STOCK MARKET WATCH -- Friday, 3 October 2014

[Tansy_Gold]

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

SMW for 2 October 2014

AT THE CLOSING BELL ON 2 October 2014
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Dow Jones 16,801.05 -3.66 (-0.02%)
[font color=green]S&P 500 1,946.17 +0.01 (0.00%)
Nasdaq 4,430.19 +8.11 (0.18%)


[font color=red]10 Year 2.43% +0.01 (0.41%)
30 Year 3.14% +0.01 (0.32%)[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.
09/08/14 Matthew Martoma, convicted SAC trader, sentenced to 9 years in prison plus forfeiture of $9.3 million, including home and bank accounts







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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]

[Crewleader]

1. Why Ben Bernanke can't refinance his house

Why Can’t This Man Refinance?



October 2, 2014 by Neil Irwin

An employee of a think tank owns a house in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Washington. He wants to refinance his mortgage, but the bank won’t give him a loan.

It is perhaps not the most shocking story in the world, but it becomes so when you learn that the think tank employee is Ben S. Bernanke, who was until earlier this year the chairman of the Federal Reserve, charged with setting the course of interest rate policy for the United States economy.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/03/upshot/why-ben-bernanke-cant-refinance-his-mortgage.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&version=HpSumSmallMediaHigh&module=second-column-region®

[Demeter]

2. Karma!

Dear goddess, this is gonna make my day!


Edit: the man's crazy. He should buy a (relatively) cheap condo and pay cash, not a monstrosity that he needs to mortgage....why does anyone need an $800K+ house?

[DemReadingDU]

7. Why would Bernanke want to refinance?

What does he know that we don't?

[Demeter]

17. Interest rates, most likely

Save a penny or two

He's lost equity, so it can't be to use house as an ATM.

I figure he's just as stupid with his personal finances as he was with the country's.

[Hotler]

19. Sweet!........n/t

[Demeter]

3. Financial Criminals Have Been Fined Billions, but They Rarely Pay

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/09/financial-criminals-have-been-fined-billions-but-they-rarely-pay/380477/

...After pleading guilty to fraud and money laundering, Belfort was ordered in 2003 to pay out about $110 million to those he wronged. Since then, he’s only paid $11.8 million. He was also sentenced to four years in federal prison, but he only ended up serving just shy of two years. Meanwhile, he’s thriving as a motivational speaker, and has made some money from selling the film rights to his life story. In a testimonial for his speaking services, Leonardo DiCaprio called Belfort “a shining example of the transformative qualities of ambition and hard work.”

Belfort’s relatively consequence-free story is only one of the more prominent ones in a parade of aggravating numbers reported on earlier this week by The Wall Street Journal. There’s still $97 billion out there in penalties that the Justice Department has failed to recover, and between September 2012 and September 2013, the department collected only 22 percent of penalties doled out. One particularly demoralizing figure was that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission had collected about a tenth of a percent of the $3.7 billion owed to wronged investors.

So how do convicted felons go about avoiding their payments? Take the case of Paul Bilzerian, who owed the Securities and Exchange Commission $62 million and paid only $3.7 million over the course of 25 years. (The Journal reported a few days ago that the SEC was officially giving up on getting any more money from him, after having spent $8.6 million to get the meager amount that they did obtain.)

Bilzerian has systematically thwarted federal prosecutors by building a web of trusts, partnerships, and corporations established in sketchy tropical locales. He has passed on cash and assets to his sons. He delayed prosecutors for years with a bankruptcy filing. And he has transferred ownership of his 28,000 square-foot home to trusts that were owned by, at various times, his in-laws and his neighbor’s mom. “Do you think I’d be stupid enough to have a bank account?” Bilzerian told a Journal reporter...

[Demeter]

4. J.P. Morgan Says About 76 Million Households Affected By Cyber Breach

http://online.wsj.com/articles/j-p-morgan-says-about-76-million-households-affected-by-cyber-breach-1412283372?ru=yahoo?mod=yahoo_itp

J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. said about 76 million households were affected by a cybersecurity attack on the bank this summer in one of the most sweeping disclosed breaches of a financial institution.

