US home prices rose by most in nearly 7 years

WASHINGTON (AP) ? U.S. home prices jumped in January, a sign the housing market is gaining momentum as it nears the spring selling season.

Home prices rose 9.7 percent in January from a year ago, according to data released Tuesday by CoreLogic. That's up from an 8.3 percent increase in December and the biggest annual gain since April 2006.

Prices rose in all states except Delaware and Illinois. And prices increased in 92 of the 100 largest metro areas, up from 87 in December.

Home prices also rose 0.7 percent in January from December. That's a solid increase given that sales usually slow over the winter months.

Rising demand combined with fewer available homes is pushing up prices. Sales of previously owned homes ticked up in January after rising to their highest level in five years in 2012, according to the National Association of Realtors. At the same time, inventories of homes for sale fell to a 13-year low.

The states with the biggest price gains were Arizona, where prices rose 20.1 percent, followed by Nevada, with 17.4 percent, and Idaho, with 14.9 percent. California and Hawaii rose 14.1 percent and 14 percent, respectively.

The cities with the biggest gains were Phoenix, Los Angeles, Riverside, Calif., New York, and Atlanta.

Nationwide, home values were still down more than 26 percent from their peak in April 2006 through January, CoreLogic said. But in some states prices have recovered a lot of lost ground. In 15 states, home prices are within 10 percent of their peak values, CoreLogic said.

There have been other recent signs that the housing market is going strong. A measure of the number of Americans who signed contracts to buy homes rose in January from December to the highest level in more than 2 ? years. That suggests sales of previously occupied homes will keep rising in the coming months.

Steady increases in prices help fuel the housing recovery. They encourage some homeowners to sell homes and entice some would-be buyers to purchase homes before prices rise further.

Higher prices can also make homeowners feel wealthier. That can encourage more consumer spending, which drives 70 percent of the U.S. economy.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-03-05-US-Home-Prices/id-770e442f6bdc4334bcb32c707a0b8eb9

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Dow Jones industrial average surges to record

In this Monday, Feb. 25, 2013 photo, Trader Craig Spector, right, works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. World stock markets rose Tuesday March 5, 2013 as investors registered approval for China's spending priorities announced at its annual congress. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

In this Monday, Feb. 25, 2013 photo, Trader Craig Spector, right, works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. World stock markets rose Tuesday March 5, 2013 as investors registered approval for China's spending priorities announced at its annual congress. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

NEW YORK (AP) ? The Dow has never been higher.

The Dow Jones industrial average surged passed its all-time high and kept going on Tuesday. It jumped up from the opening bell, climbed as much as 158 points early and reached 14,286, breaking through its previous record high set in October 2007.

The index fell back slightly and was trading up 136 points, or less than 1 percent, at 14,264 as of 12:35 p.m. EST.

The gains represent a remarkable comeback for the stock market. The Dow has more than doubled since falling to a low of 6,547 in March 2009 following the financial crisis and the Great Recession. Stocks have rebounded sharply since then with the help of a large dose of stimulus from the Federal Reserve, even as the economic recovery has been slow and steady rather than spectacular.

"Whether they want to admit it or not, everyone is very impressed with the resilience of the market," said Alec Young, a global equity strategist at S&P Capital IQ.

The last time the Dow was this high, Apple had just sold its first iPhone and George W. Bush had another year as president. The U.S. housing market had yet to implode, and the financial crisis that brought down Lehman Brothers was still a year away.

The recovery in stocks may even have been quicker, had memories of the financial system's near collapse not been on investors minds, says Robert Pavlik, chief market strategist at Banyan Partners.

"It's still pretty close to the front of people's brains," says Pavlik. "That's one of the reasons that people are hesitant to invest in the stock market."

Despite the gains in the stock market since then, the U.S. economy has not fared nearly as well. Unemployment was just 4.7 percent when the Dow last reached a record five and half years ago, versus 7.9 percent today.

But the economy is strengthening in many areas. Housing is recovering, companies are hiring more and Corporate America's earnings are strong. That's fueled a 9 percent rise in stocks this year, impressing even the most ardent skeptics. For all of last year, the index rose 7 percent.

Stocks are also benefiting from the economic stimulus from the Federal Reserve and other global central banks. The U.S. central bank is buying $85 billion each month in Treasury bonds and mortgage-backed securities to keep long-term interest rates very low.

If the Dow continues Tuesday at its torrid pace, it will finish above its record close of 14,164 from Oct. 9, 2007.

Tuesday's gains were driven by industrial and technology stocks. United Technologies rose $2.10 to $91.22, IBM advanced $1.84 to $207 and 3M rose $1.46 to $104.70, pushing the Dow higher.

