STOCK MARKET WATCH -- Thursday, 3 December 2015

[Tansy_Gold]

[font size=3]STOCK MARKET WATCH, Thursday, 3 December 2015[font color=black][/font]

SMW for 2 December 2015

AT THE CLOSING BELL ON 2 December 2015
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Dow Jones 17,729.68 -158.67 (-0.89%)
S&P 500 2,079.51 -23.12 (-1.10%)
Nasdaq 5,123.22 -33.08 (-0.64%)


[font color=black]10 Year 2.18% 0.00 (0.00%)
[font color=green]30 Year 2.91% -0.01 (-0.34%) [font color=black]


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[font size=2]Market Conditions During Trading Hours[/font]
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(click on link for latest updates)
Market Updates
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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.
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.
09/21/15 Volkswagen CEO Martin Winterkorn apologizes for VW cheating on air quality standards with emission testing avoidance device. Stock drops 20%, fines may total $18B.
09/22/15 Stewart Parnell, CEO Peanut Corp. of America, sentenced to 28 years in prison for selling salmonella-tainted peanut butter that killed nine.





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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]

[Proserpina]

1. That was the most Un--Xmas thing I've ever seen

since Jim Carrey's horrible version of "How the Grinch Stole Christmas".

Mom is still having that out-of-DU experience.

She does have a new shiny working furnace furnace (multiple cracks in the old heat exchanger...so it was time) but the hot water tank is still in the works (similar corrosion problems).

Since it only got up to 41F if you believe the weather people (I don't. It was awful today), this is a good thing all around. Except, I'm still stuck doing her posting!

[Proserpina]

2. New Fed rule limits its crisis bailout powers

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/11/30/us-usa-fed-lending-idUSKBN0TJ0AW20151130

The Federal Reserve Board on Nov. 30 adopted a rule that stops it from bailing out individual companies, a change that Congress demanded after the central bank's controversial decision to help rescue American International Group (AIG.N) and others during the financial crisis.

The rule is designed to help end the notion of individual financial companies being "too big to fail," by allowing the Fed to rescue only the broader financial system instead of individual companies. Under the rule, the Fed can make emergency loans that can potentially be used by at least five companies, but it cannot make more ad hoc rescues like its efforts to save AIG during the crisis.

The Fed adopted the rules after the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial reform law required the central bank to curtail emergency loans to individual companies and to insolvent companies. The final regulations define insolvent companies as those that had failed to pay "undisputed debts" in the previous 90 days. Fed Governor Daniel Tarullo said during the meeting that the regulations would better balance the Fed's need to respond in a crisis with the concern that managers expecting a bailout in the worst-case scenario would be more likely to take big risks to try to turn their companies around in times of stress.

There has been "a longstanding tension of confronting moral hazard with wanting to retain flexibility," said Tarullo, the Fed's point person on regulatory issues.

As the financial crisis intensified in 2008, the Fed invoked its little-used emergency lending power to help stave off the failure of AIG. It also lent money to JPMorgan Chase & Co to help reduce the bank's potential losses from buying Bear Stearns, which was on the brink of collapse. The Fed also enacted a series of more general emergency programs, in all providing $710 billion in loans and guarantees to a wide range of financial companies. Those programs were separate from the much larger Fed asset and bond purchases known as quantitative easing.

In September 2008, the Fed refused to bail out Lehman Brothers, which according to senior officials at the central bank was not solvent and therefore could not be rescued. The investment bank filed for bankruptcy in September 2008, even as other troubled financial companies, such as Citigroup Inc, (C.N) received multiple rescues from the government.

The Fed's crisis-era loans have been repaid and the guarantees ended, ultimately earning the central bank a net profit of $30 billion, according to a September Congressional Research Service review. But critics have argued that the Fed overreached during the crisis, using its emergency authority in ways not clearly foreseen by lawmakers. The Fed routinely lends money to banks on a short-term basis to smooth the operations of the financial system, which is part of its mandate. But since the 1930s, it has had the power to lend more broadly in a crisis.

