STOCK MARKET WATCH -- Friday, 31 October 2014

[Tansy_Gold]

[font size=3]STOCK MARKET WATCH, Friday, 31 October 2014[font color=black][/font]

SMW for 30 October 2014

AT THE CLOSING BELL ON 30 October 2014
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Dow Jones 17,195.42 +221.11 (1.30%)
S&P 500 1,994.65 +12.35 (0.62%)
Nasdaq 4,566.14 +16.91 (0.37%)


[font color=red]10 Year 2.31% +0.02 (0.87%)
30 Year 3.05% +0.04 (1.33%)[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]

[DemReadingDU]

1. The Final Dance

10/30/14 The Final Dance by kliguy38

When does the music end for the greatest dance in history. Its been over 80 years now for the culmination of the greatest ponzi in history. The ultimate banking masterminds of the World are moving chess pieces daily and sometimes multiple times within the daily news cycle. Why is this necessary? We have a "sustained economical growth" don't we? That's why we are stopping QE isn't it? Then why are virtually all of the Western Central banks either starting or talking about starting their own QE. Why are there still Zero Interest rates in all of the Western Banking Cartel nations? After all doesn't an economy that's growing so healthy deserve a "normalized" interest rate? Why even the most ardent of propagandist on CNBS and Bloomberg laugh periodically when discussing the subject of the Fed intervention on QE and ZIRP. Of course they quickly fall back into their propagandist hyperbole, but they cannot even conceal the bizzarro world of Fed CONtrol of the all important CONfidence.

How can this level of manipulation persists without a major stumble occurring that sends the entire pyramid into a collapse mode? Well, it helps to have complete control of the MSM and its ultimate propaganda value. So what is the threat to this pseudo-capitalism? One threat that exists is another currency to challenge the Dollar's reserve currency status. Maybe it will be China or Russia or a combination of BRICS. Or maybe its going to be even more simple. Maybe it will true money that ultimately rings the warning bell. You know what real money is and its obviously a much bigger threat to the manipulation than even I realized until the last couple of years. They can't let Gold and Silver break out. Its just not going to happen without a pitched battle to the end. The reason is simple. If Gold and silver break out then the move out of these fiat currencies into real assets and gold and silver will occur at an exponential pace that will not be contained. The stock bubble is now at nosebleed level and the money that is in is getting very anxious and looking for the first hint the music at the big dance may stop.

There aren't many chairs out there when the music stops and the sucking sound will be deafening as market participant scramble for safety. All ponzies end. They collapse and they will collapse in free fall. What tips it? You'll only know in retrospect. Extend and pretend may work for what seems like an eternity, but it is finite and when that pendulum swings back make sure you aren't in its path.

http://kliguy38depression2news.blogspot.be/2014/10/the-final-dance.html

[DemReadingDU]

2. Matt Taibbi’s Departure From First Look Media

10/30/14 The Inside Story Of Matt Taibbi’s Departure From First Look Media
by By Glenn Greenwald, Laura Poitras, Jeremy Scahill, and John Cook

Matt Taibbi, who joined First Look Media just seven months ago, left the company on Tuesday. His departure—which he describes as a refusal to accept a work reassignment, and the company describes as a resignation—was the culmination of months of contentious disputes with First Look founder Pierre Omidyar, chief operating officer Randy Ching, and president John Temple over the structure and management of Racket, the digital magazine Taibbi was hired to create. Those disputes were exacerbated by a recent complaint from a Racket employee about Taibbi’s behavior as a manager.

The departure of the popular former Rolling Stone writer is a serious setback for First Look in its first year of operations. Last January, Omidyar announced with great fanfare that he would personally invest $250 million in the company to build “a general interest news site that will cover topics ranging from entertainment and sports to business and the economy” incorporating multiple “digital magazines” as well as a “flagship news site.”

One year later, First Look still has only one such magazine, The Intercept.

