STOCK MARKET WATCH -- Wednesday, 30 December 2015

[Tansy_Gold]

[font size=3]STOCK MARKET WATCH, Wednesday, 30 December 2015[font color=black][/font]

SMW for 29 December 2015

AT THE CLOSING BELL ON 29 December 2015
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Dow Jones 17,720.98 +192.71 (1.10%)
S&P 500 2,078.36 +21.86 (1.06%)
Nasdaq 5,107.94 +66.95 (1.33%)


[font color=red]10 Year 2.31% +0.06 (2.67%)
30 Year 3.04% +0.07 (2.36%) [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.
12/17/15 Martin Shkreli, former CEO Turing Pharmaceuticals and notorious price gouger, arrested on securities fraud charges. Posted $5M bail, resigned as CEO.




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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. Too pooped (and pissed off) to post

Perhaps the morning will be better.

[Proserpina]

2. KaloBios Pharmaceuticals files for bankruptcy

http://www.cnbc.com/2015/12/30/kalobios-pharmaceuticals-files-for-bankruptcy.html



KaloBios Pharmaceuticals, which fired chief executive Martin Shkreli earlier this month, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Tuesday. The drugmaker listed both its assets and liabilities in the range of $1 million to $10 million in its filing with the U.S. bankruptcy court for the District of Delaware.

The move comes on the heels of KaloBios' appeal of the Nasdaq decision to delist its shares.
A hearing on the appeal has been scheduled for Feb. 25, KaloBios said on Tuesday.

The company on Monday said two of its directors, Tom Fernandez and Marek Biestekhad, had resigned in the wake of Shkreli's arrest for alleged securities fraud.
KaloBios named Shkreli as its CEO on Nov. 20, after Shkreli and a consortium of investors bought about 70 percent of its shares.


more

[Proserpina]

3. The best age to get married if you don’t want to get divorced

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/12/30/the-best-age-to-get-married-if-you-dont-want-to-get-divorced-2/



Conventional wisdom has it that the older you are when you get married, the lower your chances for divorce. But a fascinating new analysis of family data by Nicholas H. Wolfinger, a sociologist at the University of Utah, suggests that after a certain point, the risk of divorce starts to rise again as you get older. Here's what that looks like in chart form:


https://img.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=&w=1484



It's important to remember that we're just talking about statistical risk here. If you wait until your 40s to get married, your relationship is by no means doomed. And waiting until later in life is still a much wiser option that marrying early. Looking at the raw divorce rates, for instance, Wolfinger found that people who married at age 35 or greater had a 19 percent risk of divorce, compared to a 20 percent risk for those aged 20 to 24, and a 32 percent risk for those who married before they were 20.

a one-dimensional analysis and therefore not very helpful...also doesn't differentiate between ages of woman and man at marriage

[Proserpina]

4. The bond market is sending off a troubling signal

http://www.cnbc.com/2015/12/29/the-bond-market-is-sending-off-a-troubling-signal.html

... The increase in returns on short-term bonds is outpacing that of long-term bonds. This has led to a flattening yield curve, which measures returns on U.S. Treasurys across the lengths of maturity. On one side of the yield curve, rates have been rising as a result of the Federal Reserve's decision in December to raise the federal funds rate. However, long-term bonds like the U.S. 10-year note and the U.S. 30-year note have yet to see a move similar in magnitude, as inflation expectations have remained muted.

This narrowing difference between short-term and long-term Treasury yields presages market tumult, according to Max Wolff of Manhattan Venture Partners. "The reason people should worry is the short-term signals they tend to watch and the long-term signals they need to worry about in the bigger picture are sending opposite messages," Wolff said Tuesday on CNBC's "Trading Nation." "They can't both be right, and so it almost certainly means a period of a bit of turbulence coming up."

A tightening yield spread is generally viewed as a negative sign for the market, since investors should generally demand higher returns the longer they hold bonds. The absence of this yield premium for long-term bonds typically indicates a lack of confidence in the economy...

[Proserpina]

5. For the Wealthiest, a Private Tax System That Saves Them Billions

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/30/business/economy/for-the-wealthiest-private-tax-system-saves-them-billions.html

The hedge fund magnates Daniel S. Loeb, Louis Moore Bacon and Steven A. Cohen have much in common. They have managed billions of dollars in capital, earning vast fortunes. They have invested large sums in art — and millions more in political candidates. Moreover, each has exploited an esoteric tax loophole that saved them millions in taxes. The trick? Route the money to Bermuda and back.

With inequality at its highest levels in nearly a century and public debate rising over whether the government should respond to it through higher taxes on the wealthy, the very richest Americans have financed a sophisticated and astonishingly effective apparatus for shielding their fortunes. Some call it the “income defense industry,” consisting of a high-priced phalanx of lawyers, estate planners, lobbyists and anti-tax activists who exploit and defend a dizzying array of tax maneuvers, virtually none of them available to taxpayers of more modest means.

