Verbally speaking of course.
Comments »Monthly Archives: July 2011
Asian Markets Open to the Downside with the Nikkei Turning in the Worst Performance of -0.70%
What Does Zero Hedge and The World’s Largest Hedge Fund Manager Have in Common ?
Air Conditioning, Cable TV, and an Xbox: What is Poverty in the United States Today?
Each year for the past two decades, the U.S. Census Bureau has reported that over 30 million Americans were living in “poverty.” In recent years, the Census has reported that one in seven Americans are poor. But what does it mean to be “poor” in America? How poor are America’s poor?
For most Americans, the word “poverty” suggests destitution: an inability to provide a family with nutritious food, clothing, and reasonable shelter. For example, the Poverty Pulse poll taken by the Catholic Campaign for Human Development asked the general public: “How would you describe being poor in the U.S.?” The overwhelming majority of responses focused on homelessness, hunger or not being able to eat properly, and not being able to meet basic needs.[1] That perception is bolstered by news stories about poverty that routinely feature homelessness and hunger.
Yet if poverty means lacking nutritious food, adequate warm housing, and clothing for a family, relatively few of the more than 30 million people identified as being “in poverty” by the Census Bureau could be characterized as poor.[2] While material hardship definitely exists in the United States, it is restricted in scope and severity. The average poor person, as defined by the government, has a living standard far higher than the public imagines.
- The typical poor household, as defined by the government, has a car and air conditioning, two color televisions, cable or satellite TV, a DVD player, and a VCR. If there are children, especially boys, the family has a game system, such as an Xbox or PlayStation.
- In the kitchen, the household has a refrigerator, an oven and stove, and a microwave. Other household conveniences include a clothes washer, clothes dryer, ceiling fans, a cordless phone, and a coffee maker.
- The home of the typical poor family is in good repair and is not overcrowded. In fact, the typical average poor American has more living space in his home than the average (non-poor) European has.
- By its own report, the typical poor family was not hungry, was able to obtain medical care when needed, and had sufficient funds during the past year to meet all essential needs.
Read the rest here.
Comments »Cisco Cuts 6500 Positions In Order to Save a Billion
Peter Schiff: “I think that all the talk about default is really an admission that the United States is running a gigantic Ponzi scheme,”
Sean Egan: All Of Europe Is Like One Big Lehman
Really. I like what someone mentioned this morning that a Brady Bond style backstop/ would most likely occur. Guess that would be the IMF no ?
Comments »IBM Reports $3.09 EPS vs Consensus of $3.01 on Revenues of $26.7 vs Consensus of $24.5 Billion
Stock trades down slightly in AH despite a clear beat and decent above estimates guidance.
Comments »U.S. Markets Pare Gains; But Still Dragged Down by the Banks
Markets came back nicely from the lows. Commodities fared well; especially gold and silver
Comments »Apple Said to be Closer To Getting a Deal in China
Big Banks Might Have to Raise 2.5% More Capital to Prevent Collapse
Collapse would be the answer in a “free” capitalistic market that allows market forces to wash out the bad and raise up the good.
Comments »Bank of America May Need $50 Billion More of Your Tax Dollars
Even with crooked accounting rules and tax payer bailouts it is hard to stay solvent…
Comments »Uncle Sam Fails
Uncle Sam was going to clean up Wall st and diversify the “Too big to fail” banking industry. Well 10 banks now own 77% of U.S. banking assets. That is more than when the debacle started; up from 55% of asset ownership in 2002.
Call me crazy, but it almost seems to be by design.
Comments »Iran Opens Oil Bourse Exchange: Dollar Demise Could Be at Hand
This is a serious blow to the dollar; especially if this catches on. The Iranian Oil Bourse will trade oil in many currencies.
To make matters worse Iran has the low sulfur high grade sweet crude everybody wants. Now nations that never trade with the U.S., but had to hold dollars to buy oil do not have to do so anymore.
Comments »Sigma X Trades Indicate U.K. Spreads are About to Blow Out
Zero Hedge is keeping good tabs on this action. Thanx (SIC)
According to their analysis something is about to blow in Italy, but recent trades show positioning against the U.K.
Comments »China Increases U.S. Treasury Holdings For a Second Straight Month
Allstate Drops 5% as President Announces Departure
Home Builder Confidence Rises
Upgrades and Downgrades This Morning
Upgrades
VMI – Valmont target raised to $134 from $125 at Stifel Nicolaus
CWEI – Clayton Williams initiated with a Buy at Wunderlich
NUS – Nu Skin target raised to $43 from $38 at Stifel Nicolaus
PFE – Pfizer below $20 creates aggressive buying opportunity – Ticonderoga
DGI – DigitalGlobe upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Merriman
CLX – Clorox upgraded to Market Perform from Underperform at Bernstein
VRX – Valeant Pharmaceuticals target raised to $60 from $57 at Stifel Nicolaus
SM – SM Energy target raised to $95 from $85 at Stifel Nicolaus
WSDT – Wisdom Tree initiated with a Buy at Citigroup
ERIC – LM Ericsson upgraded to Outperform from Neutral at Credit Suisse
Downgrades
SNDK – SanDisk tgt lowered to $63 at Stifel
LNKD – LinkedIn downgraded to Neutral from Overweight at JP Morgan
FLIR – FLIR Systems target lowered to $34 at Needham
AWI – Armstrong World Industries downgraded to Hold from Buy at BB&T
NGL – NGL Energy Partners initiated with a Outperform at Robert W. Baird
CCE – Coca-Cola Ent initiated with a Neutral at Nomura
ABC – AmerisourceBergen removed from Conviction Buy List at Goldman
DLTR – Dollar Tree downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Goldman
NFLX – Netflix downgraded to Sector Perform from Outperform at Pacific Crest
SPWRA – Sunpower downgraded to Sell at Collins Stewart
ENTR – Entropic Comms downgraded to Sell at Stifel Nicolaus
Comments »Gapping Up and Down This morning
Gapping Up
AEM +1.4%, GG +1.4%, GOLD +1.3%, SLV +2.6%, EDU +7.3%, ABX +1.3%, AUY +1.0%, GLD +0.5%, VLNC +6.8%, EOG +0.7%, GHL +4.9%, SOL +2.4%, ENR +2%, HAL +1.7%, SVM +3.4%, AU +2.7%, SLV +2.6%, UXG +1.4%, HL +0.4%, PPDI +12.0%, MSSR +2.8%, AU +2.7%,
Gapping Down
ESLR -25.6%, DB -3.4%, MT -3.1%, LAKE -3%, AIXG -5.6%, UBS -2.4%, PHG -1.9%, RIO -1.8%,BBL -1.8%, BHP -1.5%, HBC -1.2%, LNKD -4.5%, BCS -3.9%, CS -3.7%,
Comments »
