Finance news. My opinion.

Spain managed to auction nearly (EURO)2.5 billion ($3.18 billion) in medium-term debt amid strong demand but at sharply higher interest rates reflecting concerns that the country will be caught up in the fallout of the Greek crisis.

The Treasury sold three kinds of notes Thursday, two maturing in 2015 and one in 2016. Of them only one was strictly comparable to previous sales and the interest rate, or yield, on that three-year bond went up to 4.87 percent, from 4 fast payday loan no faxing.04 percent on May 3.

On the secondary market, the interest rate on Spanish 10-year bonds stood at 6.28 percent. The spread _ the difference between it and the yield on safe-haven German bunds _ was 481 basis points.

Spain’s Ibex 35 stock index was virtually unchanged in early trading.

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The largest U.S. banks, including JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS), told the Federal Reserve that a limit on their credit exposure is unnecessary and

Speculators cut bullish wagers on commodities by the most in 2012 on mounting concern that the slowest Chinese growth in almost three years will curb gains in demand for everything from copper to cotton.

Money managers lowered net-long positions across 18 U.S. futures and options by 9.3 percent to 1.01 million contracts in the week ended April 10, the biggest reduction since Dec. 20, data from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission show. Copper holdings tumbled 84 percent, the most since November. Hedge funds are now betting on lower cotton prices.

China

Singapore’s central bank tightened its monetary policy Friday by allowing for a stronger currency to combat the island’s stubbornly high inflation rate.

A jump in global oil prices since October has quickened inflation to near 5 percent in Singapore, which imports all of its fuel. A stronger Singapore dollar would lower the prices of imports while possibly making the country’s exports less competitive.

Unlike most central banks, The Monetary Authority of Singapore uses currency, rather than a benchmark lending rate, to help control money supply. The bank’s statement Friday indicated it would allow the Singapore dollar to rise at a faster rate.

The shift in policy will likely speed the rate of appreciation by one percentage point to between 2 percent and 3 percent a year, said Robert Prior-Wandesforde, director of Asian economics at Credit Suisse in Singapore.

Besides Singapore and Indonesia, policymakers in Asia will likely hold steady or ease monetary policy amid concern about slowing economic growth, Prior-Wandesforde said.

“We doubt Singapore’s monetary tightening move will be replicated in Asia this year,” he said. “The crucial difference is the fact that Singapore inflation is comparatively high.”

The central bank also raised its inflation forecast for this year by one percentage point to between 3.5 percent and 4.5 percent.

“Inflation has come in stronger than expected since October and will remain elevated over the next few months,” the central bank said in its biannual monetary policy statement. “External inflationary pressures are likely to be sustained, largely due to higher oil prices.”

The central bank sets a trading range for the Singapore dollar though doesn’t publicly disclose the details. It intervenes to keep the currency inside the trading band.

The government also released first quarter preliminary growth figures Friday based on data mostly from January and February. The city-state’s economic growth slowed to 1.6 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier, the trade and industry ministry said. The government is forecasting growth of 1 percent to 3 percent this year, down from 4.9 percent last year.

However, compared with the fourth quarter, the economy expanded a seasonally adjusted, annualized 9.9 percent and avoided a recession after falling 2.5 percent in the October to December period. Manufacturing, led by pharmaceuticals and electronics, rebounded strongly in the first quarter from a contraction in the fourth, buoyed by better than expected global demand.

Construction and services also improved compared with the fourth quarter.

“Today’s message is clear: Singapore is reaccelerating,” DBS bank said in a report.

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Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy will today face down the first general strike against his three-month old government as pressure from investors and European peers trumps demands from unions.

Auto workers at factories of Volkswagen AG (VOW3) and Renault SA followed the strike during the nightshift and 100 percent of miners also joined the walkout, union Comisiones Obreras said in a statement. Power demand was 22 percent below that of a typical day, grid operator Red Electrica Corp SA data showed.

The People

The new debt-slashing budget plan pushed by House Republicans heated up as a presidential campaign issue Sunday as the proposal’s architect, Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, sparred with top Democrats over its political fallout and downplayed the possibility he could be tapped as a vice presidential candidate.

