Financial life in a big town

The most hyped IPO of the year is here, but you won’t be able to trade Facebook’s stock right when the market opens at 9:30 on Friday.

That’s because Facebook () will trade on the Nasdaq exchange, which doesn’t open up initial public offerings until a bit later in the trading session.

"It’s not a delay or a problem, just a matter of style," said a source familiar with Nasdaq’s process. "We want to have an IPO stand alone at its own special time."

The company in question — right now, that’s Facebook — can decide when to debut and works with Nasdaq to set the time. Technically, an IPO stock could even start trading in the afternoon, as long as it’s well before the closing bell at 4 p.m. ET.

But most recent Nasdaq IPOs have typically begun trading a few minutes before 11 a.m. ET. That’s when Groupon (), Zynga () and Angie’s List () made their debuts.

Still, the opening times vary. For example, Splunk () began trading on the Nasdaq at 11:20 a.m. on April 19. The next day, Proofpoint () opened at 10:25 a.m.

A representative from Nasdaq declined to comment on what time Facebook’s stock will open on Friday.

The trading site StreetInsider.com typically posts that information as soon as it’s available. StreetInsider editor Lon Juricic says the site gets its timing information after Nasdaq releases it to traders in the morning.

How it works: On the morning that an IPO begins trading on the Nasdaq, the exchange starts a process called the "IPO cross." During that time, traders can submit buy and sell orders. The Nasdaq matches up those orders in real-time on its electronic marketplace — a process that typically takes 40 microseconds or less.

Those orders can be entered into the system, but they aren’t actually completed until the stock begins trading.

"It’s really business as usual," a source close to Nasdaq said of the plans for Friday’s trading. "Same policies, same procedures. This time there are just more questions because it’s Facebook."

By comparison, the New York Stock Exchange starts trading IPOs soon after the opening bell. Recent IPOs LinkedIn (), Pandora (), Yelp () and Annie’s () all began trading on the NYSE by 10 a.m.

– CNNMoney’s Hibah Yousuf contributed reporting. 

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The cell phone capacity problem is getting bigger by the day, but one potential solution has wireless carriers thinking smaller — way smaller.

As smartphone and tablet usage soars, the giant cell towers that mobile devices communicate with are getting overloaded. As a result, cell phone companies have begun to get behind the idea of "small cells": tiny antennas that you can hold in your hand.

Small cells make much more efficient use than traditional towers of carriers’ increasingly precious wireless spectrum. The low-powered devices can cut back on interference, improve cell reception indoors and become Wi-Fi hotspots to offload traffic from cramped cellular networks.

Such spectrum-maximizing tricks are becoming increasingly important as mobile traffic booms. By 2016, more than half of the Internet’s traffic will come from mobile devices, and 71% of that will be big video files, according to Cisco’s (, Fortune 500) latest Mobile Visual Networking Index, the industry’s most comprehensive annual study.

Carriers would typically handle that growth by adding new cell towers or more radios to existing towers. But that’s an expensive process, and many metropolitan areas are now so packed with towers that new ones would be riddled with interference concerns.

"That has major implications for how you build out mobile infrastructure," said Murali Nemani, head of service provider marketing for Cisco. "The rationale behind small cells has a lot to do with this perfect storm that is brewing."

Echoing Apple’s proclamation of a "post-PC" world, Cisco CEO John Chambers said last month that we are entering a "post-macrocell era."

Telecom analysts agree. Small cells will make up 90% of total cell tower deployments by 2015, Nomura analyst Stuart Jeffrey predicts.

One of the main selling points is their low cost. The revenue generated by small cell infrastructure sales will make up just 5% of the total revenue from base station sales, Jeffrey estimates, even as small cells grow to dominate the market.

They also offer greater flexibility. Wi-Fi is a potent tool for fighting the spectrum crunch — carriers can use it to offload traffic from their cell networks — but today’s networks can be painfully tricky to use. Customers have to seek out a network, remember their credentials, and manually sign in.

Cisco’s small cells use a new "passpoint" standard, certified by the industry-governing Wi-Fi Alliance, that allows carriers to automatically sign their customers in to hotspots. The technology is expected to be released this summer. One day soon, you could walk into a mall with your iPhone and be switched to your carrier’s Wi-Fi network without even knowing it.

The carriers aren’t touting the technology just yet — Verizon (, Fortune 500), Sprint (, Fortune 500) and AT&T (, Fortune 500) all declined to comment for this article about their small-cell investments — but they’re all in various stages of deploying it.

