In a effort to strengthen balance sheets the EBA may have Europe’s banks raise 100 million euros to survive stresses during recessionary times.
Comments »Monthly Archives: October 2011
BREAKING: SEC CHARGES UNITED COMMERCIAL BANK EXECS WITH HIDING MILLIONS DURING 2008 CRISIS
Gov. Christie to Endorse Mitt Romney
Game.set.match.
Comments »FLASH: Slovakia Delays Bailout Vote
THE GREAT DOUBLE DIP, ROUBINI MEATBALL FLIP!
Economist Nouriel Roubini’s Firm Is For Sale
Large Cap Movers
No. Ticker % Change Market Cap
1 YNDX 15.90 6,970,000,000
2 ZNH 6.55 253,290,000,000
3 WDC 5.19 6,510,000,000
4 MOS 4.84 23,890,000,000
5 CTXS 4.59 10,920,000,000
6 CF 4.39 10,070,000,000
7 FOSL 4.10 5,480,000,000
8 RIMM 3.92 12,100,000,000
9 SINA 3.85 5,060,000,000
10 JNPR 3.76 10,490,000,000
11 ACH 3.65 6,370,000,000
12 DE 3.49 28,720,000,000
13 S 3.38 6,650,000,000
14 YZC 3.20 10,910,000,000
15 C 3.17 77,300,000,000
16 HSE.TO 3.14 20,030,000,000
17 SNE 3.05 19,070,000,000
18 DNR 3.04 5,120,000,000
19 VLO 2.95 12,040,000,000
20 BHI 2.86 22,730,000,000
21 GGB 2.83 13,270,000,000
22 EBR 2.82 12,470,000,000
23 WAT 2.77 6,930,000,000
24 LYB 2.75 15,460,000,000
25 AAPL 2.75 360,460,000,000
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No. Ticker % Change Market Cap
1 WF -4.94 7,720,000,000
2 STM -4.48 6,510,000,000
3 PTR -3.74 220,800,000,000
4 INFY -3.68 30,760,000,000
5 DLR -3.50 5,800,000,000
6 JWN -3.43 10,770,000,000
7 NFLX -3.36 5,860,000,000
8 EQR -3.19 16,190,000,000
9 IVN -3.01 11,810,000,000
10 TI -3.01 23,070,000,000
11 SAN -2.82 13,660,000,000
12 ICE -2.79 9,250,000,000
13 CRH -2.78 12,790,000,000
14 AV -2.78 14,920,000,000
15 FSLR -2.74 5,160,000,000
16 KSS -2.71 13,940,000,000
17 ASML -2.65 15,730,000,000
18 WSH -2.64 6,280,000,000
19 LTD -2.56 12,600,000,000
20 VTR -2.54 14,720,000,000
21 HMY -2.54 5,430,000,000
22 GPS -2.45 9,150,000,000
23 HCN -2.45 8,550,000,000
24 PCG -2.43 17,250,000,000
25 CME -2.41 17,790,000,000
Smokin’ Hot Former Prime Minister of the Ukraine Sentenced to 7 Years in Jail
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A Ukrainian court on Tuesday sentenced former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko to seven years in prison for abuse of office in relation to a 2009 gas deal with Russia that she brokered, a case regarded widely in the West as politically orchestrated.
Russia and the European Union — major trading partners of the ex-Soviet republic — both reacted sharply to the verdict and the sentence, the maximum sought by state prosecutors.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, speaking on a visit to Beijing, said it could jeopardize energy relations between the two former Soviet states, while the foreign ministry said it had detected an “obvious anti-Russian subtext” in the outcome.
The Tymoshenko affair seems certain to slow the Kiev government’s drive for European integration, a declared foreign policy priority for President Viktor Yanukovich.
In Brussels, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said the trial smacked of “selective” justice. “The EU will reflect on its policies toward Ukraine,” she said in a statement on behalf of the EU, an apparent allusion to a planned association agreement that would entail a Ukrainian-EU free trade zone.
Tymoshenko’s supporters say the trial outcome reflected Yanukovich plans to eliminate her as the only real opposition to him. If she ends up serving a long prison term, she will be unable to contest a parliamentary election next year or run again for president in 2015.
Judge Rodion Kireyev handed down the seven-year sentence at the end of a three-month trial that threw a spotlight on the key role the charismatic opposition leader played as prime minister in the signing of a 10-year contract with Russia.
The 2009 agreement ended a pricing dispute between Ukraine and Russia which had led to disruptions of gas supplies to some EU countries. It was greeted with relief by Europe at the time.
But the government under Yanukovich, who beat Tymoshenko in a fight for the presidency in February 2010 and forced her out as prime minister, says the deal saddled Ukraine with an exorbitant price for Russian gas.
