STOCK MARKET WATCH -- Tuesday, 5 August 2014

[Tansy_Gold]

[font size=3]STOCK MARKET WATCH, Tuesday, 5 August 2014[font color=black][/font]

SMW for 4 August 2014

AT THE CLOSING BELL ON 4 August 2014
[center][font color=green]
Dow Jones 16,569.28 +75.91 (0.46%)
S&P 500 1,938.99 +13.84 (0.72%)
Nasdaq 4,383.89 +31.25 (0.72%)


[font color=black]10 Year 2.48% 0.00 (0.00%)
[font color=red]30 Year 3.29% +0.01 (0.30%) [font color=black]


[center][/font]

[HR width=85%]

[font size=2]Market Conditions During Trading Hours[/font]
[center]
(click on link for latest updates)
http://tools.investing.com/market_quotes.php?
[/center]

[font size=2]Euro, Yen, Loonie, Silver and Gold[center]

[/center]

[center]

[/center]

[HR width=95%]

[font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Market Data and News:[/font][/font]
[center]
Economic Calendar
Marketwatch Data
Bloomberg Economic News
Yahoo Finance
Google Finance
Bank Tracker
Credit Union Tracker
Daily Job Cuts
[/center]

[font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Economic Blogs:[/font][/font]
[center]
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
[/center]

[font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Essential Reading:[/font][/font]
[center]
Matt Taibi: Secret and Lies of the Bailout


[/center]

[font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Government Issues:[/font][/font]
[center]
LegitGov
Open Government
Earmark Database
USA spending.gov
[/center]

[font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Videos:[/font][/font]
[center]
Charlie Rose talks with Roubini
Charlie Rose talks with Krugman
William Black: This Economic Disaster
Bill Moyers with Kevin Drum and David Corn
[/center]

[div]
[font color=red]Partial List of Financial Sector Officials Convicted since 1/20/09 [/font][font color=red]
2/2/12 David Higgs and Salmaan Siddiqui, Credit Suisse, plead guilty to conspiracy involving valuation of MBS
3/6/12 Allen Stanford, former Caribbean billionaire and general schmuck, convicted on 13 of 14 counts in $2.2B Ponzi scheme, faces 20+ years in prison
6/4/12 Matthew Kluger, lawyer, sentenced to 12 years in prison, along with co-conspirator stock trader Garrett Bauer (9 years) and co-conspirator Kenneth Robinson (not yet sentenced) for 17 year insider trading scheme.
6/14/12 Allen Stanford sentenced to 110 years without parole.
6/15/12 Rajat Gupta, former Goldman Sachs director, found guilty of insider trading. Could face a decade in prison when sentenced later this year.
6/22/12 Timothy S. Durham, 49, former CEO of Fair Financial Company, convicted of one count conspiracy to commit wire and securities fraud, 10 counts of wire fraud, and one count of securities fraud.
6/22/12 James F. Cochran, 56, former chairman of the board of Fair, convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit wire and securities fraud, one count of securities fraud, and six counts of wire fraud.
6/22/12 Rick D. Snow, 48, former CFO of Fair, convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit wire and securities fraud, one count of securities fraud, and three counts of wire fraud.
7/13/12 Russell Wassendorf Sr., CEO of collapsed brokerage firm Peregrine Financial Group Inc. arrested and charged with lying to regulators after admitting to authorities he embezzled "millions of dollars" and forged bank statements for "nearly twenty years."
8/22/12 Doug Whitman, Whitman Capital LLC hedge fund founder, convicted of insider trading following a trial in which he spent more than two days on the stand telling jurors he was innocent
10/26/12 UPDATE: Former Goldman Sachs director Rajat Gupta sentenced to two years in federal prison. He will, of course, appeal. . .
11/20/12 Hedge fund manager Matthew Martoma charged with insider trading at SAC Capital Advisors, and prosecutors are looking at Martoma's boss, Steven Cohen, for possible involvement.
02/14/13 Gilbert Lopez, former chief accounting officer of Stanford Financial Group, and former controller Mark Kuhrt sentenced to 20 yrs in prison for their roles in Allen Sanford's $7.2 billion Ponzi scheme.
03/29/13 Michael Sternberg, portfolio mgr at SAC Capital, arrested in NYC, charged with conspiracy and securities fraud. Pled not guilty and freed on $3m bail.
04/04/13 Matthew Marshall Taylor,fmr Goldman Sachs trader arrested, charged by CFTC w/defrauding his employer on $8BN futures bet "by intentionally concealing the true huge size, as well as the risk and potential profits or losses associated."
04/04/13 Matthew Taylor admits guilt, makes plea bargain. Sentencing set for 26 June; faces up to 20 years in prison but will likely only see 3-4 years. Says, "I am truly sorry."
04/11/13 Ex-KPMG LLP partner Scott London charged by federal prosecutors w/passing inside tips to a friend in exchange for cash, jewelry, and concert tickets; expected to plead guilty in May.
08/01/13 Fabrice Tourré convicted on six counts of security fraud, including "aiding and abetting" his former employer, Goldman Sachs
08/14/13 Javier Martin-Artajo and Julien Grout charged with wire fraud, falsifying records, and conspiracy in connection with JP Morgan's "London Whale" trade.
08/19/13 Phillip A. Falcone, manager of hedge fund Harbinger Capital Partners, agrees to admit to "wrongdoing" in market manipulation. Will banned from securities industry for 5 years and pay $18MM in disgorgement and fines.
09/16/13 Javier Martin-Artajo and Julien Grout officially indicted on charges associated with "London Whale" trade.
02/06/14 Matthew Martoma convicted of insider trading while at hedge fund SAC (Stephen A. Cohen) Capital Advisors. Expected sentence 7-10 years.
03/24/14 Annette Bongiorno, Bernard Madoff's secretary; Daniel Bonventre, director of operations for investments; JoAnn Crupi, an account manager; and Jerome O'Hara and George Perez, both computer programmers convicted of conspiracy to defraud clients, securities fraud, and falsifying the books and records.
05/19/14 Credit Suisse, which has an investment bank branch in NYC, agrees to plead guilty and pay appx. $2.6 billion penalties for helping wealthy Americans hide wealth and avoid taxes.








