STOCK MARKET WATCH -- Monday, 14 July 2014

[Tansy_Gold]

[font size=3]STOCK MARKET WATCH, Monday, 14 July 2014[font color=black][/font]

SMW for 11 July 2014

AT THE CLOSING BELL ON 11 July 2014
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Dow Jones 16,943.81.
S&P 500 1,967.51 +2.83 (+0.14%)
Nasdaq 4,415.49


[font color=black]10 Year 2.52% 0.00 (0.00%)
[font color=green]30 Year 3.34% -0.01 (-0.30%) [font color=black]


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[font size=2]Market Conditions During Trading Hours[/font]
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(click on link for latest updates)
http://tools.investing.com/market_quotes.php?
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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.
03/24/14 Annette Bongiorno, Bernard Madoff's secretary; Daniel Bonventre, director of operations for investments; JoAnn Crupi, an account manager; and Jerome O'Hara and George Perez, both computer programmers convicted of conspiracy to defraud clients, securities fraud, and falsifying the books and records.
05/19/14 Credit Suisse, which has an investment bank branch in NYC, agrees to plead guilty and pay appx. $2.6 billion penalties for helping wealthy Americans hide wealth and avoid taxes.








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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]

[xchrom]

1. ASIAN STOCKS REBOUND AFTER PORTUGUESE BANK SCARE

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/W/WORLD_MARKETS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-07-14-00-02-59

BEIJING (AP) -- Asian stocks rebounded Monday from jitters about a struggling Portuguese bank as investors looked ahead to a busy week of data releases in the U.S., China and Europe.

Oil edged up to stay above $100 after tumbling more than $2 last week amid expectations more Libyan crude will soon hit markets.

Tokyo's Nikkei 225 gained 0.4 percent to 15,219.59 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng added 0.4 percent to 23,326.78. Seoul, Taiwan and Sydney also rose.

Traders regained confidence following concern about the soundness of Portugal's Espirito Santo International, which reportedly missed a debt payment last week, echoing issues that spawned Europe's debt crisis. Investors appeared to have been reassured any problems would be contained.

[xchrom]

2. CHINA INDICTS US, BRITISH CORPORATE INVESTIGATORS

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AS_CHINA_INVESTIGATORS_INDICTED?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-07-14-04-24-11

BEIJING (AP) -- Chinese authorities have indicted British and American investigators hired by GlaxoSmithKline on charges of illegally obtaining and selling private information, state media reported Monday, as the Briton blamed the pharmaceutical company for misleading and using him.

Prosecutors in Shanghai filed charges of illegally obtaining and selling private information against British investigator Peter Humphrey and his wife Yingzeng Yu, a U.S. citizen, at the city's No. 1 Intermediate People's Court, the official Xinhua News Agency said. The move paves the way for the couple to stand trial.

The official Xinhua News Agency said it is the first time foreigners have faced such charges in China. Humphrey, 58, and Yu, 61, are part of an industry of investigators who help corporate clients screen potential partners and employees or watch for embezzlement and other employee misconduct.

The couple's arrest last year coincided with a Chinese investigation of accusations that GlaxoSmithKline paid bribes to doctors and officials to use its medications. Glaxo said it hired Yu and Humphrey last year to investigate a security breach involving a top manager.

[xchrom]

3. PORTUGAL BANK GETS NEW BOSS BUT STOCK STILL FALLS

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_PORTUGAL_BANK_WOES?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-07-14-05-55-38

LISBON, Portugal (AP) -- A new chief executive has been appointed for Portugal's biggest bank, but Banco Espirito Santo's share price is still falling sharply as investors continue to fret about its financial health.

The bank said Monday that Vitor Bento, a distinguished economist, is now CEO and Joao Moreira Rato, head of the government debt agency, is the new chief financial officer.

The bank had been run by the wealthy and influential Espirito Santo family since the 19th century.

The changeover was orchestrated by the Bank of Portugal as the regulator seeks to calm markets spooked by Banco Espirito Santo's exposure to debt piled up by other parts of the Espirito Santo group.

[Demeter]

22. Any family named "Holy Spirit"

has got to have lost all sense of proportion.

