Rumors of executives gone missing and now this.

More Chinese fraud.

“Before any decisions on drilling are made, it is our responsibility to follow the facts and understand the public health and safety effects posed by potential natural gas development,” Mr. Schneiderman said in a statement.

Full article

No. Ticker % Change
1 YONG 45.60
2 AGYS 42.68
3 CV 40.87
4 FCEL 25.34
5 SQNS 22.55
6 HEAT 15.65
7 MERU 14.49
8 GOLF 13.18
9 NBIX 12.28
10 KBX 11.90
11 FTLK 11.86
12 GIFI 11.85
13 FTWR 11.18
14 AXK 11.11
15 ASH 10.81
16 AMAG 10.18
17 TZOO 9.85
18 GBE 9.84
19 SOQ 9.56
20 STVI 9.45
21 NAFC 9.42
22 BAA 9.25
23 LXRX 9.03
24 SATC 8.91
25 NBG 8.85
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No. Ticker % Change
1 HNHI.OB -40.81
2 NOK -14.21
3 PT -13.66
4 CBLI -13.62
5 RLD -12.75
6 MPET -12.02
7 CEU -11.76
8 CBPO -10.93
9 URG -10.56
10 YMI -10.53
11 DEXO -8.91
12 UEC -8.79
13 GSL -8.24
14 URZ -8.21
15 LLEN -8.16
16 SPU -7.83
17 FMAR -7.50
18 CXZ -7.45
19 DDSS -7.11
20 SMCG -6.59
21 SINO -6.49
22 CVOL -6.45
23 URRE -6.44
24 PLM -6.42
25 BRIS -6.34

Mike “Mish” Shedlock, Global Economic Trend Analysis

Courtesy of Google translate please consider They lifted 1.5 billion Thursday and Friday from bank

Only a few steps separating from Friday to yesterday’s mass panic! From early morning to counter the banks there is serious pressure for withdrawals of deposits, especially small amounts. The pressure on banks began last Wednesday, culminating in yesterday’s day.

Read more

Has a run on  Credit Anstalt the Greek Banks begun?

As you were.

S&P futures are now up 6.

Asian markets have reversed and are now higher, with Australian +0.7%, Japan +0.7% and Korea +0.8%

by 2022. PUHLEASE.

Full article

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“Whenever a stock price goes up as much as it does with LinkedIn, you assume the IPO was mispriced and the bankers screwed up,” said Mr Thiel, an investor in LinkedIn since its launch. “There continues to be a certain antipathy by Wall Street banks toward Silicon Valley companies where they don’t quite believe it’s real

Full article

Christine Lagarde is in pole position. Having put her name forward last week, the silver-haired French finance minister may well become the new managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Lagarde has, with a depressing inevitability, secured the backing of most European countries. The UK was among the first to endorse her. There are rumours the mighty US could soon throw its weight behind Lagarde – making her bid a fait accompli.

FULL STORY AT THE TELEGRAPH

The Baseline Scenario: The Problem With Christine Lagarde

By Simon Johnson

Ms. Christine Lagarde, French finance minister, is the nominee of the European Union for the recently vacant position of managing director at the International Monetary Fund.  The EU has just over 30 percent of the votes in this quasi-election; the US has another 16.8 percent and seems willing to keep a European at the fund if an American can remain head of the World Bank.  It should be easy for Ms. Lagarde to now travel round the world engaging in some old-fashioned horse trading, along the lines of: Support me now, and I or the French government will get you something suitable in return, either at the IMF or elsewhere.

The contest to run the IMF seems over before it has even really begun.  But Ms. Lagarde has a serious problem that may still derail her candidacy, if there is ever any substantive, open, or transparent discussion of her merits.  There is major design flaw in the eurozone and Ms. Lagarde is the last person that non-European governments should want to put in charge of helping sort that out.

FULL ARTICLE AT BASELINE SCENARIO

A 10,200-acre (4,100-hectare) desert site in Arizona sold for $32.5 million this week, five years after a group with investors including the California Public Employees’ Retirement System paid $400 million for the land.

Arcus Property Solutions LLC, a private-equity fund with about $100 million under management, paid cash for the property in Goodyear, about 60 miles (97 kilometers) southwest of Phoenix, said Kent Kleinman, a spokesman for the Gilbert, Arizona-based company. The site, now called Amaranth Land LLC, had been planned for a 42,000-home community by the Calpers- financed group when it was purchased in 2006.

