Economy
Related: About this forumSTOCK MARKET WATCH -- Wednesday, 12 June 2013
[font size=3]STOCK MARKET WATCH, Wednesday, 12 June 2013[font color=black][/font]
SMW for 11 June 2013
AT THE CLOSING BELL ON 11 June 2013
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Dow Jones 15,122.02 -116.57 (-0.76%)
S&P 500 1,626.13 -16.68 (-1.02%)
Nasdaq 3,436.95 -36.82 (-1.06%)
[font color=green]10 Year 2.19% -0.07 (-3.10%)
30 Year 3.32% -0.07 (-2.06%)[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.
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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)Is this a great country, or what?
Demeter
(85,373 posts)At an age when many 90-year-olds are satisfied with playing gin rummy in a nursing home, Dole Food Co Inc Chief Executive David Murdock is planning his next big deal. The billionaire, who already owns 40 percent of one of the world's largest producers and marketers of fruit and fresh vegetables, made an offer on Tuesday to buy out the rest of the company in a deal that values it at just over $1 billion...Murdock, who is also Dole's chairman, returned as CEO in February after David DeLorenzo left to run two businesses sold by Dole to Japan's Itochu Corp. A high school dropout who ran the company as CEO from 1985 until 2007, he took Dole Foods public as chairman in 2009 - the same year, according to a Forbes profile, that he finally earned his high school diploma. Murdock, who made his fortune in real estate, picked up Dole when he took over its Hawaiian parent Castle & Cooke in 1985. The nonagenarian told the New York Times in 2011 that he wanted to live to be 125, pinning his hopes on a strict diet, daily exercise and a lifestyle free of pills or supplements. He also admitted to a "dictatorial" streak. (http://link.reuters.com/bar78t) The 213th richest American -- with a net worth of $2.4 billion, according to Forbes -- Murdock was in the news last year when he sold his 98 percent ownership of Hawaii's sixth-largest island, Lanai, to Oracle Corp co-founder and CEO Larry Ellison for a reported $500 million. His latest play follows the sale of Dole's packaged foods and Asia fresh produce businesses to Itochu for $1.7 billion, paring the company's size by a third. Revenue in 2012 was $4.2 billion. Dole is now left with its fruit and fresh vegetables business in North America and its fruit businesses in Latin America, Europe and Africa. About 70 percent of its revenue comes from fresh fruit. The company, like rival Chiquita Brands Inc , has been struggling with volatile demand and low prices for bananas, its biggest-selling product...
Dole shares jumped as much as 22 percent to $12.44, well over the offer price of $12 per share, suggesting that some investors expect a higher bid for the company, which has posted losses for the last three quarters. Analysts said Murdock may well have to raise his offer to clinch the deal, but that another bidder was unlikely.
"It's a good starting bid and it's a sufficient bid to commence negotiations with the independent committee of the board," said Roy Behren, managing member at Westchester Capital Management LLC, which owns 4.25 percent of Dole and is its fourth-biggest shareholder. Murdock is the biggest.
The proposed deal for Dole, which traces its roots to pineapple plantations set up in Hawaii in the mid-1800s, is the latest in a string of management-led bids, topped by Michael Dell's $24 billion offer for the computer company he founded.
"We see this proposed offer as an attractive transaction that is likely to proceed at or relatively close to this price level, especially given Murdock's strong ownership position, CEO role, and apparently strong personal liquidity position," Jonathan Feeney of Janney Capital markets said.
Dole's intrinsic value is around $9.46 per share, according to StarMine, a unit of Thomson Reuters. That is about 7 percent below the stock's Monday close and 21 percent below Murdock's offer. StarMine's intrinsic value estimates the cumulative annual growth rate in the coming 10 years using a blend of its own models and analyst estimates...Dole's shares fell sharply last month when the company announced that it had indefinitely suspended its share repurchase program, less than a month after announcing it, and would instead buy three new specially built refrigerated container ships for $165 million. Dole, which had $101 million in cash on hand as of March, said it would set up a special committee of independent directors to consider Murdock's offer, which has an enterprise value of $1.5 billion. The offer represents a premium of about 18 percent to Dole's closing stock price on Monday. The shares were up 21.5 percent at $12.39 in early afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange. Prior to the bid, the stock had fallen 32.7 percent since touching a life-high of $15.16 in September, when it struck the deal with Itochu.
