Economy
Related: About this forumSTOCK MARKET WATCH -- Wednesday, 5 February 2014
[font size=3]STOCK MARKET WATCH, Wednesday, 5 February 2014[font color=black][/font]
SMW for 4 February 2014
AT THE CLOSING BELL ON 4 February 2014
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Dow Jones 15,445.24 +72.44 (0.47%)
S&P 500 1,755.20 +13.31 (0.76%)
Nasdaq 4,031.52 +34.56 (0.86%)
[font color=red]10 Year 2.64% +0.02 (0.76%)
30 Year 3.60% +0.04 (1.12%) [font color=black]
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[font size=2]Market Conditions During Trading Hours[/font]
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[font size=2]Euro, Yen, Loonie, Silver and Gold[center]
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[font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Market Data and News:[/font][/font]
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Economic Calendar
Marketwatch Data
Bloomberg Economic News
Yahoo Finance
Google Finance
Bank Tracker
Credit Union Tracker
Daily Job Cuts
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[font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Economic Blogs:[/font][/font]
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The Big Picture
Financial Sense
Calculated Risk
Naked Capitalism
Credit Writedowns
Brad DeLong
Bonddad
Atrios
goldmansachs666
The Stand-Up Economist
The Automatic Earth
Wall Street on Parade
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[font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Essential Reading:[/font][/font]
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Matt Taibi: Secret and Lies of the Bailout
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[font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Government Issues:[/font][/font]
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LegitGov
Open Government
Earmark Database
USA spending.gov
[/center][font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Videos:[/font][/font]
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Charlie Rose talks with Roubini
Charlie Rose talks with Krugman
William Black: This Economic Disaster
Bill Moyers with Kevin Drum and David Corn
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[font color=red]Partial List of Financial Sector Officials Convicted since 1/20/09 [/font][font color=red]
2/2/12 David Higgs and Salmaan Siddiqui, Credit Suisse, plead guilty to conspiracy involving valuation of MBS
3/6/12 Allen Stanford, former Caribbean billionaire and general schmuck, convicted on 13 of 14 counts in $2.2B Ponzi scheme, faces 20+ years in prison
6/4/12 Matthew Kluger, lawyer, sentenced to 12 years in prison, along with co-conspirator stock trader Garrett Bauer (9 years) and co-conspirator Kenneth Robinson (not yet sentenced) for 17 year insider trading scheme.
6/14/12 Allen Stanford sentenced to 110 years without parole.
6/15/12 Rajat Gupta, former Goldman Sachs director, found guilty of insider trading. Could face a decade in prison when sentenced later this year.
6/22/12 Timothy S. Durham, 49, former CEO of Fair Financial Company, convicted of one count conspiracy to commit wire and securities fraud, 10 counts of wire fraud, and one count of securities fraud.
6/22/12 James F. Cochran, 56, former chairman of the board of Fair, convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit wire and securities fraud, one count of securities fraud, and six counts of wire fraud.
6/22/12 Rick D. Snow, 48, former CFO of Fair, convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit wire and securities fraud, one count of securities fraud, and three counts of wire fraud.
7/13/12 Russell Wassendorf Sr., CEO of collapsed brokerage firm Peregrine Financial Group Inc. arrested and charged with lying to regulators after admitting to authorities he embezzled "millions of dollars" and forged bank statements for "nearly twenty years."
8/22/12 Doug Whitman, Whitman Capital LLC hedge fund founder, convicted of insider trading following a trial in which he spent more than two days on the stand telling jurors he was innocent
10/26/12 UPDATE: Former Goldman Sachs director Rajat Gupta sentenced to two years in federal prison. He will, of course, appeal. . .
11/20/12 Hedge fund manager Matthew Martoma charged with insider trading at SAC Capital Advisors, and prosecutors are looking at Martoma's boss, Steven Cohen, for possible involvement.
02/14/13 Gilbert Lopez, former chief accounting officer of Stanford Financial Group, and former controller Mark Kuhrt sentenced to 20 yrs in prison for their roles in Allen Sanford's $7.2 billion Ponzi scheme.
03/29/13 Michael Sternberg, portfolio mgr at SAC Capital, arrested in NYC, charged with conspiracy and securities fraud. Pled not guilty and freed on $3m bail.
