STOCK MARKET WATCH -- Monday, 31 August 2015

[Tansy_Gold]

[font size=3]STOCK MARKET WATCH, Monday, 31 August 2015[font color=black][/font]

SMW for 28 August 2015

AT THE CLOSING BELL ON 28 August 2015
[center][font color=red]
Dow Jones 16,643.01 -11.76 (-0.07%)
[font color=green]S&P 500 1,988.87 +1.21 (0.06%)
Nasdaq 4,828.33 +15.62 (0.32%)


[font color=red]10 Year 2.18% +0.05 (2.35%)
30 Year 2.91% +0.04 (1.39%) [font color=black]


[center][/font]

[HR width=85%]

[font size=2]Market Conditions During Trading Hours[/font]
[center]
(click on link for latest updates)
Market Updates
[/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
08/03/15 Former City (London) trader Tom Hayes found guilty of rigging global Libor interest rates. Each fo eight counts carries up to 10 yr. sentence.
08/21/15 Charles Antonucci Sr, former pres. Park Ave. Bank sentenced to 2.5 years in prison for bribery, fraud, embezzlement, and attempt to steal $11MM in TARP bailout funds, as well as $37.5MM fraud on OK insurance company. To pay $54MM in restitution and give up additional $11MM.







[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]

[Tansy_Gold]

1. Looks like

PPT went into the oil bidness.

[Warpy]

2. Either that or rich twits like the Koch boys

are running scared from the "insecure" stock market.

Guess they don't recall how hosed they got last spring when the prices dropped that fast.

[Demeter]

3. I was a Costco Sunday Afternoon and you wouldn't believe the lines!

Gas was back at the $2.26 it was just before the refinery incident....

Which makes me wonder who is goosing oil. Probably the House of Saud has thrown in the towel and cut back production? Theirs was a foolhardy plan to drive others out of business. The frackers beat them at that game.

Haven't seen any news flashes about the oil bidness....so it has to be done on the quiet.

Or perhaps as you say, somebody's getting gambling fever.

I thought there was so much oil in tankers doing the contango that no one would be that stupid....

[Demeter]

4. Russia's Scientific Revolution

http://www.forbes.com/sites/shelliekarabell/2015/08/30/russias-latest-scientific-revolution-is-lead-by-a-soccer-mom/

They say necessity is the mother of invention, but sometimes it’s the mother who sees the necessity for invention and then assumes the leadership role to do something about it.

So it was with Svetlana Motorina, a diminutive, 35-year-old Russian HR-professional-turned-soccer-Mom who realized there were no children’s discovery museums in Moscow where her now-6-year-old son Yaroslav could learn about science or biology or any of the kid-friendly sciences. So she set out to create one.

“When I started looking for places to take my son, where he could learn something, I realized we had no actual discovery museums in Moscow,” That was in the spring of 2012.

Her trek towards her goal led her to a like-minded woman (who wanted to remain anonymous for this article) heading a team that, in April, had just begun something called InnoPark in Sokolniki Park – one of the largest public parks in Europe.

“They said that the Department of Culture in Moscow was interested in opening a science museum, to create a sort of “cool family park”," she told me over coffee in the snack bar of Sokolniki Park. Motorina was hired in August as the Director and InnoPark, Russia’s first real children’s discovery museum dedicated to science was off and running. The head of the InnoPark team has since become Motorina’s good friend and business partner. But the government money only covered the opening costs. Motorina had to corral sponsors to put together exhibits, hire minimal staff, and keep the lights on. “We went after corporations,” she remembers, “and the first to support us was American – Exxon Mobil – followed by Komus, a maker of school supplies.”

MORE

[Demeter]

5. Where every Fed member stands on raising interest rates

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/where-every-fed-member-stands-on-raising-interest-rates-2015-08-28

There should be plenty of debate when Federal Reserve officials gather in mid-September to determine whether to raise interest rates for the first time since the end of the Great Recession.

Between low inflation, market turmoil, continued job growth, a strong second-quarter GDP reading and the impact from China’s devaluation of its currency, the decision is no slam dunk.

Here’s a roundup of the latest comments from every Fed official. Some have spoken on Friday, while others last spoke on the issue since June and those remarks may not represent their current stance.