Omidyar has publicly and privately pledged multiple times that First Look will never interfere with the stories produced by its journalists. He has adhered to that commitment with both The Intercept and Racket, and Taibbi has been clear that he was free to shape Racket‘s journalism fully in his image. His vision was a hard-hitting, satirical magazine in the style of the old Spy that would employ Taibbi’s facility for merciless ridicule, humor, and parody to attack Wall Street and the corporate world. First Look was fully behind that vision.

lots more, too much to post
https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/10/30/inside-story-matt-taibbis-departure-first-look-media/

[Demeter]

3. Well, Another Week and Another Month Have Come and Gone

and we are no further down the path to recovery of real economic functionality--Thursday's cruelly manipulated gain of 221 points and change is proof of that.

the Fed says QE is over, but it isn't. They just aren't increasing the balance sheet....they are going to keep all that funny money out there, for as long as possible, so that the 1% have money to burn while the rest of us freeze in the mud, ice and snow.

It took Lehman Bros. collapse to show them all what a house of cards they had built with their funny money and the funny papers and the funny pay scales and the funny stock options and the gruesome incentives. And the Fed immediately turned on the fire hoses to douse the flames on the paper castles of the rich, flooding and flushing away the lower 80% in the process.

This Wednesday was the 85th anniversary of Black Tuesday; the enormous stock market crash that heralded the Great Depression, that Great Depression that was re-enacted for our edification in 2008 and continues to this day. The names have changed, the fashions have changed, the regulations were dismantled and the same old con game picked up right where it left off.


I refuse to dwell on it, as a topic, this weekend. It's bad enough that we have to live through our grandparents' and great grandparents' worst nightmare. They, mercifully, are dead or beyond caring. It's our children and grandchildren we must plan to save.

So, let's consider childhood: fashions in parenting, education, fashion, games, toys. songs....maybe it will help to revive some Christmas spirit in this benighted nation, one person, one good memory at a time.

[Demeter]

4. Midterms Prediction: Billionaires to Retain Control of Government By Andy Borowitz

Billionaires to Retain Control of Government

With just one week to go until the midterm elections, a new poll indicates that billionaires are likely to retain control of the United States government. The poll, conducted by the University of Minnesota’s Opinion Research Institute, shows that the proxy candidates of billionaires are likely to win ninety-eight per cent of next Tuesday’s races, with the remaining two per cent leaning billionaire.

Although the poll indicates that some races are still “too close to call,” the fact that billionaires funded candidates on both sides puts the races safely in their column.

Davis Logsdon, who supervised the poll for the University of Minnesota, said that next Tuesday should be “a big night for oligarchs” and that both houses of Congress can be expected to grovel at the feet of their money-gushing paymasters for at least the next two years.

Calling the billionaires’ upcoming electoral romp “historic,” Logsdon said, “We have not seen the super-rich maintain such a vise-like grip on the government since the days immediately preceding the French Revolution.”

[Crewleader]

5. Halloween 2014

Ebola Nurse Hickox



Halloween



Happy Halloween!

[Demeter]

6. The Shrimp You Buy May Not Be What You Think It Is

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/29/mislabeled-shrimp-fraud_n_6065824.html?utm_hp_ref=business&ir=Business

The next time you sit down for some shrimp scampi, beware of a bait-and-switch. Much of the shrimp sold in grocery stores and restaurants across the U.S. isn't exactly what it says on the package or the menu, a new survey claims. Using DNA testing, the marine conservation group Oceana sampled 143 shrimp products from U.S. stores and restaurants and found that as many as 30 percent misrepresented the crustaceans they contained. For example, the researchers found that some shrimp labeled as being caught from the Gulf of Mexico were actually whiteleg shrimp raised in farms.

In other cases, one species was substituted for another. Samples sold as royal red shrimp or rock shrimp, two delicacies known for their lobster-like flavor, frequently turned out to be more common species. The researchers found three store-bought bags of alleged shrimp that in fact contained crustaceans that couldn't be genetically identified. One of those bags also contained a banded coral shrimp -- a critter normally sold as an aquarium pet, not as food. While the researchers' sample was limited to a cross-section of just 111 vendors on the Eastern Seaboard, the Gulf Coast and the Oregon shore, the findings illustrate how difficult it is for seafood lovers to know which creatures they're actually eating. Last year, another Oceana study found that one in three fish sold in markets is mislabeled. In some cases, shrimp may be misidentified by fishers or factories because different shrimp species are difficult to tell apart by sight, especially once processors have peeled them. In other cases, though, unscrupulous sellers may be slapping marketable labels like "wild" or "Gulf" on cheaper, farmed seafood.