AT&T recently won approval from Palo Alto, Calif., city officials for a significant test project throughout the city. Verizon’s top network planning executive said at a conference last year that the carrier will use small cells to help manage its network capacity, while Sprint recently partnered with small cell hardware maker AirWalk Communications.

Cisco is just one of many mobile infrastructure providers hoping to get on the bandwagon. Alcatel-Lucent (), Powerwave () and others are promoting their own small cells, each with a different feature set.

Alcatel-Lucent’s lightRadio, introduced last year, is a cube that fits in the palm of your hand and can be fastened to the top of lamp posts or placed on the sides of buildings. The company is developing several new devices, based on lightRadio, that will bring coverage indoors and be capable of sending both 3G and 4G signal simultaneously.

Powerwave’s small cells are able to plug into an ethernet connection and broadcast a carrier’s signal. They are also designed to blend in to their surroundings so they don’t become an eyesore in places like office buildings or stadiums.

"There is a huge opportunity coming," said Juan Santiago, head of Powerwave’s product management. "No one wants a giant cell tower in their backyard." 

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Wal-Mart’s stock price dropped Monday, after bribery allegations concerning the retailer’s Mexican operations surfaced over the weekend.

Wal-Mart Stores (, Fortune 500) stock finished 4.7% lower on Monday. On Mexico City’s Bolsa Mexicana de Valores, the stock price for the company’s Mexican division, Wal-Mart de Mexico (), plunged 13%.

The world’s biggest retailer drew attention as a result of a New York Times report about alleged bribery in Mexico. The story, published Saturday online, alleged that top executives at Wal-Mart de Mexico tried to hide a widespread bribery scheme from the company’s headquarters in Bentonville, Ark.

On an earnings call Monday after the bell, Wal-Mart de Mexico CEO Scot Rank and CFO Rafael Matute didn’t address the allegations or take questions.

But John Zolidis, analyst for Buckingham Research, said that the scandal isn’t big enough to bring down the retail giant.

"Although the story gives us pause, we believe the impact on the company’s business will be minimal," wrote Zolidis in a research note. "We would use weakness to buy the stock."

He added that the most likely outcome is that Wal-Mart "pays some kind of fine. Some movement among executives occurs. We doubt there is noticeable impact on the Wal-Mart brand or on the business."

Allegations in the Times story date back to an executive’s e-mail from 2005, which reportedly details how the company paid $24 million in construction-related bribes business

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said on Monday banks need to have more capital at hand in order to ensure the financial system is stable.

Bernanke said regulators were taking steps to force financial institutions to hold higher capital buffers, even if they allow for a long period of implementation to prevent any market disruptions.

“We need to have higher capital, and that’s what Basel III does,” he said in response to questions at an Atlanta Fed conference, referring to the latest international effort to tighten bank oversight. “That’s essential for a stable financial system.”

Bernanke made the comments the same day that an international bank lobby group, the Institute of International Finance, urged policymakers to pause in regulating the industry.

Toughened capital standards, new liquidity requirements and rules that limit activities all restrict banks’ ability to provide businesses and households with the credit needed to lift economic growth, the IIF said in a letter to central bankers and finance ministers.

Whether big banks have sufficient levels of capital to protect against possible losses has been an ongoing source of contention. A call by the head of the International Monetary Fund, Christine Lagarde, last year for European banks to raise up to 200 billion euros in new capital was quickly rejected by European politicians.

In his prepared remarks on Monday, Bernanke said the U.S. economy has yet to fully recover from the effects of the financial crisis, and regulators must continue to find new ways to strengthen the banking system.

“The heavy human and economic costs of the crisis underscore the importance of taking all necessary steps to avoid a repeat of the events of the past few years,” Bernanke said.

In a speech that did not touch directly on the outlook for economic growth or monetary policy, Bernanke focused on the lingering blind spots for financial authorities trying to prevent a repeat of the 2008-2009 meltdown.

He said financial stability matters had historically played second fiddle to monetary policy issues in the list of central bank priorities, but the crisis changed that.

“Financial stability policy has taken on greater prominence and is now generally considered to stand on an equal footing with monetary policy as a critical responsibility of central banks,” he said.

Bernanke said recent bank stress tests will become a regular feature of the supervisory landscape, and for that reason the latest round of tests is being reviewed to identify possible areas of improvement in “execution and communication.”

He reiterated a worry that he and other top policymakers have expressed about the continued vulnerability of money market funds.

