[CHICAGO PMI] The headline Chicago PMI came in at 56.7 vs a prior 62.3 and expectations centered around 57-58. That's the lowest reading in 9 months, but still points to far better factory sector growth than most similar surveys. The orders index fell to 55.6 from a prior 64.6
[MONTH-END RUMOURS] We are hearing of possible Usd buying vs the likes of Gbp, Cad and Aud ahead of and into 15GMT. The Dollar has been on the back foot for much of Europe so far, however. The Euro has been a relative outperformer amid talk of the traditional European central bank buying interest in Eur/Gbp
[European Preview] Just when the mkt thought it was safe to buy risky assets, the disappointing BOJ emergency announcement along with soft Euro & US stocks saw risk aversion muscling back into the driver's seat leaving the commodity ccies high & dry while the USD & esp the JPY chalked out decent gains as Eur/Jpy & Aud/Jpy fell more than 200 pts from its high See page
With a 17-14 victory over the San Diego Chargers on Thursday night, the 49ers’ exhibition season came to a close. Coach Mike Singletary, speaking on behalf of everyone, said, “I’m very thankful that the preseason is over.”
Here’s how it ended: Rookie running back Anthony Dixon added another clip to his highlight reel, delivering a tackle-breaking, 46-yard touchdown run. And cornerback Tramaine Brock sealed the 49ers’ 4-0 record in the preseason by intercepting a fourth-down pass from Jonathan Crompton with 38 seconds left.
Now, the more important game begins: The 49ers have until 1 p.m. Saturday to whittle their roster to the 53-player limit. That means 22 of the players on hand against the Chargers will be looking for work by Labor Day.
Players in jeopardy include quarterback Nate Davis, who went 11 for 22 for 103 yards in his final audition. Davis threw the go-ahead touchdown pass, a 2-yarder to Jehuu Caulcrick in the fourth quarter, but he was also sacked twice and threw two interceptions.
Singletary declined to say Davis was a sure thing for the final roster saying, “That’s a question mark. “… Nate Davis is going to be a conversation. How much of a conversation, I don’t know.”
This game was for players on the bubble, as the 49ers’ most recognizable offensive players sat this one out. Frank Gore, Vernon Davis, Michael Crabtree and Alex Smith were all spectators, and the first-string defense played briefly, including
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linebacker Patrick Willis. The game plan for him consisted of four words: Do. Not. Get. Hurt.
For a handful of players, though, the term “meaningless exhibition game” did not apply. This was the playoffs for them — an elimination game, no less.
Linebacker Bruce Davis, who started the night as a long shot to make the roster, delivered a sack and recovered a fumble to force his way back onto the radar. “Some of these cuts are going to be tougher,” Singletary said. “The Davis kid, I thought he did a nice job. He’s been pretty consistent.
“The young corner, Brock, I thought he did some things to help himself.”
Also trying to leave a lasting impression were players such as receiver Jason Hill, linebacker Matt Wilhelm and offensive lineman Alex Boone, who had one last chance to show they deserved a roster spot.
Hill, a third-round pick in 2007, might not have done enough to stick around for a fourth season. He was consistently outplayed during training camp by upstart Dominique Zeigler and, again, on Thursday night.
Zeigler had a 26-yard grab in the first quarter and nearly made a sensational one-handed catch in the end zone. (The play was overturned on a replay challenge, when officials ruled Zeigler didn’t get a second foot in bounds.)
Hill, meanwhile, was 0 for 2 on passes thrown his way before leaving the game late in the first half because of an injury. Chargers cornerback Brandon Hughes poked Hill in the eye.
Wilhelm, an eighth-year veteran and a strong contender for a backup linebacker job, underscored his value by sacking quarterback Billy Volek for an 11-yard loss in the first quarter. Wilhelm has an inside track for the job over youngsters such as Keaton Kristick and Mike Balogun because of his knowledge of the system.
Boone, trying to make the roster as a swing tackle who can back up on either side, mostly played well against the Chargers. But he also committed an illegal use-of-hands penalty on a third-and-9 play in the second quarter.
Unlike the offensive stars, the 49ers first-string defense reported for duty. That included linebacker Willis, who was eager to get back in stride with nose tackle Aubrayo Franklin. Franklin made his preseason debut a week after signing his franchise tag.
“It was really important. The coaches want us to go out there,” Willis said. “We got one of our key guys back, another piece of the puzzle back.
“We just wanted to go out there and get a little taste for him as a defense.”
The first-team defense stuck around for only six snaps — time enough for Willis to register two tackles. But the 49ers also surrendered a 32-yard run to Chargers backup running back Mike Tolbert.
Still, Willis said the 49ers’ performance marked an improvement over the Raiders game.
“We went back in and watched the film and saw some things we’ve got to do better,” he said. “We’ve just got to finish and start fast. I know today, we had one on third down, we’ve got to get off the field and we let them have a big run. We’re going to be all right.”
For more on the 49ers, see Daniel Brown’s Hot Read blog at blogs.mercurynews.com/49ers.
