No New Taxes…

Top Republicans insist no taxes in debt deal

President Barack Obama will hold separate talks with Senate Democratic and Republican leaders on Monday to try to resurrect stalled negotiations aimed at raising the U.S. debt limit and avoiding default.

Obama will meet on Monday morning with Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid and in the early evening that day with Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell.

Talks fell apart on Thursday when Republicans walked out over Democrats’ demands for tax increases as part of a deficit reduction plan. A deal must be reached by August 2 to avoid a potential default on the country’s $14.3 trillion debt.

The top Republicans in Congress, McConnell and U.S. House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner, held fast on Friday to their position that Congress would not accept any tax increases. Boehner said Obama must come to the negotiating table next week with deep spending cuts if he wants a deal.

“The president and his party may want a debt limit increase that includes tax hikes, but such a proposal cannot pass the House,” Boehner said in a statement.

SOURCE: REUTERS

House rejects measure to continue US role in Libya

WASHINGTON – The House has voted down a measure giving President Barack Obama the authority to continue the U.S. military action against Libya.

The vote was 295-123 on Friday. The congressional action has no immediate effect on American involvement but represents a repudiation of the commander in chief.

The vote marks the first time since 1999 that either House has voted against a military operation. The last time was over President Bill Clinton’s authority in the Bosnian war.

House Republican leaders pushed for the vote, with rank-and-file members saying the president broke the law by failing to seek congressional approval for the 3-month-old war. Some Democrats accused the GOP of playing politics with national security.

UPDATING…

SOURCE: AP/YAHOO

Italian Banks Plunge on Debt Concern

Italian banks slumped in Milan trading amid concern the European debt crisis may spread just as lenders face scrutiny from regulators over capital levels.

UniCredit SpA (UCG), Italy’s biggest bank, and Intesa Sanpaolo SpA (ISP), the second-largest, led lenders lower, tumbling as much as 8.9 percent and 7.2 percent respectively. Both stocks were briefly suspended after breaching limits on intraday swings. Italian 10-year bonds fell, increasing the additional yield investors demand to hold the securities instead of benchmark German bunds to the most since the euro was introduced in 1999.

“Contagion fears keep re-emerging as long as credible, lasting solutions in Greece are pending,” said Christian Weber, a Munich-based strategist at UniCredit.

Courtesy of The PPT Algorithm, the copper plays have seen the highest weekly increases in their hybrid scores (combination of proprietary technical and fundamental factors), as a whole, out of any other industry in the market. Copper and copper stocks have been historically market-leading indicators. So, this is worth noting.

Click on image for full size.

Data points to underlying factory strength

New orders for U.S. manufactured goods and a gauge of business spending plans rose in May, easing fears of a sharp slowdown in factory activity.

Durable goods orders increased 1.9 percent after dropping 2.7 percent in April, the Commerce Department said on Friday.

An improvement across the board in May and revisions to April’s figures that showed smaller declines than previously reported, pointed to underlying strength in a sector that has powered the economic recovery.

Source: Reuters

No. Ticker % Change
1 YRCW 19.15
2 SUG 15.55
3 NYNY 8.24
4 BBBB 7.92
5 COOL 7.02
6 SSN 6.34
7 PPC 6.12
8 SINA 5.52
9 SIFY 5.35
10 MOBI 4.82
11 SHZ 4.79
12 QPSA 4.78
13 EXM 4.71
14 CISG 4.58
15 FSIN 4.39
16 CYTR 4.10
17 LPL 4.02
18 HDY 3.92
19 URG 3.85
20 CWTR 3.85
21 NWL 3.78
22 ENTR 3.73
23 YONG 3.58
24 MTSN 3.57
25 HOLI 3.55
————————-

No. Ticker % Change
1 PTIE -42.10
2 MU -12.40
3 SFSF -9.10
4 NBG -7.75
5 UAL -7.56
6 MRNA -6.67
7 COIN -6.20
8 DAL -5.89
9 LCC -5.50
10 LLEN -5.26
11 KV-A -5.18
12 HEAT -4.90
13 BRCD -4.80
14 LYG -4.69
15 AMR -4.63
16 RITT -3.77
17 AXAS -3.67
18 EK -3.64
19 BCS -3.64
20 ETE -3.62
21 ORCL -3.60
22 ASX -3.49
23 FLOW -3.39
24 FRO -3.36
25 CNTF -3.31

The Dow is now down more than 60 points, with the dollar up 0.3%, oil down 1%.

Risk off.

Too painful.

Southern Union agrees to be acquired by Energy Transfer for $33 a share, about $4.2 billion, ignoring Williams’ superior bid of $39.

I smell hostile takeover.

Cap ex numbers were stellar.