[Hotler]

8. "the Fed can make emergency loans that can potentially be used by at least five companies,"

well isn't that special. How about we're not bailing out any companies, we're bailing out the workers next time. Stop dreaming Hotler and move along.

[Proserpina]

3. China factory activity hits three-year low in November: official PMI

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/12/01/us-china-economy-pmi-services-idUSKBN0TK32G20151201

Manufacturing activity in China hit a three-year low in November, an industry survey showed Tuesday, supporting the case for more accommodative policies as authorities seek to prop up growth in the world's second largest economy.

China's National Bureau of Statistics' official Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) hit 49.6 in November, its lowest reading since August 2012 and down from the previous month's reading of 49.8. This was below a Reuters poll forecast of 49.8 and marked the fourth straight month of contraction in the sector.

A reading below 50 points suggests a decline in activity on a monthly basis while a reading above signifies an expansion.

"With soft growth momentum and deflation pressures creeping up, we expect the authorities to further ease monetary policy and continue to implement an expansionary fiscal policy in order to prevent further slowdown of the economy in 2016," Li-Gang Liu and Louis Lam, ANZ economists said in a research note released after the data.

more

[Proserpina]

6. Amid China slowdown, foreign creditors face bankruptcy riddle from May

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/11/30/china-debt-bankruptcy-idUSL4N0XZ6H520151130#vHzoVKXhTohOgQwM.97

As China's economy slows and Beijing becomes more relaxed about letting its companies fail, a rising number of foreign bondholders risk being caught up in the country's unpredictable court system. Last month, solar producer Baoding Tianwei Group became China's first ever state-owned company to default on a bond coupon payment, showing Beijing's increasing willingness to let companies go bust in a bid to reform its corporate market. Also in April, Kaisa Group became the first Chinese property developer to fail to pay a coupon on its U.S. dollar bonds and Internet company Cloud Live Tech Group failed to repay nearly $40 million to bondholders. Although onshore and offshore bondholders have equal standing in China's bankruptcy law, lawyers and investors who have experienced corporate failures in China, say bankruptcy proceedings are subject to interference from local government officials who rarely prioritise offshore bondholders.

"The courts can and do exercise wide discretion, and it's not always clear how that discretion is applied," said Mark Hyde, global head of the insolvency and restructuring practice at law firm Clifford Chance in Hong Kong, who advised creditors in the 2014 bankruptcy of solar producer Chaori, China's first domestic bond default. "This is in contrast to other jurisdictions like the U.S., where the key question is whether the legal issues have been satisfied."

Courts also have wide discretion on whether to accept bankruptcy filings and must work closely with local government officials, who are generally more concerned about jobs, local tax revenues and social stability than creditors. Foreign investors who experienced the bankruptcies of Chaori and Suntech, another early Chinese corporate failure, felt they were treated like a nuisance.

"In the case of Suntech there was radio silence from the company for four months and only when we applied sufficient pressure did they start to come up with a solution. Creditors are seen as a nuisance," said an investor who owned bonds in Suntech but declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the issue.

more

[Proserpina]

4. Greece says hackers hit banks with bitcoin ransom demand

http://www.dw.com/en/greece-says-hackers-hit-banks-with-bitcoin-ransom-demand/a-18885881

Greece's central bank has been on alert following reports of cyberattacks against three Greek banks. Sources say hackers had demanded a ransom to be paid in the bitcoin electronic currency. Greek police said Monday that a group calling itself Armada Collective had demanded units of the virtual currency bitcoin, redeemable for hundreds of thousands of euros, or else it would disrupt the banks' websites.

"It was a serious threat," an unnamed Bank of Greece official told the AFP news agency.

Officials from the unnamed banks said the institutions had refused to pay and instead alerted authorities. It's not unprecedented for hackers to make ransom demands with the threat of cyber attack.

