mic Slowdown Concerns, China Denies Gmail Hacking
Top story: Concerns about the global economic outlook yesterday sparked the biggest drop in U.S. stocks since the middle of last year. In Asia and Europe, markets opened down this morning, following the release of disappointing U.S. manufacturing and home price data, Moody's downgrade of Greece's credit rating, and political uncertainty in Japan. Fears of a slowdown in the economic recovery are growing in the United States just as the Federal Reserve ends a $600 billion stimulus program. If the bad news continues, it's feared the slowdown might not be just a short-term problem. All of that means the markets will be watching very closely Friday when the United States releases its latest report on unemployment. Given the news from private payroll firm ADP Wednesday that job growth in May was anemic, expectations aren't good for that report. (L.A. Times, Wall Street Journal,Portfolio.com)
Conversation starters:
China denies gmail hacking: A spokesperson for the Chinese government has said it is "unacceptable" to blame the country for a recent spate of hacking. Google said an attempt to gain the passwords belonging to specific Gmail accounts in the United States came from China, but avoided blaming the government directly. Google disrupted the hack attack, and informed the victims. (BBC)
Mac Defender defeats Apple: The malware that had Mac users wondering if they finally needed anti-virus software has mutated, beating the latest security update from Apple. The "Mac Defender" malware has apparently spread so fast it has been the subject of an "overwhelming majority" of calls to Apple help lines in recent weeks. (Appleinsider)
Drug sentence disparities to be fixed: Attorney General Eric Holder has proposed to retroactively shave years off sentences for crack offenders, to even up the sentencing disparity between crack users, who are largely African American, and mainly white and affluent cocaine users. Up to 5,500 prisoners could be affected. (Los Angeles Times)
Romney to officially join the race: Mitt Romney will run on his street cred as a former venture capitalist who created jobs. But the former governor of Massachusetts who is expected to officially enter the Republican race for president today will have a lot of explaining to do to the GOP base about his signature on the state law President Barack Obama says was a model for his national health care plan. (Boston Globe)
HIV map shows Southeast hit hard: The HIV epidemic is moving away from the big cities like New York, San Francisco and L.A. and heading southeast, a new interactive map of diagnoses shows. Researchers identify disproportionate infection rates in African American, Hispanic and poor communities as a reason for the shift. (Orlando Sentinel)
Flip founder perfects his grilled cheese: Jonathan Kaplan, the man behind the ill-fated Flip video camera is moving on—to food. Kaplan is launching Melt, a restaurant that will serve grilled cheese and soup, where customers will order and pay using smart phone apps. Melt even has the backing of venture-capital firm Sequoia. (Reuters)
Don't trust Greeks bearing bonds: Ratings agency Moody's has downgraded Greece once more, with the country now at Caa1—the third lowest rating. The downgrade gives the indebted country a 50-50 chance of defaulting. Desperate to avoid further damage, Greek officials have agreed to steep budget cuts, and are looking to wrap talks on a second bailout from fellow eurozone countries by Friday, Reuters reports. (Fortune, Reuters)
Orbitz wins in court: An Illinois court has ordered American Airlines to allow the online travel agency to list its flights. American removed its flights from the site in December, part of on ongoing dispute between airlines and travel websites. (The Wall Street Journal)
Time names start ups to watch: To celebrate Internet Week New York, Time Inc. has come up with a list of the city's 10 hottest startups. Group messaging site GroupMe, daily deal aggregator Yipit, and online glasses store Warby Parker all make the cut. (Time Inc)
The Back Nine Business Bites:
- From the how not to handle a scandal files: Representative Anthony Weiner doesn't know if the lewd photo is of him.
- Scientists have discovered a new kind of worm, deep in the gold mines of South Africa.
- The Shaq won't be back next year.
- Amazon dips its toe in the water on cheap e-book pricing.
- A desanctified New York church gets a new lease of life as a department store.
- Buy the "balloon boy" flying saucer today!
- Worried about cell phone radiation? Check to see how much your model is emitting.
- Now you can order illegal drugs from the comfort of your own home.
- Can the U.S. Postal Service come back from the brink?
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