[xchrom]

4. ECB'S DRAGHI SET FOR GRILLING AS INDUSTRY FALTERS

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_EUROPE_ECONOMY?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-07-14-05-49-24

LONDON (AP) -- ECB President Mario Draghi is likely to face questions on what can be done to reduce the value of the euro when he faces lawmakers at the European Parliament later, amid further signs that the recovery in the 18-country eurozone is faltering.

The European Central Bank is coming under increasing pressure to do more to stem the strength of the euro currency, which is hurting exporters and keeping a lid on the region's recovery from recession.

At around $1.36, the euro is down from its 2014 high of just below the $1.40 mark in May. Even so, the currency remains well above its historic average.

Figures Monday suggest that the recovery in the eurozone is flagging. Official figures show industrial production down a monthly rate 1.1 percent in May.

[Demeter]

23. If they try to fix the "symptom" (exchange rate)

They will take down the Euro entirely. They should work on the cause: unemployment in all states but Germany....but then, Germans might suffer.

[xchrom]

5. Central Bank Exec Says Stocks Are 'Irrational' As China Is Poised To Crash

http://www.businessinsider.com/bis-stocks-are-irrational-china-poised-to-crash-2014-7

The Bank of International Settlements, an international finance watchdog that serves as a counter-party for national central banks, has again warned that investors are unprepared for a potential financial crash.
Jaime Caruana, head of the BIS, told The Telegraph that he believed the world economy is as vulnerable to crisis now as it was in 2007, because nobody in stocks seems prepared for the idea that at some point soon central banks will begin raising interest rates again.

The BIS previously described stocks as "euphoric."

Currently, most major central banks — including the Bank of England and the U.S. Federal Reserve — are holding rates at around zero percent. That is boosting stocks, because there is no point in investors keeping their money in savings accounts at such low returns.



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/bis-stocks-are-irrational-china-poised-to-crash-2014-7#ixzz37RIEZM7d

[xchrom]

6. Inequality Is Forcing US Towns To Try Scandinavia-Style Taxation — And It's Working

http://www.businessinsider.com/us-towns-try-scandinavia-style-taxation-2014-7


***SNIP

Could this system work to combat income inequality in the United States? Usually, the assumption is no, even though the most popular social insurance program in the country, Social Security, fits this template. We’ve recently published research that adds surprising support for the argument that the European model of progressive spending funded by broad-based taxes could work more widely here — by showing that it’s already happening at the local level.

With our co-author, Fernando Ferreira, we examined three decades worth of data from more than 5,000 American municipalities and school districts. We found that, as inequality rises, American cities and towns have been spending more on the poor and the middle class, funded by higher taxes on these groups.

Because most cities don’t have the power to tax income, they usually use property and sales taxes, which tend to hit all residents or fall more heavily on those who are middle class or lower income. As in Scandinavia, people are paying for their own increased services.

Our finding that municipal spending rose alongside inequality runs contrary to the view of many economists, who say that income inequality erodes support for essential public investments. We find that the increase in income inequality experienced by the typical city is associated with an $88 increase in expenditures per resident on top of the $900 per resident on local services spent by the typical city each year.



Read more: http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/jurisprudence/2014/07/rising_inequality_american_towns_are_spending_more_like_scandinavia_pull.html#ixzz37RJGoDEO

[xchrom]

7. A $53 Billion Deal Is In The Works That'll Get A US-Based Drug Company Moved To Ireland

http://www.businessinsider.com/r-shire-says-ready-to-recommend-abbvies-53-billion-offer-2014-14

LONDON (Reuters) - London-listed drugmaker Shire said on Monday it was ready to recommend a new 31 billion pounds ($53 billion) takeover offer from AbbVie, entering talks after receiving a fifth bid from the U.S. firm.

Chicago-based AbbVie, which wants to buy Shire to cut its tax bill and diversify its product line-up, made the new offer of 53.20 pounds per share on Sunday following a request from the Dublin-based group for an improvement on the previous approach at 51.15 pounds per share.

Reuters had reported on Saturday that Shire, a maker of drugs for rare diseases, had asked AbbVie to sweeten its offer to close to 53 pounds per share, in order for it to recommend the deal.

Shares in the group were up 2.7 percent at 50.00 pounds in early trading on Monday.



