STOCK MARKET WATCH -- Friday, 28 February 2014

[Tansy_Gold]

[font size=3]STOCK MARKET WATCH, Friday, 28 February 2014[font color=black][/font]

SMW for 27 February 2014

AT THE CLOSING BELL ON 27 February 2014
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Dow Jones 16,272.65 +74.24 (0.46%)
S&P 500 1,854.29 +9.13 (0.49%)
Nasdaq 4,318.93 +26.87 (0.63%)


[font color=green]10 Year 2.64% -0.02 (-0.75%)
30 Year 3.59% -0.02 (-0.55%) [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.
02/06/14 Matthew Martoma convicted of insider trading while at hedge fund SAC (Stephen A. Cohen) Capital Advisors. Expected sentence 7-10 years.








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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]

[tclambert]

1. The attitude of wealthy people in America today just amazes me.

In recent years, since the 2005 Keira Knightley version of Pride and Prejudice, I have become a fan of Jane Austen, and more recently, a fan of Upstairs, Downstairs, too. It seems from these sources that as recently as the early 1900s, and maybe still today as far as I know, some in Britain thought that noble birth truly did imply superior genetics. The smarter characters always seemed to know better. Yet a lot of people accepted this as unchallengeable truth.

In America, some felt our wealthy people equated to Britain's nobles. Certainly our rich folk want to believe they are a hereditary aristocracy. However, the British did not agree. For a long, long time they looked down upon those whose wealth came from "trade" as opposed to the "landed gentry." They thought of America's rich as ridiculous imitators of nobility, envious of the "good breeding" Americans could never have.

[Demeter]

2. America never went in for "good breeding" except on the Eastern Seaboard

and it seemed to stultify the gene pool.

Either that, or they have good enough breeding to keep their heads down and their scandals out of the papers or Facebook...

The nouveau riche of America, on the other hand, have no betters to ape, so they just go trailer park wild.

[Demeter]

3. The Funnies

THIS ONE'S FOR TANSY:

[Demeter]

16. Score 1 for Wally

[Demeter]

18. And another for the Poor

[xchrom]

4. Euro-Area February Inflation Rate Exceeds Forecasts

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-02-28/euro-area-inflation-stuck-at-less-than-half-ecb-ceiling.html

The euro-area inflation rate exceeded economists’ forecasts in February, easing pressure on the European Central Bank to take action next week to foster the fragile economic recovery.

Consumer prices grew an annual 0.8 percent, the same pace as in the previous two months, the European Union’s statistics office in Luxembourg said today. That exceeds the median estimate of 0.7 percent in a Bloomberg News survey of 41 economists. The ECB seeks a rate of just under 2 percent over the medium term.

The unemployment rate, which ECB President Mario Draghi has cited as contributing to low inflation, held at 12 percent in January, just off the euro-era record of 12.1 percent last seen in September, Eurostat said in a separate report today.

Today’s inflation report “shows that there is no threat of fully fledged deflation,” Carsten Brzeski, an economist at ING Group NV in Brussels, said by telephone. “The situation has not worsened, which also means right now that there’s no imminent reason for the ECB to act again.”

[xchrom]

5. Biggest Sovereign Fund Gains $115 Billion as Stocks Advance

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-02-28/biggest-sovereign-fund-gains-115-billion-in-2013-as-stocks-rise.html

Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, the world’s largest, rose 692 billion kroner ($115 billion) last year as unprecedented central-bank stimulus propelled global stock markets to their biggest gains in four years.

The Government Pension Fund Global returned 15.9 percent in 2013, after rising 13.4 percent the year before, the Oslo-based investor said today. The $840 billion fund’s stocks returned 26.3 percent, while its bond investments climbed 0.1 percent. Real estate investments gained 11.8 percent.

Stocks rallied as the U.S. Federal Reserve kept its quantitative-easing program running for longer than expected and the European Central Bank pledged to keep interest rates low for an extended period. The MSCI World Index of stocks rose 24 percent in 2013, the most since equity markets recovered from the financial crisis in 2009.

