Satellite Broadband

You can get satellite broadband company almost everywhere now including the very rural area’s of Australia. I don’t like getting locked into contracts which can charge you high fee’s to break early if you are unhappy. This is why I found that HarbourSat allows you to purchase contract less plans where you can cancel anytime.

I was curious to know what types of broadband satellite service were available to AU residents and was surprised to find some plans as low as $9.95 per month for the first six months, now of course. The other big issue with most Satellite companies is if you use over the bandwidth alloted you can get charged some hefty fee’s per month for going over your bandwidth limit, 500megabytes of data is the typical limit. With HarbourSat they have a flexible plan that will drop your speed to 64kbps/64kbps when you reach your limit for the month and then you incur no extra fee’s or penalties for the over limit usage.

HarbourSat claims to have some of the best technical support and service in the business with live 24×7 support and people who work with you to get your service installed, configured and support you if you need assistance anytime. Their service is always available 24×7 and backed by an Optus D1 Satellite.

If you live in Australia and have no access to cable broadband service, I highly recommend you check out satellite broadband australia to determine if the company and plans are the right fit for your situation.

For Dow, another 12-year low

Stocks tumbled Monday, with the Dow and S&P 500 ending at fresh 12-year lows, as Merck's $41 billion purchase of Schering-Plough failed to distract investors from worries about the economy.

The Dow Jones industrial average (INDU) lost 80 points, or 1.2%, to end at 6,547.05, its lowest point since April 15, 1997.

The S&P 500 (SPX) index lost nearly 7 points or 1%, to end at 676.53, its lowest point since Sept. 12, 1996.

The Nasdaq composite (COMP) lost 25 points or 2%, to end at 1,268.64, its lowest point since Oct. 9, 2002.

"We're seeing more of the same," said John Buckingham, chief investment officer at Al Frank Asset Management. "With an absence of good news, the path of least resistance is down."

Yet, with the Dow and S&P 500 both down over 25% year to date, and investor sentiment at or near record lows, a short, sharp rally could be in the works, he said.

"To the extent that you get some piece of good news, you could see a big rally," Buckingham said. "But right now every rally attempt is being met with selling."

Since closing at its all-time high of 14,164.53 on Oct. 9, 2007, the Dow has lost nearly 54%. The S&P 500, which also hit its high of 1565.15 on Oct. 9 has lost around 57%.

"Valuations are reasonably attractive outside of financials, but most investors are in defensive mode," said Thomas Nyheim, portfolio manager at Christiana Bank & Trust Company. "They've seen too many losses and are sitting on the sidelines."

Nyheim said stocks aren't likely to make a bigger move up until later in the year. In the short term, investors will be keeping an eye on the fluctuations in the credit markets, and the weekly and monthly employment figures.

Stocks mustered gains Friday - at the end of a rough week - with the Dow and S&P 500 bouncing off 12-year lows following a bleak February jobs report.

On Tuesday morning, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke speaks at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, D.C. about financial reforms to handle risk in the economy.

In addition, the government will release a report on January wholesale inventories.

Drugmaker Merger: Dow component Merck (MRK, Fortune 500) said it's buying Schering-Plough (SGP, Fortune 500) in a $41.1 billion cash-and-stock deal that is aimed at helping the company better compete with pharmaceutical industry leader Pfizer. Merck shares slipped 7.7% and Schering shares rallied over 14%.

Banks: A variety of bank shares bounced back, with Bank of America (BAC, Fortune 500) leading the way, rising over 19%. Other gainers included Wells Fargo (WFC, Fortune 500) and US Bancorp (DEL). The KBW Bank (BKX) index added 5.3%.

Over the weekend, reports in Fortune and other publications named some of the companies that benefited from the government's multi-billion bailout of insurer American International Group (AIG, Fortune 500).

The counterparties to billions in credit default swaps included U.S. based firm Goldman Sachs (GS, Fortune 500) as well as European firms Deutsche Bank (DB), UBS (UBS) and Société Générale among others.

Other movers: Some of the economically-sensitive stocks that have gotten pummeled lately bounced back, including Dow components Alcoa (AA, Fortune 500), Caterpillar (CAT, Fortune 500), General Motors (GM, Fortune 500) and General Electric (GE, Fortune 500).

GE rallied after it said it was selling bonds guaranteed by the U.S. government.

But other Dow components slumped, including DuPont (DD, Fortune 500), AT&T (T, Fortune 500), Procter & Gamble (PG, Fortune 500), Hewlett-Packard (HPQ, Fortune 500) and IBM (IBM, Fortune 500).

StemCells (STEM) and Geron (GERN), two biotechs that engage in stem cell research, rallied Monday after President Obama reversed a Bush-era policy that limited federal aid for stem cell research.