"This is a big issue, which has economic, sanitary and environmental consequences," said Jorge Barros Velazquez, a food science professor at the University of Santiago de Compostela in Spain, who was not involved in the Oceana study. In 2007, Velazquez and his colleagues conducted a similar shrimp survey in Spain, and found the same problem: Of the shrimp samples they tested, 25 percent were mislabeled.

Widespread mislabeling presents a problem for seafood lovers who want to buy wild shrimp instead of farmed because it's more environmentally friendly or because they believe it may be healthier. Mislabeling also undermines people who want to support the hard-hit domestic fishing industry of the Gulf Coast region, which is trying to move past the images of oil-soaked shrimp after the Deepwater Horizon spill of 2010... advocates want the U.S. government to create programs that would track seafood from catch to sale. A bill called the Safety and Fraud Enforcement for Seafood Act, which would require records to be kept showing where and when seafood was caught, has been introduced in both chambers of Congress, but has not yet passed. Generally, the Food and Drug Administration has the authority to crack down on fraudulent food sellers. "In the interest of public health, it is vital that both domestically processed and imported seafood are safe, wholesome and properly labeled," FDA spokeswoman Lauren Sucher told The Huffington Post. However, the agency said it "does not provide speculative or advance information on enforcement actions" with regard to seafood sales.

Foreign shrimp farms, which are often not held to rigorous food standards, have their own problems that shrimp lovers may want to avoid. One grower in Vietnam was found to be using bacteria-laden ice to chill his shrimp, while some farms in Thailand have been linked to slave labor.

[xchrom]

7. Japan Just Boosted QE And The Nikkei Exploded To A 7-Year High

http://www.businessinsider.com/japan-just-boosted-qe-and-the-nikkei-exploded-to-a-seven-year-high-2014-10

The Nikkei closed up 4.83%, hitting a seven-year high after the Bank of Japan (BoJ) unexpectedly announced it was expanding its monetary easing policy Friday morning.

In a tight vote, the BoJ backed an 80 trillion yen ($720 billion) target for expanding the monetary base (a measure of the amount of money held by the central bank and in the economy). That's up from a 60-70 trillion yen target before.

Analysts were basically not expecting anything today: this one is a genuine surprise. Just as the Fed this week announced the final tapering of QE3 (where the monthly bond purchases the Fed had been making were stopped), the Bank of Japan is hitting the gas.



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/japan-just-boosted-qe-and-the-nikkei-exploded-to-a-seven-year-high-2014-10#ixzz3HiSKxNXJ

[xchrom]

8. The 10 Most Important Things In The World Right Now

http://www.businessinsider.com/10-most-important-things-in-the-world-right-now-oct-31-2014-10

1. The Bank of Japan unexpectedly announced Friday morning that it would ease monetary policy due to concerns about falling oil prices.

2. Israel is reopening a holy site in Jerusalem that was closed on Thursday for the first time in many years "after an Israeli counterterrorism unit killed a Palestinian man suspected of trying the night before to assassinate a leading agitator for increased Jewish access to the site," The New York Times explained.

3. Sweden has become the largest European nation to recognize Palestine as a state.

4. A Human Rights Watch report released on Thursday describes a horrific incident in which ISIS militants lined up 600 Shia, Christian, and Yazidi male prisoners and executed them at point blank range.

5. Apple CEO Tim Cook has publicly come out as gay.



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/10-most-important-things-in-the-world-right-now-oct-31-2014-10#ixzz3HiSt8n7U

[xchrom]

9. German Retail Sales Fall Through The Floor

http://www.businessinsider.com/german-retail-sales-september-2014-10

Germany's retail sales just hit a wall: they dropped 3.2% in September, the worst monthly decline since May 2008. The eurozone's powerhouse economy didn't see anything this bad during the financial crisis, or in the years of the euro crisis that followed it.

This all follows the grim news earlier in October that the country's industrial sector seems to be grinding to a halt. There's no doubt that this data point is going in the pile suggesting that Germany might be about to fall into recession.

