“Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Tuesday that “fiscal cliff” talks have made “little progress,” sending stock prices down, while Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell ripped into President Barack Obama for planning to hit the road to promote his tax agenda.

Reid said he was disappointed that little progress had been made in the debt talks.

“They talked some happy talk about doing revenues, but we only have a couple weeks to get something done,” Reid said about Democrats’ negotiations with Republicans. “So we have to get away from the happy talk and start talking about specific things.”

Despite his tone of frustration, Reid also said he is optimistic that lawmakers ultimately will reach a deal to head off the Jan. 1 convergence of $600 billion in tax increases and spending cuts that threatens to trigger another recession.

“I’m extremely hopeful, and I do not believe that the Republicans are going to allow us to go over the cliff,” Reid said.

He said he hoped Republicans can agree to tax rate increases and that Democrats were happy to deal with entitlements.”

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“Today we are analyzing the SPDR S&P 500 (NYSEMKT: SPY) as the most liquid of all ETFs covering the broad market. The markets have digested regional Fed data, housing data, and a strong consumer confidence reading. Volume also still feels a bit low and the charts seem to be the guiding force as markets try to adjust from watching each number to watching out how easing measures will continue to play into the markets into 2013. And that Fiscal Cliff issue remains… tick, tock.

For Tuesday’s chart analysis, Phil Erlanger said…”

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“The stock market is likely to be higher at year’s end.

That, at least, is the conclusion I draw from the recent behavior of corporate insiders, who are behaving in ways that suggest the correction’s bottom is at hand…”

 

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“As always, here are some seasonal data points from the Stock Traders Almanac for the month of December.  Historically, December is the best month of the year and is especially strong for high beta names:”

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U.S. equities got off to a negative start despite some good news from Europe and here in the U.S.

Markets are not impressed with better than expected durable goods, a Greek debt deal and Richmond manufacturing data; however the markets have now pared all losses to scratch back to the unch line.

For the most part markets are primarily focused on any progress on the fiscal cliff….which at this point appears to be in deadlock given there is still a few weeks left until we go over it.

Europe closed mixed, oil and gold is flat, the Euro is down a smidgen and the dollar is currently having a bull / bear tug of war between 80 and 80.50…currently at 80.35

Market update

3 D heat map 

World markets

[youtube://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAo9vMyUXwQ&feature=watch-vrec 450 300]

 

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“A pretty good counterargument to Jeremy Grantham’s prediction for slow growth via Laurence Siegel:

“Consumption cannot grow forever.  Some consumption is of physical, nonrenewable resources, and the volume of cumulative nonrenewable resources consumed cannot exceed the volume that exists on Earth.  Even at a zero growth rate, resources continue to be consumed, subject to physical limits.  Thus, a worldwide slowing of growth at some point in human history is inevitable….”

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“9:01AM EST November 27. 2012 – The nation’s oil and gas boom is driving up income so fast in a few hundred small towns and rural areas that it’s shifting prosperity to the nation’s heartland, a USA TODAY analysis of government data shows.

The 261 million people who live in cities and suburbs still haven’t recovered earning power lost in the economic downturn. Average income per person fell 3.5% in metropolitan areas between 2007 and 2011 after adjusting for inflation, according to data released Monday by the federal Bureau of Economic Analysis.

By contrast, small-town America is better off than before: Inflation-adjusted income is up 3.8% per person since 2007 for the 51 million in small cities, towns and rural areas.

The energy boom and strong farm prices have reversed, at least temporarily, a long-term trend of money flowing to cities. Last year, small places saw a 3% growth in income per person vs. 1.8% in urban areas.

Small-town prosperity is most noticeable in North Dakota, now the nation’s No. 2 oil-producing state. Six of the top 10 counties are above the state’s Bakken oil field.”

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The squeeze play continues as the economy gets “better”….more like hobbles along.

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Face it, your in love with Siri and will now be able to enjoy the homogeneous voice in you vehicle.

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MCHP, MLNX, MMR, MWE, MYL, NCR, NOK, NOV,

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$IBM’s call

“NEW YORK – Americans clicked away on their computers and smartphones for deals on Cyber Monday, which was expected to be the biggest online shopping day in history.

Shoppers were expected to spend $1.5 billion on Cyber Monday, up 20 percent from last year, according to research firm comScore. That would not only make it the biggest online shopping day of the year, but the biggest since comScore started tracking shoppers’ online buying habits in 2001.

Online shopping was up 26.6 percent on Cyber Monday compared with the same time period a year ago, according to figures released Monday evening by IBM Benchmark, which tracks online sales. Sales from mobile devices, which include tablets, rose 10.2 percent. The group does not track dollar amount sales.

The strong start to Cyber Monday, a term coined in 2005 by a shopping trade group that noticed people were doing a lot of shopping on their work computers on the Monday following Thanksgiving, comes after overall online sales rose significantly during the four-day holiday shopping weekend that began on Thanksgiving.”

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“No funds are going to be distributed now. Perhaps some of you missed this but this is exactly what Ms. Lagarde stated. Before any distribution the Eurozone has to “fulfill its commitments” and the Private Sector bond buyback plan must be completed. Consider this; Europe is putting up all of the money currently and the IMF has declined to participate. Oh yes, it is couched in political mishmash and tucked neatly under the rug but there it is; no money from the IMF for now.”

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“While the just released Durable Goods orders report for October came in modestly better than expected (which many thought would be a decline due to Hurricane Sandy), the primary driver of this continues to be record durable good inventory accumulation….”

Full article and chart porn 

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“Don’t buy a house in a state where private sector workers are outnumbered by folks dependent on government.

Thinking about buying a house? Or a municipal bond? Be careful where you put your capital. Don’t put it in a state at high risk of a fiscal tailspin.

Eleven states make our list of danger spots for investors. They can look forward to a rising tax burden, deteriorating state finances and an Exodus of employers. The list includes California, New York, Illinois and Ohio, along with some smaller states like New Mexico and Hawaii.

If your career takes you to Los Angeles or Chicago, don’t buy a house. Rent.”

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“A tax break that has long been untouchable could soon be in for some serious scrutiny.

Many home buyers deduct their mortgage interest when assessing their tax bill, a perk that has helped bolster the income of millions of families – and the broader housing market.

But as President Obama and Congress try to hash out a deal to reduce the budget deficit, the mortgage interest deduction will likely be part of the discussion.

 

Limits on a broad array of deductions could emerge in any budget deal. It is likely that any caps would be structured to aim at high-income households, and would diminish or end the mortgage tax break for many of those taxpayers.

“This is definitely a chance worth jumping for,” said Amir Sufi, a professor at the Booth School of Business at the University of Chicago. “For a fixed amount of revenue, it’s better to remove deductions than increase marginal tax rates.”

Such a move would be fiercely opposed by the real estate industry. The industry has played a crucial role in defending the tax break, even as other countries with high homeownership have phased it out.”

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“Another analyst is on the purple haze, pumping Yahoo this morning.

Well, sort of.

Carlos Kirjner at Bernstein has a note out titled, “Could YHOO Be Worth $25 Or More?”

His answer is yes, if Yahoo’s Asian assets appreciate in value and the core business does just slightly better than expected.”

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The data came in line….

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This number was overlooked this morning. The data came as a surprise to everyone’s expectations and suggests the economy is not deteriorating.

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AMRN, BSX, BRCD, CVC, CFNL, CROX, FINL, FL, GMO, HMA, LAZ, NOV, OTEX, PCG, RH, SHOO, VPHM, YELP,

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