STOCK MARKET WATCH -- Monday, 29 April 2013

[Tansy_Gold]

[font size=3]STOCK MARKET WATCH, Monday, 29 April 2013[font color=black][/font]

SMW for 26 April 2013

AT THE CLOSING BELL ON 26 April 2013
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Dow Jones 14,712.55 +11.75 (0.08%)
[font color=red]S&P 500 1,582.24 -2.92 (-0.18%)
Nasdaq 3,279.26 -10.73 (-0.33%)


[font color=green]10 Year 1.66% -0.01 (-0.60%)
30 Year 2.88% -0.01 (-0.35%) [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]

[Tansy_Gold]

1. And a Happy 79th Birthday

To Luis Ernesto Aparicio.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luis_Aparicio



(My son called me one morning while he was attending ASU in Tempe and said "Hey, Mom, I'll bet you don't know what today is." And I said right back to him, "Of course I do. It's April 29th. It's Luis Aparicio's birthday." A few years later, my son bought me an autographed baseball for Mother's Day. Probably still the coolest Mother's Day gift I ever got, and it sits proudly on the piano right now.)



TG, White Sox fan

[Fuddnik]

2. I remember seeing him play in Cleveland when I was a kid.

[tclambert]

3. So you appreciate Aparicio?

That's cool. I was always an Al Kaline fan. I love his batteries.

[Demeter]

10. You know, puns like that

are not helping my out-of-mind experience.

[Demeter]

4. Placemarker post

I am having a strange, out-of-mind experience today...do not know the reason, if any. When I return to what passes for Reality around here, will try to post useful articles.

[xchrom]

7. take care of your self, please.

[Hotler]

5. Good morning everyone. I have a question.

Republicans don't give a shit about anyone but themselves, so why are Lindsey Graham and John McCain making a big push for the US to get involved in Syria? Other than the MIC who is going to make money off of it????

[Demeter]

11. No idea

It must be a mental illness. Strategically, it's dumber than Iraq.

[DemReadingDU]

13. the M.I.C., and

It takes the spotlight off the exponentially growing financial Ponzi bubble

[Tansy_Gold]

17. Because they are authoritarians

1. They have to be in control. They feel they have a God-given (and I rarely capitalize "god," but they do) right to tell people what to do. From gay marriage and abortion to welfare to Syria.

2. They believe in -- and have established a base of followers who also believe in -- that same God, and they must protect that God (I know, I know, doesn't make sense) from enemies like Syria, Iraq, Iran, George Carlin, Elliot Spitzer, and Bill Clinton.



Do not attempt to apply what we think of as logic to their actions. It's not possible. Logic requires the connecting of one issue to another, such as "self-interest" to "Syria." Authoritarians are not able to connect issues. They tend to deal in absolutes -- Second Amendment, for example -- and absolutes do not permit modification by outside influences. Everything in an authoritarians mind is compartmentalized to the max.

Think of it this way -- whenever there is some heinous act, whether it's a mass shooting, a bomb, the ignoring of safety regulations, whatever -- there is always an immediate and anguished and disbeliving cry of "How could someone in their right mind do something like that???" And the answer is, of course, that the person who does that is not in their right mind, at least not as most of us define "right mind." So we label them insane, or temporarily insane, or . . .. . whatever.

What we don't do -- and the media really fails us on this -- is examine the less sensationalistic aspects of the workings of that mind. And probably the reason, or part of the reason, we don't, is that it would look too much like our own.

Several years ago, a friend of mind who is extremely liberal was going through some very difficult times with her right-wing father. Every time she attempted to talk to him about issues, he immediately started a fight. I kept telling her she could not use logic to reach him, and if he was as set in his ways (and his fears) then she probably might as well give it up. I had her read Bob Atlemyer's "The Authoritarians," and when she finished she said, "Now I understand him. I know I can't reach him, but at least I understand why he is the way he is, and at least that gives me some peace."

And you also have to understand that most RWNJs are driven by fear, and it's usually irrational fear. Sometimes nonsensical fear. (The cartoonists have a field day with those!) That's why the RW leaders -- who have a worldview very different from their followers' -- are so eager to propagate and perpetuate fear. "Terror! Terror! Terror!" scream the right wing leaders. And anyone with any sense says, "Huh?" while the RW followers shiver in their boots and await the next absurd pronouncement -- Saran Wrap and Duct Tape -- from their leaders.

Okay, today's lesson over. I need to go write a book.

[AnneD]

20. Very well put...

es la verdad. This is the crux of it. The only thing they can sell is terror. Once the have us sufficiently terrorized, then they talk us into giving up rights for security (which really is dictatorship in disguise).