Here's what Claus Vistesen at Pantheon Macroeconomics had to say about the grim numbers:

The plunge in German retail sales, the biggest drop since May 2007, indicates that the German economy was very close to a technical recession in Q2 and Q3.Retail sales were on track for a decent quarterly expansion before September data, but today’s data are bad enough to indicate that retail sales fell back to a modest contraction in Q3.


Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/german-retail-sales-september-2014-10#ixzz3HiTFLxW2

[xchrom]

10. Big Money Is Cropping Up In Small US Elections

http://www.businessinsider.com/r-big-money-crops-up-in-small-elections-in-the-united-states-2014-10

ARVADA Colorado (Reuters) - Political groups that took advantage of loosened campaign-finance rules spent hundreds of millions of dollars in the 2012 U.S. presidential election. This year, they're cropping up in state and local races as well.

Wealthy individuals and interest groups of all stripes are increasingly setting up political committees that can steer unlimited sums to small-dollar contests for state legislature, sheriff and school board.

Four years after the Supreme Court ruled that Congress cannot restrict spending by political groups not directly affiliated with candidates, the "Super PACs" and other spending committees that sprung up in the wake of that decision are becoming a fixture in races farther down on ballot sheets, where their money can have a greater impact.

In some cases, they are looking to bypass a gridlocked Washington that likely will not be more productive after the Nov. 4 congressional elections. In other cases, local operators are adopting tactics first developed at the national level.



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/r-big-money-crops-up-in-small-elections-in-the-united-states-2014-10#ixzz3HiU9YAMF

[xchrom]

11. Europe's Inflation Ticked Up And Unemployment Stayed Flat

http://www.businessinsider.com/europes-inflation-ticked-up-and-unemployment-stayed-flat-2014-10

The Eurozone's inflation just rose to 0.4%, from 0.3%.

Unemployment stayed flat at an eye-watering 11.5%.

Analysts weren't expecting a change in the unemployment figure to stay sat at 11.5%. It's slowly declined from 12% earlier this year. However, Italian unemployment figures just out showed an unexpected spike from 12.3% to 12.5%.

On inflation, analysts were expecting the slight climb to 0.4%. That might be a signal that Europe isn't heading into a deflationary spiral, but the figure is still far below the European Central Bank's 2% target, and is likely to be very low for a long time.

And it's not all good news on inflation: The Eurozone's measure of core inflation, which strips out the most volatile prices in the index, is still falling. It's down to 0.7% from 0.8% in September. That's the joint-lowest level in the currency-union's history.



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/europes-inflation-ticked-up-and-unemployment-stayed-flat-2014-10#ixzz3HiUwUIQ3

[xchrom]

12. The UK Government Plans To Pay Off $349 Million Of Debt That Stretches Back To The 18th Century

http://www.businessinsider.com/the-uk-government-redeems-war-loans-2014-10

The UK Treasury has announced plans to buy back £218 million ($349 million) of loans first issued by Winston Churchill in 1927, when he was Chancellor.

The majority of the bonds being redeemed were issued to refinance debt taken on during the First World War. However, some of the debt goes back even further — with part of the borrowing pre-dating the signing of the US Declaration of Independence.

Also included in the government buyback are: loans originally taken out to cover losses from the collapse of the South Sea Company in 1720, debt taken on to fund Britain's fight against Napoléon Bonaparte, and some that helped finance the Slavery Abolition Act of 1835.

These loans are unusual because they were issued as perpetual bonds. This means that they payed out interest but have no maturity date, in effect making them more like owning a stock that pays a dividend than a traditional bond. The government has the right but no obligation to pay off the debt.



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/the-uk-government-redeems-war-loans-2014-10#ixzz3HiVQ4E00

[xchrom]

13. European Markets Are Surging Higher After A Huge Rally In Asia

http://www.businessinsider.com/market-update-oct-31-2014-10

Here's the scorecard:

France's CAC 40 is up 1.88%

Spain's IBEX is up 1.58%

Italy's FTSE MIB is up 1.55%

Britain's FTSE 100 is up 1.19%

Germany's DAX is up 1.60%

Asian markets saw a massive rally. The Nikkei closed up 4.83%. The Hang Seng closed up 1.25%.