“Additional steps to increase the resiliency of money market funds are important for the overall stability of our financial system and warrant serious consideration,” Bernanke said.

“The risk of runs … remains a concern, particularly since some of the tools that policymakers employed to stem the runs during the crisis are no longer available,” he said.

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A Senate committee has approved President Barack Obama’s two nominations to fill vacancies on the Federal Reserve’s board. But prospects for a quick confirmation in the full Senate are uncertain.

The Senate Banking Committee approved by voice vote the nominations of Jeremy Stein, a Harvard economics professor, and Jerome Powell, an investment banker who served in the George H.W. Bush administration.

Obama nominated Stein, a Democrat, and Powell, a Republican, in hopes that pairing nominees from both parties could overcome Republican objections paperless payday loans. The Fed board hasn’t operated with a full seven members since 2006.

But one Republican senator, David Vitter, a critic of the Fed’s policies, has expressed opposition. That won’t necessarily block the nominees’ confirmation. But it means the Senate won’t vote before its two-week break starts this weekend.

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The tornadoes that swept through Missouri last year will cost homeowners who didn’t feel so much as a stiff breeze. Home insurance rates in Missouri are rising a little more than 5 percent, according to figures from the Missouri Department of Insurance.

Illinois state insurance officials wouldn’t provide an estimate on how much homeowners premiums may be rising this year.

People in the insurance industry call 2011 “the year of the cat,” as in catastrophe. And that partly explains the rising cost of home insurance here.

Several tornadoes ripped through St. Louis: one on New Year’s Eve of 2010 and then on April 22. Tornadoes laid waste to parts of the mid-South in April, then a massive twister erased much of Joplin in May. All told, twisters killed 1,900 people last year.

The result was the fourth biggest disaster loss in the history of insurance. The $21.3 billion tornado loss ranked just short of the $24 billion cost of 9-11, $25 billion for Hurricane Andrew in 1992 and $47.6 billion for Katrina in 2005.

The tornadoes capped a decade of disaster, in which catastrophic losses of all sorts more than doubled from the 1990s. This year is also shaping up as nasty with 270 tornadoes reported as of March 5, compared to a 7-year average of 123, according to the insurance rating firm A.M Best.

Tornado losses used to be a minor headache for insurers, who were more worried about hurricanes on the coast.

“Insurers are starting to say, ‘maybe this is the new normal,’” said Steve Weisbart, chief economist for the Insurance Information Institute, an insurance trade group. “They’re building into rates a little more margin for catastrophic loss.”

They’re also trying to bolster sagging profits. Earnings for property and casualty insurers dropped about 40 percent last year to $11.7 billion as “catastrophe-related losses wreaked havoc,” according to A.M. Best.

And so, St. Louis homeowners will be paying higher prices for coverage. The Missouri Department of Insurance says that insurers covering 80 percent of homes have filed rate increases averaging a bit over 5 percent from July of last year to early this month.

That was actually lower than in previous years. “Base rates” – rates before any discounts - rose 14 percent in 2009 and 9 percent in 2010, according to Missouri Insurance Director John Huff.

Those 2009 and 2010 increases were due in part to another ‘catastrophe’ hitting insurers — poor returns on their investments. 

Investment income has taken a big hit in recent years because of low interest rates, and falling investment income was pushing up rates before the rash of tornadoes.

Insurance premiums also depends on other factors, such as the amount of competition in the market and the amount of loss claims.

Huff says competition remains strong in Missouri with 130 companies angling to cover homes.

Insurers are looking for ways to lower their disaster losses beyond simply raising rates. More are moving to percentage deductibles, under which the homeowner pays a fixed percentage of any loss, says Weisbart. That’s a step away from fixed deductibles, in which the homeowner pays a certain dollar amount with the insurance company paying everything else up to the policy limit.

In Missouri, regulators are seeing some insurers move away from coverage that replaces damaged property with new property. If an old roof is blown off, they may give the owner a check for the value of an old roof, even if it costs more to replace it with a new roof.

Homeowners have to read their policy to know that they’re getting. “It’s really up to the consumer to do their own homework,” says department spokesman David Owen.

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China reported its biggest monthly trade deficit in at least a decade in February as imports rebounded after a Lunar New Year holiday slowdown, but a broader measure showed global and Chinese demand both weakening.

