Oil prices jump 10% in a month

Oil prices jump 10% in 30 days on Saudi cuts, a pipeline reversal and better economic data, but analysts see declines ahead.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

U.S. oil prices rose from about $85 a barrel in early December to nearly $94 a barrel late this week. Among the factors pushing up crude:

-- Saudi Arabia has cut production by almost a million barrels this year, including a 400,000 barrel cut in December made public this week.

-- The Seaway pipeline running between Cushing, Okla., and the Gulf Coast was reversed this week to carry crude out of Cushing. A surge in domestic production has caused a glut of oil at the hub of pipelines and storage tanks, a key delivery point for U.S. crude. The reversal should ease that glut.

-- Strong economic data out of China, including robust export numbers this week and strong manufacturing data in December.

-- The possibility that a showdown with Iran over its nuclear program will happen in 2013.

-- The aversion, at least temporarily, of the so-called fiscal cliff -- tax increases and spending cuts in the United States that many feared would send the country back into recession.

Related: Asian oil companies make record buys in 2012

Taking oil's lead, gasoline prices have begun to rise too. Prices at the pump are up almost a dime a gallon from December lows, according to AAA, reversing a trend that brought gas prices to two-year lows last month.

Fortunately for motorists, analyst don't expect the recent gains to continue.

'"The economics of the market are such where prices should be much lower," said Mike Fitzpatrick, editor-in-chief of Kilduff Report's Energy Overview. "It's a rally that's going to be short lived."

The economics Fitzpatrick is referring to include sluggish global economic growth and rising oil production, especially in the United States.

Other analysts agreed, and said that even on the geopolitical front, a showdown with Iran isn't likely soon.

"The increasingly bearish evolution of oil market fundamentals will likely result in a substantial correction [to prices] unless there is some form of support from heightened perceptions of geopolitical risk or an actual disruption," Greg Priddy, a global energy analyst at the Eurasia Group, wrote in a note Friday. Such a disruption, said Priddy, "is not probable in the short-term."

Oil prices have been fairly stable over the last two years, generally trading in the $80 to $100 range. This is sharp contrast to previous years, which have seen huge spikes and falls. In 2008, oil went from a record high of over $147 a barrel to the low $30s in just a few months as the global financial crisis roiled markets. In 2007, crude fluctuated between $50 and $100 a barrel.

First Published: January 11, 2013: 12:31 PM ET

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CBS blocks CNet praise for legal foe Dish

Dish CEO Joe Clayton (right) is up in arms over CBS's move to ban tech site CNet from reviewing Dish products.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

Just one day after CNet named the Dish "Hopper," a new TV recording system that's drawing rave reviews in the tech press, to an awards shortlist, the site's parent company stepped in and nixed the accolade. Because of a legal battle between CBS and Dish over the Hopper's ad-skipping technology, CBS laid down a ban: CNet won't be allowed to even review Dish products, much less give them awards.

CNet quickly cut the Hopper out of the running for its "Best in Show" awards for the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, taking place this week. CNet's awards are the conference's official awards program.

CNet's current finalist page includes 28 other products from CES, with a new note at the bottom.

"The Dish Hopper with Sling was removed from consideration due to active litigation involving our parent company CBS Corp," CNet's note reads. "We will no longer be reviewing products manufactured by companies with which we are in litigation with respect to such product."

A representative from CBS Interactive sent an identical statement to CNNMoney when asked for comment.

CBS's blunt move highlights how ferocious the Dish Hopper fight has become -- and it gave Dish an opportunity to garner even more coverage of its new DVR. A CNet article posted on Monday, before CBS's edict came down, calls the Hopper "an impressive, very full-featured DVR system that borders on having almost everything you could possibly want."

The litigation isn't exclusive to CBS (CBS, Fortune 500). Dish is also mired in lawsuits with General Electric's (GE, Fortune 500) NBC, News Corp.'s (NWS) Fox, Disney's (DIS, Fortune 500) ABC and other networks over the Hopper, which lets users record up to six channels at once and automatically skip commercials for primetime network shows.