US futures are climbing too: The S&P is up 16.75 points and the Dow is up 149 points.

This morning, we've already had some terrible retail sales figures for Germany: with a 3.2% drop in September, they are the worst since 2007.



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/market-update-oct-31-2014-10#ixzz3HiVz4nc9

[DemReadingDU]

27. wow!

DOW futures up +182

[Demeter]

29. Christmas comes early for Wall St

They live in dread of October...superstitious bastards. Gotta pump it up to get over the hump.

[DemReadingDU]

30. once over the hump

then it's downhill

[xchrom]

14. GAS ALMOST UNDER $3 NATIONWIDE: WHAT TO KNOW

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_CHEAP_GASOLINE_THINGS_TO_KNOW?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-10-31-04-18-45

NEW YORK (AP) -- The sight is so surprising that Americans are sharing photos of it, along with all those cute Halloween costumes, sweeping vistas and special meals: The gas station sign, with a price under $3 a gallon.

"It's stunning what's happening here," says Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst at the Oil Price Information Service. "I'm a little bit shocked."

The national average price of gasoline has fallen 33 cents in October, landing Friday at $3.00, according to AAA, and will soon dip under $3 for the first time in four years.

When the national average crossed above $3 a gallon in December of 2010, drivers weren't sure they'd ever see $2.99 again. Global demand for oil and gasoline was rising as people in developing countries bought cars by the tens of millions and turmoil was brewing in the oil-rich Middle East.

Now demand isn't rising as fast as expected, drillers have learned to tap vast new sources of oil, particularly in the U.S., and crude continues to flow out of the Middle East.

[xchrom]

15. CITI CUTS EARNINGS DUE TO REGULATORY PROBES

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_CITI_REVISED_EARNS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-10-30-18-37-20

NEW YORK (AP) -- Citigroup has slashed its third-quarter earnings by $600 million, saying that recent investigations by regulators have altered the results it reported earlier this month.

The New York-based bank on Thursday adjusted its quarterly net income to $2.8 billion from a previously reported $3.4 billion, citing legal expenses.

The bank's operating expenses rose from $12.36 billion to about $13 billion.

Citi previously reported third-quarter net income of $3.44 billion, or $1.07 per share, on Oct. 14. The results exceeded Wall Street estimates, with analysts calling for $1.12 per share, according to Zacks.

The company said in a statement that the unexpected increase came from "rapidly-evolving regulatory inquiries and investigations, including very recent communications with certain regulatory agencies related to previously-disclosed matters."

[xchrom]

16. GAS READY TO DROP BELOW $3 FOR 1ST TIME IN 4 YEARS

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_GASOLINE_PRICES?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-10-31-04-17-02

NEW YORK (AP) -- The average price of gasoline in the U.S. hit $3 a gallon Friday, and should soon drop below the benchmark for the first time since December 2010.

The price at the pump fell 33 cents in October, thanks mainly to plunging oil prices, according to AAA.

Many exuberant drivers have taken to social media to post pictures of gas station signs with prices of $2.99 or lower. Drivers in South Carolina and Tennessee are paying the lowest prices, with an average of $2.75 a gallon.

Drivers in New York are paying the most in the continental U.S., at an average of $3.37. That's still 22 cents cheaper than a year ago.

Gasoline is cheaper than milk again. In September the national average price of milk was $3.73 per gallon.

[xchrom]

17. JAPAN'S HUGE PENSION FUND TO BOOST SHARE PURCHASES

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AS_JAPAN_STOKING_STOCKS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-10-31-05-31-50

TOKYO (AP) -- Japan's $1.1 trillion public pension fund on Friday approved a plan to double its holdings of shares and cut back sharply on bonds to help improve its investment returns.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and other officials say the change in the Government Pension Investment Fund's asset allocations is needed to ensure the fund can meet its obligations to retirees.

The plan agreed to Friday calls for holdings of bonds to fall from about 60 percent to 35 percent. Holdings of shares will rise to about 50 percent, with half in domestic shares and half in foreign shares.

