I'll be back later on.

I've looked around, this is the best thread to get latest economic news.
Don't be shy, we appreciate everyone posting newsworthy topics.

I just recently started reading it, and it's very interesting.

In some ways we're a bit like the ill-fated S.S. Minnow, but we are an intrepid crew. Hope you enjoy the cruise!

2/5/16 China group to buy Chicago Stock Exchange

One of America's oldest stock exchanges has just been sold to China. The 134-year-old Chicago Stock Exchange reached a deal on Friday to be acquired by a Chinese-led group of investors.

The purchase by Chongqing Casin Enterprise Group is the latest U.S. investment made by China and would give the country a foothold in the vast American stock market.

The struggling Chicago Stock Exchange is a very small player in the exchange world whose presence is overshadowed by Nasdaq (NDAQ), the iconic New York Stock Exchange and newer entrants.

As of January, the Chicago Stock Exchange handled just 0.5% of U.S. trading, making it the third-smallest U.S. exchange, according to TABB Group.

Terms of the Chicago acquisition were not released. Privately-held Casin Group was founded in 1997 and has investments in real estate, environmental protection, finance and other areas. The Chicago Stock Exchange is minority-owned by a group that includes Bank of America (BAC), E*Trade (ETFC), Goldman Sachs (GS) and JPMorgan Chase (JPM).

more...
http://money.cnn.com/2016/02/05/investing/china-buys-chicago-stock-exchange/index.html

A multi-decade Credit Bubble is coming to an end. The past seven years has amounted to an incredible blow-off top and the ongoing worldwide collapse in financial stocks provides powerful support for the bursting global Bubble thesis. Few are yet willing to accept the harsh reality that the world has sunk back into crisis as mal-investment, over-investment and associated wealth destruction remain largely concealed so long as financial asset inflation persists. This is true as well for wealth redistribution. The unfolding adjustment process will deflate asset prices so as to converge more closely with deteriorating underlying economic fundamentals.

Full article:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-02-07/few-are-yet-willing-admit-harsh-reality

there wouldn’t be more debates.

Sanders v. Clinton Democratic Debate: Corruption, Health Care and Theories of Change
Corruption will defeat any insider, incremental theory of change. Hence an outside movement is the only way forward.

Full article:
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2016/02/sanders-v-clinton-democratic-debate-corruption-health-care-and-theories-of-change.html

There's a movement here, and it isn't going away.

After another volatile Friday, analysts say they would not be surprised to see stocks take aim at January's lows in the week ahead as investors await two days of testimony from Fed Chair Janet Yellen.

Yellen's two days of testimony on the economy before congressional committees Wednesday and Thursday is the highlight of what promises to be another volatile week in markets. One catalyst that has been temporarily removed is China, where markets are closed for the Lunar New Year, and little data is expected.

Stocks sold off violently Friday, and the S&P 500 (.SPX) was off 3.1 percent for the week to 1,880, after three weeks of gains. LinkedIn (LNKD)'s earnings disappointment sent its shares down 43 percent, and momentum names followed. Facebook was down nearly 6 percent Friday, and the IBB, iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF (IBB) lost 3.2 percent.

Adams said that if the market breaks its January lows, she is looking for the S&P 500 to test an important area right below 1,800. "The challenge would be to test that line before we give up the ghost and say this is a bigger financial market correction than we've had. … That's about as bearish as I'm willing to get right now. That support line is pretty critical for support of the long-term bull trend," she said.
http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/the-week-ahead-the-rout-could-continue-heres-why/ar-BBpbFIC?li=BBnbfcL&ocid=iehp

I think the talking heads are trying to sugar coat this. I think we will see a recession before the year is out and it will not be pretty.

Corporate America, we have a problem.
The fourth quarter of 2015 looks to be the third straight quarter in which S&P 500 (.SPX) companies' profits fell versus the year prior. This would be the first time this has happened since 2009 (when profits fell in Q1, Q2 and Q3).

And revenue looks even worse. With a 3.4 percent drop set for the fourth quarter, S&P 500 companies are set to report the fourth straight quarter of year-over-year declines in sales. That hasn't happened since the period beginning in the fourth quarter of 2008.

Hhhmmmmmmm! I wonder how many corporations will not be paying 4th quarter dividends.

WILLISTON, N.D. — The “man camps” sprang up from the prairie, rows of trailers and modular steel boxes that housed thousands of workers chasing their fortunes in North Dakota’s oil fields. But these days, the man camps are missing something: men.
Roughly eight years ago, at the peak of the last recession, oil drilling began to transform these remote corners of the plains into an economic beacon, attracting billions of dollars in new investments and thousands of workers in search of good-paying jobs and an escape from America’s economic pain. But now, as oil prices have skidded to $30 a barrel, new drilling has dried up here, and the flood of wealth and workers is ebbing.

“You couldn’t find a place,” Brian Resh, 32, said, recalling the busy days one recent morning as he glanced across a nearly empty cafeteria of one of the area’s largest remaining man camps. “Two years ago, you’d drive at night at 3 a.m. and you’d see 300 people.”