US Core Durable Goods at 0.6% vs. -1.6%% / exp 1.0% | Durable Goods Orders at 1.9% vs. -3.6% / exp 1.6%

Full article

They were up more than 7 last night, now down 2.5.

Europe is softening too on Italian bank concerns

Hardware

Full article

Japan’s third largest utility received an emergency loan of 100 billion yen to find alternative methods to buy power.

Full article

China and Hong Kong higher by 1.5%.

Oil is +1.20.

S&P futures are higher by 6.5.

Get your rally caps ready.

Upping ETE’s offer, WMB bids $39 for SUG.

Reports Q3 (May) earnings of $0.07 per share, $0.10 worse than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $0.17; revenues fell 6.5% year/year to $2.14 bln vs the $2.37 bln consensus. The company’s consolidated gross margin improved to 22 percent for the third quarter of fiscal 2011 from 19 percent for the second quarter of fiscal 2011 due primarily to decreases in manufacturing costs. Revenue from sales of DRAM products was 7 percent lower in the third quarter of fiscal 2011 compared to the second quarter of fiscal 2011 due to a decrease in sales volume.

Reports Q4 (May) earnings of $0.75 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.04 better than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $0.71; revenues rose 11.9% year/year to $10.78 bln vs the $10.74 bln consensus. Both GAAP and non-GAAP new software license revenues were up 19% to $3.7 bln. Both GAAP and non-GAAP software license updates and product support revenues were up 15% to $4.0 bln. Both GAAP and non-GAAP hardware systems products revenues were down 6% to $1.2 bln. Non-GAAP operating income was up 19% to $5.2 bln, and non-GAAP operating margin was 48%. “In Q4, we achieved a 19% new software license growth rate with almost no help from acquisitions. This strong organic growth combined with continuously improving operational efficiencies enabled us to deliver a 48% operating margin in the quarter. As our results reflect, we clearly exceeded even our own high expectations for Sun’s business. In addition to record setting software sales, our Exadata and Exalogic systems also made a strong contribution to our growth in Q4. Today there are more than 1,000 Exadata machines installed worldwide. Our goal is to triple that number in FY12. In FY11 Oracle’s database business experienced its fastest growth in a decade. Over the past few years we added features to the Oracle database for both cloud computing and in-memory databases that led to increased database sales this past year. Lately we’ve been focused on the big business opportunity presented by Big Data.”

Following are the measures announced:

– One-off solidarity levy on personal income ranging between 1 and 5 percent, according to income: Those earning 12,000 to 20,000 euros a year will be taxed at 1 percent. Rate then climbs to 2 percent for incomes of 20,000-50,000 euros, to 3 percent for 50,000-100,000 euros and to 4 percent for those earning 100,000 euros or more. Lawmakers and public office holders to pay a 5 percent rate.

– Tax-free threshold on income lowered to 8,000 euros annually from current level of 12,000 euros, with the lowest rate set at 10 percent and exemptions for young people up to 30 years, pensioners over 65 years and the disabled.

– Annual levy of 300 euros on the self-employed.

– Small tax hike for heating and diesel fuel for companies.

– Public spending cuts of 400 million euros in 2011.

By far, tech is the strongest sector.

No. Ticker % Change Sector
1 MOTR 14.86 TECHNOLOGY
2 MOBI 12.35 TECHNOLOGY
3 FTWR 10.48 TECHNOLOGY
4 CTFO 7.38 TECHNOLOGY
5 PRKR 6.90 TECHNOLOGY
6 TIER 6.81 TECHNOLOGY
7 TKLC 6.41 TECHNOLOGY
8 SHOR 6.40 TECHNOLOGY
9 WDC 6.33 TECHNOLOGY
10 NEWP 6.17 TECHNOLOGY
11 RVBD 6.13 TECHNOLOGY
12 EGHT 6.08 TECHNOLOGY
13 QPSA 5.72 TECHNOLOGY
14 PXLW 5.51 TECHNOLOGY
15 APKT 5.38 TECHNOLOGY
16 MTSN 5.36 TECHNOLOGY
17 SREV 5.03 TECHNOLOGY
18 ISS 4.95 TECHNOLOGY
19 RIMM 4.93 TECHNOLOGY
20 VOCS 4.83 TECHNOLOGY
21 HTCH 4.72 TECHNOLOGY
22 STX 4.54 TECHNOLOGY
23 VIMC 4.52 TECHNOLOGY
24 MSTR 4.44 TECHNOLOGY
25 CAVM 4.36 TECHNOLOGY
26 EMAN 4.22 TECHNOLOGY
27 ESIO 4.22 TECHNOLOGY
28 SATC 4.19 TECHNOLOGY
29 ESIC 3.95 TECHNOLOGY
30 SOLR 3.90 TECHNOLOGY

On the backs of Greek-IMF/EU deal