Gapping Up

FIRE +13.1%, TXRH +8.6%, CSIQ +8.4%, PKT +7.1%, BRCD +6%, MOS +4.4%, HLF +3.9%, INTU +3.4%, LZB +2.1%, GNK +1.9%, TS +1.4%,  BIOD +33.8%,

GRMN +9.6% , PKT +7.1%, BRCD +6%, YNDX +4.8%, HLF +3.9%, INTU +3.4%, RRC +2.7% , LZB +2.1%, GNK +1.9% , FTE +1.8%, DX +0.4%,  GNOM +6.7% ,

CSIQ +6.2% ,  GM +0.3% ,  BX +1%, URBN +2.4% ,

Gapping Down

TRAK -8%, YGE -6.2%, IFT -5.6%, DELL -5%, CAKE -5%, CELL -5%, NRF -4.8%, NBR -2.8%, TWO -2.7%, WPRT -1.9%, FST -1.3%, NFLX -1.2%,

REXX -5.4%, PTNR -5%, MGM -4.2%, CAKE -4%, CNK -3.4% , TOL -3%, NBR -2.8%, BAS -1.9%, FST -1.3% , VOD -2.2% ,  GSK -1.2% ,  WBMD -3.7%, WTS -1.1% ,

NBG -8.1%, ING -1.8%, UBS -1.3%, CS -1.3%, C -1.2%, BCS -1.0%, GILD -1.1% ,

In Play

On the Wires

“(Reuters) – Some public agencies that rely on the municipal bond market for financing fear that a landmark financial reform rule will cripple their ability to sell bonds and make it more expensive to raise money for crucial services.

The Volcker Rule was designed to curb the risks that banks take with depositor dollars, a practice known as proprietary trading. But the rule risks ensnaring public agencies ranging from housing agencies to hospital authorities because the way muni bonds are sold and traded results in banks risking their own capital — the very practice banned under the Volcker Rule.

And although the rule, a key component of the Dodd-Frank reform law passed in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, did include an exemption to ensure that state and local governments would still be able to raise money in the municipal bond market, it left a gaping hole.

As a result, state and local authorities are worried that the rule will inhibit banks from underwriting bonds and trading, inadvertently driving up water and sewer bills, delaying public transportation projects and making affordable housing scarcer unless changes are made.

The rule exempts about 60 percent of municipal bonds from the restrictions on banks’ proprietary trading.

Bonds issued by states and their political sub-divisions – such as counties and cities – will be excluded from the ban, but debt issued by public agencies or authorities would be subject to the restriction.

“It could have a very detrimental effect on trying to make the investments in public infrastructure that many of us have felt could be and should be the core of economic recovery,” said Washington State Treasurer James McIntire, who otherwise supports the Volcker Rule….”

Full article

Charlie Gasparino via FoxBusiness.com

Federal law enforcement officials say they have at least five years worth of insider-trading cases in the pipeline, a tally that could lead to hundreds of additional arrests in what’s already the largest probe of its kind, the FOX Business Network has learned.

This broad conclusion being reached by officials at the Securities and Exchange Commission, the US Attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York and the Federal Bureau of Investigation is the result of numerous interviews conducted by the FOX Business Network in recent weeks with senior law enforcement officials directly involved in the investigation.

The current investigation — which traces its roots to an SEC inquiry in 2007 and FBI agents gaining court approval to use wiretaps to snare targets — has resulted in 66 people being charged with insider trading and related crimes, and 57 convictions, the largest crackdown on insider trading in modern law enforcement history.

But law enforcement officials interviewed by FOX Business say the investigation is far from over and will get much larger in the years to come. According to these officials:

–They have “scheduled out” cases for the next five years, meaning that the use of wire taps and informants have netted far more cases than they had originally thought.
–Though it’s difficult to predict future case loads, law enforcement officials are in general agreement that “hundreds” of additional people could be charged in the years ahead. “In five years, we can easily see hundreds of people arrested and charged,” another senior law enforcement official told FOX Business.
–Law enforcement officials say they expect to charge another major figure in the hedge fund business, someone at the level of Raj Rajaratnam, the former founder of the giant Galleon Group hedge fund, before the inquiry is concluded. Officials declined to provide names of potential targets, but some of the big hedge funds that have received subpoenas in the probe include SAC Capital, run by Steve Cohen, and Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investments.

Press officials from both companies have said they have done nothing wrong. The SEC and the FBI declined to comment.

Senior law enforcement officials tell FOX Business that a combination of wiretap evidence and the use of wiretaps to convince market participants to become government informants has played a key role in the investigation’s current success, and what they believe will be the probe’s success for years to come.

They consider among their best informants former Galleon Group trader David Slaine, who helped them nab Rajaratnam and produced leads on many others who have yet to be charged.

The size and scope of the investigation will likely lead to massive changes in the hedge fund business. Already hedge funds have scaled back on their use of so-called expert networks, which provide detailed information about particular industries such as technology and health care.

Several executives working at expert firms have been snared in the probe for passing inside information to their hedge fund clients. While only a handful of hedge funds have been closed so far, many more are likely to shut down as the investigation widens.