Bob Toevs, Dish's head of corporate communications, said the company was "flummoxed" by the CBS move.

"[CNet] had come by our booth with a list of the finalists and lapel buttons, which we wore proudly," Toevs said. "We were all excited about it. That's praise well earned."

But the next day, Toevs said, a CNet rep called him about 25 minutes before the unveiling of the winners at 11 a.m. local time on Thursday: "They said, "Look, you've been removed from consideration.' We were disappointed, of course."

Dish immediately cried foul.

"We are saddened that CNet's staff is being denied its editorial independence because of CBS's heavy-handed tactics," DISH (DISH, Fortune 500) CEO Joe Clayton said in a written statement sent widely to press.

Dish gleefully included a link to CNet's tweet announcing the Hopper as a finalist, plus a link to CNet's earlier review.

Toevs, the Dish communications head, said he doesn't think the Hopper review will be CNet's last for Dish products.

"I don't think that's full the end of the story, because it doesn't seem to be an entirely plausible position," Toevs said. "What does it mean for the rest of the industry? Who gets reviewed and who doesn't? Who is a appropriate gatekeeper? But that's not really about us. The press is debating that."

A representative for the Consumer Electronics Association, which runs CES, said the organization is "extremely disappointed" in CBS's move.

"CBS has decided to censor CNet, and CBS has always been a strong defender of the First Amendment," said Jeff Joseph, senior vice president of communications for CEA. "It's sad to see them not applying the same standards to a site that they own."

Joseph said CEA is "in discussions" with CNet, though he said it was "premature" to speculate about whether the group will consider moving to another partner for its official awards program.

"Certainly at some level it does shake the foundation of our relationship," Joseph said. "This is not just about an issue of editorial freedom. Its an issue for our brand."

Ironically, CNet's own handling of tricky editorial content on sites it owns has come under fire before. In 2007 -- a year before CBS bought CNet -- Jeff Gerstmann, a reviewer at CNet-owned Gamespot, left the company soon after posting a mixed review of a game from Gamespot advertiser Eidos. Gaming news site Kotaku reported that he was fired under pressure from Eidos.

First Published: January 11, 2013: 12:48 PM ET

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One in three U.S. workers has no paid sick days

A tent outside an Allentown, Pa., hospital handles the influx of flu cases in the region.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

While some are likely just workaholics, others don't have a choice: An estimated 41.7 million American workers can't take sick days, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That's nearly a third of the nation's employees, and a problem that raises health risks for everyone.

The nation's current flu epidemic is more widespread in part because of the many sick people who can't afford to stay home. A study published last year in the American Journal of Public Health estimates that an additional 5 million people became infected with flu symptoms in 2009 alone due to workplace policies, such as lack of paid sick leave.

Nearly 80% of employees with full-time jobs get paid sick days, according to the BLS, but only 25% of part-time workers do. Those figures don't include the millions of workers who are self-employed, for whom staying home can often mean being out of business for the day.

That's the case for Diane Biancamano, 44, a freelance public relations professional from New Jersey who left her job in the corporate world last year. Biancamano came down with the flu this week, but forced herself to work for fear of losing income and falling behind in her projects.

"It's very stressful to be laying there sick and worrying about making ends meet," she said.

While providing sick days may seem expensive for employers, withholding them is also costly. The Centers for Disease Control estimates that even a typical flu season costs businesses about $10.4 billion in direct costs for hospitalizations and outpatient visits for adults. And that doesn't even include the cost of lost productivity and sales.

Related: Flu outbreak hits businesses hard

Another problem: Sick children whose parents can't stay home with them are more likely to be sent to school or day care, spreading the infection to other children, according to Heather Boushey, senior economist at the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank.

And sick employees can spread illnesses to customers and other members of the public.

A study released in June by the Food Chain Workers Alliance said 79% of food system workers -- those in production, distribution, sales and restaurants -- don't get paid sick leave. Perhaps as a consequence, 53% surveyed admitted to working while sick, according to the FCWA, a coalition of workers' rights groups.

The BLS statistics show that even 23% of workers in the healthcare and social assistance sector are without access to paid sick days.

