SINGAPORE — Asian stock markets were broadly lower on Monday with exporter shares dragged down in Tokyo by a stronger yen. Overall sentiment was cautious with base metals and crude oil prices dropping and investors buying the safe-haven U.S. dollar. “Market timing is essential for investors still concerned about a correction in growth trends, which would lead to an adjustment in pricing of risk,” said analysts at UBS. Japan’s Nikkei 225 was down 2.5%, Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 down 1.2% and South Korea’s Kospi Composite was off 0.8%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index was down 0.9% while China’s Shanghai Composite index…

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The Hong Kong government will hire more contract IT staffers in the next few years, said government CIO Jeremy Godfrey Friday. According to Godfrey, there are currently more than 1,300 IT contract staffers engaged through 10 contractors working in different government departments. He estimated that the government will need an additional 200 contract IT workers. “As one of Hong Kong’s largest users of IT, the government’s IT expenditure has a major impact on the healthy development of the ICT sector. Our strategy for facilitating the ICT sector is twofold,” said Godfrey. “While keeping IT spending at a high level by…

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The current global financial crisis has not deterred governments such as Hong Kong from investing in technology innovations that deliver results to its citizens. Questex publication Enterprise Innovation talks with Hong Kong government CIO Jeremy Godfrey to find out the key priorities within the next few months. Enterprise Innovation: There has been talk of economies bottoming out. But if the worst is over does your focus or key priorities within government shift at all? Jeremy Godfrey: I don’t think that anything has happened in the last two months to significantly change the way we view things. It’s great there are…

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Lenovo Posts Third Loss as U.S., Europe Demand Slows (Update1)
By Mark Lee
Aug. 6 (Bloomberg) – Lenovo computers manufacturer, Lenovo Group Ltd., China’s biggest personal-computer maker, reported a third straight quarterly loss because of a slump in U.S. and European demand, and said the operating environment “will continue to be challenging.”
The net loss in the fiscal first quarter ended June 30 was $16 million, compared with a $110.5 million profit a year earlier, Lenovo said today. The loss was less than the $54 million median of five analysts’ estimates in a Bloomberg survey after the company cut most…

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We’re only four days into the Bus Pirate pre-order, and we’ve exhausted the supply of PIC24FJ64GA002s available in Shenzhen. Thank you for supporting Hack a Day’s first official hardware pre-order. You helped make it a huge success, and we definitely want to do it again in the future.
We weren’t kidding about the PIC shortage. Seeed sourced all they could from Shenzhen, and then tried Hong Kong. It’ll take 4 to 6 weeks to get more.
If you already ordered a Bus Pirate then nothing changes, your Bus Pirate will ship ASAP. In fact, PCB production should start a…

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Today Facebook announced that they will begin rolling out support for 14 new currencies within their advertising system. The company also stated that they won’t be charging any extra fees for currency transactions. This is a huge bonus of using the Facebook advertising platform internationally. As the company expands abroad, it’s important to support not only other languages but also additional currencies.

The 14 currencies that the company is rolling out support for are:

Australian Dollars
British Pound
Canadian Dollars
Chilean Peso
Colombian Peso
Euro
Danish Krone
Hong Kong Dollar
Japanese Yen
Norwegian Krone
Swedish Krona
Swiss Franc
Turkish Lira…

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GLOBAL MARKETS: European Stocks Seen Just Up, Eyes On Banks By Kimberly Vlach Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRESLONDON (Dow Jones)–European stocks are expected to open modestly higher, supported by an almost flat close on Wall Street, even though traders remain cautious ahead of details of the capital requirements of the U.S. banks and the impact on the global economy should further injections be required.”Financial stocks are going to remain squarely in focus after yesterday’s reports of more capital being required at Citigroup and Bank of America,” said Matt Buckland, a trader at CMC Markets. “The outlook for the sector as…

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THE PRICE OF physical gold fell against all major currencies early Thursday, dropping 2% versus the Dollar as global stock markets jumped and Treasury bonds were sold lower. Crude oil bounced hard, back above $50 per barrel, as base metals and foodstuffs crept higher. Ahead of today’s G20 communiqué on global stimulus spending and finance regulation from the world leaders meeting in London, the US Dollar fell together with Gold Bullion, spiking to a one-week low vs. the Euro after Eurozone interest rates were cut by less than analysts forecast. ECB staff had hinted there was “more leeway” to…

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