STOCK MARKET WATCH -- 17 May 2013

[Tansy_Gold]

[font size=3]STOCK MARKET WATCH, Friday, 17 May 2013[font color=black][/font]

SMW for 16 May 2013

AT THE CLOSING BELL ON 16 May 2013
[center][font color=red]
Dow Jones 15,233.22 -42.47 (-0.28%)
S&P 500 1,650.47 -8.31 (-0.50%)
Nasdaq 3,465.24 -6.38 (-0.18%)


[font color=green]10 Year 1.88% -0.03 (-1.57%)
30 Year 3.09% -0.03 (-0.96%) [font color=black]


[center][/font]

[HR width=85%]

[font size=2]Market Conditions During Trading Hours[/font]
[center]


[/center]

[font size=2]Euro, Yen, Loonie, Silver and Gold[center]

[/center]

[center]

[/center]

[HR width=95%]

[font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Market Data and News:[/font][/font]
[center]
Economic Calendar
Marketwatch Data
Bloomberg Economic News
Yahoo Finance
Google Finance
Bank Tracker
Credit Union Tracker
Daily Job Cuts
[/center]

[font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Economic Blogs:[/font][/font]
[center]
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
[/center]

[font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Essential Reading:[/font][/font]
[center]
Matt Taibi: Secret and Lies of the Bailout


[/center]

[font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Government Issues:[/font][/font]
[center]
LegitGov
Open Government
Earmark Database
USA spending.gov
[/center]

[font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Videos:[/font][/font]
[center]
Charlie Rose talks with Roubini
Charlie Rose talks with Krugman
William Black: This Economic Disaster
Bill Moyers with Kevin Drum and David Corn
[/center]

[div]
[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.










[HR width=95%]


[center]
[HR width=95%]
[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]

[Tansy_Gold]

1. I just thought it was a funny follow-up

The whole thing is totally ludicrous.

We've all gone down the rabbit hole.

[AnneD]

19. I wouldn't ....

exactly describe it as a rabbit hole.

[Demeter]

2. In Role Reversal, Goldman Chief Advises Dimon

RABBIT HOLE, INDEED!

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/05/14/in-role-reversal-goldman-chief-advises-dimon/



Jamie Dimon has consulted lawyers, public relation experts and bankers as JPMorgan Chase wrestles with the fallout from a multibillion-dollar trading loss. But the bank chief has received advice from an unexpected corner: Lloyd C. Blankfein of rival Goldman Sachs. The two executives have talked privately a number of times in recent months about the challenges that Mr. Dimon is facing, people with knowledge of the relationship but not authorized to speak on the matter, have said. JPMorgan is battling a shareholder vote on whether to separate Mr. Dimon’s positions as chief executive and chairman, and is also dealing with a number of regulatory investigations. The vote is coming to a head. Within the last week shareholders have been casting their ballots, but at least a handful of major shareholders have yet to vote, according to others briefed on the matter but not authorized to speak on the record.

The conversations between Wall Street’s two most powerful chieftains represent a reversal of roles. It is now Mr. Dimon who is in a harsh public spotlight, seemingly at odds with regulators. It was not long ago that Mr. Blankfein was being questioned by Congress over accusations that Goldman had misled investors during the financial crisis over the sale of mortgage-backed securities. Now, with Goldman cleared of crisis-era investigations and its profits rising, Mr. Blankfein is enjoying something of a renaissance as an elder statesman of Wall Street.

“I would call them foul weather friends,” said one person with knowledge of the relationship who was not authorized to speak on the record. Foxhole buddies might be a better metaphor. Both executives steered their firms through the tumult and panic of the financial crisis. Yet while the JPMorgan chieftain emerged from the crisis hailed as Washington’s favorite banker, Goldman’s chief was cast by many as a villain. Having survived that trial by fire, Mr. Blankfein is advising Mr. Dimo that the current storm will eventually pass, just as it appears to have done so for Goldman, the people with knowledge of the relationship said...