“The year’s results were driven by equity investments,” Yngve Slyngstad, chief executive officer of Norges Bank Investment Management, the central bank’s asset management arm responsible for running the wealth fund, said in a statement. “Despite various sources of uncertainty in the global economy, stock markets made broad gains in 2013.

[xchrom]

6. Bankia Bailout Shows Conflicts for ECB as Supervisor

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-02-27/spain-s-bankia-bailout-shows-conflicts-facing-ecb-as-supervisor.html

In December 2010, Bank of Spain inspectors delivered a report to their bosses about Caja Madrid savings bank that was grim: The bank faced losses of almost 5 billion euros ($6.8 billion) and needed new leadership.

By the time the central bank’s top policy makers delivered their recommendations to Caja Madrid, they no longer mentioned new management -- and the amount of losses had been pared by almost 2 billion euros.

The diagnosis was crucial because Caja Madrid was the biggest part of a nearly completed state-sponsored merger that would create Bankia SA (BKIA), an entity so big that troubles there could -- and did -- cascade through the entire financial system. The result was a 41 billion-euro bailout for Spain’s banks, a bill that the country’s taxpayers will have to pay.

The incident, set out in previously unreported Bank of Spain documents, is critical now because applying the lessons from such banking disasters is at the core of one of the biggest projects in European policy making since the euro was founded. Mario Draghi’s European Central Bank will take over supervision of euro-region banks from national regulators in November this year in a bid to avoid a rerun of a crisis that nearly destroyed the common currency.

[xchrom]

7. N.Y. Barclays Libor Traders Said to Face U.K. Charges

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-02-27/n-y-barclays-libor-traders-said-to-face-u-k-charges.html


Three Barclays Plc (BARC) Libor traders in New York were notified by U.K. prosecutors that they may be charged for allegedly manipulating the interest-rate benchmark, according to two people with knowledge of the situation.

The U.K. Serious Fraud Office plans to act within a month against the trio in connection with suspected rigging of the dollar London interbank offered rate, or Libor, said the people, who asked not to be named because the investigation is private and declined to identify the traders.

It’s unclear if all three still work at the bank, according to one of the people. The SFO has sought to interview former Barclays traders in the U.S. and U.K. regarding Libor manipulation in recent months, Bloomberg reported last month.

[xchrom]

8. Wall Street Hates JPMorgan Fee for $1 Trillion Junk Loans

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-02-28/wall-street-hates-jpmorgan-fee-for-1-trillion-junk-loans.html

On Wall Street, $3,500 goes further than anyone dared imagine in the 1980s when the predecessor to JPMorgan Chase & Co. charged the fee to trade each non-investment grade loan it sold.

That surcharge remains the same today and helps the biggest U.S. bank dominate the secretive $1.1 trillion junk-loan market while stifling profits for investors and rivals, which mostly stopped charging it years ago. The New York-based bank waives it for exclusive customers: trade with JPMorgan, no fee; trade one of its loans with anyone else, pay up.

JPMorgan can dictate terms because of its size, according to 12 people with knowledge of the matter who are concerned they’d jeopardize their business if their identities were revealed. The bank brings more corporate debt to market than anyone else, and competitors and investors worry they might be shut out of future deals if they don’t play by JPMorgan’s rules.

“This is one of the last frontiers of relatively unregulated, over-the-counter trading between financial giants,” said Jose Gabilondo, a law professor at Florida International University in Miami who focuses on corporate finance. “You’re dealing with a market that doesn’t have regulated disclosure requirements getting the information out in the market.”

[xchrom]

9. Gold Fix Study Shows Signs of Decade of Bank Manipulation

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-02-28/gold-fix-study-shows-signs-of-decade-of-bank-manipulation.html

The London gold fix, the benchmark used by miners, jewelers and central banks to value the metal, may have been manipulated for a decade by the banks setting it, researchers say.