“Will the hedge fund business survive this? Yes I think so,” said Columbia Law School Professor John Coffee. “But it will likely cripple the hedge fund whose name is associated with any insider trading charges.”
Read more: http://trade.cc/anyi

via Gerri Willis, FoxBusiness.com

There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics.

Many of those, the statistical lies that is, seem to pop up in academic studies.

Some of them on view this weekend in a Boston Globe story called, “Why It Matters that Our Politicians Are Rich.”

The story tries to make a connection between the political views of the GOP Presidential field and their wallets concluding “people with that much money are not like the rest of us at all. As a mounting body of research is showing, wealth can actually change how we think and behave, and not for the better…Rich people have a harder time connecting with others, showing less empathy to the extent of dehumanizing those who are different from them. They are less charitable and generous.”

In other words, according to no less an expert than the Boston Globe, you have to be poor to be nice.

Among the studies presented as evidence, a study from the University of Minnesota in which subjects were given subliminal suggestions to think about money (some sat at computers with a screensaver that was a dollar bill, others saw a sheaf of Monopoly money on the table they sat at).

They were then questioned about their attitudes toward money and work, and those who didn’t see the screensaver or the Monopoly bills scored as more generous than those that did.

Likewise, those that saw the money were less likely to help a clumsy lab assistant pick up pencils.

See, says the story’s author, just the suggestion of money made people meaner.

I say poppycock!

How can you draw conclusions like that? And that’s just the problem with this research. It leaps to conclusions jumping right over conventional wisdom, and leaving rationality behind.

Remember, even the greed-head GOP candidates have given more than the average person to charity. Mitt Romney gave 14% of his income to charity in 2010.

Meanwhile, Warren Buffett gave a cool $42 million to charities in the second half of last year.

Just six months.

That’s pretty nice.

And consider this: more than half or 56% of total charitable giving comes from people earning $200 thousand or more a year.

Read more: http://trade.cc/anvn

“Tensions with Iran have been pushing oil prices up over $100 a barrel and it won’t take a full-blown war to send them much higher, possibly to $140 a barrel, says Mike Breard, an oil and gas analyst at Hodges Capital in Dallas.

Oil futures are skyrocketing thanks to Iranian tension, with U.S. crude futures hovering over $102 a barrel and Brent futures, which drive European markets, at around $118.

Brent and U.S. futures historically trade at a much narrower spread, and many analysts expect that gap to narrow as the U.S. economy improves.

The West has been slapping fresh sanctions on a defiant and nuclear-ambitious Iran, which is taking steps to cut off oil supply and even threatened to close down the Strait of Hormuz, a key waterway for the world’s oil industry.

With nerves on edge and the Strait of Hormuz crawling with edgy warships and oil tankers, a messy encounter would be enough to send oil skyrocketing.

“All that has to happen is for a tanker to hit a mine and the prices will be jumping,” says Breard, according to the Christian Science Monitor.

“A lot of people are afraid of oil rising to $140 a barrel.”

Full article 

“The Federal Reserve has purchased $2.3 trillion in assets from banks to flood the economy with liquidity and drive down interest rates in order to stimulate the pace of economic recovery.

Under such policy, known as quantitative easing, the Fed goes in and buys assets like Treasury instruments or mortgage-backed securities from the banks, crediting those banks’ reserve accounts with the funds, in what critics says is basically money printing.

“The ability of the Fed to increase the amount of money in banks’ reserve accounts; that’s what most people mean when they talk about money printing and that’s under the direction of the Fed,” says Jim Bianco, president of Bianco Research, according to The Daily Ticker, a Yahoo! news venue…..”

Full article 

Let’s hope he is wrong…$5 is enough for America

“Greece’s purported deal with its creditors will last only until a new government takes over following the spring elections, hedge fund manager Dennis Gartman said Tuesday.

CNBC Dennis Gartman

While investors hoped the deal, valued at 130 billion euros ($172 billion) would bring stability to the debt-plagued nation, Gartman said the provisions — particularly those focused on reducing the ratio of debt to gross domestic product  , as well as the austerity measures imposed on Greece — have little chance of being met.

“All the authorities have been able to do is delay default by a few weeks, perhaps a few months at best,“ Gartman wrote in his investor newsletter. “Greece will default, but perhaps not under the present government in power.”

Sharp cuts in the minimum wage, health care, and pensions, among other things, never will be tolerated in the Greek street, he added. Greeks go to the polls in two months to decide their government’s future. Recent polls show leftist parties opposing the bailouts rising in popularity.

“A new government is going to come to power following elections that shall take place sometime this spring, and if anyone anywhere believes that the next Greek government shall do anything other than abrogate all the agreements made with the ‘troika,’ then we have a bridge we’d like to sell them at a very high price,” Gartman said….”

Full article

Source

Apple Inc. (AAPL) : HTC Corp. lost a patent-infringement claim against the world’s largest technology company at the U.S. International Trade Commission, the first of the Taiwanese handset maker’s cases targeting the iPhone.

