50 basis points to 7.25%
Comments »Monthly Archives: May 2011
Asian Markets Weak Across the Board, Sans Hong Kong
^AORD All Ordinaries 4,842.40 12:06AM EDT Down 53.80 (1.10%)
^HSI Hang Seng 23,764.60 12:11AM EDT Up 43.79 (0.18%)
^STI Straits Times 3,156.74 12:25AM EDT Down 23.12 (0.73%)
^KS11 Seoul Composite 2,198.82 12:07AM EDT Down 30.14 (1.35%)
Comments »Beware of Osama Bin Laden Malware
“Antivirus vendors have spotted multiple threats based on the news, including links that lead to fake security software — dubbed “rogueware” — attack code masquerading as plug-ins that users must supposedly download to view video, and attempts to harvest personal information.
Sunday night, President Obama announced that a special operations team had assaulted the Pakistani compound of Bin Laden, and during a firefight,shot and killed the al-Qaeda leader.
Cyber criminals wasted no time in leveraging the news.”
Comments »Geraldo Rivera’s Response Upon Hearing Bin Laden Demise News
He got this one right. However, it still does not make up for Al Capone’s vaults.
[YouTube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UB8WH73fdkg&feature=youtube_gdata_player 616 500] Comments »Phone Call Led to Bin Laden’s Death
Flash: Obama to Visit Ground Zero on Thursday
Four more years is all but certain now.
Comments »Islamic Scholars Criticize Osama bin Ladens Water Burial
“CAIRO (AP/THE BLAZE) — The Obama administration, through counter-terrorism chief John Brennan, took great pains to explain to reporters today that Osama bin Laden was buried at sea in “strict conformance with Islamic precepts and practices.”
But Muslim clerics said Monday that Osama bin Laden’s burial at sea was a violation of Islamic tradition that may further provoke militant calls for revenge attacks against American targets.
Although there appears to be some room for debate over the burial – as with many issues within the faith – a wide range of senior Islamic scholars interpreted it as a humiliating disregard for the standard Muslim practice of placing the body in a grave with the head pointed toward the holy city of Mecca.”
Comments »Interweb Fun: Bin Laden’s Will and Statements of his Death
Second Nuclear Leak Feared In Japan
“TOKYO, May 2 (Xinhua) — Radioactive leakage from fuel rods at a nuclear power plant in the city of Tsuruga in Fukui prefecture on Honshu island of Japan are believed to be the cause of a surge in the density of toxic substances detected in coolant water, the prefectural government said Monday.
Japan Atomic Power Company, owner and operator of the potentially faulty nuclear plant, has said it will attempt to manually override the plant’s No. 2 reactor’s system in an effort to contain the leak and conduct further investigation into its critical cooling systems.
The utility firm operating the 1,160-megawatt No.2 reactor at its Tsuruga nuclear plant cited “technical difficulties” at the reactor and while claiming there had been no radiation leak did confirm a possible leak of iodine from the reactor’s nuclear fuel assemblies into its coolant system, adding a new saga to the nation’s ever-unfolding nuclear crisis.
While intensive fact-finding continues, experts are drawing similarities with leaking fuel assemblies which sparked an ongoing nuclear crisis in Fukushima prefecture, following the partial meltdown of nuclear fuel rods in assemblies at quake and tsunami- damaged reactor buildings at Tokyo Electric Power Company’s No. 1 nuclear plant in Fukushima prefecture.”
Comments »Wiki Leaks: Hidden Nuclear Bomb in Europe; To Be Detonated If Osama bin Laden Captured or Killed
“According to classified information gathered from the interrogation of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay and published by the Daily Telegraph, al-Qaeda is already in possession of a nuclear weapon and is ready to bring it into action in case of capture or killing of Osama bin Laden.
According to the documents, published by the WikiLeaks on Monday, a senior al-Qaeda commander commented on the topic of a nuclear bomb, hidden at the moment in Europe.
According to him, the organization will detonate the bomb if the head of al-Qaida, Osama bin Laden, is captured or assassinated.”
Comments »China Reported That Pakistan Killed Bin Laden
EU Official: Bailout for Portugal Imminent
NASDAQ Gets Frisky With a $11 Billion Bid for NYSE
“Nasdaq OMX Group has officially gone hostile in its effort to acquire the New York Stock Exchange, announcing on Monday plans for an exchange offer for all outstanding shares of NYSE Euronext common stock.”