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/r-shire-says-ready-to-recommend-abbvies-53-billion-offer-2014-14#ixzz37RKQzJsj

[xchrom]

8. The Weekend Is Over And Stocks Are Up

http://www.businessinsider.com/the-weekend-is-over-and-stocks-are-up-2014-7

The weekend is over and stocks are up.
U.S. futures were 0.1% higher. Japan's Nikkei opened with a 0.2% gain. Korea's Kospi index was up 0.4%.

Markets seem undeterred by Singapore's latest GDP report, which showed the city-state's economy contracted in Q2.

After last week's sleepy week in data we've got a big bounce back this week



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/the-weekend-is-over-and-stocks-are-up-2014-7#ixzz37RQyjyVZ

[Ghost Dog]

9. Breaking: Citigroup to pay $7bn for causing fiddlinancial crisis

Citigroup has confirmed that it will pay $7bn to settle an investigation into financial products it sold in the run up to the financial crisis. It was accused of mis-selling products backed by mortgages..

/... http://www.bbc.com/news/business-28265176

[xchrom]

10. CITIGROUP ANNOUNCES $7 BILLION FINE

http://www.businessinsider.com/citigroup-fine-2014-7

As expected, Citigroup has announced a $7 billion fine and settlement over investigation into pre-crisis mortgage practices. Here's the press release:

Citigroup today announced that it has reached an agreement to settle the ongoing investigation of the Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities (RMBS) Working Group, part of the Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force. Today’s agreement resolves actual and potential civil claims by the U.S. Department of Justice (the DOJ), several state attorneys general (State AGs), and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (the FDIC) relating to RMBS and collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) issued, structured or underwritten by Citi between 2003 and 2008.

Under the terms of the settlement, Citigroup will pay a total of $4.5 billion in cash and provide $2.5 billion in consumer relief. The cash portion consists of a $4 billion civil monetary payment to the DOJ and $500 million in compensatory payments to the State AGs and the FDIC. The consumer relief will be in the form of financing provided for the construction and preservation of affordable multifamily rental housing, principal reduction and forbearance for residential loans, as well as other direct consumer benefits from various relief programs. Citigroup has agreed to provide the consumer relief by the end of 2018.

Michael Corbat, Chief Executive Officer of Citigroup, said, “The comprehensive settlement announced today with the U.S. Department of Justice, state attorneys general, and the FDIC resolves all pending civil investigations related to our legacy RMBS and CDO underwriting, structuring and issuance activities. We also have now resolved substantially all of our legacy RMBS and CDO litigation. We believe that this settlement is in the best interests of our shareholders, and allows us to move forward and to focus on the future, not the past.”



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/citigroup-fine-2014-7#ixzz37RRwsA9a

[Hotler]

24. $7 billion. Hey repugs! Here the money for the kids coming across the border.

Take half of it and use it to fund the kids. Use the other half for roads and bridges. I have often wondered where the fines the banks pay goes. I've never Goggled either.

[DemReadingDU]

25. 10/8/13 When Giant Banks Pay Fines, Where Does the Money Go?

10/8/13 When Giant Banks Pay Fines, Where Does the Money Go? by Lynn Stuart Parramore
.
.
I contacted the Department of Justice to find out how it handled fines, and no one returned my messages. (Perhaps during the shutdown, justice has been put on hold—or maybe that already happened when Attorney General Eric Holder admitted that banks had gotten too big to jail.) In any case, a former DOJ officer, Billy Jacobson, has gone on record as saying that the fines don’t pay for coffee and donuts for investigators. Instead, the money has to go the U.S. Treasury. Restitution for victims is rare, and constitutes a trivial amount of what the DOJ brings in. In 2011 the DOJ took in $2 billion in judgments and settlements, and only $116 million went to restitution.

At the SEC, I got hold of a spokesperson who tersely informed me that money collected from fines does not ever come back to the agency, but rather goes into the Treasury’s general fund. Anything else would violate the agencies' statutes.

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 also directed the SEC to create something called the Fair Fund, which in some cases, distributes monies collected from fines and disgorgements to investors. So if you invested in a company like, say, Enron, you might end up seeing some of your money returned, though rarely all of it, and the process can take years. If you happen to own stock in a company or owned a mutual fund that has been charged by the SEC, you can check the SEC website to see if there’s a settlement fund. Only a small portion of what’s in the Fair Fund has been returned to investors, so don’t hold your breath.

