Finance news. My opinion.

Asian stock markets were mostly lower Monday after a disappointing U.S. jobs report, although the Nikkei piled on more gains as the yen’s dramatic fall boosted the country’s powerhouse export sector.

The Japanese yen has weakened sharply in the aftermath of a surprise decision Thursday by the Bank of Japan to overhaul its monetary policy, pledging to double the money supply to achieve a 2 percent inflation target within two years.

The Nikkei 225 in Tokyo shot up 2 percent to 13,091.95. The dollar rose sharply to 98.39 yen from 94.13 yen late Friday in New York. A weaker currency can help make Japanese exports more price competitive in overseas markets.

Elsewhere, however, markets fell after the U.S. government reported a sharp decline in hiring in March. U.S. employers added just 88,000 jobs in March, just half the average of the previous six months on line pay day loans. The closely watched report was a letdown for investors who had become more optimistic about the economy after recent positive signs on housing.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index fell 0.1 percent to 21,692.09. South Korea’s Kospi lost 0.1 percent to 1,924.91. Benchmarks in mainland China, Singapore and Taiwan also fell.

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.2 percent to 4,901.70.

Benchmark oil for May delivery was up 13 cents to $92.83 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell 56 cents to close at $92.70 in New York on Friday.

The euro rose to $1.2988 from $1.2822.

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A.J. Blugerman, who died Friday when the car he was a passenger in crashed through a handrail along Lakeshore Blvd. E. and into the Keating Channel, was the kind of kid any parent would want their teenager to be: funny, smart, athletic, respectful and determined.

Sandy-haired and handsome, the smiling teen who appears in dozens of photos crafted into a YouTube memorial by a grieving friend Saturday was someone who revelled in his accomplishments and didn’t back down from working to achieve his goals, say his soccer and hockey coaches.

“He was a kid you wished was yours,” said Steve Simmons, a Toronto Sun sports columnist who coached Blugerman for two seasons with the GTHL Willowdale Blackhawks.

“I’ve coached minor hockey for 20-some years and he would be on my short list of kids who touched me and left an imprint,” he added of the teen, who discovered, despite his size, he had a “big slapshot” and was determined to improve it, even if it meant staying on the ice after the other players left.

“He was full of heart and loved to play,” Simmons said.

“He was multi-talented and such a smart kid. He could have pursued university or athletics,” said soccer coach Victor Satai, 30, who started coaching Blugerman as a 9-year-old at Power Soccer School of Excellence in 2005.

Satai described him as “quick witted,” and popular, a teen with a great sense of humour, natural athletic ability and also highly intelligent.

The 16-year-old Toronto Grade 11 student at the private school Bayview Glen died Friday after the SUV he was riding in with four other teens crashed into frigid water at about 5:30 p.m. The Acura MDX was eastbound on Lakeshore approaching the Don Roadway at the time of the crash, said Staff Sgt. Brian Bowman of Toronto police traffic services unit. “We’re dealing with an inexperienced driver,” he added.

Two 16-year-old girls, a 16-year-old boy and the 17-year-old male driver were able to escape the submerged vehicle and swim to shore. Despite the best efforts of police and fire, Blugerman, who was wearing a seatbelt, remained trapped. He was removed by the Toronto police marine unit about 40 minutes after the crash and pronounced dead at hospital.

The other teens in the car suffered minor injuries and were released from hospital Saturday. Police have interviewed them. There is no word on charges being laid.

Simmons said Blugerman’s mother, Carole, was “in absolute shock,” according to a mutual friend who spoke with her Saturday. His father, Michael, is a psychotherapist. It’s believed he also had a sister.

Blugerman’s Facebook page reveals a teen who loved the New England Patriots NFL football team, Eminem, dubstep and TV shows The Office and Late Night With Jimmy Fallon.

Twitter tributes included heartfelt remembrances from friends and a tweet from the all-boys St. Michael’s College School on Bathurst St., where Blugerman had gone to school before switching to Bayview Glen. The flag was at half-staff at Bayview Glen on Saturday.

“He will always be remembered for his contagious smile and laughter and his outgoing nature,” read a YouTube tribute, featuring photos of the teen with friends set to Sarah McLachlan’s haunting “I Will Remember You.”

