STOCK MARKET WATCH, Thursday, November 10, 2011

[Pale Blue Dot]

Source: du

STOCK MARKET WATCH, Thursday, November 10, 2011

AT THE CLOSING BELL ON November 9, 2011

Dow 11,780.94 -389.24 (-3.30%)
Nasdaq 2,621.65 -105.84 (-4.04%)
S&P 500 1,229.10 -46.82 (-3.81%)
10-Yr Bond... 2.02 +0.06 (+2.90%)
30-Year Bond 3.06 +0.03 (+1.09%)

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Market Conditions During Trading Hours

Euro, Yen, Loonie, Silver and Gold

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Handy Links - Market Data and News:Economic Calendar    Marketwatch Data    Bloomberg Economic News    Yahoo! Finance    Google Finance    Bank Tracker    
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Handy Links - Government Issues:
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    William Black: This Economic Disaster    Bill Moyers with Kevin Drum and David Corn

Bush Administration Officials Convicted = 2
Names: David Safavian, James Fondren
Dishonorable Mention: former House majority leader, Tom DeLay

Bush Administration Officials Charged = 1
Name(s): Richard Lopez Razo

Financial Sector Officials Convicted since 1/20/09 = 12

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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.

Read more: du

[Pale Blue Dot]

1. Today's Reports

Nov 10 08:30 Initial Claims 11/05 400K 400K 397K
Nov 10 08:30 Continuing Claims 10/29 3700K 3690K 3683K
Nov 10 08:30 Export Prices ex-ag. Oct NA NA 0.3%
Nov 10 08:30 Import Prices ex-oil Oct NA NA 0.2%
Nov 10 08:30 Trade Balance Sep -$46.0B -$45.9B -$45.6B
Nov 10 14:00 Treasury Budget Oct -$95.0B -$105.0B -$140.4B

Read more: http://www.briefing.com/investor/calendars/economic/2011/11/07-11/#ixzz1dIq0JL1l

[Roland99]

36. Jobless claims fall to seven-month low of 390,000

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/jobless-claims-fall-to-seven-month-low-of-390000-2011-11-10

The number of Americans who filed new applications for unemployment benefits fell to the lowest level in seven months, according to government data released Thursday showing slowly improving conditions in the labor market.

The Labor Department said initial jobless claims fell by 10,000 to a seasonally adjusted 390,000 in the week ended Nov. 5, better than the 398,000 forecast in a MarketWatch-compiled economist poll. Initial claims from two weeks ago were revised higher to 400,000 from an initially reported 397,000.

The four-week average of new claims, seen as a better indicator due to the reduced volatility, dropped by 5,250 to 400,000, the lowest level since April 16.

...

The government last week said 80,000 jobs outside the farm sector were created in October, not enough to keep up with the natural growth in the labor force, much less the roughly 250,000 jobs per month needed to make a serious dent in the 9% unemployment rate. See story on October jobs growth.

[Pale Blue Dot]

2. Oil above $96 as traders eye Italy debt woes

SINGAPORE – Oil prices rose slightly to above $96 a barrel Thursday in Asia as investors mulled the impact of Europe's debt crisis on the continent's economic growth and crude demand.

Benchmark crude for December delivery was up 63 cents at $96.36 a barrel at late afternoon Singapore time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell $1.06 to settle at $95.74 in New York on Wednesday.

Brent crude was up 56 cents at $112.86 a barrel on the ICE Futures Exchange in London.

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said Tuesday he would step down after Parliament passes a series of economic reforms to stave off financial ruin in Italy. But there was growing fear he doesn't have the will or the clout to push the measures through, while some suspect he may try to stay in power.

http://old.news.yahoo.com/s/ap/oil_prices

[Pale Blue Dot]

3. U.S. Stock Futures Rise as ECB Buys Italian Bonds

U.S. stock futures rose, signaling the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index will rebound from its biggest selloff since August, as the European Central Bank bought Italian bonds.

Bank of America Corp. (BAC), the second-largest U.S. lender, climbed in early New York trading. Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO) rallied 3.6 percent in Germany after earnings topped analyst estimates.

S&P 500 futures expiring in December advanced 1.1 percent to 1,239.2 at 10:16 a.m. in London after the benchmark gauge sank 3.7 percent yesterday. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures expiring the same month gained 96 points, or 0.8 percent, to 11,828 today.

“There is a sense that most of the activity this morning has been short covering as opposed to real buying,” said Ioan Smith, a director at Knight Capital Europe Ltd. in London. “Rallies are likely to be shallow though as events have shifted rapidly in the euro zone, which threatens to pull core member states into the mix.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-11-10/u-s-stock-futures-advance-as-ecb-buys-italian-bonds-cisco-shares-rally.html

[Roland99]

6. Snap Reactions To Italy's €3 Billion Bill Auction, Which Reeks Of Illegal ECB Intervention

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/snap-reactions-italys-%E2%82%AC3-billion-bill-auction-which-reeks-illegal-ecb-intervention

RICHARD MCGUIRE, RATE STRATEGIST, RABOBANK, LONDON

"This represents the highest such yield since September 1997 and although favourable relative to that of the Oct. 12s, which had briefly broken through 8.0 percent in the secondary market this morning, certainly does nothing to dispel the concern that Italy's debt costs have moved firmly into unsustainable territory."

