FLASH: DOMINIQUE STRAUSS-KAHN BECOMES “RESERVE CURRENCY” OF RIKERS ISLAND

Hat Tip: @NotStevieCohen

He still owns some miners.

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1. United States 8,133.5
2. Germany 3,401.8
3. IMF 2,827.2
4. Italy 2,451.8
5. France 2,435.4
6. China 1,054.1
7. Switzerland 1,040.1
8. Russia 784.1
9. Japan 765.2
10. Netherlands 612.5
11. India 557.7
12. ECB 501.4
13. Taiwan 423.6
14. Portugal 382.5
15. Venezuela 365.8
16. Saudi Arabia 322.9
17. United Kingdom 310.3
18. Lebanon 286.8
19. Spain 281.6
20. Austria 280.0
21. Belgium 227.5
22. Algeria 173.6
23. Philippines 156.5
24. Libya 143.8
25. Singapore

A simple twist of fate, human error, or plan execution…perhaps some treachery will reveal the truth one day. For now it is another mess.

“NATO military intervention in Libya is becoming a full scale war as predicted by various anti-war organizations and security analysts around the world.

After just two months into the conflict, the western alliance has gone from enforcing a “no-fly zone” on Libya to a “no-drive zone” and ultimately to “let’s assassinate Qaddafi”.
The head of the UK armed forces, General Sir David Richards has urged the NATO to destroy Libya’s infrastructure in accordance with what the Libyan despot is doing to his own people and his own country.

The western military invasion of Libya has run into a stalemate with more than 2,000 bombing raids by the US, Britain and their allies, and the western powers are facing another disaster in the third Muslim country they have attacked in the last decade.

General Richards has made it clear included in the aims of the escalation he is proposing would be the killing of Colonel Qaddafi.”

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Perhaps now is a good time for them to sell it?

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“Gold could hit $10,000 an ounce in the coming decade, as the commodities bull market is far from over while the fate of the dollar and U.S. stocks looks doubtful, says David Skarica, editor of the Gold Stock Adviser newsletter and author of “The Great Super Cycle.”

There is just too much money in circulation right now thanks to the Federal Reserve’s money-printing campaign, while stock prices have settled into a range after a long rally.

“I think the Dow is in a long-term trading range, so if you’re looking at the Dow at roughly 13,000 right now and in 1980 when the gold price topped, the ratio got down to about 1.2 to 1, so if you had the same ratio gold would actually go to $10,000 or $11,000 an ounce,” Skarica tells Newsmax.TV….”

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“On another ugly day for the markets, this was probably the most overlooked good news.

The California deficit for the two year budget cycle will be much lower than expected, thanks to $6.6 billion more in revenue than had been anticipated.

As NYT notes, there’s still a $9.6 billion gap, and no consensus yet about how to fill it.  There will be your standard California fights about budget cuts, fees, and new taxes, and they will probably go beyond the wire once again.

But that doesn’t change the fact higher revenue can only come as a result of a more active economy than previously thought.

And for the merchants of muni gloom, like Meredith Whitney, it means the challenge of meeting state and local bond payments is a bit less acute, at least in this particular basket case of a state.

Meanwhile, the MUB etf — a crude proxy for the muni market as a whole — continues to be ridiculously strong.”

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“Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK/A) reported a stake in MasterCard Inc. (MA), the second-biggest payments network, as the billionaire handed responsibility for some of the portfolio to a new investment manager.

Buffett’s firm owned 216,000 shares of the company on March 31, Omaha, Nebraska-based Berkshire said today in a regulatory filing listing its U.S. stock portfolio. Purchase, New York- based MasterCard was the second-biggest holding at Todd Combs’s Castle Point Capital Management LLC as of Sept. 30 before the money manager joined Buffett’s firm.”

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“Google

made its first foray into the bond marketwith a $3 billion sale to pay back short-term borrowings at relative yields comparable to companies with the highest credit grade.

The bond sale was “a home run for Google,” said Lon Erickson, a money manager at Thornburg Investment Management Inc. in Santa Fe, New Mexico, who oversees $9 billion. “The big pile of cash on the balance sheet and continued cash generation makes people plenty comfortable to own that debt.”