Related: Child deaths from flu rises

Boushey said the United States is the only developed country without a law guaranteeing employees the right to paid sick days. She said even most undeveloped countries have laws that guarantee paid sick days.

"The U.S. is very much an outlier," she said.

CNNMoney's James O'Toole contributed reporting.

First Published: January 11, 2013: 1:49 PM ET

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New video law lets you share your Netflix viewing on Facebook

Netflix and Facebook can officially change their relationship status, following an amendment to a 1988 video-privacy law.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

A Netflix spokesman said the company "will launch social features in the U.S." sometime in 2013. The law in question, called the Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA), previously prohibited "a video tape service provider" from revealing customer information without the customer's written consent.

More than two decades later, the vague pre-Internet language left open questions: Does Netflix count as "a video tape service provider"? Can written consent be obtained via the Internet?

Those questions are now resolved, thanks to a VPPA amendment passed by Congress in December and signed into law by President Obama on Thursday.

Netflix and other companies may share users' video-streaming history on sites like Facebook (FB) if users opt in online. Users can choose on a case-by-case basis whether to share certain activity, and they can opt out at any time.

It's a coup for Netflix, which has worked hard to convince lawmakers to change VPPA.

The law arose from strange circumstances surrounding the failed Supreme Court nomination of Robert Bork (who died last month at age 85). While Bork's nomination hearings were taking place in 1987, a freelance writer for the Washington City Paper talked a video store clerk into giving him Bork's rental history.

The writer, Michael Dolan, later wrote that he was proving a point: "Bork said, Americans enjoy only those privacy protections conferred by legislation." Bork's rentals were unremarkable, but the City Paper published the list anyway. Lawmakers freaked, and Congress passed VPPA soon after.

But in a post-VHS world, the law was "ambiguous" and "confusing, Netflix (NFLX) argued in in a 2011 blog post. In an interview with CNNMoney last year, a company spokesman said Netflix wasn't sure if it was subject to VPPA, but "we'd rather be in compliance than risk stepping over the line."

With prodding from Netflix's lobbyists, most legislators agreed the law didn't work in the present day. Still, they tussled for more than a year over the best way to amend the law.

The House of Representatives passed an amendment in December 2011, but the proposed method of consent met resistance with Senate Democrats. They felt the usual "click here to give us all your data" disclosure that most apps use wouldn't go far enough.

"A one-time check off that has the effect of an all-time surrender of privacy does not seem to me the best course for consumers," Sen. Patrick Leahy, a Democrat from Vermont, said at a hearing about that House amendment in January 2012.

To address those concerns, the Senate added language to the final version of the amendment requiring that companies provide "an opportunity, in a clear and conspicuous manner, for the consumer to withdraw [sharing consent] on a case-by-case basis or to withdraw from ongoing disclosures."

Now the road is clear for a Facebook app for U.S. Netflix users.

The company is surely relishing the change, but the VPPA has caused it other headaches, too. Last year, the company disclosed that it paid $9 million to settle a lawsuit from customers who alleged that Netflix didn't delete their personal account data after one year -- another provision of VPPA.

First Published: January 10, 2013: 9:50 PM ET

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Food prices boost China inflation

HONG KONG (CNNMoney)

Chinese consumers paid 2.5% more for goods and services in December than they did a year ago, the government's National Bureau of Statistics reported Friday.

While that's up from a 2% annual increase in November, it nevertheless represents tame inflation for the world's second largest economy. A year ago, the country was experiencing an annual inflation rate of 4% or higher.

Price hikes were the most dramatic for food. Food prices rose 4.2% year-over-year -- while fresh vegetables rose the most. Some of that increase is likely attributable to chilly temperatures in much of China, which is experiencing its coldest winter in a quarter century.

Food is an important gauge of cost of living expenses in China. It accounts for more than a third of the country's inflation calculation, and for rural families, it makes up the bulk of expenses.

Related: China's top 10 brands

The Chinese government prefers to keep its annual inflation rate below 4% -- a level it sees as consistent with healthy economic growth and consumer demand.