MARC OSTWALD, STRATEGIST, MONUMENT SECURITIES, LONDON

"It's certainly gone a lot better than the secondary market levels were tending to indicate, but the spreads are so wide that you always have to take secondary market indications with a pinch of salt. It is better than expected but still not sustainable. There will be some relief that it hasn't printed with a 7 percent handle but the idea that Italy can carry on with 6.1 percent for one-year paper is a joke."

ALESSANDRO GIANSANTI, RATE STRATEGIST, ING, AMSTERDM

"For T-Bills there is always domestic demand involved so it's a lot easier for Italy to find buyers to lower the exposure. But the main point to be concerned about here is the huge 250 basis point jump in yields compared to the last time to roughly 6 percent. If this carries on then next month's yield could be 8.5 percent, which cannot happen."

PETER CHATWELL, RATE STRATEGIST, CREDIT AGRICOLE, CIB

"Very solid, far better than was feared yesterday. In the grey market the paper rallied over 120 basis points before the auction, and it's come through the market by a considerable margin. The micro view is supportive, but this makes no difference to the macro view of Italian rates trending sharply higher. The pressure is still on for policymakers to take aggressive action to increase confidence and stop the market breaking down further."

[Roland99]

7. DJIA +104....oh i loves me some dead cat

S&P 500 1,239.50 14.00 1.14%
DOW 11,836 104.00 0.89%
NASDAQ 2,335 23.75 1.03%

[Demeter]

15. So we are going to follow Europe in Madness, instead of Asia in Despair

[Demeter]

19. Europe reaches its bogus goal

http://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2011/11/europe-reaches-its-bogus-goal/?utm_source=Media+List&utm_campaign=619ffb0419-RSS_DAILY_MAILCHIMP_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email

There is one thing you can say about Europe, they never waste a crisis, the side show soap opera spectacular continued last night. It has been going on for so long now that the market seems to have set itself false goals and then managed to convince itself that they equate to something important when they get there. A resolution of the political issues in Greece and Italy, not that we are there yet, matters very little at this juncture. It has very little to do with the actual problems of the European economy and at this stage equate to little more than a shuffle of chairs on the Titanic.

If you are , however, wondering whether these moves will lead to a loss of sovereignty by both the Italian and Greek citizens then you need not go no further than this paragraph from an article from the Wall Street Journal posted today:

German Chancellor Angela Merkel thanked Mr. Papandreou on Monday “for his courage and decisiveness” in leading Greece throughout the financial crisis.

Ms. Merkel had expressed in a phone call her “respect for the decision” by Mr. Papandreou to step down, and said Greece’s new government must be ready to implement reforms decided in Brussels in late October.

Maybe the Italian and Greek people are happy to handover the steerage of their country to some unelected European bureaucrats, but I am sure they would want to vote on it first....Overnight Berlusconi lost control of his parliament and after some deliberation seems to have decided to quit, but with strings attached:

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi confirmed on Tuesday that he would stand down after a new budget law is approved in parliament.

“After the approval of this finance law, which has amendments for everything which Europe has asked of us and which the Eurogroup has requested, I will resign, to allow the head of state to open consultations,” he told his own Canale 5 television.

The comment, which confirmed an earlier statement from President Giorgio Napolitano, came after his center-right coalition failed to secure a majority in a crucial vote in the lower house, securing only 308 votes in the 630-seat chamber.

“This parliament today is paralysed, as far as the lower house is concerned,” he said.

“In the Senate, the center-right still has a good majority. However with the defection of seven members of the ruling majority today, the government does not have the majority we thought we had and so we have to take account of this situation realistically,”

He said Italy was in a “difficult position” with regard to financial markets and had to demonstrate that it was capable of serious reforms. He added that the only realistic option as far as he could see was new elections.

Berlusconi will now step down, but only after the parliament has implemented budgetary changes to satisfy the rest of Europe. Although he is calling for new elections it is not his decision. Once he steps down the Italian President has the ability to re-form parliament under a new leader if it can be negotiated. It is yet to be seen, however, whether a junior coalition party, the Northern League, would come on board with such a plan given they have been calling for fresh elections in the event that Berlusconi resigns. If that turns out to be the case then the parliament may only be able to go as far a Greece and form a unity government to steer the country into new elections. There is obviously a lot more to come on this, but it is likely the President will want to avoid the instability of elections if he can.

I am also a little skeptical that Berlusconi won’t try to lob a petard on his way out, he certainly has form. Which gestures at an irony in this resolution for Italy. At least Berlusconi’s Machiavellian dealings with Europe held the austerity juggernaut at bay. Any smoothing of political resistance to further fiscal cuts can only worsen the consequences for Italy’s already crashing actual economy.

The Greece situation has been dragging on but appears to be coming to a resolution:

Greece’s Socialist Prime Minister George Papandreou asked his ministers to prepare their resignation letters Tuesday and was expected to name former European Central Bank Vice President Lucas Papademos as prime minister of an interim government, barring any hitches.

The announcement follows days of talks between the Socialist government and the opposition New Democracy party over a new leader to head the government.

Mr. Papademos was seen as the front-runner, but his candidacy appeared to run into hurdles Monday after he placed conditions under which he would serve. “Mr. Papandreou is meeting with Mr. Papademos and many of Mr. Papademos’s requirements have been met,” a senior official said. “Unless there is a last-minute breakdown, I expect him to be the interim prime minister.”

