U.K. Stocks Erase Advance; Standard Chartered Sinks

Oh shit….but.

U.K. stocks erased their advance, after yesterday rallying to a three-month high, as Standard Chartered Plc (STAN) plunged the most since October 2008.

Standard Chartered tumbled 17 percent as a New York regulator warned that it may suspend the bank’s U.S. unit from doing business in the state. BP Plc (BP/) added 1.5 percent.InterContinental Hotels Group Plc (IHG) jumped 4 percent after announcing a special dividend and a share buyback.

The FTSE 100 Index lost 6.15 points, or 0.1 percent, to 5,802.62 at 9:30 a.m. in London. The gauge has still climbed 10 percent from its 2012 low on June 1 as European Central Bank President Mario Draghi pledged to preserve the euro. The broader FTSE All-Share Index also slipped 0.1 percent today, while Ireland’s ISEQ Index retreated 1.2 percent.

To contact the reporter on this story: Namitha Jagadeesh in London at[email protected]

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Andrew Rummer at [email protected]

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Say this about U.S. Sen. Harry Reid: He really believes in renewable energy.

Reid has beat up NV Energy pretty good in recent years. In the closing days of the George W. Bush administration, Reid blocked plans to build coal-fired power plants in Nevada. He said in April on the “Nevada Newsmakers” show, “I don’t think NV Energy has done enough to allow renewable energy to thrive.”

But that same month, NV Energy reported it had exceeded its state-imposed green-energy requirement of 15 percent by purchasing 16.7 percent of its power from renewable sources. And that was in spite of the Public Utilities Commission rejecting a handful of renewable contracts in July 2011, saying the company hadn’t justified the purchases were necessary to meet its quota.

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This is absolute lunacy and our dumb ass DOJ delivering zero justice.

Commandeered by one of his drivers, who was secretly working with federal agents, the truck had been hauling marijuana from the border as part of an undercover operation. And without Patty’s knowledge, the Drug Enforcement Administration was paying his driver, Lawrence Chapa, to use the truck to bust traffickers.

At least 17 hours before that early morning phone call, Chapa was shot dead in front of more than a dozen law enforcement officers – all of them taken by surprise by hijackers trying to steal the red Kenworth T600 truck and its load of pot.

In the confusion of the attack in northwest Harris County, compounded by officers in the operation not all knowing each other, a Houston policeman shot and wounded a Harris County sheriff’s deputy.

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The euro stayed weaker against the dollar as a report showed Italian retail sales dropped in May.

The common currency slipped 0.1 percent to $1.2148 at 9:02 a.m. London time. It was at 94.97 yen, from 95.03 yesterday.

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Sweden’s krona climbed 0.49 percent against the euro to 8.4279 as of 9:42 a.m. in Stockholm, and gained 0.44 percent versus the dollar to 6.9359 after consumer confidence rose and unemployment increased less than estimated.

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Citigroup Inc. (C) said there’s now a 90 percent chance that Greece will leave the euro in the next 12 to 18 months, with prolonged economic weakness and spillover for the currency bloc.

In an analyst note, Citigroup updated its forecast for a Greek exit from the 17-nation currency union from a previous estimate of 50 percent to 75 percent, and said it would most likely happen in the next two to three quarters. Specifically, the bank assumes a Greece exit would occur on Jan. 1, 2013, while saying that is not a forecast of a precise date.

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Canon Inc. (7751), the world’s largest camera maker, plunged the most in more than three years in Tokyo after cutting its full-year profit forecast because of a stronger yen and expectations for weaker global growth.

The shares declined 7.8 percent to close at 2,470 yen, the most since November 2008. The benchmark Nikkei Index gained 0.9 percent. Canon shares have declined 28 percent this year.

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China’s stocks fell to the lowest level since March 2009 as speculation the government will maintain real-estate curbs overshadowed a State Council plan to develop the nation’s central provinces.

China Vanke Co. (000002) and Poly Real Estate (600048) Group Co. paced declines among developers after the official Xinhua News Agency said China must prevent local governments from weakening real- estate controls. Hunan Valin Steel Co. (000932), part-owned by the world’s biggest mill ArcelorMittal, surged to a one-month high as the China News Service said Hunan province’s Changsha city unveiled an 829.2 billion yuan ($130 billion) investment plan.