The largest U.S. bank by assets said the unknown attackers stole customers’ contact information—including names, email addresses, phone numbers and addresses. The breach, which was first disclosed in August and is still under investigation by the bank and law enforcement, extended to the bulk of the bank’s customer base, affecting an amount equivalent to two-thirds of American households. It also affected about seven million of J.P. Morgan’s small-business customers. It isn’t clear how many of those households are U.S.-based.

The bank said hackers were unable to gather detailed information on accounts, such as account numbers, passwords, Social Security numbers or dates of birth. Customer money is “safe,” the bank said in a statement to customers on Thursday.

J.P. Morgan reiterated that it hadn’t seen unusual levels of fraud since the attack. It added that customers wouldn’t be liable for any unauthorized transactions on the account if the bank is notified, and that customers don’t need to change their passwords or account information...

[Demeter]

6. JPMorgan hack exposed data of 83 million, among biggest breaches in history

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/10/03/us-jpmorgan-cybersecurity-idUSKCN0HR23T20141003?feedType=RSS&feedName=businessNews

Names, addresses, phone numbers and email addresses of the holders of some 83 million households and small business accounts were exposed when computer systems at JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N) were recently compromised by hackers, making it one of the biggest data breaches in history.

The bank revealed the scope of the previously disclosed breach on Thursday, saying that there was no evidence that account numbers, passwords, user IDs, birth dates or Social Security numbers had been stolen.

It added that it has not seen "unusual customer fraud" related to the attack which exposed contact information for 76 million households and 7 million small businesses.

The people affected are mostly account holders, but may also include former account holders and others who entered their contact information at the bank’s online and mobile sites, according to a bank spokeswoman....

[Demeter]

5. Wall Street tumbles on Ebola fears; small caps drop

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/10/01/us-markets-stocks-idUSKCN0HQ3RE20141001?feedType=RSS&feedName=businessNews

U.S. stocks dropped more than 1 percent on Wednesday as the first diagnosis of Ebola in a patient in the United States spooked investors, economic data pointed to uneven growth, and the Russell 2000 index entered correction territory.

The Ebola news pressured shares of airlines and other transportation names, with the NYSE ARCA Airline index .XAL falling 3.1 percent, the biggest percentage decline since January. The Dow Jones transportation average .DJT dropped 2.5 percent, its biggest daily percentage drop since February.

Small-cap stocks extended recent losses and the Russell 2000 .TOY closed more than 10 percent below its closing high of 1,208.65 in early March, which puts the index in correction territory. It was down 1.5 percent on the day.

"The small caps have lost the leadership, and a lot of it is the lack of liquidity with those issues. There's much more liquidity in the large caps right now, and when you're experiencing volatility, institutions tend to run toward the large caps," said Bruce Zaro, chief technical strategist at Bolton Global Asset Management in Boston.

MORE PANIC IN THE STREET

[xchrom]

8. France Is 'Finished' Says UK's Best Retailer

http://www.businessinsider.com/john-lewis-ceo-andy-street-says-france-is-finished-2014-10

John Lewis, the retailer regularly voted the UK’s best by customers, has a pretty friendly brand. Its mutual business model is regularly praised as one for the entire country to copy.

So you might have expected, after being awarded the status of one of the world's best retailers in Paris this week, managing director Andy Street to have some kind words to say about his French hosts.

Not quite. He says the country is "finished."

Speaking in London on Thursday, The Times reports that John Lewis' most senior executive said: “I have never been to a country more ill at ease … nothing works, and worse, nobody cares about it.”

“If you’ve got investments in French businesses, get them out quickly.”



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/john-lewis-ceo-andy-street-says-france-is-finished-2014-10#ixzz3F55b9Zqf

[xchrom]

9. 10 Things You Need To Know Before The Opening Bell

http://www.businessinsider.com/opening-bell-october-3-2014-2014-10

JP Morgan Has Had A Colossal Data Breach. The bank revealed that 76 million households and 7 million small businesses may have had their private data compromised in a recent cyberattack.

PIMCO Is On The Defensive. CEO Doug Hodge said in a letter to clients that “our DNA is fundamentally unchanged” after the departure of Bill Gross.

Hong Kong’s Protests Are Still Escalating. Police are struggling to keep order in an area of Hong Kong where pro-Beijing protestors are attacking pro-democracy demonstrators.

The US Jobs Report Is Out Later. We’ll get nonfarm payrolls, earnings, and unemployment at 8.30 a.m. ET. Here’s what to expect.

