Luke Judge

Returning from the Queen’s birthday long weekend, the Australian share market looks like it may be in for a flat start this morning following mixed leads from offshore markets overnight.

European and Asian stock markets managed to close higher on Monday, however US stocks gave up gains with the Dow Jones and S&P500 closing in the red after Greece’s debt rating was downgraded by ratings agency Moody’s which brought Europe’s debt woes to the forefront again.

US stocks gained earlier in the session on data showing stronger than expected industrial output in Europe for April.

No major economic reports were released on Monday, but reports on housing, wholesale and consumer inflation, and jobless claims are due out later in the week.

To the figures and the Dow Jones Industrial Average finished 20 points weaker at 10,191. The S&P 500 Index is down 2 points at 1,090 and the NASDAQ closed flat at 2,244.

European stocks were higher; London’s FTSE rose 38 points, Paris gained 71 and Frankfurt is up 77.

Asian markets were also higher on Monday. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 180 points, Tokyo’s Nikkei gained 175 and China’s Shanghai Composite added 7.

The Australian share market closed higher last Friday. The S&P/ASX 200 Index closed 70 points higher at 4,506 and on the futures market the SPI200’s up 5 points.

Turning to currencies and the Aussie Dollar at 7:50AM was buying 85.8 US cents, 58.24 Pence Sterling, 78.64 Yen and 70.26 Euro cents.

In local economic news coming out today: The RBA is to release the minutes of its June 1 monetary policy meeting, and credit/debit card data for April as well. ABS lending finance data for April is also due out today.

In company news around this morning: Shares in global miner BHP Billiton Ltd (ASX:BHP) gained 2.55% to $38.58 last Friday. According to a Reuters report, the miner has signed a $3 billion mineral development agreement with Liberia to develop an iron ore project in West Africa. Reuters says leases under the deal are close to the 250 kilometre long rail corridor that runs the Guinean border to the Liberian coast. The deal follows that of other iron ore deals inked by major miners including Brazil’s Vale, China Union and ArcelorMittal. Liberia in West Africa, although recovering from a civil war that ended in 2003, is considered one of the last area’s for undeveloped mineral deposits in the world. BHP Billiton reported net profit after tax of $7.24 billion for the 12 months to June 2009.

Shares in Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd (ASX:ANZ) rose 1.86% to $23.04 last Friday. ANZ’s bid for a $1.4 billion stake in Indonesia’s Bank Panin is facing increasing competition and reports that the stake may not even be up for sale. A Fairfax report says the stake has garnered bids from European and US banks all looking to expand their presence in Asia. However, a report in The Australian this morning says the Gunawan family who own the 46% stake ANZ is vying for, may not be ready to sell their interest in Indonesia’s Bank Panin just yet. The Australian reports that the family is not in need of the cash and are committed to developing the bank. Conflicting to this is a report from Reuters that says talks between the family and ANZ are advancing and that sources say it is highly likely ANZ, who already owns 38.5% of the bank, will be successful in its bid for the stake. For the year to September 30, 2009, ANZ reported a profit of $2.94 billion, down on the year before.

Checking ex-dividends, and there are two companies going ex-dividend today, Corporate Express with a 78 cent fully franked dividend and GrainCorp with a 15 cent fully franked dividend. Coming up, Thorn Group is going ex-dividend on Thursday, and Metcash on Friday.

To commodities, and the price of gold dropped $5.60 to US$1,223.30 an ounce for the June contract on Comex. Silver is up 18 cents at US$18.40 and copper is up 9 cent to US$2.99 a pound.

And the price of oil is up $1.34 to US$75.12 a barrel for July light crude in New York.

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The 18th birthday has a significant place in the life of all individuals .It is a time when an individual prepares to step into adulthood. While birthdays are a time to celebrate, it is also the time to reflect on the past and think of the future. Hence the birthday invitation carries lot of weight and importance. It is an invite to people who matter a lot in life, to convey to them, how important their presence is in the life of the person throwing the party.

However, it doesn’t mean that the invitation has to be serious and prosaic. It can be forceful but is usually made in a light vein .The invitation should have an imprint of youthful vigor, energy, and intelligence. Teenagers like to show off their innovative skills, by making invitations of different materials other than paper. There are a number of companies, which print and sell ready-made 18th birthday invitations. These companies keep the track of the latest fads followed by the teenagers for designing hip18th birthday invitations.

The invitation can be fun filled, touching and personalized. It should carry innovative ideas and design. There can be a brief message or a short poem, to give a different effect and charm to the invitation. Many youngsters also like to have a theme party on their 18th birthday. In such cases, the invitations are also designed keeping the theme of the party in mind.

The birthday invitation can also be a reflection of their excitement, to enjoy the liberties that they are eligible for, by stepping into adulthood .It can be an invitation to the peers to help the invitee, get into the groove, get in sync with times, and to have the best the world has to offer.

18th birthday invitations should be both fun and emotion, as it is a call to the loved ones to be a part of, one of the most eagerly awaited days in each person’s life.

