Head of Commodities Research Jeff Currie said Brent crude is the commodity with the greatest potential to break above its target. “Oil we like the most from a fundamental basis but at $113 a barrel in the current environment is pretty rich,” he told a strategy conference in London.

Brent oil is expected to end the year $127.50 per barrel and trade at an average of $120 in 2012, according to Goldman. Gold and base metals have further to rise from present level to targets of Goldman, but have scant potential above the targets.

“Oil on the other hand, given the current environment, tight fundamentals, the current geo-political situation in Iran, creates massive upside price risk relative to our target,” Currie said.

Under the present administration, companies have been testing the limits of U.S. antitrust scrutiny, encouraged by little apparent change in enforcement policy.

“Nobody wants to say it is based on politics, but I think there has been much greater willingness to be rigorous and thorough in the enforcement process and certainly no fear in going to court,” a source familiar with the regulator’s thinking said. “We will see more severe remedies, more extensive remedies.”

The Justice Department had no immediate comment for this story and the Federal Trade Commission declined to comment.

This mobile phone from Nokia has a 2.6-inch TFT resistive touchscreen that offers a resolution of 240 x 320 pixels. It has an internal memory of 10 MB and its external memory can be upgraded to 32 GB with a microSD card. The Nokia C2-06 Touch and Type is empowered with Class 12 GPRS and EDGE, Bluetooth v2.1 with A2DP and microUSB v2.0. It has dimensions of 103 x 51.4 x 17 mm and weighs only 115 grams. If that it not all to evoke interest, the C2-06 from Nokia has a 2 MP camera that offers a resolution of 1600 x 1200 pixels. Available with the FM radio functionality, this phone also offers FM recording though this option is country specific. It also has Easy Swap SIM support (no reboot required), Dual SIM, FlashLite support, and JAVA MIDP 2.1.

The standard Li-Ion 1020 mAh (BL-5C) battery of this mobile phone from Nokia offers an approximate standby time of 400 hours and talktime of approximately 5 hours and music play for 37 hours.

In short, the Nokia C2-06 has everything that you want from a power-packed and feature-rich mobile phone.

HSBC said the statement was made in response to recent media speculation concerning a possible sale.

From Reuters.com:

HSBC flagged the possible sale of its $30 billion plus U.S. card unit in May as part of a $3.5 billion cost-cutting overhaul under new Chief Executive Stuart Gulliver.

Bankers have called it a tough sale as not many buyers remain for such large credit card portfolios since the financial crisis. A regulatory crackdown has made it harder to turn a profit. Industry members said it would be difficult for HSBC to get the premium it wants for the value of the business on its books.

Since 2007, both Citigroup Inc (C.N) and General Electric Co (GE.N) have tried — and failed — to sell similar large U.S. credit card portfolios.

“These discussions are ongoing and no decision has yet been made to proceed with any transaction. HSBC will make a further statement if or when appropriate,” the company said in a statement to the Hong Kong stock exchange.

There is no evidence of broad based slowed down, according to the RBI in its policy.

From in.finance.yahoo.com:

However RBI warned that would continue monitoring the inflation and other parameters. Markets largely remained flat as the announcement was in line with the expectation. The Sensex opened lower before the meeting, as investors sold heavily in anticipation of a hike. Economists say inflation has now spilled over into the general economy, pushing up wages and other costs.

The wholesale price index (WPI) accelerated a faster-than-forecast 9.06 per cent in May. The country’s gross domestic product growth slipped to 7.8 per cent in January-March, the slowest in the last financial year, as high rates and input costs dragged down manufacturing sector growth to a 21-month low.

After raising interest rates in gradual, quarter-point steps to minimise the impact on the economy, the RBI announced a hike of 50 basis points in May, with governor D Subbarao warning that short-term growth may have to be sacrificed in the fight against inflation. Last time the Central Bank hiked rates it dragged GDP down, but robust demand kept core inflation high.

The current policy move is expected to curtail inflation, according to the Central Bank of India.

Yahoo Inc. is offering its popular email service a long-promised facelift to make it more appealing to people who are increasingly using Twitter, Google, Facebook, and other alternative for communication.

The changes were built upon a redesigned email format that Yahoo began testing seven months ago.

From news.yahoo.com:

The overhaul will enable updates to Facebook and Twitter accounts to be posted from within Yahoo’s email boxes. The revamped service is supposed to be two times faster and capable of sending attachments of up to 100 megabytes. Other tools include better junk-mail controls and the ability to chat with friends and family logged into Facebook.