Now, laid-off oil-field workers are piecing together new jobs, and some have left town altogether. Hotels that were once booked solid for months are about half-occupied. Some of the new luxury apartments built to handle the surge of arrivals are dark. Business is down by 40 percent at a new brewery that once boasted two-hour dinner lines for cowboy-cut rib-eyes and Williston brownies (which come à la mode). And many of the camps built to house a flood of workers, the vast majority of them male, are emptying out like a bar after last call.
http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/built-up-by-oil-boom-north-dakota-now-has-an-emptier-feeling/ar-BBpdoZ2?li=BBnb7Kv&ocid=iehp

When the recession hit I was out of work for almost 2-yrs. and was very close to going up there to find work. I glad I didn't.

U.S. stock index futures pointed to a sharply lower open on Monday, as investors digest Friday's massive drop in technology stocks and look to Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen's testimony later this week.

Dow futures were down in excess of 150 points in pre-market trading as European stocks tumbled over 2 percent, hitting lows not seen since October 2014 amid persistent global growth fears.

"It appears that softening economic data and disappointing earnings reports are contributing to a negative feedback loop," said chief market analyst at CMC Markets, Michael Hewson.
http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/dow-futures-slip-triple-digits-as-growth-fears-grip-markets/ar-BBpeStZ?ocid=iehp

This mornings opening may not be pretty.

Opps. I didn't attach this to the correct part of this thread, but I think you get it.

Take care everyone.

That goes for all you folks.

[font color="red"]
Dow 15,834 -371 -2.29%
Nasdaq 4,237 -125 -2.87%
S&P 500 1,836 -44 -2.34%
GlobalDow 2,094 -45 -2.09%
Oil 30.25 -0.61 -1.97%[/font]
Gold 1,192 +34 2.96%
U.S. 10yr 1.75 -0.08 4.58%

. . . interesting times.

Wiping out the last two years, essentially.

2/8/16 Chesapeake plunges 50 pct; says has no plans to seek bankruptcy

Chesapeake Energy, the second-largest natural gas producer in the United States, plunged as much as 50 percent on Monday after multiple reports that it had hired restructuring attorneys.

Chesapeake shares were last down $1.53 at $1.53, having been halted at least six times in morning trading. The company was not immediately available to comment on the report.

Chesapeake, which has more than $10 billion in debt, has been hit by a steep fall in both oil and gas prices. Reuters reported that the company's bonds maturing next month plunged 20 points, to a level of 75 cents on the dollar, on the news.

Shares in Williams Cos fell as much as 34 percent, while Energy Transfer Equity fell 26 percent. ETE is in the process of acquiring Williams, which counts Chesapeake as a major partner.

According to the Natural Gas Supply Association, Chesapeake trailed only ExxonMobil among natural gas producers in the first half of 2015, at a volume of 2,979 MMcf per day.

http://www.cnbc.com/2016/02/08/energy-shares-plunge-in-early-rout-chesapeake-williams-both-off.html

It's rare that something momentous enough happens here in the Economy Group to coax me to leave the cozy blissfully quiet periodical lined chambers of the Diogenes Club.

However, with the expulsion of one of the SMW's most prolific posters... Sadly, such a moment has arrived.

She was warned.

I seriously doubt that the one of us who has left will return any time soon. She dared scream at the gods and the gods rendered their verdict. A pretty final verdict at that.

So, the question before us is, what do we do now?

Well, my vote is that we continue with the SMW. It was here long before her and with any luck it will be here long after her departure.

The way forward is the way the SMW has always operated and to which we've all become somewhat lax about, if you read something and you think others might want to see. Take
a minute to copy/paste the URL here in the handy-dandy SMW. Please, add any contributions you are able to provide. Keeping in mind our goal is to provide economically relevant material. Sourcing is of a minor concern as long as the bulk is real facts (Pretty much excludes anything from Fox News... and nothing at all from Charles Krauthammer. That guy creeps me out. )

I've never been a fan of cloistered virtue. It's the tool of tyranny, IMHO. And, I have an unflinching faith in the liberal bias of the truth in the real world.

As for the WEE... Well, believe it or not, it pre-dated her, too. And, if someone is willing to post it on the weekends. Please, do it!

Thanks to Fudd for covering this last weekend! And, thanks to each and every one of you who comes here to share and learn.

That is all.

Carry on.

Your humble servant,
Hugin

WEE also. Thanks for keeping the faith.

And we're gonna have fun to the (bitter) end.

c'est la vie.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=profile&uid=328821&sub=trans

Will make an effort though...

/...http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-02-08/european-bank-bloodbath-crashes-bond-stock-markets

I am really very unhappy that SMW's 'most prolific poster has been 'expulsed.'

I have been with the DU since GWB was anointed, and this website created to deal with the shock of it all. Before Oxymandias (sp) ran this thread. And probably before that.

I have learned much from Ms. D. I can never thank her or repay her for her insights, research, and, evidently fearlessness...and I don't think I have ever totally disagreed with anything she has posted. If fact, it is possible I have supported every thought she dared to post.

I really hope the SMW continues, and even more... that the 'Judges and Jury' (sounds like the Inquisition) reconsider their ideas regarding Liberalism, Free Thought, and Free Speech from an obviously Democratic poster.

My husband was also 'banned' a couple of years ago now, after posting for many years, for offending someone simply by writing his opinions on something the President did or did not do. No doubt, with a credible reference.

I post about once a year, if that, as I do not want to argue with anybody on a Liberal Democratic website, much less get 'Expelled... '

Divide and Conquer seems to have won again. Way to go, E, E and S... Many Thanks. Patricia

We can all agree that DU has changed a lot. The SMW will continue as best it can, but it won't be the same without Ms. D.

DJIA fairies.

Love those post-3pm bounces!