Unusual trading patterns around 3 p.m. in London, when the so-called afternoon fix is set on a private conference call between five of the biggest gold dealers, are a sign of collusive behavior and should be investigated, New York University’s Stern School of Business Professor Rosa Abrantes-Metz and Albert Metz, a managing director at Moody’s Investors Service, wrote in a draft research paper.

“The structure of the benchmark is certainly conducive to collusion and manipulation, and the empirical data are consistent with price artificiality,” they say in the report, which hasn’t yet been submitted for publication. “It is likely that co-operation between participants may be occurring.”

[xchrom]

10. Irish Bankers Vow This Time It’s Different After Bust: Mortgages

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-02-28/irish-bankers-vow-this-time-it-s-different-after-bust-mortgages.html

John McKeon, an Irish real estate developer, stands in a half-finished penthouse apartment looking out to Dublin Bay. He raises his voice above the clanging of construction on the floors below.

“It’s great to be back building again,” said McKeon, 40.

Among his biggest challenges now is finding enough skilled workers after the collapse of a real estate bubble prompted a flight of plumbers, carpenters and electricians, he said.

McKeon’s family is building 59 apartments in Clontarf, north Dublin, on the former site of the Dollymount House, one of the city’s most prominent bars. The family bought it at the height of the nation’s boom in 2006 and knocked it down seven years later.

McKeon is being financed by Bank of Ireland Plc as Irish banks start to lend for real estate development again. Their message, after a credit and property frenzy in the last decade came close to destroying the country’s financial system: This time it’s different.

[xchrom]

11. There’s a Spot in Hell Reserved for Bank Overdraft Fees

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-02-26/there-s-a-spot-in-hell-reserved-for-bank-overdraft-fees.html

Here's one positive thing about bank fees: They unite almost everyone, at least in shared hatred.

Few fees have a more unifying effect than overdraft fees -- charges banks levy when adequate funds aren't available. U.S. banks are fighting regulators' proposals to collect more data on overdraft fees, Bloomberg's Carter Dougherty reports. Overdraft fees totaled $17 billion in 2011, and the Center for Responsible Lending worries fee collections could creep higher. It may not be clear how much the fees boost banks’ bottom lines, but it's obvious that customers are paying annual percentage rates above 4,000 for so-called "protection" from overdrafts.

The frustration over fees isn't just about being nickeled and dimed. It's that they tend to prove that we live up to the lowest expectations of our financial behavior. No one likes to confront a personal weakness and have to pay for it at the same time. It's numeric proof that people are as flawed as the banks are banking on them to be.

Americans love a freebie, and have spent the last decade flocking to "free" checking accounts. That forced banks to seek new sources of revenue, so they began to aggressively collect overdraft fees. That was okay with potential customers since so few of them planned on bouncing lots and lots of checks.

[xchrom]

12. Iceland Seen Threatened by Capital Flight From Its Own Citizens

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-02-28/iceland-seen-threatened-by-capital-flight-from-its-own-citizens.html

U.S. hedge funds aren’t the only ones trying to exit Iceland.

Its own citizens may follow if the government doesn’t show it can lift capital controls in place since 2008 without triggering a currency sell-off, according to Iceland’s biggest insurance firm.

“If people lack confidence, they will take their money elsewhere as soon as the controls are lifted,” Sigrun Ragna Olafsdottir, chief executive officer of Vatryggingafelag Islands hf, said in an interview in Reykjavik. “And here I’m referring to Icelanders, not just foreigners. This presents a much greater threat to the Icelandic economy than if foreigners decide to leave.”

Iceland has yet to test the staying power of its economic recovery. Capital controls, imposed at the end of 2008 after the island’s three biggest banks defaulted on $85 billion, have so far stopped offshore investors selling $7.2 billion in assets, equivalent to half the nation’s gross domestic product.

Hedge funds, including Davidson Kempner Capital Management LLC and Taconic Capital Advisors LP, bought claims on the banks’ assets at prices well below face value. Five years later they’re still waiting to cash in. Efforts to speak with the government, communicated by the winding up committees of the failed banks, have fallen on deaf ears.