Codexis Inc. (CDXS) : Alan Shaw resigned as president and chief executive officer of the company, which makes enzymes used in producing drugs. He will continue to serve as an adviser to the board. The board appointed Peter Strumph, business head of pharmaceuticals, as interim CEO.

Corcept Therapeutics Inc. (CORT) : The specialty drug company that hasn’t generated revenue since 2009 won approval for its leading product candidate, a treatment that uses the active ingredient of the abortion pill RU-486 to treat Cushing’s Syndrome.

Corning Inc. (GLW) : The largest maker of glass for flat- panel television sets is poised to rebound to $20 in two to three years as it cuts excess capacity and focuses on the growing smartphone and tablet markets, Barron’s reported in its “The Trader” column, citing Alan Lancz of Alan B. Lancz & Associates.

Experian Plc (EXPGY) : Experian’s U.S.-traded shares are poised to rise 20 percent or more during the next year as the credit-report provider’s expansion in Latin America boosts earnings, Barron’s reported.

Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ) : The outlook for the world’s largest personal computer maker is still unclear as Chief Executive Officer Meg Whitman tries to turn it around by changing the corporate culture and boosting research and development expenditure, Barron’s reported.

Transocean Ltd. (RIG) : The world’s biggest operator of offshore drilling rigs said it won’t recommend a dividend payment at its 2012 annual shareholder meeting.

Wynn Resorts Ltd. (WYNN) : Japanese billionaire Kazuo Okada’s Universal Entertainment Corp. (6425 JP) said it will take legal action after Wynn Resorts, a casino operator, forcibly redeemed Universal’s stake at a 31 percent discount and accused Okada of improper payments.

Up 

CORT +68.3%, ZNGA +3.3%, CS +3%, MT +2.7%, BBL +2.5%, RIO +2.4%, BHP +2%, TS +1.7%, RBS +1.7%, SLV +1.6%, GOLD +1.4%, NOK +1.3%, VALE +1.1%,

RGEN +6.9%, COG +6.2%, BYD +4.6%, HD +3.4%, SWC +2.4%, M +1.2%, GLNG +0.6%,  IRE +4.2%, CS +3%, CS +3%, STD +1.7%, RBS +1.7%, BAC +0.7%,

STP +5.5%, JASO +3.5%, FSLR +1.9%, JKS +1.6%,  THLD +28% , STM +7.9%, ZNGA +3.3%, LOW +3.1%, TS +1.7%, NOK +1.3%, FRO +4%,  LIFE +1.8%, DANG +1.4% ,

Down

WFT -7.3%, RIG -6.1%, BP -0.6%,

In Play

On the Wires 

Source

“So last night Europe announced a bailout for Greece, but today markets in Europe are selling off.

Is it just a sell the news kind of thing? Perhaps, although SocGen thinks there’s a little more:

The agreement consists of a number of changes – some examples include, private bond holders will take a greater loss (reported at 53.5%), the interest margin is reduced, and the ECB and central banks will not take profits on its holdings of Greek bonds.  Together, this is estimated to bring the debt to GDP figure to 120.5% by 2020.  It still has to be ratified by national governments and while this is expected to be passed it stretches out the uncertainty factor further. The front page of the FT “Greek nightmare laid bare”, however, has largely undermined the announcement effect, and we’d expect further consolidation today in asset classes.

So basically, the fact that the headlines are already saying that the bailout probably won’t work isn’t doing any wonders for confidence in the wake of the announcement.”

Source

Citi’s big equity strategist Tobias Levkovich is cooling on the market rally.

In a note out today, he cites two charts indicative of a possibility of a market rollover.

The theme of them is the same: fundamentals are turning down, and it’s likely that stocks will catch up.

Citi

 

Dip your toe if you got the cash…

The markets may be rigged, but it is better than the casino….unless you play Texas Hold ’em

Merkel proves to have two iron fists….

(CNN) — As John Avlon has recently calculated, there is a real possibility that the Republican primary process could fail to yield a majority winner.

What would happen then?

Journalists like to speculate about “brokered conventions”: the kind of conventions we had 50 and 100 years ago, where party bosses chose presidential nominees in smoke-filled rooms. But you can’t have a “brokered convention” in a system where there are no “brokers.”

Here’s an example of how the old system worked:

In 1952, most rank-and-file Republicans wanted to nominate Sen. Robert Taft of Ohio, the leader of the party’s conservative wing.

But about three-quarters of the states had neither primaries nor caucuses. Their delegates were chosen at state party conventions, and those delegates answered to powerful state officeholders, typically the state governor.

So when the GOP convened in Chicago in 1952, those powerful state officeholders could negotiate among themselves, confident that they controlled the delegate count from their state.

That’s how Eisenhower won in 1952. The two most powerful Republican governors in the country — Thomas Dewey of New York and Earl Warren of California — preferred Eisenhower, and so Eisenhower it was.

That’s not how it would happen today.

Modern governors do not control their state parties the way governors did in the 1950s. And today’s delegates won’t do as they are told.

What would happen today?

The Cancer of Debt and Deficits
By John Mauldin

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESEGRwnQW4k&feature=player_embedded

via Washington Post: