STOCK MARKET WATCH -- Tuesday, 18 November 2014

[Tansy_Gold]

[font size=3]STOCK MARKET WATCH, Tuesday, 18 November 2014[font color=black][/font]

SMW for 17 November 2014

AT THE CLOSING BELL ON 17 November 2014
[center][font color=green]
Dow Jones 17,647.75 +13.01 (0.07%)
S&P 500 2,041.32 +1.50 (0.07%)
[font color=red]Nasdaq 4,671.00 -17.54 (-0.37%)


[font color=red]10 Year 2.33% +0.02 (0.87%)
30 Year 3.06% +0.02 (0.66%) [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.
09/08/14 Matthew Martoma, convicted SAC trader, sentenced to 9 years in prison plus forfeiture of $9.3 million, including home and bank accounts







[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]

[Demeter]

1. The Seeds of a New Labor Movement By Harold Meyerson

http://www.alternet.org/labor/seeds-new-labor-movement?akid=12471.227380.I65iOG&rd=1&src=newsletter1027194&t=17


SEIU’s David Rolf—virtuoso organizer and mastermind of Seattle’s $15 minimum wage campaign—says labor needs radically new ways to champion worker interests...If anyone has the right to be upbeat about the prospects of the American labor movement, it should be David Rolf, the president of a Seattle-based long-term care local of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). Between 1995 and 1999, while still in his 20s, Rolf directed a campaign that unionized 74,000 home care workers in Los Angeles. It was the largest single unionization since the United Auto Workers organized Ford in 1941. SEIU then sent him to Seattle, where he has nearly quadrupled SEIU’s Washington state membership. Last year, he led the initiative campaign that persuaded voters in SeaTac, the working-class Seattle suburb that is home to the city’s airport, to raise the local minimum wage to $15—the highest in the nation. He also managed to make SEIU’s campaign to organize fast-food workers and raise their pay to $15 the centerpiece of the mayoral race in Seattle proper. Prodded by the fast-food workers, State Senator Ed Murray ran on the promise to raise the local minimum to that level. After Murray was elected mayor, he appointed Rolf to lead the labor delegation on the business–labor task force that would devise the plan for phasing in Seattle’s new minimum. This summer, the city enacted the task force’s recommendations. The $15 minimum wage is now law.

Over the past 15 years, no American unionist has organized as many workers, or won them raises as substantial, as Rolf. Which makes it all the more telling that Rolf believes the American labor movement, as we know it, is on its deathbed, and that labor should focus its remaining energies on bequeathing its resources to start-up projects that may find more effective ways to advance workers’ interests than today’s embattled unions can.

In early 2012, Rolf attended a national SEIU board meeting in New Orleans, where he heard a presentation from the head of the union’s Louisiana local. The local had had 6,000 members a few years earlier, but it had shrunk to 1,200 after the chambers of commerce in cities with which it had had contracts got court injunctions forbidding any such contracts.

“Anti-union injunctions?” Rolf asks incredulously. “Getting a federal law forbidding such injunctions was the No. 1 demand of unions in the 1928 presidential election. Were we back in 1928? Before Norris-LaGuardia {the 1932 federal act that forbade such injunctions in the private sector; the Louisiana local was public sector}? Before the Wagner Act? Before the New Deal? This set me on a quest to figure out what had happened to labor—and what we should do now.”

MUCH MORE AT LINK

[Demeter]

2. Robert Reich: The Real Reason Democrats Lost Big on Election Day

http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/robert-reich-real-reason-democrats-lost-big-election-day?akid=12465.227380.p9D1Sh&rd=1&src=newsletter1027008&t=14&paging=off&current_page=1#bookmark

...If you want a single reason for why Democrats lost big on Election Day 2014 it’s this: Median household income continues to drop. This is the first “recovery” in memory when this has happened. Jobs are coming back but wages aren’t. Every month the job numbers grow but the wage numbers go nowhere. Most new jobs are in part-time or low-paying positions. They pay less than the jobs lost in the Great Recession. This wageless recovery has been made all the worse because pay is less predictable than ever. Most Americans don’t know what they’ll be earning next year or even next month. Two-thirds are now living paycheck to paycheck.

