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Comments »Monthly Archives: March 2013
$FDX Falls as They Cut Estimates
“FedEx Corp. (FDX) plans deeper capacity cuts to Asia after lowering its 2013 earnings forecastamid a widening customer shift to cheaper overseas shipments.
Profit in the fiscal year through May will be $6 to $6.20 a share, down from an earlier forecast of as much as $6.60, the Memphis, Tennessee-based shipping company said in a statement today. Both the projection and fiscal third-quarter profit trailed analysts estimates.
FedEx, an economic bellwether because it moves goods as varied as medical supplies and auto parts, is in the midst of a a $1.7 billion restructuring to compensate for customers moving away from the fastest, most lucrative deliveries. Starting in April, it will decrease capacity to and from Asia and put low- yielding shipments in less expensive networks, Chief Executive Officer Fred Smith said in the statement.
“Our lower-than-expected results for the quarter and reduced full-year earnings outlook were driven by third-quarter international revenues declining approximately $100 million versus our guidance, primarily due to accelerating customers preference for lower-yielding international services,” Chief Financial Officer Alan Graf said in the statement.
Analysts had estimated FedEx, operator of the world’s largest cargo airline, would post full-year profit of $6.35, the average in a Bloomberg survey. FedEx fell 3.3 percent to $103 at 8:07 a.m., before the start of regular trading in New York.
Shares Decline…”
Comments »Higher Prices Help $LEN Profits to Skyrocket
“Lennar Corp.’s LEN -0.39% quarterly net profit surged, catapulting results way above Street estimates as the homebuilder recorded strong revenue growth buoyed by higher deliveries and prices, while orders and backlog both recorded double-digit percentage growth.
The results come as the home-building sector enters the all-important spring selling season, which has the potential to be the strongest in several years. Builders are benefiting as buyers leave the sidelines, and interest rates remain low, making owning a home more affordable than renting in many markets. Lennar—which is considered one of the sector’s strongest players by some analysts—has consistently reported double-digit revenue growth over the past several quarters amid a broad housing market recovery….”
Comments »$ADBE Pops as They Beat Estimates, Profits Down 65% YoY
“Adobe Systems Inc. (ADBE) reported first-quarter 2013 earnings of 22 cents per share, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 20 cents. Adjusted earnings per share exclude one-time items but include stock-based compensation expense.
Revenues
Adobe’s total revenue was $1.008 billion, down 12.6% sequentially and 3.6% year over year. However, reported revenues were slightly above management’s expectation range of $950 million to $1.0 billion attributable to increased adoption of Adobe’s Creative Cloud.
Products generated 67.0% of Adobe’s revenues and were down 16.4% year over year. Subscription revenues comprised 22.0% of total revenue, up 53.4% sequentially and Services & Support brought in the balance, increasing 19.1% year over year.
Revenues by Segment…”
Comments »$ACRP To Buy Cole Credit Property Trust for $5.7B
“(Reuters) – Real estate investment trust American Realty Capital Properties Inc said it offered to buy unlisted Cole Credit Property Trust III Inc for $5.7 billion in cash and stock to create the largest publicly traded REIT in the net lease sector.
The offer is valued at more than $9 billion including debt, American Realty Capital said in a statement on Wednesday.
Net lease is an agreement where the tenant pays property taxes, building insurance and maintenance in addition to rent. Such properties are usually rented out for commercial purposes to retailers, supermarkets and restaurants.
American Realty Capital asked the trust to call off its planned acquisition of its external adviser, Cole Holdings Corp, saying its offer would provide immediate liquidity to Cole Credit shareholders.
American Realty Capital said it had earlier expressed interest in the company but was surprised not to have received any response….”
Comments »BoE Decides to Keep Stimulus Off the Table, Rates Unchanged
“Bank of England Governor Mervyn King was defeated for a second month in a vote to expand stimulus as the majority of policy makers said more bond purchases may erode their credibility and push the pound lower.