Online banking disrupted

The hackers apparently made good on their threat and managed to crash the online banking services of the three banks on November 26 for several hours. Officials say no sensitive data or customer information was compromised.

"All they achieved was to block the web banking for a few hours. Nothing else," one unnamed banker told the Reuters news agency, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Central bank officials say a counter-operation by cybercrime police and the Greek intelligence agency restored the system within about an hour.

"We informed the police and the country's secret services are involved," a second banker told Reuters. "It's an easy to handle situation. There is no need for bank clients to worry."

A hacking extortion group using the same name was reported to have staged attacks against banks in Thailand in the past as well as several private email services earlier this month. The attacks come as Greece's four main banks - National Bank, Piraeus Bank, Alpha Bank and Eurobank - are being recapitalized after suffering a deposit flight earlier this year, forcing the government to impose capital controls to keep the banks solvent.

[Proserpina]

5. Brazil gov't says it can't pay December rent, bills of ministries

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/11/30/brazil-budget-payments-idUSE4N0XB02M20151130#jGOzDpEtVlLERXgl.97

Brazil's federal government will not be able to pay the December rent, water and electricity bills of its ministries in Brasilia until Congress approves a change in the primary fiscal savings target for this year, Dyogo Oliveira, the executive secretary of the Planning ministry, told reporters on Monday.

President Dilma Rousseff on Friday ordered a budget freeze of 10 billion reais ($2.60 billion) to comply with Brazil's fiscal responsibility law after Congress, delaying passage of a bill last week to cut the cash-strapped government's fiscal target for 2015. By law, the government has to contain expenditures to meet the original fiscal savings goal.

Oliveira said the government hopes the new goal will be approved by Congress this week and the spending cuts that went into effect on Monday will be reversed.

[Proserpina]

7. Vulture Capitalists Are the Real Winners of Argentina’s Elections

[Proserpina]

9. Wells Fargo's sales tactics are reportedly under investigation by the U.S.

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-wells-fargo-probe-20151130-story.html?ref=yfp

Aggressive sales tactics at Wells Fargo Bank, already the subject of a lawsuit filed by L.A.'s city attorney, appear to have drawn the attention of federal regulators.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the San Francisco Federal Reserve are probing the bank's practices, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday, citing unnamed sources. An attorney representing Wells Fargo customers and former employees who have sued the bank told The Times that representatives from the OCC, a federal bank watchdog, have contacted his office about those cases.

The inquiries, like a lawsuit filed this year by the Los Angeles city attorney's office, appear related to allegations that the San Francisco banking giant has employed a high-pressure sales system that encourages illegal behavior by employees. The bank's practices came to light in a 2013 Times investigation that found Wells Fargo employees, facing strict sales quotas and fearing retribution from their superiors, created accounts without customers' knowledge and even forged customers' signatures....

...Wells Fargo prides itself on getting its customers to use numerous bank services, such as checking accounts, savings accounts and credit cards. Unlike most lenders, it reports in annual filings the average number of banking products used by the average customer. But bank officials balk at the notion that Wells Fargo's focus on so-called cross-selling has led to widespread fraud and say the bank's policies do not encourage illegal behavior.

“We disagree with the allegations in the L.A. City Attorney’s lawsuit and intend to defend ourselves," bank spokeswoman Mary Eshet said Monday. "Wells Fargo’s culture is focused on the best interests of its customers."

The bank has also argued that Feuer does not have the jurisdiction to take the bank to court. In a June filing responding to the city's suit, the bank's attorneys said various federal laws put the bank beyond the reach of local officials and that the OCC and other federal agencies are responsible for regulating national banks...