04/04/13 Matthew Marshall Taylor,fmr Goldman Sachs trader arrested, charged by CFTC w/defrauding his employer on $8BN futures bet "by intentionally concealing the true huge size, as well as the risk and potential profits or losses associated."
04/04/13 Matthew Taylor admits guilt, makes plea bargain. Sentencing set for 26 June; faces up to 20 years in prison but will likely only see 3-4 years. Says, "I am truly sorry."
04/11/13 Ex-KPMG LLP partner Scott London charged by federal prosecutors w/passing inside tips to a friend in exchange for cash, jewelry, and concert tickets; expected to plead guilty in May.
08/01/13 Fabrice Tourré convicted on six counts of security fraud, including "aiding and abetting" his former employer, Goldman Sachs
08/14/13 Javier Martin-Artajo and Julien Grout charged with wire fraud, falsifying records, and conspiracy in connection with JP Morgan's "London Whale" trade.
08/19/13 Phillip A. Falcone, manager of hedge fund Harbinger Capital Partners, agrees to admit to "wrongdoing" in market manipulation. Will banned from securities industry for 5 years and pay $18MM in disgorgement and fines.
09/16/13 Javier Martin-Artajo and Julien Grout officially indicted on charges associated with "London Whale" trade.
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[font size=3][font color=red]This thread contains opinions and observations. Individuals may post their experiences, inferences and opinions on this thread. However, it should not be construed as advice. It is unethical (and probably illegal) for financial recommendations to be given here.[/font][/font][/font color=red][font color=black]
Demeter
(85,373 posts)The wrong heads have been exploding for decades, in this country. Take out the stooges, and the 1% won't have a friend in the nation nor a leg to stand on.
Demeter
(85,373 posts)APPARENT? DID I MISS SOMETHING?
http://rt.com/business/russell-investments-chief-economist-dead-564/
Demeter
(85,373 posts)VIDEO AT LINK
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article37533.htm
This first authorized film biography poetically documents Pete Seegers unique experience and contributions to folk music and society. Seeger (May 3, 1919 Jan. 27, 2014) introduced America to its own folk heritage, got a whole generation passionate about playing the guitar and picking the banjo, and got them singing together and using music as a force for social change. He deeply believed in the power of song, convinced that individuals can make a difference. Largely misunderstood by his critics, including the U.S. government, for his views on peace, civil rights and ecology, Seeger went from the top of the hit parade to the top of the blacklist banned from commercial television for more than 17 years. Seegers inspiring, but not always easy, story is told by Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Bruce Springsteen, Natalie Maines (the Dixie Chicks), Tom Paxton, Arlo Guthrie, and Seeger himself, through a remarkable historical archive. Directed by Jim Brown. 90 minutes.
Demeter
(85,373 posts)Judge George N. Bowden of the Superior Court in Washington State ruled against Bank of America (BoA) in a foreclosure battle that ended with the nonjudicial foreclosure sale under the Deed of Trust Act (DTA). The sale was deemed void, and the court is setting the foreclosure aside.
In this case defended by StafneTrumbull law firm in Washington State, the homeowner won his house from BoA which is another major victory against the unethical and illegal foreclosures industry that has left millions of Americans homeless.
Bowden acknowledged that this case was like most; convoluted in the minefield that is the Mortgage Electronic Registration System (MERS) system. Bradburn, the homeowner, was told by BoA that he should stop making his mortgage payments so that he could qualify for refinancing. BoA ensured that this homeowner was in default of the mortgage by promising to refinance; then initiated litigation against the homeowner to retrieve the property for failure by Bradburn to remain current on his payments. Bowden pointed out that the DTA seems to contemplate a borrower and a lender with an independent trustee having the power to foreclose on the deed of trust in the event of default by the borrower. The lender would normally hold the underlying note and be the beneficiary of it. Here matters have been complicated by the sale of the underlying note from HomeStar Lending to Countrywide, which was later acquired by BoA.
Interestingly, Bowden stated that Fidelity Title was identified as the trustee but then MERS was characterized as the beneficiary as the nominee of the lender and their assigns. At summary judgment it was claimed that the note was owned by Fannie Mae although it was held by BoA, which was then described as the servicer of the note at the behest of Fannie Mae.