The Monetary Policy Committee voted 6-3 to keep the target for buying at 375 billion pounds ($566 billion), the central bank said in minutes of its March 7 meeting, published in Londontoday. King, David Miles and Paul Fisher wanted a 25 billion- pound increase, repeating their push from February. A separate report showed unemployment rose for the first time in a year….”
Comments »Investors Sold German Bunds and Take On Risk as ECB Pledges to Liquidity to Cyprus
“German 10-year bunds fell for the first time in five days after the European Central Bank said it would support Cyprus as the nation negotiates an international bailout, damping demand forEurope’s safest fixed-income assets.
Benchmark yields climbed from near an 11-week low even as Germany sold 3.36 billion euros ($4.34 billion) of the securities at the lowest rate since July. The ECB reaffirmed its commitment to offer funding to Cyprus yesterday, after Cypriot lawmakers rejected a levy on bank deposits, throwing into limbo a rescue package designed to keep it in the euro. Spanish and Italian securities advanced.
“We had a big move in bunds yesterday but things are stabilizing,” said Luca Cazzulani, a senior fixed-income strategist at UniCredit SpA (UCG) in Milan. “Investors are waiting for some more news to get a better insight into what is going to happen. There are some factors which may be supportive of risk, including the ECB saying it would provide liquidity.”
German 10-year bund yields rose three basis points, or 0.03 percentage point, to 1.37 percent at 11:48 a.m. London time. The rate dropped to 1.34 percent yesterday, the lowest since Jan. 2. The 1.5 percent security due February 2023 fell 0.235, or 2.35 euros per 1,000-euro face amount, to 101.18.
The two-year note yield added one basis point to 0.014 percent, after dropping to minus 0.006 percent yesterday, also the least since Jan. 2.
ECB Commitment..”
Comments »The Euro Bounces on Hopes the ECB Will Smooth Over Cyprus Debt Woes
“The euro strengthened from a four- month low against the dollar on speculation the European Central Bank’s pledge to provide liquidity to Cyprus will give it time to renegotiate a financial rescue package.
The 17-nation currency gained for the first time in eight days versus the Swiss franc as the ECB yesterday reaffirmed its commitment to offer funding to Cyprus “within the existing rules,” after Cypriot lawmakers rejected a levy on bank deposits. The Dollar Index (DXY) fell as demand for safety waned and investors awaited the Federal Reserve’s policy decision. The pound rose afterBank of England minutes showed Governor Mervyn King was outvoted in a bid to expand stimulus….”
Comments »Copper Jumps on $MS Comments Over China
“Copper rose in London from the lowest price since March after Morgan Stanley said demand is reviving in China, the world’s biggest consumer of the metal.
Chinese real metals demand is improving and supply-chain inventories of copper are low, the bank said in a report dated yesterday. China increased wind-farm approvals yesterday to try to reach a goal of installing the energy by 2015. Still, copper’s average price will slip 2 percent this year as inventories expand, an Australian government forecaster said.
“Major copper end-demand market indicators, like air- conditioner sales and state grid equipment orders, are all improving, while copper inventories at downstream producers remain low,” Rachel Zhang, an analyst at Morgan Stanley, wrote after a trip to China last week. “We believe restocking will be evident in the next couple of months.”
Copper for delivery in three months gained 1 percent to $7,603 a metric ton by 10:55 a.m. on the London Metal Exchange. Prices yesterday reached $7,486.25, the lowest since Aug. 21. Copper for delivery in May rose 1 percent to $3.44 a pound on the Comex in New York.
Metals slumped yesterday as concern about Europe’s debt crisis added to swelling copper inventories and curbs on the real-estate market in China. Prices rebounded today as investors speculated that the European Central Bank will continue to support lenders in Cyprus….”