So why is this called a “recovery” at all? Because, technically, the economy is growing. But almost all the gains from that growth are going to a small minority at the top. In fact, 100 percent of the gains have gone to the best-off 10 percent. Ninety-five percent have gone to the top 1 percent. The stock market has boomed. Corporate profits are through the roof. CEO pay, in the stratosphere. Yet most Americans feel like they’re still in a recession. And they’re convinced the game is rigged against them.

Fifty years ago, just 29 percent of voters believed government is “run by a few big interests looking out for themselves.” Now, 79 percent think so.

According to Pew, the percentage of Americans who believe most people who want to get ahead can do so through hard work has plummeted 14 points since 2000.

What the President and other Democrats failed to communicate wasn’t their accomplishments. It was their understanding that the economy is failing most Americans and big money is overrunning our democracy. And they failed to convey their commitment to an economy and a democracy that serve the vast majority rather than a minority at the top...

MORE

[Demeter]

6. Inequality, Unbelievably, Gets Worse Steven Rattner NYT

WHY SHOULD IT BE UNBELIEVABLE? IF NOTHING IS DONE TO FIX A PROBLEM THAT IS CAUSED BY HUMAN AGENCY, THEN THE PROBLEM WILL NOT GET BETTER, OR EVEN STABILIZE.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/17/opinion/inequality-unbelievably-gets-worse.html?_r=0

...To only modest notice, during the campaign the Federal Reserve put forth more sobering news about income inequality: Inflation-adjusted earnings of the bottom 90 percent of Americans fell between 2010 and 2013, with those near the bottom dropping the most. Meanwhile, incomes in the top decile rose....

NATION BY NATION COMPARISON OF APPLES AND APPLES...

[Demeter]

11. Americans Still Have NO CLUE About How Much Inequality We Have

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-11-17/americans-still-have-no-clue-about-how-much-inequality-we-have

Even years after the Occupy protests (hate 'em or love 'em, they focused everyone's attention on inequality), Americans are still clueless about how much inequality we really have in our country.

As we noted in 2011:

Dan Ariely of Duke University and Michael I. Norton of Harvard Business School demonstrate– Americans consistently underestimate the amount of inequality in our nation.

As William Alden wrote last September:

Americans vastly underestimate the degree of wealth inequality in America, and we believe that the distribution should be far more equitable than it actually is, according to a new study.

Or, as the study’s authors put it: “All demographic groups — even those not usually associated with wealth redistribution such as Republicans and the wealthy — desired a more equal distribution of wealth than the status quo.”

The report … “Building a Better America — One Wealth Quintile At A Time” by Dan Ariely of Duke University and Michael I. Norton of Harvard Business School … shows that across ideological, economic and gender groups, Americans thought the richest 20 percent of our society controlled about 59 percent of the wealth, while the real number is closer to 84 percent.

(Indeed, even those who assume they're educated about inequality may not realize that we're at lord and serf levels.)

Ariely subsequently explained that both Republicans and Democrats are passionately opposed to the degree of inequality we have in the U.S. ... but that politicians may be trying to make us think we’re more equal than we really are (The media and Wall Street are also trying to hide the size of the gap)....

[Demeter]

12. VERY COLORFUL GRAPHICS ON EQUALITY

THEY WILL MAKE YOU SEE RED...

http://www.businessinsider.com/wealth-and-income-inequality-in-america-2013-4?op=1

[Demeter]

3. QE isn’t dying, it’s morphing NOMI PRINS

http://www.nomiprins.com/thoughts/2014/11/10/qe-isnt-dying-its-morphing.html

A funny thing happened on the way to the ‘end’ of the multi-trillion dollar bond buying program known as QE - the Fed chronicles. Aside from the shift to a globalization of QE via the European Central Bank (ECB) and Bank of Japan (BOJ) as I wrote about earlier, what lingers in the air of “post-taper” time is an absence of absence. For QE is not over. Instead, in the United States, the process has simply morphed from being predominantly executed by the Federal Reserve (Fed) to being executed by its major private bank members. Fed Chair, Janet Yellen, has failed to point this out in any of her speeches about the labor force, inflation, or inequality.