Comments »Iranian State T.V. Reports of a Massing of Israeli Aircraft in Iraq
Mohamed El-Erian: America is Sleepwalking Through its Unemployment Crisis
“NEWPORT BEACH – It was relegated to the Q&A session, rather than featured prominently in the opening statement, at last week’s first-ever press conference of US Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke. It is an issue that too many in Washington, DC are willing to dismiss as “transitory,” despite visible evidence to the contrary. It is extremely vulnerable to high oil and food prices. And it undermines the operational assumptions that underpin the long-standing characterization of the US economy as vibrant and responsive.
The issue is the scope and composition of unemployment in America – a problem that is yet to be sufficiently recognized for its increasingly detrimental impact on the country’s social fabric, its economic potential, and its already-fragile fiscal position and debt dynamics.
Let us start with the facts:”
Comments »Doug Kass: I’m At My HIGHEST Net Short Position of The Year
Bin Laden News Fails to Bolster Markets Into Afternoon Trade
“U.S. stocks erased gains as declines in shares of energy, technology and financial companies led a retreat that wiped out an early rally triggered after the killing of Osama bin Laden.
The S&P 500 lost 0.1 percent to 1,362.29 at 12:42 p.m. in New York, erasing a 0.5 percent advance. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.34 point, or less than 0.1 percent, to 12,810.20 after climbing as much as 65 points earlier. Both are trading near their highest levels since spring of 2008.”
Comments »Critical Treasury auctions coming up
Comments »As U.S. Cruises Toward the Debt Ceiling, Telling Auctions Are Due This Week
provided by The Wall Street Journal
Gathering concerns about slowing U.S. growth have investors seeking safety in Treasurys, masking fears in that market about the U.S. fiscal morass—and leaving investors at loggerheads over how to position themselves.
Investors are well aware of the burgeoning U.S. debt load and the impending Treasury refunding auctions that will be announced next week. Those auctions in May will bring the nation near its current legal debt limit. But most are hesitant to act on those fears.
Bond-fund manager Michael Mata said the struggle over how to trim the U.S. debt and raise the debt ceiling has become a “game of chicken” between Democrats and Republicans, but with repercussions that are hard for any investor to imagine, let alone position for.
“It’s almost inconceivable that they won’t raise the debt ceiling,” said Mr. Mata, who manages the ING Global Bond Fund, with more than $500 million in assets. “It would be a bizarre situation, and the market would implode.”
Some say all the political posturing could take the debate down to the wire, which likely will cause spurts of selloffs along the way. Others believe the recent debt focus will only help Treasurys down the line, since reduced fiscal spending hurts growth in general, and that takes a toll on riskier assets such as stocks.
Turning up the heat, the U.S. Treasury’s May refunding announcement is due Wednesday. Issuance sizes are expected to be $32 billion in three-year notes, but, more important, $24 billion in 10-year notes and $16 billion in 30-year bonds.
That bout of supply, scheduled for auction in the second week of May, would push the government perilously close to the $14.3 trillion debt limit. The Treasury Department has said the U.S. will reach its debt threshold by May 16, with potential for a technical default in early June if Congress fails to act.
Eyes will be on the latter two sales of longer-date bonds, whose investors stand to lose the most if U.S. credit deteriorates. Longer-dated Treasurys are expected to endure the heaviest selloff the longer Congress waits to act.
Already, the seven-year note sale last Thursday attracted surprisingly tepid demand. For the first time in two years, dealers were forced to take down more than half the offering. Still, U.S. debt is regarded as the safest of all safe-investment harbors, even after Standard & Poor’s slapped the nation’s credit with a “negative” outlook April 18.
The startling news sent yields soaring, but only for a moment. Treasurys have since more than recovered, with benchmark 10-year notes Friday yielding 3.298%, from as high as 3.451% on the day the negative outlook was announced. With bonds, yields move inversely to price. Soft U.S. economic data also has helped drive yields on 30-year notes to their lowest levels since mid-March.
Jim Sarni, managing principal at Payden & Rygel, says U.S. government debt remains the main beneficiary when investors seek a secure place—even when U.S. debt is part of the problem.
“Despite all the fiscal dilemma we’re facing, you’re trying to reconcile that with fundamentals” of lackluster economic data, Mr. Sarni said. “When you put all that into a sifter, what comes out is uncertainty. And uncertainty translates into a flight to quality.”
Research In Motion Acquires Smartphone Security Software Developer Ubitexx
“BlackBerry developer Research In Motion is definitely on a shopping spree. A week after announcing the acquisition of social calendering application Tungle.me, the company is buying smartphone software security developerUbitexx. Terms of the acquisition, which was announced on Ubitexx’s home page, were not disclosed.”
Comments »One Reason Behind Higher Gas and Oil Prices
“Rather than match demand for gasoline, oil companies are producing less for the U.S. market and exporting more to other countries, while taking increased profits. The result: higher prices at the pump. Allgov.com”
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