FIRST, THE VOTING MEMBERS

Chairwoman Janet Yellen

Not at Jackson Hole. Told Congress in July that a rate hike this year would likely be appropriate.

Vice Chair Stanley Fischer

In an interview Friday, he said it’s too early to tell if case for rate hike was more compelling or less compelling. Before China yuan move, Fischer said case for September hike was “pretty strong” but not conclusive. He says level of confidence “pretty high” inflation will return to 2% target. He delivers a formal speech at Jackson Hole on Saturday.

Gov. Lael Brainard

Said in June that the Fed should give the data time to show labor-market progress, inflation rising.

Gov. Jerome Powell

Said in early August that he’s not sure whether to support a September rate hike.

Gov. Daniel Tarullo

Said in June that the U.S. economy has lost momentum.

New York Fed President William Dudley

Said on Wednesday that a rate hike is “less compelling” than a few weeks ago.

Chicago Fed President Charles Evans

Didn’t want rate hikes until middle of next year, as of July.

Richmond Fed President Jeffrey Lacker

Due to give a speech next month titled “The Case Against Further Delay.”

Atlanta Fed President Dennis Lockhart

Sees even odds of a September rate increase.

San Francisco Fed President John Williams

Said in June he expected two rate hikes this year.


Nonvoters

St. Louis Fed President James Bullard
Favors raising rates and said market volatility shouldn’t delay action.

Kansas City Fed President Esther George
Favors September hike but said turmoil complicates the decision.

Cleveland Fed President Loretta Mester
Said U.S. economy could support a hike, but wants to evaluate all the data.

Boston Fed President Eric Rosengren
Said in early July that a hike could come in September.

Minneapolis Fed President Narayana Kocherlakota
Says more easing should be considered.

Philadelphia Fed President Patrick Harker
Has made no public comments on monetary policy.

Dallas Fed President Robert Steven Kaplan
Has made no public comments on monetary policy.

I MAKE IT 4 TO 5 FOR A RISE--MEANING NEXT YEAR?

[Demeter]

6. Bank of America to Shell Out $36M in Out-of-Court Settlement

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/bank-america-shell-36m-court-154003394.html

Bank of America Corporation BAC put a class action lawsuit filed against its subsidiary Landsafe Appraisal Services, Inc. by 365 current and former employees working as residential real estate appraisers to rest, by agreeing to shell out $36 million in settlement. The bank will successfully dodge a scheduled Aug 31 trial, if it gets court approval for the settlement. A court case filed in April 2013 alleged that Bank of America and its subsidiary erroneously used the “administrative” and “professional” exemptions to residential staff appraisers. This particular work entails no special academic degree, only a state license.

According to the charges, the company failed to pay any overtime compensation despite the plaintiffs putting long hours at work. The workforce, mostly based in Northern California, seeks reimbursement for working from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. without any breaks due to "artificially short deadlines set by Bank of America." The bank’s efforts to get the case dismissed from the court were in vain with the ruling clarifying that the company will be obliged to pay workers substantial back wages for overtime along with missed meals and rest periods. Though the bank denied any wrongdoing, it opted to put an end to the matter through an out-of-court settlement.

"We have seen over and over again across the economy that employees are misclassified, depriving them of overtime compensation, when under state and federal law they are due the wages," said Bryan Schwartz, founder of Oakland-based Bryan Schwartz Law, and co-lead counsel on the case. "These individuals worked hard, generated thousands of reports a month for the employer to sell mortgages, and were not compensated for their efforts as the law requires."

Bank of America has previously settled a part of the same case with Schwartz and his co-counsel in 2014. The bank had compensated $5.8 million, aggregating the sum to $42 million for plaintiffs, who are seeking the court’s preliminary approval of the current settlement in September. Schwartz expects the current settlement to encourage other misclassified employees to follow suit...

[Demeter]

7. Robots will cut 25% of US jobs in 4 years, transform workforce

http://www.rt.com/usa/313566-robots-cut-jobs-study/

The encroachment of self-help kiosks and grocery store scanners has led doomsayers to suggest automation threatens the workforce of the future. A new report argues it will create new business sectors and new jobs as well. By studying large companies in various industries, from Delta Airlines Inc. to Whole Foods Market Inc., as well as many startups, analysts have forecast that automation will erase 22.7 million jobs by 2025, or 16 percent of today’s total. The prediction comes in a report titled “The Future of Jobs, 2025: Working Side-By-Side with Robots,” published by Forrester Research this week. The study’s findings were drawn from government employment data, and interviews with businesses and academics.