Taking the line argued by the prosecution, the judge said Tymoshenko had exceeded her authority “for criminal ends” by railroading the state energy firm Naftogaz into signing the agreement. Her actions had led to a loss for Naftogaz of 1.5 billion hryvnias ($188 million), he said.
“The court has … found Tymoshenko guilty … and sentenced her to a prison term of seven years,” he said.
Justifying the seven-year sentence, he said he had not found any “extenuating circumstances” to reduce the prison term nor any signs of remorse from Tymoshenko.
Her lawyers said they would appeal.
Tymoshenko, who denied any wrongdoing, says the trial is a “lynching” by Yanukovich and by those whom she describes as the “criminal oligarchy” backing him.
TURBULENT CAREER
For Tymoshenko, the style-conscious heroine of the 2004 popular “Orange Revolution” that doomed Yanukovich’s first bid for the presidency, her jailing was the latest chapter in a rollercoaster political career of highs and lows.
Once known as the “gas princess” because of her involvement in post-Soviet Ukraine’s gas industry in the mid-1990s, she was charged with forgery and gas smuggling in 2001 under then President Leonid Kuchma.
She spent a month in the Luky’anivska detention center — ironically in the same cell where she has been held during her trial — before being cleared.
After helping propel Viktor Yushchenko to the presidency in 2005, she twice served as his prime minister. But policy differences and personality clashes ruined the relationship between the two former allies too.
Yushchenko, even though he is of a different political stripe from Yanukovich, testified against her at the trial.
With her trademark peasant-style hairbraid, the slightly-built Tymoshenko has cultivated an image as a no-nonsense firebrand and enjoys almost iconic status in some parts of Ukraine. Flanked by her daughter, Yevhenia, and her husband, Oleksander, she smiled faintly as sentence was passed.
But defiant to the last, she rose to her feet on Tuesday — studiously ignoring the judge who was still delivering the final sentences of his judgment — and denounced Yanukovich’s “authoritarian regime” and the absence of justice in Ukraine.
She was quickly driven away in a police van after police carved a cordon through thousands of her supporters outside the courtroom.
EU diplomats had urged Yanukovich to use his powers to “decriminalize” the charge against her — reclassifying it as an administrative rather than an criminal offence — to allow her to go free. There was no sign of a move in this direction when the trial resumed.
Yanukovich later offered a hint that this might still be on the cards. Referring to her likely recourse to the Appeals Court, he was quoted by Interfax news agency as saying: “It goes without saying that the decision (the court) will take and within what legislative framework it will take its decision — this will have great significance.”
PR DISASTER
The trial, which most commentators agree has been a public relations disaster for Yanukovich, has now complicated relations with Ukraine’s two main trading partners, east and west.
The EU’s Ashton said the outcome would boomerang against an association agreement between Ukraine and the EU, which includes creation of a free trade zone and which the two sides are scheduled to sign before the end of the year.
Though Russia has always rejected Ukrainian suggestions that the 2009 deal was incorrectly worked, it has recently sounded more sympathetic to Kiev’s call for the contract to be reviewed and talks on its terms have been taking place.
Putin’s words that it was “dangerous and counter-productive” to cast the package of agreements in doubt suggested that the outcome of the trial might affect the progress of those talks.
Moscow’s reading of the case contradicted its traditional loyalties in Ukraine. Tymoshenko helped through the Orange Revolution that put pro-Western Yushchenko in the presidency.
Russia has struck a much softer tone toward Kiev since 2010 and the beginning of the term of current President Viktor Yanukovich, who has been seen as closer to Moscow.
Comments »NETFLIX CEO’s “CHARLIE SHEEN MOMENT”
Lunch Break: At Least He is Consistent
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKfuS6gfxPY&feature=player_embedded#! 450 300]
Comments »TODAY’S EARLY WINNERS
No. Ticker % Change
1 BBND 74.41
2 CDTI 29.63
3 GMR 24.00
4 HAUP 20.91
5 MOTR 20.26
6 JVA 20.02
7 AUTH 18.98
8 YRCW 14.80
9 WH 13.73
10 KNXA 13.68
11 EDGR 13.33
12 FIO 12.71
13 CAGC.PK 12.07
14 JNY 11.87
15 URRE 11.85
16 DGLY 11.65
17 JKS 11.33
18 CNTF 11.29
19 EIPO 11.16
20 BSPM 10.67
21 GSAT 9.14
22 LEAP 9.04
23 JRJC 8.82
24 IPHI 8.74
25 KTOS 8.35
26 UTSI 8.00
27 PATK 7.78
28 SURG 7.72
29 STNG 7.54
30 DVAX 7.50
31 YNDX 7.37
32 YGE 7.35
33 XPO 7.35
34 REDF 7.32
35 ANW 7.30
36 ATV 7.30
37 SSYS 7.17
38 SIFY 7.10
39 NOAH 7.07
40 DANG 7.07
41 BALT 7.07
42 GLUU 6.99
43 CHRM 6.87
44 PESI 6.84
45 GNK 6.82
46 PANL 6.78
47 SYNA 6.69
48 VELT 6.67
49 CEA 6.66
50 PRGN 6.64
LAUGH OF THE DAY: NFLX
Shares are down another $6. Boy that CEO is in hot hot water.