[Demeter]

3. Lehman Reaches Beyond Grave Seeking Millions From Nonprofits

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-05-14/lehman-reaches-beyond-grave-to-grab-millions-from-nonprofits.html

Almost five years after Lehman Brothers Holding Inc (LEHMQ). filed for bankruptcy and set off the global financial crisis, managers of the bank’s estate are demanding millions of dollars from retirement homes, colleges and hospitals.

After selling most of its assets, Lehman now says it was shortchanged by scores of nonprofits that were forced to pay to exit derivatives that were unwound after the firm filed for Chapter 11 protection.

The Buck Institute for Research on Aging in Novato, California, gave Lehman $2 million in October 2008 to cancel a swap contract used to manage fluctuating interest rates. Lehman says it wants $12.1 million more and has assessed at least an additional $4.7 million in interest, the research center said in its most recent financial statement. The amount Lehman is seeking is more than half of what Buck spent last year researching Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and other diseases.

“Lehman is sort of a zombie-like bankruptcy entity: Instead of looking for brains, it’s looking for cash,” said Chip Bowles, a bankruptcy lawyer with Bingham Greenebaum Doll LLP in Louisville, Kentucky...

INCONCEIVABLE!

[xchrom]

4. Rio Tinto puts largest ‘red’ diamond on market

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/05/17/rio-tinto-puts-largest-red-diamond-on-market/



Rio Tinto said Friday it was putting up for sale the biggest “red” diamond ever produced by its Australian mine amid an “explosion” in demand from Asia for the rare pink-hued stones.

The Argyle Phoenix, a 1.56 carat gem, is one of three red diamonds on offer at the annual Argyle Pink Diamonds Tender — the first time in the 30-year history of the exclusive sale that it has included three red stones.

“This is the largest red that has ever come from the Argyle diamond mine,” Argyle Pink Diamonds manager Josephine Johnson told AFP as she held the stone.

“Never seen before, likely never seen again.

[Demeter]

5. Gorgeous!

[xchrom]

8. totally agree. nt

[Demeter]

6. The Unhappy Marriage of Economics and Health Care

http://www.healthcare-now.org/the-unhappy-marriage-of-economics-and-health-care

America’s health care system is collapsing, and we can blame the Economics profession. Most economists approach health care in the wrong way, viewing it as a commodity like shoes or the laptop on which I write. Instead, health care is an idiosyncratic commodity, subject to uncertainty and “asymmetric information” leading to destructive behavior. Trying to force health care into a box, treating it like other commodities, economists have promoted cost sharing, market competition, and insurance oversight of health care providers that have inflated the administrative burden while denying ever more Americans access.

Health care spending has been rising throughout the world as aging and more affluent populations spend on their health. Nowhere, however, has the cost of health care risen as fast as in the United States where costs soared because of rising administrative expense. Compared with other affluent countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (the OECD), the United States spends over twice as much per person as is spent elsewhere. Before 1971 when Canada enacted its Medicare program, a single-payer government funded health care system, Canada spent a higher share of its national income on health care than did the United States; since then, however, while Canada has controlled costs, spending has soared in the United States so that we now spend over $3000 more per person. That is $12,000 for a family of four that is not available for travel, education, housing, or food.

Elsewhere, increases in health care spending have been associated with improvements in the provision of health care and, therefore, go with increasing life expectancy. In the United States, however, spending has increased because of rising administrative costs and increases in the price of prescription drugs and, therefore, has yielded relatively few benefits in improvements in care. Comparing changes in health-care spending and life expectancy between 1971 and 2008, other affluent OECD members gained a year of life expectancy for every $453 in spending; in the United States, however, life expectancy has increased less and spending has risen sharply more so that each year of increased life expectancy has cost over twice as much as in these other countries. Health care spending in the United States has increased by $1283 for every additional year of life expectancy; had our spending per year of added life increased at only the rate of other countries we would be spending over $4500 less per person, $18,000 saved for the average family of four. Most of the difference in relative expenditures, most of the growing waste in spending in the United States, is due to increasing administrative costs in the provision of private health insurance and in the billing and insurance operations within doctors’ offices and in hospitals. The average physician in the United States now spends four-times as much interacting with insurance companies as does the average physician in Ontario, Canada, over $80,000 per physician compared with a little over $20,000 in Ontario. Prescription drug prices and administrative expenses have been the fastest rising costs in the United States health care system; from 1980 to 2005, administrative costs rose by 1300% while drug prices rose by nearly 2000%. There are now 2.5 million administrative support personnel in the American health care system; more than the number of nurses, and five times the number of physicians. We now have more health-care managers than physicians and surgeons.