The evidence presented by the homeowner showed that MERS was never the owner or holder of the note.
- See more at: http://www.occupycorporatism.com/big-bank-fail-judge-rules-foreclosure-unconstitutional/#sthash.VMPq34m8.dpuf
Demeter
(85,373 posts)...Based on model legislation drafted by the OffNow coalition, House Bill 732 (H732) would make it state policy to "refuse to provide material support for or assist or in any way participate in the collection of a person's electronic data or metadata by any federal agency or pursuant to any federal law, rule, regulation, or order unless the data is collected pursuant to a warrant that particularly describes the persons, places, and things to be searched or seized."
Similar legislation has now been introduced in 12 states, including California, where Sen. Ted Lieu (D-Torrance) and Sen. Joel Anderson (R-San Diego) co-sponsored SB828 to do the same in their state.
"State-funded public resources should not be going toward aiding the NSA or any other federal agency in indiscriminate spying on its own citizens and gathering electronic or metadata that violates the Fourth Amendment," Lieu said in a press release....
Demeter
(85,373 posts)jtuck004
(15,882 posts)Here.
One looks at the improvement in the unemployment rate which depends heavily on those who have left the work force, and the size of that group is often blamed on demographics, that people are getting older and aging out of the workforce.
Yet here is one more piece of data/projection that shows the decline is among younger workers, with a greater participation by older ones.
Given that nearly 2/3 of retirees now suffer a forced and sometimes violent reduction in living standards, why anyone thinks workers over 55 would continue to leave the work force based on old thinking is beyond me.
H/T http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/
xchrom
(108,903 posts)US banking giant Morgan Stanley has agreed to pay $1.25bn (£765.5m) to settle a lawsuit over the sale of mortgage-backed securities.
The money will be paid to the US regulator that oversees Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgage guarantee firms.
US taxpayers had to rescue the two firms in 2008 in a bailout worth $187bn during the financial crisis.
Morgan Stanley joins other banks, including JP Morgan Chase and Deutsche Bank, in settling with the regulator.
xchrom
(108,903 posts)Three former senior executives in the now-defunct Anglo-Irish Bank are expected to go on trial in Dublin on Wednesday.
They are former chairman and chief executive Sean FitzPatrick, former finance director Willie McAteer and former chief financial officer Pat Whelan.
The three are charged with trying to inflate the share price.
The 16 charges are linked to alleged loans of more than 450m euros.
xchrom
(108,903 posts)Eighteen times Michael Shaoul has watched the U.S. stock market lose 5 percent or more since 2009. Eighteen times hes been rewarded for holding on.
The bulls are being tested anew by a retreat that started in emerging markets and has since spread to developed countries, erasing $3 trillion from global equity values. Again, Shaouls Marketfield Asset Management LLC isnt selling.
This is a real bull market, Shaoul, whose assets under management have risen to $21 billion from $400 million in 2008, said in a phone interview. What happens in real bull markets is they do fine, and then they are occasionally interrupted by an exogenous shock.
Its never easy, Shaoul says -- the threat posed by emerging markets is the greatest hes seen since 1998, and declines may worsen. Still, while U.S. stocks are being dragged down, the things that have kept market dips shallow in developed countries are intact. Corporate profits rose the fastest in two years last quarter, economists boosted projections for U.S. gross domestic product the first time in four months, and money-market indicators show no signs of strain.
xchrom
(108,903 posts)European stocks rose for the first time in four days and Asian equities rebounded from a five-month low. Commodities climbed for a second day, bonds gained and the yen strengthened.
The Stoxx Europe 600 Index added 0.3 percent at 6 a.m. in New York and the MSCI Asia Pacific Index advanced 0.7 percent. Standard & Poors 500 Index (SPX) futures were little changed after the gauge rallied from a three-month low yesterday. Germanys 10-year bund yield slid two basis points to 1.63 percent after retail sales in the euro area fell more than estimated. Japans currency rose against all but one of its 16 major peers. The S&P GSCI Index (SPGSCI) of 24 raw materials added 0.4 percent.
Money managers and strategists from Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to Fidelity Investment Management Ltd. are advising clients not to panic after emerging-market currencies were sold off and $3 trillion was erased from the value of equities worldwide. Riskier assets remain vulnerable with Chinas economy a wild card, Pacific Investment Management Co.s Bill Gross said yesterday. ADP Research Institute is scheduled to release jobs figures in the U.S. today before the Labor Departments monthly payrolls report on Feb. 7.
