STOCK MARKET WATCH -- Tuesday, 12 November 2013

[Tansy_Gold]

[font size=3]STOCK MARKET WATCH, Tuesday, 12 November 2013[font color=black][/font]

SMW for 11 November 2013

AT THE CLOSING BELL ON 11 November 2013
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Dow Jones 15,783.10 +21.32 (0.14%)
S&P 500 1,771.89 +1.28 (0.07%)
Nasdaq 3,919.79 +0.56 (0.01%)


[font color=red]10 Year 2.75% +0.03 (1.10%)
30 Year 3.85% +0.04 (1.05%)[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]

[Demeter]

1. Mother Nature swore at me Monday evening

swore at all of us Michiganders, actually. A really ugly, 4 letter word that I don't dare repeat....


I feel faint. I must lie down. Maybe I can post in the morning.

[Fuddnik]

2. Was it a 4 letter word that has something to do with....

White?

My condolences.

In the mean time, I'm working a couple of hours a week here. And shopping for new golf clubs

[Demeter]

3. Wind chill of 17F at 7 AM

I'll have to wear two layers....

[Tansy_Gold]

5. Currently 74 (6:00 a.m.)

Yesterday's high -- 92

Today's predicted high -- 89.

Sun, sun, sun.


No, I do NOT miss the Midwest.

[DemReadingDU]

15. White in Ohio too

[bread_and_roses]

9. I love the winter, and snow ... but the Dark is Rising

Right up till January 1. Then it becomes a matter of enduring till March. We often have our worst storms and ferocious cold in March, but still it is - ahem - "marching" toward April and Spring, and the light is returning.

There's a wonderful YA book by Susan Cooper titled "The Dark is Rising." I highly recommend it for any age.

[Demeter]

4. The Autocrat at Work

[xchrom]

6. Two Great Tweets From Nouriel Roubini Explain The Biggest Economic Problem Right Now

http://www.businessinsider.com/two-tweets-from-nouriel-roubini-explain-the-core-problem-in-the-economy-right-now-2013-11

These are two great tweets from Nouriel Roubini.

He tweeted these stories last night, and they get to the core economic challenge of the moment.

On the one hand, there's widespread concern that financial markets are booming and bubbles are forming, especially in real estate, and that all this is a threat to financial stability.

On the other hand, there's worry about super-low inflation, and the ongoing risk of outright deflation if policymakers don't keep pressing down on the stimulus.

Nouriel Roubini ✔ @Nouriel
Follow
More evidence of froth if not bubbles in financial markets http://m.ft.com/cms/36ce7868-4af4-11e3-ac3d-00144feabdc0.html?catid=3 …
11:03 PM - 11 Nov 2013
Shadow banks reap Fed rate reward - FT.com
Loosely regulated non-bank lenders have emerged as among the biggest beneficiaries of the Federal Reserve’s ultra-low interest rates with three specialist categories increasing their assets by almost...

Financial Times @FT

Nouriel Roubini ✔ @Nouriel
Follow
Or deflation @EconBizFin: The growing fear is that rich countries may be entering twilight zone of ultralow inflation http://econ.st/18lqLR0
11:04 PM - 11 Nov 2013
The price is a blight
WHEN central banks adopted “quantitative easing” (printing money to buy financial assets) and other unorthodox means to buoy economies holed by the financial...

The Economist @TheEconomist

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/two-tweets-from-nouriel-roubini-explain-the-core-problem-in-the-economy-right-now-2013-11#ixzz2kRBdLZqx

[xchrom]

7. Here's David Cameron Calling For Permanent Austerity In Front Of All Kinds Of Ridiculous Gold Things

http://www.businessinsider.com/picture-of-david-cameron-calling-for-austerity-2013-11

From HuffPo:

David Cameron has suggested that public spending should continue to be squeezed in a "fundamental culture change" that would leave the British public sector "permanently" slimmed down.

Speaking at the Lord Mayor's Banquet in the City of London, he said the best way to keep the cost of living down was to take "difficult decisions on public spending" to leave "a state we can afford".

What everyone is talking about though is the photo of Cameron making this call for lower spending.

Among the items featured in the photo:

A huge gold throne.
A gold speech stand.
Several expensive looking glasses and chalices filled with wine.
A random silver horse.
A huge necklace on the lady sitting on the throne.
Tuxes with white ties.
Yay, austerity!



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/picture-of-david-cameron-calling-for-austerity-2013-11#ixzz2kRCODYUx

[xchrom]

8. 14 Midwestern Sayings That The Rest Of America Can't Understand

http://www.businessinsider.com/midwestern-sayings-2013-11

1. "If I had my druthers…"
"Druthers" is a shortened way of saying "would rather." So "If I had my druthers" essentially means "If I had my way."

Usually when someone says this, they're amping up to tell you how something could have been done better.

2. "Oh, for cute!" or "Oh, for fun!"
Unlike Southerners who like to stretch sentences out, Midwesterners love to shorten theirs. And sometimes, things are just so gosh darn cute or fun that you don't have time to make grammatical sense or even get out a full sentence. That's why after seeing a newborn or a puppy, "Oh for goodness sakes, how cute!" is suddenly condensed into "Oh, for cute!"

