STOCK MARKET WATCH -- Friday, 26 April 2013

[Tansy_Gold]

[font size=3]STOCK MARKET WATCH, Friday, 26 April 2013[font color=black][/font]

SMW for 25 April 2013

AT THE CLOSING BELL ON 25 April 2013
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Dow Jones 14,700.80 +24.50 (0.17%)
S&P 500 1,585.16 +6.37 (0.40%)
Nasdaq 3,289.99 +20.34 (0.62%)


[font color=green]10 Year 1.71% -0.01 (-0.58%)
[font color=black]30 Year 2.92% 0.00 (0.00%) [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
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.










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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]

[Demeter]

1. Reminds me of a funny story

One night the fire trucks roared down the next street over. They were hanging around, unlike the rescue trucks that stay until an ambulance shows, and more and more were coming.

Evidently one owner noticed smoke in his house, but no one could figure out where it was coming from. So the firemen broke into the unit next door to expand the search.

It turns out the original owner had a potato in the microwave, and had overdone it a little. To which the quip was, don't potatoes know there's no smoking in this microwave?....

I suppose you had to be there.

This town is so boring...no fires, only a murder every couple years...so the police and fire have a hard time defending themselves from cutbacks.

We should have such problems for the military. Maybe the never-ending sequester will finally put an end to Empire and the Policeman of the World.

Somebody sure wants us beating up on Syria real bad. Starts with I, ends with L?

[Demeter]

2. And Oh, Gas prices up 28 cents in a week. For no reason whatsoever.

[Demeter]

3. I'd post more, but between overdoing it, and the coming weekend

I'd better get some sleep. Sweet dreams of warm Spring, everyone!

[hamerfan]

7. Gas prices have been slightly down here this week

Currently at $3.25/gallon for unleaded regular.

[Warpy]

30. No reason? Check out all the funny money flooding into the futures market

after it all dropped out a couple of weeks ago.

I guess enough suckers see prices going up that they jump in at the wrong time and lose their shirts.

[Fuddnik]

4. Barkevious Mingo.

[DemReadingDU]

5. New Maker of Twinkies Ditches Unions

4/25/13 New Maker of Twinkies Ditches Unions

HoHos, Ding Dongs, and, yes, Twinkies are coming back—without the union workers that once produced them. The reborn Hostess Brands LLC intends to cut ties with the Teamsters and the bakers' union, the CEO of Metropoulos & Co., which bought the bankrupt company along with Apollo Global Management, tells the Wall Street Journal. Metropoulos intends to spend $60 million to reopen four bakeries within the next 10 weeks, hiring at least 1,500 workers.

That's a far cry from the 19,000 workers Hostess Brands Inc. had pre-bankruptcy, 15,000 of whom were unionized. The bakers' union had expressed confidence that the reborn Hostess would re-hire its workers. "Only our members know how to get that equipment running," its president said. "A work force off the street will not be able to accomplish that." But Metropoulos observes that the plants are located in areas with high unemployment, and it's betting there's plenty of skilled labor eager for work, union or otherwise. Twinkies are expected to be back on store shelves in July.

http://www.newser.com/story/166877/new-maker-of-twinkies-ditches-unions.html

[Fuddnik]

6. Another reason to stay on my diet.

No union-No Twinkies!

[tclambert]

10. Non-union Twinkies!

Sounds like a good insult to throw at Republicans. Or a name for a rock band.

[xchrom]

8. US ECONOMY LIKELY REBOUNDED IN FIRST QUARTER

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_ECONOMY_GDP?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2013-04-26-06-14-53

WASHINGTON (AP) -- U.S. economic growth likely accelerated from January through March from a near-stall at the end of 2012, propelled by a revival in housing, steady consumer spending and increased stockpiling by businesses.

But the faster growth isn't expected to last. Broad government spending cuts and higher taxes have begun to weigh on the economy, making some consumers and businesses cautious and slowing growth.

Economists predict that the overall economy grew at an annual rate of 3.1 percent in the January-March quarter, according to a survey by FactSet. That would be a significant improvement from the anemic 0.4 percent growth rate reported for the October-December quarter.

