STOCK MARKET WATCH -- Thursday, 29 November 2012

[Tansy_Gold]

[font size=3]STOCK MARKET WATCH, Thursday, 29 November 2012[font color=black][/font]

SMW for 87 November 2012

AT THE CLOSING BELL ON 28 November 2012
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Dow Jones 12,985.11 +106.98 (0.83%)
S&P 500 1,409.93 +10.99 (0.79%)
Nasdaq 2,991.78 +23.99 (0.81%)


[font color=red]10 Year 1.63% +0.03 (1.88%)
30 Year 2.79% +0.05 (1.82%) [font color=black]


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[font size=2]Market Conditions During Trading Hours[/font]
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[font size=2]Euro, Yen, Loonie, Silver and Gold[center]

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[font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Market Data and News:[/font][/font]
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Economic Calendar
Marketwatch Data
Bloomberg Economic News
Yahoo Finance
Google Finance
Bank Tracker
Credit Union Tracker
Daily Job Cuts
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[font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Economic Blogs:[/font][/font]
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The Big Picture
Financial Sense
Calculated Risk
Naked Capitalism
Credit Writedowns
Brad DeLong
Bonddad
Atrios
goldmansachs666
The Stand-Up Economist
The Automatic Earth
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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.



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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]

[Fuddnik]

1. Bah, Humbug!

Details at 11:00.

[Tansy_Gold]

2. It's always 11:00

Somewhere. . . . .

[kickysnana]

3. They forgot the plastic Jesus on the dash. n/t

[Po_d Mainiac]

4. It was on the roof. n/t

[Hugin]

5. I rushed out and bought a lotto ticket after I saw this toon.

Didn't notice that... Or I would've bought two!

Good catch!

[Po_d Mainiac]

6. Average & Lower trashed our provider

S&P downgrades rating for CMP's parent
The Associated Press

ALBANY, N.Y. — Standard & Poor's Ratings Services has dropped the credit rating for a Spain-based company that owns three U.S. utilities because of ongoing economic woes overseas.

The rating agency had reviewed Iberdrola's rating because the company gets almost half its revenue from Spain, which is in recession. Worsening conditions there threaten Iberdrola's profitability.

Iberdrola owns New York utilities Rochester Gas & Electric and New York State Electric and Gas as well as Central Maine Power.

Its rating fell from BBB-plus to BBB, two notches above "junk" status. The ratings for its U.S. companies are capped at that level.

Standard & Poor's noted that Iberdrola last month announced a strategic plan that included debt reduction.

Iberdrola's short term rating stayed at A-2, meaning it has enough cash to meet financial obligations over the short term.

http://www.onlinesentinel.com/news/CMP-SP-downgrades-utilities-Maine-NY-central-power.html

[xchrom]

7. i'm ready and waiting for the weekend -- and the Party better be good!

[Fuddnik]

14. I'm not waiting for the week-end.

I'm starting early today.

I earned it. I deserve it, and by all the goddesses, I'm gonna do it.

First I gotta hide the car keys.

[xchrom]

15. ...

[Fuddnik]

19. First I gotta take these two nuts to the park.

Otherwise they'll drive me crazy all day.

[Tansy_Gold]

22. Why don't you take the dogs with you? They'd probably enjoy it, too.

[xchrom]

8. A Monster $69 Trillion Order Wreaked Havoc On The Stockholm Stock Exchange Today

http://www.businessinsider.com/stockholm-stock-exchange-shutdown-28-2012-11

Trading was halted in index derivatives on the Stockholm Stock Exchange today after a monster futures order valued at around $69 trillion appeared in the system, according to Swedish business newspaper SvD Näringsliv.
The "trade" was a buy order for nearly 4.3 billion OMXS30 warrants (valued at nearly 460 trillion kronor), an amount over 131 times Sweden's GDP. The OMXS30 is the exchange's flagship stock index, and the error apparently caused enough problems to force a closure of the market.
A report in Investment Europe said that despite safeguards, "somehow the order made its way into the order book, causing chaos for traders."
SvD Näringsliv's Gustaf Palm reports (via Google Translate):
According to the Exchange spokesman Carl Norell has no order of that size team into the system. Instead, it is about a parsing incurred in exchange system due to a technical error. The order, Norell writes in an email, anullerades, but still remains a problem why the index derivatives market is closed since just before 10 am this morning.


Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/stockholm-stock-exchange-shutdown-28-2012-11#ixzz2DcLMJIxI

[xchrom]

9. WHITE HOUSE, CONGRESS TALK AS 'FISCAL CLIFF' NEARS

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_FISCAL_CLIFF?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-11-29-03-04-01

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Amid increasing anxiety that the White House and top Republicans are wasting time as the government slides toward an economy-rattling "fiscal cliff," administration officials are heading to Capitol Hill for talks with congressional leaders.

Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and senior White House aide Rob Nabors were to visit separately Thursday with the four leaders of the House and Senate to discuss how to avert a series of tax increases and spending cuts due to begin in January. Republicans complain that the White House is slow-walking the talks and has yet to provide specifics on how President Barack Obama would curb the rapid growth of benefit programs like Medicare and Medicaid.

There's been little evident progress in negotiations between the White House and the lead GOP negotiator, House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio. Boehner's lieutenants say the White House has been slow to engage.

"We have not seen any good-faith effort on the part of this administration to talk about the real problem that we're trying to fix," said House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va.

[Fuddnik]

16. Why bother negotiating, when we've got our own little saboteurs?

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/11/29/175856/senates-no-2-democrat-calls-for.html

Senate's No. 2 Democrat calls for cuts to social safety net

By LISA MASCARO AND CHRISTI PARSONS | Tribune Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON — A top Democrat pressured fellow progressives Tuesday to consider long-term changes to the social safety net, even as the party digs in for a fight to save Medicare and other government programs from deep budget cuts.

As closed-door talks continue with the hope of a year-end deal, President Barack Obama will travel to a Pennsylvania toy store this week to pressure Congress to extend the expiring tax cuts for the middle class, while letting those for the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans expire. Republicans are similarly taking their proposal of tax breaks for all on the road.

At the same time, Sen. Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, the No. 2 Democrat, tapped his ties to the liberal wing of the party to urge a broader deficit deal in 2013 that would include trims to Medicare and other entitlement cuts.

"We can't be so naive to believe that just taxing the rich will solve our problems," said Durbin, speaking at the influential liberal group called Center for American Progress. "Put everything on the table. Repeat. Everything on the table."

The assistant majority leader's speech comes at a pivotal moment - the White House's allies in the labor and progressive community have warned Obama not to cut Medicare, Medicaid and other government programs in talks with Republicans.

Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/11/29/175856/senates-no-2-democrat-calls-for.html#storylink=cpy
-------------------------------------------------------------------

STOP BEING A DICK, DICK.
Durbin of NDAA infamy.

[xchrom]

17. +1

[AnneD]

18. Our musical theme....

In honor of all those politicians that sell out the public that voted them in to protect us....

Play a Tango, it is what they do in Argentina.

[xchrom]

10. Mortgage-interest deduction could be on the table in ‘fiscal cliff’ debate

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/mortgage-interest-deduction-could-be-on-the-table-in-fiscal-cliff-debate/2012/11/28/4cfb81b0-335f-11e2-bfd5-e202b6d7b501_story.html

Of all the deductions woven into the sprawling U.S. tax code, few have been more fiercely guarded than the enormous tax break that lets homeowners deduct the interest they pay on their mortgages.

But as Congress and the White House negotiate the first major rewrite of tax laws in decades, changing the generations-old mortgage-interest deduction — which costs the government roughly $100 billion a year — has gone from far-off possibility to part of the conversation.

The outcome of that debate could have profound long-term effects on homeowners across the country — and particularly those in the Washington area, who tend to benefit from the tax break more than many other Americans due to the region’s hefty home prices and high incomes.

As the Obama administration and lawmakers on Capitol Hill scramble to defuse automatic spending cuts and tax increases set to take effect Jan. 1, a herd of sacred cows — from Social Security and Medicare to deductions for charitable giving and mortgage interest — are in danger of losing their untouchable status.

[Po_d Mainiac]

20. When the mortgage interest deduction became part of the tax code

housing prices rose in lockstep to offset any additional money left in peoples pocket. Higher home prices mean bigger mortgages, and more interest paid.

Who benefits from that I wonder?

The banksters will be stomping on any move to eliminate the deduction. This is just a smokescreen.

[AnneD]

25. Let them take the home mortgage deduction....

and leave medicare and SS intact.

Since we shouldn't be in any more wars, cut military spending. Now here is a tax no one will feel-1% on HFT's...

