This is why Hong Kong matters

HONG KONG (CNNMoney)

Yet that's what happened this week in Hong Kong -- a former British colony that rose to prominence as a trade hub and gateway to China.

Since it was returned to Beijing in 1997, the territory has been ruled under the principle of "one country, two systems," transforming itself along the way into a global financial hub.

Many Hong Kongers hope Beijing will drop a proposal to screen all candidates for the city's top office. Protesters and Hong Kong officials are due to meet for talks soon.

But what's so special about this city that is often ranked as one of the best places to do business? And why does the standoff matter to the world economy?

Massive market

The city's stock exchange is the second biggest in Asia after Tokyo. The companies listed on its main board are worth a whopping $3.1 trillion.

While that's a lot of money, even more important is the role the market plays in allowing companies from mainland China to raise cash, matching them up with foreign investors who want to profit from the world's second biggest economy.

Last year, those companies raised $45.3 billion in Hong Kong, including 45 separate IPOs. And despite the trail blazed by Alibaba (BABA, Tech30) to New York last month, Hong Kong remains the only place where that exchange happens regularly on a large scale.

A trading titan

Hong Kong has only 7 million residents, but is ranked 10th in the world in terms of exports. That's 2.7% of the world's total export trade -- not shabby for a territory that covers an area slightly larger than New York's five boroughs.

The city's massive container port is always humming, and countries with half the world's population are within five hours' flying time.

Investment gateway

As the chart above shows, Hong Kong's star has dimmed over the past two decades when compared to the rapid growth that turned China into a global power.

Hong Kong's real significance these days is in the services and stability it offers multinational companies and China itself.

China is the world's second largest recipient of foreign direct investment, and nearly two-thirds of that flows through Hong Kong.

Related: Hong Kong teacher travels 3,000 miles to fight for democracy

One major selling point is Hong Kong's ironclad rule of law and its independent judiciary. Businesses place an enormous amount of faith in the city's ability to resolve disputes fairly. They have no such faith in China's courts.

Hong Kong also plays a valuable role in China's efforts to promote the yuan as a trusted -- and traded -- currency. The city has a thriving market, for example, for bonds denominated in yuan.

Mistrust of Beijing

Despite the close ties between the kissing cousins, more than 56% of Hong Kong residents have lost confidence in the "one country, two systems" arrangement that provides the basis for Beijing rule. As recently as 2007, nearly 80% of residents said they were confident in the deal struck between China and the U.K.

The issue drawing most attention at present is the procedure for selecting Hong Kong's chief executive. But there are other signs of fissure: Many Hong Kong residents are upset over rising property prices fueled by mainland buyers, and their consumption of social services.

If relations were to become even more strained, Hong Kong and China will pay a high price.

Related: Hong Kong protesters are so freaking nice

First Published: October 3, 2014: 6:21 AM ET

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Stocks: 4 things to know before the open

Click chart for in-depth premarket data.

LONDON (CNNMoney)

Here are the four things you need to know before the opening bell rings in New York:

1. Jobs, jobs, jobs: The September jobs report comes out at 8:30 a.m. ET.

The monthly jobs report is one of the most closely-watched market events because it gives investors an in-depth update on the health of the U.S. economy.

Economists surveyed by CNNMoney predict that 215,000 jobs were created last month, up from 142,000 in August. The unemployment rate is expected to hold steady at 6.1%.

Investors will be watching whether more than 200,000 jobs were created last month, since the number fell below this mark in August, breaking a six-month streak. They'll also be looking for wage growth, which is a key metric the Federal Reserve uses to decide when to raise interest rates.

2. How will markets move?: Ahead of the data release, U.S. stock futures were pointing up.

But it's been a rough week. The major U.S. indexes have fallen by about 2% since the start of the week.

The latest reading from the CNNMoney Fear & Greed index shows investors are feeling extremely fearful. The index swings between zero and 100, showing the range from extreme fear to extreme greed. The latest reading sits at three -- it can't get much worse than that!

3. Stocks pop in Asia: Most Asian markets were firmer Friday, including the main index in Hong Kong.

The Hang Seng gained 0.6%, recovering from losses earlier in the week when investors pulled money out of the market as pro-democracy protests swelled.

Friday's bounce was driven by Chinese real estate stocks, which were rallying after the central bank said it would loosen some mortgage rules.

The move "sparked hopes of a possible turnaround in the property sector," according to research from Capital Economics. "The goal appears to be to boost demand for property purchases, which has remained weak since the start of the year."

