Financial life in a big town

Investors are bracing for Facebook’s Wall Street debut on Friday after the pioneering online social network raised about $16 billion in one of the biggest initial public offerings in U.S. history.

More: Why you should resist buying Facebook on its first day of trading

More: Facebook IPO: How long will the euphoria last?

To rapturous applause from employees, Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg rang the bell to kick off trading on the Nasdaq market at the company’s Silicon Valley headquarters at 6:30 a paydayloans.m. Pacific time.

Shares in Facebook begin publicly trading on the Nasdaq stock exchange for the first time Friday at 11:00 a.m., at an opening price of $38 US. Follow our live blog as The Star covers the social networking giant’s historic first trading day, including analysis and reaction.

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JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon was overwhelmingly optimistic Monday — but was quick to say things would be even better were it not for government policies.

His reasons for optimism: the world’s strongest military, best businesses, most entrepreneurial workforce and deepest capital markets. "We have the royal straight flush," Dimon told Fortune.

So what’s the problem? Dimon cited three examples of where the government went wrong: The debt ceiling crisis, the failure to adopt Simpson-Bowles and what he calls the "constant attack on business."

When asked why, at a time of record profits, Corporate America isn’t hiring more, Dimon said American businesses had added 4 million jobs in the past two years no fax needed payday loans. "I don’t think government policy had anything to do with it," Dimon said. "It should have been 8 million.

More video on Jamie Dimon and the economy:

Dimon on lending, taxes and Romney

Buffett: Obama beats Romney on economy

Obama: Trickle down doesn’t work

Munger on Occupy: ‘I hate that’ 

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U.K. services, manufacturing and construction probably waned this month as Bank of England policy makers prepare to discuss whether they need to extend stimulus after the economy slipped back into recession.

A gauge of factory activity based on a survey of purchasing managers will fall to 51.5 from 52.1 in March, according to the median estimate of 27 forecasts in a Bloomberg News poll. A reading above 50 indicates expansion. An index of services, the largest part of the economy, will decline to 54.1 from 55.3, while a construction measure will also fall, separate surveys of economists show.

U.K. gross domestic product fell in the first quarter, pushing the economy into its first double-dip recession since the 1970s. While Bank of England officials have said that may hurt confidence, they must balance that risk with the threat from faster-than-targeted inflation at their May 9-10 meeting.

Oil prices dropped slightly on Wednesday after the government reported an increase in U.S. supplies.

Benchmark West Texas Intermediate crude lost 22 cents to $103.33 per barrel in New York. Brent crude, which sets the price of oil imported into the U.S., lost 28 cents to $117.88 per barrel in London.

Prices dipped after the Energy Information Administration reported that U.S. oil supplies increased by 4 million barrels last week. The increase was a surprise following an industry trade group’s prediction late Tuesday that supplies had declined last week. The price of oil tends to fall as more supply becomes available to refineries.

Crude supplies climbed close to a record high in Cushing, Okla., where benchmark crude is delivered. High oil supplies in Cushing have pushed the benchmark price lower than other oil varieties. Those supplies are expected to begin falling in May when the Seaway Pipeline begins carrying crude oil from Cushing to the Gulf Coast.

Supplies also rose last week on the East Coast, Gulf Coast, Midwest and Rocky Mountains.

Petroleum demand fell by 3.2 percent when compared with the same time last year.

At the pump, gasoline prices fell for a ninth day to an average $3.84 per gallon, according to auto club AAA, Wright Express and Oil Price Information Service. The price of gasoline has declined by an average of 9.6 cents per gallon since it hit $3.936 per gallon on April 6.

In other energy trading, heating oil was flat at $3.1314 per gallon and gasoline futures gave up 3.05 cents to $3.1288 per gallon. Natural gas added 2.9 cents to $2.004 per 1,000 cubic feet.

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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

Less than a decade ago, Argentina was an exporter of oil and natural gas. Now the government has to spend billions of dollars to import fuel.