My Mom has gotten more RW as she has gotten older. If I listen to her, I would never leave the house, met people I chat with on line, never travel to a foreign country, etc. I need to add the book to my list of reads

[Tansy_Gold]

23. It's free online

http://members.shaw.ca/jeanaltemeyer/drbob/TheAuthoritarians.pdf

Link is directly to the pdf version of the book. Well worth the time to read -- academically sound but not stuffy, definitely written for non-sociologists/psychologists. Altemeyer worked with John Dean on "Conservatives without Conscience," which incorporates much of Altemeyer's ideas.

[AnneD]

26. Thanks.....

And I am glad we met and had lunch togather...even though Mom warned me.

I guess if you were an axe murderer you would have pulled out your ITYS and stamped my corpse. What a clue for the clueless dicks.

[Hotler]

27. That was awesome. Thank you Tansy. Now my head doesn't hurt anymore. N/t

[Warpy]

31. I cut my politial teeth in the south

surrounded by people with an unshakable belief that abandoning Federalism in favor of the constitution was a terrible mistake and that the Southern Baptist way was the only way to buy themselves out of hell. There was also a strong determinist streak from Calvinism mixed in there somewhere that said the rich would automatically go to heaven but the poor were automatically cursed unless they were "saved" by some guy in a flashy suit and pompadour.

Once I realized they were all terrified 24/7, it became a little easier to cope.

I still left like I was shot out of a circus cannon the day I'd saved enough money.

[Fuddnik]

18. Just continuing their record breaking streak of being wrong about everything, all the time.

Remember a couple of years ago, McDepends was singing the praises of his friend Moammar.

[Hotler]

28. McDepends.........

[tclambert]

32. I have come to suspect Exxon Mobil has a secret "Mideast Chaos" division

tasked with promoting crises in the region to cause price jumps for crude oil. If I ran Exxon Mobil, I would certainly consider creating such a secret division, since Mideast turmoil creates so much profit for the oil companies. Any costs associated with these crises generally get covered by the U.S. Department of Defense. If all I cared about was profit, I think I would HAVE TO create a secret chaos division. Only the fact that I don't want to be a comic book super-villain would prevent me from doing so. Real oil company executives? As far as I can tell, they all attended the Lex Luthor School of Business.

From oil companies' secret agenda to Republican politicians' posturing seems like a short step.

So, should I get myself a tinfoil hat, or does this make sense to anybody else?

[xchrom]

6. Lloyds takes 250 million pound hit on Spanish sale

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/04/29/uk-lloyds-sabadell-idUKBRE93S03E20130429

(Reuters) - Lloyds has taken a 250 million pound loss on a sale of its unprofitable Spanish banking business to Banco Sabadell, a deal that will help bolster the British bank's capital.

Lloyd's, 39 percent owned by the government since a bailout in the financial crisis, will get a 1.8 percent stake in Sabadell, Spain's fifth biggest bank, as part of the transaction. The deal covers Lloyds' private and retail banking business in Spain, but not the British bank's corporate banking operations in the country.

The sale will boost Lloyds' capital ratio by reducing its risk-weighted assets - against which capital is measured - by 400 million pounds, a source with knowledge of the transaction told Reuters.

Many banks in Europe have been shedding businesses and assets to meet tough new capital rules brought in to make banks safer after the financial crisis.

[xchrom]

8. Analysis - The maze behind EU "treaty change"

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/04/29/uk-eu-treaty-maze-idUKBRE93S03M20130429

(Reuters) - If there are two words that tense the jaws of European policymakers and prompt a concerned sucking of teeth, they are treaty change.

Like a nervous driver being told mid-route that he needs a different map if he's going to get where he's going, no one is sure whether the outcome will be road rage, a car crash or a smoother, if longer, journey.

So when German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble spoke his mind during a meeting in Dublin on April 13 and said a change to the EU's treaty was necessary if Europe was to build a fully-fledged banking union, there was more than a little angst in the corridors of Brussels.

In Schaeuble's view, banking union - originally a three-step plan to create a single eurozone banking supervisor, a unified system for resolving problem banks and a single deposit-guarantee scheme - only makes sense if there are strict rules for restructuring and winding up bad lenders.

[xchrom]

9. Austerity is hurting our health, say researchers

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/04/28/us-austerity-idUKBRE93R0G820130428

(Reuters) - Austerity is having a devastating effect on health in Europe and North America, driving suicide, depression and infectious diseases and reducing access to medicines and care, researchers said on Monday.

Detailing a decade of research, Oxford University political economist David Stuckler and Sanjay Basu, an assistant professor of medicine and an epidemiologist at Stanford University, said their findings show austerity is seriously bad for health.