The Shanghai Composite index edged up by 0.3%.

Related: Gold is back en vogue

4. European overview: European markets were rising in early trading, recovering from a day of sharp losses Thursday.

"The European Central Bank disappointed European markets yesterday as [ECB President Mario] Draghi studiously avoided any mention of full scale quantitative easing," said Tom Beevers, CEO at StockViews. "Some in the market had been hoping for hints of large scale action" to boost the economy, he said.

First Published: October 3, 2014: 5:47 AM ET

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Ben Bernanke can't refinance: Tough lending standards

Ben Bernanke might be a a former Fed chairman earning top dollar on the speaker circuit, but that's not enough to get him approved for a mortgage.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

Bernanke spoke of his problems during an appearance Thursday at a conference in Chicago hosted by the National Investment Center for Senior Housing and Care.

Bloomberg News reported that during a question and answer session with economist Mark Zandi, Bernanke said "I recently tried to refinance my mortgage and I was unsuccessful in doing so."

When the audience laughed at the remark, Bernanke responded: "I'm not making that up."

Zandi confirmed the remarks to CNNMoney.

"It highlights how tight credit is for residential mortgage loans," Zandi said. "This is the key constraint on the housing recovery."

Lax home lending standards were a major factor in inflating the housing bubble under Bernanke's predecessor, Alan Greenspan, and the bursting of that housing bubble resulted in the financial meltdown and Great Recession.

In response, banks and regulators tightened lending standards. But Bernanke acknowledged that they might have swung too far, especially for first-time home buyers, and that tightness in lending standards is "probably excessive."

"I think it's entirely possible [that lenders] may have gone a little bit too far on mortgage credit conditions," he said, according to Bloomberg. "The housing area is one area where regulation has not yet got it right."

That could be choking off growth in housing and the overall economy.

Records show that Bernanke bought a house in Washington, D.C. for $839,000 in 2004 when he was just one member of the Fed's Board of Governors. The house has three bedrooms and 2-1/2 baths and is assessed today at $880,700, though real estate Web site Zillow puts its value at $965,468.

Related: Was my home a good investment?

Bernanke, who was paid $199,700 as chairman of the Federal Reserve last year, is now commanding as much as $250,000 per speech, according to published reports. He is also a distinguished fellow at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank.

Financial disclosure reports show he had assets worth between $1.1 million and $2.3 million when he left the Fed chairman post, making him one of the least wealthy members of the Fed's Board.

Crisis was worse than the Great Depression

Bernanke has most profitable week of his life

First Published: October 3, 2014: 7:37 AM ET

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Google: Tim Cook is wrong about us

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

"We have always been the leader in security and encryption," Eric Schmidt told CNNMoney. "Our systems are far more secure and encrypted than anyone else, including Apple. They're catching up, which is great."

Late last month, Apple (AAPL, Tech30) CEO Tim Cook took jabs at Google (GOOGL, Tech30). He said that when online services like Google are offered for free, the user is really the product -- not the customer.

"But at Apple, we believe a great customer experience shouldn't come at the expense of your privacy," Cook said on Apple's newly updated privacy website.

Related: Tim Cook didn't address Apple's real privacy problem

Schmidt fired back against Cook, saying Google works extremely hard to protect its users' information from other companies, the government, and hackers. He also noted customers have the option to change their settings and share less.

"Someone didn't brief him correctly on Google's policies," Schmidt said. "It's unfortunate for him."

Google recently unveiled a system that allows Gmail users to fully encrypt their emails, and the company said Android phones -- like iPhones -- will be encrypted by default when the next version of the operating system comes out this fall. That makes it difficult -- though not impossible -- for governments and law enforcement to look at the content stored in your email and phones.

Related: Naked celeb hack lesson - 'Delete' doesn't mean delete

In a year of huge hacking headlines from Home Depot (HD) to Apple's celebrity nude photo leak, Schmidt also pointed out there have been no significant data breaches of Google.

But Google doesn't exactly have a perfect privacy record. Its effort in 2012 to set a single privacy policy for all Google accounts across its multiple services was extremely controversial, with detractors saying Google was trying to make it easier to track its customers' behavior and sell that information to advertisers.

Google also paid a record $22.5 million fine to the FTC for getting around Apple's no-cookie policy on the Safari browser, and Google was caught purposefully snooping on people's Internet sessions while driving by with its Street View cars.

Schmidt and former Google Senior Vice President Jonathan Rosenberg just released their book "How Google Works."