Comments »The Aussie and Kiwi Dollars Continue to Fall as Cyprus Worries Risk on Traders, U.S. Dollar Called Higher as Safety Investors Find Refuge
“Australia’s dollar remained lower after its biggest drop in more than a week versus the greenback after Cyprus’s parliament rejected a bank-deposit levy needed to secure a bailout, sapping demand for high-yielding assets.
Government bonds in Australia and New Zealand rallied as the impasse threatened to reignite the crisis in Europe, boosting the allure of haven securities. The New Zealand dollar, nicknamed the kiwi, fell against most major peers as the government said the country’s most widespread drought in at least 30 years reduces pressure to raise interest rates.
“The U.S. dollar is bid at the moment because of the uncertainty in Europe, and that’s putting other currencies on the back foot, including the Aussie and kiwi,” said Richard Grace, the Sydney-based chief foreign-exchange strategist and head of international economics at Commonwealth Bank of Australia. “The Cypriots have to go back to the drawing board. The danger is they’re forced to implement these bank levies, and the issue of a tax on deposits spreads to other areas ofEurope.”
The Australian dollar was little changed at $1.0376 as of 5 p.m. in Sydney from yesterday, when it dropped 0.3 percent, the biggest decline since March 8. It fell 0.1 percent to 98.63 yen.
The New Zealand dollar slid 0.4 percent to 82.16 U.S. cents from yesterday, when it lost 0.3 percent. The kiwi dropped 0.5 percent to 78.08 yen….”
Comments »China’s Stocks Rally the Most in Two Months as Analyst Expects a 28% Rally by September
“China’s stocks rose the most in two months before a report that may show manufacturing expanded and as Market Studies LLC’s Tom DeMark said Shanghai’s equity index will rally as much as 28 percent by September.
China Citic Bank Corp. climbed by the 10 percent daily limit, leading a 4.7 percent surge in the gauge of financial companies on the CSI 300 Index. (SHSZ300) FAW Car Co. (000800) paced gains by automakers after Xinhua News Agency said the government ordered the company’s vehicles. DeMark said yesterday the Shanghai Composite (SHCOMP) Index will resume an advance after falling 8 percent from this year’s peak.
“Recent declines have already priced in investors’ more pessimistic view about economic growth,” said Li Jun, a strategist at Central China Securities Co. in Shanghai. “Given that stocks are still not expensive, a rebound is justified.”
The Shanghai Composite climbed 2.7 percent to 2,317.38 at the close, its biggest gain since Jan. 14. Trading volumes on the index were 10 percent higher than the 30-day average, while 30-day volatility increased to the highest level since February 2012. The CSI 300 rose 3.4 percent to 2,610.17. The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index (HSCEI) rallied 2.2 percent inHong Kong after falling 12 percent from its Feb. 1 high through yesterday….”
Comments »Global Markets Trade Up, U.S. Futures Reflect the Giddiness
A Bed Time Thought
Red Army 2.0
“It’s not exactly news that China is setting itself up as a new global superpower, is it? While Western civilization chokes on its own gluttony like a latter-day Marlon Brando, China continues to buy up American debt and lock away the world’s natural resources. But now, not content to simply laugh and make jerk-off signs as they pass us on the geopolitical highway, they’ve also developed a state-endorsed genetic-engineering project.
At BGI Shenzhen, scientists have collected DNA samples from 2,000 of the world’s smartest people and are sequencing their entire genomes in an attempt to identify the alleles which determine human intelligence. Apparently they’re not far from finding them, and when they do, embryo screening will allow parents to pick their brightest zygote and potentially bump up every generation’s intelligence by five to 15 IQ points. Within a couple of generations, competing with the Chinese on an intellectual level will be like challenging Lena Dunham to a getting-naked-on-TV contest.
Geoffrey Miller, an evolutionary psychologist and lecturer at NYU, is one of the 2,000 braniacs who contributed their DNA. I spoke to him about what this creepy-ass program might mean for the future of Chinese kids.
VICE: Hey, Geoffrey. Does China have a history of eugenics?
