World markets rebound on better bank news
PROSPECTS FOR CO-ORDINATED OIL PRODUCTION CUT UNDERPIN POSITIVE INVESTOR SENTIMENT
IN LONDON, ROLLS-ROYCE SHARES JUMPED MORE THAN 14% AFTER A WELL-RECEIVED UPDATE.
It was a torrid week on the markets but global indices staged a rebound yesterday, as they took reassurance about the banking sector and prospects for a co-ordinated oil production cut. All of this was sufficient to lift the Irish market by close to 1% on the day.
DUBLIN
The Iseq index finished at 5,793.41, down 4.6% on the week. “Ireland sits up there like a beacon of growth, but, like everything else, if the market is going down, the market goes down,” said a trader at the close.
The trader cited a degree of market chatter reflecting a “early concerns” over the possibility of a British exit from the EU and “Spanish-type concerns” over talk of a hung Dáil after the election.
Bank of Ireland gained 2.3% on the day to reach 26.7% the stock was down from 28.3% week previously.
“Bank of Ireland has done absolutely nothing wrong, but European banks were decimated over the week. Bank of Ireland was [trading] 1.1 times book [value] at the start of the week, and it’s moved back with the sector,” the trader said.
Smurfit Kappa, which reported solid results during the week, finished 4.69% higher on the day at €21.20.
Citing a 12% swing in Kingspan shares this week, the trader said “savage” volatility was the only theme. Kingspan finished out at €21.17, up 0.83% on the day.
LONDON
Britain’s top share index ended higher, recording its best one- day percentage gain in more than five months, as banking and commodity-related stocks rebounded from a slump in the previous session.
Rolls-Royce jumped more than 14% after a well-received update, helping the FTSE 100 index to end 3.1% higher at 5,707.60 points, after falling to its lowest point since late 2012 on Thursday. The index, however, finished 2.4% lower this week. The oil and gas index gained 5.9% after prices of major industrial metals rose and oil prices rose 10 per cent on prospects for a co-ordinated production cut, sparked by comments from the energy minister of the United Arab Emirates.
Banks were also among the top gainers, led by an 11% rise in Standard Chartered and a 6.3% gain in Barclays.
EUROPE
European shares rebounded as Deutsche Bank and Commerz bank rallied, helping stock markets stage a partial recovery from stinging losses earlier in the week.
The Pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index ended 3% higher, rising back up off its lowest level in more than two years. Fears about how well European banks can cope with slow growth and low interest rates had pushed European banking shares to multi-year lows.
But Deutsche Bank surged 11.8% after saying it would buy back more than $5 billion in senior debt, easing concerns about its bonds. Its rival Commerzbank also reported a return to profit in the fourth quarter, and its shares jumped 18%.
The STOXX 600 Europe Banks index rose 5.6%. Germany’s DAX advanced 2.5%, but it remains nearly 30% below a record high reached in April 2015.
NEW YORK
Wall Street rallied, led by a rebound in beaten-down financial and energy stocks after five straight days of a gruelling selloff on fears over the health of the global economy and the banking sector.
Nine of the 10 major S&P sectors were higher, led by a 3.7% rise in the financial sector. Energy and materials stocks, both of which have been hit by slumping commodities prices, were up about 2.5%.
Bank stocks, hit worst due to concerns about the impact of negative interest rates and energy-backed loan defaults, were the top gainers, led by JPMorgan’s near 8% gain.
Planned strike by Irish secondary teachers now called off
FEBRUARY 24TH STOPPAGE BY TUI MEMBERS COULD HAVE AFFECTED 350 SCHOOLS BEFORE POLLING DAY
TUI PRESIDENT GERRY QUINN SAID ON FRIDAY THAT ON FOOT OF CORRESPONDENCE FROM THE MINISTER THE UNION WAS NOW SATIFIED THAT SUCH AN ENGAGEMENT WAS POSSIBLE.
The planned strike by teachers, which could have closed up to 350 second level schools on Wednesday, February 24th, has been called off.
The Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI) said its executive committee had decided not to go ahead with the one-day strike in second level schools and the further/adult education sectors following contact with Minister for Education Jan O’Sullivan.
The TUI had previously stated that the strike would go ahead unless “meaningful” progress was made in talks with the Department of Education on issues such casualisation and income poverty for teachers.
TUI president Gerry Quinn said yesterday (FRI) that, on foot of correspondence from the Minister, the union was now satisfied that such an engagement was possible.
“As a sign of our good faith, the executive committee of the union decided not to hold our planned strike action in order to allow engagement in the hope of developing viable solutions to a range of crisis issues.”
He maintained the union had a a very strong mandate from members “to activate strike action at a later stage should it become apparent that sufficient progress is not being made”.
“Of key concern to TUI members are the precarious employment status and income poverty of new and recent entrants to the profession and the continuing, damaging effects of underfunding and understaffing on the service provided to students across all the sectors in which the union has members.”
Ms O’Sullivan said she welcomed the decision of the TUI executive to call off the strike. She said the decision was very welcome for parents and exam students in particular.