China is unlikely to return to the days of 10% economic growth per year but may be reaching a new normal of growth. China's economy grew 7.4% in the third quarter, compared to a year earlier. The government is slated to release fourth quarter figures next week.

First Published: January 10, 2013: 10:21 PM ET

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Tim Cook: China will be Apple's top market

Apple CEO Tim Cook is in China.

HONG KONG (CNNMoney)

"China is currently our second largest market. I believe it will become our first. I believe strongly that it will," the CEO said during an interview with China's state-run Xinhua news agency.

Cook did not say when he expected China to overtake the U.S., which is currently the largest market for Apple products by a good margin. Apple has only 11 locations in China and Hong Kong.

But Cook did indicate that Apple (AAPL, Fortune 500) is already plotting an aggressive course in China.

"We are continuing to invest in retail stores here and will open many more over the next several years," he said. "We have some great sites selected, our manufacturing base is here, and we have incredible partners here. So it's a very very important country to us."

According to Xinhua, Cook is using his time in China to meet with "government officials, business partners, Apple employees and customers."

The CEO also met with China Mobile Chairman Xi Guohua in Thursday in Beijing.

Rainie Lei, a spokesperson for China Mobile, confirmed the visit but said a non-disclosure agreement prevents the company from disclosing anything about the content of the talks.

China Mobile is the world's largest mobile provider by subscribers. It currently does not offer the iPhone, which is sold by competitor China Unicom.

Related: Foxconn in China bribery investigation

Xinhua also asked Cook about labor disputes at Foxconn, the Taiwanese manufacturing giant famous for its production of Apple products.

"We care very deeply about every worker that touches an Apple product, whether they are making it, selling it, serving it or marketing it. We hold ourselves to a very high standard there," Cook said.

Related: 3 moves Apple has to make in China

Foxconn, which also manufactures products for Intel (INTC, Fortune 500), Microsof (MSFT, Fortune 500)t and Cisc (CSCO, Fortune 500)o, said Thursday that Chinese authorities were investigating allegations of bribery at the company. The admission came after a report in Taiwan's Next Magazine alleged Foxconn managers were accepting bribes from parts suppliers.

Last March, Cook toured Foxconn's facilities in Zhengzhou and Tianjin amid reports that the supplier had violated several labor laws.

-- CNN's Pamela Boykoff contributed to this report.

First Published: January 11, 2013: 2:40 AM ET

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Foxconn in China bribery investigation

Foxconn said Thursday that authorities are investigating allegations of bribery at the company.

HONG KONG (CNNMoney)

The admission comes after a report in Taiwan's Next Magazine alleged Foxconn managers were accepting bribes from parts suppliers.

"We are working with law enforcement officials who we brought in to work with our own internal audit team as part of an investigation into allegations against a number of Foxconn employees related to illegal payments from supply chain partners," the company said in a statement.

"We are also carrying out a full review of our policies and practices to identify steps we can take to strengthen such measures to further mitigate against such actions," the company said.

Foxconn said it would not comment further as the investigation is ongoing.

Foxconn is known primarily as the contracted manufacturer for an estimated 40% of the world's consumer electronics gadget, and supplies parts to Apple (AAPL, Fortune 500) and other manufacturers, including Intel (INTC, Fortune 500), Microsoft (MSFT, Fortune 500) and Cisco (CSCO, Fortune 500).

Foxconn is far from the only company to be ensnared by allegations of bribery overseas. Rolls-Royce said in December that it may face prosecution over allegations of corruption in China, Indonesia and other international markets. And retail giant Wal-Mart (WMT, Fortune 500) has been hit by allegations of bribery in Mexico and India.

China has lost ground in its effort to tackle corruption over the past 12 months, according to a survey published by Transparency International.

The anti-graft campaign group's 2012 index ranked China 80 out of 176 countries, down from 75 in 2011.

China's outgoing president Hu Jintao warned last month that failure to tackle corruption could prove fatal to the Communist Party and the state.

Related: Rolls-Royce in China corruption probe

The bribery allegations could further harm Foxconn's already tarnished reputation. The company has been criticized for subjecting its workers to extremely long hours and tough working conditions.