[xchrom]

13. China’s Subsidies End Prompts Forecasts for Slower Growth

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-02-27/china-s-subsidies-end-prompts-forecasts-for-slower-growth.html

Chinese carmaker BYD Co. (1211) may be getting some bad news as it prepares to start selling in the U.S. next year. A planned reduction in government subsidies and a phase-out of interest-rate controls threaten to raise costs for it and thousands of companies across China.

Less than a decade after surging wages began forcing manufacturers to cheaper countries, President Xi Jinping is preparing to dismantle a web of subsidies that began under Deng Xiaoping in the 1980s. The measures could slow average annual growth to as low as 3 percent through 2022 from 10 percent in 2010. They also will mean higher prices for capital, land and water and swings in the cost of energy, potentially squeezing indebted state businesses.

Among those with “highly leveraged” financial profiles are power producer Huaneng Power International Inc. (902) and China Shipping Development (1138) Co., according to a Sept. 2013 report by ratings company Standard & Poor’s.

Societe Generale SA says as many as half of China’s steelmakers may have to shut down. Farther away, Australian iron producers such as Fortescue Metals Group Ltd. (FMG), which derives almost 100 percent of its revenue from China, could see lower profits.

[xchrom]

14. Afghanistan Mineral Riches Won’t Go Anywhere Without Rail

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-02-27/afghanistan-mineral-riches-won-t-go-anywhere-without-rail.html

Supervisor Atta Mohammad watches the cranes swivel and workers at the Naibabad freight terminal rush to unload wheat and construction material from Uzbekistan that’s just arrived on Afghanistan’s only railroad.

The cargo has to be transferred to trucks to reach the rest of the country through the icy passes in the Hindu Kush mountains that loom over the featureless desert because the 75-kilometer (47-mile) railway ends a short distance from the terminal near the northern town of Mazar-e-Sharif.

The short stretch of track is intended to be the start of 3,600 kilometers of rail that will be the key to unlock Afghanistan’s mineral riches, including iron, copper and gold. In 2010, the Pentagon estimated that Afghan minerals charted by the U.S. Geological Survey were worth some $1 trillion. In 2011, the Afghan government put the estimate at $3 trillion.

“Actually it’s $30 trillion -- the U.S. knocked a zero off to keep our assets a secret,” Afghan President Hamid Karzai told Indian investors in December. He offered no support for his estimate, and investment in Afghan mining so far has been led by groups from China and India, not the U.S.

[xchrom]

15. Japan’s Output Climbs Most Since ’11 as Tax Rise Looms: Economy

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-02-27/japan-inflation-matches-highest-rate-since-08-as-tax-rise-looms.html

Japan’s industrial production grew the most since 2011, indicating the economy is strengthening as a looming sales-tax bump stimulates demand, while inflation matched the highest level in more than five years.

Output rose 4 percent in January from the previous month, the trade ministry said today in Tokyo, more than a 2.8 percent median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey of 33 economists. Consumer prices excluding fresh food climbed 1.3 percent from a year earlier, the statistics bureau said.

Economic growth is set to surge this quarter as consumers and businesses splurge ahead of the April tax increase. The test for Abenomics and the Bank of Japan will be steering the nation through the aftermath, with the economy set to contract for a quarter and analysts projecting that Governor Haruhiko Kuroda will be forced to add to already unprecedented easing.

“Demand is likely to decline considerably after the sales-tax increase,” said Yoshimasa Maruyama, chief economist at Itochu Corp. in Tokyo. “The tax-rise may have a harsher impact on the economy than the government and BOJ predict.”

[xchrom]

17. Cyprus bailout hit as privatisation bill fails

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-26382041


International efforts to bail out Cyprus' debt-laden economy have been thrown into doubt after its parliament rejected a key part of the plan.

As part of the 10bn-euro (£8.25bn; $13.7bn) deal with the EU and International Monetary Fund, lawmakers have until 5 March to pass a bill allowing state firms to be privatised.

But on Thursday, they threw it out, jeopardising the next tranche of cash.