In a book to be published this week, the researchers say more than 10,000 suicides and up to a million cases of depression have been diagnosed during what they call the "Great Recession" and its accompanying austerity across Europe and North America.

In Greece, moves like cutting HIV prevention budgets have coincided with rates of the AIDS-causing virus rising by more than 200 percent since 2011 - driven in part by increasing drug abuse in the context of a 50 percent youth unemployment rate.

[Demeter]

12. In part, my out-of-mind disease is a result of Austerity

the rest is familial. Austerity just globalized it.

[xchrom]

14. Economic mood in euro zone sours again in Apri

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/04/29/uk-eurozone-sentiment-idUKBRE93S07U20130429


(Reuters) - Confidence in the euro zone's economy fell further in April, data showed, strengthening the case for a cut in interest rates this week by the European Central Bank.

The euro zone is facing a difficult road out of recession and has seen a souring of the mood among companies and consumers since March, after an optimistic start to the year was disrupted by turmoil in Cyprus and Italy.

Morale in the 17-country bloc slipped 1.5 percentage points to 88.6, the European Commission said on Monday - worse than the decline to 89.3 expected by economists polled by Reuters.

"We are reaching a trough and the market is betting on the ECB cutting rates to lift the economy," said Steen Jakobsen, chief economist at Saxo Bank. "But lower interests won't solve the euro zone's problems, we need structural reforms and for businesses to invest again."

[xchrom]

15. Private equity slump hinders France in growth struggle

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/04/29/uk-france-privateequity-idUKBRE93S0EV20130429

(Reuters) - A collapse of private equity investment this year seems increasingly emblematic of France's deep-seated economic problems and how hard it may prove to change a vicious cycle of poor growth and weakened companies.

Deals in a sector that is often essential to fuel the expansion of small and medium-sized businesses have slowed to a trickle - $437 million (281 million pounds) in the first quarter of 2013 compared with a peak of $36 billion in 2006 - and sector players say there is little prospect of a pickup anytime soon.

Some point to the perceived anti-business stance of leftist President Francois Hollande and his unwillingness to shake up labour rules, as well as tax moves that have lowered the profitability of private equity deals.

But either way, France's problem with generating growth and competing have played a key role in the slide, along with some companies' reluctance to hive off the type of units that are traditionally appetising targets.

[DemReadingDU]

16. Billionaires Flee Havens as Trillions Pursued Offshore

4/29/13 Billionaires Flee Havens as Trillions Pursued Offshore

Billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev, Russia’s 14th-richest person, and his wife, Elena Rybolovleva, have been brawling for almost five years in at least seven countries over his $9.5 billion fortune.

In a divorce complaint originated in Geneva in 2008, Rybolovleva accused her husband of using a “multitude of third- parties” to create a network of offshore holding companies and trusts to place assets -- including about $500 million in art, $36 million in jewelry and an $80 million yacht -- beyond her reach.

She has brought legal action against the 48-year-old Rybolovlev in the British Virgin Islands, England, Wales, the U.S., Cyprus, Singapore and Switzerland, and is seeking $6 billion.

The suits provide a window into the offshore structures and secrecy jurisdictions the world’s richest people use to manage, preserve and conceal their assets. According to Tax Justice Network, a U.K.-based organization that campaigns for transparency in the financial system, wealthy individuals were hiding as much as $32 trillion offshore at the end of 2010. Fewer than 100,000 people own $9.8 trillion of offshore assets, according to research compiled by former McKinsey & Co. economist James Henry.

“For a lot of people, it’s not just the objective of not paying taxes,” Philip Marcovici, an independent Hong Kong-based tax lawyer and board member of Vaduz, Liechtenstein-based wealth adviser Kaiser Partner Group, said in a telephone interview. “It’s the objective of obtaining the human right to privacy and seeking confidentiality about their financial affairs.”

more...
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-04-29/billionaires-flee-havens-as-trillions-pursued-offshore.html


:large

[xchrom]

19. JEREMY GRANTHAM: We Are In A Race To Prevent The Collapse Of Civilization

http://www.businessinsider.com/jeremy-grantham-1q-2013-letter-2013-4



Jeremy Grantham, the well-known head of investment firm GMO, has become increasingly vocal about his concerns for the fate of the world.

"Our global economy, reckless in its use of all resources and natural systems, shows many of the indicators of potential failure that brought down so many civilizations before ours," writes Grantham in his new quarterly letter titled "The Race Of Our Lives."
In 10 pages, he compiles some key points we've heard him discuss at length in his recent media tour. He spends most of his message on what makes him optimistic. We summarize is letter here.