In September, Foxconn was forced to close a manufacturing facility in Shenzhen after what the company described as a "personal dispute between several employees" that escalated to include thousands of people.

Some 40 people were taken to the hospital, and "a number" of individuals were arrested.

The company says it has been working with the Fair Labor Association this year to improve its facilities and organization.

-- CNN's Pamela Boykoff and Vivian Kam contributed to this story.

First Published: January 9, 2013: 11:43 PM ET

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Google's Eric Schmidt ends mysterious North Korea trip

HONG KONG (CNNMoney)

Arriving in China's capital city, Richardson told reporters that the trip had been productive, and said the delegation had advocated for more open access to information in North Korea, and a stop to missile launches and nuclear tests.

"We enjoyed our trip to the DPRK, especially with the North Korean people, and we had a good opportunity to talk about expanding the Internet and cell phones in the DPRK," Richardson told the Associated Press before boarding the flight from Pyongyang to Beijing.

Richardson had described the trip as a "private humanitarian mission." And it was thought that the delegation would try and negotiate the release of an American, Kenneth Bae, who had been detained in North Korea. By Thursday, it was clear that effort had failed.

The delegation, Richardson said, did not meet the country's young leader Kim Jong Un, and the most senior official to meet with the group was a vice minister.

Many North Korea watchers remain puzzled by the presence of Google's executive chairman in the delegation.

High-profile visits to North Korea by American business leaders are rare, and Schmidt's trip is certainly the most notable example since Kim was installed last year as the country's leader.

In a statement issued last week, a spokeswoman for Google said the company does not comment on "personal travel" by its executives, a sign that Schmidt was not making the trip at the behest of his employer.

The trip was also made over the objections of the State Department, which is trying to manage fallout resulting from a successful rocket launch carried out by North Korea in the face of international condemnation.

The State Department said last week that the trip was ill-timed.

"Frankly we don't think the timing of this is particularly helpful, but they are private citizens and they are making their own decisions," spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters. "They are well aware of our views."

Jared Cohen, a former State Department official who now leads Google's in-house think tank, was also on the trip. And the Associated Press reported that Schmidt's daughter, Sophie, joined as well.

Met by reporters at Beijing Capital Airport on Thursday, Schmidt commented on the country's technology infrastructure and the computer centers visited by the delegation -- and stressed the need for reform.

"As the world becomes increasingly connected, [North Korea's] decision to be virtually isolated is very much going to affect their physical world, their economic growth and so forth," Schmidt said. "It will make it harder for them to catch up economically."

Earlier in the week, Richardson, Cohen and Schmidt toured Kim Il Sung University in Pyongyang, where computer science students showed off their web-surfing skills.

North Korea's Kim has expressed a desire to increase the country's technological and industrial standing in the world, but the regime's plans remain largely undefined, and observers caution that no significant changes are expected for a majority of the country's citizens.

Related: Google invests $200 million in Texas wind farm

Google (GOOG, Fortune 500) has been expanding its presence throughout Asia in recent years but it has run into problems in China due to censorship concerns. Yet the company's problems in China are nothing compared to North Korea, where access to the Internet is restricted to a small cadre of regime officials and loyalists.

It remains to be seen whether Schmidt's trip will affect the regime's extreme limits on the proliferation of technology.

Schmidt, along with Cohen, have in the past written at length about the Internet's ability to empower citizens oppressed by autocratic governments. The pair are even writing a book together on the subject -- one unlikely to be published in North Korea.

"Almost nothing, short of a biological virus, can scale as quickly, efficiently or aggressively as these technology platforms," Schmidt and Cohen write, according to a preview published by the New York Times, "and this makes the people who build, control and use them powerful, too."

-- CNN's Steven Jiang contributed to this report.

First Published: January 10, 2013: 12:46 AM ET

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New rules aim to make mortgages safer

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

The aim is to keep lenders from issuing loans to borrowers who can't afford to pay them off.

"When consumers sit down at the closing table, they shouldn't be set up to fail with mortgages they can't afford," said Richard Cordray, director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

The rules are meant to avoid the kind of mortgage mess that spawned the financial crisis and ultimately led to the Great Recession.