Geoffrey Miller: As soon as Deng Xiaoping took power in the late 70s, he took the whole focus of the Chinese government from trying to manage the economy, to trying to manage the quality and quantity of people. In the 90s, they started to do widespread prenatal testing for birth defects with ultrasound, and more recently, they’ve spent a lot of money researching human genetics to figure out which genes make people smarter.
What do you know about BGI Shenzhen?
It’s the biggest genetic research center in China, and I think the biggest in the world, by a considerable margin. They’re not just doing human genetics; BGI is also doing lots of plant genetics, animal genetics, anything that’s economically relevant or scientifically interesting.
Are you in touch with them?
I just got an email a couple of days ago saying that they’d almost finished doing the sequencing for the BGI Cognitive Genetics Project, the one I gave my genetics to, and that the results would be available soon.
What was their selection process?
They seem mostly interested in people of Chinese and European descent. They’re basically recruiting through a scientific conference, through word of mouth. You have to provide some evidence that you’re as smart as you say you are. You have to send your complete CV, publications you’ve produced, standardized-test scores, where you went to college… stuff like that.
How will the research be applied?
Once you’ve got that information and a fertilized egg that’s divided into a few cells, you can sample one of the cells to figure out the expected intelligence if it’s implanted and becomes a person.
What does that mean in human language?
Any given couple could potentially have several eggs fertilized in the lab with the dad’s sperm and the mom’s eggs. Then you can test multiple embryos and analyze which one’s going to be the smartest. That kid would belong to that couple as if they had it naturally, but it would be the smartest a couple would be able to produce if they had 100 kids. It’s not genetic engineering or adding new genes, it’s the genes that couples already have….”
Trust, Obey, Follow
“Fresh evidence is revealed today about how MI6 and the CIA were told through secret channels by Saddam Hussein’s foreign minister and his head of intelligence that Iraq had no active weapons of mass destruction.
Tony Blair told parliament before the war that intelligence showed Iraq’s nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons programme was “active”, “growing” and “up and running”.
A special BBC Panorama programme tonight will reveal how British and US intelligence agencies were informed by top sources months before the invasion that Iraq had no active WMD programme, and that the information was not passed to subsequent inquiries.
It describes how Naji Sabri, Saddam’s foreign minister, told the CIA’s station chief in Paris at the time, Bill Murray, through an intermediary that Iraq had “virtually nothing” in terms of WMD.
Sabri said in a statement that the Panorama story was “totally fabricated”.
However, Panorama confirms that three months before the war an MI6 officer met Iraq’s head of intelligence, Tahir Habbush al-Tikriti, who also said that Saddam had no active WMD. The meeting in the Jordanian capital, Amman, took place days before the British government published its now widely discredited Iraqi weapons dossier in September 2002.
Lord Butler, the former cabinet secretary who led an inquiry into the use of intelligence in the runup to the invasion of Iraq, tells the programme that he was not told about Sabri’s comments, and that he should have been.
Butler says of the use of intelligence: “There were ways in which people were misled or misled themselves at all stages.” …”
[youutbe://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eY7EPE9biO0 450 300] Comments »Regarding The New Pope
“As Pope Francis takes his place as the leader of the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics, his participation in Argentina’s US-backed ‘Dirty War’ is sure to come under increased scrutiny.
From 1976 until 1983, Argentina was governed by a series of US-backed military dictators who ruled with iron fists and crushed the regime’s opponents, many of them students, trade unionists, journalists and leftists. Kidnapping, torture, murder by death squads and disappearances characterized this brutal ‘Dirty War,’ and many of the leading perpetrators, including two junta leaders and the military dictator Gen. Leopoldo Galtieri, were trained by the United States in kidnapping, torture, assassination and democracy suppression at the School of the Americas in Panama. As many as 30,000 people were killed or disappeared during this horrific period, and many children and babies were stolen from parents imprisoned in concentration camps or murdered by the regime.