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Visitors to the Toronto Public Library will soon notice something different about the reminder slips they bring home with their books. Or so advertisers hope.

Beginning in late March or early April, every date-due slip will have an ad on the back. By handing over this untapped real estate to an ad-sales company for a six-month trial period, the library will reap $20,000 in savings.

The library has long allowed companies to sponsor programs, but it has not previously permitted direct advertising anywhere other than the library magazine. Pressed by Mayor Rob Ford’s administration to contain costs, the library board endorsed date-due ads last year.

During the six-month pilot, a company, Receipt Media, will pay for the slip paper in exchange for the right to sell ads and keep the money.

The library, which has a budget of about $180 million, will not see a windfall. But “at the end of the day, the pennies all add up,” said right-leaning Councillor Paul Ainslie, the board chair.

“We’ll see how it goes. It’s not a huge pot of money, and I don’t think we were expecting a huge pot of money. But we’re at least looking for revenue sources. We just thought it was an easy ticket to picking up revenue.”

Board member and left-leaning councillor Janet Davis said the public library should be an ad-free “oasis cash till payday advance.” The library is sacrificing its reputation for a “pittance,” she said.

“We have a good name, and I think the value of our good name should not be squandered for $20,000 of revenue.”

Library officialLinda Hazzan said she cannot name the “five or six” advertisers who have signed on to date. She said they include a newspaper, a continuing education institution, and a cultural production — largely companies “that are sort of aligned with what we do,” she said.

The ads do not appear to foreshadow a future in which library walls become billboards. A consultant concluded that several other possible ad locations are not viable. And the board has proceeded cautiously.

The board endorsed ads for the library’s wireless Internet system but declined to approve ads for its website. It also prohibited “commercial advertising primarily targeted to children, including but not limited to the commercial advertising of food and beverages directed to children.”

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Fewer veterans are starting their own businesses, continuing a decline that began more than a decade ago.

Veterans made up only 6% of all new entrepreneurs last year, compared to 12% in 2000, according to a new report from the Kauffman Foundation, which focuses on entrepreneurial activity.

From 1999 until 2008, veterans started their own businesses at a greater rate than civilians. But from 2009 on, civilians have outpaced veterans in starting new companies.

Why the general decline?

Robert Fairlie, the author of the report and an economics professor at University of California, Santa Barbara, said it could be due to demographics because there are fewer veterans of working age.

“Veterans in general are more rare,” Fairlie said. “But we’re also losing [to retirement] older veterans that had a higher rate of business ownership. Younger veterans are less likely to start businesses.”

Now, service members sometimes choose to attend college or trade school rather than start a business immediately after leaving the military. A survey of veterans who left the military between 2004 and 2006 showed that 48% participated in the Montgomery GI Bill, which provides college education and career instruction.

But as older veterans fade out of the employment landscape, younger vets lose a key source of mentorship.

Jon Robinson, a former U.S. Marine sergeant who now leads Kauffman Foundation’s entrepreneurship programs, said mentors play a key role for first-time entrepreneurs. Younger veterans are better served by people who understand what they’ve been through, but they now “have fewer of those within their own community to look to,” he said.

Robinson reasons that civilians are less likely to understand the unique challenges someone faces after returning from military service.

“It’s important that your mentor be a veteran, especially in the period of transition,” Robinson said. “I’m not just talking about hidden injuries like PTSD or traumatic brain injuries. A veteran can be extraordinarily accomplished in one area yet incredibly weak in another. You develop great innovative and professional skills, but that doesn’t necessarily translate into good personal financial management.”

Early next year, the military will launch a program to offer help starting a business to the approximately 250,000 who leave the military every year. Called Boots to Business, it’s the first formal entrepreneurship program for outgoing service members.

For its part, the Small Business Administration provides bank loan guarantees to veteran-owned businesses: $2.1 billion in fiscal year 2012. That only goes so far, though, because banks are rarely the go-to source for startup capital. Banks — now even more than before — demand a flow of business income or a stellar credit rating. Veterans rarely have both, because they haven’t yet launched a business and could have damaged credit due to delayed payments while on tours abroad.