That's a signal that investors are optimistic about the economy, since those companies stand to gain the most when the economy recovers. More stable, conservative stocks like utilities and consumer staples logged smaller gains.

From its March 2009 low to today, gains for the 30-member Dow have been led by American Express, up almost 500 percent. Home Depot has jumped almost 300 percent, according to data from S&P Dow Jones Indices. Hewlett Packard is the only stock in the index that is lower than it was four years ago, falling 22 percent.

On Tuesday, investors received another piece of positive news on the U.S. economy, a report that U.S. service companies grew in February at the fastest pace in a year, thanks to higher sales and more new orders. The gain suggests higher taxes have yet to slow consumer spending on services.

Home builder PulteGroup rose 42 cents to $20.12 following news that home prices rose at the fastest pace in almost six years in January, a sign that the housing market is gaining momentum as it nears the spring selling season. Home prices rose 9.7 percent in January from a year ago and had the biggest gain since April 2006, according to data released by CoreLogic

The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 16 points, or 1 percent, to 1,541, within striking distance of its own record close of 1,565. The Nasdaq composite gained 41 points, or 1.3 percent, to 3,223.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury note, which moves inversely to its price, rose two basis point to 1.90 percent.

Among other stocks making big moves:

? Ascena Retail Group gained $2.30 to $18.84 after the clothing store reported stronger-than-expected sales in its most recent quarter.

? J.C. Penney fell $1.52 to $15.21 following media reports that one of its largest shareholders is selling a major stake in the retailer. CNBC and The Wall Street Journal reported that Deutsche Bank is shopping around the sale of 10 million shares of the company's stock held by Vornado Realty Trust, a real estate investment trust.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-03-05-US-Wall-Street/id-8884e85fee2142e7b9b72f9bb0b7090a

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Panel Recap: Future of What: Staring at the Horizon of Nonfiction ...

Zachary Heinzerling, director of Cutie and the Boxer, was in attendance at the panel. Photo: Cine Mosaic.

Post written by Mike Pottebaum.

In the current media landscape, it is hard to project the future of documentary film. Reality television and public relations videos replicate the documentary aesthetic and threaten to undermine the genre?s authenticity and integrity. New methods of distribution and the increasingly short attention spans of audiences might suggest the disappearance of feature-length documentaries.

On Sunday, three filmmakers sat down in the Odd Fellows Lounge and held a discussion, moderated by Camden International Film Festival founder and director Ben Fowlie, on these hurdles as well as the necessity of documentary film in contemporary society and the future. As Fowlie says in his introduction, ?I think this might be the broadest panel ever.?

The panelists consisted of director Zachary Heinzerling (Cutie and the Boxer), director Josh Fox (Gasland) and producer Signe Byrge Sorensen (The Act of Killing). These particular filmmakers were chosen for their varied approaches to documentary filmmaking and their experimentation with the genre.

All three appeared to be hopeful about the future of filmmaking. Each spoke at length about the change in audience mindset toward documentary film. Sorensen, the eldest of the three, described the public?s attitude toward the genre when she first started as ?puritanical.? Experimentation was taboo.

?Now,? says Heinzerling, ?people are more forgiving of the form.? Instead of eschewing the genre for generalized ethical issues, people discuss those issues as they arise from experimentation and innovation and grow more comfortable with them.

Documentary filmmakers are now able to push the boundaries without fear of being ostracized from the genre. This does not mean filmmakers should always push ? sometimes they shouldn?t push at all. ?The role of the documentary filmmaker is to combine subject and form in the most powerful way,? Sorensen says.

She cited her experience working on The Act of Killing, a portrait of a group of Indonesian men who brag about their genocidal behavior, as an example. For this film, Sorensen says, she wasn?t interested in what the subjects did but how they saw themselves. She calls it a ?documentary of the imagination.? In order to achieve this, the filmmakers actually allowed the subjects to direct and film some scenes.

But this comfort has its downside. As the ethics of documentary filmmaking enter the realm of acceptability, it becomes easier to hijack the medium for public relations and advertising. Fox spoke passionately about the current ?media war? he has been thrown into since the release of Gasland, Fox?s investigation into the real effects of fracking. Energy companies have released ?attack films? that masquerade as documentaries to combat the bad press Fox has brought them.

Sorensen offered a solution: media literacy. ?We need to teach people how to be critical of media,? she says. Heinzerling contends that people are learning this already due to the ?devolution of reality in reality TV.?