She reiterated that the Department of Education was open to engaging with TUI on matters of mutual concern in the context of continuing co-operation with collective agreements.
Earlier this month, the TUI staged a one-day strike in institute of technologies around the country.
You can soon power your smartphone by walking
SCIENTISTS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON HAVE DEVELOPED TECHNOLOGY THAT IS CAPABLE OF POWERING TECHNOLOGY AS YOU WALK.
We’re encouraged to take 10,000 steps per day, but it can be difficult to work up the motivation to do so. It may be more tempting in the future if these shoes that charge your smartphone as you walk take off.
Scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have created the technology, which uses the kinetic energy of you walking to generate electricity. At the moment, it is capable of creating up to 10 watts of power per square metre walked, but it’s believed that it could one day hit 10kW. For reference, charging a smartphone only requires around 2 watts.
The University explains: “The researchers’ bubbler device — which contains no moving mechanical parts — consists of two flat plates separated by a small gap filled with a conductive liquid. The bottom plate is covered with tiny holes through which pressurized gas forms bubbles. The bubbles grow until they’re large enough to touch the top plate, which causes the bubble to collapse.”
“The speedy, repetitive growth and collapse of bubbles pushes the conductive fluid back and forth, generating electrical charge.”
Before we can power our handsets by going for a stroll, InStep NanoPower needs to commercialise the technology and find some way of connecting a smartphone to the shoes. But the company is looking to put the technology out there now.
You can see the general principle in action below as a demonstrator powers up a flashlight at walking pace.
The Labour’s plan for Irish health: A dedicated cabinet Minister for primary care?
LABOUR HAS LAUNCHED THEIR PLAN FOR HEALTH – SAYING THEY WANT A DEDICATED CABINET MINISTER TO LOOK AFTER PRIMARY CARE.
Tanaiste Joan Burton also called for free GP care for all – saying it is something that can be achieved in the lifetime of the next government.
Health Minister Leo Varadkar has previously said it is an unrealistic target.
IT TAKES FOUR YEARS TO TRAIN GPS, AND WE HAVE A SHORTAGE OF AROUND 500.
However Junior Minister at the Department of Health Kathleen Lynch has said they have realistic targets to train enough people: “What people are forgetting is that this year, those people will be coming out of training as well.
“You know that didn’t stop, we have that amount of people coming out every year.
“We are not going to suddenly turn on the training this year and in four years’ time that they are coming out, they are coming out this year. They are coming out next year, they are coming out the year after.
“OUR TASK IS TO ENCOURAGE THEM TO STAY.”
A ‘Mini-brains’ breakthrough in neurological diseases and treatments.
LABORATORY-MADE “MINI-BRAINS” THAT SHOW A PRIMITIVE ABILITY TO THINK COULD TRANSFORM RESEARCH ON NEUROLOGICAL DISEASES AND TREATMENTS, SCIENTISTS NOW SAY.
THE TINY BALLS OF BRAIN CELLS, (LIKE ABOVE IMAGE CENTRE) ARE ABOUT THE SIZE OF A HOUSEFLY’S EYE, HAVE BEEN CREATED BY US RESEARCHERS WHO CLAIM THEY COULD BE MASS-PRODUCED IN LARGE NUMBERS.
Grown from stem cells, the brains contain many of the neurons and cells of their full-sized human equivalents.
Scientists believe they will provide far more reliable results in drug tests and other experiments than animal “models” such as mice and rats.
Lead researcher Professor Thomas Hartung from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in the US, said: “Ninety-five per cent of drugs that look promising when tested in animal models fail once they are tested in humans at great expense of time and money.
“While rodent models have been useful, we are not 150lb rats. And even though we are not balls of cells either, you can often get much better information from these balls of cells than from rodents.
“We believe that the future of brain research will include less reliance on animals, more reliance on human, cell-based models.”
The brains were created using induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), adult cells that have been genetically reprogrammed into an embryonic stem cell-like state.
Stimulation with the right chemical cocktail causes the iPSCs to further develop into the different cells and layers of the brain.
Potentially, thousands of exact copies can be produced – a hundred in just one laboratory petri dish, say the scientists. They can also be customised to display certain traits or genetic defects associated with diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and multiple sclerosis, as well as stroke or trauma.
He said one of the most exciting discoveries was that the brains displayed spontaneous electrophysiological activity that could be recorded with electrodes.
“It’s starting to produce a primitive type of thinking,” he added. “Obviously there’s no input or output. It is meaningless electrical activity but the neurons are trying to communicate with each other.
“This is the beauty of the third dimension. With a normal culture, which looks a little like eggs sunny-side up, there’s not a very dense cell wall where all these brain cells come together. In these new mini-brains they’re starting to produce functionality, and cellular communication on the level of using these electrical signals.”
After being cultivated for about two months, the brains developed four types of neurons and two kinds of support cell that nurture nerves.
One of the support cell types, oligodendrocytes, produce myelin, the fatty insulating sheath surrounding nerve fibres that is lost in multiple sclerosis.
Dr Ian Frayling of Cardiff University: 