The financial system has failed and remains a threat to us all. Only cheap money and the artificial inflation of asset values can make it appear temporarily healthy. Yet, the Fed (and the Obama Administration) continue to perpetuate the illusion that making the cost of (printed) money zero by any means has had a positive effect on the population at large, when in fact, all that has occurred is a pass-the-debt-ponzi-scheme co-engineered by the Fed and big US bank beneficiaries. That debt, caught in the crossfires of this central-private bank arrangement, is still doing nothing for American citizens or the broader national or global economy.

The Fed is already the largest hedge fund in the world, with a book of $4.5 trillion of assets. These will plummet in value if rates rise. Cue the banks that are gearing up their own (still small in comparison, but give them time) role in this big bamboozle. By doing so, they too are amassing additional risk with respect to interest rates rising, on top of all their other risk that counts on leveraging cheap money.

Only the naïve could possibly believe that the Fed and its key banks haven’t been in regular communication about this US Treasury security shell game. Yet, aside from a few politicians, such as former Congressman Ron Paul, Congressman Sherrod Brown and Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, the notion that Fed policy has helped bankers, rather than other people, remains largely divorced from bi-partisan political discussion.

MORE

[Demeter]

4. JP Morgan Chase cost US taxpayers millions, had them pay for settlement - Matt Taibbi

http://rt.com/usa/204603-matt-taibbi-us-taxpayers/

VIDEO AT LINK

“Ordinary people lost enormous amounts of money” when JP Morgan Chase sold millions in faulty loans – and taxpayers still paid a big chunk of its billion-dollar settlement with the government, investigative journalist Matt Taibbi told RT.

READ MORE: Busted: JPMorgan inks record $13bn settlement

In recent story published in Rolling Stone, Taibbi detailed how a former JP Morgan employee Alayne Fleischmann helped the Justice Department in its investigation against the bank. Eventually, a $9 billion settlement was reached. However, that agreement did not require the bank to admit guilt for fraud – and it all came about to keep the information Fleischmann divulged from surfacing.

Speaking with Thom Hartmann on RT’s ‘The Big Picture’, Taibbi said that Fleischmann, a deal manager at the company, criticized JP Morgan’s banking practices when she realized that the normal procedures on due diligence and compliance on loans were not being handled in the usual way. These loans were to be packed into securities and re-sold to investors (pension funds, hedge funds, insurance companies), but the due diligence department wasn’t forthcoming with information, and deal managers were told not to send emails with their inquiries.

As a result of JP Morgan’s decision to sell these loans despite knowing they were defective, Taibbi said Americans suffered dramatically...

MUCH MORE

[Demeter]

5. Madoff trustee recoups nearly $500 million more for customers

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/11/17/us-madoff-settlement-idUSKCN0J124S20141117?feedType=RSS&feedName=businessNews

Former customers of Bernard Madoff may soon recover an additional $496.8 million as a result of a settlement with two "feeder funds" that was announced on Monday by the trustee liquidating the swindler's firm. The settlement, with the Herald Fund SPC and Primeo Fund, both based in the Cayman Islands, is one of the largest obtained by the trustee, Irving Picard, since the failure of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC in December 2008. If approved by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Stuart Bernstein in Manhattan, the payout would push the sum recovered by the trustee for Madoff customers above $10.3 billion. That equals about 59 percent of the estimated $17.5 billion of principal they lost in Madoff's decades-long Ponzi scheme. A hearing has been scheduled for Dec. 17. Nearly $6 billion has been distributed so far.

"By any measure, the settlement terms are highly advantageous, not only to BLMIS direct customers with allowed claims, but also potentially to the indirect investors in the Herald Fund," Oren Warshavsky, a lawyer who negotiated the settlement for Picard, said in a statement. The accord resolves Picard's lawsuits against Herald and Primeo to recoup sums they withdrew from Madoff's firm in the six years before that firm collapsed. Herald will receive a $1.64 billion claim in the Madoff firm's liquidation, entitling it to "catch-up payments" from four prior distributions that Picard made to customers. Out of these payments, the first $496.8 million will go to other Madoff customers. Herald will then share in future recoveries obtained by the trustee. The Herald and Primeo funds are both also in liquidation.