The deal shows how property investors are taking advantage of a plunge in values after the real estate bubble burst in Arizona. A group of lenders, led by Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS), seized control of the Amaranth site in 2009 after the bust halted development, said Jeff Garrett, owner of Garrett Development Corp., the land’s manager after the foreclosure.

“Five, six years ago, people were spending $200 million or $300 million or $400 million,” Garrett said in a telephone interview. “This just sold for about eight cents on the dollar.”

FULL ARTICLE

“Global demand growth for copper is expected to slow to 8.4 percent in 2011-12, slowing substantially from the average growth of 16.4 percent between 2005-2010, the International Wrought Copper Council (IWCC) said.

China’s demand for the red metal, used extensively in the electrical manufacturing, construction and power sectors, is expected to grow by 7 percent this year, down from a double-digit growth in 2010, the general secretary of the International Wrought Copper Council Mark Loveitt said on Sunday.

The IWCC, which represents copper fabricators such as wire and tube makers worldwide, said the short-term outlook for copper remains uncertain as high prices were encouraging end-users to run down their inventories. Consumers were also reluctant to hold unnecessary inventories.

Prices at current levels have also prompted end-users in some sectors to either substitute copper with aluminium or to use smaller and thinner components, Loveitt said at an industry conference in Shanghai.

On China, which accounts for about 40 percent of global consumption, Lovevitt said it was uncertain if the world’s largest consumer would undergo a large-scale restocking in the second-half of this year…..”

Full article

* US Treasury says China yuan “substantially undervalued”

* US-China Business Council says backs Treasury decision

* Analyst says currency report becoming a “minor joke” (Adds quotes from report)

By Doug Palmer

WASHINGTON, May 27 (Reuters) – The U.S. Treasury Department ruled on Friday China was not manipulating its currency to gain an unfair trade advantage, but said Beijing still needs to allow the yuan to rise much faster in value.

Although the Obama administration has often used blunt language to warn China over its currency practices, the semiannual report issued by Treasury on Friday maintained its practice of avoiding the harsher step of naming it a currency manipulator.

FULL STORY

(Reuters) – Ratings agency Fitch on Friday cut its outlook on Japan’s sovereign debt, warning that the vast cost of a March earthquake and tsunami and the still-unknown bill for the clean-up after the nuclear disaster would further strain the country’s already shaky public finances.

The Fitch move means all three major ratings agencies now have their fingers poised on the trigger to downgrade Japan’s credit status unless they see moves by the government to strengthen the country’s finances.

Fitch cut its outlook to negative from stable and affirmed its AA minus local currency rating, its fourth highest and the same level as S&P’s but one notch below Moody’s Aa2.

“A stronger fiscal consolidation strategy is necessary to buffer the sustainability of the public finances against the adverse structural trend of population aging,” Andrew Colquhoun, head of Fitch’s Asia-Pacific Sovereigns team, said in a statement.

FULL ARTICLE

WASHINGTON—The centerpiece of the American trade agenda—a trio of international trade pacts worth $13 billion in new U.S. exports—is in peril as Democrats and Republicans battle over a program that provides aid to U.S. workers.

The dispute over the future of the 50-year-old Trade Adjustment Assistance program, which provides benefits to American workers displaced by foreign competition, is putting pending free-trade pacts with South Korea, Colombia and Panama in jeopardy by pulling them into the contentious debate over federal spending.

The Obama administration and Democrats in Congress want the TAA program renewed. Some Republicans question its value and say it should be scaled back to narrow the deficit.

The delay caused by the congressional sparring means it is now virtually impossible to pass the South Korea agreement before a trade pact between Korea and the European Union takes effect July 1. That will put a wide range of U.S. industries at a competitive disadvantage.

Just a few weeks ago, the administration saw the TAA battle as surmountable. Now, unless lawmakers reach consensus soon, the trade pacts won’t pass before the August recess, congressional aides say. After that, chances of passage grow slimmer as the 2012 election nears and lawmakers avoid controversial votes.

FULL ARTICLE AT WSJ

Britain faces a bleak time for the next two years as a result of feeble economic growth, one of the Bank of England’s most senior officials warned on Friday night.

Full Story at the Telegraph

Thanks to LinkedIn’s ipo.