The common consensus among the panelists seemed to be that documentary film is not going anywhere. It might not look the same in ten years, but the basic concept will still exist. As Fox says, the future of documentary is not how to make a great film, it?s ?how do we get this message to people who need it.? This will take a certain amount of adaptation to the changing media environment and innovation within the genre itself, but there will always be stories to tell.

Source: http://www.voxmagazine.com/blog/2013/03/panel-recap-future-of-what-staring-at-the-horizon-of-nonfiction-filmmaking/

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Giant Slayer' scares up ho-hum $28 million debut - Charlotte Observer

LOS ANGELES It wasn't exactly a mighty victory, but "Jack the Giant Slayer" won the weekend at the box office.

The Warner Bros. 3-D action extravaganza, based on the Jack and the Beanstalk legend, made just $28 million to debut at No. 1, according to Sunday studio estimates. It had a reported budget of just under $200 million.

But the studio also hit a milestone on the global front with Peter Jackson's fantasy epic "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" crossing the $1 billion mark worldwide. The first of three films based on the classic J.R.R. Tolkien novel has made $301.1 domestically and $700 million internationally.

"Jack the Giant Slayer" comes from Bryan Singer, director of "The Usual Suspects" and the first two "X-Men" movies. It stars Nicholas Hoult, Ewan McGregor, Ian McShane and Stanley Tucci.

Among other new releases, the college romp "21 & Over" from Relativity Media made only $9 million this weekend to open in third place. And the horror sequel "The Last Exorcism Part II" from CBS Films debuted in fourth place with just over $8 million.

Jeff Goldstein, Warner Bros.' executive vice president of theatrical distribution, said "Jack the Giant Slayer" opened lower than the studio had hoped, but he's encouraged by its CinemaScore, which was a B-plus overall and an A among viewers under 18. One bit of good news for "Jack" is that it had a 56-percent uptick from Friday to Saturday, suggesting strong word-of-mouth and more family audiences for the PG-13 adventure.

"That tells us that the audiences that are seeing it really do like it," Goldstein said. "The international opening in Asia has been very strong - the 3-D component of the special effects works in a big way outside the domestic marketplace."

"Jack the Giant Slayer" made $13.7 million in 11 international territories for a worldwide total of $41.7 million. Internationally, "A Good Day to Die Hard," the fifth film in the blockbuster Bruce Willis franchise, was the big winner of the weekend with $18.3 million for a global total of nearly $222 million.

Domestically, this is the sixth weekend in a row that movie ticket sales are down, said Paul Dergarabedian, box-office analyst for Hollywood.com. He pointed out that many of the action pictures aimed at men this year - including "Snitch," "The Last Stand," "Bullet to the Head" and "Parker" - have been disappointments at the box office.

"Other films have done OK but we need to do better than OK to keep up with last year's pace," he said. "Where is the audience? I don't want to overstate this, but where are the guys?"

Among the few bright spots, the Jason Bateman-Melissa McCarthy comedy "Identity Thief" has become the first film to cross the $100 million mark this year. Now in its fourth week in theaters, the Universal movie has made $107.4 million.

"This is a tough marketplace right now. Everything is underperforming," Dergarabedian said. "There hasn't been a huge breakout hit yet. For every 'Identity Thief' there have probably been 10 other films that have underperformed."

Meanwhile, winners at last weekend's Academy Awards, including "Argo," "Silver Linings Playbook" and "Life of Pi," are still sticking around in the top 20 after several months in theaters, further underscoring the weakness of recent new releases.

But Dergarabedian was optimistic that things will turn around with the opening next week of Disney's "Oz the Great and Powerful," a much-anticipated prequel to "The Wizard of Oz" starring James Franco and directed by Sam Raimi. It's expected to open in the $75-100 million range.

"We need the cavalry to arrive and we need them soon," he said. "Maybe James Franco is the cavalry."

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Hollywood.com. Where available, latest international numbers are included. Final domestic figures will be released Monday:

1. "Jack the Giant Slayer," $28 million. ($13.7 million international.)

2. "Identity Thief," $9.7 million.

3. "21 & Over," $9 million.

4. "The Last Exorcism Part II," $8 million.

5. "Snitch," $7.7 million.

6. "Escape From Planet Earth," $6.7 million.

7. "Safe Haven," $6.3 million.

8. "Silver Linings Playbook," $5.9 million.

9. "A Good Day to Die Hard," $4.5 million. ($18.3 million international.)

10. "Dark Skies," $3.6 million.

---

Estimated weekend ticket sales at international theaters (excluding the U.S. and Canada) for films distributed overseas by Hollywood studios, according to Rentrak:

1. "A Good Day to Die Hard," $18.3 million.

2. "Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters," $15.2 million.