Google, with total cash and marketable securities of $35 billion at yearend, according a regulatory filing, is tapping the corporate bond market as investment-grade borrowing costs tumble to about the lowest since November. Chief Executive Officer Larry Page, who replaced Eric Schmidt last month, is ramping up spending to expand in mobile and video advertising even as U.S. and European authorities mount investigations into the company’s business practices.

The world’s biggest Internet-search company split the sale evenly between three-, five- and 10-year notes, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The 1.25 percent, three-year notes yield 33 basis points more than similar-maturity Treasuries, the 2.125 percent, five-year debt pays a 43 basis-point spread, and the 3.625 percent, 10-year securities offer 58 basis points above benchmarks, Bloomberg data show.

AAA Pricing”

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By SHRI NAVARATNAM

“SINGAPORE—Asian stock markets were mixed on Tuesday as investors were cautious after yet another downturn in Wall Street, with utilities and some bank stocks weighing on the Tokyo market.

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 added 0.2%, Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average was down 0.3%, South Korea’s Kospi Composite was flat and New Zealand’s NZX-50 was up 0.2%.

Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were down 18 points in screen trade.

Despite the modest buying interest, investors remained wary after Wall Street extended its losses on Monday and as European policymakers continued to debate about how to help debt-stricken Greece.

“Early indicators are that investors will maintain the caution and nervousness of recent days,” said Ric Spooner, chief market analyst at CMC Markets in Sydney. “The nature, timing and extent of any restructuring of Greece’s sovereign debt continue to be a source of uncertainty,” he said.”

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Was probably a nice trade, but it  is only paper not physical….dumping physical from personal holdings or the fund would be much a more interesting story.

“Billionaire investor George Soros’s hedge fund dumped most of its gold holdings during the first quarter, according to a securities filing on Monday.

New York-based Soros Fund Managementowned just 49,400 shares of the SPDR Gold Trust [GLD  145.37   -0.26  (-0.18%)   ] at the end of March, down from 4.7 million shares held at the end of December. A 5 million share stake in the iShares Gold Trust [IAU  14.57   -0.02  (-0.14%)   ] at the end of December disappeared completely from the latest filing.

The gold ETF positions were valued at over $774 million at the end of the fourth quarter, by far the firm’s largest position at that time. At the end of the first quarter, the remaining gold position was worth less than $7 million.”

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LinkedIn will begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol LNKD. Its shares are expected to trade in the $32 to $35 range and 7.84 million shares will be available. The company will likely be valued around $3 billion after the IPO.

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Tough times ahead.

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The following 50 stocks are up more than 20% over the past year, but down more than 6% today.

No. Ticker 1-year Return % Change
1 REDF 270.15 -20.64
2 SIFY 168.29 -16.98
3 SYMX 117.59 -14.55
4 GSL 95.28 -13.49
5 MGH 50.00 -12.76
6 NYX 22.34 -12.67
7 GENE 503.51 -11.57
8 VSCP 45.31 -11.43
9 AVL 178.11 -10.50
10 VIT 26.00 -10.19
11 GPL 222.99 -9.65
12 KV-A 97.35 -9.42
13 DHX 76.94 -9.32
14 GLUU 146.72 -8.89
15 ALLT 174.85 -8.81
16 HYC 99.78 -8.64
17 EMAN 83.46 -8.50
18 WWWW 160.05 -8.33
19 REE 251.61 -7.78
20 ARTX 20.22 -7.76
21 MPEL 140.84 -7.24
22 CGR 56.30 -7.00
23 SIMO 116.79 -6.97
24 FACE 73.97 -6.96
25 SSRX 55.52 -6.95
26 EXK 106.95 -6.92
27 MDSO 45.54 -6.92
28 ARUN 147.20 -6.92
29 CRNT 21.01 -6.88
30 MDVN 111.62 -6.88
31 ZAGG 239.16 -6.69
32 MAKO 65.10 -6.67
33 AXU 102.19 -6.58
34 CEVA 132.42 -6.56
35 VVTV 131.03 -6.51
36 GRRF 27.31 -6.47
37 ISYS 46.10 -6.46
38 OPEN 102.47 -6.44
39 LLNW 34.12 -6.40
40 VICL 25.00 -6.32
41 WLK 139.62 -6.29
42 ININ 72.26 -6.22
43 USAT 219.70 -6.22
44 PAY 134.89 -6.17
45 HCKT 32.34 -6.16
46 URZ 75.16 -6.14
47 CRAY 23.62 -6.13
48 WEBM 45.50 -6.13
49 GGC 57.70 -6.13
50 PRAN 30.97 -6.02