A 3.1 percent growth rate would match the robust pace of the July-September quarter last year. Anything stronger than 3.1 percent would be the economy's fastest quarterly growth since late 2011.

[xchrom]

9. JAPAN PRICES FALL IN MARCH AS DEFLATION DRAGS ON

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AS_JAPAN_ECONOMY?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2013-04-26-03-20-30

TOKYO (AP) -- Japan's consumer price index fell 0.9 percent in March from a year earlier, underlining the challenge of ending a long spell of debilitating deflation despite an onslaught of monetary easing and stimulus spending.

Citing expectations that the policies will soon turn take hold, the central bank raised its inflation forecast for the coming two years. The Bank of Japan, whose policy board met Friday but left monetary policy unchanged, said it expects inflation to hit a 2 percent target within that time despite uncertainties in both the domestic and global economies.

In its revised outlook, the central bank said the economy was likely to grow at a "pace above its potential" and return to a moderate recovery by mid-2013.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe took office in December vowing to vanquish deflation, or falling prices, that tend to discourage business investment and weaken growth.

[xchrom]

11. Japan Continues To Get Squeezed By Deflation

http://www.businessinsider.com/bank-of-japan-says-inflation-coming-2013-4

Japan's CPI falls 0.9 percent in March as deflation drags on; central bank keeps policy intact

TOKYO (AP) — Japan's consumer price index fell 0.9 percent in March from a year earlier, underlining the challenge of ending a long spell of debilitating deflation despite an onslaught of monetary easing and stimulus spending.

Citing expectations that the policies will soon turn take hold, the central bank raised its inflation forecast for the coming two years. The Bank of Japan, whose policy board met Friday but left monetary policy unchanged, said it expects inflation to hit a 2 percent target within that time despite uncertainties in both the domestic and global economies.

In its revised outlook, the central bank said the economy was likely to grow at a "pace above its potential" and return to a moderate recovery by mid-2013.


Read more: ?key=YXJ0aWNsZT03NTRhOTFiZDQ4MjcwNWZhYTZmMGI0YmY5ZGY5YWZhMCZvd25lcj1lOTllZDJiYjAxYjQzNmJkZWEyOWQ2NjAyYTg2NTY4NSZub25jZT1lYTZkYTdiNy0wNGZmLTQxZGYtYjcwZS0xOGJhYWY0ZDc4YWEmcHVibGlzaGVyPThjMDBmYmVlNjFkNWJjZjBjNjA5MmQ4YjkyZWJiY2Ex#ixzz2RZLwJoG5

[xchrom]

12. 401(k) Fees Are Robbing You Blind

http://www.businessinsider.com/401k-fees-are-robbing-you-blind-2013-4

Everybody knows you should be investing in your company's 401(k) plan, but here's something that almost nobody knows: Investing in a 401(k) could cost your three years' salary.

That's the surprising upshot of a new study by the financial folks at NerdWallet, whose InvestingNerd division just ran a study concluding that "9 out of 10 Americans (92.6%) dramatically underestimated the total 401(k) fees the average household will pay over the course of a lifetime."

According to NerdWallet, when posed the question "How much will the average American household with 2 working adults pay in 401(k) fees over the course of their lifetime?"
38.1 percent of respondents thought a 401(k) might cost them less than $10,000.


Read more: http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/04/24/401k-fees-are-robbing-you-blind-nerdwallet/#ixzz2RZRekJIy

[AnneD]

23. And that my friends....

is the crux of why...
they want to do away with Social Security, pensions, and other methods of retirement savings. The Financial Industries want to force folk into these POS investment vehicles so they can extract wealth from us. This is the exact template that they used in the Insurance/Health Care Industry. Instead of universal care, we now have private insurance that we buy but does not pay.

They are having a harder time doing away with Social Security, but they will not rest until they accomplish it's destruction.

[xchrom]

13. Spain in new move to revive economy

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-22305953

Spain is set to unveil new measures later aimed at reviving the economy, a day after unemployment in the country hit another record.

Many economists believe the proposals will focus less on austerity and more on stimulus measures.

The news will be watched closely amid a growing debate in Europe about whether austerity plans should be reined back.

Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy's government is due to unveil the economic reforms at 1200 GMT.

[xchrom]

14. French unemployment at new high

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-22301063

The number of unemployed people in France rose to a fresh high last month, official data shows.

There are now some 3.2 million people seeking work in France, 11.5% more than a year ago and 1.2% more than in February, the labour ministry said.

The number of jobseekers is the highest since records began in January 1996.

The ministry does not express the jobseeker figure as a percentage of the work force, as done by the International Labour Organization.


***Austerity has created a contagion -- and i'm thinking people don't know what the fuck to do about it.

[xchrom]

15. Money Mountain: Swiss Banks 'Plundering German Treasury'

http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/sociologist-jean-ziegler-says-swiss-banks-plundering-german-treasury-a-896689.html


SPIEGEL ONLINE: Bayern Munich manager Uli Hoeness deposited money in Switzerland. Does that surprise you?

Ziegler: No. Switzerland has one of the highest per capita incomes in the world, the strongest currency and the largest financial center for foreign assets. And we're a small country with no natural resources. Switzerland is the world capital of dealing in stolen goods.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: That's a harsh accusation. How do you reach that conclusion?

Ziegler: Money comes to Switzerland through three illegal sources: tax evasion in other developed countries, the blood money of dictators and other rulers in the Third World and organized crime.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: You have criticized the Swiss business model for more than 20 years. Has absolutely nothing changed since then?

Ziegler: No, things have changed. Tax evasion formerly wasn't a crime in Switzerland. That's why in cases like that of former Deutsche Post CEO Klaus Zumwinkel there was no cooperation with German authorities. That has changed under pressure from industrialized countries. But Switzerland still rejects the automatic exchange of bank information.

[Demeter]

19. So the whole purpose of the EU was to show up the SWISS?

I really think Germany needs some serious psychological therapy.

[xchrom]

16. Rental Disobedience: Resident Groups Combat Spike in Evictions

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/resident-groups-form-to-fight-evictions-in-germany-a-896188.html

On the morning of the eviction, an hour after the bailiff has changed the locks, 10 protesters are standing in a small community garden between the apartment building and the subway station. One of them says: "I'm furious and sad and disappointed that we couldn't prevent it from happening." Another one says: "It's too bad Rosemarie wasn't here." A woman named Sara Walther says: "Rosemarie didn't have the strength to come."

Rosemarie Fliess died in a homeless shelter on April 11, two days after her landlord enforced an eviction action against her.
The fate of the 67-year-old retiree, who had difficulty walking, has ratcheted up the debate over forced evictions in the German capital. For months, furious local residents have staged protests when bailiffs and police officers have thrown delinquent tenants out of their apartments. Now Rosemarie Fliess has become something of a symbolic figure, giving protesters the ammunition to shout "Eviction kills!"

Rising rents have politicized citizens, though not just in Berlin. In Hamburg, Munich and Frankfurt, residents are protesting against the consequences of the real estate boom, while the courts are dealing with thousands of eviction cases. The scarcity and high cost of housing is now an issue in Germany's federal election campaign, as well as a factor fueling conflict in the streets, such as during the May 1 demonstrations in Berlin.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

17. First-Quarter Growth, at 2.5%, Misses Expectations

Source: The Wall Street Journal.

Read More: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323789704578446513668963282.html

ECONOMY
April 26, 2013, 8:37 a.m. ET

By ERIC MORATH And SARAH PORTLOCK

WASHINGTON—The U.S. economy failed to gather as much steam as expected in the first quarter, potentially setting up another year of sluggish gains with signs already emerging of slowing hiring and investment.

The nation's gross domestic product, a measure of all goods and services produced in the economy, advanced at a 2.5% annual rate between January and March, the Commerce Department said Friday.

Economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires had forecast a 3.2% annualized expansion. Still, the GDP gain represented a rebound from the 0.4% growth in the prior quarter.

The economy has now grown for 15 consecutive quarters, but the average pace—just above 2% annually—is weak by historical standards. ... The primary driver of the faster growth was a pickup in consumer spending. Personal-consumption expenditures grew 3.2%, the best pace since the end of 2010.