Exports grew 18.4 percent over a year earlier to $114.5 billion, up from a 0.5 percent contraction in January, when factories were idled for a two-week holiday break, customs data showed Saturday. Imports jumped 39.6 percent to $145.9 billion, reviving after the previous month’s 15 percent decline.

China’s global trade deficit was $31.5 billion _ the biggest since at least the 1990s and a rare exception to a recent string of multibillion-dollar surpluses.

The deficit reflected China’s relatively strong growth amid Europe’s debt crisis and U.S. economic troubles. The economy expanded by 8.9 percent in the final quarter of 2011 and the government’s growth target this year is 7.5 percent.

But a broader measure, combining February’s strong showing with the January slump, showed growth in both imports and exports decelerating markedly.

January-February export growth slowed to 6.9 percent over the same two-month period last year, barely half of December’s 13.4 percent rate. Imports for the two months rose 7.7 percent, down from December’s 11.8 percent.

Analysts look at the combined period to offset the impact of the Lunar New Year, which comes at different times in January or February each year, distorting trade figures as producers rush to fill orders before closing for two weeks or more.

Chinese demand for oil, iron ore, other commodities and industrial components has cooled as export-driven factories see orders fall and Beijing tries to steer its overheated expansion to a sustainable level.

China often records a trade deficit for one month early in the year as factories restock after the holiday, but rarely as large as February’s. Last year, the only monthly deficit was $7.3 billion in February, while surpluses hit a high of $31.5 billion in July.

January’s trade declines were the sharpest since the 2008 global crisis.

China is one of the biggest importers and the top export market for many of its Asian neighbors and commodity suppliers as far away as Australia and Africa, which means cooling demand could have global repercussions.

The International Monetary Fund is forecasting 8.2 percent growth this year but has warned that could fall by as much as half if Europe, China’s biggest export market, suffers a severe decline in activity due to its debt woes.

Exports to the 27-nation European Union contracted by 1.1 percent in February from a year earlier to $19.4 billion, the General Administration of Customs of China reported. China’s trade surplus with Europe contracted by 79 percent to $1.6 billion.

Despite the surge in imports, China’s politically sensitive trade surplus with the United States rose by 1 percent to $8.1 billion.

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The Dow has edged teasingly close to 13,000, a marker it hasn’t reached since before the financial crisis brought the U.S. economy to its knees.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 46 points to 12,950, its highest close for the year so far. That followed a 123-point surge the day before.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 also popped, rising 3 points to 1,361, also securing its highest close for the year. The Nasdaq composite fell 8 points to 2,952.

Among the biggest movers were Campbell Soup and ketchup maker H.J. Heinz, both of which beat analysts’ expectations for quarterly results.

The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note rose to 2.01 percent from 1.99 percent, a sign that investors are becoming more comfortable with riskier stock investments.

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Iran will soon unveil “big new” nuclear achievements, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Saturday while reiterating Tehran’s readiness to revive talks with the West over the country’s controversial nuclear program.

Ahmadinejad spoke at a rally in Tehran as tens of thousands of Iranians marked the 33rd anniversary of the Islamic Revolution that toppled the pro-Western monarchy and brought Islamic clerics to power.

Ahmadinejad did not elaborate on the upcoming announcement but insisted Iran would never give up its uranium enrichment, a process that makes material for reactors as well as weapons.

The West suspects Iran’s nuclear program is aimed at producing atomic weapons, a charge Tehran denies, insisting it’s geared for peaceful purposes only, such as energy production.

Four rounds of U.N. sanctions and recent tough financial penalties by the U.S. and the European Union have failed to get Iran to halt aspects of its atomic work that could provide a possible pathway to weapons production.

“Within the next few days the world will witness the inauguration of several big new achievements in the nuclear field,” Ahmadinejad told the crowd in Tehran’s famous Azadi, or Freedom, square.

Iran has said it is forced to manufacture nuclear fuel rods, which provide fuel for reactors, on its own since international sanctions ban it from buying them on foreign markets. In January, Iran said it had produced its first such fuel rod.

Apart from progress on the rods, the upcoming announcement could pertain to Iran’s underground enrichment facility at Fordo or upgraded centrifuges, which are expected to be installed at the facility in the central town of Natanz. Iran has also said it would inaugurate the Russian-built nuclear power plant in the southern port of Bushehr in 2012.

Iran’s unchecked pursuit of the nuclear program scuttled negotiations a year ago but Iranian officials last month proposed a return to the talks with the five permanent U.N. Security Council members plus Germany.