Japan's share market got a boost Friday from the pension fund plan and from a central bank decision to expand monetary easing to boost growth.

The pension fund decision could bring tens of billions of dollars into the share market, which has languished this year after surging 57 percent in 2013.

[xchrom]

18. APNEWSBREAK: MEDICARE BOUGHT MEDS FOR DEAD PEOPLE

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_DRUGS_FOR_THE_DEAD?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-10-31-03-17-47

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Call it drugs for the departed: Medicare's prescription program kept paying for costly medications even after patients were dead.

The problem was traced back to a head-scratching bureaucratic rule that's now getting a second look.

A report coming out Friday from the Health and Human Services Department's inspector general says the Medicare rule allows payment for prescriptions filled up to 32 days after a patient's death - at odds with the program's basic principles, not to mention common sense.

"Drugs for deceased beneficiaries are clearly not medically indicated, which is a requirement for (Medicare) coverage," the IG report said. It urged immediate changes to eliminate or restrict the payment policy.

Medicare said it's working on a fix.

[xchrom]

19. Central Banker Hero Becomes Face of Failure in Swedish Tale

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-10-30/central-bankers-hero-becomes-face-of-failure-in-swedish-tale.html

Stefan Ingves, the governor of Sweden’s central bank, was held up as an example of how to expand the monetary tool box just three years ago.

Back then he was fighting asset bubbles that economists including Nobel LaureateRobert Shillerwarned were coming. Now, Ingves’s name is associated with a failure to prevent deflation through policies dubbed “sadomonetarist” by another Nobel Prize winner, Paul Krugman.

Through it all, one man has been warning that this is exactly how things would turn out. Lars E. O. Svensson, an old Princeton University colleague of Krugman’s and former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, says Ingves is personally responsible for the deflationary slope Sweden is now sliding down. Svensson stepped down from the Riksbank’s six-person board last year in protest at its policies.

“The Riksbank’s monetary policy has simply failed,” he said in a phone interview. “This situation is completely self-inflicted and it’s really Stefan Ingves that bears the greatest responsibility.”

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20. Falling Bank Deposits Add to China Economy Warning Sign

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-10-31/falling-bank-deposits-add-to-china-economy-warning-sign.html

Chinese bank deposits dropped following a crackdown on lenders manipulating their numbers and “illicit” means of attracting money, threatening to weigh on credit growth and hinder efforts to reignite the economy.

Four of the five biggest banks, led by Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd. (601398), posted a drop in deposits as they reported third-quarter earnings this week. Central bank data showed it was the first quarterly decline for the nation’s banking industry since at least 1999.

The lower deposit levels are likely to curtail credit as banks are prohibited from lending more than 75 percent of their quarter-end holdings, while a sustained drop could hamper government efforts to rejuvenate an economy forecast to expand this year at the weakest pace since 1990. The lenders may also come under pressure to tap more expensive financing.

“With banks now less able to window-dress their deposit figures, some will be forced to scale back lending to meet loan-to-deposit requirements,” Julian Evans-Pritchard, a Singapore-based China economist for Capital Economics Ltd., said by phone today. “Regulatory controls are getting harder for banks and that’s weighing on credit growth.”

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21. BNP Paribas Posts Higher Profit as Loan Provisions Fall

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-10-31/bnp-paribas-posts-higher-profit-as-loan-provisions-fall.html

BNP Paribas SA (BNP), France’s largest bank, said profit rose 11 percent in the third quarter, exceeding analysts’ estimates, on a rebound in fixed-income trading and lower provisions.

The bank climbed as much as 4.6 percent in Paris trading after reporting net income of 1.5 billion euros ($1.89 billion), above the 1.35 billion-euro average estimate of eight analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.

BNP Paribas, facing a prohibition in 2015 on some dollar-clearing operations, is spending 200 million euros to improve compliance following a record fine in June for violating U.S. sanctions against Iran, Cuba and Sudan. Chief Executive Officer Jean-Laurent Bonnafe is counting on acquisitions in Poland and Germany to fuel growth as the French and Italian economies sputter.

“The results are solid, with capital slightly above expectations even after acquisitions,” said Cyril Meilland, a Paris-based analyst at Kepler Cheuvreux who has a buy rating on the stock. “Outside of France and Italy, other retail networks are faring correctly.”