Comments »PPT Trader’s Note
The market has changed; IMO
Recently, we were in a trading range where we went from over bought to oversold in just a few trading days.
As of the past few days, we see minor weakness after a big rally and a overbought number on the SPY goes from 3.63 to 3.08 with the markets selling off negligibly. This has been a consistent characteristic of full on rally mode since 2008.
In other words we reach a near over bought number and then a small pullback entices new buyers to come in and changes The PPT reading to a not over bought number.
This is indicative of true buying within a rally as opposed to just short covering.
So be careful trying to short this market. It is likely we need an external shock or consistently horrible earnings to turn this scenario around.
I could be wrong, as this is an early, early observation, but this was a consistent behavior from the lows of 2009 to the highs of 2011.
It is also interesting to note how this behavior correlated with many calls over the past 10 trading days that we had reached the lows for the year.
GLT
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WoAXW30mMAg 450 300]Comments »
Cramer’s Solution to Crisis: “We Need Nationalization”
He feels the European banks need to be nationalized in order to give stocks like JPM some breathing room.
Comments »Bad Credit Decisions Should Be Punished
CFO Survey: Profits Have Likely Peaked
Bernanke Said To Be Behind the Curve; Bond Yields Suggest a 60% Chance of Recession
UBS Out With a Report on 5 EU Zone Scenarios
99 Cents Stores Goes Private for $1.6 Billion
Ticker NDN, going private for $22.
Comments »ROUBINI: The Recession Is Guaranteed, The Only Question Now Is How Bad It Will Be
Upgrades and Downgrades This Morning
Upgrades
AAPL – Apple’s halo effect appears intact (for now) – Rodman & Renshaw
SAP – SAP AG initiated with Buy at Citigroup
FOSL – Fossil initiated with an Outperform at Cowen
MCD – McDonald’s initiated with a Buy at Credit Agricole
YUM – YUM Brands initiated with a Buy at Credit Agricole
EXPE – Expedia initiated with an Overweight at Evercore
ARO – Aeropostale upgraded to Buy from Hold at Jefferies
MT – Arcelor Mittal and Nucor upgraded to Buy at Dahlman Rose
GIS – General Mills upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Goldman; added to Conviction Buy List
SLG – SL Green Rlty upgraded to Buy from Neutral at UBS
ARMH – ARM Holdings upgraded to Buy from Sell at Citigroup
SYK – Stryker upgraded to Buy from Neutral at BofA/Merrill
PCLN – Priceline.com initiated with an Equal Weight at Evercore
TSN – Tyson Foods upgraded to Buy from Underperform at BofA/Merrill
NFLX – Netflix upgraded to Hold from Sell at Hudson Square Research
SLE – Sara Lee upgraded to Outperform from Market Perform at Wells Fargo
VLO – Valero Energy upgraded to Overweight from Equal Weight at Barclays
ERIC – LM Ericsson upgraded to Add from Neutral at WestLB
SFD – Smithfield Foods upgraded to Buy from Underperform at BofA/Merrill
ZOLL – ZOLL Medical upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Lazard
Downgrades
S – Sprint Nextel downgraded to Hold at Argus
WSH – Willis Group downgraded to Underperform from Neutral at Sterne Agee
SBUX – Starbucks initiated with an Underperform at Credit Agricole
UFS – Domtar downgraded to Hold from Buy at Deutsche Bank
STM – STMicroelectronics downgraded to Sell from Buy at Citigroup
VECO – Veeco Instruments downgraded to Neutral from Overweight at Piper Jaffray
COP – ConocoPhillips downgraded to Underperform from Neutral at Macquarie
WLT – Walter Energy initiated with a Hold at Stifel Nicolaus
WLL – Whiting Petroleum downgraded to Neutral from Outperform at Macquarie
MS – Ticonderoga lowers estimates on Morgan Stanley
MLNX – Mellanox Tech initiated with a Neutral at Lazard
SQNS – Sequans Communications downgraded to Sell at Chardan Capital Markets
IHG – Intercontinental Hotels Group downgraded to Underweight from Overweight at Barclays
LH – Laboratory Corp downgraded to Sector Perform from Outperform at RBC Capital
ASML – ASML Holding downgraded to Hold from Buy at ING Group
Comments »