This dramatic reversal of fortune is why Argentina, already a global financial rogue after its historic debt default, is willing to risk becoming even more of a pariah by seizing control of its leading oil company from Spanish hands, analysts say. President Cristina Fernandez infuriated Spain, its largest foreign investor, but elated many Argentines by expropriating Repsol YPF SA’s majority stake in Argentina’s formerly state-owned YPF energy company.

Only two months earlier, Repsol YPF had upped its estimate for the shale oil and gas it found in Argentina to nearly 23 billion barrels, enough to double the country’s output in a decade .But the Spanish company said it would cost $25 billion a year to develop, and warned that Argentina would need to overhaul its energy policy to attract the necessary investment.

Instead, Fernandez simply seized the company, giving her government access to billions of dollars’ worth of cash, enough energy to answer domestic demand in the short term, and potentially even solving Argentina’s chronic money woes in the future.

She accused Repos of draining YPF since gaining control in the 1990s, underinvesting in its oil and gas fields and failing to keep pace with the needs of Argentina’s growing economy even as it paid huge dividends to shareholders.

Repos blames Argentina’s ever-changing mix of subsidies, price caps and export taxes for depressing production as the country’s demand for energy soared since 2003, when her husband, President Nestor Kirchner, came to power.

Both are partly right, says Eduardo Fernandez, an independent consultant and former fuels director in Argentina’s energy ministry.

The problem was a government approved practice of allowing Repos to use profits to pay shareholder dividends rather than invest that money in the company’s future. “That led to a lack of reinvestment in utilities, little exploration and dwindling reserves, as oil fields dried up and productivity fell,” Fernandez said.

Argentine oil production plunged 22 percent from 2000 to 2010, even as demand surged more than 40 percent, according to data from the Argentine Oil and Gas Institute and the Energy Ministry compiled by a former energy secretary, Emilio Apud.

Argentina’s production has fallen so low that the government now spends billions of dollars a year on expensive imported fuels that it provides at a loss to companies and consumers.

Cheap energy helped Argentines rebuild after a world-record debt default and devaluation in 2002 left the economy in ruins. It makes less sense now, after nearly a decade of growth, but letting consumer energy prices rise too quickly could cause already high inflation to spiral, and provoke popular discontent in a country where pot-banging street protests have driven other presidents from office.

The energy subsidies spiked by 63 percent in 2010 to $5.6 billion, according to a former energy secretary, Alieto Guadagni. At the time, oil traded at about $80 a barrel internationally. With oil now going for more than $100 a barrel, this year’s bill could be nearly $10 billion, even as the economy cools with less demand from China and Brazil.

Fernandez squarely blamed a Repose’s lack of investment for a $3 billion energy deficit when she announced the takeover.

“The worst thing is that if we don’t do this, we’ll turn into an unsustainable country, because of its business policies and not because of a lack of resources,” she said, noting that Argentina holds the world’s third largest reserves of shale oil and gas, after China and the United States _ a resource that remains entirely untapped.

“Our model is one of recovering our sovereignty,” she added, noting that the company will not be state-owned, but run as a mixed entity, able to bring in new private shareholders.

But rather than raise fuel prices that are now about five times lower than in Brazil and Uruguay, her expropriation measure insists that oil companies must serve Argentines first, even if it means selling the energy they produce at a loss.

In the lead up to the nationalization, as prospects for quick returns diminished in Argentina, Repos YPF sought to protect its shareholders by diversifying and making long-term investments elsewhere in Latin America.

Other oil companies did the same. With oil capped at $55 a barrel in Argentina while trading above $100 on the world market, they followed the money, Eduardo Fernandez said.

“So there’s no interest in making investments in Argentina when in other countries they’re paying in full. So Repos went to Brazil, Trinidad and Tobago, Bolivia. All of this provoked the disinvestment,” he said.

Repos President Antonio Bureau said Repsol invested billions of dollars in Argentina, and tried to head off the expropriation with promises to spend more. But by then, the Argentines were already determined to regain control. All Brufau could do in the end was demand $10.5 billion, which he said was the market price of the shares Argentina seized.

