#firm's

Reuters

India steps up fight against cigarette firms over health warnings ReutersHealth – Google NewsIndia steps up fight against cigarette firms over health warnings – Reuters

Turing Pharmaceuticals is drawing fire again for exploiting a program that awards vouchers for medications that can be sold at huge profits while pricing drugs out of patients’ reach. … Newsmax Health – Health NewsDrug Firm’s Latest Price Hike Draws Fire

Asian shares shake off losses, oil firms

An employee looks at monitors at the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) in Tokyo June 29, 2015.

Reuters/Thomas Peter

TOKYO Asian shares cautiously nudged into positive territory on Tuesday after downbeat economic data pressured Wall Street ahead of a key U.S. jobs report that could provide important clues to the timing of the Federal Reserve’s interest rate increase.

Crude oil prices firmed after plunging overnight, with U.S. crude CLc1 adding about 0.7 percent to $45.49 a barrel. Brent LCOc1 gained 0.4 percent to $49.70 after skidding 5 percent to six-month lows.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS was slightly higher, while Japan’s Nikkei stock index .N225 slipped 0.2 percent, after breaking a three-day winning streak in the previous session.

China stocks were higher, with the Shanghai Composite Index .SSEC and the CSI300 index .CSI300 both up more than 1 percent. Beijing has taken a raft of steps to support Chinese share markets after they lost more than 30 percent of their value since peaking in June.

“The market is still very volatile … investors are likely to be quiet and see what the next step of the government will be,” said Patrick Yiu, a director of CASH Asset Management in Hong Kong.

“The overall market momentum is not likely to pick up anytime soon and the economy in China is still very weak,” added Yiu.

U.S. equities markets stumbled overnight, after manufacturing data from China and the U.S. both disappointed.

The Institute for Supply Management’s index of national factory activity slipped to 52.7 in July, falling short of expectations that it would match last month’s reading of 53.5.

The weak reading, and fears of disinflation stemming from the rout in oil prices, led investors to pare bets that the Fed’s long-awaited interest rate hike will come as early as September.

Friday’s employment data is expected to show the U.S. economy created 225,000 new jobs in July, according to economists polled by Reuters. The unemployment rate is expected to hold steady at 5.3 percent.

“If we get some certainty about the strength of the U.S. economy and the likelihood of policy normalization by the Fed, and if a rate hike seems justifiable, that is positive for sentiment for global risk-on because a lot of people have been bracing for this,” said Stefan Worrall, director of cash equities at Credit Suisse.

The dollar was steady on the day against its Japanese counterpart at 127.00 yen JPY=, while the euro was slightly lower at $1.0940 EUR=.

Commodity currencies stabilized after facing pressure from crude oil’s tumble.

The Canadian dollar was nearly flat on the day, though it edged down earlier to notch a fresh 11-year low of C$1.3176 per U.S. dollar CAD=D4. Canadian markets will reopen on Tuesday after they were shut for a public holiday on Monday.

The Australian dollar last traded at $0.72330 AUD=D4, up about 0.6 percent on the day and holding above last week’s six-year low of $0.7234 after the Reserve Bank of Australia held its cash rate unchanged at a record low 2.0 percent as expected, and also toned down its calls for a weaker currency.

The Aussie also got a lift from Australian retail sales data, which showed a better-than-expected 0.7 percent rise in June, beating expectations of 0.5 percent growth.

Spot gold XAU= was down about 0.2 percent at 1,084 per ounce, dropping for a third session in four with a 5-1/2-year low in sight, as expectations that the Fed is set to raise interest rates this year undermined the precious metal.

(Additional reporting by Hideyuki Sano in Tokyo, and James Pomfret and Donny Kwok in Hong Kong; Editing by Shri Navaratnam)

Seattle CEO who set firm's minimum wage to $70G says he has hit hard times

The Seattle CEO who reaped a publicity bonanza when he boosted the salaries of his employees to a minimum of $70,000 a year says he has fallen on hard times.

Dan Price, 31, tells the New York Times that things have gotten so bad he’s been forced to rent out his house.

Only three months ago Price was generating headlines—and accusations of being a socialist — when he announced the new salary minimum for all 120 employees at his Gravity Payments credit card processing firm. Price said he was doing it, and slashing his $1 million pay package to pay for it, to address the wealth gap.

“I’m working as hard as I ever worked to make it work,” he told the Times in a video that shows him sitting on a plastic bucket in the garage of his house. “I’m renting out my house right now to try and make ends meet myself.”

The Times article said Price’s decision ended up costing him a few customers and two of his “most valued” employees, who quit after newer employees ended up with bigger salary hikes than older ones.

“He gave raises to people who have the least skills and are the least equipped to do the job, and the ones who were taking on the most didn’t get much of a bump,” Gravity financial manager Maisey McMaster, 26, told the paper.

She said when she talked to Price about it, he treated her as if she was being selfish and only thinking about herself.

“That really hurt me,” she said. “I was talking about not only me, but about everyone in my position.”

Approaching burnout, she quit.

Grant Moran, 29, also quit, saying the new pay-scale was disconcerting

“Now the people who were just clocking in and out were making the same as me,” he told the paper. “It shackles high performers to less motivated team members.”

Price said McMaster and Moran, or even critic Rush Limbaugh, the talk show host, were not wrong.

“There’s no perfect way to do this and no way to handle complex workplace issues that doesn’t have any downsides or trade-offs,” he said.

The Times said customers who left were dismayed at what Price did, viewing it as a political statement. Others left fearful Gravity would soon hike fees to pay for salary increases.

Brian Canlis, co-owner of a family restaurant, already worried about how to deal with Seattle’s new minimum wage, told Price the pay raise at Gravity “makes it harder for the rest of us.”

“It pains me to hear Brian Canlis say that,” Price said. “The last think I would ever want to do is make a client feel uncomfortable.”

The Times said Price has dozens of new clients inspired by his move but those accounts won’t start generating profits for at least another year.

Making matters worse for Price is a lawsuit his older brother filed two weeks after the pay hike announcement.

Lucas Price, who owns 30 percent of the company, accuses his brother of taking millions of dollars out of the company while denying him the benefits of his minority ownership.

The lawsuit has forced Gravity to pay mounting legal fees at a time when the new salary scale is being eaten up by profits.

“We don’t have a margin of error to pay those legal fees,” Dan Price said.

Click for more from The New York Times