Investors are really quick to get out the door and then much more slow to come back, said Tim Condon, the Singapore-based head of Asian research at ING Groep NV. If some piece of data comes out and really rattles expectations about the U.S. economy then well be back in sell-off mode. Assuming that doesnt happen then risk appetites will gather force and markets will move steadily higher.
xchrom
(108,903 posts)Obamacare will reduce the hours Americans work by the equivalent of 2 million full-time jobs in 2017, the Congressional Budget Office said, sparking renewed Republican criticism of the law and a fresh defense from the White House.
The total number of hours worked will fall about 1.5 percent to 2 percent from 2017 to 2024 as a result of the health-care overhaul, the CBO said yesterday in a report. The reduction, about twice the agencys estimates in 2010, is due almost entirely to low-wage employees who may choose to give up extra hours of work to avoid losing subsidies or tax advantages under the law, the report said.
Republicans said their warnings that the health law would discourage employment are proving correct. The report is further evidence the presidents health-care law is destroying full-time jobs, U.S. Representative John Kline, a Minnesota Republican who is chairman of the House Education and the Workforce Committee, said in a statement.
President Barack Obamas advisers pushed back against Republican interpretations of the CBO report and assertions the law would cause employers to cut jobs and hours. They said the CBO didnt calculate aspects of the law that would lead to the creation of 250,000 to 450,000 jobs a year.
xchrom
(108,903 posts)Japans base wages adjusted for inflation last year matched a 16-year low in 2009 when the world was gripped by recession, posing a risk to consumer spending as the nation girds for a higher consumption tax.
Pay excluding bonuses and overtime payments dropped to 98.9 in 2013 on a labor ministry index released today that takes price changes into account, equaling the level four years earlier. The gauge is based at 100 in 2010 in data back to 1990.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is calling on firms to boost wages to sustain a reflationary effort so far driven by stimulus and the yens 18 percent drop against the dollar last year. Amid a backdrop of market turbulence, business and union leaders met today to start annual pay talks -- due to end in March, a month before a 3-percentage-point increase in the sales levy.
Its extremely important that companies use profits boosted by Abenomics to raise wages and create jobs, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said today in Tokyo, adding this was needed to create a positive cycle, in which economic growth propels profits, employers raise pay and people spend more.
xchrom
(108,903 posts)President Barack Obamas top aide called Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to complain hours after Reid publicly opposed Obamas push for Congress to speed approval of trade deals, two Senate Democratic aides said.
White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough telephoned Reid to say he was unhappy that the majority leader publicly went against the White House, particularly on the day after the presidents State of the Union address Jan. 28, said the aides, who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe a private call.
The call demonstrates the White Houses sensitivity to a rare rift between Reid, a Nevada Democrat, and Obama on a policy matter central to Obamas agenda.
Reid said on Jan. 29 that when it comes to fast-track trade approval, everyone would be well-advised just to not push this right now. Reid voted against fast-track authority renewal in 2002, the last time it moved through Congress.
Demeter
(85,373 posts)Lunchroom antics! Obama's hard of listening.
xchrom
(108,903 posts)New loans are welcome, but don't ask us for any new austerity measures. This pretty much sums up Athens' reaction to Germany's reported willingness to approve further loans to Greece to cover the country's multi-billion euro projected financing gap in 2015-2016.
Although there was no official reaction to SPIEGEL's report, published on Monday, government sources say that Berlin's intentions were known to Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, adding that Germany will not pull the rug from under Greece's feet, especially with the European election due in May.
But the Greek government has also made clear that it will not accept a new round of measures or a continuation of what are perceived by many in Greece as the asphyxiating and humiliating controls by the troika of European Commission, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund.
Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras is preparing Greece's position ahead of the troika's arrival. With a fresh round of bargaining looming on the new loans, he promised an avalanche of "impressively good news" in the coming days to show that Greece doesn't need any further belt-tightening. It only needs to press on with its structural reforms, he said.
xchrom
(108,903 posts)No matter where Greek government representatives crop up these days, they spread a festive mood. Early last week, the European Union member's finance ministers, known as the Euro Group, detected a certain pride and self-confidence in their Greek counterpart. The country is on a steady road to recovery, Giannis Stournaras told the group.