Deputy Economy Minister Axel Keillor accused Repos of hiding the true value of its Argentine unit, and said a thorough review of its books now that he’s in control of the company’s offices in Buenos Aires will affect whatever compensation is eventually paid.

“These morons think that the government is stupid enough to buy everything” that Repsol demands, the 40-year-old Kicillof said, sporting an open shirt and long, Elvis-like sideburns in a heated senate session this week.

Latin America’s third-biggest economy hasn’t been able to tap international debt markets since its default, but has been able to manage with dollars rolling in from taxes on grains, nationalizing private pension funds and the flagship airline, and by tapping central bank reserves.

By re-nationalizing YPF _ and not paying Repsol until international courts resolve the case years from now, if then _ Argentina can reinvest profits to develop new reserves and use the fuel Repsol was exporting to save consumers from price shocks as it weans them off the subsidies.

The shale deposits trapped deep under the “Vaca Muerta” (”Dead Cow”) basin of Neuquén province could increase Argentina’s oil reserves by at least 750 million barrels, and probably three times that much, said Michael Lynch, president of Strategic Energy and Economic Research.

Strategic partners will be key, and the Argentines aren’t waiting for them to come knocking. Planning Minister Julio de Vido assured Brazilian officials Friday that Argentine assets of their state-run oil giant Petrobras would not be expropriated, and secured a promise to increase their Argentine market share from 8 percent to 15 percent this year. Brazilian Energy Minister Edison Lobao called Petrobras’s current investment of $500 million in Argentina “good business.”

De Vido also secured promises of increased natural gas production from French-owned Total Austral, and planned meetings Monday with executives from Chevron and Exxon.

He said he had not heard from China’s No. 2 Sinopec oil company, “but that doesn’t mean that we won’t have contacts in the future.”

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Spanish, Italian and Portuguese banks are loading up on bonds issued by their own governments, a move that shifts more of the risk of sovereign default to European taxpayers from private creditors.

Holdings of Spanish government debt by lenders based in the country jumped 26 percent in two months, to 220 billion euros ($289 billion) at the end of January, data from Spain

In a rare show of unity, Iran and the world’s big powers on Saturday hailed their first nuclear meeting in more than a year as a key step toward further negotiations meant to ease international fears that Tehran may weaponize its nuclear program.

The one concrete reflection of progress was an agreement to meet again on May 23 in Baghdad, a venue put forward by Iran.

But huge hurdles still lie in the way of a common understanding of what Iran should do to end suspicions of its nuclear activities. Those barriers may prove insurmountable considering the differences between Tehran and the six nations trying to persuade it to compromise on its nuclear efforts.

Since revelations surfaced 10 years ago that it was secretly building a uranium enrichment program, Tehran has argued it has a right to enrichment to create reactor fuel under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, and insisted it will never use that ability to create the fissile core of a nuclear warhead.

But the United States and other countries accuse Iran of repeatedly violating the treaty, and Tehran continues to expand enrichment despite four sets of U.N. Security Council resolutions and other penalties imposed by the U.S., Europe and others. Adding to concerns, it now is enriching uranium to levels closer to the grade needed for nuclear weapons in an underground bunker that could be impervious to attack.

The talks in Istanbul on Saturday saw the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany sitting at the same table with Iran. Knowing the road ahead is tough, both sides focused on what they said was the positive tone of the talks, in contrast to the previous round 14 months ago.

That last session broke up with no progress after Iranian negotiators refused to even consider discussing enrichment

EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, who formally led the talks on behalf of the six powers, called the meeting “constructive and useful.”

She expressed the hope they will lead to “a sustained process of serious dialogue, where we can take urgent practical steps to build confidence and lead on to compliance by Iran with all its international obligations.”

Iranian chief negotiator Saeed Jalili said the talks made “some progress.” But he acknowledged “some points of difference.”

