“The top of the year-end checklist typically includes making certain to send a donation to a favorite charity by Dec. 31.

This year, though, some accountants say you don’t want to make those donations until January — if you’re betting on higher tax rates in 2013.

But what about grabbing some money from an IRA? Will you or an older family member withdraw the entire required minimum distribution from your IRA by Dec. 31? This is one where you don’t want to drag your feet.

Every year, many investors simply miss the deadline for taking the required withdrawals from their IRAs, said Ken Hevert, vice president of personal retirement products for Fidelity.

“It can really get complicated,” Hevert said.

The issue isn’t just that you’re missing out on getting extra money to cover bills. You could be creating a very costly tax headache, too.

Retirees age 70 1/2 and older must follow required distribution rules when it comes to IRAs. The same can apply to a 401(k) if you’re retired and no longer working at that company.

Typically, investors who must take required minimum distributions have until Dec. 31 each year to withdraw the full amount….”

Full article

“Bank of America Corp. Chief Executive Officer Brian T. Moynihan blocked a proposal to cut the main component of most brokers’ pay for 2013, said a person with direct knowledge of the matter.

The plan would have reduced the so-called grid payout for Merrill Lynch financial advisers by two percentage points, the person said, requesting anonymity because it wasn’t made public. The changes, which would have affected advisers generating less than $1 million in commissions, were seen as a way to cushion the costs of new bonuses, the person said…”

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“The Bank of Japan (8301) expanded its asset-purchase program for the third time in four months, and will reconsider its objectives for inflation as incoming Prime Minister Shinzo Abe urges more action to end price declines.

The central bank increased the asset-purchase fund to 76 trillion yen ($906 billion) from 66 trillion yen, according to a statement released in Tokyo today. The BOJ kept its credit lending program unchanged at 25 trillion yen…”

Full article

“(Reuters) – New York City’s pension funds may sell nearly $18 million worth of stock in four companies that manufacture guns and ammunition, a spokesman said on Tuesday.

The city’s pension funds join a growing list of investors and corporations that are distancing themselves from the gun industry following a massacre at a school in Newport, Conn., last week that claimed the lives of 20 students who were 6 and 7 years old.

The city is reviewing its holdings and “aggressively exploring all options, including divestment,” said Matthew Sweeney, a spokesman for New York City Comptroller John Liu…”

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“One of the “side effects” of the Fed’s monetary expansion is all the capital flowing into spread products, particularly corporate credit. Corporate bond yields are hitting record lows across the ratings spectrum. An average junk bond in the Merrill HY index now yields some 6.3%….”

Full article and charts 

“California Treasurer Bill Lockyer said he’ll propose that the state’s public pension funds, the two largest in the U.S., sell off investments in firearm manufacturers that make guns prohibited under state law.

The California State Teachers’ Retirement System, known as Calstrs, with $155 billion of assets, has a stake in Cerberus Capital Management LP, a private equity firm that owns Freedom Group, the maker of the Bushmaster .223-caliber semiautomatic rifle that police said was the primary weapon in the Dec. 14 shootings that killed 20 elementary school children in Newtown, Connecticut.

“Our investment branch is examining the Cerberus investment to determine how best to move forward given the tragic events,” a spokesman for the fund, Ricardo Duran, said in a statement…”
Full article

“Gun manufacturers have enjoyed lucrative growth in recent years, a trend now under scrutiny after the massacre of 20 children inside a Connecticut elementary school. Investors in the industry include one group that now stands out conspicuously: public school teachers, via their pension funds.

According to a Huffington Post survey of public databases, several of the nation’s largest teachers’ retirement systems — including those in California, New York and Texas — hold tens of millions of dollars worth of stock in two publicly traded gun manufacturers, Sturm, Ruger & Co. and Smith & Wesson Holding Corp.

The California Teachers Retirement System has also committed more than $700 million toward private equity funds managed by Cerberus Capital. Over the last six years, Cerberus has amassed a holding company, the Freedom Group, which has purchased some of the nation’s most prominent firearms brands. According to securities filings, the Freedom Group owns Bushmaster, the company that built the rifle that law enforcement authorities say was used in Friday’s shooting spree in Connecticut….”

Full article

“Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA), increasingly unloved by Wall St. because of problems with its 787 that might make the plane dangerous to fly, has decided to entice holders to keep their shares, or new investors to join the company’s list of owners. The aerospace firm will increase its dividend by 10% from 48.5 cents and will renew its $3.6 billion share buyback initiative that was initially approved in 2007…”

Full article

“Sweden’s central bank cut interest rates by a quarter point on Tuesday to the lowest for more than two years but gave only slim hopes of further reductions to bolster one of Europe’s more robust economies.