Government spokesman Elias Mossialos said he expected the ruling Socialists and their conservative rival, New Democracy, to make an announcement soon, adding that talks on the new government were still under way. He also said Mr. Papandreou asked his cabinet ministers to be ready to make way for the new government.

In far more important news, Eurozone finance ministers have announced that they plan to finish technical work on increasing the EFSF bailout fund to around 1 trillion euros by the end of November to prepare it for deployment in December. It is still to be verified which actual ‘leverage’ mechanism the facility is going to use. Obviously the big concern about the fund is whether anyone will want to actually ‘invest’ in it. If this weeks bond offer is anything to go by then the answer is NO:

Top officials of the euro zone’s bailout fund played down the subdued demand it drew Monday for a 10-year bond offer, and one told a newspaper the fund was working on plans to tap shorter-term debt markets.

The European Financial Stability Facility’s Financial Officer, Christophe Frankel, told Boersen-Zeitung the transaction, in which subscriptions only just covered the 3 billion euros of debt on offer, reflected an unstable market environment rather than funding risks.

“In addition investors are uncertain with a view to the (future role of the) EFSF. For this reason, orders were weaker than usual,” he said, adding the transaction — which also paid higher yields than previous EFSF bond sales — was “solid.”

In Brussels late Monday, EFSF head Klaus Regling also cited the “very difficult” market climate and uncertainty about the fund’s future profile as factors in the sale.

You can read more on the actual sale here, but struggling to raise 3 billion euros and at the equivalent of 177bp over the Bund isn’t looking convincing.

[Demeter]

26. How austerity in Europe works

http://www.creditwritedowns.com/2011/11/how-austerity-in-europe-works.html


This post describes how austerity works in the European Monetary System where the euro is used as a currency. I will start by framing the difference between currency users and currency creators, then move to how central banks and government spending affect the economy to make it clear what is happening now in Europe. Understanding government money is crucial here because in any economy using state money like the euro zone, government creates the currency unit of account to operate throughout the system. This currency is a promise to repay a specific amount of the currency unit of account backed by nothing but taxing authority. In state money systems, the government chooses a money of account and then imposes tax liabilities in that unit. It then issues the currency used to pay taxes.

This is a system in which the currency creator can create an infinite supply of IOUs if it so desires. As I like to say, if you march down to the government’s offices with your paper IOU demanding your money, you will just receive different IOUs in the same or different form summing to the same amount. And while the government is the creator of currency, all other entities within the money system are currency users. They have to ‘get’ money, to ‘earn’ money because they cannot create it. If they cannot ‘get’ money, they are rendered insolvent. In principal, modern money systems have two ways of controlling the money they create. One is via fiscal policy and the other is via monetary policy. The principle way central banks conduct monetary policy is through interest rates. They raise or lower rates based on how high inflation is or, in the Fed’s case, also how low unemployment is. In the absence of changing rates, the central bank can also buy and sell financial assets. The central bank is never permitted to add net financial assets to the system. It can only conduct asset swaps, changing private portfolio preferences for the types of liabilities it buys and sells. For example, the central bank can buy Italian bonds and pay for them with reserves. These are asset swaps. There is no net addition to the number of net financial assets in the system, ever.

Unlike the central bank, a national government can always add or subtract net financial assets in the system if it so chooses. This is the essence of fiscal policy. If you pay taxes, that creates a net loss of private sector financial assets. Deficit spending, on the other hand is a net gain of financial assets in the private sector. Whenever the government taxes you, on net, it is draining net financial assets from the system. Whenever the government spends, it is adding net financial assets to the private sector, instantly creating a zero-day net financial asset. The problem for the euro zone, however is that the national governments are not currency creators. They are currency users and that means, like all other entities within the euro system, they have to ‘get’ euros because they cannot create them. If they cannot ‘get’ that money, they are rendered insolvent.

In a downturn, currency users are necessarily pro-cyclical. The economy is shrinking, so for currency users in general, revenue is shrinking. And since they have to ‘get’ euros, they cut back their outlays to deal with this or risk insolvency...Now, this is always the case for national governments because a shrinking economy means shrinking tax revenue. Moreover, in the case of governments with automatic stabilisers to pay for, outlays are also increasing. So a worsening of the government’s budget is automatic in a recession. As currency users, the euro zone’s national governments must also be worried about insolvency as we now see. They too must act pro-cyclically then...Procyclicality is one of the structural flaws of the euro zone; there is no federal agent to add any net financial assets counter cyclically during a recession. Thus, the euro zone business cycle will always have to be more volatile as every economic agent must act pro-cyclically. That makes current account imbalances a lightning rod for intra-European recrimination. Against this backdrop, national governments are then forced to cut spending, reducing net financial assets in the private sector. Reducing net financial assets means sucking money out of the private sector. And that will reduce consumption demand and harm credit. if private sector debt levels are high and banking systems are leveraged, as they now are in the euro system, this reduction of credit leads to financial distress, bankruptcies, bank failures and potentially systemic failure. That’s what austerity means in an environment of high debt and excessive financial sector leverage....So I am not at all optimistic about the outcome in the euro zone given the current policy path. There is zero chance the central bank can stop this train of events by easing policy because central banks are not fiscal agents and therefore cannot add net financial assets to the private sector. The only chance the euro zone has to escape the evolving debt deflation without a systemic collapse is by allowing the European Central Bank to take on a quasi-fiscal role in backstopping national government debt and allowing national governments to add net financial assets to the system without fear of insolvency. Short of this, we should definitely expect things in Euroland to get worse, not better.