3. "For cryin' out loud."
This expression of exasperation is reserved for when a situation or individual is particularly ridiculous or annoying. Instead of taking the Lord's name in vain and shouting "For Christ's sake!", it's much nicer to say "For cryin' out loud."

See also: "Oh, cheese and mice!" instead of "Oh, Jesus Christ!"

4. "That makes as much sense as government cheese."
For several decades starting in the 1960s, the U.S. government provided processed cheese to those on welfare, food stamps, or Social Security. The processed cheese was a mishmash of cheeses and emulsifiers that didn't taste (or smell) all that great.

In short, people really hated it. So saying "That makes as much sense as government cheese" means something is a truly terrible idea.

5. "He's schnookered!"
If you've had one too many beers while out with friends and are excessively intoxicated in public, you're "schnookered."

***my family pronounced it 'schn[ah]kered.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/midwestern-sayings-2013-11#ixzz2kREwFWQX

[Demeter]

19. What are they planning to snooker the Midwest again, and boning up on dialect?

Some of that is pure Minnesotan, not Midwest...

[xchrom]

21. yes and i recognize some as being particular to ohio. nt

[kickysnana]

22. Hey! That cheese wasn't that bad but T-Mobil is

They put it on bread in the schools for kids who forgot their lunch, lunch money or for those of us who were allergic to stuff, that was our family. Sure tasted better than the generic gelatin with orange juice and grated carrots in it LOL.

"You betcha" sounds like something that makes sense in Norwegian but my pea brain cannot recall.

T-Mobile bill collectors are replacing one of your numbers with theirs so you see a missed call from Grandma and call back and you got them. Got a call from a young relative this morning asking if I had called or not. I hadn't.

[xchrom]

10. a chart that 'excuses' global inequality

http://www.businessinsider.com/hans-rosling-inequality-chart-2013-11

The Difference Between Inequality Today And Inequality In 1973 In One Fascinating Chart

It may seem like inequality is getting worse.

As the Wall Street Journal's Justin Lahart wrote Sunday, the last time the 1% captured nearly 20% of all income was 1928.

Even Wall Street big shots are now getting worried, Lahart reported, citing Bill Gross' latest note to investors arguing inequality was reducing U.S. productivity.

But Global Health Professor Hans Rosling of Stockholm's Karolinska Institutet reminds us that we've actually come a long way in addressing inequality, if by "we" you mean the rest of the planet.

He Tweeted the following chart, showing that on a global scale, there are now more individuals earning $10 a day than ever before. Twenty-seven years ago, the global statistical mode for daily earnings was $1.



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/hans-rosling-inequality-chart-2013-11#ixzz2kRKF8IAE

[xchrom]

11. China's Leadership Wants The Markets To Play A Bigger Role In The Economy

http://www.businessinsider.com/chinas-leadership-wants-the-markets-to-play-a-bigger-role-in-the-economy-2013-11

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's ruling party pledged to let markets play a "decisive" role in allocating resources as it unveiled a reform agenda for the next decade on Tuesday, looking to overhaul the world's second-largest economy to drive future growth.

China aims to achieve "decisive results" in its reform push by 2020, with economic changes a central focus of overall reforms, the ruling Communist Party said in a communiqué released by state media at the end of a four-day closed-door meeting of the party's 205-member Central Committee.

"The core issue is to straighten out the relationship between government and the market, allowing the market to play a decisive role in allocating resources and improving the government's role," the party said in its statement.

It added that it would set up a central leading team for "comprehensively deepening reform," responsible for "designing reform on an overall basis, arranging and co-ordinating reform, pushing forward reform as a whole, and supervising the implementation of reform plans".



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/chinas-leadership-wants-the-markets-to-play-a-bigger-role-in-the-economy-2013-11#ixzz2kRLSBHXo

[xchrom]

12. Things Are Just Ugly In Russia's Economy

http://www.businessinsider.com/russia-q3-gdp-2013-11

Russia's Q3 GDP numbers are out and its a miss.
GDP expanded by just 1.2%, which was below the 1.4% expected.

"The pace of Russia's economic growth will fall behind the global average in the forecast period," said Economy Minister Alexei Ulyukayev last Thursday.

The economy ministry sees GDP averaging 2.5% growth per year through 2030.



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/russia-q3-gdp-2013-11#ixzz2kRM6G9F5

[bread_and_roses]

13. "Counting the Dollars the Rich Want Uncounted"

Not like we don't know all this, but with the "historic high" yesterday it's a good reminder:

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/11/11-2

Published on Monday, November 11, 2013 by Inequality.org
Counting the Dollars the Rich Want Uncounted
Americans are gaining, ever so slowly, a more accurate picture of just how wide the gap has stretched between the nation’s most fabulously privileged and everyone else.
by Sam Pizzigati

... For typical Americans workers, this workplace has become steadily less rewarding. The latest Social Security figures, released last month, show annual wages for the typical American worker down $980 in 2012 from five years earlier. David Cay Johnson, the nation’s top analyst of Social Security’s wage data, last week placed that total in a paycheck perspective.