[HR width=95%]


[center]

[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. "Toon sounds like an ordeal I've had with LA Fitness for the last month.

I finally got it resolved today.

I canceled my membership, by mail, as stipulated in the contract. They billed me another month anyway. I waited two weeks for them to correct, nothing happened, so I filed a dispute with VISA. Then last week they started calling saying my next month dues were declined. I said "Well yeah, I filed a dispute on last months charges, and they won't let you charge any more".

After a couple of days of threats, counter-threats, lies and bullshit, I was ready to contact the Florida AG, and the CFPB.

Finally, I got in touch with their corporate office, who put me on the line with my local Operations Manager. I went in got it straightened out, and refunded in about 10 minutes.

These anonymous bill collectors can get really nasty. Good thing they hide behind a phone, because I guarantee they wouldn't want to talk to me like that in person.

[xchrom]

2. Credit Agricole hit by Banco Espirito Santo troubles

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-28654819

French bank Credit Agricole said profits almost halved after it wrote off the value of its stake in the troubled Portuguese Banco Espirito Santo (BES) to zero.

Credit Agricole said 708m euros (£563m) had been written off.

The French bank apologised to investors, saying that it had been "misled".

Portugal unveiled a plan to rescue BES on Monday after record losses of 3.6bn euros for the first half of the year.

[xchrom]

3. Ghana to seek help from International Monetary Fund

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-28640560

Ghana has said it will seek financial aid from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to help strengthen the West African nation's currency.

The cedi has fallen 40% against the US dollar this year, making it one of the world's worst-performing currencies.

Ghana, once seen as a shining example of economic strength in the region, is also struggling with high inflation.

The country last went to the IMF for help in 2009, when it secured a $600m (£360m), three-year aid package.

