Market Gawk

Presidential hopeful McCain visits Baghdad market, By Ross Colvin. BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate Senator John

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Investors are looking ahead to the coming week’s economic data for signs that the U.S. economy is still on track to grow at a moderate pace.

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This week’s data releases will illustrate why further tightening in monetary policy by the Bank of England is likely as an increase in UK interest rates on Thursday cannot be entirely ruled out.

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TEL AVIV (MarketWatch) — Israel shares were higher at mid-afternoon, with the benchmark TA-25 index crossing 1000 points for the only the second time, led by Africa-Israel Investments and the two biggest banks. The benchmark TA-25 index rose 0.88% to 1006.03, the TA-100 is up 0.86% to 1003.01, and the Tel-Tech 15 index of top technology stocks slipped 0.02% to 382.00. The TA-25 crossed the 1000-point barrier for the first time on Feb. 19. Africa-Israel, with real estate and other investments, is the most-active issue and is up 1.8%. Among the banks, Hapoalim is up 0.3% and Leumi added 1.5%. Fertilizer producer Israel Chemicals advanced 1.6% and Teva Pharmaceutical climbed 1.3. Active and lower in the blue chips is real-estate firm Gazit-Globe, down 0.5%. The Tel-Tech reflects a 1.9% drop in Retalix, the producer of supermarket management solutions. Radvision, the specialist in videoconferencing solutions, is down 5.5% on light volume. Defense contractor Elbit Systems is 1.6% hig

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TEL AVIV (MarketWatch) — Pointer Telocation Ltd., the Givatayim, Israel, provider of roadside-assistance, fleet-management and stolen-vehicle retrieval services, said it would place with U.S. institutional funds 805,000 shares at $10.50 each to raise $8.5 million. The investors in the private placement will also receive warrants on half a share for each full share issued. The warrants are exercisable for five years at $12.60 a share. After the placement, Pointer will have 4.45 million shares outstanding, with the investors holding 18%, or 21.5% fully diluted. The funds will help the company finance recent acquisitions, Pointer said. In March, Pointer said it would pay $18.5 million for closely held Cellocator, an Israeli provider of cellular location-based services and technology, and $9 million for an Argentine provider of roadside-assistance and towing services. The private placement is subject to regulatory clearance, Pointer said. Pointer shares closed on Friday on Wall Street at

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Wall Street ended a bumpy first quarter with a thud last week and is bound to start the second one in a similar fashion–with Iran, China, and mostly the U.S. economy in focus.

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TEL AVIV (MarketWatch) — The Bank of Israel and its workers have agreed on a new labor accord but for a single issue, a senior official at the central bank said. The judge overseeing the case had on March 22 ordered the two sides to continue negotiating their years-long labor dispute and report back April 1. The issue is that employees were overpaid; the Bank of Israel and the Finance Ministry had agreed to ask the employees to return those overpayments from 1998, while the workers’ representatives say the calculation should begin in 2004, the Bank of Israel official said. ”Our impression is that we can solve” the dispute, the official said. The judge ordered the central bank and the workers to try to solve the issue by April 12, with the next court hearing set for April 15.Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.

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TEL AVIV (MarketWatch) — Ten stocks traded on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange gave investors 10-year returns of just about twice the return of the bourse’s benchmark 25-stock index, the TASE said.

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outdone herself with all those over-the-top Lycra creations, getting a little help from Idol’ runner-up Bo Bice, who puts the right anthemic arena rock spin on

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‘So, we decided to work with them, even though was a little outside of The rock kids or the rap kids?’ And I was like, ‘Kids in general are going to buy it.”.

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