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22. Cyprus Finance Minister Targets Irish-Style Bailout Exit

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-10-31/cyprus-s-georgiades-bets-on-economy-for-irish-style-bailout-exit.html

Cyprus could benefit from strong bank stress test results and positive economic signs to pull off an Irish-style bailout exit and make a full return to the bond market, Finance Minister Harris Georgiades said.

“The only way out of the bailout is implementing the fiscal adjustment program, like the Irish did,” Georgiades said in an interview in Nicosia. “The bailout exit will come when market access is fully restored.”

A year and a half after becoming the fifth and last euro-area nation to enter an international bailout and after a forced loss on bank bondholders and deposits of more than 100,000 euros ($126,000), Cyprus is seeking to bolster market confidence after risks of an early Greek bailout exit triggered a sell-off in bonds and stocks earlier this month.

The country is ready to issue a new bond “once market conditions allow,” Georgiades said. His government “plans to move forward with the next step of the market return soon,” he said. The continuation of reforms and fiscal consolidation along with improved debt projections are possibly “the most important development” for Cyprus to be able to achieve a better interest rate on bond markets, he said.

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23. Kuroda Jolts Markets With Assault on Deflation Mindset

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-10-31/kuroda-jolts-markets-with-assault-on-deflation-mindset.html

Today’s decision to expand Japan’s monetary stimulus may be regarded as shock treatment in the central bank’s effort to affect confidence levels.

Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda’s remedy to reflate the world’s third-largest economy through influencing expectations saw the yen sliding and stocks climbing. Kuroda led a divided board in Tokyo in a surprise decision to expand unprecedented monetary stimulus.

Bank officials hadn’t provided any hints in recent weeks that additional easing was on the cards to help reach the BOJ’s inflation goal. Kuroda, 70, repeatedly indicated confidence this month that Japan was on a path to reaching his 2 percent target in the coming fiscal year. Just three of 32 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News predicted extra easing.

“We have to admit that this is sort of a second shock -- after we had the first shock in April last year,” said Masaaki Kanno, chief Japan economist at JPMorgan Chase & Co. in Tokyo, referring to the first round of stimulus rolled out by Kuroda in 2013. Kanno, who used to work at the BOJ, said “this is very effective,” especially because it comes the same day as the government pension fund said it will buy more of the nation’s stocks.

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24. Democratic Gubernatorial Victories Seen Aiding Hospitals

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-10-31/democratic-gubernatorial-victories-seen-aiding-hospitals.html

Democratic victories in gubernatorial races in Florida and Georgia would help hospital chains as Medicaid is expanded, according to Bloomberg Intelligence.

If Democrats take executive offices from Republicans in those toss-up states as well as in Kansas and Alaska, they may enlarge the program, which would increase hospital admissions and reduce free care, said analysts Gerard Campagna and Jason McGorman. HCA Holdings Inc. (HCA), the largest U.S. hospital operator, and Tenet Healthcare Corp. (THC) are among companies that may benefit the most.

Expansion of Medicaid, the joint federal-state health program for the poor, could add as much as $535 million in annual revenue for hospitals in Florida, the two analysts said in a report dated yesterday. Medicaid would be extended to 650,000 more Floridians, about 16 percent of whom would be admitted to hospitals each year, they said.

“Medicaid expansion is clearly a positive for hospitals,” McGorman said. “Democrats are pro-business in this scenario, whereas Republicans aren’t supporting the hospital business” because they oppose the Affordable Care Act, he said.

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25. Richest Bullish on U.S. as Family Offices Open Outposts

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-10-31/richest-bullish-on-u-s-as-family-offices-open-outposts.html

As the U.S. powers the global economic expansion in its fifth year, the world’s rich are counting on American companies to help increase their fortunes.

At least a dozen family offices, with fortunes made in Europe, Asia and South America, have opened U.S. outposts in the past two years or are making direct investments in corporations from Silicon Valley to the East Coast. Their view is that the Federal Reserve’s aggressive monetary easing, a shale oil boom that’s lowered energy costs, and improving corporate balance sheets give the world’s largest economy an edge over other regions.