Some have complained that money from fines goes back to the regulatory agencies to launch further investigations, which creates a parasitic relationship between regulators and those they pursue. Barry Ritholtz of the Big Picture was recently quoted in Yahoo Finance on this point: "Only a portion of the settlements collected go to the actual victims,” stated Ritholtz. “For the most part the money is used to fund more investigations." When I asked him for particulars, Ritholtz first told me to “Google it” but when I pressed him, he sent me the SEC’s 156-page financial report from 2012. When I read over this bloated document, it seemed to contradict Ritholtz’s statement. Perhaps he sees something in 156 pages that I don’t —alas, he did not respond to further inquiries.

I continued my quest to follow the money by calling up the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The folks at the CFPB were the most helpful so far, and explained that when the bureau collects civil penalties, it drops them into something called the Civil Penalty Fund, which was established by the Dodd Frank legislation in 2010. The bureau will use the money in the Civil Penalty Fund to provide some compensation to victims, an amount which depends on various factors such as how much the victim has gotten from other sources. When the CFPB can’t find the victim or determines, for whatever reason, that it’s not “practicable” to pay them, the money goes to “consumer education” and “financial literacy programs.” That last bit is a little vague.

In the end, we seem to have a large chunk of money from fines and penalties going to the U.S. Treasury, which, if you’re a deficit hawk, ought to cheer you. But the amount going to victims, though on the rise, still appears to be inadequate.

more...
http://www.alternet.org/economy/bank-fines-and-crime

[Hotler]

31. Thank you.... n/t

[xchrom]

11. Stocks Advance With Portuguese Bonds as Yen, Gold Decline

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-07-13/japanese-futures-rise-as-crude-holds-losses-copper-gains.html

Stocks rose around the world after a gauge of global shares had its biggest weekly loss in three months. Portuguese bonds advanced, while gold declined and the yen weakened.

The MSCI All-Country World Index added 0.3 percent at 7:15 a.m. in New York. Standard & Poor’s 500 Index futures also rose 0.3 percent, after the U.S. gauge’s biggest weekly decline since April. Portugal’s 10-year securities headed for the biggest two-day gain in a month. The cost of insuring against losses on financial debt decreased for a second day. Japan’s currency retreated against its 16 major peers. Gold fell 1.5 percent and silver lost 1.6 percent.

European Central Bank President Mario Draghi will speak to lawmakers in Strasbourg after announcing a package of measures last month to shore up the economy. Banco Espirito Santo SA’s parent sold a 4.99 percent stake to meet loan repayments and the bank named Vitor Bento chief executive officer. Financial troubles at the group sparked concern last week that the region was vulnerable to financial shocks, triggering a selloff that helped erase $1 trillion from the value of global equities.

“Last week was a reminder that the European financial crisis is far from over,” said Christian Zogg, who manages the equivalent of about $11 billion as head of equity and fixed income at LLB Asset Management AG in Vaduz, Liechtenstein. “The Portuguese bank Espirito Santo was doing some harm to sentiment. The situation seems to be under control so far.”

[xchrom]

12. Individuals Pile Into Stocks as Pros Say Bull Is Spent

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-07-13/individuals-pile-into-stocks-as-pros-say-bull-is-spent.html


Main Street and Wall Street are moving in opposite directions.

Individual investors are plowing money back into the U.S. stock market just as professional strategists say gains for this year are over. About $100 billion has been added to equity mutual funds and exchange-traded funds in the past year, 10 times more than the previous 12 months, according to data compiled by Bloomberg and the Investment Company Institute.

The growing optimism contrasts with forecasters from UBS AG to HSBC Holdings Plc, who say the stock market will be stagnant with valuations at a four-year high. While the strategists have a mixed record of being right, history shows the bull market has already lasted longer than average and individuals tend to pile in at the end of the rally.

“If Wall Street, after poring over all known data, comes up with a target and we’re already there, and you still see individual investors buying and they’re typically the ones that are late to the party, it would seem there is limited upside,” Terry Morris, a senior equity manager who helps oversee about $2.8 billion at Wyomissing, Pennsylvania-based National Penn Investors Trust Co., said in a July 8 phone interview.