Picard has filed more than 1,000 lawsuits against feeder funds that sent customer money to Madoff, and "net winners" who took out more from Madoff's firm than they put in. His largest settlement is a $7.2 billion accord with the estate of Jeffry Picower, a Florida investor who died in 2009. Picard also recouped $325 million from JPMorgan Chase & Co, once Madoff's main bank.

A separate $4.05 billion fund overseen by former U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Richard Breeden will also pay customers and third parties who lost money. Breeden said he has received 63,553 claims covering an alleged $76.65 billion of losses.

Madoff, 76, is serving a 150-year prison term.

[Demeter]

7. Why natural gas jumped 8 percent

BECAUSE TONIGHT ANN ARBOR IS GOING TO EXPERIENCE ZERO DEGREE WINDCHILL...IN THE MIDDLE OF NOVEMBER....


http://www.cnbc.com/id/102192761

...John Kilduff of Again Capital said he expects to see natural gas rise to $4.50 in the near term.

"The weather forecast keeps getting colder," he said.

Analysts say natural gas could easily reach $5 this winter, but they do not expect higher prices to persist unless there is an extended period of extreme cold.

[Crewleader]

8. Thanksgiving and Christmas overlap

[Crewleader]

9. Robert Reich on facebook

Several of you are appropriately horrified by the amount of money now being spent by big corporations, Wall Street, and super-wealthy to corrupt our democracy. And by the record-shattering share of economic gains now going to big corporations, Wall Street, and super wealthy. The two phenomena are of course related.

All this can make you so cynical you're ready to give up. The moneyed interests would prefer you do. That way, they can get it all.

The alternative is to be more committed than ever to fighting to regain our democracy and take back our economy. If you choose to fight, it will be a long slog. (For many of you, it's already been.) There's no easy formula, no messiah-like candidate, no magic bullet. It requires hard political work at the grass roots of your community, state, and the nation. It means knowing the truth and spreading it. Standing up to the bullies. Working with and through many others. And Never, ever giving up.

I write this daily post in the hope you'll choose the latter.

https://www.facebook.com/RBReich

[Demeter]

10. Another "Conspiracy Theory" Bites The Dust: UBS Settles Over Gold Rigging, Many More Banks To Follow

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-11-09/another-conspiracy-theory-bites-dust-ubs-settles-over-gold-rigging-many-more-banks-f

Remember when everyone decried wholesale Libor manipulation as a crazy conspiracy theory (Zero Hedge: January 2009: "This Makes No Sense: LIBOR By Bank&quot because after all, it was impossible for so many people to keep their mouth shut or whatever the generic justification is for disproving such "conspiracy theories"? Why, none other than ICAP chief Michael Spencer says they all though Libor was "unmanipulable." As it turns out, not only is Libor manipulable(sic), and a vast rate-rigging "conspiracy theory" is quite possible when everyone's interests are aligned, but it also was massively profitable.

Then it was the turn of the even more massive, multi-trillion FX market, when first UBS squealed like a pig and soon ratted out every other bank in the criminal "Cartel" (or was it "Bandits"?) syndicate (see: "Meet The (First) Seven Banks Who Rigged The FX Market&quot . End result: banks such as JPM, Citi and BofA forced to review their criminal ways and adjusting their third quarter results a month into Q4. Many more legal fees, charges and settlement coming however for those who lost money on the other side of such long-running manipulation, please accept our condolences: you won't see a penny.

And finally, there was the precious metals market: a market which all the Keynesian fanatic paper bugs said was immune from manipulation, be it of the central or commercial bank kind, even with every other market clearly exposed for perpetual rigging either by hedge funds, by prop desks, by HFTs, or central banks themselves.

Sadly this too conspiracy theory just was crushed into the reality of conspiracy fact, when moments ago the FT reported that alongside admissions of rigging every other market, UBS - always the proverbial first rat in the coalmine, to mix and match metaphors- is about to "settle" allegations of gold and silver rigging. In other words: it admits it had rigged the gold and silver markets, without of course "admitting or denying" it did so.

