Print until oblivion

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHq7vXIjNFI 603 500]

If you missed the last documentary on Friday the 13th then i suggest you hold your nose on foreign policy accusation and read in between the lines…. I promise if you endure the 2 hours presented here; your mind will be blown away.

How bad could  a technical sell wave be ?

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Gapping up

VQ +59.3%, PVX +14.7%, TSLA +14%, DB +4.6%, MT +4.5%, BBL +4.3%, RIO +4.2%, HBC +3.6%, CS +3.4%,

BHP +3.3%, UBS +2.2%, BCS +1.1%, ROVI +8.2%, AMAT +2.2% ,  POT +2.3%, RBS +6%, NBG +5.5%, HL +5.9%, MT +4.5%,

OT +3.8%, E +3.3%, RIG +3%, PBR +2.8%, BP +2.5%, STO +0.4%,

Gapping down 

Bear hopes, confidence, dreams, CCL -16%, KEM -4.6%,  MDVN -2.2% , PKD -3.2% , KGC -7.2%, RCL -6.1%

Source

Beazer Homes USA, Inc. (NYSE: BZH) Cut to Underperform at Credit Suisse.
BHP Billiton Limited (NYSE: BHP) Started as Buy at Goldman Sachs.
Carnival Corporation (NYSE: CCL) Cut to Neutral at JPMorgan.
FedEx Corporation (NYSE: FDX) Cut to Hold at Jefferies.
General Growth Properties (NYSE: GGP) Raised to Buy at Stifel Nicolaus.
Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC) Cut to Neutral at JPMorgan.
Linear Technology Corporation (NASDAQ: LLTC) Cut to Underweight at JPMorgan.
Logitech International SA (NASDAQ: LOGI) Cut to Underweight at JPMorgan.
Meritage Homes Corporation (NYSE: MTH) Cut to Underperform at Credit Suisse.
Panera Bread Co. (NASDAQ: PNRA) Raised to Overweight at Morgan Stanley.
Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan (NYSE: POT) Raised to Sector Outperform at CIBC.
Ryland Group Inc. (NYSE: RYL) Cut to Underperform at Credit Suisse.
Steel Dynamics Inc. (NASDAQ: STLD) Started as Buy at Deutsche Bank.
Stifel Financial Corporation (NYSE: SF) Raised to Buy with $37 target at Goldman Sachs.
Tesla Motors, Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) Raised to Buy at Wunderlich.
U.S. Bancorp (NYSE: USB) Cut to Neutral at Citigroup.
Wynn Resorts Ltd. (NASDAQ: WYNN) Raised to Positive at Susquehanna.

In Play

On the Wires

One can spend hours reading these complaints…Can they really be this bad?

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I sailed on the ship Carnival Elation from New Orleans to Mexico on Dec. 31, 2011. My experience onboard was terrible from cold food issues (every meal) to ridiculous and unprofessional child care and dangerous safety issues with child care provided. It caused my child in one incident to have to seek medical attention. After the Carnival website refused my login information to write a review, I called and waited on hold forever.

A Bloomberg interweb interview

A round up of predictions we pray will not happen… 

Some more reading if you so desire

“The chatter on Friday’s downgrades of European sovereign ratings debt is all over the place – from those dismissing it as old news (especially given that S&P warned back on December 5th) to those viewing it as part of a larger and consequential transformation of the international monetary system.

What follows is an attempt to provide a guide to the multi-faceted implications.

It focuses on three types of consequences: (i) those that are unambiguous and already reflected, albeit not fully, in market valuations; (ii) those that are less well understood but will become clearer in the next few weeks; and (iii) those that are consequential but where the analytics are still largely unknown at present.

The sovereign debt of European sovereigns was already trading at yields consistent not only with what S&P announced today, but also with more draconian downgrades – thus the view that the impact on overall yields and spreads would be contained.

Yet there are some differences between signaling an action and actually taking it. First you remove residual uncertainty about the action, including timing and scale. Second, you encourage others to follow.

Third, you impact the pattern of investment flows, especially those subject to guidelines and restrictions defined in terms of ratings.

All three are relevant for Europe. The net result has both a quantity and price angle: a decline in future investment flows into the Euro-zone, and incremental market pressure that, other things being equal, would be more persistent than would have otherwise been the case.

This speaks to a weaker Euro [EUR=X  1.2678    0.0005  (+0.04%)   ] and recurrent volatility in sovereign spreads…”

Read more 

Romney is wrong on taxes, healthcare, (insert a litany of other issues where he is weak, at best) and now we have evidence that he is for indexing the minimum wage to the CPI, or another measure. In other words, he is just a big spending, big government loving politician who will say and do whatever is politically expedient at the moment.

For some recent research on the effect of minimum wage increases, see here.  Either Romney can’t read, or as I’ve said already, he’s willing to continue the charade in order to get votes.

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By Jeff Mapes, The Oregonian

For all of the ways that Mitt Romney left his moderate past behind when he finished his term as Massachusetts governor, it turns out that he continues to be a supporter of indexing the minimum wage for inflation.

Oregon and Washington were among the first states to index their own minimum wages to inflation — nine states now do so — and it’s a favorite of liberals who say it not only helps low-income workers but also pumps more money into the economy.  It’s anathema to many conservatives, though, who say it actually leads businesses to reduce the number of workers they hire.

At any rate, someone from the National Employment Law Project Action Fund got Romney on video in New Hampshire saying, “My view has been to allow the minimum wage to rise with the CPI, or with another index, so that it adjusts automatically over time.”

Romney campaigned in favor of indexing the minimum wage when he ran for governor in 2002.  However, ABC News noted in 2007 that he wasn’t sure he supported indexing the federal minimum wage (which is lower than the minimum wage in several states).  In this new video, you could quibble that he doesn’t explicitly say he’s talking about the federal minimum — but that sure seems to be the tenor of his comments.

The news has produced an interesting reaction from the political right.  The National Review (which has praised Romney) ran a blog post that expresses concerns about Romney’s stance but notes that one conservative economist, Ron Unz, said it could discourage the employment of illegal immigrants.

However, rival candidate Newt Gingrich said he was surprised to hear that Rommey was backing the indexing of the minimum wage “because what it does is guarantee higher unemployment.”

Read the rest here.

Matt Taibbi’s take on Jeffrey Verschleiser, formerly of Bear Sterns,  now with Goldman Sachs.

Despite rampant fraud there are well managed companies to invest in….. 

Michele Myers says we have not reached bottom yet….

Let’s QE the markets to 20k plus

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…and what about themselves ?