STOCK MARKET WATCH -- Tuesday, 5 November 2013

[Tansy_Gold]

[font size=3]STOCK MARKET WATCH, Tuesday, 5 November 2013[font color=black][/font]

SMW for 4 November 2013

AT THE CLOSING BELL ON 4 November 2013
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Dow Jones 15,639.12 +23.57 (0.15%)
S&P 500 1,767.93 +6.29 (0.36%)
Nasdaq 3,936.59 +14.55 (0.37%)


[font color=black]10 Year 2.60% 0.00 (0.00%)
[font color=red]30 Year 3.69% +0.01 (0.27%)[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
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[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]

[Fuddnik]

1. When all of your friends and advisors are corrupt assholes.....

You wind up with corrupt, asshole policies.

[Tansy_Gold]

2. Too true, too true

And too sad for those of us who have to live under those policies.

[Demeter]

3. And when you don't give a S***

You end up in disgrace. And deserve it.

A Millard Filmore in the making. Or a Warren G. Harding.


That is the perfect cartoon, Tansy.

I am off at the polls...6 AM to 10 PM. Queasy stomach, dizzy inner ear and all.

[kickysnana]

4. I agree, great cartoon. n/t

[xchrom]

5. European Union Says Growth Will Remain Miserable And Unemployment Will stay Sky High

http://www.businessinsider.com/european-union-says-growth-will-remain-weak-2013-11

BRUSSELS (AP) — Europe's economic recovery will continue into the second half of the year, though at a subdued pace, while unemployment will remain high through next year, the European Commission said Tuesday.
The European Union's economy is expected to grow by 0.5 percent over the second half of the year and be flat for the whole year, returning to growth of 1.4 percent in 2014, according to the Commission's fall forecast. Its last forecast in May still expected an economic decline of 0.1 percent in 2013.

The Commission, the EU's executive arm, also expects the 17-country eurozone to continue its recovery from a protracted recession, from which it emerged in the second quarter. However, over 2013 as a whole, the eurozone is still expected to record a decline of 0.4 percent. In 2014, though, the Commission is penciling in 1.1 percent growth, revised downward from a 1.2 percent in its last forecast.

"There are increasing signs that the European economy has reached a turning point," said the EU's Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs, Olli Rehn.



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/european-union-says-growth-will-remain-weak-2013-11#ixzz2jlm7RJNf

[xchrom]

6. Gas And Food Prices Have Hit Their Lowest Levels Of The Year

http://www.businessinsider.com/gas-and-food-prices-have-hit-their-lowest-levels-of-the-year-2013-11

The Federal Reserve prefers not to focus on inflation within the energy and food segments, but that doesn’t mean they’re not important. They’re just volatile components that can lead to erroneous conclusions about the broader index. And boy have they been volatile in recent years.

After huge increases in 2007/8 and 2010/11 food and gas prices are now declining rapidly. According to the FAO global food prices are now deflating at a -7.7% year over year rate.

And gasoline prices are now deflating at a -10.7% year over year rate.

On the bright side, this should shore up some consumer spending for other things. And it should give Austrian economists some time to stop shrieking about the conspiracy theory at the BLS so they can go buy more gold to stock their bunkers with.



Read more: http://pragcap.com/gas-and-food-prices-hit-2013-lows#ixzz2jlmhCT57

[xchrom]

7. CHART: Here's The Massive Deleveraging Of European Banks

http://www.businessinsider.com/european-bank-deleveraging-2013-11

From Morgan Stanley, a chart of the massive deleveraging still underway by European banks.

Due to the weak economy and demands of improving capital ratios, European banks are shedding assets aggressively.

This asset dumping, especially the dumping of foreign assets, tends to be Euro-bullish.

Thus this chart represents a pattern similar to the great decline in Japan, where ongoing deleveraging was accompanied by burdensome yen strength.