Market breadth was negative. On the New York Stock Exchange, losers beat winners seven to three on volume of 1.56 billion shares. On the Nasdaq, decliners topped advancers by more than two to one on volume of 2.08 billion shares.

Also in play: Comments from influential investor Warren Buffett that the economy has fallen off a cliff, but that it will recover.

Bonds: Treasury prices rose, lowering the yield on the benchmark 10-year note to 2.91% from 2.87% Friday. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.

Lending rates tightened. The 3-month Libor rate rose to 1.31% from 1.29% Friday, while the overnight Libor rate rose to 0.33% from 0.32% Friday, according to Bloomberg.com. Libor is a bank-to-bank lending rate.

Other markets: In global trading, Asian markets ended lower and European markets ended mixed.

In currency trading, the dollar rose versus the euro and the yen.

U.S. light crude oil for April delivery rose $1.55 to settle at $47.07 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

COMEX gold for April delivery fell $24.70 to settle at $918 an ounce.

Next exit: The Bernanke interchange

The exit ramp that Ben Bernanke was looking for Saturday had only a little to do with getting the U.S. economy back on the road to recovery.

The Federal Reserve chairman attended a ceremony naming the Interstate-95 interchange that leads travelers into his hometown of Dillon, S.C.

"I must confess that, until recently, I did not realize that highway interchanges were named after people," Bernanke said in remarks prepared for delivery and released by the Federal Reserve. "But, as I thought about it, I realized that it is indeed a high honor for someone whose job is focused on supporting the economy."

"Efficient transportation is crucial to economic development," he added.

The Fed chairman's comments were primarily a review of his years in Dillon, working at odd jobs such as construction and waiting tables at the South of the Border attraction that's the town's main claim to fame.

Bernanke's words are usually scrutinized for indications of his thinking on the economy. But the only relevant remark came after he mentioned another young person from Dillon, Ty'Sheoma Bethea, whose "We are not quitters" letter to President Obama - concerning the poor physical condition of her school - earned her a mention in his speech to Congress last month.

"Well, neither are the American people, despite the economic challenges we now confront," said Bernanke, echoing the girl's comment. "For our part, at the Federal Reserve, we will continue to forcefully deploy all the tools at our disposal as long as necessary to support the restoration of financial stability and the resumption of healthy economic growth."

Bernanke goes back to work in the coming week, speaking Tuesday in Washington on reforms to address financial system risk. The week after, he'll chair the Fed's policy-making body, which has kept interest rates near 0% in an effort to restart liquidity in the financial markets.

11% of mortgages are troubled

More than 11% of all American homeowners who hold a mortgage are either delinquent or in foreclosure, according to an industry report released Thursday.

The percentage of mortgage borrowers at least one month behind in their payments - but not in foreclosure - rose to nearly 8% during the fourth quarter of 2008, according to the National Delinquency Report from the Mortgage Brokers Association (MBA). That is the highest rate of delinquency ever recorded by the survey, which began in 1972, and reflects a record 13% jump compared to the third quarter.

"Subprime ARM loans and prime ARM loans, which include Alt-A and pay-option ARMs, continue to dominate the delinquency numbers," Jay Brinkman, chief economist for the MBA, said in a prepared statement. "Nationwide, 48% of subprime ARMs were at least one payment past due, and in Florida over 60% of subprime ARMs were at least one payment past due."

The number of homes in the foreclosure process rose to 3.3%, an increase of 0.33 percentage points from the quarter before and up 1.26 percentage points from a year earlier. That represents nearly 1.5 million homes at risk of sliding all the way through foreclosure.

Combined, the number of frequencies and loans in foreclosure came to 11.18%, the highest ever recorded by the MBA.
Delaying tactics

And even though the number of loans entering into the foreclosure process remained steady, the number of loans stuck there was particularly high, according to Brinkman.

"This is mainly attributable to various state and local moratoria on foreclosure sales, the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac halt on foreclosure sales announced in late November, a general reluctance by servicers to proceed with evictions in the last few weeks of December and a slowing down caused by an overburdened legal process in some areas," he said.

Because of the moratoria, the number of loans very far past due, 90 days or more, jumped sharply to 3% from 2.2% a quarter earlier. In the past, many of those loans would have been cleared out of the system by lenders completing the foreclosure process.

Even though delinquencies are still driven by problems with non-traditional mortgage loans, Brinkman said more fundamental, historic causes of foreclosure are also making an impact.

"The delinquency rates continue to climb across the board for prime fixed-rate and subprime fixed-rate loans - loans whose performance is driven by the loss of jobs or income rather than changes in payments," he said.

Five states - California, Nevada, Arizona, Florida and Michigan - once again dominated delinquency statistics during the quarter, but the number of loans 90 days late or more also increased significantly in New York, Louisiana, Texas, Georgia and Mississippi.