Senior White House adviser David Plouffe dismissed the GOP plan Sunday as “a lot of candy, not a lot of vegetables,” and charged that it would be “rubber-stamped” as law if leading Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney is elected.

“This is really the Romney-Ryan plan,” Plouffe said, adding that its mix of across-the-board tax cuts and stiff budget cuts “showers huge tax cuts on millionaires and billionaires paid for by senior and veterans.”

Ryan tried to tamp down speculation that he could be tapped for the No. 2 spot on the GOP ticket, although who will be the nominee is far from settled.

“I would have to consider it, but it’s not something I’m even thinking about right now because right _ I think our job in Congress is pretty important,” Ryan said. “And what we believe we owe the country is, if we don’t like the direction the president is taking us, which we don’t, we owe them a specific sharp contrast and a different path that they can select in November. And doing this in Congress is really important.”

The House GOP debt-reduction plan, unveiled last week with minimal Democratic congressional support, is quickly sharpening as a line of division for the fall campaign, pitting GOP and tea party pressure for a reined-in budget against White House and Democratic party alarms about a weakened Medicare system and tax relief for the wealthy.

“This is a sharp, clear difference with two different futures,” Ryan said. Despite growing signs that the U.S economy is struggling back to life, Ryan threw down a marker for the fall national election, saying that the GOP plan is the only alternative to a looming debt crisis versus Obama’s “path of debt and decline payday loan lenders.”

The GOP proposal _ endorsed by Romney last week during a meeting with GOP congressional leaders _ would slice $5.3 trillion from President Barack Obama’s budget over the coming decade through tax reforms and sweeping program cuts. The plan aims to shrink U.S. deficits by $3.1 trillion over the next decade, reducing tax burdens while cutting Medicaid payments and shifting oversight to states and sharply cutting other domestic programs.

House Budget Committee chairman Ryan, who authored a similar plan last year sunk by White House and Democratic congressional opposition, agreed that Romney backed his plan generally. But he said the former Massachusetts governor might not be in complete lockstep with his vision.

“I’m not expecting everyone to enact every little piece,” Ryan said, adding that he expects Romney will back the plan’s main planks.

Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., cautioned that his party would blunt the Ryan plan again as it did last year, also noting the election year “contrast with Democrats.” He said Senate Democrats would offer up a rival tax reform plan on tax day, April 15, calling for increased taxes on wealthy Americans along the lines of the “Buffett Rule” acclaimed by billionaire Nebraska investor Warren Buffett.

“Let’s be fair, you should pay more than your secretary,” Schumer said, echoing Buffett’s complaint that the current tax system allows the megarich to pay at lower tax rates than many of those who work for them.

Ryan and Plouffe spoke on “Fox News Sunday,” while Ryan and Schumer went on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”

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The World Bank plans to select its next president by the time of its spring meetings in late April, it announced Friday.

The bank’s 25-member executive board said it will accept nominations until March 23.

The board said it will choose up to three candidates to interview. It wants to finalize its selection by the time of the April 20-22 meetings of the World Bank and its sister lending organization, the International Monetary Fund.

Robert Zoellick, the current World Bank president, announced Wednesday that he will step down when his five-year term ends June 30.

Since the IMF and the World Bank were created, the top IMF job has always gone to a European, and the World Bank post has gone to an American.

But China, now the world’s second-largest economy, and other emerging economic powers such as Brazil and India have argued that they, too, deserve consideration for the leadership of the two organizations.

The IMF and World Bank have adopted new selection guidelines aimed at ensuring a more open process. But in June, when the IMF chose a new leader, it selected another European, Christine Lagarde.

Lagarde, then the French finance minister, was chosen after Dominique Strauss-Kahn abruptly stepped down from the IMF after being charged with attempted rape. The charges were later dropped.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Wednesday that the Obama administration would put forward a candidate for the World Bank post. But he didn’t say whether the administration would consider promoting a non-American. Geithner said the United States wanted the World Bank’s board to engage in an “open and expeditious” process.

Two Americans who have been mentioned for the post are Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers. Clinton’s spokeswoman said Wednesday that Clinton isn’t interested in the job.

The United States has the largest voting share on the World Bank board. That gives it a dominant voice in deciding who will lead the institution, a major provider of development loans to poor nations.