MORE

[Demeter]

27. The euro zone is one giant vendor financing scheme

http://www.creditwritedowns.com/2011/11/the-euro-zone-is-one-giant-vendor-financing-scheme.html


Here’s an interpretation of the euro zone I have been meaning to run by you and I touched on it in the update to my post on how austerity in Europe works. In a fixed exchange rate environment like the euro area, you don’t have currency fluctuation issues. So persistent current account imbalances as we see within the euro zone are really a form of vendor financing. I am familiar with the perils of vendor financing having witnessed the Telecom bubble of the late 1990s go bust, wiping out the major source of revenue in the European high yield market in which I worked. Here’s an article from right around the bust that gives you a positive spin on how how vendor financing worked in telecoms.

Aerie is just one of the 45 vendor financing deals Nortel has on its books. As such, it offers a glimpse into a battle the big telecommunications equipment makers -- notably Nortel, Lucent (LU) and Cisco (CSCO) -- are rushing to join: picking up more of the financing slack for the very companies that buy their equipment.

Islands in the Stream

While Nortel is certainly knee-deep in the lending business, rival Lucent is the true champion of vendor financing. Lucent has been saying "yes" ever since it hit the ground four years ago, to the tune of $7 billion in financing commitments, more than double Nortel's $3.1 billion. (Nortel has $1.4 billion in actual loans outstanding to buyers of its equipment; Lucent, $1.6 billion.)

Cisco, in order to compete with the incumbent telecom equipment makers, says it has beenincreasing its vendor financing activities through its banking arm, Cisco Capital. Cisco has so far promised $2.4 billion in loans to its customers. (Cisco's loans outstanding amount to $600 million.)

Equipment makers derive several advantages from so-called vendor financing arrangements, the terms of which often remain under wraps. Namely, they gain relationships with potentially lucrative customers and revenue that will look good on the next financial statement.

Vendor financing works successfully as long as the lender makes sure the customer can pay back the loans. In the telecoms arena, the whole sector cratered and these loans were an albatross around the necks of the likes of Nortel and Lucent. Not only did firms like Nortel lose huge revenue streams, they also had to write off massive amounts of capital from dud loans they had made to customers during the bubble. It’s as if most of the revenue Nortel and Cisco were booking in 1998 or 1999 was phantom revenue, maintained artificially by their channel stuffing and vendor financing of customers. Eventually Nortel went bankrupt.

And so it is in Europe as well. The lurid Telegraph story about German-made Porsches bought in Greece

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/finance/ianmcowie/100012894/fast-cars-and-loose-fiscal-morals-there-are-more-porsches-in-greece-than-taxpayers-declaring-50000-euro-incomes/

shows you an extreme example of how this works. The reality is you can’t have Germany and Spain both running current account surpluses with each other at the same time. Unless the euro zone as a whole runs a current account surplus as large as Germany and the Netherlands, then you are automatically going to have a sort of vendor financing relationship going. The euro area did have a good-sized trade surplus through 2005 – not as large as the one that Germany and the Netherlands had, but sizable. This all unravelled starting in 2005 (chart below via tradingeconomics.com). That would have been the time for German banks and companies to pull in their horns and restrict credit to the periphery.



So, if Germany or the Netherlands wanted to be the export juggernaut and run a massive current account surplus, this had intra-EU ramifications. The most important is that Germany’s or the Netherlands’ current account surplus matched current account deficits in Spain, Portugal, and Greece. That’s how it works. You sell more to me than I do to you and I get more cash than you do. There are always two sides to every transaction (chart from the FT below).



The large euro-area internal current account imbalances should be seen as a form of vendor financing, whereby the creditors, principally Germany, forward their customers, the debtors, trade finance in order to sell their wares. Germany’s aging society meant slow growth. So German companies have looked abroad for growth, just as the Japanese have done in their aging society. Taken in aggregate, this means persistent current account surpluses which are a fancy way of saying vendor financing at the national level...German banks were at it too, by the way. German retail banking is a low margin business and credit growth is weak. So the German banks loaded up on foreign assets, making loans abroad. German banks were very active in Ireland and Spain during the housing bubbles there, for example. So, one way to look at the sovereign debt crisis is a complicated form of vendor financing. German banks have been particularly aggressive in seeking returns abroad and now the chickens are coming home to roost.

[Roland99]

30. Time for a deathwatch on the Euro?

[Demeter]

33. The Death Watch Started When the Euro Started

it's only now that the buzzards are circling that watchers are getting some satisfaction in being right.

[DemReadingDU]

42. My sister worked on the Euro project

At the time, 10-15 years ago, she worked for a Big bank in Boston, traveled the world, coordinating the Euro project. She still is of the banker mentality that the Euro is all good.


edit - trying to get correct numbers

[Demeter]

43. Parts of it ARE good

the problem is it was never beta-tested before real lives were put in play.

And there's inherent dishonesty in its design...like telling a person "This drug will take away your pain" while not mentioning that any offspring you produce will be deformed or non-viable....

[DemReadingDU]

48. The Euro makes sense traveling country to country

and not having to exchange various currencies.

But each country is vastly different in income, debt, military, imports, exports, etc. It seems to me that the Euro countries will eventually be split off because of all these differences, and return to their native currency.