“They don’t have huge nest eggs to draw from, and guys who’ve been deployed may have a ding or two on their credit report,” said Rhett Jeppson, associate administrator for the Office of Veterans Business Development.

Jeppson said he and other veteran’s advocates are trying to create programs to help veterans find seed capital for new firms.

And there’s plenty of veterans who are eager for it.

Joe Meyer is a former U.S. Army major who successfully launched a debit card company and is now an investor in Atlanta. When the military newspaper Stars and Stripes published a story saying the millionaire was “seeking a few good men and women,” Meyer’s inbox flooded with hundreds of emails from service members.

They had ideas. They had questions. They needed money. None were in his field — financial technology — so he offered them advice instead.

“There’s nobody funding startups, and that’s a terrible thing,” he said. “There’s still very little capital out there. It’s just flat difficult.”

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Parts of the world’s financial capital awoke Tuesday in the dark and without public transportation after a massive storm flooded tunnels, forced the closure of bridges and roads and left New Yorkers with no way to reach their jobs.

The storm’s knockout blow shut stock markets for the second straight day and left the city with a massive clean-up and repair job that could take days to complete, complicating what officials had hoped would be a quick recovery.

“The New York City subway system is 108 years old, but it has never faced a disaster as devastating as what we experienced last night,” Metropolitan Transportation Authority Chairman Joseph Lhota said in a statement.

“Hurricane Sandy wreaked havoc on our entire transportation system, in every borough and county of the region,” he said. “It has brought down trees, ripped out power and inundated tunnels, rail yards and bus depots.”

Access to Manhattan was crippled.

All seven subway tunnels under the East River are flooded. The Metro-North Railroad, which carried commuters to suburbs north of Manhattan, is without power. Service on PATH trains, which ferry commuters from New Jersey under the Hudson River, has been suspended.

The bridges and tunnels that connect the island of Manhattan to the rest of the world fared little better. The Holland Tunnel is closed. The George Washington Bridge, Goethals Bridge, Bayonne Bridge and Outerbridge Crossing are out of commission. The Lincoln Tunnel, another major artery, is open.

Public buses and private coaches are not running, and all four major airports — Kennedy, Newark Liberty, LaGuardia and Teterboro — are shuttered.

It was not immediately clear how long it would take for cleanup efforts to begin or take hold in earnest. Fallout continued even as day broke, with 200 firefighters battling a six-alarm blaze in a secluded neighborhood in the borough of Queens.

What is clear is that stock markets will remain closed on Tuesday. It has been more than a century since the New York Stock Exchange, loathe to close during harsh weather, has done so on two consecutive inclement days.

If transportation issues remain, the exchanges could open for electronic trading in the coming days, although no plans to do so have been announced. Even that incremental step, however, would be tricky if workers can not safely reach the nerve center that is Manhattan’s network of banks, brokerage firms, data and tech support companies.

An early estimate from the MTA indicated it could take between 14 hours and four days to get the water out of the subway tunnels in New York City.

“In 108 years, our employees have never faced a challenge like the one that confronts us now,” Lhota said. “All of us at the MTA are committed to restoring the system as quickly as we can to help bring New York back to normal.”

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European Central Bank president Mario Draghi reiterated Thursday that the ECB stands ready to buy government bonds, saying political leaders must now decide whether they want to accept the terms.

Speaking in Slovenia following a meeting of top ECB officials, Draghi said the central bank has put in place a “fully effective backstop” for governments struggling to fund themselves in the bond market.

“At this point, it’s really up to the governments to decide what they want to do,” said Draghi. “The mechanism is in place.”

The ECB announced plans last month to make “outright monetary transactions” in the government bond market. Under that program, the ECB would buy potentially unlimited amounts of sovereign bonds on the condition that governments activate one of the two eurozone bailout funds.

Spain is seen as the most likely candidate for the OMT program, although Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has been reluctant to commit to a full program of mandated reforms and outside oversight. Rajoy said this week that a bailout request was not imminent.

Draghi declined to comment on the situation in Spain or any other individual member of the 17-nation currency union. But he stressed that “significant progress” has been made in many vulnerable countries to reduce debt and overhaul outdated economies.