The median American worker — an employee at the nation’s exact pay midpoint — labored 52 weeks last year, notes Johnston, “but earned about the equivalent of working just 50 weeks at 2007 pay levels.”

Over in America’s elite corner offices, by contrast, the pay keeps pouring in. The ranks of Americans making over $5 million a year grew 27 percent in 2012, the new Social Security figures show, to nearly 9,000 most fortunate souls. The actual compensation this cohort collected soared 40 percent over what the $5 million-plus crowd pocketed in 2011.

But these numbers, we need to keep in mind, don’t tell America’s full income inequality story. Social Security statisticians only tally paycheck data. Their work leaves uncounted income from dividends and interest, as well as capital gains and profits from business operations.

For income totals that take these and other non-wage income streams into account, we need to dive into data the Internal Revenue Service collects.

University of California economist Emmanuel Saez has done that diving. His latest calculations, released this past September, show that taxpayers in America’s most affluent 0.01 percent grabbed 993 times more income in 2012 than taxpayers in America’s bottom 90 percent averaged.

[xchrom]

14. The Emerging Market Warning Signs Are Flashing Again

http://www.businessinsider.com/the-emerging-market-warning-signs-are-flashing-again-2013-11

Remember the emerging market crumble from earlier this year?

For a few weeks there, we were seeing all kinds of weakness in things like the Indian Rupee, the Brazilian Real, The Indonesian Rupiah, and other assets.

Well, slowly this is becoming a thing again.

Via XE.com, here's a chart of the US Dollar against the rupee going back a year. Once again, the dollar has been strengthening hard against the rupee.



SoberLook, meanwhile, points out that Brazilian interest rates have been spiking.


Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/the-emerging-market-warning-signs-are-flashing-again-2013-11#ixzz2kRMl4o8y

[DemReadingDU]

16. Andrew Huszar: Confessions of a Quantitative Easer

WOW!

11/12/13 Andrew Huszar: Confessions of a Quantitative Easer
We went on a bond-buying spree that was supposed to help Main Street. Instead, it was a feast for Wall Street.

I can only say: I'm sorry, America. As a former Federal Reserve official, I was responsible for executing the centerpiece program of the Fed's first plunge into the bond-buying experiment known as quantitative easing. The central bank continues to spin QE as a tool for helping Main Street. But I've come to recognize the program for what it really is: the greatest backdoor Wall Street bailout of all time.

Five years ago this month, on Black Friday, the Fed launched an unprecedented shopping spree. By that point in the financial crisis, Congress had already passed legislation, the Troubled Asset Relief Program, to halt the U.S. banking system's free fall. Beyond Wall Street, though, the economic pain was still soaring. In the last three months of 2008 alone, almost two million Americans would lose their jobs.

more...
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303763804579183680751473884

[Demeter]

20. Only took him 5 years to catch on!

I swan.

[xchrom]

17. IMF CALLS ON THAILAND TO END COSTLY RICE SUBSIDIES

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AS_THAILAND_RICE?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2013-11-12-08-33-02

BANGKOK (AP) -- The International Monetary Fund called on Thailand to drop its multibillion dollar subsidies for rice growers, saying the program is undermining confidence in the country's finances.

The IMF said Tuesday in its annual review of Thailand's economy that losses in the program will continue if the policy remains unchanged.

The rice buying program, a flagship policy of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra's government to win support in Thailand's vote rich farming regions, has accumulated losses of at least $4.46 billion since it was introduced in 2011.

The government buys rice from farmers at above-market prices but has had difficulty in reselling the grain on international markets. The scheme was renewed by the Cabinet for the third year in October but the government decided to cap the total value for each qualifying household.

[antigop]

18. Comprehensive view of Obamacare plans reveals high cost for atrocious coverage,apparent violations

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2013/11/michael-olenick-comprehensive-review-of-obamacare-plans-reveals-not-only-high-cost-for-atrocious-coverage-but-also-apparent-violations-of-aca-requirements.html

Yves here. From what Lambert and I can tell, Michael Olenick is the first to publish any sort of comprehensive analysis of Obamacare plans. And when you read his piece, you will see why were are likely to continue to be subjected to barrages of cherry-picked anecdotes in lieu of analysis.

His three-person family in his Florida zip code has 132 plans available to them. As he describes, the one mechanism that Obamacare stipulated to simplify the shopping task a bit, that of showing what the each plan would pay out under two specific treatment situations, was not disclosed for the overwhelming majority of plans on the healthcare.gov site. That meant that Olenick had to find the the information elsewhere and input it into his comparison.

But the most stunning part is the degree to which the plans fall short of their stipulated “actuarial” payouts. At least for Olenick’s family, the plans fall well short of the mandated level of reimbursements (for instance, a bronze plan is touted as covering 60% of expected medical costs). It’s unlikely that Olenick’s family would produce results that are out of line with results for states with similar regulations (note that some states have additional requirements that will influence plan structure and pricing).