[Fuddnik]

The sharks are circling Italy.

This morning, the EU is telling them to disregard a referendum, and sell off their water supply.

And to make matters worse for Greece, they made a bankster the new PM.

I think when all is said and done, people will think Mussolini got off easy.

[Demeter]

34. The Cat Has Bounced---133 at Open

Now, to see if anyone catches it....other than gravity.

[Demeter]

35. Now 142

[Fuddnik]

37. To the moon, Alice!

[Demeter]

39. And right back down

You would think they would get tired of it---but algorithms don't sleep, they don't get tired, they don't have feelings, they have no use for money...they just sit there, ticking away...

until the whole economy explodes.

[Roland99]

4. wow...1st rec. haven't done that in a while!

morning!

[xchrom]

5. a Fabulous morning to all...

:donut:

[xchrom]

8. China’s trade data point to global slowdown

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/chinas-trade-data-points-to-global-slowdown-2011-11-09?link=MW_Nav_FP

HONG KONG (MarketWatch) — China’s trade surplus widened in October, though by less than economists had expected, as more of the nation’s export destinations showed a slowing in demand.

The month’s surplus hit $17.0 billion, which was above September’s $14.51 billion and close to the $17.76 billion surplus recorded in August, according to data released by China’s customs office Thursday.

The result was well below separate Dow Jones Newswires and Reuters forecasts of $25.8 billion and $24.9 billion, respectively.

“It‘s showing that the slowdown in exports is becoming more widespread,” said Daiwa Capital Markets economist Kevin Lai in Hong Kong.

[xchrom]

9. asia: Firms expanding rapidly in India {japan}

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nb20111110a1.html

MUMBAI, India — There were 812 Japanese firms operating in India as of October, up from 267 in early 2006, underlining their aggressive pursuit to expand in the rapidly growing economy, according to data from the Japanese Embassy.

While many such firms are involved in the automotive and electronics industries, the Indian government has courted major Japanese companies involved in infrastructure development, such as power generation, urban development and railroads.

The Indian government has also called on Japanese companies to take part in its $1 trillion five-year project on energy and public transportation development beginning next year.

New Delhi and Chennai, a city on the southeastern coast with easy access to Southeast Asia, are among the areas where the number of Japanese companies has sharply risen, according to the tally.

[xchrom]

10. BOJ official urges restoration of fiscal health as debt rises

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nb20111110n4.html

The government may see borrowing costs jump unless it contains its growing debt burden, a Bank of Japan Policy Board member warned Wednesday, saying officials can't allow low bond yields to make them complacent about fiscal policy.

"An event where an increase in borrowing costs would significantly exacerbate public finances wouldn't be completely unexpected," Seiji Nakamura said in a speech in Naha, Okinawa Prefecture. "I think we have avoided addressing the problem and have a low sense of crisis because our country has been able to secure funds with lower borrowing costs despite a persistent increase in outstanding public debt."

The government, already holder of the largest burden in the industrialized world, forecasts its debt may exceed ¥1 quadrillion this year at a time when Europe's sovereign woes have increased investor scrutiny of public finances. Japan's credit rating has been cut by Moody's Investors Service and Standard & Poor's this year.

"Europe's debt crisis has raised the Bank of Japan's alert level," said Hideo Kumano, chief economist at Dai-ichi Life Research Institute and an ex-BOJ official. "Japan is unlikely to immediately have the same problem as Europe because its debts are domestically financed, but the BOJ knows it's a possible risk."

[xchrom]

23. Anglo American Sells Chilean Stake for $5.39 Billion {to misubishi}

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/11/10/anglo-american-sells-chilean-stake-for-5-39-billion/

LONDON — Anglo American, the mining giant, has agreed to sell a 24.5 percent stake in its Chilean copper assets to Mitsubishi Corporation for $5.39 billion, the Japanese company’s largest ever mining acquisition.

The deal, which was outlined late on Wednesday, thwarts plans by Chile’s state-owned copper producer Codelco from exercising its option to buy a 49 percent stake in Anglo American’s local operations, known as Anglo American Sur (AAS), early next year.

Under terms of the deal, Mitsubishi will acquire an almost quarter stake in Anglo’s two mines and one copper smelter in Chile. The purchase will roughly double the Japanese company’s yearly copper output. Mitsubishi offered a promissory note for $5.39 billion, which is due on Nov. 10, Anglo American said in a statement.

The deal values Anglo American Sur’s total operations at $22 billion.

[xchrom]

11. Judge in Citigroup Mortgage Settlement Criticizes S.E.C.’s Enforcement

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/11/09/judge-in-citigroup-mortgage-settlement-criticizes-s-e-c-s-enforcement/

A federal judge overseeing a $285 million settlement between Citigroup and the Securities and Exchange Commission expressed major concerns on Wednesday about the agency’s enforcement practices.

The settlement would effectively close the book on regulators’ accusations that the bank deceived investors in the sale of mortgage securities. The judge, Jed S. Rakoff of the Federal District Court in Manhattan, reserved judgment on whether he would sign off on it, explaining that he would issue a written opinion at a later date.

Yet the judge made it clear during an hourlong hearing in a crowded courtroom that he had serious concerns about how the commission reached such settlements — and whether they were tough enough.

“Doesn’t the S.E.C. have an interest in what the truth is?” Judge Rakoff asked, in reference to the commission’s longstanding practice of not forcing a defendant to admit any wrongdoing when settling a case.