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Love this iphone greeting card article: The New York Times: Forgot to Send a Birthday Card? Phone It In.  If you sign up to American Greetings there is a fee of US $15.99 per year. and the cost of sending the ecard to a mobile…..but you can post to your friend’s facebook or email.   A green way to send a greeting for birthday or other occasion, or just to say hello because you can.

Article: The New York Times: Forgot to Send a Birthday Card? Phone It In

SHORT video messages or greetings for phones could soon be as ubiquitous as texting, or at least that’s what greeting card companies and other firms are hoping as they try out a new mobile service that delivers a brief video, with sound and music, as quickly, easily and often as cheaply as sending a text.

Dogs are featured in a video birthday greeting card from American Greetings.

American Greetings has a new service that transmits a video card chosen from its Web site directly to handsets of nearly all major mobile carriers. It has used a partnership with Mogreet Inc., provider of a multimedia messaging platform, to deliver the full-motion video greeting. Mogreet, based in Venice, Calif., is also working with the National Football League Players Association and other organizations to deliver campaigns directly to cellphones.

A major selling point for the mobile video is how easy it is to use, said Waltene Irving, 94, of Apple Valley, Calif., who used the service to find a Valentine’s Day sentiment for her granddaughter in Los Angeles last month.

Ms. Irving went to AG Interactive, American Greetings’ e-card section, and browsed its 50 cupid messages, selecting one with kittens and other animals. “You put in the mobile number, point to the picture and click send,” she said. “It’s very easy.”

Video messaging “is the intersection of two powerful trends — mobile and social networking,” said Michael Becker, managing director of the Mobile Marketing Association.

“It’s immediate, convenient and engaging,” he said, “and it enables companies to monetize their markets.”

Mr. Becker said that mobile video messaging, which is provided by several companies, “has a massive market because it can appeal to people without a data plan.” Some 80 percent of Americans, including Ms. Irving, do not have a data plan.

Portio Research, a British firm that tracks mobile messaging globally, predicted that the market for such multimedia messaging, while still trailing text messaging, would reach $31.5 billion by the end of 2010, following a 48 percent increase in traffic last year worldwide and a 22 percent increase in revenues.

The greeting card industry, confounding predictions that its products were out of sync in the mobile age, has been early in embracing such messaging to reach its customers. Hallmark, the industry’s biggest player, last July started its mobile messaging business, with different delivery mechanism than the one introduced by American Greetings.

Other companies offering such multimedia messaging include Nike, Reebok, Starwood Hotels and Warner Brothers. American Greetings is promoting its new service with targeted e-mail messages, information on its Web site and notices attached to its e-cards.

The company, based in Cleveland, is relying, at least initially, on the four million registered customers already on its Web site to expand the service, said Frank Fink, the company’s vice president for business affairs. There are 500 e- cards formatted for mobile delivery, and thousands more being prepared, he said. Cards are free to registered, or premium, users who pay $15.99 annually. Hallmark’s Web-to-mobile cards cost 99 cents a card.

American Greetings is getting ready to begin a second phase of advertising, using online display ads, social networking, banners on other Web sites and other Internet advertising.

“We see this as a major growth area,” Mr. Fink said. He said American Greetings has an iPhone app, and three months ago introduced a Facebook application.

Another Mogreet customer, the Broadway musical “In the Heights,” in January placed a billboard of Corbin Bleu, the young actor of “High School Musical” fame, in Times Square.

It invites people to text “Heights” to 21534 and receive a short video message from Mr. Bleu, and encourages buying tickets to the musical.

“This is a big step out of the comfort zone in entertainment ads,” said Sara Fitzpatrick, director of SpotCo., a subsidiary of the British company First Artist, which created the campaign. “The medium is still being understood, but it was a good fit for clients looking for a different way to engage the brand.”

Although Ms. Fitzpatrick did not provide figures, she said ticket sales had been increasing. She did not attribute that solely to the short-video campaign, but she said: “The potential is there. This service is really going to blow out in a couple of years.”

The reach of such messaging is also being explored by the National Football League Players Association. It started a campaign, which began around the Super Bowl, to give fans a glimpse of players off the field. Fans were asked to text “NFLPA” to 21534 to receive an 18-second video featuring Mark Sanchez of the New York Jets and several other players. The campaign — meant to create a mobile database to market the more than 1,800 active and retired N.F.L. players — enters participating fans in a sweepstakes for a trip to the 2010 Players Rookie Premiere, an event attended by 36 top rookies in Los Angeles. The sweepstakes winner will be announced in April.

So far, the players association and companies involved are not providing user figures from the video-messaging service. American Greetings declined to disclose how many mobile video cards were sent since the service was introduced in February.

But as consumers move toward in-the-moment interaction, the video cards have a large potential market, Mr. Fink said. More than one billion text greetings were sent for Valentine’s Day last year, according to industry figures. There are no overall numbers yet for video messaging traffic for 2010 Valentine’s Day because the information has to be gathered from dozens of carriers.

Most of this year’s video Valentine’s traffic at American Greetings occurred on Feb. 14, which fell on a Sunday. About 52 percent of users sent their message that day, and about one-third sent their loved ones a greeting the day before, according to Mogreet.

So what video cards were people sending? The most popular was a blue-eyed cupid, rapping “lyrics silky-smoother than a thornless rose.”

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