“What we saw today in the talks was the interest of the other party in the talks and cooperation, which is considered positive,” he told reporters.

In London, British Foreign Secretary William Hague said the talks were “the first steps” toward the six-nation push to find “a peaceful, negotiated solution to the (Iran) nuclear issue.”

“Today’s talks were a first step towards that objective, but there is still a long way to go.”

Both Jalili and Ashton said there was agreement to move slowly and be guided by reciprocity _ meaning that Iran stood to benefit from easing fears about its enrichment program by unspecified rewards from the other side.

Iran hopes those rewards could include easing or delaying sanctions that target its main cash cow, its oil sales. Jalili acknowledged Saturday that Iran would like to avoid those penalties.

“The lifting sanctions is one of the demands by Iranian nation,” Jalili told reporters.

But a senior U.S. administration official who demanded anonymity in exchange for discussing strategy at upcoming talks said that was not on the table in the near future.

“One only expects to look at the issue when there are sufficient concrete steps taken” by Iran, she said at a post-negotiation briefing. “Dialogue is not sufficient for any sanctions relief.”

Beyond the bite of sanctions, Iran is under threat of Israeli and possibly U.S. military attack unless it makes headway in persuading the international community it is not pursuing nuclear weapons.

The U.S official said Iran’s acceptance of the need to discuss its nuclear program appeared dictated by recognition that the diplomatic “window of opportunity was closing” and that the threat of military action potentially growing.

Ashton said there was agreement by both sides that the talks should be guided by the Nonproliferation Treaty, but because Iran says it has never violated that treaty that understanding could prove to be a huge stumbling block to progress.

Top level meetings of the International Atomic Energy Agency, which tries to monitor Iran’s nuclear activities, are often dominated by inconclusive debate between Iran and its critics on whether Tehran is in compliance or has broken treaty provisions.

“Under the NPT, the right of enrichment exists for all member countries,” Jalili told reporters after the talks, suggesting his country would press that point at follow-up meetings. Ashton, in turn, told reporters that the six seek “to ensure all the obligations under the NPT are met by Iran while fully respecting Iran’s right to the peaceful use of nuclear energy.”

In its claim to comply with all NPT obligations, Iran asserts that it declares all its nuclear material and allows inspectors to monitor all nuclear facilities.

But IAEA chief Yukiya Amano has said repeatedly that because Iran does not cooperate fully with his agency it cannot guarantee that it is not hiding undeclared nuclear material that could be used for weapons. Additionally, he has spoken of compelling evidence that Iran may have worked on nuclear arms _ charges Tehran dismisses as fabrications spread by the United States and Israel.

Officially, the international community’s long-term goal remains what it was when nuclear negotiations began eight years ago _ persuading Tehran to stop all uranium enrichment and thereby relieve fears that it will use that program to create fissile warhead material.

A senior diplomat involved in the talks said, however, that influential Western nations now are increasingly coming around to the idea that Iran should be allowed to keep some enrichment activity “under the right circumstances,” sometime in the future, if all fears about possible Iranian plans to make nuclear weapons are put to rest. He demanded anonymity because his information was confidential.

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Union contracts for thousands of AT&T workers expired at midnight but officials said early Sunday that talks were continuing.

The passage of the deadline left the Communications Workers of America free to call a strike, but spokeswoman Candice Johnson says employees would report for work without a contract. She says that could change at any time.

Two separate contracts in eastern areas covering 10,000 workers expired at midnight, while talks were still going on for 33,000 other workers as midnight deadlines approached in the Midwest and West Coast.

The workers are on the shrinking local-phone and long-haul data side of the business, and located mainly in the Midwest and California cash advance payday loan.

When the last big batch of contracts was negotiated three years ago, the parties kept talking past the contract expiration, and reached agreements without a strike.

Dallas-based AT&T Inc. is the country’s largest employer of unionized workers. About 140,000 of its 256,000 employees are union members.

At issue in the negotiations are job protection clauses and health care premiums and co-payments.

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European officials praised Spain