[xchrom]

12. Niall Ferguson -- your sad, funny moment from the colbert report

http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/401676/november-07-2011/niall-ferguson

Niall Ferguson explains that the U.S. economy has been the biggest in the world since 1872, but will be overtaken by China in 2016.

[Demeter]

16. This was all too true

I cannot understand why the audience is laughing, though.

[Demeter]

13. Well, I've Survived The Week So Far

Looking forward to Euchre Night on Friday...goddess knows, I've earned it.

As a consolation prize, I got this horrorscope today:

"Embrace the unpredictability of this day, and (no matter what happens) remain calm! The tasks you face may not be easy, but everyone is rooting for you, and you can feed on that positive energy to get the strength you need to make an impression. Your heart is struggling with a choice -- share your dilemma with someone who's unfamiliar with your past, and get a fresh perspective. If everything in life were easy, you could never see the great strength you possess. "

Yeah. Everyone is rooting for me...to fall flat on my face into a septic tank...You are all welcome to join me in today's pity party...

[xchrom]

18. Hey - we all want you to do really well! Nt

[Demeter]

20. I know, that's why I come!

It's the locals that have the ill-will. (I've been to two committee meetings this week).

[xchrom]

22. oy -- committee meetings -- related to the board? nt

[Demeter]

24. Of course

Please remind me WHY representative democracy is so great?

[xchrom]

28. i SO feel your pain.

i was always on the gardening committee.

[Demeter]

38. Part of the problem is

I need a good night's sleep to get up to exhausted. Maybe tonight.

[xchrom]

45. I have that problem, too.

It makes everything harder.

[Fuddnik]

31. We all love you here!

And wish you the strength to battle the idiocy. Or bitch-slap the hell out of them. Whichever is more appropriate.

[Demeter]

40. Thanks! The feeling is mutual

Too bad slapping isn't an option.

[kickysnana]

47. Hey I did that when I was 4

Actually it was just the hole my Dad dug for the new system and I forgot it was there and with the large rimmed farsighted correction glasses I had to wear I couldn't even see it once I came around the house.

I flew. I saw stars! Scared the bejeebers out of my folks. Convinced me I was clumsy (rather than vision impaired because of the glasses).

[AnneD]

59. I got stuck...

(well my arm up to my neck) in a street storm drain....don't ask. Kindly policeman talked me through the problem.:blush:

[xchrom]

14. europe: Brussels calls on new Spanish Government to make more adjustments

http://www.typicallyspanish.com/news/publish/article_32643.shtml

The European Commission thinks Spain will miss her deficit target for the end of the year

Brussels has said that Spain will not meet her deficit objectives, and the European Commission has cut the forecast for growth for the country to 0.7% for next year, down by 0.8% given the impact of the ongoing debt crisis in the Eurozone.

The commission thinks that the Spanish economy will fall again, and employment will not be created until 2013. They want more corrective measures to be taken.

The European Commission thinks the deficit at the end of this year will be 6.6%, 0.6% adrift of the target in the European Stability Plan. They consider that the deficit in 2012 will be 5.9% and in 2013 it will be 5.3%, 2.3% adrift of that year’s objective.

‘While central government goes in a good direction to meet the objectives, the budgetary details reveal that deviations can be expected from the regional governments and the Social Security System’.
Public debt will increase from 69.9% of GDP this year, to 78% in 2012.

Read more: http://www.typicallyspanish.com/news/publish/article_32643.shtml#ixzz1dJ8XhRYi

[Roland99]

46. EU warns of 'deep, prolonged recession'

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/eu-warns-of-deep-prolonged-recession-2011-11-10

The European Union Thursday slashed its growth forecast for the 27-nation bloc in the coming year and said it can't exclude the possibility of a deep, prolonged recession.

The European Commission, the EU's executive arm, said in its semiannual forecast the economy is struggling with weak confidence, financial turmoil, government austerity packages and a slowdown in Europe's main trading partners.

It said the EU's gross domestic product in 2012, adjusted for inflation, would grow just 0.6%--sharply down from its forecast only six months ago of 1.8%.

Since then, the euro-zone sovereign debt crisis has intensified, undermining investment and consumer confidence, the commission said. Government austerity packages have suppressed growth across the bloc. Domestic demand, which economists had hoped would be able to drive the recovery, has failed to pick up the slack.

[Roland99]

49. ECB Policy Makers Say They Can’t Do Much More to Stem Sovereign Crisis

ECB Policy Makers Say They Can’t Do Much More to Stem Sovereign Crisis
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-11-10/ecb-s-knot-says-central-bank-can-t-do-much-more-to-resolve-debt-crisis.html

European Central Bank policy makers said the bank can’t do much more to stem the region’s sovereign debt crisis, suggesting they are reluctant to significantly ramp up bond purchases to lower Italy’s borrowing costs.

“Not much more can be expected from us, it’s up to the governments,” Governing Council member Klaas Knot, who heads the Dutch central bank, told lawmakers in The Hague today. Three other policy makers have also publicly rejected calls for more ECB intervention and two further officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the central bank has no plans to make its purchase program unlimited.

Bond yields in Italy, the third-largest economy in the 17- nation euro region, have surged above the 7 percent level that led Greece, Portugal and Ireland to seek bailouts from the European Union and International Monetary Fund. With politicians still unable to find a solution to the debt crisis that has raged for two years, the ECB is being asked to step into the breach to hold Europe’s monetary union together.