Civilizations Fall

Even the greatest civilizations like Rome eventually fell. Citing research, Grantham told Charlie Rose that civilizations have an average lifespan of around 250.


Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/jeremy-grantham-1q-2013-letter-2013-4#ixzz2Rraw2S5y

[Fuddnik]

30. I don't know what race he's watching, but....

We seem to be racing to see who can collapse it first and hardest.

[xchrom]

21. GIGANTIC MISS: Dallas Fed Manufacturing Index Plunges Into Negative Territory

http://www.businessinsider.com/dallas-fed-manufacturing-april-2013-4

The Dallas Fed's monthly survey of regional manufacturing activity is out.
The headline index plunged to -15.6. Economists expected +5.0 after last month's +7.4 reading.
The index was dragged lower by the prices paid for raw materials sub-component, which fell to 2.5 from 19.1.
Elsewhere, the biggest weakness was seen in the new orders sub-component, which fell to -4.9 from 8.7, the shipments sub-component, which fell to -0.4 from 10.6, and the production sub-component, which fell to -0.5 from 9.9.


Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/dallas-fed-manufacturing-april-2013-4#ixzz2RrbWqPbn

[xchrom]

22. Secretly, Some Wall Streeters Think The Industry Is Greedier Than Ever

http://www.businessinsider.com/wall-street-greedier-than-ever-2013-4

I meet a lot of these people on Wall Street on a regular basis right now...I am going to put it very bluntly: I regard the moral environment as pathological. And I am talking about the human interactions . . . I’ve not seen anything like this, not felt it so palpably...They have no responsibility to pay taxes; they have no responsibility to their clients; they have no responsibility to people, to counterparties in transactions...They are tough, greedy, aggressive and feel absolutely out of control in a quite literal sense, and they have gamed the system to a remarkable extent.”

The above comes from a no-holds-barred talk Jeffrey Sachs gave that literally stunned the crowd at a recent conference focused on fixing the financial system.

There are many industry insiders and watchers who agree with Mr. Sachs that things are more disgusting than ever, thanks in part to the de facto guarantee that none of the surviving institutions post-crisis are going to be touchable for new offenses. The government has admitted as much with their brand new Too Big To Prosecute mentality. Yes, this exists, in recent congressional testimony from Eric Holder, US Attorney General, the following incredible comment was given a public airing (but then The Voice came on that night and we all forgot about it):

“I am concerned that the size of some of these institutions becomes so large that it does become difficult for us to prosecute them when we are hit with indications that if we do prosecute — if we do bring a criminal charge — it will have a negative impact on the national economy, perhaps even the world economy,” Mr. Holder told the Senate Judiciary Committee. “I think that is a function of the fact that some of these institutions have become too large.”


Read more: http://www.thereformedbroker.com/2013/04/28/absolutely-out-of-control/#ixzz2Rrc8EgcA

[Hotler]

29. Did you by chance see Q&A on C-SPAN this weekend?

Bob Ney resigned from Congress in 2006 after being implicated in the notorious Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal and later spent 11 months in jail was interviewed by Brian Lamb about Ney's new book "Sideswiped: Lessons Learned Courtesy of the Hit Men of Capitol Hill." He said nothing has changed in Washington from the time he went to jail and now. Except that the money influence and corruption is now on steroids. This dove tails in with your post above.

[xchrom]

24. The Hottest, Highest-Paid Executive At JPMorgan Just Moved One Step Closer To Replacing Jamie Dimon

http://www.businessinsider.com/jpmorgan-coo-matt-zames-2013-4

PMorgan Chase's Matt Zames has been a standout at the bank during the last year.

In a press release yesterday, the bank announced that Zames, the current co-chief operating officer (COO), will take over the position entirely, effective immediately. The other co-COO Frank Bisignano is leaving to become the CEO of First Data Corp.

"I am pleased that Matt Zames is expanding his role," JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon said in a release. "He is a proven business executive, who has performed exceptionally well since coming into his corporate role in May of last year. He'll continue to have an important impact on our company."

Zames is considered a total rockstar at the bank.


Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/jpmorgan-coo-matt-zames-2013-4#ixzz2RreJ5R1m

[xchrom]

25. US consumer spending slows in March but beats forecasts

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-22339995


US consumer spending slowed in March. official figures have shown, but still rose by more than predicted.

Spending rose 0.2% in the month, according to the Commerce Department, beating economists' expectations for no change.

The increase is the smallest in consumer spending for three months, and marks a slowdown from February's 0.7% rise and January's 0.3% jump.

The data showed personal income also grew last month, rising by 0.2%.