Rising costs drive up health insurance premiums so that a family health insurance plan now costs about 40% of the average family wage income, up from 7% in 1960. Rising costs are denying ever more Americans access to health care even while businesses and governments wrestle with rising health care spending that squeezes resources available for other purposes. While other countries have controlled health care costs by restraining administrative expenses and drug prices, ballooning costs in the United States come from policies promoted by economists who have urged governments and providers to control costs by making consumers responsible for more of the costs even while raising administrative costs and ignoring monopolistic pricing of pharmaceuticals. Viewing the injured, sick, and disabled as “consumers,” economists see insurance as the source of rising costs because they are not responsible for the costs of care they receive and, therefore, overuse health care. Rising copayments and deductibles are intended to discourage “consumers” from “abusing” health care, as if the victims of auto accidents or cancer should shop around for cheaper, and competition among insurers while limiting provider services by providing more administrative supervision. Ignoring evidence that Americans are less likely to see doctors and other health providers than are residents of other affluent countries, these economists have blamed the high cost of our health care on insurance which, they assume, leads to wasteful over-practice and the provision of unnecessary health care services. Their solution is greater cost sharing, more regulation of providers, capitation, and even the end to insurance by substituting medical savings accounts for insurance...

[Demeter]

7. Who Profits From Charters? Big Bucks Behind School Secrecy, Financial Scandal, Corruption

http://www.alternet.org/education/who-profiting-charters-big-bucks-behind-charter-school-secrecy-financial-scandal-and?akid=10424.227380.O_oX13&rd=1&src=newsletter838568&t=8&paging=off

This article is part of a two-part series that looks at mass school closings targeting America’s inner cities and the promise of charter schools as a magic solution to alleged “failing schools.” Part I explained how the charter school movement cynically appropriates civil rights rhetoric, but often leaves the most vulnerable students worse off than before. In Part II, AlterNet looks at a more likely motivation for the “reforms”: Profit.

Studies shows that charter schools don’t typically outperform public schools and they often tend to increase racial and class segregation. So one must wonder, what exactly is motivating these school “reformers”? And why have they pushed for more and more closure — and new charter schools — at such an unprecedented rate in recent years?

Pro-charter supporters will tell you that it’s time for public institutions like our schools to start competing more like for-profit institutions. Test scores and high enrollment, then, define success. Unsuccessful schools, they say, should close just as unsuccessful businesses do. For neoliberal school reformers from today’s Arne Duncan-led Department of Education to scandal-ridden movement leader Michelle Rhee to billionaire Bill Gates, it is taken on faith that market principles are desirable in education.

But since it’s not clear that market principles are benefiting students on a large scale, it seems likely that something else is at stake. And reformers may be more than a little disingenuous in publicly ignoring that other, less high-minded thing: Profit. Critics of charter schools and school closings point out that proponents may not really be motivated by idealism, but by self-gain.

But who precisely is profiting? And how? Untangling answers to these questions is a more daunting task. Compared to public schools, charters schools are an extremely unregulated business. They contract with private companies to provide all kinds of services, from curriculum development to landscaping. Most of the regulations that bind charter schools are implemented at the state level. And unlike public institutions, the finances of charter schools are managed on a school-by-school basis. Because they are not consistently held accountable to the public for how they distribute funds, charter schools are often able to keep their business practices under wraps, and thus avoid too much scrutiny...

[DemReadingDU]

9. Venezuela completely runs out of toilet paper

5/16/13 Venezuela completely runs out of toilet paper

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — First milk, butter, coffee and cornmeal ran short. Now Venezuela is running out of the most basic of necessities — toilet paper.

Blaming political opponents for the shortfall, as it does for other shortages, the embattled socialist government says it will import 50 million rolls to boost supplies.

That was little comfort to consumers struggling to find toilet paper on Wednesday.