Murdock said Deutsche Bank would advise on the transaction and that he had received a "highly confident" letter from the lender on the financing for the deal.
Demeter
(85,373 posts)CAMBRIDGE, England THE cheerleaders of the European Union like to think of it as an entirely new phenomenon, born of the horrors of two world wars. But in fact it closely resembles a formation that many Europeans thought they had long since left to the dustbin of history: the Holy Roman Empire, the political commonwealth under which the Germans lived for many hundreds of years. Some might take that as a compliment; after all, the empire lasted for almost a millennium. But they shouldnt. If anything, todays Europe still has to learn the lessons of the empires failures. The similarities with the Holy Roman Empire which at its greatest extent encompassed almost all of Central Europe exist at many levels. Todays European Council, at which the unions member states gather, reminds one of the old Reichstag, where the representatives of the German cities and principalities met to deliberate matters of mutual concern. And like the European project, which originated in a determination to banish war after 1945, the modern Holy Roman Empire, which was reformed by the 1648 Treaty of Westphalia, was intended to defuse the domestic German antagonisms that had culminated in the traumatic Thirty Years War.
But most similarities are less flattering. Both the European Union and the empire are characterized by interminable and inconclusive debate. The German phrase for delay, which translates as shoving something onto the long bench, stems from when imperial bureaucrats pushed their uncompleted paperwork farther and farther down a long bench in the Reichstag council chamber. And like the European Union, which is riven by tensions between larger and smaller states, the Holy Roman Empire proved too weak to contain over-mighty members like Prussia and Austria. Fears of partition and collapse abounded. The Reichstag was paralyzed; the emperor was hamstrung by rival princes. Granted, in a world of increasingly absolutist neighbors, the empire stood out in its respect for the law and a high degree of personal freedom. But the truly powerful states of the 18th and 19th centuries were those that learned from the empires mistakes.
The German experience was a cautionary tale for the American colonies after the Revolutionary War. They, too, were profoundly divided over how to defend themselves, and above all on the question of how the huge debt accumulated during the war should be repaid. The existing Articles of Confederation were too weak for the task, and the founders cast about for alternative models. In the Federalist Papers, James Madison and Alexander Hamilton looked at the federal system of the Holy Roman Empire, but they found it to be a nerveless body, incapable of regulating its own members, insecure against external dangers, and agitated with unceasing fermentations in its own bowels. Instead, the patriots embraced the model of the Anglo-Scottish Union of 1707, when the two kingdoms, formerly so divided, had come together by merging their debts, parliaments and collective efforts on the international stage. The resulting American Constitution created a powerful executive presidency and a representative legislature and made possible the creation of a consolidated national debt, a national bank and eventually a strong military, all of which in time turned the United States into the superpower it is today. The Holy Roman Empire, by contrast, failed to reform and disintegrated after it was defeated by Napoleonic France in 1806.
Some 200 years later, this history has been forgotten. Todays constant round of European summit meetings and reform initiatives remind one of nothing so much as the interminable and futile German imperial reform debate, and they are likely to have a similarly unhappy, if less spectacular, end. Like the old empire, the union has become preoccupied with legality and procedure at the expense of participation and effectiveness. This renders the euro zone cumbersome in the face of competition from the east and causes the bond markets to doubt its creditworthiness. Indeed, everything that Madison and Hamilton wrote about the empire then is being echoed today in Washington, albeit sotto voce.
Fortunately, there is a solution from history. The euro zone faces the same choice as the Holy Roman Empire and American patriots of old: how to overcome discredited forms of confederation. Rather than digging themselves into a deeper recession and democratic deficit through austerity measures, the states in the common currency need to form a full and mighty union on Anglo-American lines. They must create a strong executive presidency elected by popular vote across the euro zone, a truly empowered house of citizens elected according to population and a senate representing the regions. The existing sovereign debts should be federalized through a Union Bond, with a strict subsequent debt ceiling for the member state governments. There will have to be a single European military and one language of government and politics: English. This is the only framework that will endow the euro zone with the democratic legitimacy to reassure the bond markets, underpin the implementation of good financial governance across the entire union and defend its interests and values on the world stage...