“Market sentiment is pretty weak and it will take a while for investors to reverse their pessimistic expectations about the economy,” said Wang Weijun, a strategist at Zheshang Securities Co. inShanghai. “We’ll probably see more stimulus packages from the government going forward.”

The Shanghai Composite Index (SHCOMP) dropped 0.5 percent to 2,126 at the close, erasing a 0.5 percent gain. The CSI 300 Index (SHSZ300) lost 0.5 percent to 2,347.49. The Bloomberg China-US 55 Index (CH55BN), the measure of the most-traded U.S.-listed Chinese companies, retreated 0.3 percent in New York yesterday.

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Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne came under renewed criticism after Britain’s recession deepened in the second quarter, prompting questions about his economic plans and whether he should remain at the Treasury.

The opposition Labour Party and economists including Stewart Robertson at Aviva Investors said Osborne should reconsider his fiscal squeeze after the economy shrank 0.7 percent, the most in more than three years. One coalition lawmaker questioned whether the chancellor should keep his job.

“There is enough to be seriously worried about and it casts doubt on the idea of an expansionary fiscal contraction,” said Robertson, chief European economist at Aviva in London. “It would be absolutely irresponsible for the government not to take note and say we have to take our foot off the brake.”

Osborne’s 2010 austerity program — which was extended for two years in November — envisaged that the economy would be growing by 2.8 percent this year. Instead, it is 0.9 percent smaller than in the third quarter of 2010, just after Prime Minister David Cameron’s coalition came to power, and struggling to overcome aftershocks of the 2008 banking crisis and the euro- area debt turmoil.

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CNSNews.com) – The number of workers taking federal disability insurance payments hit yet another record in July, increasing to 8,753,935 during the month from the previous record of 8,733,461 set in June, according to newly released data from the Social Security Administration.

The 8,753,935 workers who took federal disability insurance payments in July exceeded the population of 39 of the 50 states. Only 11 states—California, Texas, New York, Florida, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Georgia, North Carolina and New Jersey—had more people in them than the number of workers on the federal disability insurance rolls in July.

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HAHA, gotcha bitch!

Asia is barely down and mixed. Here.

Futures are down, a lil’bit. Here

Europe? Only slightly down. Here.

Fuck you shorts, you are dead.

Heat waves in southern Europe are withering the corn crop and reducing yields in a region that accounts for 16 percent of global exports at a time when U.S. drought already drove prices to a record.

Temperatures in a band running from eastern Italy across the Black Sea region into Ukraine reached 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit) or more this month, about 5 degrees above normal, U.S. government data show. Corn, now in the pollination phase that creates kernels, risks damage above 32 degrees, said Cedric Weber, the head of market analysis at Bourges, France- based Offre et Demande Agricole, which advises farmers on sales.

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Man Group Plc (EMG) surged as much as 12 percent in London trading after the world’s biggest publicly traded hedge fund manager said it would double its planned cost cuts and reduce reliance on products with steeper commissions.

Man Group plans to reduce expenses by $100 million over the next 18 months, adding to $95 million of cost cuts announced in March, the London-based company said in a statement today. The company also plans to sell fewer so-called guaranteed products, which produce high commissions for employees and have drawn subdued demand from customers.

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Copper rallied from a three-week low while oil rebounded and European stocks rose as the outlook for China’s manufacturing improved. The yen strengthened on concern Europe’s debt crisis is worsening.

Copper in London gained 0.8 percent to $7,460 a metric ton at 8 a.m. in London, oil added 0.7 percent and the Stoxx Europe 600 Index (SPX) climbed 0.4 percent. Futures on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index were little changed. The Australian dollar increased 0.3 percent. The German three-year yield rose three basis points to 0.01 percent, above zero for the first time since July 18.

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European stocks retreated for a third day, their biggest three-day drop in more than three months, as insurance companies declined. U.S. index futures slid, while Asian shares were little changed.