For the first time in years, there are signs of economic recovery, with exports on the rise and a booming tourism industry, he said. But above all, public finances are recovering. With a touch of triumph in his voice, Stournaras reported he had achieved a budget surplus of around 1 billion ($1.35 billion) last year -- at least when interest payments are left out. But then the inevitable came:
Greece had delivered, Stournaras said, and now it was time for its partner countries to make new funds available to the country.
Thus, pride met prejudice. In no other ailing European nation are self-image and public perception further apart than in Greece. Stournaras and his Prime Minister Antonis Samaras see their country as being on a par with the successful models of Ireland and Spain when it comes to reforms. Europe's finance ministers, on the other hand, paint a very different picture: While Spain and Ireland no longer depend on the assistance of European bailouts, it is exactly the opposite for the Greeks.
Greece thinks its success so far -- even though it lags far behind requirements -- warrants further aid. The finance ministers are reluctant to provide it. They found the progress pleasing, but they all agreed with the judgment made by their chairman. "It's taking too long," said Dutch Finance Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem.
xchrom
(108,903 posts)(Reuters) - The euro zone's Christmas shopping season was a sore disappointment as demand for retail goods fell sharply, adding to the risk of deflation for the currency bloc.
Retail sales in the 17 countries sharing the euro fell 1 percent in December compared to the same month a year ago, the EU's statistics office Eurostat said on Wednesday. Economists polled by Reuters had expected a 1.5 percent increase.
Compared to November, December's figures were also worse than expected, showing a 1.6 percent month-on-month fall when economists had forecast just a 0.5 percent dip.
Despite signs of a recovery, the sinking demand for consumer goods follows a surprise fall in euro zone inflation in January to 0.7 percent, far below the European Central Bank's target of just under 2 percent and near four-year lows.
antigop
(12,778 posts)(h/t to madokie who posted this in General Discussion)
http://blog.sfgate.com/morford/2014/02/04/the-devil-in-the-pie-chart/
Yet here it is, the single-most toxic, fossilized, hammered-down maxim our culture along with most of the barely civilized world lives by, pounded into our fundamental ethos since birth.
Nope, its not organized religion. Its not a sad misunderstanding of love. Its not wisdom, loneliness or even rampant tribalism, nationalism, unhealthy worship of technology or celebrity. Oh, its far worse than that.
Do you know this toxic law? I bet you do: Companies will do anything to accomplish it, cities obsess over it like a dark religion, populations are viciously addicted to it and of course, capitalism has it tattooed onto its very heart, a blood-soaked dragon of relentless, nearly unendurable pressure, sneering and cruel, only fully satiated when its burned everything to the ground.
Of course you know it: It is the maxim of furious, nonstop growth at all costs. It is the vast, overarching demand that everything we humans create, produce and desire must keep growing and expanding, adding to and complexifying, without stop and without fail because to pause, to slow down, to contract, to calm the hell down even for a moment, means fiscal doom, cultural irrelevance, death.
Demeter
(85,373 posts)If it were true growth, we'd have better quality of life for less stress, cost, and waste of resources. And lots of jobs.
But it's the GROWTH OF PROFITS, another word for stealing when you look at it ethically, that's killing the USA and its tributary nations. And that's why our tributary nations are dropping off the list, one by one, as they realize that they are the victims.
antigop
(12,778 posts)No irritating Marxism was allowed to disturb our deep, or the unquestioned political tranquility that professors embedded in Yales graduate economics curriculum. The celebration of the free competitive market, although often extended rhetorically to the free marketplace of competing ideas, was suspended in the case of Marxian concepts and analysis of capitalist economies. The latter was systematically excluded at Yale, as at most US universities then and ever since. No free marketplace of ideas there.
Like Bernanke, Yellen will do her job as best as she can. No thought about alternatives to capitalism will likely occur to her. She and the Feds board of governors will consider no policy responses to the current systems grotesque flaws and injustices that entail changing the system. No free marketplace of competing ideas at the Fed either. She will, like her predecessors, transfer the deep political conservatism of her graduate economics education in the US to her policies.