3. "Jack the Giant Slayer," $13.7 million.

4. "Les Miserables," $10.5 million.

5. "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey," $9.2 million.

6. "Django Unchained," $8 million.

7. "New World," $7.3 million.

8. "Miracle in Cell No. 7," $6.2 million.

9. "Beautiful Creatures," $6 million.

10. "Flight," $5.2 million.

---

Online:

http://www.hollywood.com

http://www.rentrak.com

Source: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2013/03/03/3890806/giant-slayer-scares-up-ho-hum.html

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Israeli settler rabbi who promoted peace dies

JERUSALEM (AP) ? Rabbi Menachem Froman, an Israeli settler known for his efforts to promote coexistence between Arabs and Jews, has died. He was 68.

His son Shivi Froman said he died Monday after a long illness.

Froman, who served as the rabbi of the West Bank settlement of Tekoa, had ties to many Palestinian leaders. He was an outspoken opponent of attacks by Jewish settlers on mosques. He often visited damaged holy sites with local Palestinian officials. He believed Israelis and Palestinians could live together peacefully.

Froman was a founder of the Gush Emunim movement promoting Israeli settlement of the West Bank. He opposed the removal of Jewish settlers from the area, claiming a sacred biblical connection to the land.

His funeral is scheduled for Tuesday.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/israeli-settler-rabbi-promoted-peace-dies-210429426.html

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Iterations: Much Ado About Yahoo!

Over the past few weeks, I've been genuinely surprised by the depth and reach of the reaction to any moves made by Yahoo! As someone who hasn't been around the this place for too long, my sense is Yahoo!, despite its recent history of countless missteps, is still vitally important to the cultural memory of Silicon Valley. And, as a result, the moves its new CEO makes becomes the subject of ridiculously intense, global scrutiny, armchair speculation and analysis, and a deafening level of peanut gallery twitter blabber devoid of any reason or context.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/upuSsuiWjFg/

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Accused Scottish cardinal admits sexual failings

LONDON (AP) ? The cardinal who until recently served as Britain's highest-ranking Catholic leader on Sunday acknowledged having engaged in unspecified sexual misbehavior and promised to play "no further part" in the public life of the church, a statement that comes at an awkward time for the Vatican.

Cardinal Keith O'Brien resigned Monday from his position as archbishop of St. Andrews and Edinburgh after a newspaper published unnamed priests' accounts of unspecified inappropriate behavior.

O'Brien initially rejected the claims, saying he was resigning because he did not want to distract from the upcoming conclave of cardinals that is due to pick a successor to Benedict XVI, who resigned the papacy Thursday. O'Brien also said he would not attend the conclave.

But on Sunday, the Catholic church in Scotland issued a statement quoting O'Brien as saying that there had been times "that my sexual conduct has fallen below the standards expected of me as a priest, archbishop and cardinal."

"To those I have offended, I apologize and ask forgiveness," the statement continued. "To the Catholic church and people of Scotland, I also apologize. I will now spend the rest of my life in retirement. I will play no further part in the public life of the Catholic church in Scotland."

O'Brien gave no clue as to what exactly his sexual misbehavior consisted of, but his statement is nonetheless another reminder of the church's struggle shake off a litany of sex scandals, including those involving pedophile priests.

The claims against O'Brien were first reported by The Observer newspaper.

In its Feb. 24 edition, the British newspaper reported that O'Brien was alleged to have made what it described as "an inappropriate approach" to a seminarian after night prayers.

The paper also said another priest had reported "inappropriate contact" with O'Brien following a visit to his parish, a second priest had reported "unwanted behavior" by the archbishop following a late-night drinking session, and that a third had reported being taken advantage of when he went to the archbishop for counseling.

All four, the paper said, had sent letter of complaint to nuncio Antonio Mennini, the Vatican's ambassador to Britain, early last month.

The paper did not cite a source for its reporting last week, but in this Sunday's edition it quoted the still-unnamed former seminarian as saying that the church had failed to respond quickly and appropriately to his complaint.

O'Brien has at times had a rocky tenure as a cardinal.

In 2003, as a condition of assuming that rank, he was forced to issue a public pledge to defend church teaching on homosexuality, celibacy and contraception. He was pressured to make the pledge after he had called for a "full and open discussion" on such matters.

At the time, O'Brien said he had been misunderstood and wanted to clarify his position. But statements made last week, before the scandal over his behavior broke, suggested he never really changed his mind.

In an interview with the BBC, O'Brien said celibacy should be reconsidered because it's not based on doctrine but rather church tradition and "is not of divine origin."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/accused-scottish-cardinal-admits-sexual-failings-175431595.html

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