First Published: October 2, 2014: 7:33 AM ET

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Want a job on Wall Street? Go to UPenn or Georgetown

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

Those three schools have the most undergraduate alumni working in finance and investment banking, according to new data from the online networking platform LinkedIn (LNKD, Tech30).

It's perhaps not surprising that UPenn tops the list given its well known Wharton School. Established in 1881, Wharton was the world's first college program dedicated to the study of business. Today it has nearly 5,000 students, about half of which are enrolled in the undergraduate program.

Princeton, Columbia and Duke are also top talent pools for the financial industry, according to the LinkedIn survey.

Universities often promote the strength of their alumni networks in helping new graduates land jobs and internships. Alumni are more likely to return to their alma mater to recruit for their bank or give insider tips on the hiring process.

While many cite that Wall Street has a diversity problem, it's interesting to note that Wellesley College, an all women's institution, is in the top 10 for investment banking.

Related: The Talent War is on between Wall Street and Silicon Valley

LinkedIn crunched the data on its millions of members in the U.S., ranking the undergraduate universities with the most employees in different professions.

There is some bias in the survey since it only counts people with LinkedIn accounts who put down their work and education history. However, a recent study by recruiting firm Vettery found similar results for the top schools.

Related: Wall Street's latest hires are mostly white and male

According to Vettery, the 2014 analyst class on Wall Street has 102 University of Pennsylvania grads, 76 New York University alums and 62 former Georgetown students. Vettery compiled its data from publicly available sources such as regulatory filings.

Getting a foot in the door is key to making it in the world of finance, but getting to an executive suite takes more than just the right degree.

Consider that Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JPMorgan (JPM), attended Tufts University for his bachelor's degree, and John Stumpf, head of Wells Fargo (WFC), went to St. Cloud State University in Minnesota.

Among CEOs of America's top banks, Harvard is the most represented undergraduate school.

First Published: October 2, 2014: 7:04 AM ET

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Musk teases something new from Tesla: The D

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

The Tesla Motors CEO who named his current car the Model S, and is close to the rollout of the Model X crossover vehicle, tweeted late Wednesday that it is "About time to unveil the D and something else."

Included was a picture of a garage door with the letter D on it being raised, to show the front of a Tesla car, with the date Oct. 9 on it.

But don't expect the car underneath to be an all new Model D. It's pretty much impossible for Tesla to have a new car a week from debut without anyone outside the company being aware of its existence.

Perhaps the most likely explanation is that "the D" either refers to a driver assist feature or some kind of all-wheel drive for the Model S, which to this point has been rear-wheel drive only.

Related: Americans are warming to self-driving cars

Driver assist refers to is a growing area of safety products that can slow or even stop a car if there's an obstacle such as a stopped car up ahead. It can also alert a driver to obstacles as they change lanes lane or even help them park a car.

Musk said a year ago that the company was working on an autopilot system for the Model S.

Trip Chowdhry, analyst with Global Equities Research, wrote in a note Saturday that his research showed Model S cars being built with a tech package that had those three driver assist features.

The Model X crossover is going to have an all-wheel drive version. Offering the all-wheel drive version of the Model S could help support its continued sales after the Model X comes out early next year.

Chowdry said only about 17% of Tesla's Model S sales have been in northern states where snow is a concern to drivers.

Musk's tweet was inspiring all kinds of speculation, enough that Musk tweeted that the comments had him ROFL (rolling on the floor laughing).

Of course Tesla spokespeople would not comment on or offer any explanation about their boss' tease.

First Published: October 2, 2014: 7:57 AM ET

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Did Starbucks start a pumpkin boom?

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

Ever since Starbucks (SBUX) introduced its famed pumpkin spice latte about a decade ago, pumpkin sales have skyrocketed. It's led to the increased popularity of pumpkin-spiced everything, including spicy pumpkin beef jerky and pumpkin beer.

In the last five years alone, pumpkin sales have risen 34%, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Ask Betsy Stuart. Sales of pumpkins have doubled in the past decade at her family farm in Granite Springs, N.Y., about an hour north of New York City.

"It has helped a lot because it gets the name out there, it gets the spice out there," said Stuart, 62, about pumpkin products. "It has made real pumpkins more popular."

Nationwide, pumpkins are clearly taking off: Acreage dedicated to pumpkin farming increased about a third in the last decade, according to the USDA.

