SEOUL | Sun Dec 30, 2012 11:14pm EST

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea's parliament was expected to pass next year's government budget on Monday after slightly expanding welfare spending programs in line with President-elect Park Geun-hye's campaign pledges.

Media cited officials at the ruling and main opposition parties as saying they now aimed to put their agreed version up for vote later in the day after winding up debate on minor issues at sub-committee meetings.

The value of the 2013 budget bill is expected to rise to about 342.7 trillion won ($320.11 billion) from 342.5 trillion won, but there would be no big change in funding plans, media reports said.

The government's plan is to narrow the official fiscal deficit to 0.3 percent of gross domestic product in 2013 from a projected 1.1 percent deficit in 2012.

The fiscal year begins on January 1 but parliament has often delayed budget approval until after midnight on December 31 due to wrangling between the ruling and opposition parties.

The government had proposed to allocate 28 percent of total spending to health, welfare and labor but Park promised this month to increase welfare spending.

Park, from the ruling conservative Saenuri Party, does not take office until late February.

Technically, the ruling party holds 51.3 percent of the single-chamber National Assembly and can pass the bill alone but wants to reach agreement with the opposition first. The main opposition Democratic United Party holds 42.3 percent.

($1 = 1070.575 won)

(Reporting By Se Young Lee; Editing by Choonsik Yoo and Nick Macfie)

View the original article here

A man looks at his iPad while sitting in a cafe in central Beijing June 6, 2012.

SAN FRANCISCO | Fri Oct 12, 2012 6:17pm EDT

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Apple Inc will host an event on October 23 where it is expected to unveil a smaller iPad that will take on the less expensive devices offered by Amazon.com Inc and Google Inc, a source familiar with the matter said on Friday.

Wall Street analysts have predicted for months that Apple was planning a smaller, less costly version of its popular iPad to take on cheaper competing devices, a move that analysts say might hurt its margins, but prevent its rivals from dominating an increasingly important computing segment.

The source did not specify what the product would be and an Apple spokesman declined to comment, but tech blog AllThingsD reported earlier on Friday that Apple would launch the mini iPad at the event. The device is expected by many experts to have a screen between 7 and 8 inches.

A smaller iPad will directly compete with e-commerce company Amazon's Kindle Fire HD tablet and Google's Nexus 7. Both devices have 7-inch screens and sell for $199. The first Kindle Fire, launched last year, grabbed about a fifth of the U.S. tablet market.

The consumer device company is gearing up to unveil a new product at a major October 23 event, said the source, who declined to be named, only days before Microsoft Corp unveils Windows 8 and its new Surface tablet on October 26.

The Nexus 7, manufactured by Asustek Computer Inc, has also seen a successful start, with the tablet selling out soon after launch.

One Wall Street analyst said he had seen the smaller tablet, dubbed iPad mini by the media, while visiting component suppliers in Asia.

"We actually had the opportunity to play with a pilot iPad Mini used by one of the vendors," Topeka Capital analyst Brian White said. "This 7.85-inch iPad Mini fit our hands like a glove and we were easily able to tuck the device in our sport coat, offering consumers a more mobile iPad experience for certain use cases."

Apple events are typically among the most-watched items on the industry calendar, monitored by consumers and technology investors alike. The event in two weeks, however, comes at a time of volatility for the popular technology stock.

Apple shares closed up 0.25 percent at $629.714 on the Nasdaq market, barely recouping significant losses suffered over the past three weeks as investors cashed out after it touched an all-time high of $705.07 on September 21.

While the stock is up 55 percent this year, it is currently down 10 percent from its record high. Wall Street analysts have cited concerns about disruptions of iPhone supplies after a riot in September at one of the plants operated by its main contract manufacturer, Foxconn Technology, and sharp criticism from consumers about errors in its Maps service.

MARGIN RISK?

Apple's fiscal fourth quarter financial results are scheduled to be released on October 25, two days after the event, offering analysts a rare opportunity to grill executives about a new product just after details are made public.

