stuart Millar (@stuartmillar159) January 11, 2013

But others thought this might be a good move for the paper’s environment coverage, freeing up reporters and better integrating coverage with the rest of the paper. Quartz science reporter Christropher Mims thought the move could take climate coverage out of isolation, and Scientific American blog editor Bora Zivkovic agreed. 

Topic/beat that is ghettoed in its own newspaper section is easily recycled without reading… mix it up! Throw it at unsuspecting readers.

— Bora Zivkovic (@BoraZ) January 11, 2013

Environment reporting in general has been declining in recent years. But the Times has been running more environment stories than any other newspaper, according to a recent study by the Center for Science & Technology Policy Research. On Wednesday, the Times ran a provocative map above the front-page fold, alonside the news that 2012 saw the hottest U.S. temperature average on record.

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