[xchrom]

4. What Crisis? EU Rules on Banks Lauded as Right After All

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-08-04/portugal-rescue-avoids-cyprus-style-pain-in-test-of-bank-rules.html

Portugal’s rescue of Banco Espirito Santo SA may have eased some doubts about Europe’s banking industry by showing investors how the European Union’s thinking has evolved on handling failing lenders.

The decision shielding some creditors spurred a rally in bank stocks and Portuguese assets yesterday as it demonstrated authorities were able to shutter a bank without sparking a fresh bout of market tensions that have roiled Europe since 2009. Instead of forcing losses on unsecured depositors and other senior creditors, as was required of Cyprus, Portugal is following Spain’s gentler approach that focused losses on junior debt and stockholders.

“This is bad for the bank’s shareholders and creditors, but it’s good for the wider banking industry,” said Stefan Bongardt, a European banking analyst at Independent Research GmbH in Frankfurt. “Everyone knows the rules of the game now and that draws uncertainty out of the market.”

The yield on Portugal’s 2-year bonds was down 1 basis point as of 11:49 a.m. in Frankfurt, near a euro-era record low. The Bloomberg European Banks and Financial Services Index rose 0.6 percent, after closing 0.3 percent higher yesterday, while Portugal’s benchmark stock gauge rose 0.4 percent.

[xchrom]

5. Apple Buybacks Pay Most Ever as CEOs Spend $211 Billion

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-08-05/apple-buybacks-pay-most-ever-as-ceos-spend-211-billion.html

With Apple Inc.’s repurchases staking a claim as the most profitable on record, buybacks remain one of America’s most popular antidotes to bears.

The iPhone maker is up 25 percent since it spent $18 billion on its own shares between January and March and rallied 32 percent after a $16 billion buyback in 2013. Those are the highest four-month returns among the 20 biggest quarterly repurchases by any company since 1998, according to data compiled by Bloomberg and Standard & Poor’s. S&P 500 constituents have spent $211 billion on their own stock this year amid concern the five-year bull market is prone to selloffs such as last week’s 2.7 percent retreat.

Spurred on by zero-percent interest rates and the highest cash balances on record, companies are plowing capital into the equity market to curb supply and buttress per-share earnings. While Scott Wren of Wells Fargo Advisors LLC says there are usually better things to do with capital, companies with the most repurchases have beat the S&P 500 during the bull market.

“It’s a low-quality way to increase your earnings and obviously I’d much rather see companies grow the business through revenue,” Wren, the St. Louis-based senior equity strategist at Wells Fargo Advisors, said in a phone interview. “But when the economy’s growing at 2 to 2.5 percent, you have to do what you can to keep the ball rolling.”

[xchrom]

6. Goldman Sees End to Narrowing Spreads in Europe Periphery

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-08-05/italy-s-bonds-rise-for-second-day-with-spain-s-before-pmi-data.html

As the euro-area’s higher-yielding government bonds’ rally relative to German counterparts shows signs of cooling, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. joined voices saying the yield spread narrowing is nearing an end.

Italian and Spanish 10-year government bonds declined today, after the extra yield that investors get for holding Italian 10-year securities instead of benchmark bunds dropped by the most in a month yesterday. Euro-area services expanded less than initially estimated last month, a report showed today, underlining a sluggish recovery that may combine with slow economic reforms to prompt investor concern that the securities have climbed too far.

“We do not expect any further compression of spreads,” Goldman Sachs strategists Silvia Ardagna and Francesco Garzarelli wrote in an e-mailed note today in London. “We are more concerned about Italy where, over the past few months, economic activity data has continued to surprise on the downside and institutional and structural reforms have not yet been delivered.”

Italy’s 10-year yield rose three basis points, or 0.03 percentage point, to 2.73 percent at 12:03 p.m. London time, after falling six basis points yesterday, the steepest drop since July 3. The 3.75 percent bond due in September 2024 declined 0.28 or 2.80 euros per 1,000-euro ($1,229) face amount, to 109.13.