“Iran is ready for talks within the framework of equality and justice,” Ahmadinejad repeated on said Saturday but warned that Tehran “will never enter talks if enemies behave arrogantly.”

In the past, Iran has angered Western officials by appearing to buy time through opening talks and weighing proposals even while pressing ahead with the nuclear program.

Washington recently levied new penalties aimed at limiting Iran’s ability to sell oil, which accounts for 80 percent of its foreign revenue, while the European Union adopted its own toughest measures yet on Iran, including an oil embargo and freeze of the country’s central bank assets.

Israel is worried Iran could be on the brink of an atomic bomb and many Israeli officials believe sanctions only give Tehran time to move its nuclear program underground, out of reach of Israeli military strikes. The U.S. and its allies argue that Israel should hold off on any military strike on Iranian nuclear facilities to allow more time for sanctions to work.

Before Ahmadinejad spoke Saturday, visiting Hamas prime minister from Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh, also addressed the crowd, congratulating Iranians on the 1979 anniversary and vowing that his militant Palestinian group would never recognize Iran’s and Hamas’ archenemy, Israel.

Also at the Tehran rally, Iran displayed a real-size model of the U.S. drone RQ-170 Sentinel, captured by Iran in December near the border with Afghanistan. Iran has touted the drone’s capture as one of its successes against the West.

The state TV called the drone is a “symbol of power” of the Iranian armed forces “against the global arrogance” of the U.S.

The report broadcast footage of other rallies around Iran, saying millions participated in the anniversary celebrations, many under heavy snowfall.

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Markets were in a jittery mood on Monday as talks dragged on between Greek political leaders over a fresh austerity package that is required if the debt-ridden country is to get a crucial bailout package.

The leaders of the parties backing Greece’s coalition government are set to hold a second day of emergency talks over austerity measures that rescue creditors are demanding in return for more money. Prime Minister Lucas Papademos will meet with negotiators from the eurozone and the International Monetary Fund in the afternoon and then with the leaders of the three parties backing his coalition.

The parties all publicly oppose steep cuts in private sector pay demanded by the eurozone and IMF, but their backing is needed for the government to reach a deal for the bailout, which must be approved by the Greek Parliament. The new euro130 billion ($171 billion) bailout deal is vital for Greece to avoid bankruptcy next month as it cannot cover a euro14.5 billion ($19.1 billion) bond repayment due March 20 without the rescue funds.

The bailout’s implementation also depends on Greece’s progress in separate talks with banks and other private bondholders to forgive euro100 billion ($131.6 billion) in Greek debt, in exchange for a cash payment and new bonds with more lenient repayment terms.

“Time is running out,” said Lee Hardman, an analyst at The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ.

Fears that a deal won’t emerge have reinforced concerns of a disorderly Greek debt default that could send shockwaves round the global economy. That’s kept investors on edge on Monday, even though market sentiment has been fairly buoyant of late following a run of strong U.S. economic data, notably last Friday’s forecast-busting jobs figures for January.

In Europe, the FTSE 100 index of leading British shares was down 0.5 percent at 5,871 while Germany’s DAX fell 0 personal business card.7 percent to 6,720. The CAC-40 in France was 1.3 percent lower at 3,384.

Wall Street was also poised for a lower opening following its rally on Friday, when government figures showed the U.S. economy generated a bigger than expected 243,000 jobs in January, pushing the unemployment rate down to 8.3 percent. Dow futures were down 0.4 percent at 12,744 while the broader Standard & Poor’s 500 futures fell 0.6 percent at 1,332.

The euro was also under pressure as investors awaited developments in Athens _ the currency was trading 0.8 percent lower at $1.3041.

Oil prices tracked the broader market trends, with benchmark oil for March delivery down $1.17 at $96.67 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Greece will likely remain the focal point over the week, though a raft of corporate earnings, particularly in Europe, and a host of central bank meetings could garner some interest. The European Central Bank’s monthly policy meeting on Thursday could be crucial in determining market expectations of whether there will be further interest rate reductions. Meanwhile, many traders think the Bank of England will clear the way to inject more money into the U.K. economy in the hope of boosting lending.

Earlier Asian shares mostly traded higher as investors there had their first chance to respond to join in the advance generated by Friday’s upbeat jobs data.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 index rose 1.1 percent to close at 8,929.20, its highest closing in more than three months but Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 0.2 percent to 20,709.94. Benchmarks in Singapore and mainland China also rose.

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Pamela Sampson in Bangkok contributed to this report.

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