I just realized that my wedding anniversary is 12/21. Should I buy an anniversary gift or hold off. I think I will look for some Mayan Calendar bookends...whatchthink.

[Po_d Mainiac]

35. ya might have another milleneum point 5 to think about it

http://www.alaskadispatch.com/article/archaeologists-discover-mayan-calendar-workshop-debunking-2012-end-world-prediction

[xchrom]

11. Fed lays out tougher capital rules for foreign banks

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/fed-lays-out-tougher-capital-rules-for-foreign-banks/2012/11/28/7b4cecac-399a-11e2-a263-f0ebffed2f15_story.html

Federal Reserve governor Daniel Tarullo on Wednesday outlined stricter capital and liquidity rules for foreign banks operating in the United States, a plan that would force them to adhere to the same standards as U.S. institutions.

Policymakers grew alarmed during the financial crisis about the risks foreign banks posed as they borrowed heavily from the Fed’s discount window, the primary tool for providing cash to banks facing liquidity problems. At the time, foreign firms were exempt from U.S. requirements that banks keep a certain amount of assets in reserve to cover potential losses, provided their parent companies were well capitalized.

The Dodd-Frank financial law ended that exemption and called on the Fed to write tougher capital rules for all banks doing business in the United States. The central bank last year released proposed rules for U.S. banks but had yet to unveil its plans for their foreign counterparts until now.

Speaking at the Yale School of Management on Wednesday, Tarullo said the central bank will require foreign firms to create intermediate holding companies to house all of their U.S. subsidiaries. This would “reduce the ability of foreign banks to avoid U.S. consolidated-capital regulations” and make “supervision more consistent across foreign banks,” he said.

[xchrom]

12. Chinese tycoon buys top Bordeaux wine estate

http://www.france24.com/en/20121129-chinese-tycoon-buys-bordeaux-wine-estate

A Chinese industrialist has completed the landmark purchase of Chateau Bellefont-Belcier, a leading estate in France's prestigious Saint Emilion wine-making area, sources involved in the sale said Thursday.

The property is the first of its rank -- Grand Cru Classe (classified growth) -- to be acquired in what has been a wave of Chinese investment in the Bordeaux region.

The new owner is a 45-year-old industrialist with assets in the iron sector who has already diversified into the wine importing business. He met the chateau's employees on Friday and has since returned to China.

Chinese investors have acquired around 30 lower-ranked properties in Bordeaux (the larger region that includes Saint Emilion) in the last two years and this year has seen China become the region's biggest export market in terms of volume.

[xchrom]

13. Germany Falling Behind in Fight against Corruption

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/germany-too-lax-on-fighting-political-corruption-says-watchdog-a-869763.html

Usually, the Group of States against Corruption (GRECO), established by the Council of Europe in 1999, politely refrains from criticizing its member countries. The anti-corruption watchdogs always stress that they work with their members, not against them.

In its reports, the group, set up in 1999 to monitor adherence to the Council's anti-corruption standards, tends to highlight even the tiniest progress. But its patience with the German government appears to be wearing thin.
On Wednesday, GRECO's commission published its "Interim Compliance Report on Germany" assessing whether the country has implemented recommended reforms of its laws on political party funding and the bribery of members of parliament. A year ago, GRECO found that only four of 20 recommendations had been implemented. And nothing has happened since then.

"No progress has been achieved," GRECO said in the report. It added that it was instructing its president to write a letter to the German representative at the Council "drawing his attention to the non-compliance with the relevant recommendations and the need to take determined action with a view to achieving tangible progress as soon as possible."

[Tansy_Gold]

26. Someone is actually fighting AGAINST corruption?

Coulda fooled me.


Wankers.

[xchrom]

27. !

[xchrom]

21. Dudley Sees Unacceptable Joblessness as More QE Weighed

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-11-29/dudley-sees-unacceptable-joblessness-as-more-bond-buying-weighed.html


Federal Reserve Bank of New York President William C. Dudley said he is weighing “unacceptably high” joblessness as he considers whether the central bank should increase its asset purchases.

“I will be assessing the employment and inflation outlook in order to determine whether we should continue Treasury purchases into 2013,” Dudley, 59, said today in the text of remarks for a speech in New York. “The Fed will promote maximum employment and price stability to the greatest extent our tools permit, and we will stay the course.”