[EUROPEAN FX OPEN] Quiet trade was the overnight theme, but it is worth bearing in mind the 83.50 and 85.10 and dsub-1.5320 stops are still said to be in place, as attention turns to the key NFPs
About 90 minutes or so ago, we warned that [CABLE] could be ripe for another downside test and sure enough Gbp makes new lows for the day of 1.5350 post US pending home sales improvement. In truth, that has been no Gbp sell trigger. Gbp has been an underperformer all week and our identified sub-1.5320 stops zone is now well documented. There may be insufficient broader market interest for such a test before Europe's close today, but we would be very surprised if 1.5327 remains the low of this NFPs release week
[EMU PERIPHERAL SPREADS] are edging out as markets pause for breath after squeezing gaps yest. Eyes are on the ECB & its lqty measures while [GREECE/ITALY/PORTUGAL] are in focus as the IMF warns they face the highest risk of unsustainable debt. However, a US fund opines [IRISH] risks are higher than Italian (Rtrs) while Irish Fin Min Lenihan notes finances are stabilizing. Supply keeps gains in check as [SPAIN] offers up to Eur4 bn 5Y Bonos (8.30GMT) while [ITALY] considers 2-3 syndications for Eur8-15 bn as the state deficit widened to Eur8bn in Aug vs Eur7.1bn in 2009. 10Y yld spreads are out 1-2bp to 183/154bp resp from yest
Just under one in five (19.8 percent) respondents to a PC Advisor (Macworld’s sister publication) poll stated that Apple Macs are “superior” to Windows PCs.
The survey asked the question ‘Mac versus PC: where do you stand?’.
The most popular answer, with 27.4 percent, was ‘I prefer PCs because Macs cost too much’, closely followed by ’100 percent Windows PC. I would never buy an Apple Mac’ (26.8 percent).
“I’ve noticed that anyone who owns a Mac immediately feels the need to justify this by extolling its virtues, and rubbishing Windows PCs,” commented forum member Pineman100. “I have yet to see any convincing evidence that Macs are any more reliable than PCs.”
AL47 added: “Same things as usual: Macs are more expensive and less tinkerable. That’s it for me to be honest. Won’t ever have a Mac.”
A further 16.1 percent admitted that they ‘prefer PCs because I’ve never used a Mac’.
But a surprisingly high 19.8 percent of respondents ticked the option ‘I prefer Macs – they’re superior to PCs’.
“I’ve used both systems and find my iMac to be more reliable, better built, a stranger to the BSOD [blue screen of death] and more user-friendly than a windows PC,” wrote Brumas. “What’s more, there is no cumbersome, bulky, space-hogging tower, as everything is contained in the monitor. I won’t go on!”
The voting was completed by 6.1 percent plumping for ‘Neither – I’m a Linux man (or woman)’, and 3.7 percent ticking ‘Don’t know/other’.
Based on 1372 votes, 1st September 2010. Have your say in the poll, or join the discussion in PC Advisor’s forums.
Nearly five months after the iPad’s launch, Apple has finally matched supply with demand.
Apple’s online store now shows iPad orders will be shipped within 24 hours , the first time the tablet has been available for next-day shipping since its early April debut.
Although Apple took pre-orders for most of a month before the April 3 launch, subsequent orders for the iPad were delayed 15 business days, a mark that fell to 7-10 days by mid-May. Earlier this month, shipping delays dropped again, first to 5-7 days, then to 1-3 days.
Last month, Apple’s executives acknowledged that they had underestimated demand for the tablet.
“We went into the iPad thinking that planning of one million from our capacity was a very bold move,” Tim Cook, Apple’s chief operating officer, said in a July earnings call with Wall Street analysts when he was asked whether there were supply issues with specific components.
“What we are doing is we’re increasing capacity as quickly as we can, and you know there are a number of things that we have to increase in order to do that,” Cook told analysts. “But I am fairly confident that we will be able to increase the capacity. It is not a situation where there is something profound that we can’t eventually increase.”
Apple said it sold 3.3 million iPads in the year’s second quarter, one million of them in the first 28 days of availability.
Before that, Apple gave hints of other signs of stress on iPad supply when it pushed back the international launch until the end of May.
Brian Marshall, an analyst with Gleacher & Co., has projected that Apple will sell 12 million iPads this year, with sales in the fourth quarter of 4.9 million units, a 51% increase over 2010′s second quarter number.
Gregg Keizer covers Microsoft, security issues, Apple, Web browsers and general technology breaking news for Computerworld. Follow Gregg on Twitter at @gkeizer or subscribe to Gregg’s RSS feed . His e-mail address is gkeizer@ix.netcom.com .
Read more about macintosh in Computerworld’s Macintosh Topic Center.
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AUD/USD Weekly Outlook
AUD/USD dipped further to as low as 0.8770 last week but managed to hold above lower channel support and rebounded strongly. The break of inner falling trend line resistance argues that fall from 0.9220 might be finished with three waves down to 0.8770 already. Initial bias is neutral this week with focus on 0.9087 resistance. Break there will suggest that whole rise from 0.8066 is still in progress and is resuming for another high above 0.9220. On the downside, break of 0.8770 will reaffirm the case that rise from 0.8066 is finished and should target a retest on this low.
In the bigger picture, price actions from 0.9404 are consolidations/correction to medium term up trend from 0.6008. Rebound from 0.8066 is treated as the second leg inside such consolidation. Hence even in case of another rise, we’d expect strong resistance near to 0.9404 to limit upside and bring another fall to continue the consolidation. On the downside, break of 0.8315 support will suggest that whole correction is going to extend deeper to beyond 0.8066 support, possibly to 0.7702 key support before completion.
In the longer term picture, long term correction from 0.9849 has likely completed at 0.6008 already, after being supported slightly above 76.4% retracement of 0.4773 (01 low) to 0.9849 (08 high). Rise from 0.6008 is possibly developing into a new up trend which extend the long term rise from 0.4773. We’ll continue to favor the long term bullish case as long as 0.7702 support holds and expect an eventual break of 0.9849 high. However, a break of 0.7702 support will firstly argue that whole rise from 0.6008 has completed. Secondly this will open up the case that AUD/USD is in phase of a long term consolidation and will gyrate in the large range of 0.6008/0.9849 for some time.
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