Automation in daily life is already prevalent and expanding beyond the grocery store scanner. Robots are now delivering room service to guests in the Aloft hotel in San Francisco, and self-service kiosks filling orders at delis rather than humans. Lowe’s hardware is testing Oshbot, a robotic sales assistant that can answer questions, and show customers a floorplan of the store or lead them directly to products they seek. It was recently featured in an RT segment....SEE AT LINK...However, the study argued that the decline in service jobs caused by increasing automation would be offset by the creation of new ones, reducing net jobs losses to only 9.1 million, or 7 percent.

“Physical robots require repair and maintenance professionals – one of several job categories that will grow up around a more automated world,” wrote J P Gownder, the lead author in Forbes.

“That’s a net loss of 7 percent: far fewer than most forecasts, though still a significant job loss number.”

Robots are defined in the study as physical robots that do manual labor on assembly lines or in warehouses. Included in the definition is sophisticated software capable of crunching large amounts of data to perform intellectual tasks such as giving medical diagnoses, analyzing the weather, or coming up with culinary recipes. Automation will and is replacing the work of people, but the report argued for every 10 jobs automated, one new job will be created in software engineering, design, maintenance, and support or training.

Gownder’ team said by 2019, 25 percent of all job-based tasks will have been offloaded to software robots, physical robots, or customer self-service automation. The most job losses will occur in sectors like office support, construction, and sales, with self-help services replacing cashiers, retail salespeople, and real estate brokers and agents. The report also found smart household gadgets would threaten the livelihoods of repair workers, plumbers and electricians.

“These are not white-collar jobs,” J P Gownder told WIRED. “This is the evolution of the repair person. It’s harder to fix a robot than to fix a vending machine.”

The report found for most workers, robotic challenges would change the way people approached their daily jobs, requiring new methods of job training, management, and financial reporting systems. Gownder’s report presents a less dire view to the one presented in the often-quoted Oxford University study of 2013 “The Future of Employment: How Susceptible Are Jobs to Computerisation” from academics Carl Frey and Michael Osborne. Their analysis predicted robots will displace jobs at an alarming rate, finding that 47 percent of total US jobs were “at risk” of being replaced by automation.


WE'LL SEE ABOUT THAT....

[Demeter]

8. Judge Sentenced To 28 Years For Selling ‘Kids For Cash’ To Prisons

http://www.mintpressnews.com/judge-sentenced-to-28-years-for-selling-kids-for-cash-to-prisons/209013/

Now that Ciaverella has been locked up, that solves one problem, but raises an important question that few are asking: was this an isolated incident, or are there more just like him who have made similar deals with prisons across the United States....

LIKE MAYBE, JEFFERSON, MO?


The bribery scandal made headlines when Former Luzerne County Judge Mark Ciavarella Jr. was alleged to have taking $1 million in bribes from juvenile detention centers to fill their cells with children who came before him in court.

The Associated Press says the following:

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court tossed about 4,000 convictions issued by Ciavarella between 2003 and 2008, saying he violated the constitutional rights of the juveniles, including the right to legal counsel and the right to intelligently enter a plea.

Ciavarella, 61, was tried and convicted of racketeering charges earlier this year. His attorneys had asked for a “reasonable” sentence in court papers, saying, in effect, that he’s already been punished enough.

“The media attention to this matter has exceeded coverage given to many and almost all capital murders, and despite protestation, he will forever be unjustly branded as the ‘Kids for Cash’ judge,” their sentencing memo said.

The Times Leader reports that the court house in Scranton was overflowing as over a dozen people who had been essentially “sold” to prisons by the judge turned out to exchange horror stories.

Jeff Pollins’ stepson was convicted by Ciavarella. He turned out to eagerly awaiting the judge’s sentencing.

“These kids are still affected by it. It’s like post traumatic stress disorder,” Pollins said to the Times Leader. “Our life is ruined. It’s never going to be the same… I’d like to see that happen to him,” he added.