A smaller iPad could be a risk to Apple's industry-leading margins, given that neither Amazon nor Google has been known to make much money from the smaller tablets.

Amazon's first Kindle Fire just about breaks even, according to IHS iSupply estimates. But the internet retailer sells a lot of content - music, books - through the Kindle line.

Google has said that its $199 Nexus 7 is being sold at cost and has no profit margin.

Apple earned gross margins of 23 percent to 32 percent on its U.S. iPad sales between October 2010 and the end of March 2012, a court filing by Apple in a recent patent trial against Samsung Electronics Co Ltd revealed in July. The company's margins on U.S. iPhone sales are almost double those of the iPad, averaging between 49 percent and 58 percent.

Sterne Agee analyst Shaw Wu said that, if Apple prices the smaller tablet between $299 to $349, it could maintain the current margins.

"The biggest cost in a tablet is the display," he said. "On a mini, the display will be a bit cheaper.

If the tablet is priced below $299, Apple could still maintain a decent margin if it offers 8 GB of storage instead of the minimum 16 GB storage it has in the current iPad, Wu added.

A mini version of the iPad marks a departure for the company that now has just one 9.7-inch iPad, although it does come with various storage options and starts at $499.

Late Apple founder Steve Jobs famously derided the 7-inch screen as unwieldy for tablet applications, saying the devices should come with sandpaper so that users can file down their fingers to use them.

But an internal email revealed during the patent trial showed that Internet chief Eddy Cue argued there was a market for a 7-inch tablet and that Apple should have one. The email, sent in early 2011 to top Apple executives, said Jobs had warmed up to the idea.

Struggling Silicon Valley technology icon Hewlett Packard Co was among the first to show, albeit unwittingly, that there was indeed a healthy market for cheap tablets. Sales of the TouchPad took off after the company slashed the price to $99 from $399 and $499 after deciding to kill the product.

(Reporting By Poornima Gupta and Jennifer Saba; Editing by Gerald E. McCormick, Marguerita Choy and Andre Grenon)

View the original article here

Pablo Picasso's ''Nature morte aux tulipes'', an oil on canvas painted in March 1932 is seen in this handout photo.

NEW YORK | Fri Oct 5, 2012 4:20pm EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A 1932 portrait by Pablo Picasso of his young lover and a pioneering 3-D Andy Warhol painting of the Statue of Liberty are expected to sell for at least $35 million each, but could fetch much more when they are auctioned next month.

The two works, Picasso's "Nature morte aux tulipes," and Warhol's "Statue of Liberty" will be the highlights of New York autumn sales at Sotheby's and Christie's.

The Picasso masterpiece is one of several renderings of his muse Marie-Thérèse Walter and considered by art experts to be one of his most important works. It carries a pre-sale estimate from $35 million to up to $50 million ahead of the November 5 sale at Sotheby's.

"The young woman, with her Grecian profile and athletic, statuesque frame, inspired Picasso's greatest achievements in a variety of media," said Simon Shaw, Sotheby's Impressionist and Modern Art department in New York.

"Nature morte aux tulipes is exceptional within the series for its double-meditation on this subject, demonstrating the influence of Surrealism on his output: the artist builds a sculpture of Marie-Thérèse, and then paints that sculpture as a sexually-charged still life, allowing him to dissect her form on many levels," he added in a statement.

Marie-Thérèse, who was just 17 years old when she met the already married Picasso, featured in many of his works and bore him a daughter in 1935.

Another painting of her, "Femme à la fenêtre" from 1936, will also be included in the Sotheby sale with a pre-sale estimate of up to $20 million.

"Nu au Plateau de Sculpteur" a 1932 painting of Marie-Thérèse was sold to anonymous buyer at a 2010 auction for $106.5 million.

The sale of the Picasso portraits coincides with a new exhibition of the works of the renowned Spanish artist at the Guggenheim Museum in New York.

ICON OF THE AMERICAN DREAM

The following week, on November 14, Warhol's "Statue of Liberty," will go under the hammer at Christie's. It is the first of its kind in 3-D and the only example of the artist's experimentation with the technique still privately owned.

