News Digest for September 26, 2006

There are 7 items today… Merrill Lynch: Firms Overstating Pro Forma Earnings | Stock Analysts Likely Punished for Unfavorable Recommendations | Survey: Investor Optimism Rises | U.S. Retail Investors Favor Foreign Stocks | Corporate governance poor in emerging countries | Logic Versus Usage: The Case for Activity-Centered Design | Arrival of ‘dotmobi’ domain raises concerns

Merrill Lynch: Firms Overstating Pro Forma Earnings
“We believe that other definitions of earnings are sometimes designed specifically to exclude undesirable levels of earnings variability. We continue to urge regulators to improve the quality of the financial announcements on which stocks trade.”

Stock Analysts Likely Punished for Unfavorable Recommendations
The study does not find statistical evidence of discrimination against analysts who rate companies unfavorably after Regulation Fair Disclosure was enacted, but such discrimination existed before the rule was passed, which suggests the regulation may be marginally effective.

Survey: Investor Optimism Rises
Investor optimism rose strongly in September _ to the highest level in five months _ on reduced concern about energy prices, according to the UBS/Gallup index of investor optimism.

U.S. Retail Investors Favor Foreign Stocks
Ameritrade’s retail investors, by a ratio of nearly four to one, believe that foreign markets will out gain U.S. markets over the next year.

Corporate governance poor in emerging countries
A long-held perception that companies based in emerging economies have poor corporate governance is mostly true, according to a survey released on Monday of 3,800 publicly traded companies worldwide.

Logic Versus Usage: The Case for Activity-Centered Design
Activity-centered design organizes according to usage: traditional human-centered design organizes according to topic, in isolation, outside the context of real, everyday use. Both are needed.

Arrival of ‘dotmobi’ domain raises concerns
Web developers said there was no technical benefit to using “dotmobi”, as websites could be designed to adapt to mobile phone screens.

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