[bread_and_roses]

18. "the stink is rising to the surface" - Taibbi

This has probably been posted here, but I have not had time to even scan the headers here for some days, and have missed a lot over past months, so apologies if repeat - though we probably can't post Taibbi's stuff enough times. My thanks to poster antigop for calling my attention to it - I did look at front page this AM and saw this:

http://jhaines6.wordpress.com/2013/03/23/wikileaks-was-just-a-preview-by-matt-taibbi-rolling-stone/

WikiLeaks Was Just a Preview – by Matt Taibbi, Rolling Stone
Posted on March 23, 2013

... The secrets are out there and everyone from hackers to journalists to U.S. senators are digging in search of them. Sooner or later, there’s going to be a pitched battle, one where the state won’t be able to peel off one lone Julian Assange or Bradley Manning and batter him into nothingness. Next time around, it’ll be a Pentagon Papers-style constitutional crisis, where the public’s legitimate right to know will be pitted head-to-head with presidents, generals and CEOs.

... There are all sorts of things we both know and don’t know about the processes that keep our society running. We know children in Asia are being beaten to keep our sneakers and furniture cheap, we know our access to oil and other raw materials is being secured only by the cooperation of corrupt and vicious dictators, and we’ve also known for a while now that the anti-terror program they say we need to keep our airports and reservoirs safe involves mass campaigns of extralegal detention and assassination.

We haven’t had to openly ratify any of these policies because the secret-keepers have done us the favor of making these awful moral choices for us.

But the stink is rising to the surface. It’s all coming out.

From your pen to the goddess' ears, Matt.

[Demeter]

20. Haven't seen that before, B&R

Thanks for bringing it here...I don't get out much, anymore.

[DemReadingDU]

21. Matt Taibbi: Everything Is Rigged

4/25/13
Everything Is Rigged: The Biggest Price-Fixing Scandal Ever
The Illuminati were amateurs. The second huge financial scandal of the year reveals the real international conspiracy: There's no price the big banks can't fix

Conspiracy theorists of the world, believers in the hidden hands of the Rothschilds and the Masons and the Illuminati, we skeptics owe you an apology. You were right. The players may be a little different, but your basic premise is correct: The world is a rigged game. We found this out in recent months, when a series of related corruption stories spilled out of the financial sector, suggesting the world's largest banks may be fixing the prices of, well, just about everything.

You may have heard of the Libor scandal, in which at least three – and perhaps as many as 16 – of the name-brand too-big-to-fail banks have been manipulating global interest rates, in the process messing around with the prices of upward of $500 trillion (that's trillion, with a "t&quot worth of financial instruments. When that sprawling con burst into public view last year, it was easily the biggest financial scandal in history – MIT professor Andrew Lo even said it "dwarfs by orders of magnitude any financial scam in the history of markets."

That was bad enough, but now Libor may have a twin brother. Word has leaked out that the London-based firm ICAP, the world's largest broker of interest-rate swaps, is being investigated by American authorities for behavior that sounds eerily reminiscent of the Libor mess. Regulators are looking into whether or not a small group of brokers at ICAP may have worked with up to 15 of the world's largest banks to manipulate ISDAfix, a benchmark number used around the world to calculate the prices of interest-rate swaps.

Interest-rate swaps are a tool used by big cities, major corporations and sovereign governments to manage their debt, and the scale of their use is almost unimaginably massive. It's about a $379 trillion market, meaning that any manipulation would affect a pile of assets about 100 times the size of the United States federal budget.

lots more...

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/everything-is-rigged-the-biggest-financial-scandal-yet-20130425

[jakeXT]

24. I see he's coming around....nt

[Demeter]

26. DID YOU READ THIS? DID YOU READ THIS!

If you haven't, you must. And then, we have to start acting. I don't know what, where, or how...but the time is NOW.

[DemReadingDU]

31. One wonders how much longer these scandals can continue

And each scandal appears to be bigger than the previous one, probably to keep the game afloat. Then one of these days...Poof, It's all gone.