No. Ticker % Change
1 PRM 60.05
2 LEXG.OB 46.45
3 VITA 39.93
4 CISG 31.61
5 ENOC 19.47
6 LRAD 19.18
7 LONG 12.77
8 TSTC 11.64
9 KNDI 11.62
10 NEWN 10.82
11 SPMD 10.42
12 CBRX 9.70
13 PDO 9.06
14 YAVY 9.06
15 MERR 9.02
16 QBC 8.62
17 NQ 7.53
18 IGC 7.26
19 FFHL 7.16
20 CPLP 7.11
21 LDL 6.92
22 CRD-B 6.64
23 ATAI 6.62
24 BWOW 6.51
25 DHRM 6.27
——————————
No. Ticker % Change
1 KONG -28.03
2 REDF -20.64
3 VRML -19.59
4 SIHI -19.53
5 BVX -17.59
6 SIFY -16.98
7 FXCM -16.68
8 ASTI -16.67
9 VTRO -15.79
10 SYMX -14.55
11 GSL -13.49
12 HRZ -13.08
13 AEGR -13.04
14 CHLN -13.02
15 MGH -12.76
16 NYX -12.67
17 LTBR -12.44
18 SFUN -12.35
19 WIFI -11.63
20 GENE -11.57
21 HNHI.OB -11.43
22 VSCP -11.43
23 DQ -11.32
24 MRNA -11.11
25 TPI -11.02

China CGame files to delay its 10-Q (1.43 +0.04)

What else is new?

He announced he will not be running for President of the United States, due to business being his true passion.

Note: I’d like to see proof of his business passion in writing.

“(Reuters) – Technology and consumer discretionary stocks tumbled on Monday as investors fretted about signs of weakness in the economy that are likely to put a halt to the stock market’s run this summer.

A gauge of manufacturing in New York State slid much more than expected in May to its lowest level in five months, the New York Federal Reserve said, in the latest report to point to the potential for a slowing economy.

The Nasdaq suffered the worst hit while other indexes drew support from strength in materials and financial stocks, which rebounded from Friday’s sharp fall. Some rotation into defensive names in the healthcare and utilities sectors also cushioned the Dow and the S&P 500 from steeper losses.”

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“I’m in charge now”

“TEHRAN (AFP) – Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said he has temporarily assumed the duties of the oil ministry, as the oil cartel OPEC prepares for a biannual meeting in Vienna.

“For now, I myself am the caretaker of the oil ministry,” Ahmadinejad said in a televised speech late Sunday, without elaborating.

On Saturday, Ahmadinejad dismissed oil minister Masoud Mirkazemi, alongside two other ministers, whose portfolios are expected to be merged with other departments as part of a cabinet streamlining.

Then on Sunday, he appointed caretakers for the industry and social affairs ministries, but did not name anyone for the oil ministry which is to be integrated with the energy portfolio.”

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…a financial murder hole that is.

“Yes, that is a correct headline. In its annual report to Congress last week SS acknowledged that its condition had sharply deteriorated in 2010. This sentence from the report is all you really need to know about what the status is:

The open group unfunded obligation over the 75-year projection period has increased from $5.4 trillion(present discounted value as of January 1, 2010) to $6.5 trillion (present discounted value as of January 1, 2011).

Note that this is a present value calculation. The total unfunded obligation has grown by a cool $1.1 trillion in just a year. In other words, if we had to shore up the TF to the level that it was just a year ago the USA would have to write a check for $1.1 T. The unfunded status was a disaster a year ago at $5.6T, it got worse by 20% during 2010. The cost of “fixing” SS goes up as a result. To put things in balance one of these two extremes are nowrequired:

For the combined OASDI Trust Funds to remain solvent, the payroll tax rate could be increased animmediate and permanent 2.15%, (or) scheduled benefits could be reduced by an immediateand permanent 13.8%.”

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