From the FT:

UBS is to settle allegations of misconduct at its precious metals trading business alongside a planned agreement between UK and US authorities and seven banks over accusations of foreign exchange market rigging.

* * *
UBS is expected to strike a settlement over alleged trader misbehaviour at its precious metals desks with at least one authority as part of a group deal over forex with multiple regulators this week, two people close to the situation said. They cautioned that the timing of a precious metals deal could still slip to a date after the forex agreement.

Regulators around the world have alleged that traders at a number of banks have colluded and shared information about client orders to manipulate prices in the $5.3tn-a-day forex market. UBS has previously disclosed that it launched an internal probe of its precious metals business in addition to its forex investigation. It declined to comment for this article.

Unlike at other banks, UBS’s precious metals and forex businesses are closely integrated. The business units have joint management and the bank’s precious metals staff – who mainly trade gold and silver – sit on the same floor as the forex traders.

One person familiar with UBS’s internal probe said the bank found a small number of potentially problematic incidents at its precious metals desk.

"Potentially problematic incidents"? One must give props to the FT for always finding just the right amount of politically correct lipstick to cover up what was market manipulation, pure and simple, which continued for years and years, even as the same FT routinely mocked everyone who alleged otherwise...The good news is that the FT will finally reinstate the Gold manipulation article which is penned in February then promptly removed following complaints from up high...

[Demeter]

13. Martoma to start insider-trading prison term

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2014/11/17/martoma-surrender-date/19196033/

Former hedge fund portfolio manager Mathew Martoma must surrender Thursday to begin a nine-year prison term for his conviction in what federal prosecutors called the most profitable insider trading scheme in U.S. history.

In a one-sentence ruling filed Monday, Manhattan U.S. District Judge Paul Gardephe set a 2 p.m. deadline for the onetime financial lieutenant of SAC Capital hedge fund billionaire Steven Cohen to report to a facility designated by the U.S. Bureau of Prisons.

Gardephe had recommended that prison officials assign the 40-year-old Florida resident to a facility in Miami, thereby making it easier for Martoma's wife, Rosemary, and the couple's three young children to visit him.

The ruling followed a federal appeals court denial of Martoma's emergency application to remain free pending appeal. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled on Wednesday that Martoma had failed to show his appeal bid raised "a substantial question of law or fact," as required under federal law....A Manhattan federal court jury in New York City convicted Martoma in February on charges of conspiracy and securities fraud. The conviction led to his prison sentence and an order to forfeit nearly $9.4 million, more than Martoma's current net worth. His wife is challenging the forfeiture ruling.

[Demeter]

14. Zynga's chairman, directors must face lawsuit over stock sales

https://www.yahoo.com/tech/s/zyngas-chairman-directors-must-face-lawsuit-over-stock-172836233--sector.html

Mark Pincus, the founder of video game company Zynga Inc, must face a lawsuit alleging he unfairly benefited by selling $192 million of stock in 2012 when other early investors were under a lockup agreement, according to a court ruling.

The creator of FarmVille had asked the Delaware Court of Chancery to dismiss a lawsuit that alleged Pincus and other Zynga directors breached their duty of loyalty to shareholders by waiving the lockup for select investors. Lockup agreements control the supply of stock available for trading. Zynga barred investors who obtained their stock prior to the company's initial public offering, in December 2011, from selling until May 28, 2012.

However, in March 2012 Zynga's board waived the lockup for Pincus and four other directors, allowing them to sell stock almost two months earlier than originally expected, which the lawsuit alleged was worth $100 million. "It is reasonably conceivable that the benefit the director defendants received in the lockup restructuring was not entirely fair," Judge Andre Bouchard wrote in a 35-page ruling that was published Friday. The ruling allows the plaintiff, shareholder Wendy Lee, to seek documents and take depositions. Zynga spokeswoman Michelle Kramer and Lee's attorney, Evan Wohl of Wohl & Fruchter, declined to comment.