The bank said it expected the policy rate to remain around the new level of 1.0 percent for the next 12 months, running contrary to some expectations it would point clearly to another swift cut in rates.

But economists said its forecasts for rates and lower than previously expected growth next year showed a slim chance of another reduction early in 2013.

It kept a forecast for growth this year of 0.9 percent but cut the 2013 outlook to 1.2 percent from 1.8 percent, reflecting the sagging of an economy that is still doing much better than most of its euro zone peers.”

Full article

“Brazil’s central bank reduced reserve requirements on short dollar positions held by local banks as it steps up efforts to buoy the real, the worst performing major currency this year.

Starting Dec. 20, banks will be required to deposit in cash at the central bank 60 percent of their short positions in U.S. dollars above $3 billion, up from a previous limit of no more than $1 billion or any amount in excess of its capital base, the central bank said in a statement.

The real was unchanged at 2.0986 per U.S. dollar at 9:42 a.m. local time.

The government started this month loosening capital controls it imposed in the past two years after the real tumbled to a three-year low on Nov. 30 and the economy grew at half the pace forecast by economists in the third quarter….”

Full article

“Bad loans as a proportion of total lending at Spanish banks climbed to a record 11.23 percent in October as the country’s economic slump led more companies and homeowners to miss credit payments.

The proportion rose from 10.71 percent in September as 7.4 billion euros ($9.8 billion) of loans soured in the month to take the total of doubtful credit in the banking system to 189.6 billion euros, the Bank of Spain said on its website today. The mortgage default rate jumped to 3.49 percent in the third quarter from 3.16 percent in the second quarter, the Bank of Spain said.

Spain’s economic slump, now in its fifth year, continues to drive defaults to record highs as lenders report rising impairments of corporate, home and consumer loans as well as those linked to real estate. Doubts about the ability of Spain’s weaker lenders to withstand mounting impairments of loans linked to real estate helped push the country to seek a European bailout for its banking system in June…”

Full article

“Foreign direct investment in China fell for the 12th time in 13 months, suggesting the nation’s economic-growth rebound has yet to attract a fresh influx of capital spending from abroad.

Investment dropped 5.4 percent in November from a year earlier to $8.29 billion, the Ministry of Commerce said in Beijing today. FDI inflows in the first 11 months of the year fell 3.6 percent to $100 billion.

China will step up efforts to stabilize investment inflows next year and expand outflows, state media reported Dec. 16 after an annual economic-planning meeting in Beijing. While factoryoutput and retail sales have accelerated for the last three months, trade and lending trailed forecasts in November, restraining the pace of recovery….”

Full article

“NEW YORK—The Securities and Exchange Commission approved the first physical copper-backed exchange-traded fund despite complaints from some U.S. manufacturers and merchants that such a fund would make the metal more scarce.

The approval was the final hurdle for J.P. Morgan Chase JPM +0.89% & Co. to list the JPM XF Physical Copper Trust on NYSE NYX +0.68% Arca, a division of NYSE Euronext. The investment bank first filed its request for the fund in October 2010.

The trust would trade like a stock, though its shares would represent ownership of the physical copper stored on investors’ behalf. J.P. Morgan wasn’t immediately available for comment.

Copper users had opposed plans for the ETF in several comment letters to the SEC, saying it would kneecap the industry by locking up too much copper in investors’ hands. The gold market has seen investors’ hoard record levels of the precious metal since gold-backed ETFs were started in 2006. This has made copper users apprehensive that a copper-linked product would disturb a delicately balanced market that has faced a production shortfall for three of the past four years…”

Full article

“Brazil swap rates fell as analysts in a central bank survey cut their economic growth forecasts for a fifth straight week, supporting speculation borrowing costs will stay at record lows through the first half of 2013.

Swap rates on contracts due in January 2014 dropped one basis point, or 0.01 percentage point, to 7.08 percent at 9:57 a.m. in Sao Paulo. The real depreciated 0.1 percent to 2.0877 perU.S. dollar.

About 100 economists in a weekly central bank survey published today cut their median estimate for 2013 growth to 3.4 percent from 3.5 percent the week before. They raised their year-end inflation forecast for next year to 5.42 percent from 5.40 percent.

“Even though there are inflation concerns, the weak GDP numbers prevailed,” said Roberto Padovani, the chief economist at Votorantim Ctvm, in a phone interview from Sao Paulo.”

Full article

“China scrapped a ceiling on investments by overseas sovereign wealth funds and central banks in its capital markets, part of government efforts to encourage long-term foreign ownership and shore up slumping equities.