...

Knot said the ECB can maintain its bond buying as long as it can continue to remove the same amount of money from the system. “The bigger the portfolio, the more difficult that becomes,” he said. “Interventions can only have a temporary and very limited effect,” Knot added.

[Demeter]

17. Why Mitt Romney's Entitlement-Privatization Plan Is Crazy Matt Taibbi

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/why-mitt-romneys-entitlement-privatization-plan-is-crazy-20111108?utm_source=dailynewsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter

[xchrom]

21. Clients Question Oversight by MF Global’s Regulator

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/11/09/clients-question-oversight-by-mf-globals-regulator/

Futures trading, which caters to farmers as well as to hedge funds, was left largely untouched when lawmakers took on Wall Street after the financial crisis.

But a light regulatory hand is now being called into question after the collapse of MF Global, the brokerage firm run by Jon S. Corzine until last week.

As regulators hunt for $600 million in missing customer money at the firm, many clients are aiming their anger at one of MF Global’s primary regulators: the CME Group.

For decades, commodities and futures trading firms have been largely policed by the exchanges where they trade, setting up potential conflicts of interest. These profit-making exchanges, like the CME Group, oversee the very futures firms they rely on for business, a self-regulatory system unlike that overseeing the Wall Street banks, which contend with armies of federal regulators.

[Demeter]

25. Banks' foreclosure activity picks up in October

http://www.latimes.com/news/la-fi-foreclosures-20111110,0,510330.story?track=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+latimes%2Fnews+%28L.A.+Times+-+Top+News%29&utm_content=My+Yahoo

After about a year of increased regulatory scrutiny, banks boost the pace of foreclosure activity in October, filing actions on 230,678 U.S. homes, a 7% increase over September...Banks are reasserting themselves against troubled borrowers, sending close to 78,000 properties into the first stage of the foreclosure process in October after a nearly yearlong slowdown brought on by increased scrutiny from regulators.

Foreclosure actions were filed on 230,678 U.S. homes in October, up 7% from the month before, according to a report by RealtyTrac of Irvine. The tally spans the major steps required for a lender to take back a home: sending a notice of default, filing the alert that a bank auction has been scheduled and repossessing the house.

A total of 77,733 U.S. properties entered the foreclosure process by receiving a notice of default, a 10% increase from the previous month. Lenders repossessed a total of 67,624 homes, a 4% increase from September.

"The October foreclosure numbers continue to show strong signs that foreclosure activity is coming out of the rain delay we've been in for the past year as lenders corrected foreclosure paperwork and processing problems," RealtyTrac Chief Executive James Saccacio said.

SO, THE FIX IS IN? MERS GETS OUT OF JAIL FREE? I DON'T THINK SO.

[Demeter]

29. The Corporate Pledge of Allegiance By Robert Reich

http://www.nationofchange.org/corporate-pledge-allegiance-1320849763

Despite what the Supreme Court and Mitt Romney say, corporations aren’t people. (I’ll believe they are when Georgia and Texas start executing them.) The Court thinks corporations have First Amendment rights to spend as much as they want on politics, and Romney (and most of his fellow Regressives) think they need lower taxes and fewer regulations in order to be competitive.

These positions are absurd on their face. By flooding our democracy with their shareholders’ money, big corporations are violating their shareholders’ First Amendment rights because shareholders aren’t consulted. They’re simultaneously suppressing the First Amendment rights of the rest of us because, given how much money they’re throwing around, we don’t have enough money to be heard. And they’re indirectly giving non-Americans (that is, all their foreign owners, investors, and executives) a say in how Americans are governed. Pardon me for being old-fashioned but I didn’t think foreign money was supposed to be funneled into American elections.

Romney’s belief big corporations need more money and lower costs in order to create jobs is equally baffling. Big corporations are now sitting on $2 trillion of cash and enjoying near-record profits. The ratio of profits to wages is higher than it’s been since before the Great Depression. And a larger and larger portion of those profits are going to top executives. (CEO pay was 40 times the typical worker in the 1980s; it’s now upwards of 300 times.) But, hey, if the Supreme Court and regressive Republicans insist big corporations are people and want to treat them as American citizens, then why not demand big corporations take a pledge of allegiance to the United States? And if they don’t take the pledge, we should boycott them. (Occupiers — are you listening?)

Here’s what a Corporate Pledge of Allegiance might look like:

The Corporate Pledge of Allegiance to the United States

The {fill in blank} company pledges allegiance to the United States of America. To that end:

We pledge to create more jobs in the United States than we create outside the United States, either directly or in our foreign subsidiaries and subcontractors.

If we have to lay off American workers, we will give them severance payments equal to their weekly wage times the number of months they’ve worked for us.

We further pledge that no more than 20 percent of our total labor costs will be outsourced abroad.

We pledge to keep a lid on executive pay so no executive is paid more than 50 times the median pay of American workers. We define “pay” to include salary, bonuses, health benefits, pension benefits, deferred salary, stock options, and every other form of compensation.

We pledge to pay at least 30 percent of money earned in the United States in taxes to the United States. We won’t shift our money to offshore tax havens and won’t use accounting gimmicks to fake how much we earn.

We pledge not to use our money to influence elections.

Companies that make the pledge are free to use it in their ads over the Christmas shopping season.