In the meantime, I think I have done what anyone can do:
1. get out of debt
2. conserve resources
3. stock up extra cans of food
4. Have a bit of cash at home
5. Refuse to buy anything made in Bangladesh (or any foreign country if possible)
6. Be friendly with the neighbors
etc.

The next step is to dis-engage from the banking system before the global Ponzi implodes. But that is hard to do when SS checks are mandatory electronically deposited, and bills are electronically paid.

I am getting increasingly worried with the media news that Syria has likely used Sarin and China threatening us with cyber attacks. What is really going on, and what do they know that we don't.

[jakeXT]

22. Get HFT Genie Back In the Bottle: Cuban

After a fake AP report on Twitter temporarily destroyed billions in market cap, investor Mark Cuban reiterated his call to eliminate high-frequency trading.

"A hundred and forty characters and – what was it? – $200 billion worth of market cap just disappeared for a few minutes and then it came back. I mean, it was crazy," he said. "What happened is exactly what we should expect to happen anytime we have a market that's dominated by … algorithmic trading."

On CNBC's "Fast Money," Cuban said that the stock market has lost sight of its purpose.

(Read More: Mark Cuban: 'I Rarely Invest in Stocks')

"We've gone from a market designed to raise capital to support new businesses to a platform designed for algorithmic traders and hackers," he said. "We don't talk about new companies coming public and our excitement there. We talk about what happening at the CBOE and what's going to happen with their software. We talk about, 'Will there even be bids?' because of high-frequency trading when news comes out?'

http://www.cnbc.com/id/100674523

[Demeter]

25. Gullibility rules

[xchrom]

27. Spain admits recession worse but gets deficit leeway

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/04/26/uk-spain-economy-idUKBRE93P0OM20130426

(Reuters) - Spain acknowledged that its economy would shrink more than initially expected in 2013 and its budget deficit would be higher than promised, but the European Union gave it more time to bring the shortfall back down to bloc limits.

Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, who was a keen advocate of austerity in his first year in power, has tried since February to find a middle way in the argument over Europe's economic future between pro-austerity and pro-growth camps.

Officials began on Friday to sketch out a reform plan aimed at returning Spain to growth but details remained thin, with the government saying there was no need to pass major new structural measures, tax hikes and spending cuts to meet the new targets.

The economy is set to contract 1.3 percent this year from a 0.5 percent recession initially expected, the government said. It would return to growth in 2014.

[xchrom]

28. Portugal to challenge JPMorgan, Santander swaps in court

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/04/26/uk-portugal-swaps-idUKBRE93P18420130426


(Reuters) - Portugal's government said on Friday it would challenge in court several high-risk hedge contracts signed by public companies and banks JPMorgan (JPM.N) and the local unit of Spain's Santander (SAN.MC) to avoid losses for the debt-ridden state.

Treasury Secretary Maria Luiz Albuquerque said the government had managed to renegotiate some swap contracts containing "highly speculative elements" with other banks, cutting by 20 percent potential liabilities from swaps that could total 3 billion euros (2.5 billion pounds).

It is awaiting responses next week from three other banks, which she did not identify.

Rising debts at public companies, especially in the transport sector, have hindered Portugal's fiscal adjustment programme under its EU/IMF bailout, secured in mid-2011.

[xchrom]

29. French Socialists call for tougher stance on Merkel

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/04/26/uk-france-socialists-idUKBRE93P14Z20130426

(Reuters) - France's ruling Socialist Party is pressing President Francois Hollande to toughen his stance towards a German counterpart it describes as "self-centred", arguing that Chancellor Angela Merkel's pro-austerity policies are hurting Europe.

The message - spelled out in a 21-page document to be presented at a party brainstorming conference in June - added to growing criticism of Berlin from across the Rhine after Socialist National Assembly speaker Claude Bartolone this week raised the prospect of a "confrontation" with Merkel.

The rhetoric follows a French appeal for an extra year to bring its public deficit below 3 percent of economic output in line with European targets, as rising unemployment keeps Europe's no. 2 economy in the doldrums.

"The friendship between France and Germany is not a friendship between France and the European policy of Chancellor Merkel," read the document, which has been endorsed by the Socialist Party but could still be tweaked before its June meeting on Europe.