Bureau of Economic Analysis International Investment Position

The -$333.0 billion change in the net investment position from 2004 was largely due to record private net foreign purchases of U.S. securities and to depreciation of most major foreign currencies against the U.S. dollar, which lowered the dollar value of U.S.-owned assets abroad. 

The price appreciation of U.S.-held foreign stocks surpassed by a large amount price appreciation of foreign-held U.S. stocks.

U.S. official reserve assets decreased $1.5 billion to $188.0 billion.

Homework is cited by about half (48.9%) the respondents as the most commonly conducted offline activity when online. Other offline activities commonly conducted while online include; watching television shows or movies (33.8 %), listening to the radio (21.4 %), watching music videos on television (21.2 %), sending text messages by cell phone (20.1 %), talking on a cell phone (19.0 %), talking on a land line phone (16.3%), and watching sports on television (11.8 %).

Three out of five (61.4 %) respondents have visited a social networking website. Of those, 60.7% joined the site and created a profile. Teen females are significantly more likely than teen males to say they have visited and joined a social networking site, 67.5% versus 53.7%.

Half (49.3%) of respondents say they play online games, and a similar number say they download music (47.1%). Downloading video clips is also a popular Internet activity, with 39% of respondents saying they do so. Other online activities conducted by teens include; create/maintain a website or personal page (27.4%); download cursor types (13.7%); and download ring tones (13.5%).

Teens say television (29.0%) and Internet web sites (25.5%) are the best places to find out about new movie releases, and information on their favorite TV shows. 

Personal saving was a negative $162.9 billion in May, compared with a negative $153.5 billion in April. Personal saving as a percentage of disposable personal income was a negative 1.7% in May, compared with a negative 1.6% in April. The savings rate has been negative for 12 consecutive months, as Americans are dipping into savings or borrowing more to finance a spending level that is exceeding their after-tax incomes. 

The PCE price index increased 0.4% in May, compared with an increase of 0.5% in April. The PCE price index, excluding food and energy, increased 0.2%, the same increase as in April.

US Economic Calendar

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According to a new report, "Corporate Weblogs: Deployment, Promotion, and Measurement," currently 64% of executives spend less than $500,000 to deploy and manage corporate Weblogs.

The new research finds that Weblogs are underused for generating word-of-mouth (WoM) marketing opportunities. Only 32% of marketing executives said they use corporate Weblogs to generate WoM around their company's products or services.

Federal Reserve: www.federalreserve.gov

Recent indicators suggest that economic growth is moderating from its quite strong pace earlier this year, partly reflecting a gradual cooling of the housing market and the lagged effects of increases in interest rates and energy prices, says Fed.

Readings on core inflation have been elevated in recent months. Ongoing productivity gains have held down the rise in unit labor costs, and inflation expectations remain contained. However, the high levels of resource utilization and of the prices of energy and other commodities have the potential to sustain inflation pressures. The Committee judges that some inflation risks remain.

Commercial banks were expected to quickly follow the Fed announcement by raisng their benchmark prime rate by a quarter-point to a five-year high of 8.25 percent.

Computer-telephony integration (CTI) was the fastest-growing component of the enterprise market in 2005, with a 10.5% increase to $5.7 billion, followed by videoconferencing equipment, which rose 10%, reaching $825 million.

The enterprise equipment market consists of private branch exchanges (PBXs), key telephone systems (KTSs), voice processing equipment, internetworking equipment, videoconferencing equipment, and CTI systems and software. 

• The 30” and larger share rose from 51% to 59%.
• Samsung led with LCD TV panel unit shipments up 11% M/M and 167% Y/Y.

• LG.Philips LCD retook the #1 spot with 1.5M units, up 11% M/M and 55% Y/Y.
• The wide share of notebook panel shipments rose from 66% in April to a record high 70%.

• 17”  continued to be the most popular  with 47.8% share of unit shipments. 
• 19”  was already the #4 size/resolution LCD monitor panel grabbing 6.4% share. 

• Real personal consumption expenditures increased 5.1% in the first quarter, compared with an increase of 0.9% in the fourth. 
• Real nonresidential fixed investment increased 14.2%, compared with an increase of 4.5%. 
• Equipment and software increased 14.8% percent, compared with an increase of 5.0%. 
• Real residential fixed investment increased 3.3%, compared with an increase of 2.8%. 
• Real exports of goods and services increased 14.7% in the first quarter, compared with an increase of 5.1% in the fourth. 
• Real imports of goods and services increased 10.7%, compared with an increase of 12.1%.

Profits from current production (corporate profits with inventory valuation and capital consumption adjustments) increased $176.7 billion in the first quarter, according to revised estimates. In the fourth quarter, profits increased $185.8 billion.

1000ventures.com has very extensive insights on innovation metrics and best practices, along with several other key areas in business performance measurement and management. Here Some highlights on innovation metrics:

You cannot manage what you don't measure. Innovation metrics motivates managers and leaders across your organization to embrace innovation broadly and give it ongoing priority. The adage "that which gets measured gets done" is no less true of the innovation process than any other. Once innovation goals are broadly communicated and rewards for achieving milestones are established, the pace of ideas to implementation accelerates. Sustainable growth is the result.

Innovation metrics should be applied to the three dimensions of your innovation system - strategic planning, process, and people.

The five classic result measures - performance, quality, timing, financials, and development costs - tell you what happened, but don't tell you why. "For example, an 8% drop in quarterly profits accompanied by a 10% rise in service costs does not tell a customer service team what its service technicians should do differently on their next call."

Venture capitalists remained on a steady pace in the first quarter of 2006, investing $5.6 billion in 761 deals, according to the MoneyTree Report by PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association based on data provided by Thomson Financial. The quarter's dollar value matches the investment level from Q4 2005 and represents a 12% increase over the same time last year.

Internet-Specific companies captured $861 million going into 145 deals, a 10% increase in investment dollars over Q4 2005. Internet-specific investing has grown slowly over the last several quarters with Q1 accounting for 15% of total investments, compared to 14% in the prior quarter. ‘Internet-specific’ is a discrete classification assigned to a company whose business model is fundamentally dependent on the Internet, regardless of the company’s primary industry category such as Software or Telecommunications.

The first half of 2006 is projected to register a 4.5% gain while the second half of the year is expected to advance by 5.3%, led by robust levels of political advertising.

Performance will be sharply delineated along sector lines with Internet, Spanish Language Media and most forms of television registering above average growth rates while radio and print media lag behind, says TNS Media Intelligence.

Earlier in the year Merrill Lynch, had predicted a 5.3% overall growth rate in 2006 and 3.6% in 2007 for US advertising. 

Even earlier prediction by BIPE/Groupe Interdeco/OMD pegged US ad growth for 2006 year at 4.4%. (via eMarketer).

Intel microprocessors are at the heart of 301 of all 500 systems. AMD’s Opteron processors are also steadily and rapidly gaining ground, now with 81 systems using them compared to only 25 systems one year ago.

The U.S. is clearly the leading consumer of HPC systems with 298 of the 500 systems installed there. The European share continues to decline with now 83 systems down from 100 six month ago, while Asia mounted a turn-around with now 93 systems up from 66 six month ago.

The June 2006 TOP500 list of supercomputers can be found at  http://www.top500.org/.

Spending for online ads reached $12.5 billion in the United States in 2005, up from $10 billion the previous year. By contrast, spending for traditional ads totaled $220 billion in 2005.

By some measures, consumers already focus upward of 30% of their media attention online—a far higher proportion than advertisers currently spend there.