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/european-bank-deleveraging-2013-11#ixzz2jlnLjcoM

[xchrom]

8. Italian Banks Are Near Their Saturation Point On Government Debt

http://www.businessinsider.com/italian-banks-are-near-their-saturation-point-on-government-debt-2013-11

MILAN (Reuters) - Italian banks are near saturation point after two years spent frantically buying their own government's bonds, forcing the Treasury to find alternative investors at home and abroad to finance a 2-trillion euro debt.

Lenders' ability to soak up yet more Italian sovereign debt depends largely on the European Central Bank - which in turn says Italy is crucial to the fate of the entire euro zone.

In the coming year the ECB will make strict health checks on banks across the bloc, including a provisional 15 inItaly. It must also decide whether to roll over billions of euros in cheap long term loans which the banks have used profitably to accumulate government bonds, but fall due in early 2015.

Both events will determine how much domestic banks can keep up their support for the Treasury which was vital when the euro zone's third biggest economy teetered on the brink of a Greek-style debt crisis in 2011 and foreign investors fled.



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/italian-banks-are-near-their-saturation-point-on-government-debt-2013-11#ixzz2jlnqrqG9

[xchrom]

9. Researchers Say 'Bitcoin Is Broken' And Could Collapse

http://www.businessinsider.com/researchers-say-bitcoin-is-broken-and-could-collapse-2013-11

Two computer science researchers at Cornell University say they've uncovered a fundamental flaw in Bitcoin that is so bad, it could kill Bitcoin.
The problem is with how people "mine" bitcoins. Mining is how bitcoins are created. Most people don't mine bitcoins anymore. They buy them or take them as payment. But some people are in the business of mining coins with special bitcoin-mining computers. Even so, it is so difficult and time consuming for a computer to create new bitcoins that some miners have banded together in pools, using multiple computers that work together.

The problem with mining was found by Emin Gün Sirer, an associate professor at Cornell's Computer Science Dept., and Ittay Eyal, a Cornell computer science researcher.

They say that when too many miners gang together, they can obtain more than "their fair share" of bitcoins and this can lead to a monopoly over the whole system. They write:

... the problem is intrinsic to the entire way Bitcoin works ... a minority group of miners can obtain revenues in excess of their fair share, and grow in number until they reach a majority. When this point is reached, the Bitcoin ... the currency .. is no longer decentralized; the controlling entity can determine who participates in mining and which transactions are committed, and can even roll back transactions at will.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/researchers-say-bitcoin-is-broken-and-could-collapse-2013-11#ixzz2jlrxkpRr



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/researchers-say-bitcoin-is-broken-and-could-collapse-2013-11#ixzz2jlro3E9q

[xchrom]

10. GREEK BAILOUT CREDITORS GET AN EARFUL IN ATHENS

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_GREECE_FINANCIAL_CRISIS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2013-11-05-06-47-11

ATHENS, Greece (AP) -- Representatives of Greece's bailout creditors received an earful on the first day of new talks on the financially battered country's austerity program.

Armed with a bullhorn, a few dozen civil servants chanted anti-austerity slogans Tuesday outside the room where the officials were meeting Finance Ministry Yannis Stournaras.

Ministry officials said the protesters, who work for a Development Ministry department in the building, did not enter the room and left peacefully.

Greece has survived on international rescue loans since 2010 after a combination of dismal financial stewardship, loss of investor confidence and the global recession brought it near bankruptcy. Successive governments have passed deeply resented spending cuts and tax hikes to secure loans totaling 240 billion euros ($324 billion).

[xchrom]

11. OECD: ECONOMIC CRISIS HITS TRUST IN GOVERNMENTS

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/oecd-economic-crisis-hits-trust-governments

BRUSSELS (AP) — The financial crisis of the past few years has severely sapped confidence in government around the globe, a think-tank representing the world's wealthiest economies said Tuesday.

"In countries most hit by the crisis, the people have lost trust in their institutions to actually help them and solve their problems," said Martine Durand, the chief statistician of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

The report, "How's Life? 2013," showed that the percentage of people that trust national government declined in the United States from 50 percent in 2009 to 35 percent last year.