In recent years, this apparatus has become one of the most powerful avenues of influence for wealthy Americans of all political stripes, including Mr. Loeb and Mr. Cohen, who give heavily to Republicans, and the liberal billionaire George Soros, who has called for higher levies on the rich while at the same time using tax loopholes to bolster his own fortune...The impact on their own fortunes has been stark. Two decades ago, when Bill Clinton was elected president, the 400 highest-earning taxpayers in America paid nearly 27 percent of their income in federal taxes, according to I.R.S. data. By 2012, when President Obama was re-elected, that figure had fallen to less than 17 percent, which is just slightly more than the typical family making $100,000 annually, when payroll taxes are included for both groups.

The ultra-wealthy “literally pay millions of dollars for these services,” said Jeffrey A. Winters, a political scientist at Northwestern University who studies economic elites, “and save in the tens or hundreds of millions in taxes.”

more

[Hotler]

9. F&@k the rich! n/t

[Proserpina]

6. Julius Baer reaches preliminary deal in U.S. tax case

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-julius-baer-usa-idUSKBN0UD0CM20151230?feedType=RSS&feedName=businessNews

Julius Baer has reached an agreement in principle with U.S. authorities to settle an investigation into allegations it helped wealthy American clients evade taxes, potentially drawing a line under the Swiss bank's biggest legal issue. Switzerland's third largest listed bank said it had set aside nearly $200 million in additional provisions for the settlement, bringing the total amount earmarked for potential penalties to $547.25 million, which the bank will charge to its 2015 full-year results...The bank said it still expected to report a net profit for the current financial year and would remain adequately capitalized...

Julius Baer's penalties potentially look much lighter than those paid by larger rival Credit Suisse, which in 2014 was fined $2.5 billion for helping Americans evade taxes and pleaded guilty to a U.S. criminal charge...Zurich-based Baer said it hoped to settle the Justice Department investigation, which began in 2011, in the first three months of next year?. It is also not clear whether Baer will need to follow Credit Suisse and Wegelin & Co. in pleading guilty to criminal charges...Julius Baer's deal with the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, which conducted the investigation, remains subject to approval by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), Baer said in a statement..."The exactness of the additional provisions suggests that the agreement with New York authorities is just a formality, while the DOJ fine could still change," Zuercher Kantonalbank analysts said. "Visibility is still lacking."

U.S. authorities have conducted criminal investigations of several Swiss banks after UBS agreed in 2009 to pay $780 million and identify certain U.S. clients to resolve criminal charges that it helped Americans evade taxes...Wegelin, Switzerland's oldest private bank, shut its doors permanently in 2013 after over two and half centuries in business following its agreement to plead guilty to U.S. authorities.

[Proserpina]

7. Global growth will be disappointing in 2016: IMF's Lagarde

growth is not the important determinator--quality of life for all is. People over profits, and corporations!

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-imf-lagarde-idUSKBN0UD0JB20151230?feedType=RSS&feedName=businessNews

Global economic growth will be disappointing next year and the outlook for the medium-term has also deteriorated, the head of the International Monetary Fund said in a guest article for German newspaper Handelsblatt published on Wednesday.

IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde said the prospect of rising interest rates in the United States and an economic slowdown in China were contributing to uncertainty and a higher risk of economic vulnerability worldwide.

Added to that, growth in global trade has slowed considerably and a decline in raw material prices is posing problems for economies based on these, while the financial sector in many countries still has weaknesses and financial risks are rising in emerging markets, she said.

"All of that means global growth will be disappointing and uneven in 2016," Lagarde said, noting that mid-term prospects had also weakened as low productivity, ageing populations and the effects of the global financial crisis dampened growth.

In October the IMF forecast that the world economy would grow by 3.6 percent in 2016...

[Proserpina]

8. Survival of fittest for commodities shipping firms in 2016

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-commodities-shipping-idUSKBN0UB0I620151228

Shipping companies that transport commodities such as coal, iron ore and grain face a painful year ahead, with only the strongest expected to weather a deepening crisis caused by tepid demand and a surplus of vessels for hire.

The predicament facing firms that ship commodities in large unpackaged amounts - known as dry bulk - is partly the result of slower coal and iron ore demand from leading global importer China in the second half of 2015.

The Baltic Exchange's main sea freight index - which tracks rates for ships carrying dry bulk commodities - plunged to an all-time low this month.

In stark contrast, however, tankers that transport oil have in recent months enjoyed their best earnings in years. As crude prices have plummeted, bargain-buying has driven up demand, while owners have moved more aggressively to scrap vessels to head off the kind of surplus seen in the dry bulk market...

perhaps the oceans will have a chance to renew themselves...