[xchrom]

13. Europe Needs $795 Billion Problem Property Loan Solution

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-07-13/europe-needs-795-billion-problem-property-loan-solution.html

European banks and asset managers plan to sell or restructure 584 billion euros ($795 billion) of riskier real estate as they try to clean up their balance sheets, Cushman & Wakefield Inc. said.

The region’s lenders, asset managers and bad banks, such as Spain’s Sareb, sold 40.9 billion euros of loans tied to property in the first six months, 611 percent more than a year earlier, the New York-based broker said in a report today. Transactions including foreclosure sales will reach a record 60 billion euros this year, Cushman & Wakefield estimates.

Lenders such as Royal Bank of Scotland Plc are accelerating loan-portfolio sales as borrowing costs fall from a year ago and economic sentiment improves. Lone Star Funds and Cerberus Capital Management LP are among U.S. investors that are taking advantage as sellers opt to offer bigger groups of loans, making it more difficult for smaller firms to make purchases, Cushman & Wakefield said.

“U.S. investors have raised an enormous volume of capital targeting opportunistic real estate,” Frank Nickel, executive chairman of Cushman & Wakefield’s EMEA corporate finance group, said in a statement. “‘Mega-deals’ prove popular to these buyers since they offer a chance to gain large exposures to key assets and markets in one transaction, saving on both costs and time.”

[xchrom]

14. Rebound in RV Sales Portends Rising U.S. Boats: EcoPulse

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-07-14/rebound-in-rv-sales-portends-rising-u-s-boats-ecopulse.html

Some friends of Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at BMO Private Bank, sold their home last month to visit every national park in a recreational vehicle, while another acquaintance bought a boat at a show.

Such anecdotal evidence helps make it “less surprising and more encouraging” that sales of RVs and pleasure craft are poised for another year of improvement, says Chicago-based Ablin, who helps manage $66 billion in assets. Americans are determined to “hold onto their leisure time,” so monitoring these purchases offers a “very important” consumer gauge.

With summer well under way, both industries appear to be heating up, suggesting confidence has improved. Sales of recreational vehicles are poised to approach a pre-recession peak this year, which bodes well for the still-recovering U.S. boat business.

Shipments of new towable campers and motorized RVs were “quite strong” in the first half of 2014, bucking some concerns about the resiliency of demand coming into the year, said Mac Bryan, a vice president at the Recreation Vehicle Industry Association. This suggests the industry could achieve projected gains of 10 percent, with shipments less than 1,000 units off the 350,000 pre-recession peak, he said, citing an estimate from the Reston, Virginia, trade group

[xchrom]

15. Citigroup to BNP Say Buy Nordics as Inflation Stirs: Currencies

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-07-14/citigroup-to-bnp-say-buy-nordics-as-inflation-stirs-currencies.html

It’s time to get back into Scandinavian currencies, according to strategists from Citigroup Inc. (C) to BNP Paribas SA (BNP), who say last week’s inflation reports will encourage Sweden and Norway to re-assess monetary policies.

Norway’s krone will rally more than any other Group-of-10 currency by year-end, climbing 4.7 percent versus the euro and 1.5 percent against the dollar, according to forecasts compiled by Bloomberg as of the end of last week. Sweden’s krona will rise 2.1 percent against the euro. The Nordic currencies are the worst performers in a basket of major peers this year, with the krona plunging 6.4 percent and the krone 2.6 percent, Bloomberg Correlation Weighted Indexes show.

Evidence of faster inflation in the nations’ consumer-price reports on July 10 will prove to be a turning point, strategists say, ending a bias toward cutting interest rates to prevent lagging prices from weighing on growth.

“Both of those currencies will appreciate from here,” Steven Saywell, the global head of foreign-exchange strategy at BNP Paribas in London, said in a July 10 phone interview. “The market’s gone too far in pricing a rate cut.”

[xchrom]

16. Traders Flood U.S. With $3.4 Trillion of Bond-Auction Demand

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-07-13/traders-inundate-u-s-with-3-4-trillion-of-bond-auction-demand.html

The intensifying debate over when the Federal Reserve raises interest rates is little more than a sideshow when it comes to the ability of the U.S. to borrow.