Brendan Simms is a professor of history at Cambridge University and the author, most recently, of Europe: The Struggle for Supremacy From 1453 to the Present.
Fuddnik
(8,846 posts)Demeter
(85,373 posts)Oh, all right, if you insist...women!
Fuddnik
(8,846 posts)AnneD
(15,774 posts)But the zipper works both both ways.
Demeter
(85,373 posts)A man can walk away....and many do.
xchrom
(108,903 posts)After an hour of intense questioning, a slight grin breaks out on Jörg Asmussen's face. The justices have been peppering him with questions and Asmussen, a member of the executive board of the European Central Bank, can no longer resist a brief smirk. "Mr. Asmussen, you can still smile," says Andreas Vosskuhle, president of Germany's Constitutional Court. "That comes as a great relief to us."
Tuesday was not an easy day for Asmussen, who was called to testify before Germany's highest court in defense of an ECB program which, while having proven to be economically successful, might be in violation of the law.
The case focuses on the ECB bond buying program known as Outright Monetary Transactions (OMT). The program, announced last autumn, envisions the ECB buying unlimited quantities of sovereign bonds from ailing euro-zone member states to hold down their borrowing costs. To date, the ECB has not made any bond purchases, but the mere announcement that it might has proven enough to calm the markets and provide European leaders with some to seek agreement on longer-term measures to solve the crisis.
Even opponents of the program have acknowledged its success. The OMT "has been the most successful measure taken in saving the euro thus far," says Dietrich Murswiek, who represents co-claimant Peter Gauweiler, a member of parliament with Bavaria's Christian Social Union.
DemReadingDU
(16,000 posts)The Daily Show with John Oliver substituting for Jon Stewart
6/10/13 Good News! You're Not Paranoid
An NSA whistleblower claims the government reserves the right to spy on the small percentage of Americans who make phone calls or use the Internet.
http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-june-10-2013/good-news--you-re-not-paranoid
edit to add Part 2
6/10/13 Good News! You're Not Paranoid - NSA Oversight
Charged with overseeing the NSA's domestic surveillance programs, the FISA court wears out its rubber stamp.
http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-june-10-2013/good-news--you-re-not-paranoid---nsa-oversight
AnneD
(15,774 posts)does the really work? Inquiring minds want to know.
snot
(10,540 posts)AnneD
(15,774 posts)but the hammer was a revelation.
Hotler
(11,473 posts)I have no hope. I see no future.
Fuddnik
(8,846 posts)We're all completely fucked.
Dems endorsing Christie. Hedge funds bankrolling Cory the Tory.
DemReadingDU
(16,000 posts)Fuddnik
(8,846 posts)If you're looking to form a modern day fascist government. A managed democracy. An illusion.
I've got to read this book again.
http://www.amazon.com/Democracy-Incorporated-Managed-Inverted-Totalitarianism/dp/069114589X
Maybe that's how I'll spend the rest of my day, after I get back from Costco.
DemReadingDU
(16,000 posts)I don't recall that book, I need to add it to my list to read
Fuddnik
(8,846 posts)Puts a lot into perspective. Chalmers Johnson and Chris Hedges have quoted heavily from it in their books.
Like I said, I need to read it again.
xchrom
(108,903 posts)Greece became the first developed nation to be cut to emerging-market status by MSCI Inc. (MSCI) after the local stock index plunged 83 percent since 2007.
Greece failed to meet criteria regarding securities borrowing and lending facilities, short selling and transferability, said MSCI, whose equity indexes are tracked by investors with about $7 trillion in assets. Qatar and the United Arab Emirates were raised to emerging markets, while Morocco was cut to a frontier market. New York-based MSCI kept South Korea and Taiwan as emerging markets, and placed Chinese shares traded on local exchanges on review for inclusion in the emerging category, according to a statement yesterday.
The ASE Index fell 1.4 percent to 882.99 at 1:49 p.m. in Athens. The gauge has dropped 10 percent this week as Greece failed to win any bids in a sale of the countrys gas monopoly. The unsuccessful attempt to sell Depa SA dented Greeces state-asset sales program, which underpins 240 billion euros ($318 billion) of bailout loans from the euro area and International Monetary Fund.