Draghi stressed that the OMT program would be subject to strict “conditionality,” although he argued that governments could benefit from the reforms a full bailout program would entail.

“There is a tendency to identify conditionality with harsh conditions,” said Draghi. “But conditions don’t necessarily need to be punitive.”

Meanwhile, the ECB’s governing council voted to leave interest rates unchanged. The main refinancing rate has been at a record low of 0.75% since July.

Draghi said the council did not discuss the possibility of a future interest rate cut. “So I would say it was unanimous,” he added.

The decision to hold rates steady comes as economic activity in the euro area continues to deteriorate. A key survey of purchasing managers in the eurozone fell in September, suggesting the region fell back into recession during the third quarter, according to data released Wednesday from Markit.

Separately, the Bank of England also opted to hold interest rates steady and maintained the size of its asset purchase program at £375 billion .

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Italy successfully sold €5.25 billion of short- and long-term bonds Friday, despite being downgraded by Moody’s a day earlier.

The Italian government sold €3.5 billion of 3-year bonds at an average yield of 4.65%, down from 5.30% at the last auction in June.

But investors demanded higher rates on the smaller offerings of long-term bonds. Italy sold €766 million of 7-year bonds at 5.58%; €600 million of 10-year bonds at 5.82% and €384 million of 11-year bonds.

In the secondary market, where investors trade bonds, yields on 10-year Italian bonds rose to 6%. That’s down from highs above 7% earlier this year, but still near levels that Italy could struggle to pay over the long term.

The auctions came one day after Moody’s downgraded Italy’s credit rating two notches to Baa2 from A3, pushing it closer to speculative, or junk, grade.

Related: Europe must act fast to avoid bank runs

Moody’s cited an increased risk of Italy’s borrowing costs rising as contagion in the bond market spreads from Spain. In addition, Moody’s said the Italian economy has deteriorated, which will make it harder for the government to raise revenue and meet its deficit reduction targets.

Moody’s outlook for Italy is negative, which means the country could face further downgrades.

While Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti has taken steps to make the economy more competitive, Moody’s warned that political headwinds could slow the nation’s progress on deeper structural reforms.

"The political climate, particularly as the spring 2013 elections draw near, is also a source of implementation risk," said Moody’s analysts fast cash advance loan.

Monti confirmed earlier this week that he will step down when his mandate ends next year. A well-respected economist, Monti was appointed by European Union officials last year after his predecessor, Silvio Berlusconi, resigned under pressure. Also this week, Berlusconi announced that he plans to seek reelection.

"The news that former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi will again run for the premiership will not be received well by the markets," wrote Nicholas Spiro, director of London-based consultancy Spiro Sovereign Strategy, in a note to clients. "The risk is that investors start to fret about a more unstable and populist ‘post-Monti’ political landscape in Italy."

Related: Economists see multiple eurozone exits

Traders said Italian banks continue to be the main buyers of domestic government bonds, as foreign investors have largely fled the market.

Since the European Central Bank started flooding the banking system with liquidity late last year, "Italian banks have been hoovering up Italian bonds," said Nick Stamenkovic, market strategist at RIA Capital Markets in Edinburgh.

While domestic buyers could continue to pick up the slack in the short term, Stamenkovic said Italy is struggling to sell bonds with maturities in excess of 10 years.

Investors are worried about the poor performance of the Italian economy and the danger that structural reforms will be watered down, he added. "The situation in Italy is still very fragile." 

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House Republicans blame the disappointing June jobs report on President Obama’s "failed policies." Senate Democrats blame Republicans for engaging in "empty, partisan exercises that will not create one job."

And neither party in Congress appears ready to do the one thing experts say Congress could do to improve the outlook for jobs — cut a bipartisan deal on the "fiscal cliff."

The fiscal cliff represents trillions of dollars in poorly conceived spending cuts and tax increases that start to go into effect in January.

Lawmakers can’t control for all the potential headwinds that can hurt hiring — such as the turmoil in Europe or the pace of economic growth globally.