For all the concern fixed-income assets will tumble once the central bank boosts rates, the Treasury Department still managed to get investors to submit $3.4 trillion of bids for the $1.12 trillion of notes and bonds sold this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That represents a bid-to-cover ratio of 3.06, the second-highest on record and up from 2.88 in all of last year.

Attracting investors is critical for the U.S. as it finances a debt load that has more than doubled to almost $18 trillion since before the financial crisis. The appeal of Treasuries was on display last week as benchmark 10-year notes rallied the most since March while investors sought a haven amid rising concern over the health of a Portuguese bank.

“There are still plenty of needy buyers,” William O’Donnell, head U.S. government bond strategist at Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc’s RBS Securities unit in Stamford, Connecticut, said in a July 8 telephone interview. “We’ve seen it from all sources,” said O’Donnell, whose firm is one of the 22 primary dealers of U.S. debt obligated to bid at Treasury auctions.

[xchrom]

17. Draghi Seen Delivering $1 Trillion to Banks in ECB Offe

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-07-13/draghi-seen-delivering-1-trillion-free-lunch-to-banks.html

Mario Draghi’s newest stimulus tool will hand banks more than 700 billion euros ($950 billion) of cheap funding, economists say.

The European Central Bank president’s targeted lending program for banks will boost credit for the real economy as planned, and at the same time help keep the financial system flush with cash, according to the Bloomberg Monthly Survey of 45 economists. Draghi may address the topic today when he testifies at the European Parliament in Strasbourg for the first time since elections in May.

The ECB has identified lending to companies and households as a key weakness in the euro area’s fragile recovery. The so-called TLTRO program, part of a wider package of measures announced in June, offers as much as four years of low-cost funding tied to bank lending that Draghi said this month could ultimately provide as much as 1 trillion euros.

“The take-up should be large -- the money is cheap and banks should feel no stigma about accepting a free lunch,” said Alan McQuaid, chief economist at Merrion Capital in Dublin, who predicts banks will take the maximum available. “With any luck, Draghi’s next problem will not come until 2018, when 1 trillion euros needs refinancing.”

[xchrom]

18. Algorithms Cull Prospects in Slow U.S. Jobs Recovery

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-07-14/algorithms-cull-prospects-in-slow-u-s-jobs-recovery.html

One morning last month, a group of job seekers gathered in a cool basement meeting room under a Washington condominium to hear a talk and share stories.

The mid-career professionals included an intelligence analyst, an engineer and a woman who had run her own legal practice. They were frustrated with their inability to breach a nameless, faceless online-search process that seemed insensitive to their accomplishments and impossibly discriminating.

“Everybody is looking for the striped unicorn with blue eyes,” said Joel Sarfati, executive director of 40Plus of Greater Washington, host of the meeting. “It drives us crazy.”

Expanding use of technology that uses ultra-specific criteria to screen and winnow candidates may be perpetuating one of the most unusual features of the slow rebound in the U.S. labor market: Despite a steady increase in openings since the recession ended in 2009, these positions are being matched with job seekers less efficiently than in the past. For each 100,000 new openings, for example, companies have hired about 48,000 people, compared with about 54,000 following the 2001 recession.

[xchrom]

19. BRICS Fight Waning Clout With $150 Billion Deal in Brazil Summit

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-07-14/brics-fight-waning-clout-with-150-billion-deal-in-brazil-summit.html

The leaders of five of the world’s largest emerging markets will showcase a new currency reserve fund and development bank this week. Critics say neither is enough to revive the group’s waning clout.

Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, known as the BRICS, will approve the creation for the $100 billion reserve fund and $50 billion bank at a July 15-16 summit in Brazil’s coastal city of Fortaleza and the capital Brasilia.

The initiatives are born out of frustration with a lack of participation in global governance, particularly in the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, said Arvind Subramanian, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. The measures aren’t big enough to boost growth or cohesion in the group as foreign investor sentiment sours and member states focus on issues close to home, such as Brazil’s elections, the conflict in Ukraine and new economic policy plans in India.

“It’s hard to see a lot of impetus at this stage for the BRICS in general and for these initiatives in particular,” Subramanian said by telephone from Washington. “There’s going to be a lot of attention on domestic issues.”