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Costs related to Ralcorp Holdings’ spin-off of its branded cereal business and an October acquisition drove down first quarter profit by 8 percent.

St. Louis-based Ralcorp posted a net income of $65.3 million, or $1.16 a share, in the quarter ended Dec. 31,  down from $71.3 million, or $1.28 a share, a year ago. Net sales rose 18 percent to $1.38 billion.

Ralcorp, which makes private label cereals, pastas and bakery goods, spun-off its branded cereal business, Post Holdings, as a separate company on Feb. 3.  In its first fiscal quarter of 2012, Ralcorp spent $2.7 million primarily in professional service fees related to the Post spin-off.

Ralcorp also spent $5.6 million in the quarter on acquisition costs, primarily related to its $545 million acquisition  of the North American refrigerated dough business from Sara Lee in October.

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The jailed founder of the file-sharing website Megaupload is complaining that women inmates are giving him unwanted attention.

In a New Zealand courtroom to appeal a decision denying him bail, Kim Dotcom said he’s gotten unwanted letters from female prisoners and a phone call from a man posing as a prosecutor, according to reports by media outlets.

A government lawyer said during the hearing that a known forger tried to visit Dotcom.

Dotcom told the Auckland court he would not flee New Zealand and wants to fight to get back his money, some of which authorities seized last month.

U.S. authorities claim Megaupload facilitated millions of illegal downloads. They are trying to extradite Dotcom and three colleagues on racketeering charges.

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Current and former Food and Drug Administration officials say in a lawsuit that the agency secretly monitored their private email after they raised concerns that approved medical devices might risk public safety.

The doctors and scientists who researched the products approached members of Congress and the incoming Obama administration to express alarm that the devices were approved over their objections.

Their lawsuit, first reported Monday by The Washington Post, says the agency monitored email sent from their personal Gmail and Yahoo accounts from work computers over two years. It says those emails included messages to congressional staff and drafts of whistleblower complaints.

The staffers say they were legally protected whistleblowers and the monitoring violated their constitutional rights to free speech and against illegal search and seizure, even though a warning on FDA computers said they had no expectation to privacy. The defendants say they were admonished or lost their contracts to work with FDA in retaliation.

The FDA said Monday it would not comment on ongoing litigation.

The lawsuit says the plaintiffs were among those who complained in fall 2008 to members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee that senior managers at the Center for Devices and Radiological Health “ordered, intimidated, and coerced FDA experts to modify their scientific reviews, conclusions and recommendations in violation of the law.” Then in January 2009, after Barack Obama’s election but before he was sworn into office, nine FDA employees sent a letter to the Obama transition team complaining of corruption within the FDA device review process that they said was endangering public health.

For example, the FDA scientists alleged that the agency approved the use of computer-aided detection devices with breast mammograms even though they had been determined not to be safe or effective, harming women and resulting in unnecessary public health costs.

The suit says FDA officials began secretly referring to the letter’s signatories as the “FDA 9″ and began the secret monitoring. The suit says the agency used spyware on their government-owned computers that allowed them to take “screen shots,” or pictures of what was on their computer screens without their knowledge.

The scientists’ complaints were the subject of a New York Times article on March 28, 2010, that said FDA brushed aside its own experts’ warnings about the risks of radiation exposure from routinely using powerful CT scans to screen patients for colon cancer.

The lawsuit says lawyers for General Electric Co., which applied for agency approval of CT scans for colon cancer screenings, complained that confidential information may have been leaked to the Times. Agency officials used the letter to make a criminal referral to the Office of Inspector General and attempt to have the plaintiffs investigated and potentially charged with serious crimes, the suit says. But the IG’s office found no evidence of criminal conduct and noted that disclosures relating to public safety to Congress and the media were protected whistleblower activity.

The attorney who filed the suit, National Whistleblowers Center Executive Director Stephen Kohn, said spying on employees who raise health concerns stops others from coming forward in the interest of public safety.

“The FDA’s illegal spying program is not just a problem for the six victims in this case,” Kohn said in a statement Monday. “The day we allow the government to spy on employees based on their lawful whistleblower activities is the day we give up privacy for every honest public servant in America.”

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