[xchrom]

7. Obama to Business: You're So Phony

http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2014-08-04/obama-to-business-you-re-so-phony

I worked for years at the Economist, so I wasn't sure whether to trust my reaction to the magazine's interview with President Barack Obama. Comparing notes with Bloomberg colleagues, I found their reactions similar to mine: Obama was unusually candid, maybe revealing more than he intended. It was almost as though he thought he was off the record.

He does realize, I suppose, that a lot of Americans read the Economist.

The main subject was Africa. (That's the kind of thing Economist readers are interested in.) Obama is hosting leaders from the region at a summit in Washington this week, so this accounts for the timing. But the talk ranged far beyond overseas development.

The most arresting section was about the president's attitude toward U.S. business. Obama deliberately pulled the conversation in that direction, complaining that the Economist often accuses him of being unfriendly to corporate America. In his zeal to refute this charge, he seemed to me to confirm it.

[xchrom]

8. RBA Holds Rate at Record Low to Spur Jobs Amid Rebalancing

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-08-05/rba-holds-rate-at-record-low-to-spur-jobs-as-economy-rebalances.html

The Reserve Bank of Australia kept its key interest rate at a record low and repeated it expects a period of steady borrowing costs amid below-trend growth.

The overnight cash rate target was held at 2.5 percent for a 12th month, Governor Glenn Stevens and his board announced in Sydney today in a largely unchanged statement. The decision was predicted by all 32 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News.

“The most prudent course is likely to be a period of stability in interest rates,” Stevens said, echoing statements this year. While inflation accelerated in the second quarter, lower wages growth “should keep inflation consistent with the target even with lower levels of the exchange rate,” he said.

The RBA has flagged a period of low rates as it tries to rebalance the economy toward industries including residential construction as the country’s mining investment boom wanes. The jobless rate climbed to 6 percent in June and confidence has been hit by government spending cuts announced in May. That’s weighing against rising house prices and faster inflation.

[xchrom]

9. Champagne-Sipping Gamblers Say Ireland’s Economy Is Back

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-08-04/champagne-sipping-gamblers-say-ireland-s-economy-is-back.html

Celebrating his long-shot victory at Galway Races, local lawyer Joseph O’Hara headed to the champagne tent to spend some of his 1,000-euro ($1,300) winnings.

The seven-day festival is the biggest of its kind in Ireland and has served as a barometer for the economy. During the Celtic Tiger boom, it buzzed with helicopters, alerting punters to the arrival of the nation’s richest builders and bankers. Then came the collapse of the real estate market and an international bailout, and attendances and betting fell away.

With investors back buying Irish securities, now the punters are returning, albeit cautiously. The crowd of about 140,000 last week was 9 percent larger than in 2013, thronging the course and its Laurent Perrier champagne and Guinness tent, serving stout, oysters and smoked salmon.

“The general feeling is that the worst is over,” said O’Hara, 53, after backing a horse called Legatissimo that gave him odds of 20 to one. “We’ve endured six years of austerity and it’s been pretty miserable.”

[Fuddnik]

10. Walgreens nixes inversion plan.

Snatched from KeepItReal on the LBN page.


Walgreens Shuns Inversion (will not flee US taxes) In £5bn Boots Deal
Source: Sky News

Walgreens will remain headquartered in the US as part of a full takeover of the UK's biggest pharmacy chain, Sky News can reveal.

One of America's biggest corporate names is poised to bow to intense US political pressure by retaining its headquarters in the US even as it secures a full takeover of Boots, Britain's biggest pharmacy chain.

Sky News can exclusively reveal that Walgreens, the giant drug-stores group, will announce as soon as Wednesday that it plans to acquire the remaining 55% of Alliance Boots that it does not already own in a deal costing in the region of £5bn.

However, sources on both sides of the Atlantic said that Walgreens is likely to disclose as part of its announcement that it intends to remain a US-domiciled company rather than pursuing a so-called tax inversion which would involve moving its corporate headquarters to the UK or Switzerland.

Read more: http://news.sky.com/story/1313635/walgreens-shuns-inversion-in-5bn-boots-deal

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

Where's everyone at today? The Beach?