Full article

No. Ticker 1-week Return
1 FTWR 92.50
2 SQNS 69.19
3 AATI 60.37
4 ZLC 39.04
5 KKD 37.34
6 PCRX 34.00
7 KBX 33.59
8 RPTP 33.08
9 REVU 32.22
10 TRGL 31.26
11 MSO 30.53
12 ACHN 30.52
13 CBMX 28.77
14 LMLP 28.14
15 CXZ 27.40
16 GLUU 27.11
17 RXII 25.51
18 FPIC 25.25
19 HRZ 24.72
20 HMPR 23.37
21 COIN 23.33
22 INHX 22.35
23 URRE 21.52
24 FURX 21.46
25 NOA 21.41

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No. Ticker 1-week Return
1 JGBO -51.86
2 CWS -36.70
3 MCOX -31.53
4 LTBR -28.60
5 CGA -27.38
6 SIGM -27.13
7 CHBT -26.32
8 FFHL -24.73
9 CNIT -23.85
10 KUTV -23.54
11 CEU -22.96
12 SPU -22.79
13 ROIAK -22.67
14 BORN -21.21
15 VELT -21.21
16 CBLI -20.62
17 WHRT -20.51
18 RODM -20.50
19 EDE -18.86
20 CVVT -18.67
21 CSUN -18.62
22 DEER -18.62
23 GMAN -18.53
24 XUE -18.11
25 INVE -17.76

BOSTON (TheStreet) — A so-called Chinese Wall is supposed to exist between investment banks’ research and asset-management divisions, but recent calls, especially coming from subprime-securites proponent Goldman Sachs(GS_), warrant further scrutiny.

Goldman helped to catalyze the recent commodity sell-off as its researchers expected little upside when the economy hit a soft patch. Crude oil tumbled beneath $100 on that report. Then, two days ago, with few fundamental changes in the demand outlook, Goldman reversed its stance, advising clients to buy.

This flip-flopping from Wall Street’s most closely followed researcher is being perceived by some as client-fleecing since the bank is able to trade in proprietary accounts before it releases research and the markets react, as they often do to Goldman’s calls.

Similarly, many sell-side researchers award stocks “buy” or “overweight” ratings even as their internal asset-management units unload shares, presenting a conflict of interest and ethical dilemma. Goldman’s most famous front-runs to date were the Abacus transactions, through which the bank allegedly postured for high ratings for its mortgage-backed CDOs, sold them to clients and then shorted them.

News broke yesterday, or rather, a blogger pulled data yesterday to show that Goldman dumped 1,260,802 shares of Apple(AAPL_) during the first quarter, even as its research division rated the stock “buy” and maintained its lofty $470 target. Little due diligence is done in the journalism community on the interplay between asset-management and research units.

FULL STORY

Soaring food and fuel prices have become a substantial burden on households in the United States, the United Kingdom and other economies since September 2010, and may have contributed to a slowdown in growth recently.

The International Energy Agency has warned “additional increases in (oil) prices at this stage of the economic cycle risk derailing the global economic recovery” and called on producing countries to raise the supply of crude.

But leading oil forecasters are divided over whether prices have yet risen far enough to ration demand — via direct effects (substitution, conservation) and indirect ones (falling incomes, slowing growth) — or need to rise further before the market finds a fundamental and geopolitical equilibrium.

THREE KEY QUESTIONS

Three questions are critical for both the global economic outlook and prospects for the oil market:

• Does the sharp rise in oil prices since September 2010 qualify as an oil shock?

• How do oil shocks affect economic performance in the United States and elsewhere?

• How do policymakers understand oil shocks and how will that shape their response?

FULL ARTICLE AT COMMODITIES NOW

For much of the second half of the 20th century, critics of Wall Street charged that brokerage research was tainted by the tight relationship between analysts and investment bankers.  These well documented “agency” issues remained until April 2003 when leading financial institutions signed a deal with the SEC to reimburse investors and put an end to the cozy relationship between the research departments and i-banking departments of major US financial institutions.  Many thought this put an end to the conflicts of interest that had plagued the industry.  But, apparently, they may have been wrong.

A recent study by Sung-Gon Chung and Melvyn Teo of Singapore Management University provides evidence that analysts have run from the arms of the i-bankers and into the arms of the hedge fund managers.  Write Chung and Teo:

[S]ell-side analysts tend to issue buy and strong buy recommendations on stocks  predominantly held by hedge funds… in a post-Spitzer era, Wall Street research departments having been forcibly weaned off  investment banking revenues now contend with new hedge fund-induced conflicts of interests.

FULL ARTICLE