During the housing bubble, many lenders had lax underwriting standards. Banks often didn't check documentation, didn't require minimum credit scores and didn't determine whether borrowers had income enough to keep up payments.

Now, when a loan meets new lending criteria outlined by the CFPB, it becomes a "qualified mortgage," which will give protection for the banks from lawsuits filed by aggrieved borrowers or buyers of mortgage-backed bonds.

Related: 10 least affordable cities to buy a home

"It's a set of standards that protects consumers from bad loans but it also protects lenders from lawsuits," said Davis Stevens, CEO of the Mortgage Bankers Association. "Lenders are not protected if they go outside the guidelines."

The new rules will eventually change the process homebuyers go through in obtaining mortgages. Here's what you need to know.

Which lenders do the rules cover? All companies that give out mortgages will be governed by the new rules -- big national banks, savings and loans, community banks and credit unions.

"The rules will encompass most of the market as it exists today," said William Emerson, president of QuickenLoans.

How is a "qualified mortgage" defined? The rules spell out what is called a qualified mortgage. To judge whether a loan is qualified, lenders must consider these factors:

• Income and assets must be sufficient to repay the loan;
• Borrowers must document their jobs;
• Credit scores must meet minimum standards;
• Monthly payments must be affordable;
• Borrowers must be able to afford other debts associated with the property such as home equity loans;
• Borrowers must be able to afford all home-related expenses such as property taxes; and
• Lenders must consider a borrower's other obligations like student loans, car loans and credit cards.

What if a borrower doesn't meet all those guidelines? A homebuyer could still get a mortgage, but only if the mortgage payments don't exceed 43% of the borrower's pre-tax income.

What other requirements are there? When judging ability to repay, lenders can't use payments based on interest-only loans or so-called negative-amortization rates, in which mortgage balances grow over time.

They also can't use teaser rates, which adjust higher after a set term. Loan terms cannot exceed 30 years, and up-front fees, such as points paid to reduce interest rates, must not be excessive.

Related: I'm trapped in a high-rate mortgage

To be clear: The rules don't prohibit those unconventional types of loans. But lenders, in deciding whether to give out such a loan, must judge a borrower's ability to repay as if the loan were a conventional loan.

When will the rules go into effect? The rules start to kick in by January 21, but lenders will have 12 months to fully implement them.

What about jumbo loans? The ability -to-repay rule covers even the large, so-called jumbo loans, which are not backed by any government agencies such as Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. But Stevens of the mortgage bankers group said he still expects jumbo lenders to follow the qualified mortgage guidelines. That will give them legal protection.

Are there any exceptions? People with subprime adjustable-rate mortgages or other risky loans who are refinancing can do so without going through the full underwriting process required by the new rules.

The CFPB is also proposing that mortgages issued by certain non-profits for low-income homebuyers be exempt from the rules. The agency also wants to make exceptions for some refinacings made through the Home Affordable Modification Program and for some loans issued by small community lenders. These proposals, if approved, will be finalized this spring.

First Published: January 10, 2013: 1:47 AM ET

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Alcoa shares climb on better-than-expected sales

Click the chart for more information.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

Alcoa (AA, Fortune 500) is the first Dow component to report fourth-quarter results. The company posted earnings of six cents a share, in line with expectations, while sales were $5.9 billion, ahead of the predicted $5.6 billion.

Shares rose 2% in after-hours trading.

Alcoa's results are traditionally viewed as the start of earnings season, although most companies don't report until late January and early February, and the firm isn't seen as a bellwether for the broader market.

Overall, fourth-quarter earnings for S&P 500 companies are expected to rise 3.3% from the fourth quarter of 2011, according to S&P Capital IQ.

Excluding financial stocks, however, earnings are only expected to rise 0.5%, Dan Greenhaus, chief global strategist at BTIG, wrote in a research note Tuesday. He said these muted expectations were driven in significant part by the technology sector, where a number of firms have issued weak fourth-quarter guidance.

First Published: January 8, 2013: 4:22 PM ET

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