“This is the last straw,” said Manuel Fagundes, a shopper hunting for tissue in downtown Caracas. “I’m 71 years old and this is the first time I’ve seen this.”

One supermarket visited by The Associated Press in the capital on Wednesday was out of toilet paper. Another had just received a fresh batch, and it quickly filled up with shoppers as the word spread.

“I’ve been looking for it for two weeks,” said Cristina Ramos. “I was told that they had some here and now I’m in line.”

more...
http://rare.us/story/venezuela-completely-runs-out-of-toilet-paper/

[Demeter]

12. The Koch Brothers are into Toilet Paper

through Georgia Pacific. Their Great Northern brand.

I'm guessing Venezuela hasn't got any native production.

[Demeter]

10. Ayn Rand USA:20 Years; Corporate Profits Up 4X; Taxes Fallen 50% --Workers' Payroll Tax Doubled

http://www.alternet.org/economy/ayn-rand-usa-20-years-corporate-profits-are-4x-and-their-taxes-have-fallen-50-meanwhile?akid=10427.227380.9pUxQF&rd=1&src=newsletter839254&t=5&paging=off

Corporations have decided to let middle-class workers pay for national investments that have largely benefited businesses over the years...Ayn Rand's philosophy suggests that average working people are 'takers.' In reality, those in the best position to make money take all they can get, with no scruples about their working class victims, because taking, in the minds of the rich, serves as a model for success. The strategy involves tax avoidance, in numerous forms.

Corporations Stopped Paying

In the past twenty years, corporate profits have quadrupled while the corporate tax percent has dropped by half. The payroll tax, paid by workers, has doubled. In effect, corporations have decided to let middle-class workers pay for national investments that have largely benefited businesses over the years. The greater part of basic research, especially for technology and health care, has been conducted with government money. Even today 60% of university research is government-supported. Corporations use highways and shipping lanes and airports to ship their products, the FAA and TSA and Coast Guard and Department of Transportation to safeguard them, a nationwide energy grid to power their factories, and communications towers and satellites to conduct online business. Yet as corporate profits surge and taxes plummet, our infrastructure is deteriorating. The American Society of Civil Engineers estimates that $3.63 trillion is needed over the next seven years to make the necessary repairs.Turning Taxes Into Thin Air. Corporations have used numerous and creative means to avoid their tax responsibilities. They have about a year's worth of profits stashed untaxed overseas. According to the Wall Street Journal, about 60% of their cash is offshore. Yet these corporate 'persons' enjoy a foreign earned income exclusion that real U.S. persons don't get. Corporate tax haven ploys are legendary, with almost 19,000 companies claiming home office space in one building in the low-tax Cayman Islands. But they don't want to give up their U.S. benefits. Tech companies in 19 tax haven jurisdictions received $18.7 billion in 2011 federal contracts. A lot of smaller companies are legally exempt from taxes. As of 2008, according to IRS data, fully 69% of U.S. corporations were organized as non-taxable businesses. There's much more. Companies call their CEO bonuses "performance pay" to get a lower rate. Private equity firms call fees "capital gains" to get a lower rate. Fast food companies call their lunch menus "intellectual property" to get a lower rate. Prisons and casinos have stooped to the level of calling themselves "real estate investment trusts" (REITs) to gain tax exemptions. Stooping lower yet, Disney and others have added cows and sheep to their greenspace to get a farmland exemption.

The Richest Individuals Stopped Paying

The IRS estimated that 17 percent of taxes owed were not paid in 2006, leaving an underpayment of $450 billion. The revenue loss from tax havens approaches $450 billion. Subsidies from special deductions, exemptions, exclusions, credits, capital gains, and loopholes are estimated at over $1 trillion. Expenditures overwhelmingly benefit the richest taxpayers. In keeping with Ayn Rand's assurance that "Money is the barometer of a society's virtue," the super-rich are relentless in their quest to make more money by eliminating taxes. Instead of calling their income 'income,' they call it "carried interest" or "performance-based earnings" or "deferred pay." And when they cash in their stock options, they might look up last year's lowest price, write that in as a purchase date, cash in the concocted profits, and take advantage of the lower capital gains tax rate.