Peca Ltd., a London-based firm started in the 1990s by a family that made its wealth mainly in financial services, has made about two-thirds of its private-equity and venture capital investments in the U.S. while reducing investments in Europe, said Anselm Adams, who oversees the firm’s alternative investments. A German family that founded an automotive company opened an investment office in New York this year to find deals in the automobile, textile or luxury industries, according to a person familiar with the matter, who asked for anonymity citing a lack of authorization to discuss the firm.

“They are looking for diversification and more exposure to the U.S.,” Patrick McCloskey, managing partner at Aeterna Capital Partners, said of the firms. “Many family groups are trying to manufacture yield in a very low-interest-rate environment and are looking for unique and customized ways to do so.”

$4 Trillion

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26. Shadow Banking Grows to $75 Trillion Industry, FSB Says

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-10-30/shadow-banking-grows-to-75-trillion-industry-fsb-says.html

The shadow banking industry grew by $5 trillion to about $75 trillion worldwide last year, driven by lenders seeking to skirt regulations and investors searching for yield amid record low interest rates.

The size of the shadow banking system, which includes hedge funds, real estate investment trusts and off-balance sheet investment vehicles, is about 120 percent of global gross domestic product, or a quarter of total financial assets, according to a report published by the Financial Stability Board today.

Shadow banking “tends to take off when strict banking regulations are in place, when real interest rates and yield spreads are low and investors search for higher returns, and when there is a large institutional demand for assets,” according to the report. “The current environment in advanced economies seems conducive to further growth of shadow banking.”

While watchdogs have reined in excessive risk-taking by banks in the wake of the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. in 2008, they are concerned that lenders might use shadow banking to evade the clampdown and cause risks to build up out of sight of regulators. The FSB published guidelines for supervisors last year to keep track of the industry.

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28. Janet Yellen Creates Panic On Wall St. by Richard Lyon

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/10/29/1340113/-Janet-Yellen-Creates-Panic-On-Wall-St?detail=email

Normally when one sees a headline like that about the chair of the Federal Reserve one would expect to learn that she is considering some change in monetary policy that is perceived as potentially unfavorable for financial markets. This time Dr. Yellen has done something far more serious than that. She has committed an act heresy against the neoliberal creed by suggesting that (gasp) economic inequality might be creating economic problems. Who does she think she is, an economist or something?

Janet Yellen Mentions Inequality; Conservatives Scandalized

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/10/yellen-mentions-inequality-right-scandalized.html

Earlier this month, Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen delivered a careful, fact-laden speech about rising economic inequality. This proved so sufficiently alarming to conservatives that even the American Enterprise Institute’s Michael Strain, a moderate, wrote that Yellen is now “in danger of becoming a partisan hack.” Strain has kicked off a debate, hosted in the New York Times today, over Yellen’s apparently shocking breach of decorum.

The most striking thing about Yellen’s remarks is how cautiously she waded into the subject of inequality. Rather than actually state that rising inequality is a problem in American life, she merely conceded that it is “appropriate to ask whether this trend is compatible with values rooted in our nation's history.” Strain concedes that Yellen withheld a personal opinion about whether the rising gap between rich and poor is good or bad — “even by focusing on income inequality,” he argues, “she has waded into politically choppy waters.”

There are a bunch of hair on fire pieces about this outrage on various right wing financial sites. The indignation is generally dripping with patronizing expressions of CONCERN. I'm not going to bother to put any of them here.

When the good old boys of the financial establishment were all lining up to get Bernanke replaced by that well known sexist neoliberal Larry Summers, I was pretty much of the almost anybody but him persuasion. A woman in the job seemed like a good thing as well. However, I was dubious that a financial insider like Yellen was going to do anything to rock the neoliberal boat. I am now reevaluating that view. I am entertaining a pleasant fantasy of Janet Yellen at the Fed and Elizabeth Warren at the White House. That could bring about the kind of change that you can actually put in your pocket.


THESE ARE THE SLIM REEDS OF HOPE THAT WE HAVE TO SUSTAIN US THROUGH THE FASCIST OCCUPATION OF THE GOVERNMENT...