Among the OECD's euro constituency— 14 of the 17 EU countries that use the euro are members of the OECD — the proportion trusting government fell from 49.1 to 42.8 percent over the same period. In Japan, the situation's even worse, dipping from 27 percent in 2010 to 17 percent last year.

[xchrom]

12. MARKETS SUBDUED IN RUN-UP TO KEY GLOBAL EVENTS

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/W/WORLD_MARKETS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2013-11-05-06-36-09

LONDON (AP) -- Financial markets were leaden-footed Tuesday in the run-up to key economic events in Europe, the U.S. and China this week.

In the U.S., a run of economic data culminates on Friday with the publication of the delayed nonfarm payrolls report for October - a series of economic indicators that will go a long way to determining when the Federal Reserve will start to reduce its monetary stimulus.

In Europe, investors will be bracing themselves for the monthly policy meeting of the European Central Bank. Until last week's news that the annual inflation rate in the 17-country eurozone fell to just 0.7 percent in October, no change in policy was expected. Now, many economists think the ECB will either reduce its main interest rate to a record low of 0.25 percent or hint at future easing given that the central bank's main policy target is to keep inflation just below 2 percent.

And in China, leaders are scheduled to meet in Beijing from Nov. 9-12 to craft a new blueprint for the world's No. 2 economy as its state-led growth model runs out of oomph. Hopes are high that the plenum will announce changes to give private businesses a greater say in the economy but reforms will face resistance from officials and state companies who benefit from the status quo.

[xchrom]

13. Bernanke Giving Homebuyers Second Chance With Pledge: Mortgages

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-11-05/bernanke-giving-homebuyers-second-chance-with-pledge-mortgages.html

This was supposed to be the year that Herb Harrison found a newer, bigger home to replace his current house in Framingham, Massachusetts. Then, in May, mortgage rates began to rise and he put his hunt on hold.

“My wife and I looked at each other and said ‘no way,’” said Harrison, who works in information technology. “It was something we thought about when rates were at rock-bottom, but once the rates spiked, we decided to stay where we are.”

Now shoppers like the Harrisons are getting another chance, thanks to Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke. After five months of public speculation about when the Fed would end its housing stimulus sent mortgage costs to a two-year high in September, the U.S. central bank last week pledged a continuation of the bond buying responsible for last year’s all-time low 3.36 percent for a 30-year fixed loan. Interest rates may now hold at close to 4 percent through early next year, said Joel Naroff, president of Naroff Economic Advisors.

“People who were priced out of the market by the jump in rates are getting a do-over,” saidNaroff, based in in Holland, Pennsylvania. “Rates aren’t going back down into the low 3s, but we may see the high 3s and we’ll see those rates remain stable through at least February or March. That’s going to restore buyer confidence.”

[xchrom]

14. Pritzker Billionaire Brothers Turn From Family Feuding to Deals

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-11-05/pritzker-billionaire-brothers-turn-from-family-feuding-to-deals.html


Anthony and Jay Robert (J.B.) Pritzker, who inherited at least $2.7 billion after helping break up a storied dynasty, are investing in private-equity and venture-capital deals. They are co-founders and managing partners of Pritzker Group.

Anthony and Jay Robert Pritzker, brothers and heirs to the Hyatt Hotels Corp. and Marmon Holdings Inc. manufacturing fortune, settle in for salads and sandwiches at their 40th-floor office in Chicago’s West Loop. A decade ago, the duo joined family members who allied against their sister, Penny, who’s U.S. President Barack Obama’s commerce secretary, and two cousins.

The legal battle broke up the family empire and distributed at least $1.35 billion to each of 11 cousins. Now, the brothers say they are putting the discord behind them, Bloomberg Markets magazine will report in its December Billionaires Issue. They are primed to talk about investing their inheritance in companies that include a distributor of janitorial products and a maker of circumcision devices -- much like the grab bag their father and uncles assembled.

“Our family divested a bunch of assets over the 10 years leading up to 2011,” recalls Jay Robert, 48, who goes by J.B. and has been investing since 1996. “We have taken the cash and essentially have been in a process of investing that cash.”
Big brother Tony joined him in 2002, after the family’s infighting set in motion a decade-long sell-off of holdings.