The government says it will re-submit the bill with some amendments.

[xchrom]

19. Spain begins privatisation of bailed-out lender Bankia

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-26377486

Spain's government has started selling some of its stake in nationalised lender Bankia.

It issued an initial offer of shares on Thursday worth 7.5% of the bank.

The Spanish government owns 68% of the lender, having injected it with 18bn euros (£14.8bn) of EU-funded aid when a property crash brought the country to the brink of financial collapse.

Since then, Spain's biggest bailed-out bank has returned to profit, with shares up 29% so far this year.

[xchrom]

20. World Bank postpones $90m Uganda loan over anti-gay law

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-26378230

The World Bank has postponed a $90m (£54m) loan to Uganda over its tough new anti-gay law that has drawn criticism from around the world.

World Bank officials said they wanted to guarantee the projects the loan was destined to support were not going to be adversely affected by the new law.

The loan was intended to boost Uganda's health services.

The new law, enacted on Monday, strengthens already strict legislation relating to homosexuals in the country.

[xchrom]

21. Venezuela student protest in Caracas ends in clashes

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-26376987

Hundreds of protesters were demanding the release of fellow students detained during two weeks of unrest, and called a fresh march for Sunday.

In another part of Caracas, a large pro-government march was held.

Earlier this week, President Nicolas Maduro declared an early start to the week-long Carnival public holiday in an attempt to end the unrest.

On Monday, Venezuela's Attorney General Luisa Ortega said 13 people had died in the violence, although President Maduro put the figure of protest-related deaths at more than 50 on Wednesday.

[xchrom]

22. Thai minister rejects proposal for talks from protest leader

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/02/28/uk-thailand-protest-idUKBREA1R03O20140228

(Reuters) - A senior Thai minister rejected a proposal for talks from the leader of an anti-government protest movement on Friday as demonstrators rallied at ministries to put pressure on Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra to step down.

Protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban had suggested that he and Yingluck should hold a televised debate.

"Yingluck is the legitimate leader of the country and Suthep is a man with warrants for his arrest who heads an illegal movement. The prime minister should not talk to Suthep," said Labour Minister Chalerm Yoobamrung, who oversees a state of emergency imposed last month.

"Suthep is only proposing negotiations, even though he dismissed them before, because protest numbers are dwindling."

[xchrom]

23. U.S. fourth-quarter growth cut to 2.4 percent

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/02/28/uk-usa-economy-idUKBREA1R0WL20140228


(Reuters) - The U.S. government slashed its estimate for fourth-quarter growth as consumer spending and exports were less robust than initially thought, leaving the economy on a more sustainable path of modest expansion.

Gross domestic product expanded at a 2.4 percent annual rate, the Commerce Department said on Friday. That was down sharply from the 3.2 percent pace reported last month and the 4.1 percent logged in the third quarter.

Economists polled by Reuters had expected growth would be cut to a 2.5 percent pace.

It is not unusual for the government to make sharp revisions to GDP numbers, as it does not have complete data when it makes its initial estimates. In fact, the latest figures will be subject to revisions next month as more information is received.

[xchrom]

24. Euro zone inflation stabilises in danger zone', unemployment stays high

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/02/28/uk-eurozone-economy-idUKBREA1R0J620140228

(Reuters) - Euro zone inflation stabilised in the European Central Bank's "danger zone" in February but did not fall as expected, making it less likely the ECB will loosen monetary policy further at its monthly meeting next week.

European Union statistics office Eurostat estimated on Friday that consumer prices in the 18 countries sharing the euro rose an annual 0.8 percent this month. That was the same rate as in January and December, after readings of 0.9 percent in November and 0.7 percent in October.

Economists polled by Reuters had forecast inflation would slow to 0.7 percent. Fears the bloc may be at risk of deflation as it struggles to recover from its debt crisis have raised expectations the ECB will use interest rates or other policy tools to give the economy further support.

"The higher than expected inflation numbers reduce the chances of an ECB rate cut at next week's meeting, and we maintain the view that ... the central bank will keep rates on hold," said Nick Kounis, head of macro research at ABN AMRO.