So Who Has To Pay? Middle-class families. The $2 trillion in tax losses from underpayments, expenditures, and tax havens costs every middle-class family about $20,000 in community benefits, including health care and education and food and housing. Schoolkids, too. A study of 265 large companies by Citizens for Tax Justice (CTJ) determined that about $14 billion per year in state income taxes was unpaid over three years. That's approximately equal to the loss of 2012-13 education funding due to budget cuts. And the lowest-income taxpayers make up the difference, based on new data that shows that the Earned Income Tax Credit is the single biggest compliance problem cited by the IRS. The average sentence for cheating with secret offshore financial accounts, according to the Wall Street Journal, is about half as long as in some other types of tax cases....



Paul Buchheit teaches economic inequality at DePaul University. He is the founder and developer of the Web sites UsAgainstGreed.org, PayUpNow.org and RappingHistory.org, and the editor and main author of "American Wars: Illusions and Realities" (Clarity Press). He can be reached at [e-mail].

[xchrom]

11. Why The Euro Could Tank As The Eurozone Crisis Comes To An End

http://www.businessinsider.com/why-the-euro-could-tank-as-the-eurozone-crisis-comes-to-an-end-2013-5

***SNIP

Wha?
From the post:
In the words of Bilal Hafeez and George Saravelos at Deutsche: “The big story over the last five years has not been a lack of inflows into the euro area, which have remained remarkably steady. It has been domestic risk aversion. This has seen large waves of repatriation and the building of more than EUR1 trillion worth of underweights in foreign assets. Lower tail risks and a gradually improving business cycle should see a return of these outflows.”
During the darkest days of the crisis, investors/banks/individuals/etc. hoarded up Euros, which is natural crisis behavior. This creates a bid under the price.
Now that the panic is fading, there's less reason to hoard Euros, and you can diversify into other things again.

[xchrom]

13. There's Been A Massive Rally In Greek Debt

http://www.businessinsider.com/greek-debt-rally-2013-5

Here's more proof that the crisis in Europe is no longer about debt, but about the real economy.
Even in Greece, there's been a gigantic rally in government debt.
Check out the dropping yield on 10-year Greek bonds over the last 6 months, and in particular the last few weeks, where the yields has moved from around 10% to 8%.

[Demeter]

14. Idea of the Week: The Drone Economy

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2013/05/idea-of-the-week-the-drone-economy.html

When it comes to drones, many people think of targeted killings in faraway countries. (We’ve written about this subject extensively in the magazine and on newyorker.com.) However, the use of drones for a range of purposes here at home is on the horizon. A bill passed by Congress last year and signed into law by President Obama will eventually open the national airspace to Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, or U.A.V.s, and requires that the Federal Aviation Administration have regulations for their use in place by 2015. The U.A.V. business is poised to expand.

Nick Paumgarten wrote about drones for the magazine last year, focussing mainly on their potential domestic applications. The natural assumption is that domestic U.A.V.s will be primarily used for public safety. This is already the case—the Department of Homeland Security uses Predators for border surveillance. Other potential uses range from the benign (firefighting) to the more troubling (identifying faces from the sky).

However, the vast majority of drones in the United States will probably be used for agriculture. According to a recent report from the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (A.U.V.S.I.), a trade group, over ninety per cent of the U.A.V. industry’s possible economic impact in 2015 (or about two billion dollars) will be agricultural. Drones can be used to more precisely spray crops, keep track of growth rates and hydration, and identify possible outbreaks of disease before they spoil a harvest.

The interactive infographic here shows A.U.V.S.I’s state-by-state economic projection for 2015, assuming F.A.A. regulations are in place:
SEE LINK. The map shows the extent to which agricultural uses of drones are expected to outpace public-safety uses. Looking at individual states, you see some interesting, if not always surprising, data points. For example:

The largest economic impact will be in California, which has the biggest gross state product (G.S.P.) in the country. It’s home to several prominent U.A.V. manufacturers (General Atomics, for example, which makes the Predator), and it’s also the U.S.’s top agricultural producer.

Though only fourteenth in G.S.P., Washington is second in projected economic impact. It’s home to Boeing, the world’s largest aerospace company.