A child of immigrants, Warhol painted the red and green work showing multiple misaligned images of the iconic landmark in 1962 as a prelude to his Death and Disaster series, according to Christie's.

"Andy Warhol's 'Statue of Liberty' is one of the most important statements on America and on painting in the 1960s," said Brett Gorvy, the chairman and international head of Post-War and Contemporary Art.

"It is a famous icon of the American dream, alongside Warhol's most popular American subjects such as the Coca-Cola bottle, the Campbell's soup-cans and his Marilyns and Elvis."

Two other paintings from the 3-D series are part of museum collections in Switzerland and Pittsburgh.

The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts announced last month that it would sell paintings, photos and other works by the pop artist in a series of auctions, private sales and online. Proceeds from the sales will be used to help the foundation expand its support of the visual arts.

(Reporting by Patricia Reaney; Editing by Marguerita Choy)

View the original article here

Conference attendees cross a street in San Francisco, California March 15, 2012.

WASHINGTON | Thu Aug 2, 2012 10:42am EDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The number of Americans filing new claims for jobless benefits rose less than expected last week, but the data continues to be influenced by distortions from seasonal auto shutdowns.

Initial claims for state unemployment benefits rose 8,000 to a seasonally adjusted 365,000, the Labor Department said on Thursday. The prior week's figure was revised up to 357,000 from the previously reported 353,000.

"The claims number is not that bad. There does seem to be some difficulty dealing with the seasonals this time of year whether it's auto plant closures or lack thereof," said Cary Leahey, a senior economist at Decision Economics in New York.

Economists polled by Reuters had forecast claims rising to 370,000 last week. The four-week moving average for new claims, a better measure of labor market trends, fell 2,750 to 365,500, the lowest in four months.

Temporary plant shutdowns by automakers for annual retooling cause wide swings in claims data in July, which makes it difficult to get a clear picture of the labor market's health.

The model used by the government to smooth the numbers for typical seasonal patterns has trouble anticipating the timing of the temporary closures and in addition, some automakers kept production lines running in July.

A Labor Department official said last week was the last where the seasonal expectation was shaped by seasonal layoffs in the auto manufacturing sector.

U.S. financial markets were little moved by the data, with traders focusing attention on a press conference by European Central Bank President Mario Draghi.

The claims data has no bearing on the July employment report as it falls outside the survey period.

The government is expected to report on Friday that employers added 100,000 new workers to their payrolls last month, according to a Reuters survey, up from 80,000 in June.

Job growth averaged 75,000 per month in the second quarter, a sharp deceleration from the average monthly increase of 226,000 in the first three months of the year.

An uncertain fiscal policy path and ongoing debt problems in Europe have hurt demand and left businesses cautious about hiring new workers.

On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve signaled it was willing to ease monetary policy further, noting that economic activity had slowed in the first half of the year. Many economists expect the U.S. central bank to launch a third round of bond buying, also known as quantitative easing, in September.

The number of people still receiving benefits under regular state programs after an initial week of aid fell 19,000 to 3.3 million in the week ended July 21.

A second report showed planned layoffs at U.S. companies dropped for a second straight month in July, even as job cuts in the financial sector persisted.

Employers announced 36,855 planned job cuts last month, down 1.9 percent from June, consultants Challenger, Gray & Christmas said. So far this year, announced layoffs are up 2.5 percent from the same period in 2011.

The financial sector cut 6,156 jobs in July, the largest number since January.

"The situation in Europe is far from being resolved and ongoing weakness here could continue to take a toll on the financial sector," John Challenger, chief executive of the company, said in a statement.

Challenger also cautioned that layoffs typically slow during the summer months, while the heaviest job cuts historically happen in the fourth quarter.

"This may simply be the lull before the storm," he said.

(Reporting By Lucia Mutikani, additional reporting by Leah Schnurr and Ellen Freilich in New York; Editing by Andrea Ricci)

View the original article here