Take a state like Virginia. There were no pumpkin farms 15 years ago in the heavily agriculture southwest of the state. Now there's about 4,000 acres of pumpkins, according to Allen Straw, an agricultural professor at Virginia Tech University and a member of the Virginia Pumpkin Growers Association.

Related: 25,000 pumpkins in one small town

Demand for pumpkins just keeps going up. Sales of all pumpkin-flavored foods and beverages increased 14% in 2013 compared to 2012, according to market research firm Nielsen.

The "season," for pumpkin products is also extending. What used to be only a limited fall treat now starts as early as mid-July.

"Starbucks created a huge craze based on their pumpkin spiced latte," said Danelle Kosmal, vice president of research for alcoholic beverages at Nielsen. "As we continue to see more and more things like the pumpkin-flavored beers and the fall seasonals hit the shelves, there's going to be more and more competition for that shelf space."

Related: Starbucks plans new types of coffee shops

Starbucks has sold over 200 million pumpkin spice lattes, the company says. Pumpkin is now mixed with other flavors: Dunkin Donuts (DNKN) and its subsidiary, Baskin Robbins, are jumping in with a pumpkin crème brulee latte and pumpkin cheesecake ice cream this fall.

Jim Koch, founder of Sam Adams Beer (SAM), even touted the success of his company's two pumpkin-flavored beers last year while discussing the company's earnings.

"When you walk into a liquor store now, and you see the number of pumpkin beers," said Jamie Jones, co-owner of Jones Family Farms in Shelton, Conn. "It makes your head spin. It seems like every brand has a pumpkin flavor."

Jones estimates that pumpkin sales on his farm are up 25% since the pumpkin spiced latte debuted a decade ago.

First Published: October 1, 2014: 7:10 AM ET

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Top 10 companies lobbying Washington

Check out which companies are spending the most to be in Washington's good graces.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

Financial and political pundits like to talk about how Corporate America's money controls politics, yet few people can tell you which companies are the Beltway's biggest benefactors and why they give so much.

The long game: For most businesses, it's all about the long game, according to Tim LaPira, a political science professor at James Madison University who studies lobbying and interest group politics.

"If you invest in the long term, you have the lobbyists on the ground who are in the know, building relationships with policymakers, agency representatives," he said. "When something comes up that effects their business planning, they're in a good position to act."

Related: Elon Musk woos Congress with space ship

What's interesting is that spending more on lobbying doesn't always boost stock performance. It can take awhile for big decisions to happen in Washington, so dollars spent one year may not show any impact until much further down the road.

A CNNMoney analysis of the top 10 publicly traded corporate spenders shows that only four had stock returns that beat the market since President Obama took office.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is by far the biggest overall lobbying group in Washington. Industry groups dominate the scene, and it's difficult to know exactly who is behind them.

But some businesses also lobby on their own, spending big bucks without going through an umbrella group. CNNMoney used data from the Center for Responsive Politics (CRP) to took a look at which companies are openly lobbying.

Hey big (corporate) spender! General Electric (GE) tops the list since President Obama took office. The manufacturing giant has spent around $134 million on lobbying activities since January 2009, according to the CRP.

While the reasons vary, it's probably got a lot to do with taxes. The company famously paid zero taxes to the U.S. government in 2010 by using a series of deductions to report a $408 million loss in America, even though its international business made $10.8 billion.

Related: Crazy corporate tax loopholes? 'Inversions' are small potatoes

Comcast (CMCSA)also ranked highly in recent years having dropped $86 million on lobbying since 2009. It's for good reason: the telecommunications conglomerate is currently awaiting antitrust approval for its $45 billion takeover of rival Time Warner Cable, a deal that has faced criticism for its being potentially anti-competitive.

But Comcast is incredibly well-connected in Washington, a strategy that has paid off in the past. In 2011, it convinced the government to approve its $30 billion acquisition of NBCUniversal.

Related: Comcast vows: We'll fix our customer service

Unsurprisingly, defense contractors including Northrop Grumman, (NOC) Boeing (BA) and Lockheed Martin (LMT) are also big spenders on the lobbying front, with the three firms combined shelling out almost $280 million since 2009.

The industry has ramped up its lobby efforts even more in recent years as fiscal pressures in Washington have put defense cuts in play.

Google is the new power player: Google spent almost $16 million lobbying last year, compared to just $4 million back in 2009. The tech giant has tussled with the Federal Trade Commission over net neutrality and has beefed with the NSA over surveillance of its customers' email.

