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Leaving crisis?

"Freddie Mac" agency has reported its first profit over the two previous years. Is it the beginning of leaving the crisis for American mortgage system? I guess only time will tell. 

But anyway, one of the largest mortgage agencies in USA "Freddie Mac" has received net profit of 676 million dollars in the first quarter of 2011 (according to the company's official report). What is interesting about it is the fact that according to the information from Wall Street Journal  it is the first profit that the agency has had since 2008!

For comparison, the losses that the company had in 2010 equaled 19.7 billion dollars! An incredible summ really. However, now the agency paid 1.6 billion dollars to the state and for more than a year hasn't addressed the state for additional help.

One more mortgage giant - agency "Fannie Mae" - hasn't given a report on its financial activities in the first quarter yet. Last year the company reported a loss of 21.7 billion dollars and asked for the state support of 2.6 billions.

As has been informed earlier, the general losses of both agencies for the last three years had exceeded 200 billion dollars, and the general financial help of the authorities was about 150 billions. In 2008 the government of USA has been compelled too nationalize "Freddie Mac" and "Fannie Mae", being afraid of their bankruptcy: the agencies supervise more than 90% of American mortgage market.

Apple vs Samsung: the confrontation continues.

According to a Wall-Street Journal article, not so long ago Samsung has submitted one more claim against Apple. After the statements of claim which were submitted in South Korea, Japan and Germany, Samsung initiated trial in the US court. 

The first claims against Apple have been registered on the 22nd of April. Samsung has accused American company in illegal use of 10 patents belonging to it, with the help of which Iphone and Ipad tablets were released. 

As was mentioned by James Chang, the representative of Samsung, the statement of claim against Apple has been registered on the 28th of April (by the federal court of California). However, the lawsuit between the two companies has been initiated on the 15th of April, when Apple accused Samsung in illegal copying of its ideas in the product development. The claim has also been registered by the same federal court of California. The result and possible consequences of the current litigation are not clear at the moment.

Nasdaq Index has grown to its maximum in the last ten years. Reasons?

According to several news agencies Nasdaq has reached its ten year's maximum. Los Angeles Times informs that on the 27th of April the index closed at the level of 2869,88 points, having shown growth in 0.8 percent. Thus Nasdaq has surpassed the maximum of 2007 - 2859,12 points. Nevertheless, nowadays the index is considerably below its historical maximum.

On March 10th 2000, during the so-called "boom of dotcoms" (sharp growth of action of the internet companies  from 1995-2001) Nasdaq reached a point of 5048,62 points. Imagine, how big is that! On April 27th, S&P 500 index closed with growth in 0.6 percent. It has doubled in comparison with its level in March 2009, when it peaked at 1355,66 points.

The question is if there is any reason for such a significant growth in the operations of big stock-exchanges. The Los-Angeles Times tries to answer it by mentioning that the growth of indexes can be connected with positive financial results of the companies in the first quarter of 2011, and also with the "cheap-money" policy which stimulates export of the American companies. An interesting idea indeed.