$700M for small business in Obama's budget

The Small Business Administration is still waiting for a detailed budget and breakdown of its financial priorities for the next fiscal year, but the budget overview President Barack Obama released last week earmarks around $700 million to support the agency in 2010, enough for it to back $28 billion in loans to small businesses.

The money allocated in the 2010 fiscal budget comes on top of the $730 million in funding the SBA received from the stimulus bill, which will support emergency lending initiatives through September 2010.

Though a detailed budget proposal won't be available for several weeks, the $700 million Obama's budget recommends to fund the agency would be enough to sustain the SBA's existing lending and educational programs, and to advance administrative priorities like improving the agency's loan accounting and other IT systems.

"[The budget] is comparatively more than most of the recent years," said SBA spokesman Mike Stamler.

The SBA's budget fluctuates drastically from year to year thanks to the agency's disaster-lending program, which directly makes loans to businesses and homeowners affected by disasters like fires, floods and hurricanes. In years with significant disasters, such as 2005's Hurricane Katrina, the SBA's total budget spikes into the billions.

But the agency's core budget, to fund its administrative programs and its flagship lending initiatives, has been whittled away over the past decade. Programs that once received subsidies, such as the SBA's 7(a) and 504 programs that guarantee a portion of bank loans made to qualifying small companies, are now generally expected to support themselves through the fees they charge participants.

Small business advocate Nydia M. Velázquez, chairwoman of the House Committee on Small Business, offered mild criticism of the proposed funding levels.

"While this [budget] is an important step, more needs to be done," she said in a statement. "Just as the SBA's programs were not created overnight, we cannot expect that they will be revitalized overnight. Still, I know President Obama shares my commitment to our nation's small businesses and I will work with the administration to ensure that SBA has sufficient resources to perform its mission."

Obama's proposed budget supports up to $17.5 billion in loan guarantees through the SBA's 7(a) program, as part of the $28 billion in small business loans from banks that the SBA is authorized to insure.

That's a higher loan volume than the SBA has backed in any other year this decade. Last year, the SBA backed $12.8 billion in loans through the program, a 12% drop from 2007's total. Reduced demand from entrepreneurs and banks' reluctance to issue small business loans, even with the SBA's guarantees, have contributed to the decline.

Ford's sales plunge 48%

Ford Motor reported Tuesday that sales fell 48% in February, kicking off a series of reports expected to show that last month was the worst yet for the auto industry during this recession.

Ford sold 96,044 cars and light trucks in the U.S. during the month, a bit better than the January sales total.

The weak demand was broadbased -- sales of virtually every model Ford had on the market a year ago fell more than 10%.

Sales forecaster Edmunds.com had estimated that Ford's sales would be down 50% from year-earlier levels, roughly in line with the declines expected at General Motors (GM, Fortune 500) and Chrysler LLC, which will report later in the day.

But Ford (F, Fortune 500) and its U.S. rivals aren't the only automakers expected to be hit by the current downturn.

Edmunds forecasts declines of more than 33% at Japanese automakers Toyota Motor (TM), Honda Motor (HMC) and Nissan (NSANY). Overall industrywide sales are forecast to fall at least 40% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of between 9.1 million to 9.3 million.

That would be the worst sales rate since December 1981. The sales rate was 9.5 million in January.

"The economic and competitive environment remains challenging," said Ken Czubay, Ford's vice president of sales and marketing, in a statement.

Ford also announced it is cutting production in North America during the second quarter by 38% to keep supply in line with the reduced demand.

The lower outlook for industrywide sales has prompted GM and Chrysler, which have received $17.4 billion in federal loans between them, to ask for another $21.6 billion in federal assistance to see them through the downturn.

Ford, which went into the current crisis with a better cash position, has thus far not asked for federal loans. But it has requested a $9 billion line of credit in case sales don't improve soon.

Construction spending at four-year low

U.S. construction spending dropped in January to its lowest level in more than four years, according to a government report on Monday, dragged down by the residential slump.

The Commerce Department said spending on construction projects dropped 3.3% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $986.2 billion, the lowest since June 2004, after tumbling 2.4% the previous month.

Analysts polled by Reuters were expecting a 1.5% decline in overall construction spending in January. Compared to the same period a year ago, construction spending dived 9.1%.

Private residential spending, at the heart of the U.S. economic contraction, fell 2.9% in January after December's 4.4% drop. Compared to the same period last year, spending was down 28%. The level of spending, at a $291.5 billion rate, was the lowest in more than 10 years.

Spending in the nonresidential private sector on a range of structures from factories, lodging, offices and power plants fell 4.3% in January, versus a 1.2% decline the previous month.