Faurecia (EO) SA retreated 2.6 percent after cutting its full- year target after first-half profit fell. Elan Corp. tumbled 14 percent after the results of a study for an Alzheimer’s drug failed to show that patients improved. Swatch Group AG (UHR) gained 2.2 percent after posting sales and profit that increased.

The Stoxx Europe 600 Index (SXXP) dropped 0.3 percent to 251.13 at 8:57 a.m. in London. The benchmark measure has slumped 4.4 percent over the last three days as concern mounted that Greece will default and more Spanish regions will follow Valencia in seeking a bailout.Standard & Poor’s 500 Index futures expiring in September fell 0.3 percent today, while the MSCI Asia Pacific Index lost 0.1 percent.

Germany, the Netherlands and Luxembourg had the outlooks for their Aaa credit ratings lowered to negative by Moody’s Investors Service after markets closed yesterday. The ratings company cited the risk that Greece will leave the 17-nation euro currency and the “increasing likelihood” of collective support for European countries such as Spain and Italy, according to a statement.

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Republicans maintain that the 2 percenters include business owners who would lose the incentive to add jobs if they had to pay higher marginal tax rates.

“Those who will be punished in the president’s proposal are A, small business owners, and B, those who are most likely to contribute to economic growth,” Representative Kevin Brady, a Texas Republican and member of the House Ways and Means Committee, said in an interview on C-SPAN’s “Newsmakers” July 15. “We might be able to find one economist who thinks it’s good for the economy trying to raise those taxes, but we would wear out a car trying to find a second.”

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A politician who says something rational, it’s amazing.

“I’m not sure there is any way in a free society to be able” to stop a deranged individual from assembling a deadly arsenal, Governor John Hickenlooper, a Democrat, said today on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

“If there were no assault weapons available and no this or no that, this guy is going find something, right?” he said. “He’s going to know how to create a bomb.”

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Mitt Romney’s plan for taxing multinational corporations would create 800,000 jobs, according to President Barack Obama.

“There’s only one problem,” the president added at a speech in Ohio last week. “The jobs wouldn’t be in America. They’d be in other countries.” That clever remark kicked off a week of sparring between the two candidates and their surrogates about the right way to tax corporations.

On this count, the president is wrong. Investment and job growth abroad don’t necessarily mean job losses in the U.S. And more importantly, Romney’s plan to tax multinational corporations only on the income they earn domestically is on the right track.

Properly structured, and combined with a lower corporate- income-tax rate, a so-called territorial system could make U.S. companies more competitive, simplify the tax code, reduce compliance costs, boost real wages and enable companies to repatriate the more than $1.2 trillion they are now holding abroad for fear of the tax man.

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I’d say taking a large cash position going into this week is a good idea.

Greece retakes its position at the heart of the European debt crisis this week as its creditors assess how far off course the country is from bailout targets, raising again the specter of its exit from the euro.

Greece’s troika of international creditors — the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund — will arrive in Athens tomorrow amid doubts the country will meet its commitments and reluctance among euro-area states to put up more funds should it fail.

“If Greece doesn’t fulfill those conditions, then there can be no more payments,” German Vice Chancellor Philipp Roesler told broadcaster ARD yesterday, adding that he is “very skeptical” Greece can be rescued and that the prospect of its exit from the monetary union “has long ago lost its terror.”

After euro finance ministers failed to staunch a fresh low for the single currency last week with the approval of a 100 billion-euro ($122 billion) aid package for Spain, the troika will be tasked with determining the fiscal position of the nation where the crisis began almost three years ago. Greece is clamoring for more help as efforts to cut its debt to 120 percent of gross domestic product by 2020 fall short.

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While this quarter’s earnings reports have crossed a substantially lowered profit bar, future expectations through the year indicate a recession could be on the way.

Estimates for the third and fourth quarters have been dropped to levels not seen since the days of the 2008 financial crisis, below even the muted 2 percent expected level of inflation.

That’s an ominous recession sign for an economy that has barely managed to attain positive growth this year even with the strong level of earnings beats, according to an analysis by Nicholas Colas, chief market strategist at ConvergEx in New York.

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