Related: Google pulls out of conservative political group over climate change

"It's a common story in Silicon Valley that they had their entrepreneurial streak, they want to be left alone, want to innovate," asserted LaPira. "After a while, they learned that in order to keep doing what they do, they need an ear to the ground."

The full list: Here are the publicly traded companies that have done the most direct lobbying since 2009:

1. General Electric (GE): $134 million

2. AT&T: (T, Tech30) $91.2 million

3. Boeing Co (BA): $90.3 million

4. Northrop Grumman (NOC): $87.9 million

5. Comcast Corp (CMCSA): $86.4 million

6. Verizon Communications: (VZ, Tech30) $86.4 million

7. FedExCorp (FDX): $85.7 million

8. Exxon Mobil (XOM): $85 million

9. Lockheed Martin (LMT): $78.8 million

10. Pfizer (PFE): $77.8 million

16.Google (GOOG): $62.2 million

First Published: October 1, 2014: 7:23 AM ET

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Stocks: 5 things to know before the open

LONDON (CNNMoney)

Here are five things you need to know before the opening bell rings in New York:

1. Weak European data: European markets and U.S. stock futures are slipping lower Wednesday. Weak economic data from Europe are keeping investors cautious in early dealing.

Manufacturing in the eurozone has stalled, and is now contracting in Germany, the region's biggest economy, according to the latest survey of purchasing managers. The euro continued its recent slide against the dollar.

2. September slump: U.S. stocks closed lower Tuesday, ending September in the red. The Dow lost 28 points while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq slid nearly 0.3%. It was the worst monthly performance for the S&P 500 since January, finishing down 1.5%.

The Nasdaq -- the main gauge of tech and biotech stocks -- lost 1.9% over the month.

Related: Fear & Greed Index

3. Hong Kong protests: Markets in Hong Kong, and mainland China, were closed for the National Day holiday, which saw huge crowds throng the street of Asia's financial hub. Thousands of Hong Kong residents are taking part in another day of pro-democracy protests. Most other Asian markets ended weaker.

4. Market movers -- Ebola stocks, Ebay, Adidas: Shares in biotech companies Tekmira (TKMR) and BioCryst Pharmaceuticals (BCRX) surged premarket after the first case of Ebola was diagnosed in the U.S. Tekmira is part of an international consortium conducting clinical trials in West Africa.

EBay (EBAY, Tech30) shares were giving up some of Tuesday's gains posted in the wake of its announcement that it will spin off PayPal into a separate company next year. The stock was down 1.7% premarket.

Adidas (ADDYY) was top gainer in Europe after it announced plans to buy back shares worth 1.5 billion euros.

Related: CNNMoney's Tech30

5. U.S. economic data: At 10 a.m. ET, the U.S. Census Bureau will say how much was spent on construction in August. The Commerce Department will post the number of cars and trucks sold in September at 2 p.m.

First Published: October 1, 2014: 5:35 AM ET

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Supervalu gets hacked ... again

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

The company said on Monday that a hacker installed malware, in either late August or early September, into the part of its computer network that processes card purchases at some of its Shop n' Save, Shopper Food & Pharmacy and Cub Foods stores, as well as liquor stores.

Supervalu (SVU) said it hasn't determined whether any customer data was stolen as a result.

This is the second time the company has been hacked in as many months.

Supervalu said previously that a different "criminal intrusion" occurred on August 14, targeting the part of the computer network that processes card purchases at some liquor stores and grocery stores.

The company believes that its "enhanced protective technology" safeguarded most customers from getting their data ripped off.

But at the time of the hack, the company had yet to install the safeguards at four checkout lanes at four Cub Foods stores in the Minneapolis suburbs of Hastings, Shakopee, Roseville and White Bear Lake.

Supervalu said it hasn't determined whether customers at those checkout lanes had been victimized. It is offering free identity protection services to customers who shopped there.

Cybersecurity: How safe are you?

This is the latest incident in an ongoing trend that started in the holiday shopping season last year.

Hacking has ramped up this year, without about half of all Americans suffering some sort of data breach.

Some of the biggest hacking incidents involved Target (TGT), Michaels (MIK) and Neiman Marcus, where hackers installed malware to access customer information.

Cyber-predators also went after computer systems at Adobe (ADBE), AOL (AOL, Tech30), eBay (EBAY, Tech30) and Snapchat. The restaurant chain P.F. Chang's also said that customer IDs got hacked.

Why Home Depot is not the next Target

Simple tools to avoid getting hacked

First Published: September 30, 2014: 7:50 AM ET

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