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During this harrowing period, the Argentine Catholic church was shamefully silent in the face of horrific atrocities. Argentine priests offered communion and support to the perpetrators of these crimes, even after the execution of two bishops, including Enrique Angelelli, and numerous priests. Worse, leading church figures were complicit in the regime’s abuses. One priest, Father Christian von Wernich, was a former police chaplain later sentenced to life in prison for involvement in seven murders, 42 kidnappings and 31 cases of torture during the ‘Dirty War.’ At his trial, witnesses testified how the priest used his position to gain their trust before passing information to police, who tortured victims– sometimes in von Wernich’s presence– and sometimes killed them.
Senior military commanders who justified the regime’s appalling practice of dumping drugged and tortured ‘Dirty War’ prisoners into the sea from airplanes, known as ‘death flights,’ told participants that the Church sanctioned the missions as “a Christian form of death.”
“We have much to be sorry for,” Father Ruben Captianio told the New York Times in 2007. “The attitude of the Church was scandalously close to the dictatorship to such an extent that I would say it was of a sinful degree.”
So exactly what role did Jorge Bergoglio play in his country’s brutal seven-year military dictatorship?
A 1995 lawsuit filed by a human rights lawyer alleges that Bergoglio, who was leading the local Jesuit community by the time the military junta seized power in 1976, was involved in the kidnapping of two of his fellow Jesuit priests, Orlando Yorio and Francisco Jalics, who were tortured by navy personnel before being dumped in a field, drugged and semi-naked, five months later.
At the time, Bergoglio was the superior in the Society of Jesus of Argentina. According to El Silencio (Silence), a book by Horacio Verbitsky, one of Argentina’s most respected investigative journalists, Bergoglio urged the two priests, who were strong believers in liberation theology, to stop visiting Buenos Aires slums where they worked to improve the lives of some of the country’s poorest people. After the priests refused, Bergoglio allegedly stopped protecting them, leading to their arrest and torture. According to the Associated Press, Yorio accused Bergoglio of “effectively handing [the priests] over to death squads.”
Despite his alleged role in the Jesuits’ imprisonment, Bergoglio did eventually take action to secure their release. His intervention and appeal to the vicious junta leader Jorge Videla quite likely saved their lives.
But that wasn’t the only time Bergoglio allegedly cooperated with the regime. According to Verbitsky, he also hid political prisoners from a delegation of visiting international monitors from the Inter-American Human Rights Commission.
Bergoglio was also silent in the wake of Father Angelelli’s assassination, even as other leading Argentine clergy condemned the murder. He was quick, however, to hail the slain priest as a “martyr” years later in more democratic times….”
Former US Treasury Official: “Fed Desperate To Avoid Collapse”
“Today a former Assistant Secretary of the US Treasury told King World News, “… the dollar is the vulnerable spot in the Fed’s policy management, and the popping of the bubble is likely to come from the dollar.” Former Assistant of the US Treasury, Dr. Paul Craig Roberts, also warned King World News that a financial collapse is coming, and the Fed is desperately manipulating the gold price in an attempt to avoid the collapse.
Here is what Dr. Roberts had to say in this extraordinary and exclusive interview: “A lot of people just can’t imagine that the government would fix the gold price. And yet, in full view, the government fixes the bond price, and the banks fix the LIBOR rate. So why is it people can’t comprehend that the government would fix the price of gold (laughter ensues)?”
Dr. Paul Craig Roberts continues…
“And you have to ask yourself, who would short gold in a rising gold market? In the physical gold market the demand for gold rises consistently. Investors would ride the rise in gold. Do investors go in and short a bull market in stocks? Not unless they want to get wiped out. So why would they short a rising gold market unless the purpose is to stop the rise?
So it’s obvious that they are fixing the price of gold because we hear every day that there is more physical demand for people who actually want the metal.
“We hear reports that central banks are starting to acquire and accumulate gold using their dollars, and lightening their dollar load.