[xchrom]

25. EU-U.S. trade talks face growing hostility, ministers warn

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/02/28/uk-eu-usa-trade-idUKBREA1R0NR20140228

(Reuters) - Free-trade talks between the United States and the European Union are in danger of being derailed by populist groups opposing everything from globalisation to multinationals, EU ministers and business leaders said on Friday.

The rise of anti-EU parties, reports of U.S. spying in Europe and accusations that a trade pact would pander to big companies have combined to erode public support for a deal that proponents say would dramatically increase economic growth.

"We are grappling with people who are anti-European, who are anti-American, who are anti-free trade, who are anti-globalisation and who are anti-multinational corporations," Finland's minister for Europe and trade, Alexander Stubb, told his EU counterparts and business leaders at a meeting in Athens.

"We have an uphill battle to make the argument that this EU-U.S. free-trade agreement is a good one," he said in remarks that were broadcast to reporters.

[Demeter]

27. Uphill battle? I'll say it is. Like convincing the public that black is white

Excellent collection of news posts, X! I'm going to have to read further.

It's unbearably cold out here.

[xchrom]

29. we get snow tomorrow.

stay bundled up!

[DemReadingDU]

30. We get snow too

Depending on the path of the storm, we could get 12 inches snow!
or maybe 6 inches snow, and ice

When is it summer!

[xchrom]

31. i can't wait for nice weather.

i'm doing pulled pork for a party on sunday -- i just can't wait for some bar-b-que weather any longer.

[Demeter]

32. When Hell freezes over

and I don't mean Hell, Michigan, either. That's been frozen since Thanksgiving...

[DemReadingDU]

26. The Legends Are Abandoning the Markets

2/28/14 The Legends Are Abandoning the Markets

Stanley Druckenmiller founded his hedge fund Duquesne Capital in 1981. From 1986 onward he maintained average annual returns of 30%. He also managed George Soros’ Quantum Fund from 1988-2000. During that latter period he famously facilitated Soros’ “breaking of the Bank of England” trade: the legendary trade which netted over $1 billion in a single day.
Druckenmiller closed Duquesne Capital in 2010, stating that he was no longer able to meet his investment “standard[s]” in the post-2008 climate (he made money in 2008 before the Fed began to alter the risk landscape).
Druckenmiller’s key strength has always been macro-economic forecasting. That he would feel the capital markets were not offering him the opportunities he needed says a lot.

Seth Klarman is another investment legend who is returning capital to clients. Widely considered to be the Warren Buffett of his generation, Klarman recently cited a lack of “investment opportunities” as the cause for his decision to downsize his legendary Baupost Group hedge funds.

Other legends or market outperformers who have returned capital to investors or closed their funds to outside investors are Carl Icahn and Michael Karsch. Indeed, even value legend Warren Buffett is sitting on the single largest amount of cash in the history of his 50+ year career as an investor, stating that stocks are “fully valued” at current levels (Buffett largely does not believe in shorting the market, so his decision to be in cash is a strong indicator of opportunities).

These men are masters of the capital markets. They are voting with their feet and pulling their capital out of them. Given that their personal compensation is closely linked to assets under management and profit sharing, this decision is akin to the choice to forego additional wealth that could be made quite easily (none of these individuals would have trouble raising several billion more in capital) rather than trying to find opportunities in a challenging market.

If they’re bailing on the market… what are the odds trouble is approaching?

http://www.zerohedge.com/contributed/2014-02-28/legends-are-abandoning-markets

[Demeter]

28. Is it trouble, or regulation that prevents looting and pillaging?

Let the pirates retire and tax them mercilessly.

Or maybe, it's an election, and they need to deploy the cash in a United Citizens' fashion?

[Warpy]

33. They're right

They're waiting for the minimum wage to be raised to a more decent (but still not livable) level. That should send the market down and then they will snap up fire sale equities.

When profit statements start to roll in as the increased wage does its thing, the market will rebound.