Fed officials are considering whether to step up record accommodation to offset the scheduled expiration next month of Operation Twist, a program swapping short-term Treasuries with longer-term debt. A “number” of Fed officials said at their policy meeting last month that the Fed next year may need to expand its monthly purchases of bonds, according to the minutes of the FOMC’s Oct. 23-24 gathering.

“Although the economy continues to expand, we must grow faster if we are to put all of our jobless workers and idle businesses back to work,” said Dudley, who is also vice chairman of the policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee. Consumer prices are likely to increase “at or slightly below our 2 percent longer-run objective over the next few years.”

[DemReadingDU]

23. Syria shuts down their Internet

11/29/12 Nationwide Internet blackout in Syria

Two US-based Internet-monitoring companies say Syria has shut off the Internet nationwide.

Activists in Syria reached Thursday by satellite telephone confirmed the unprecedented blackout, which comes amid intense fighting in the capital, Damascus.

Renesys, a U.S.-based network security firm that studies Internet disruptions, says Syria effectively disappeared from the Internet at 12:26 p.m. local time.

Akamai Technologies Inc., another U.S-based company that distributes content on the Internet, also confirmed a complete outage for Syria.

Syria has partially cut Internet connections during the 20-month uprising against President Bashar Assad but a nationwide shutdown is unprecedented.

http://www.businessweek.com/ap/2012-11-29/syria-rebels-kill-ruling-party-official-with-bomb

[Demeter]

24. Lest we forget

[Tansy_Gold]

28. Story o' my fuckin' life. n/t

[tclambert]

32. What does the CEO get if he does a bad job?

[DemReadingDU]

33. A Golden Parachute, n/t

[Fuddnik]

34. A $100 million bonus.

They don't go away mad, they just go away......happy.

[Fuddnik]

29. It is now officially Beer O' Clock!

Let the pouring begin!

[mahatmakanejeeves]

30. ETA News Release: Unemployment Insurance Weekly Claims Report (11/29/2012)

Source: Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration

Link: http://www.dol.gov/opa/media/press/eta/ui/eta20122343.htm

MPLOYMENT INSURANCE WEEKLY CLAIMS REPORT

SEASONALLY ADJUSTED DATA

In the week ending November 24, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 393,000, a decrease of 23,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 416,000. The 4-week moving average was 405,250, an increase of 7,500 from the previous week's revised average of 397,750.

The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.6 percent for the week ending November 17, unchanged from the prior week's unrevised rate. The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending November 17 was 3,287,000, a decrease of 70,000 from the preceding week's revised level of 3,357,000. The 4-week moving average was 3,296,250, an increase of 6,250 from the preceding week's revised average of 3,290,000.

UNADJUSTED DATA

The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 357,015 in the week ending November 24, a decrease of 46,541 from the previous week. There were 372,640 initial claims in the comparable week in 2011
....

The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending November 17 were in Florida (+1,534), Michigan (+1,427), Massachusetts (+1,189), Kentucky (+945), and Minnesota (+872), while the largest decreases were in New York (-30,603), California (-26,337), Pennsylvania (-11,451), Oregon (-1,997) and North Carolina (-1,851).

-- -- -- -- -- -- --

Good afternoon, Freepers and DUers alike. I ask you to put aside your differences long enough to read this post. Following that, you can engage in your usual donnybrook.

Another big decrease. I suspect the size of the change artifact of Hurricane Sandy.

I have been posting the number every week for at least a year. I seriously do not care if the week's data make Obama look good. They are just numbers, and I post them without regard to the consequences. I welcome people from Free Republic to examine the numbers as well. They paid for the work just as much as members of DU did, so I invite them to come on over and have a look. "The more the merrier" is the way I look at it.

I do not work at the ETA, and I do not know anyone working in that agency. I'm sure I can safely assume that the numbers are gathered and analyzed by career civil servant economists who do their work on a nonpartisan basis. Numbers are numbers, and let the chips fall where they may. If you feel that these economists are falling down on the job, drop them a line or give them a call. They work for you, not for any politician or political party.

The word "initial" is important. The report does not count all claims, just the new ones filed this week.

Note: The seasonal adjustment factors used for the UI Weekly Claims data from 2007 forward, along with the resulting seasonally adjusted values for initial claims and continuing claims, have been revised. These revised historical values, as well as the seasonal adjustment factors that will be used through calendar year 2012, can be accessed at the bottom of the following link: http://www.oui.doleta.gov/press/2012/032912.asp

[Tansy_Gold]

31. LOL

freepers would be eaten alive in this thread! Yum!