RAF Fires Syria

RAF jets have fired Brimstone missiles at Islamic State targets in Syria for the first time, Downing Street has confirmed.

Designed to hit smaller, moving targets, they were launched during missions against terror targets on Sunday.

The missiles detonate a tandem charge on impact to ensure penetration of armour.

They were fired at two targets - a supply truck near Raqqa and mobile cranes trying to repair part of the Omar oil field that was damaged in recent strikes.

Brimstone missiles have previously been used against IS targets in Iraq. 

They are well suited to attacking moving vehicles and are only used by the RAF and the Saudi air force.

"A lot was made of this Brimstone missile in the lead up to the vote on Syria because the Government said this was an extra dimension in the war against Islamic State," said Sky News defence correspondent Alistair Bunkall.

"What they can do is target, in particular, moving vehicles - that's where they are very effective. It's something the Americans don't have and the Americans were keen to see in the game."

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Posted in: Action

Amecians have no retirmenet

As the Dow Jones Industrial Average was falling significantly Thursday, Fidelity Investments reported that 55% of Americans don’t have enough money saved to cover their basic needs in retirement. According to the survey, which Fidelity conducts every other year, just 45% of Americans will be able to afford essentials like housing, healthcare and food in their golden years.

"Fifty-five percent of Americans are not on track to cover essential expenses in retirement," says John F. Sweeney, Fidelity Investments executive vice president for retirement and investing strategies. "It's important to take action. They're going to have to make changes to their lifestyle whether that is planning to work longer or saving more."

Not too surprisingly, the generation with the highest rate of savings are boomers who are closest to retirement, according to the survey. Their total savings rate is 9.7%. Gen Xers are saving 8.2% towards retirement, but Fidelity says that four in 10 are investing more conservatively than what is considered appropriate for their age. Millennials are saving the least, just 7.5%. None are investing at levels recommended by retirement experts of 15%.

But simply putting money aside isn't enough. It's important to consider investing in stocks, despite their losses so far this year. That’s because stocks return far more than other asset classes over time.

Jeremy Siegel, author of Stocks for the Long Haul and a Wharton Business School professor, says that long-term returns in the stock market are 6%-7%. So even if this year’s market is poised for its worst start to a new year since 1991, over the years and decades you have until retirement, it will still do better than bonds.

vTaking advantage of that growth rate, however, means having the confidence in your convictions and sticking with your plan even on days when stocks fall.

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Posted in: World News

Tesla car in new look.

"If you're in New York and your car is in Los Angeles, it'll [be able to] find you and will automatically charge itself along the whole journey," he said.

But Musk added a reality-based caveat: Tesla cars would need more cameras and radars installed. Musk emphasized that Tesla is developing a hardware system that would be capable of allowing fully driverless trips.

Related: Musk unveils autopilot - Soon there 'won't be wheels or pedals'

Autopark follows up Autosteer, which Tesla introduced in October. That feature allows Tesla (TSLA)vehicles to autonomously change lanes, adjust speed and avoid potential collisions.

Tesla's latest software update makes some improvements to Autosteer, including speed adjustments to make the feature safer.

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Posted in: Automobiles

Profit Recession for Wall Street.

Wall Street's fourth-quarter earnings season that gets under way next week could confirm something many investors may not want to hear: the U.S. economy may be doing well but corporate profits are in a recession.

An earnings recession - two quarters of declining profits - would be led by the usual suspects, energy and materials companies. But its severity may depend on consumer discretionary companies, which have been warning about profits at an unusual pace.

Consumer discretionary companies, which led S&P 500 gains in 2015 and have had the second-highest average profit growth rate of any sector over the last five years, are more pessimistic than usual going into the quarter. That is despite the benefit of lower gasoline prices for consumers.

Consumer discretionary stocks rose 8.4 percent last year, thanks in large measure to Netflix and Amazon.com, the year's best S&P performers.

While consumer discretionary fourth-quarter profits are forecast to be up 8.4 percent, that is below the 13.6-percent growth that was forecast only three months ago, according to Thomson Reuters data.

Twenty-five companies in this sector so far have warned and none gave positive guidance, the highest number of negative forecasts since at least 2006, according to FactSet. In a typical fourth quarter, only two-thirds of earnings pre-announcements in this group are negative.

By comparison, overall 85 S&P 500 companies guided below analysts' estimates for the quarter and 26 issued positive guidance, roughly in line with recent quarters, FactSet data showed.

Macy's this week cut its earnings outlook for the second time and blamed a fall in sales on unusually warm weather that kept consumers from buying coats. It also cited the strong dollar.

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Posted in: Business

Air France is facing trouble for Paris Attacks

In a report published on Monday, the Franco-Dutch airline added that the effect on passenger numbers has been easing "significantly" over the past fortnight.

"Booking trends in December were in line with a progressive recovery," its statement added.

The airline group also saw its turnover fall by approximately €50m (£37.4m) in November, meaning the attacks - which killed 130 people and injured hundreds more - have cost the company €120m (£89.8m) to date.

Traffic on long-haul routes has been especially affected - notably in Japan - with passenger activity across the whole of Asia down 4.2%.

In total, 82.9% of seats were occupied in December, a fall of 0.2%.

Air France-KLM has suffered several years of losses, but expects it returned to profit in 2015. Results for that financial year are going to be published in mid-February.

Travel stocks were badly hit in the immediate aftermath of the Paris attacks, and other transport operators have recently warned of lower profit expectations because of how passengers have been discouraged from heading to major cities.

In December, Stagecoach said it had seen a drop-off in revenue growthfor parts of its rail and inter-city coach operations in the UK and continental Europe since mid-November.

Although it added that growth rates were expected to recover, the profit warning saw shares fall 14% at the time.

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Posted in: Airlines