Some experts feel we are a dunk shot for a double dip given today’s GDP data.
Comments »Monthly Archives: July 2011
The Week Ahead
July unemployment report,volatility, potential downgrade, earnings from Kraft Foods Inc, Clorox Co, Pfizer Inc and Prudential Financial Inc.
More earnings to consider next week
Comments »Free Trade Agreement May Shutter Doors to the Last Sneaker Manufacturing Plant in America
House Passes the Boehner Debt Plan With 218 to 210 Votes; Then the Senate Quickly Rejects It
Flash: The Boehner Bill Vote is Ongoing
Alert: Here Comes the Fucking Vote
Pending
Comments »Boehner Addressing the House Now
He is proposing a balance budget amendment, amongst other things.
To the American people “We tried our best.” He also chastised the Senate to pass the bill he will send them, saying “this is the second bill we will send you.”
NOTE: That doesn’t sound too promising.
UPDATE: “I stuck my neck out a mile” to compromise with the President. He is screaming and going apeshit.
UPDATE II: He ended his speech, asking members to support his bill and “end this crisis now.”
Comments »Biggest ETF Winners/Losers This Week
No. Ticker 1-week Return
1 TVIX 28.90
2 SRTY 16.71
3 TZA 16.69
4 BXDC 15.81
5 VIIX 14.86
6 SOXS 14.52
7 VIXY 14.10
8 VXX 13.99
9 MWN 13.73
10 ERY 13.49
11 DUST 12.96
12 SICK 12.77
13 DRV 11.79
14 SIJ 11.37
15 BGZ 11.08
16 SKK 10.97
17 SPXU 10.68
18 SDD 10.52
19 MZZ 10.13
20 TWM 10.06
21 FAZ 9.66
22 DTO 9.45
23 SSG 9.08
24 SJH 8.80
25 SMN 8.78
——————–
No. Ticker 1-week Return
1 TNA -14.78
2 MATL -14.00
3 XIV -13.84
4 SOXL -13.22
5 CURE -12.99
6 NUGT -12.12
7 UKK -11.37
8 MWJ -11.36
9 IIH -11.08
10 DRN -10.82
11 BGU -10.44
12 UPRO -10.28
13 ERX -10.21
14 UWM -9.53
15 FAS -9.45
16 SAA -9.21
17 MVV -9.05
18 EFR -8.99
19 RXL -8.89
20 NCZ -8.61
21 BXUB -8.57
22 IGN -8.37
23 USD -8.35
24 UYM -8.31
25 UVG -8.22
Biggest Winners/Losers This Week
No. Ticker 1-week Return
1 MSHL 59.20
2 AHCI 54.02
3 NGSX 38.32
4 ALTI 35.19
5 SONE 33.24
6 OSBC 27.00
7 RBY 24.63
8 IRE 24.14
9 STMP 24.02
10 STVI 22.22
11 ATRN 21.78
12 GBE 20.37
13 SANM 19.64
14 TBSI 19.41
15 XUE 19.31
16 ZOLL 18.98
17 CCRT 18.88
18 GST 18.14
19 XRS 17.92
20 LABL 17.39
21 TLB 17.25
22 ABD 16.51
23 SKX 16.23
24 CRME 15.86
25 RGR 15.49
———————
No. Ticker 1-week Return
1 TNAV -50.61
2 SQNS -43.85
3 FBC -43.63
4 STEC -42.48
5 CYTR -41.08
6 OKSB -40.64
7 TNCC -40.48
8 ISTA -38.28
9 MILL -36.55
10 VPRT -35.54
11 SSYS -34.34
12 HOLI -33.14
13 IMAX -31.71
14 FMAR -31.43
15 TQNT -30.07
16 ICAD -28.70
17 IPHI -27.46
18 CVGI -27.31
19 CLWR -26.40
20 ALU -24.95
21 PCX -24.72
22 VDSI -24.27
23 OCLR -24.23
24 AGP -24.21
25 JNPR -24.11
Flash: House Voting on Boehner Bill Now
Ok, the right to talk more has passed. Back to your regularly scheduled manufactured panic.
CORRECTION: This is NOT the vote on Boehner Bill, but a vote to debate the Boehner bill, whatever the fuck that means. It’s hard to understand the retards in DC.
Comments »Crack Spreads Up Again
+4% to $33.29
Comments »Apple Rises to #1 Smartphone Supplier Over Nokia & Samsung
Yahoo Ends Up With Less Ownership of Alibaba Subsidiaries
Alert: Congress Resumes Debt Ceiling Debate (Live CSPAN Coverage)
Amgem Inc, AMGN, Posts $1.38 in EPS vs $1.28 Consensus
REITs Face a Shake Out as Worries Mount About U.S. Default
Financing logjams are feared if credit markets and repo markets get disrupted from a possible default. Probably a good buying opportunity on the highest quality names.
Comments »Genworth Financial, GNW, Considers Splitting in Two
20% downpayment on homes, coming soon
Comments »BOSTON (TheStreet) — Hopeful homebuyers may soon need to shell out more money upfront before being approved for a mortgage.
The public comment period concludes Monday for potential mortgage-related provisions spawned by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010. Among the potential outcomes is that homebuyers could be required to front a higher down payment — as much as 20% — before they can legally qualify for a mortgage loan.
Government regulators are cracking back into mortgage reforms that could create hurdles for buyers: a return to 20% down payments for homes.The proposed changes are being reviewed by federal regulators, among them the Treasury Department, Federal Reserve Board, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., the SEC, the Federal Housing Finance Agency and Department of Housing and Urban Development. There is no set timeline for when final decisions will be made.
Many in the real estate sector have joined forces to fight such a change aimed at so-called Qualified Residential Mortgage loans, arguing that a 10% or 20% down payment mandate would deliver yet another damaging blow to the floundering housing market.
In past decades, a 20% or more down payment was standard. The lower the down payment, according to conventional wisdom and ongoing research, the greater the risk of default.
As housing prices soared and mortgage lenders dove head-first into what would be the subprime crisis, that common practice fell by the wayside. You may pay more in interest, closing costs or PMI, but just 5% down is enough for many banks and lenders. FHA loans, insured by the government, typically require only a 3.5% down payment.
The Mortgage Bankers Association, in written testimony, says the proposed QRM definition “is so restricted that 80% of loans sold to Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac over the past decade would not meet these requirements.”
According to the National Association of Realtors, drawing upon national savings rate data, “it would take 9.5 years for the typical American family to save enough money for a 10% down payment and closing costs, and fully 16 years to save for a 20% down payment and closing costs.”
Insider selling abnormally high
Comments »Commentary: What do insiders know that outsiders do not?
Bad news, stock-market bulls: Corporate insiders are selling their companies’ shares at an abnormally fast pace.
In fact, one measure of that selling activity shows insiders of NYSE- and AMEX-listed companies recently were selling at the fastest rate since data began being collected in the early 1970s, four decades ago.
On the theory that insiders know more about their companies’ prospects than do the rest of us, this is an ominous sign.
Corporate insiders, of course, are a company’s officers, directors and largest shareholders. They are required to file a report with the Securities and Exchange Commission more or less immediately upon buying or selling shares of their companies, and the SEC makes those reports public.
One firm that gathers and analyzes the data is Argus Research, which publishes its findings in the Vickers Weekly Insider Report. One indicator that the firm calculates is a ratio of the number of shares that insiders have sold in the open market to the number that they have purchased.
In the week ending last Friday, according to the latest issue of the Vickers report, this sell-to-buy ratio stood at 6.43 to 1. This is higher than 95% of other weeks’ readings over the last decade.