[Proserpina]

10. Wells Fargo CEO complains about Fed debt issuance requirement

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/12/01/us-wells-fargo-regulations-idUSKBN0TK5I020151201?feedType=RSS&feedName=businessNews

Wells Fargo & Co CEO John Stumpf said on Tuesday he disagrees with a new rule designed to boost one of the bank's cushions for absorbing losses. The Federal Reserve's regulation, known as the "total loss absorbing capacity" rule, or TLAC, will require the bank to issue another $60 billion of long-term debt. Asked in an interview on CNBC whether the $60 billion of total loss absorbing capacity makes the bank safer, Stumpf replied, "Now you're really getting under my neck a little bit, but I don't think that's something that we really needed." He added, however, that the bank would be able to manage the issuance.

The TLAC requirements, proposed Oct. 30, are aimed at ensuring that some of the biggest and most interconnected banks can better withstand another financial crisis by turning some of their debt, particularly debt issued by their holding companies, into equity without disrupting markets or requiring a government bailout.

The requirement is more difficult for Wells because the bank relies more on deposits, which are less costly than long-term debt, to fund its operations. Securities firms like Goldman Sachs Group Inc and Morgan Stanley, which fund themselves with long-term debt, are not expected to have to issue new debt to comply with the rule.

A Fed spokesman declined to respond to Stumpf's criticism, but pointed to a statement by Fed Chair Janet Yellen the day the rule was proposed. Yellen said the rule "would substantially reduce the risk to taxpayers and the threat to financial stability" from the failure of systemically important firms such as Wells.

[Proserpina]

11. The biggest bank in the US is miffed at the Federal Reserve

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/biggest-bank-us-miffed-federal-171555112.html


Wells Fargo, the biggest bank in the US by market capitalization, may have to raise $60 billion in debt to offset potential losses in the event of another financial crisis following a Federal Reserve ruling.

CEO John Stumpf isn't all that keen on the idea.

"I don't think that's something we really needed," Stumpf said in an interview on Tuesday with CNBC's Kayla Tausche.

He said: "It's what we've been asked to do. I think that we have enough capital the way it is, but if loss absorbing capital is required through debt, we're going to raise it. We will be able to manage it. But I can't tell you sitting here that I thought that was necessary."

[Proserpina]

12. U.S. manufacturing contracts, but rest of economy humming along

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/12/01/us-usa-economy-idUSKBN0TK51M20151201?feedType=RSS&feedName=businessNews

U.S. manufacturing contracted in November for the first time in three years as the sector buckled under the weight of a strong dollar and deep spending cuts by energy firms, but robust automobile sales suggested the economy remained on solid ground.

Other data released on Tuesday showed a sturdy increase in construction spending in October, which should help offset the drag from manufacturing on fourth-quarter economic growth. With manufacturing accounting for only 12 percent of the economy, analysts say it is unlikely the persistent weakness will deter the Federal Reserve from raising interest rates this month.

"Manufacturing is being pummeled by the stronger dollar and the weakness of global demand, but the other 88 percent of the economy continues to perform well. This won't prevent the Fed from raising interest rates at the mid-December meeting," said Steve Murphy, a U.S. economist at Capital Economics in Toronto.

The Institute for Supply Management said its national factory index fell to 48.6 last month, the weakest reading since June 2009 when the recession ended, from 50.1 in October. While a reading below 50 indicates a contraction in manufacturing, the index remains above 43.1, which is associated with a recession.

Factory activity has also been undercut by business efforts to reduce an excessive inventory build, which is putting pressure on new orders. The ISM said a gauge of new orders tumbled 4 percentage points to 48.9 last month.

Inventories at manufacturers continued to shrink and their customers reported stocks of unsold goods were too high for a fourth consecutive month. ...

[Proserpina]

13. Call for a Weekend Host

I have finals...is anyone willing to pick up the slack, if DU will be such slackers as to not complete their stupid review before then?

[MattSh]

14. I can go ahead and do this...

this weekend, as long as I don't make a habit of it.

Got other things I need to pay attention to. At least I need to convince myself of that!

[Proserpina]

15. Many thanks! And we are hoping that somebody at DU decides to

release my Mom from durance vile...