It is unclear yet what the weight of the MSCI Greece will be on emerging markets, but in any case it will be significantly higher than that it has on developed markets, Constantinos Zouzoulas, an analyst at Axia Ventures Group, a brokerage in Athens, wrote in a note. This could be positive news for the Greek market as it could attract more interest, although there could be pressure in the short term.
DemReadingDU
(16,000 posts)6/3/13 Hindenburg Omen Creator: Im Hunkering Down for Possible Rough Ride
The man behind the Hindenburg Omen said hes prepping to bail out of the stock market after his ominous-sounding technical indicator was tripped last week for the second time in two months.
In a chat with MoneyBeat Sunday evening, Jim Miekka a blind former high-school physics teacher and the newsletter writer who devised the Hindenburg Omen confirmed all the criteria were met on Friday that triggered the indicator. He said hes still invested in the market, for now, and is waiting for a strong up day this week before he gets out of stocks and potentially starts shorting the market. Were on our way down from here, Miekka said. Im hunkering down for a possible rough ride.
The Hindenburg Omen named after the 1937 disaster of a German passenger airship uses a formula that parses data including 52-week stock levels and moving averages. Other criteria include a rising 10-week NYSE moving average and a negative technical indicator that measures market fluctuations. All these indicators must be tripped simultaneously on the same day for the Hindenburg Omen to take place. One occurred on April 15 and another took form on Friday, Miekka said.
more...
http://blogs.wsj.com/moneybeat/2013/06/03/hindenburg-omen-creator-im-hunkering-down-for-possible-rough-ride/
xchrom
(108,903 posts)Traders at some of the worlds biggest banks manipulated benchmark foreign-exchange rates used to set the value of trillions of dollars of investments, according to five dealers with knowledge of the practice.
Employees have been front-running client orders and rigging WM/Reuters rates by pushing through trades before and during the 60-second windows when the benchmarks are set, said the current and former traders, who requested anonymity because the practice is controversial. Dealers colluded with counterparts to boost chances of moving the rates, said two of the people, who worked in the industry for a total of more than 20 years.
The behavior occurred daily in the spot foreign-exchange market and has been going on for at least a decade, affecting the value of funds and derivatives, the two traders said. The Financial Conduct Authority, Britains markets supervisor, is considering opening a probe into potential manipulation of the rates, according to a person briefed on the matter.
The FX market is like the Wild West, said James McGeehan, who spent 12 years at banks before co-founding Framingham, Massachusetts-based FX Transparency LLC, which advises companies on foreign-exchange trading, in 2009. Its buyer beware.
Demeter
(85,373 posts)According to Timmeh, Holder and Obama, the banks could do no wrong.
xchrom
(108,903 posts)Pacific Investment Management Co., the worlds largest active bond manager, said investors should cut risk amid a more than 60 percent chance of a global recession in the next three to five years
Global growth will slow, keeping inflation in check, and economic volatility will increase, Saumil Parikh, a portfolio manager at Newport Beach, California-based Pimco, said in a report being posted on the firms website today. Investors shouldnt add risk in the search for yield, he said.
The global economy experiences a recession every six years or so, and the frequency of global recessions tends to increase when global indebtedness is high and falling as opposed to when indebtedness is low and rising, Parikh, who focuses on asset allocation, multisector fixed income and absolute-return portfolios, said in the report. The last global recession was four years ago, he said.
Bill Gross, Pimcos co-founder and co-chief investment officer, said in a Bloomberg Television interview last week hes sticking with high-quality bonds as market risks are rising and stocks, high-yield debt, currency and emerging-market bonds are all in disarray. Global bonds had their worst month in nine years in May, led by Treasuries, as investors sold debt in anticipation central banks will eventually scale back their unprecedented asset purchases.
Demeter
(85,373 posts)5 years...what a tough call to make!
Demeter
(85,373 posts)Fuddnik
(8,846 posts)He dares to question Dear Leader.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022998293
Demeter
(85,373 posts)I also found a whole bunch of newbies to put on Ignore.
Fuddnik
(8,846 posts)If I did, all the threads would look like swiss cheese.