Sovereign funds, central banks and monetary authorities can now exceed the $1 billion limit that still applies to other qualified foreign institutional investors, according to revised regulations posted Dec. 14 on the State Administration of Foreign Exchange’s website. The statement did not mention a new ceiling or an increase in the total investment quota allowed under the program also known as QFII.

The removal of the investment limit on sovereign investors “marks another step in the direction to gradually open up China’s capital account,” Wang Aochao, head of research at UOB Kay Hian Investment Consulting (Shanghai) Co., said by telephone today. “It’s part of a gradual process. QFII money still accounts for a very small fraction of China’s capital markets.”

China would “definitely” expand the foreign-currency quota provided under the QFII program once the current allotments of $80 billion are filled, Guo Shuqing, chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, said last month. Regulators have since 2003 approved a combined QFII quota of $36.04 billion as of Nov. 30 under the program which allows foreign investors to buy yuan-denominated securities, the SAFE said on Dec. 11.”

Full article

“China said it will seek a higher “quality and efficiency” of growth next year, signaling new leaders may accept a reduced pace of expansion in exchange for a more sustainable model.

There was no mention of seeking “relatively fast” growth, a policy in place since 2006, in a report yesterday by the state-run Xinhua News Agency after the annual central economic work conference in Beijing. Leaders vowed to target “sustained and healthy development” as they maintain a “prudent” monetary policy and “proactive” fiscal stance, Xinhua said.

Chinese leaders assuming power in a once-a-decade handover to be completed in March must decide the pace of market-driven change to boost consumer demand and rein in the role ofexports and investment. Communist Party chief Xi Jinping, who made the case for restructuring during a visit to the southern Guangdong province this month, faces an economy likely to have grown this year at the weakest rate since 1999.

“Now the focus is firmly on reform for next year and the future,” said Shen Jianguang, Hong Kong-based chief Asia economist at Mizuho Securities Asia Ltd. “The key to watch is how fast the new leadership will proceed with the real tough structural change and reform. Many of these are easier said than done.”

Even so, “next year is considered a vital year for the new leadership,” so the government will not allow a so-called hard landing in growth, Shen said.”

Full article

http://www.scribd.com/doc/116141019/Thunder-Road-December

“Spend more than 10 minutes watching business television and you will undoubtedly be told that there’s a lot of money on the sidelines, everyone owns bonds, and once ‘some catalyst – election? fiscal cliff? year-end?’ is completed then that rush of desirous greedy capital will send Tom Lee’s own S&P 500 to new ‘giddy’ heights. Well, back here in reality-land (away from the total misunderstanding that the cash on the sidelines will always be there as the person you ‘buy’ your shares from is left with the same ‘cash’ you held before) it appears that these two charts suggest those sidelined investors are anything but. As Morgan Stanley notes, 77% of US investors are now bullish on US equities – near record highs– and if, like us, you prefer positioning (as opposed to sentiment) data, the net longs in S&P 500 futures are as high as they were in 2007 (right before the peak) and in late 2008 (right before the 27% plunge in the first quarter of 2009). But apart from that…

Sentiment…”

Full article

“Alcatel-Lucent SA (ALU) reached a 1.6 billion-euro ($2.1 billion) financing deal, gaining time to overhaul the French phone-equipment maker and try to sell as much as 1.5 billion euros of assets.

The senior secured credit facilities underwritten by Credit Suisse Group AG (CSGN) and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) will be denominated in U.S. dollars and euros, with maturities of 3 1/2 to six years, the Paris-based company said today. The stock gained as much as 15 percent and the company’s 8.5 percent bonds jumped to the highest since in almost eight months.

The funding will allow Alcatel to “aggressively” consider all options to boost profitability, improve its strategy and shore up the company’s finances, Chief Executive Officer Ben Verwaayen said in the statement.

The CEO has so far sold smaller assets, cut jobs and costs and signed a patent-licensing agreement. Those measures have failed to reduce an average annual cash consumption of 700 million euros since the 2006 merger of Alcatel SA and Lucent Technologies.

The company, whose debt is rated junk by Moody’s Investors Service and Standard & Poor’s, faces more than 2 billion euros of debt repayments over three years.”

Full article

Source 

“Top central banks are extending their arrangements to swap dollars and other currencies to make sure banks have the money they need.

The decision announced Thursday extends a crisis measure that was to expire Feb. 1, 2013. Now it will be extended for another year.

Taking part are the U.S. Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank, the Bank of England, the Swiss National Bank and the Bank of Canada. The Bank of Japan is to consider the measure at its next meeting.

The idea behind making each other’s currencies available is so banks can get whatever currency they need to meet their obligations. The measure helps stabilize a financial system dealing with the fallout of five years of turmoil, a debt crisis in Europe and slowing growth in emerging markets.”