Connecticut is twenty-third in G.S.P., but seventh in possible impact. The state is headquarters for United Technologies, one of the leading aerospace-parts manufacturers in the country.

Kansas, another relatively small economy, is also highly ranked in projected impact, at seventh. This is probably thanks to the state’s large agricultural sector, which was seventh in cash receipts in 2012.

With more commercial drones in America, the prospect of selling them to other countries will eventually become an issue. The U.S. already sells Predators internationally for military purposes, but what about the crop-dusting drones of the near future? Such trade could further buttress the numbers seen here, but it would present new risks—what if a U.A.V. falls into the wrong hands, or a plane with peaceful intentions is used to kill? This will be a question for Congress, as the drone economy emerges over the next few years.

[xchrom]

15. Rail Traffic Continues To Soften

http://www.businessinsider.com/rail-traffic-continues-to-soften-2013-5

***SNIP

Here’s more via AAR:
“The Association of American Railroads (AAR) reported an increase in traffic for the week ending May 11, 2013, with total U.S. weekly carloads of 280,986 carloads, up 0.6 percent compared with the same week last year. Intermodal volume for the week totaled 248,266 units, up 3.9 percent compared with the same week last year. Total U.S. traffic for the week was 529,252 carloads and intermodal units, up 2.1 percent compared with the same week last year.
Five of the 10 carload commodity groups posted increases compared with the same week in 2012, led by petroleum and petroleum products, up 50.8 percent. Commodities showing a decrease compared with the same week last year included grain, down 21.3 percent, and farm and food products, excluding grain, down 10 percent.
For the first 19 weeks of 2013, U.S. railroads reported cumulative volume of 5,244,498 carloads, down 1.9 percent from the same point last year, and 4,540,879 intermodal units, up 4.3 percent from last year. Total U.S. traffic for the first 19 weeks of 2013 was 9,785,377 carloads and intermodal units, up 0.9 percent from last year.”


Read more: http://pragcap.com/rail-traffic-continues-to-soften-2#ixzz2TYNclhc1

[xchrom]

16. Turkish bond yields reach record lows on credit rating upgrade

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-22567970

Turkish bond yields have hit new lows as investors greeted Moody's increase in the country's credit rating to investment grade.

The rating upgrade to Baa3 - although well below top-notch Aaa - makes the country's bonds eligible to a greater number of investment funds.

Strong demand from investors on Friday sent Turkey's two-year benchmark bond yield to a record low of 4.61%.

Investors accept lower levels of return on bonds they see as less risky.

[xchrom]

17. European car sales in first rise for 18 months

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-22566394

New car sales across Europe rose in April for the first time in 18 months, helped by strong demand in the UK and by the early Easter break.

Registrations rose 1.8% to 1.08 million in April, compared with a year ago. The last rise was in September 2011, said the industry association, ACEA.

While the figure was an improvement on last year, it was the third lowest total for April on record.

However, UK sales were 15% higher and were the best for April in five years.

[xchrom]

18. Bill Gates Retakes World’s Richest Title From Carlos Slim

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-05-16/bill-gates-retakes-world-s-richest-title-from-carlos-slim.html

Bill Gates is once again the world’s richest person.

The 57-year-old co-founder of Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) recaptured the title from Mexican investor Carlos Slim yesterday, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, as the software maker hit a five-year high. It is the first time Gates has held the mantle since 2007. His fortune is valued at $72.7 billion, up 16 percent year-to-date.

Slim’s America Movil (AMXL) SAB, the largest mobile-phone operator in the Americas, has dropped 14 percent this year after Mexico’s Congress passed a bill that could quash the billionaire’s market dominance. That’s helped erase more than $3 billion from the 73-year-old tycoon’s net worth.

“When they’re talking about reform in a country that’s generally poor, and the guy shows up No. 1 on the list -- not a good thing,” said Greg Lesko, managing director at New York-based Deltec Asset Management LLC, which oversees $750 million and has an “underweight” position in Slim’s flagship company. “He’s had a pretty good monopoly situation in Mexico, and the Mexican cellphone user has been paying more than he should. We applaud it for the country.”