But they can choose to clear up the uncertainty about U.S. fiscal policy. Problem is almost no one expects them to do so before the November elections. (Read more: Fiscal cliff recession fears)

"The biggest fear at the moment is that Europe will unravel, but concern that policymakers may let the nation go over the fiscal cliff is mounting," said Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics.

Experts say fiscal cliff uncertainty will have an increasingly negative influence on the economy.

Related: Where are the jobs bills?

In fact, some big defense contractors likely to be hit by the scheduled spending cuts have already said they have slowed, if not stopped, hiring.

The government reported Friday that the economy created 80,000 new jobs in June, well below forecasts. That came on the heels of a lackluster report in May. An unseasonably warm winter — which led to stronger-than-expected jobs growth at the start of the year — is often cited as a reason for the spring drop off.

But that justification may soon expire.

"The longer jobs growth stays in this subdued range … the more likely it is due to the more persistent issues of concerns over the global economy and the fiscal position at home," according to Capital Economics.

Whether fiscal cliff uncertainty played any role in the June jobs number is too hard to suss out. But "firms are being very careful about adding new full-time employees," Nigel Gault, chief U.S. economist of IHS Global Insight, wrote in a research note.

"Uncertainties over the strength of global growth, the Eurozone crisis, the fiscal cliff and the November elections are giving plenty of reasons for caution," Gault added.

Indeed, said Zandi: "The job market isn’t going to kick into high gear until Europe’s problems and our fiscal issues are [better] nailed down." 

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Investors are heading into a new month, new quarter and new half of the year this week with a lot to chew on.

Fears may have eased somewhat about Europe after leaders struck a "breakthrough" deal on Friday to take steps to stabilize eurozone credit markets and strengthen the region’s banking system. But investors are likely to turn their attention to the worrisome labor situation in the United States.

This week brings three different readings on the job market, along with a smattering of other economic reports, including factory orders and construction spending.

Next week also is a holiday week, so markets could be choppy. Markets will close at 1 PM on Tuesday and will be closed on Wednesday for the Fourth of July holiday.

The most important number of the week will come Friday when the Labor Department releases the June jobs report. Investors will watch June’s numbers carefully following disappointing numbers in May and a rise in the unemployment rate for the first time in a year.

"Job creation will likely be slow, and will continue to be a soft spot in the economy," said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Rockwell Global Capital. "Along with pressure out of Europe impacting growth, the upcoming elections [in the U.S.] are going to continue to keep corporations from accelerating the hiring process."

According to Briefing.com, economists are expecting that 100,000 jobs were added in June. That would be an improvement over the 69,000 jobs added in May, but it remains well below the level of growth needed to really make a dent in economic growth. Economists also are forecasting that the unemployment rate stayed steady at 8.2% in June.

Investors push Fear & Greed into neutral

While investors have a lot of U.S. economic data to digest, they will turn their eyes once again to Europe on Thursday, as the European Central Bank will meet to clarify its monetary policy. Most are expecting the ECB to reduce its main refinancing rate to a record low of 0.75%. The central bank has kept interest rates at 1% since January.

Investors will also want to hear what ECB President Mario Draghi says at a press conference following the meeting, as he could provide clues into possible further action by the central bank.

While analysts say that investors will watch closely for any decisions out of the meeting, they don’t expect any major action that will move markets.

"They’ll try to provide as much encouragement as can while promising as little as they can get away with," said Bruce McCain, chief investment strategist at Key Private Bank. "But it could buy us time and a fairly significant rally given the rally we saw at the end of last week."

All three major market indexes enjoyed solid gains last week, mostly due to Friday’s big surge. The Dow Jones industrial average () closed the week up 1.9%, the S&P 500 () gained 1.5% and the Nasdaq () added 2%.

While stocks are still up for the year, all three indexes closed out the second quarter below first quarter highs.

There are no significant corporate earnings reports next week. Most companies will release their second quarter results in mid-July.

However, automakers will report their June U.S. sales figures on Tuesday. That could impact shares of Ford (, Fortune 500), which warned on Thursday that overseas losses would be bigger than expected in the second quarter, as well as rivals General Motors (, Fortune 500), Toyota () and Honda ().  

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