[xchrom]

15. Economic Doghouse: Complaints about German Exports Unfounded

http://www.spiegel.de/international/business/complaints-about-export-surplus-of-germany-unfounded-a-931607.html

Marco Buti, the most senior member of EU Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn's staff, isn't exactly viewed as a friend of Germany in Brussels. The chief economist of the European Commission, a native of Italy, has a tendency to blame many euro-zone ills on the nature and effects of German economic policy.

Sometimes he is troubled by austerity dictates from Berlin meant to clean up the finances of crisis-ridden countries. And sometimes he feels that Germany is too stingy because it's unwilling to spend more to jump-start the economy.
Buti is especially irked by the imbalances within the euro zone. In his view or the world, countries like Germany are partly responsible for the turbulence in southern countries because they flood them with goods.

Buti will have yet another opportunity to call the Germans to order next week when, on Nov. 15, the European Commission releases its early warning report. The report identifies those countries whose deficit or surplus is particularly large in relation to economic output.

[Ghost Dog]

16. "The charge is always the same"?

...The charge is always the same: The Germans have acquired an unreasonable advantage by one-sidedly focusing on exports, and now they are flooding foreign markets with their products. At the same time, this view holds that the Germans live and consume below their means, which is detrimental to foreign companies because there is less demand for their products in Germany...

/... http://www.spiegel.de/international/business/complaints-about-export-surplus-of-germany-unfounded-a-931607.html

... Romano Prodi – Mr Euro himself – is calling for a Latin Front to rise up against Germany and force through a reflation policy before the whole experiment of monetary union spins out of control.

"France, Italy, and Spain should together pound their fists on the table, but they are not doing so because they delude themselves that they can go it alone," he told Quotidiano Nazionale

Should Germany persist in imposing its contractionary ruin on Europe – "should the euro break apart, with one exchange rate in the North and one in the South", as he puts it – Germany itself will reap as it has sown. "Their exchange rate will double and they will not sell a single Mercedes in Europe. German industrialists know this but all they manage to secure are slight changes, not enough to end the crisis."... "German public opinion is by now convinced that any economic stimulus for the European economy is an unjustified help for the 'feckless' South, to which I have the honour of belonging. They are obsessed with inflation, just like teenagers obsessed with sex. They don't understand that the real problem today is deflation,.."...

... Prof Prodi says Germany is living in an Alice-in-Wonderland world of intellectual confusion, thinking that it can run a current account surplus of 7pc of GDP (almost three time's China's surplus), with an inflation rate of almost zero, without at the same time blocking recovery. But no amount of protest makes any difference. "It has not effect on German policy because France, Italy, and Spain lack any common approach, even though all these countries they have identical interests."...

... They have the majority votes in the EU Council of Ministers. They have a majority on the ECB's Governing Council, and indeed on other bodies such as the European Investment Bank, which could be mobilised for a Marshall Plan (that empty promise from some wretched and now forgotten EU summit, never delivered like all those New Deal EMU pledges that came before).

They have natural justice, economic authority, and the EU treaties on their side. They can and should deploy their combined political power to impose a full fiscal and monetary reflation strategy on the EU, Abenomics for Europe. Germany might find that a few years of 3pc inflation and a mini-boom are not so painful after all. But if it finds this outcome so intolerable, the exit door is wide open. It can leave EMU. (And destroy part of its banking system in the process.)...

/... http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/finance/ambroseevans-pritchard/100025983/italys-mr-euro-urges-latin-front-warns-germany-wont-sell-another-mercedes-in-europe/


I think the Spiegel piece misrepresents the charge. Problems that have been referred to are the austere deflationary policies imposed at exchange and interest rates greatly favorable to Germany but that are unbalancing the EU project itself.

The second piece is a long commentary by Evans-Pritchard from Sunday...

[xchrom]

17. yeah -- i posted the us and others complaints here when they first came out.

they are pretty well founded from what i could gather -- no eu expert here.