Yahoo is counting on the changes to help attract and retain email users at a time when more people are flocking to the rival Gmail service run by Internet search leader Google Inc.

Although Yahoo’s service remains larger than Gmail, it has been losing ground in the past year. Through April, Yahoo boasted 277 million email users worldwide, a drop of about 3 million, or 1 percent, from the same time last year, according to the research firm comScore Inc. Meanwhile, Gmail had grown to 220 million wordwide users, up 43 million, or 24 percent during the past year.

Most of Gmail’s gains appear to be coming at the expense of Microsoft Corp.’s Hotmail service, which remained the global leader with 327 million users, according to comScore. But that figure was down 27 million, or 8 percent, from last year.

The estimated 277 million users of Yahoo’s free email service would be switched to the new version during the next few weeks.

The technology giant, Sony Corp, is hoping to ease concerns by offering free identity theft protection to affected customers.

This was after its PlayStation Network was a victim of massive data breach that left accountholders worrying that their credit card information could fall into the wrong hands.

From news.yahoo.com:

Sony says the ID theft protection will be free for 12 months after enrollment. The company says PlayStation Network and Qriocity account holders should expect an email in coming days with instructions on how to enroll in the AllClear ID Plus program by Debix Inc.

Those who enroll will receive monthly status reports and an alert if the program detects their personal information is being misused. The program also includes an insurance policy that provides up to $1 million in relief for covered costs for a year after an identity theft incident.

Customers will have until June 18 to sign up for the program.

Sony shut down its PlayStation Network on April 20 after disclosing a data breach resulting from a sophisticated criminal attack designed to steal personal and credit card information.

“There are subtle signs of autism at one year if you just look for them,” said neuroscientist Karen Pierce of the University of California, San Diego, who led the study.

From in.news.yahoo.com:

Recent data suggest about 1 in 100 U.S. children has some form of autism, which ranges from mild to severe problems with behavior, communication and socialization. The American Academy of Pediatrics already urges autism screening during regular doctor visits at ages 18 months and 24 months. Yet a 2009 study found that on average, children aren’t diagnosed until they’re 5.

Experts say early therapy can lessen autism’s severity, even if they don’t know exactly what types will prove best. “The earlier you start, the better,” said Dr. Lisa Gilotty of the National Institute of Mental Health, which helped fund the study.

Hence the interest in younger screening.

“This is very exciting work, to think we may be able to identify children with autism this early,” said Dr. Susan Hyman of the University of Rochester and a pediatrics academy autism specialist, who wasn’t involved in the new study.

But, she cautioned, it’s not clear how best to do that: “I don’t think screening for autism at 12 months is ready for prime time.”

Pierce added, “Let’s just get these kids detected early and treated early.”

Marketing agency

The Royal Bank of Canada was pegged by the BrandFinance Global 500 ranking as the top brand in Canada with a brand value of 7-billion.

From Business.financialpost.com:

Here is the company’s list of the top 10 Canadian brands ranked according to brand value:

Royal Bank of Canada: $7-billion

Toronto-Dominion Bank: $6.6-billion

Bombardier: $4.98-billion

Loblaws: $4.5-billion

Blackberry: $4.4-billion

Scotiabank: $4.1-billion

BMO Financial Group: $3.8-billion

Bell: $3.7-billion

Rogers: $3.6-billion

CIBC: $3.3-billion

RBC was followed by Toronto-Dominion Bank (valued at $6.6-billion) and Bombardier (brand value of $4.9-billion).

The BBC’s director general, Mark Thompson, issued a warning that it would lose touch with the younger generation forever unless it fundamentally changes to adapt to the digital world.

Thompson unveiled the conclusions of Creative Future, a yearlong project to define the BBC’s on-air and online ambitions over the next five years.

From Guardian.co.uk:

An on-demand service, now renamed BBCiPlayer, will offer immediate access to programmes from the previous seven days and from the BBC archive.

A single music strategy across television, radio and the web will be created to drive new ideas such as an Electric Proms, a companion to the traditional classical music event due to take place this autumn, and enable listeners to create their own online “virtual radio channels”.

To address the drift away from the BBC among younger viewers, it plans to relaunch CBeebies and CBBC to aim at under-six-year-olds and the seven-11 age group across digital television and the web. They will be complemented by a new “teen brand” aimed at 12- to 16-year-olds.

The project will help BBC enhance its online presence and meet the “creative challenge of an entirely new era in broadcasting.”