Pay close attention here as the transports usually lead the markets.
Comments »Monthly Archives: August 2012
Wholesale Inventories Fall
“WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Wholesale inventories in June recorded their largest drop since September as the value of petroleum stocks fell by the most in more than 3-1/2 years, government data showed on Thursday.
Total wholesale inventories slipped 0.2 percent to $481.9 billion, the Commerce Department said, after being almost flat in May. The percentage decline in June was the largest since September.
Economists polled by Reuters had expected stocks of unsold goods at U.S. wholesalers to rise 0.3 percent after increasing by a previously reported 0.3 percent in May.”
Comments »Market Update
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
Movers Under $10
E*Trade Dumps CEO, Names Chairman to Interim Post- $ETFC
“E*Trade Financial Corp. (NASDAQ: ETFC) this morning ousted CEO Steven Freiberg, who had been the company’s chief for just over two years, and replaced him with Frank Petrilli, the chairman of E*Trade’s board of directors. Freiberg’s ouster follows a decline in the company’s stock price of nearly 50% in the past year.”
Comments »Keep an Eye on Your Pension Manager as They Might Gamble Too Much to Show You Returns
“(MoneyWatch) Pension funds across the country face massive deficits, estimated to be as much as $3 trillion. In an attempt to cover these deficits and keep their promises to retirees, many pension plans have dramatically increased their allocations to alternative investments. According to Wilshire Trust Universe Comparison Service, retirement systems with at least $1 billion in assets had raised their stake in real estate, private equity, and hedge funds from 10.7 percent in 2007 to 18.3 percent by the end of 2011.
The big question is whether such aiming at higher returns is worth the fees. The New York Times reported that the $24.5 billion South Carolina Retirement Systems paid $344 million in fees in 2011 alone, up from just $22 million in 2005. For those staggering fees, the system earned an annualized (and before-fees) return of 3.1 percent for the three years ending June 2011, though the system’s performance over the next six months made its three-year average rise above the national average.”
Create your own pension management
Comments »$FB Goes on a Phishing Expedition
Getting rid of people phising for your info is not all that easy. When it come to their site $FB is doing a good job, but what about your email? $FB launches a new address for you to forward suspected phishing emails mimicking $FB.
Comments »Zillow CEO: US Housing Market ‘Finally at a Bottom’
“The U.S. housing market appears to have finally bottomed out, and values are up in some of the worst-hit markets like Phoenix and Miami, Zillow Chief Executive Officer Spencer Rascoff tells CNBC.
“So five years into the housing recession and down 25 percent from the peak, we are finally at a bottom,” he tells CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street”
At this stage in the cycle, housing is very much a local story, as prices remain down in places like Atlanta and Chicago, where housing equity remains negative, he says. The trends are very much based on local employment levels and how much housing fell in each region, according to the CEO of the housing-price research website.”
Comments »UN: Soaring Food Prices Might Spark Global Crisis
“The world could face a new food crisis of the kind seen in 2007-2008 if countries resort to export bans, the U.N.’s food agency warned on Thursday, after reporting a surge in global food prices due to a drought-fueled grain price rally.
A mix of high oil prices, growing use of biofuels, bad weather, restrictive export policies and soaring grain futures markets pushed up prices of food in 2007/08, sparking violent protests in countries including Egypt, Cameroon and Haiti.
Concern about extreme hot and dry weather in the U.S. Midwest sent corn and soybean prices to record highs last month, driving overall food prices higher again and reversing the Food and Agriculture Organization’s expectations for steady declines this year.”
Comments »A Lookat the 10 Biggest Mutual Funds, Are They Worth Your Time ?
“As some investors already understand – and so many more still don’t — mutual funds are expensive, tax-inefficient, outdated investment vehicles. And yet, more than half of American households own a mutual fund, helping power an $11.6 trillion industry.
That’s a market that isn’t going away anytime soon – but it’s certainly one that investors can and should be a lot smarter about if they choose to keep mutual funds in their portfolios. So here’s a basic question for any prospective buyer: Are the biggest and most popular mutual funds really worth your money?
The answer isn’t as easy to find as you might think: While Morningstar and many other companies provide ratings on mutual funds, they look at them in isolation of the greater marketplace. They analyze and compare mutual funds only to other mutual funds – which are often equally as flawed. They don’t consider “outside” options such as ETFs.”
Comments »Attention MetLife Shareholders- $MET
“MetLife Inc. received a $3.2 million fine for loan service and disclosure practices connected to a banking unit that it’s planning to sell. As the New York insurer continues experiencing such problems, its investors have been increasingly exposed to the possibility of scandal-related losses this year.
MetLife’s financial statements have reflected an AGR score of 4 as of June, indicating higher accounting and governance risk than 96% of comparable companies. Between June 2010 and September 2011, MetLife’s AGR score had improved to as high as 48, putting it into average territory. Before that period the insurer’s AGR score had languished for at least five quarters at no higher than 7.”
Comments »Chart Porn for the Bulls
“BMO chief investment strategist Brian Belski went on Bloomberg TV yesterday and made a huge call: he told viewers that “we’re on the verge of the next great bull market” in stocks.
Belski said that “in the last 10 – 12 years we in the investment world have become so macro dominated we’ve forgotten that really fundamentals define stocks. We live by one very simple premise that stocks lead earnings, which lead the economy.”
Belski put together a presentation for clients outlining his bullish thesis based on 16 economic and market indicators he factored into his call.”
Comments »PETER SCHIFF: We Are Sailing Right Into The Perfect Storm
“Peter Schiff of Europacific Capital continues to sound the alarm on the risks of the government’s mounting debt load and the Federal Reserve’s low interest rate policy.
Like Roubini and some other doomsayer, he employs the “perfect storm imagery.”
From a piece in King World News:
The perfect storm is the real fiscal cliff that we’re going to go over. The real fiscal cliff is when we can’t borrow any more money because our creditors wake up to the fact that we’re no good for the debt and interest rates start to rise. ”
Comments »Gapping Up and Down This Morning
Gapping up
ZN +13%, AONE +12%, MM +11.9%, GNOM +9.8%, MDRX +6.7%,
DDS +6.5%, NQ +6.5%, MBI +5%, NOK +4.9%, TNGO +3.8%, CXW +3.4%,
AMRN +3.2%, FTK +2.3%, CSCO +2%, PANL +1.2%, BZH +4.9%,
KBH +2.5%, CSCO +2.6%
Gapping down
WIFI -13.3%, MNST -9.7%, SPWR -7.5%, MUX -5.9%, SGEN -5.7%,
TNK -5.1%, INFI -4%, CHTR -3.6%, KGC -3.2%, NWSA -3%,
UHAL -2.3%, TOT -1.5%, INTL -1.5%, APC -1.1%, SAP -1%, SEM -5.3%,
TOL -1.1% , NTAP -1%, AFL -0.9%,
Comments »Upgrades and Downgrades This Morning
MDRX, AEP, AAPL, BHI, BZH, CBS, CSCO, FL, FRX, HPQ, IPG, KGC, KBH, MPEL, NTAP, PPL, PCLN, PHM, STX, TOL, WDC, WYNN,
Comments »In Play and On the Wires
National Oilwell Varco to Buy Robbins & Myers for $2.5 Billion – $NOV, $RBN
“National Oilwell Varco agreed on Thursday to buy Robbins & Myers, a maker of oil well drilling equipment, for about $2.5 billion, as deal-making in the energy sector continues unabated.
Under the terms of the deal, National Oilwell will pay $60 a share in cash, a 28 percent premium to Robbins & Myers’ closing price on Wednesday.”
Comments »Knight Held $7 Billion of Stocks Due to Glitch
“Knight Capital Group Inc. KCG +3.16% was holding about $7 billion of stocks at one point on Wednesday last week—a far bigger figure than previously known—as a result of errant trades that forced it to seek emergency funding, according to people familiar with the matter.
Knight’s traders worked frantically Aug. 1 to sell shares while trying to minimize losses due to a software problem, ultimately paring the total position to about $4.6 billion by the end of the trading day, the people said.
The position led to a $440 million loss that forced Knight to seek a rescue, agreeing on a $400 million funding package this past weekend from a group of investors.”
Comments »Rosenberg: Economy Should Be Growing at a Much Faster Pace
“Economic growth is far slower than it would be in a normal recovery, despite “gobs of stimulus” from the government and U.S. Federal Reserve, economist David Rosenberg told CNBC.”
Comments »The Stock Market Explained
“Common sense leads us to the “obvious” conclusion that the U.S. stock market is a rigged skimming operation that is essentially a form of legalized, officially sanctioned fraud.”
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