The fact that this sort of bribery would even be proposed to the judge suggests that this is a much broader problem, and this one incident was just the tip of the proverbial iceberg.

[Hotler]

15. Dick Cheney is a big share holder in the for profit prisons. n/t

[Demeter]

9. Libya posts deficit of $3.3 billion in first seven months

http://af.reuters.com/article/libyaNews/idAFL5N1150GL20150830?f

Libya posted a budget deficit of 4.5 billion dinars ($3.3 billion) in the first seven months of 2015 as oil production fell and weak oil prices weighed, the Tripoli-based central bank said on Sunday.

Libya is producing less than 400,000 barrels of oil a day, a quarter of what the OPEC member used to pump until an uprising toppled Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 and tipped the North African country into turmoil.

Libya has no regular budget as two governments and parliaments controlling limited territory fight for power. Vital oil revenues are controlled by the central bank in Tripoli which is effectively running public finances.

State income -- generated by oil and gas exports -- was 12.4 billion Libyan dinars until the end of July, leaving a deficit of 4.5 billion dinars to cover expenditures of 16.9 billion dinars in the same period, the central bank said on its website.

MORE BAD NEWS AT LINK

[Demeter]

10. The number of nuclear warheads by country

The nuclear arms race began over 60 years ago, and according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute today there are about 15,850 nuclear warheads shared by the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, China, India, Pakistan, and North Korea. An estimated 1,800 of the total warheads are on high alert.






rbth.com IS A FASCINATING WEBSITE

[Demeter]

11. Beijing abandons large-scale share purchases

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/2f11ebdc-4ef3-11e5-b029-b9d50a74fd14.html?ftcamp=published_links%2Frss%2Fhome_us%2Ffeed%2F%2Fproduct


China’s government has decided to abandon attempts to boost the stock market through large-scale share purchases, and will instead intensify efforts to find and punish those suspected of “destabilising the market”, according to senior officials.

For two months, a “national team” of state-owned investment funds and institutions has collectively spent about $200bn trying to prop up a market that is still down 37 per cent since its mid-June peak.

China’s leaders feel they mishandled the stock market rescue efforts by allowing too much information to become public, according to senior regulatory officials speaking at a meeting late on Thursday — an account of which has been seen by the Financial Times.

Last week’s equities collapse, which prompted a rout in global markets, was partly blamed on authorities’ apparent decision to refrain from the share purchases they had been making since early July...

[Demeter]

12. Journalist Reportedly 'Confesses' To Instigating Chinese Stock Market Plunge

Other officials allegedly confessed to insider trading.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/china-stocks-confessions_55e3cda4e4b0b7a96339680e?utm_hp_ref=business&ir=Business&section=business

Chinese state media announced a slew of confessions on Monday following investigations into recent stock market gyrations, including from a detained reporter who admitted to spreading false information that caused "panic and disorder."

An official from China's securities regulator had confessed to insider trading while four senior executives from China's largest brokerage, CITIC Securities, had also confessed to insider dealing, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

China is trying to boost its stock markets, which have plunged some 40 percent since mid-June on concerns over the country's slowing economy and an unexpected devaluation of the yuan currency in mid-August.

Among a number of measures, authorities have cracked down on the fabrication of trading information, alleged malicious short selling and other strategies seen as hampering a recovery.

Xinhua said Wang Xiaolu, a reporter at the respected Caijing business magazine, had confessed to writing about the Chinese stock market "based on hearsay and his own subjective guesses" that "inflicted huge losses on the country and investors."

MORE

[MattSh]

13. Breaking News in Kiev....

Protests leading to injuries, plus a possible grenade thrown as the Rada (Parliament) passes laws allowing for more autonomy for the eastern regions. Oh yeah. Right Sector is involved. No surprise there.

via BBC, Kyivpost.com, RT.

I haven't heard so many sirens since that fateful day February 2014 when a hundred or so protesters died at ISquare.

[Demeter]

14. Stay safe!

Maybe a nice trip to the country?

[MattSh]

17. Just got back from the country yesterday...

School starts tomorrow, wouldn't you know. And tomorrow's the first day of a late summer heat wave. Mid 90's or so they predict.

[Demeter]

16. I must go do various unpleasant tasks

Think about sending patience and good luck. What a way to start a week.