[Demeter]

32. If the Greek People Got to Negotiate Directly with the ECB and the IMF By Dean Baker

http://www.nationofchange.org/if-greek-people-got-negotiate-directly-ecb-and-imf-1320852547

Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou touched off a firestorm last week when he proposed putting the austerity package designed by the “troika” (the I.M.F, the European Central Bank and the European Union) up for a popular vote. The idea that the Greek people might directly be able to decide their future terrified leaders across Europe and around the world. Financial markets panicked, sending stocks plummeting and bond yields soaring...However, by the end of the week things were back under control. The leaders of France and Germany apparently laid down the law to Papandreou and he backed off plans for the referendum. While the government is in the process of collapsing in Greece, the world can now rest assured that the Greek people will not have an opportunity to vote on their future. This is unfortunate since it means that Greece’s future will likely be decided by politicians (POLITICIANS? SAY BANKERS--TELL THE WHOLE STORY-DEMETER) who may not have the interests of the Greek people foremost in their minds. By their own projections, the austerity package designed by the troika promises a decade of austerity, with high unemployment, falling real wages and sharp reductions in public services and pensions. And, their projections have consistently proven to be overly optimistic.

If given the opportunity would the Greek people endorse this sort of austerity package? The answer obviously depends on the alternative...The alternative route almost certainly means a disorderly debt default and a departure from the euro. That is not a pretty picture. If Greece follows the path of Argentina, the last country to make a similar break, then the economy is likely to undergo a free fall for a period of time. The duration of this free fall will depend on how long it takes the government to get a new currency in use and construct some provisional formula for converting euro-denominated contracts into the new currency.

In Argentina this period was three months, with another three months of stagnation before the economy began a sustained boom. The process could be more difficult in Greece, both because it is tied in more extensively to the eurozone countries and also because Argentina at least had its own currency. However, even in the case of Greece, such a break would not be impossible. There will be a desire to hold the new currency. The government just has to impose a new property tax that is only payable in the new currency...

[Hugin]

41. What about Iceland?

I think that incident had more to do with the current collective soiling of expensive silk suits than Argentina... As short sighted as TPTB is forward, they are equally so in reverse.

[Demeter]

44. Both Iceland and Argentina got away

I think there was a lot more money (and now, newly discovered oil fields) involved in Argentina. Plus, they always HAD Argentina....it's not like Iceland had been a slave state prior to the big bankster coup, so the victim escaped before the manacles were applied.

[DemReadingDU]

50. What's new with the Yahoo! Finance Homepage

11/10/11
Yahoo! Finance has updated our homepage as part of our effort to provide our users with the best in news, content and financial data. We welcome your feedback about these homepage changes and will look to make further updates in the future based on your suggestions. Changes in this release include:

* A more flexible, backend platform that allows for better storytelling and commitment to a topic as we handle up-to-the-minute breaking news.
* An increased amount of timely data (e.g. premarket futures data)
* A fresher look and feel.
.
.
. more, click link
.
.

Note: It is no longer possible to switch back to the previous Yahoo! Finance page design. The current page is now the Yahoo! Finance homepage for all Yahoo! Finance users.

While we understand that it may take time for existing users to become accustomed to the new page, we believe based on the feedback we received during the homepage Beta that the new look will ultimately work better for the majority of both current and future Yahoo! Finance users.

That said, we are definitely interested in receiving feedback on how to improve the page and will make changes based on this feedback.

http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/finance/homepage/fitnwfpnew.html


edit to add link for the Yahoo Finance page, it's the same link as in the OP for the closing bell
http://finance.yahoo.com/?u

[Roland99]

52. Wonder if they'll make a new Windows 7 stock gadget

^DJI is not available on any of them anymore...that bites.

[Roland99]

51. NASDAQ in the red. DJI/SP flat. Austrian/French downgrades possible.

[Roland99]

53. ISDA CEO Stepping Down

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/isda-ceo-stepping-down

Wait, what's that? CEO leaving after his CDS-triggering determination practices brought down the Eurozone? What a stunner:

ISDA CEO STEPPING DOWN
ISDA SAYS VOLDSTAD WILL BE REPLACED AS CEO BY PICKEL

Luckily, since this is a voluntary action, no CDS written on Voldstad will be triggered and thus no severance will be due and payable. Right? In all seriousness, this means that the idiotic no-trigger determination will be reversed right? We can't wait for the snarky post on the ISDA blog explaining this debacle.

[Tansy_Gold]

54. I have no idea what that's all about but the SMW thread

was in danger of falling off the first page.

Kick for the afternoon crowd.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

55. EGBOK!

[Tansy_Gold]

56. What, if anything, does anyone here know about IMM??

Really uninformed question here, so please forgive me if I sound really really stupid. Nothing here is meant facetiously or sarcastically.

Is this International Money Market and if so, what is it? Anyone know the history of it, and/or what effect (if any) it has had on the current economic situation?

I have a personal, but not financial, interest in this and will appreciate any info anyone can give me.


TIA


Your own,

Tansy Gold

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

57. I Make Money

IMM

[AnneD]

58. WS stock market ...

yoga class mantra....IMM. Used interchanable with OM (other's money)

AnneD... too cerebral today-off on another plane of reality, it's an American Indian thing.

[Demeter]

61. Well, at least you got to fly

A 3 hour nap does wonders.

[Hotler]

60. Afternoon k&r n/t

[mrdmk]

62. k & r