[xchrom]

20. Dive in Minority Lending Puts Pressure on Fannie-Freddie

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-07-14/dive-in-minority-lending-puts-pressure-on-fannie-freddie.html

When tractor-trailer driver Curtis Jett walked into a bank a few years ago and asked about getting a mortgage, a loan officer told him he’d first need to save at least $20,000 for a down payment.

Jett, now 35, walked right back out without applying.

“I never revisited it after that,” said Jett, who lives in a Silver Spring, Maryland, apartment with his wife and three children. “I kind of got discouraged. I thought maybe you always needed that amount of money to put down on a home.”

Minorities like Jett, who is black, have been disappearing from the ranks of homebuyers who seek and receive conventional loans backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, a trend that poses risks for them and for the U.S. economy. With minorities growing as a share of the population, their homebuying patterns will have an increasing impact on housing sales. The decline of black and Hispanic buyers could also sap demand in the broader economy, since homeownership has been one of the best ways for Americans to build wealth.

“We have to ask ourselves how healthy will the economy be and how competitive will we be as a nation if the fastest-growing part of our population doesn’t have access to wealth-building tools,” said James Carr, a former Fannie Mae executive who is now a scholar at the Opportunity Agenda, a New York-based organization that works on racial equity issues.

[xchrom]

21. Draghi Faces Age-Old Problem in Trying to Spur Europe Inflation

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-07-14/draghi-faces-age-old-problem-in-trying-to-spur-europe-inflation.html


Mario Draghi faces an age-old problem as he tries to revive euro-area inflation.

A rapid rise in the importance of older workers in the currency bloc’s labor market over the next five years is set to prove a drag on inflation already about a quarter of the European Central Bank’s target of just below 2 percent, according to Marchel Alexandrovich, an economist at Jefferies International Ltd. in London.

Since 2008 the number of workers aged between 50 and 64 has gained in the main euro-area nations and now account for 26 percent to 31 percent of total employment, up from 20 percent to 25 percent previously. Employees aged more than 65 have also increased, yet the amount still lags the U.S. and U.K., suggesting to Alexandrovich that the “euro-area economics may only be at the start of what is a long-term structural shift toward increased importance of older workers.”

If so, then ECB President Draghi has another structural factor to worry about as he tries to prevent deflation with easy monetary policy. That’s because older workers tend to defer consumption and save for the future, while youngsters entering the labor market are more likely to consume today.

[antigop]

26. IRS to Rubber-Stamp Tax-Exempt Status for Most Charities After Scandal

IRS head touts "efficiencies," but some groups fear fraud
http://time.com/2979612/irs-scandal-tax-exempt-tea-party-political-groups-john-koskinen/

Amid ongoing controversy over its scrutiny of nonprofits, the Internal Revenue Service has decided it will no longer screen approximately 80% of the organizations seeking tax-exempt charitable status each year, a change that will ease the creation of small charities while doing away with a review intended to counter fraud and prevent political and other noncharitable groups from misusing the tax code.

As of July 1, any group that pays a $400 fee and declares on a three-page online form that it has annual income of less than $50,000, total assets of less than $250,000 and is in compliance with the tax-code requirements of a charity will automatically be allowed to accept donations that are tax-deductible for the donors. Previously the groups had to fill out a detailed 26-page form, submit multiple supporting documents and provide a narrative description of their intended activities.

In an interview with TIME, IRS commissioner John Koskinen said the change would result in “efficiencies [that] will translate into a faster and better review” of bigger nonprofits, while clearing a 66,000-application backlog that has resulted in yearlong waits for groups seeking to start a charity. He said the new short form comes with 20 pages of instructions that make clear the requirements and limitations of being a charitable organization. Koskinen said that on the new short form, “people certify that they’ve gone through the instructions” under penalty of perjury.

[kickysnana]

30. The non-profits I worked for could not afford the $400 yearly fee. n/t

[bread_and_roses]

27. hello hello

I miss you all ... I just now could not resist posting in two other threads, so maybe I'm reviving ... (I've been visiting DU just to scan down LBN, but never for more than a minute or two till today ...)

If I'm going to post anything it really should be here - this is my "home" ... I've just been too beaten down by life in general lately ...

Great to see everyone, hoping to be back soon.

[Demeter]

28. Do come back, if only for your comrades

We miss you!

[antigop]

29. take care, OK? Hope you will be back soon. nt