BP Wants A Deepwater Ruling Overturned. BP asked a US court to reconsider a September ruling that found the company "grossly negligent" for the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/opening-bell-october-3-2014-2014-10#ixzz3F564NG32

[xchrom]

10. US Crackdown On Tax Inversions Has Claimed Its First Victim — Pharmaceutical Company Salix

http://www.businessinsider.com/us-crackdown-on-tax-inversions-has-claimed-its-first-victim--pharmaceutical-company-salix-2014-10

Washington's new rules aimed at stopping US companies from fleeing high corporation tax at home by acquiring foreign companies have succeeded in derailing a pharmaceuticals tie-up.

Salix Pharmaceuticals, based in North Carolina, has abandoned its deal with Italy's Cosmo, citing a "changed political environment", in a move that could raise questions for other pending deals.

The American company had announced plans to pay $2.7bn in stock for Cosmo's Irish subsidiary in July, in a deal that would allow Salix to move its tax base abroad in a practice known as inversion.

But Carolyn Logan, boss of Salix, said the Obama administration's recent crack down on inversion deals, which introduced a string of measures to make the tax benefits less attractive, had raised too many questions.



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/us-crackdown-on-tax-inversions-has-claimed-its-first-victim--pharmaceutical-company-salix-2014-10#ixzz3F595of8c

[xchrom]

11. Eurozone Retail Sales Come In Strong

http://www.businessinsider.com/eurozone-retail-sales-august-2014-10

Retails sales in the Eurozone are growing.

In August, retail sales grew 1.2% monthly, versus expectations of 0.1%.

"Eurozone consumer remains a relative bright spot, but unlikely to last," Claus Vistesen of Pantheon Macro said.



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/eurozone-retail-sales-august-2014-10#ixzz3F59f9O82

[xchrom]

12. Swiss Bank UBS Could Face $6.3 Billion Fine From France For Helping Customers Avoid Taxes

http://www.businessinsider.com/r-ubs-faces-fine-of-up-to-63-billion-in-french-tax-probe-paper-2014-10

ZURICH (Reuters) - Switzerland's largest bank UBS could face a fine of up to $6.3 billion if found guilty in a French investigation into whether it helped wealthy customers there avoid tax, a Swiss newspaper reported on Friday.

A French court has already ordered UBS to deposit a 1.1 billion-euro ($1.4 billion) guarantee to cover a portion of potential fines in the case, but Swiss newspaper Le Temps said it had seen a legal document showing the bank could face a penalty of up to 5 billion euros.

The document, written by two judges, is dated July 23, the same day the bank was first ordered by French officials to pay the guarantee.

Le Temps quoted the document as saying "the business model of UBS Switzerland was to offer its clients bank secrecy in contradiction to (French) fiscal authorities".



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/r-ubs-faces-fine-of-up-to-63-billion-in-french-tax-probe-paper-2014-10#ixzz3F5AcWJ5r

[xchrom]

13. Why It Matters That So Many People Got Inflation So Wrong

http://www.businessinsider.com/why-it-matters-that-so-many-people-got-inflation-so-wrong-2014-10

There’s been a substantial amount of criticism thrown in the direction of those who predicted high inflation since the financial crisis. Yesterday’s piece by Bloomberg sparked a lot of conversation on the matter as it shined the spotlight on some very prominent investors and economists regarding their 2010 “open letter to Ben Bernanke” which said QE would cause high inflation and dollar devaluation. The Bloomberg reporters asked the original signatories if they thought their prediction had been wrong and they almost universally responded by saying “we weren’t wrong, we are just early”. Let’s be blunt – they’re not early. They’ve been wrong. And it matters. A lot.

First, in addition to high inflation the signatories also cited market distortions. This is a concern I actually agree with, but the whole market distortion aspect of QE shouldn’t surprise anyone. After all, the Fed itself has stated clearly that one of the main purposes of QE is to keep asset prices “higher than they otherwise would be”. In other words, the Fed is explicitly trying to distort markets. That’s basically the whole goal of the portfolio rebalancing effect. It’s something I’ve criticized the Fed for and I think there’s a reasonable argument that this sort of policy could have negative consequences.