Pincus and the four other directors sold their stock in Zynga's April 2012 secondary stock offering at $12 per share, nearly double the stock's price when the lockup eventually expired, according to Bouchard's 35-page opinion... Zynga argued that the lawsuit should be dismissed because Pincus and the other defendants agreed to sell only 20 percent of their holdings, while putting the remainder of their Zynga stock under an extended staggered lockup through July and August of 2012.

The defendants also argued that waiving the lockup did not harm Lee or other shareholders because it did not change the lockup expiration for them. Bouchard dismissed claims that Goldman Sachs & Co and Morgan Stanley aided the breach of fiduciary duty by consenting to the lockup waiver and collecting $10 million in fees from the secondary offering. In addition to Pincus, the lawsuit names as defendants the members of the Zynga board in 2012 when the lockup agreement was waived.

The case is Wendy Lee v Mark Pincus et al, Delaware Court of Chancery, No. 8458

[Demeter]

15. Ex-Billionaire Wyly Bankruptcy Pits Church Against State

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-11-17/ex-billionaire-wyly-bankruptcy-pits-church-against-state.html?cmpid=yhoo

Former billionaire Samuel Wyly’s Dallas church is taking on the might of the U.S. government for a scrap of the businessman’s remaining fortune.

Wyly, who filed for bankruptcy after losing a fraud lawsuit by the Securities and Exchange Commission, owes $20,000 to the Third Church of Christ, Scientist, under a 2010 pledge to donate $100,000 over five years, the religious organization said in a Nov. 14 filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Dallas.

The church, which says it needs the money to finish a building restoration project, argues in the filing that the SEC and the Internal Revenue Service, which seek the most money from Wyly, are trying to silence smaller creditors that can’t match the government’s “unlimited” legal resources.

The church filed a claim as an unsecured creditor in the case and said Texas law backs the treatment of such pledges as valid claims in bankruptcy.

“While the SEC and IRS debts may be the largest in the case, that does not mean, as the SEC seems to suggest, that there are no other creditors,” the church’s lawyer, Jonathan Gitlin, said in the filing.

A formal committee of unsecured creditors is needed in the case to give them a stronger voice against the SEC, the church said in the filing. The regulator, which challenges the formation of such a committee, seeks at least $200 million from Wyly, and the IRS seeks unspecified back taxes.

The government has argued that the church doesn’t have a chance of getting the money Wyly promised. The church disagrees....

MORE WRANGLING...LOOKS LIKE IT MAY EAT UP ALL THE MONEY

[xchrom]

16. 7 Big US Companies Paid CEOs More Than Uncle Sam In 2013

http://www.businessinsider.com/r-seven-big-us-companies-paid-ceos-more-than-uncle-sam-in-2013-study-2014-11

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Seven of the 30 largest U.S. corporations paid more money to their chief executive officers last year than they paid in U.S. federal income taxes, according to a study released on Tuesday that was disputed by at least one of the companies.

Amid talk in Washington about corporate tax reform, the study said the seven companies, which in 2013 reported more than $74 billion in combined U.S. pre-tax profits, came out ahead on their taxes, gaining $1.9 billion more than they owed.

At the same time, the CEOs at each of the seven companies last year was paid an average of $17.3 million, said the study, compiled by two Washington think tanks.

The seven companies cited were Boeing Co <ba.n>, Ford Motor Co <f.n>, Chevron Corp <cvx.n>, Citigroup Inc <c.n>, Verizon Communications Inc <vz.n>, JPMorgan Chase & Co <jpm.n> and General Motors Co <gm.n>.



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/r-seven-big-us-companies-paid-ceos-more-than-uncle-sam-in-2013-study-2014-11#ixzz3JQ53RJNY

[xchrom]

17. The 10 Most Important Things In The World Right Now

http://www.businessinsider.com/10-most-important-things-in-the-world-nov-18-2014-11

1. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is expected to call a snap election on Tuesday, one day after poor GDP figures showed that the country had slipped into a surprise recession.

2. A Sierra Leone doctor infected with Ebola while working in his home country died Monday at a US hospital.

3. Mali has tightened security at its borders over fears of Ebola spreading from neighbouring Guinea.

4. The Australian Bureau of Meteorology upgraded the chances of El Nino developing to 70% as the tropical Pacific Ocean shows signs of warming.