So if the demand for physical possession is strong, why would you short gold in the paper market, unless you are trying to hold down the rise of its price? When the price of gold hit $1,900 a year or two ago it told the Fed that they can’t fix the price of bonds if the world perceives the dollar deteriorating at such a rapid rate in terms of the price of precious metals.
If the dollar is deteriorating there (against gold), people also know that the value of assets denominated in dollars are also deteriorating. So the Fed was worried that they would lose control of the bond price and interest rates because of the erosion in the dollar price of gold. That is the origin of this policy. The (heavy) shorting appeared then, and they broke up what was a very consistent and strong rise for over a decade.
If you look at the chart you see there is a very sharp increase, and then it drops down a little bit and is kind of capped. So it’s an obvious manipulation.” …”
Comments »Thank You For Your Service
“Sequestration Slashes Scholarships for Children of Iraq and Afghanistan War Casualties and Military Members
On the 10-year anniversary of the start of the Iraq War, scholarships for children of troops who died fighting in that conflict are being cut by thousands of dollars, thanks to sequestration.
The awards, called the Iraq and Afghanistan War Grants, go to undergraduate students whose moms or dads died “as a result of military service performed in Iraq or Afghanistan after the events of 9/11,” according to the Department of Education.
Awards that have already been established are safe, but as of March 1, the dollar amount for each new grant is being reduced by 37.8 percent from what a student would have received last year.
That means young adults will receive up to $2,133.81 less if they apply for a grant for the first time this year.
The Iraq War officially ended in December 2011, but these grants are not only for children of recent casualties. Children whose parents were killed in earlier years of the wars when they were very young are now old enough to go to college and could be eligible for the grants….”
Comments »Stop Listening to Dems and Liberals, Listen to Republicans
Forget What Liberals Say … Listen to What Republican Leaders Themselves Say
Many rank and file Republicans assume that only liberals claim the Iraq war was for oil.
In reality, the top Republican leaders say the same thing.
For example, U.S. Secretary of Defense – and former 12-year Republican Senator – Chuck Hagel said of the Iraq war in 2007:
People say we’re not fighting for oil. Of course we are. They talk about America’s national interest. What the hell do you think they’re talking about? We’re not there for figs.
4 Star General John Abizaid – the former commander of CENTCOM with responsibility for Iraq – said:
Comments »Of course it’s about oil, it’s very much about oil, and we can’t really deny that.
Former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan – a long-time Republican – said in 2007:
I am saddened that it is politically inconvenient to acknowledge what everyone knows: the Iraq war is largely about oil
President George W. Bush said in 2005 that keeping Iraqi oil away from the bad guys was a key motivefor the Iraq war:
‘If Zarqawi and [Osama] bin Laden gain control of Iraq, they would create a new training ground for future terrorist attacks,” Bush said. ”They’d seize oil fields to fund their ambitions.”
John McCain said in 2008….”
Spain Quietly Changes Constitutional Rules to Create a Depositor Levy Tax
“While Spain’s economy minister Luis De Guindos proclaimed in the Senate today that bank deposits under EUR100,000 are “sacred”and that“Spanish savers should stay calm,” Spain, it would appear, has changed constitutional rules to enable a so-called ‘moderate’ levy on deposits – as under previous Spanish law this was prohibited. For now, they claim the ‘levy’ will be “not much higher than 0%” and is mainly aimed at regions in Spain that have “made no effort to collect taxes” based on new revenue expectations. As El Pais reports, the minister of finance and public administration, Cristobal Montoro, defends the need for such a ‘levy’ in their constitution on the basis of standardizing taxes across regions (and is preparing a proposal on the amounts to be paid) and although it would appear that while the European Commission could previously argue that such a ‘tax’ would violate the free movement of capital in Europe, it now leaves the door open to eventually effectively taxing the deposits. We can’t help but remember the Tequila crisis and the constant reassurances from Zedillo up until even the night before Mexico devalued…”
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