The inflation predictions are more problematic in my view because they’re often the result of obvious misunderstandings that have directly led not only to poor investment decisions, but poor policy decisions. For instance, I’ve harshly criticized this list of economists for their predictions about how QE could result in inflation at some point. In essence, there was a huge list of prominent people who said QE was the equivalent of “money printing” which would lead to high inflation because they thought the reserves the Fed was creating would somehow “get out” or be “lent out” and flood the economy with excess money. I’ve noted, ad infinitum, how this is based on an incorrect understanding of the monetary system. There was absolutely no merit to the idea that QE would cause hyperinflation or high inflation following the crisis and those who understood the operational realities of QE knew this in advance.



Read more: http://pragcap.com/why-the-inaccurate-inflation-predictions-matter#ixzz3F5B5FfsA

[xchrom]

14. Markets Are Staging A Nice Rally

http://www.businessinsider.com/markets-are-staging-a-rally-2014-10

European markets are up early Friday morning, after a bad day following the latest monetary policy announcement from the European Central Bank.

Here's the scorecard:

France's CAC 40 is up 0.77%

Spain's IBEX is up 0.70%

Italy's FTSE MIB is up 1.06%

Britain's FTSE 100 is up 0.77%

German markets are closed today, for a national holiday.

In Asia, the Hang Seng had its first good day in a while, it's up 0.77%. The Nikkei closed up 0.30%.

U.S. futures are up, with Dow futures and S&P futures climbing 0.34% and 0.40%, respectively.



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/markets-are-staging-a-rally-2014-10#ixzz3F5BllUOn

[xchrom]

15. US EMPLOYERS LIKELY STEPPED UP HIRING IN SEPTEMBER

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_ECONOMY?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-10-03-05-01-33

WASHINGTON (AP) -- U.S. employers may have produced 200,000-plus job growth in September, a potentially reassuring sign after a hiring slowdown in August.

Economists have forecast that employers added 215,000 jobs last month, according to a survey by FactSet. That would match the average monthly gain this year, up from last year's average of 194,000. The unemployment rate is expected to remain 6.1 percent.

The Labor Department will issue the September jobs report at 8:30 a.m. Eastern time Friday.

In August, employers added just 142,000 jobs after topping 200,000 for six straight months, the longest such stretch since 1997. Even if the government reports that hiring was subpar for a second straight month, some economists say it wouldn't be cause for alarm. Most other recent data indicate that the economy is expanding at a healthy pace.

[xchrom]

16. 5 MYSTERIES OF US JOB MARKET WAITING TO BE SOLVED

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_JOB_MARKETS_MYSTERIES?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-10-02-12-37-57

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Just how healthy is the U.S. job market?

Despite steady hiring and falling unemployment, the question has provoked sharp debate and considerable uncertainty on the eve of the September jobs report.

Will millions without jobs who aren't looking for one eventually start looking?

Why aren't companies filling more of their openings?

Why can many people find only part-time work?

Much of the uncertainty flows from a big question: Does today's 6.1 percent unemployment rate, far below the 10 percent it hit in 2009, mean the job market is near full health? Or does the unemployment rate overstate the improvement?

[Hotler]

18. Fighting ISIS was never a humanitarian issue

http://www.democracynow.org/2014/10/2/after_us_sanctions_wars_tore_iraq
Sinan Antoon talks about Iraq.

"And I just want to point out that it’s important to remember the timing of the U.S. intervention. You know, ISIS took over Mosul and took over all of these villages, and it’s only when ISIS was close to Erbil, where there is a CIA office and where there are corporate oil interests, that then the United States moved much faster. So, again, please, we always have to repeat that. This has nothing to do with humanitarian issues. Nothing at all. I mean, we, I think, citizens, have to learn after all these years, and especially the last 10 years, that humanitarian issues are not—are not the reason why there is any intervention. We always have to look at geopolitics, and maybe, of course, dealing with some opposition or rising voices of criticism in the metropolis."

CIA and corporate oil interest.

But we all knew that.

[Crewleader]

20. Today's October Cartoon

[Demeter]

21. I hardly think ebola would do anything to vampires

They are the Undead, right? They don't have any blood to begin with, therefore, cannot leak it through all orifices....

[Fuddnik]

22. It would probably work nicely on vampire squids.

[Crewleader]

23. It's October/Halloween, here's a Bankster/ Dressed Vampire

He can't suck every drop out of you because fear has set in and he has to eat peanut butter sandwiches like the rest of us.

You like?

[Demeter]

24. Sure!