5. Hong Kong authorities have started dismantling barricades located at a main pro-democracy protest camp opposite government headquarters.



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/10-most-important-things-in-the-world-nov-18-2014-11#ixzz3JQ5Z17AR

[Demeter]

22. Chances of the Polar Vortex weather pattern this winter= 100%

You would not believe how cold and windy it is out there! Windchills below zero in daylight--with sun!

[Fuddnik]

23. If one of you guys left your vortex in Florida, please take it back.

I'm freezing my ass off. Its down to fifty degrees out there. Supposed to be in the 30's tonight.

[Demeter]

24. It ain't MY vortex! Talk to the North Pole!

[xchrom]

18. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe Just Called A Snap Election

http://www.businessinsider.com/japan-election-called-shinzo-abe-2014-11

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe just called a snap election, after the country slumped into recession.

He has told his party leadership earlier Tuesday that he planned to call a snap election for Japan's lower house next month, Japanese public broadcaster NHK World said.

Abe was expected to announce an early election on Tuesday after an unexpectedly bad GDP report showed that Japan had slipped back into a recession. Analysts were expecting a 0.5% increase in GDP for the third quarter, but the figure actually came in at -0.4%.

The prime minister wants the election to get a mandate for some changes, including support for a plan to postpone a sales tax hike scheduled for October next year.



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/japan-election-called-shinzo-abe-2014-11#ixzz3JQ5ykSMd

[xchrom]

19. India And Australia Have Reached A Major Turning Point

http://www.businessinsider.com/indias-modi-visits-australia-2014-11

Last night Indian PM Narendra Modi was feted like a rock star in front of more than 16,500 cheering Australian-Indians at Sydney’s Allphones Arena.
The combination of culture and old-school political rally has been dubbed “polliewood” in a play on India’s famous film industry.

Today Modi addressed the Australian parliament outlining much closer links to Australia and paying credit to Australian PM Tony Abbott for kicking off this new bromance when he visited India in September.

Already there’s talk of a free-trade agreement between Australia and India, with Tony Abbott wanting a deal struck within a year.



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com.au/indian-pm-narendra-modis-australian-visit-marks-a-dramatic-turnaround-in-relations-between-the-two-nations-2014-11#ixzz3JQC3joKI

[xchrom]

20. German Investor Confidence Just Surged Out Of Negative Territory

http://www.businessinsider.com/germany-zew-investor-confidence-nov-2014-2014-11

Germany's ZEW index, which measures investor sentiment, just smashed out of negative territory.

Analysts had expected the "economic sentiment" part of the index to rise just out of negative territory for November, to 0.5, from -3.6 in October.

In reality, it hit 11.5. Last month was the first in negative territory for nearly two years, but this month's figure has soared well away from zero.

The part of the index that measures the current situation was lower, at 3.6. But analysts had expected it to reach only 1.7.

The figures come after Germany's Q3 GDP growth was confirmed at a dismal 0.1%, barely avoiding a technical recession.



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/germany-zew-investor-confidence-nov-2014-2014-11#ixzz3JQCXjFIg

[xchrom]

21. European Stocks Are Climbing, Asian Markets Closed Mixed, US Futures Are Flat

http://www.businessinsider.com/market-update-nov-18-2014-2014-11

France's CAC 40 is up 0.42%

Germany's DAX is up 0.70%

The UK's FTSE 100 is down 0.40%, the only loser.

Italy's FTSE MIB is up 0.76%

Spain's IBEX is up 0.78%

Asian markets are mixed. Japan's Nikkei closed up 2.18%, erasing much of Monday's loss, following terrible GDP figures. Hong Kong's Hang Seng closed down 1.13%.

US futures are up practically flat. The S&P is up 0.5 points and the Dow is down 4 points.

It's another fairly quiet day for data. UK inflation figures are out at 9.30 a.m. GMT, with economists expecting a 1.3% reading, well below the 2% target.



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/market-update-nov-18-2014-2014-11#ixzz3JQCzsIAz