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Monthly Archives: July 2011

Regulators to wipe out outdated rules

From CNN:

In a nod to Big Business, President Obama on Monday issued an executive order asking independent agencies to rid their books of old and outdated regulations.

The White House made a similar request earlier this year to agencies it oversees. The new order asks agencies that don’t answer to the White House to join in this call to cut red tape.

“We are taking immediate steps to eliminate millions of hours in annual paperwork burdens for large and small business and save more than a $1 billion in annual regulatory costs,” said Obama in a memo accompanying the order.

The order, which was delivered to independent agencies on Monday, signals the White House’s sensitivity to complaints lobbed by big business groups and Republicans — that bureaucratic red tape and new rules are putting a crunch on job creation.

These groups are especially complaining about rules implementing expanded health care coverage, Wall Street reform and improved air quality standards.

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Nevada gaming revenue surges

Shares of Las Vegas Sands (NYSE: LVS – News), the operator of the Palazzo and Venetian resorts and the largest U.S. casino operator by market value, are down 3% today despite news that Nevada’s gambling revenue surged 16% in May, the largest monthly increase since 2006. Nevada casinos collected $984 million from casinos in May compared with $847.1 million in May 2010, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, which cited the state’s Gaming Control Board.

The news isn’t providing any assistance to the Casino Stocks Index, which is down 1.5%. The Index has jumped nearly 16% in the past month. Revenue on the Las Vegas strip rose almost 29% to $580.4 million from $450.2 million in May, according to the Review-Journal. That’s good for the best increase in Strip revenue since February 2010.

All areas of Clark County, except for Laughlin, showed increases in May gambling revenue. Laughlin experienced a 10.6% decline, the paper reported. For the fiscal year, which ended in June, gaming tax collections were more than $651.8 million, an increase of 3.3% over fiscal 2010, the Review-Journal reported.

Still, the news isn’t propping up casino stocks today. MGM Resorts International (NYSE: MGM – News) is slumping 5% while Wynn Resorts (NASDAQ: WYNN – News) is down 2%. Penn National Gaming (NASDAQ: PENN – News) is lower by 4% and Boyd Gaming (NYSE: BYD – News) is off 3%.

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Insurance Stocks Plunge on Equity Market Concerns

Insurance firms have massive exposure to both equity and bond markets. When markets get tough, they tend to lead to the downside. Here are the worst performers, intra-day.

No. Ticker % Change Industry Market Cap
1 ING -9.24 Life Insurance 45,430,000,000
2 AEG -6.71 Life Insurance 12,330,000,000
3 PUK -4.97 Life Insurance 29,920,000,000
4 GNW -4.58 Life Insurance 5,140,000,000
5 LNC -4.24 Life Insurance 8,940,000,000
6 PNX -3.95 Life Insurance 294,240,000
7 MFC -3.64 Life Insurance 31,310,000,000
8 SLF -3.35 Life Insurance 17,460,000,000
9 MET -3.13 Life Insurance 46,000,000,000
10 PRU -3.01 Life Insurance 31,420,000,000
11 PL -2.80 Life Insurance 1,990,000,000
12 RGA -2.44 Life Insurance 4,690,000,000
13 DFG -2.30 Life Insurance 1,650,000,000

No. Ticker % Change Industry Market Cap
1 HIG -4.07 Property & Casualty Insurance 11,700,000,000
2 XL -3.03 Property & Casualty Insurance 6,840,000,000
3 EIG -3.01 Property & Casualty Insurance 628,540,000
4 TRH -2.63 Property & Casualty Insurance 3,090,000,000
5 AWH -2.55 Property & Casualty Insurance 2,170,000,000

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Today’s Worst Performing Foreign Financials

No. Ticker % Change Industry Market Cap
1 DB -6.77 Foreign Money Center Banks 52,860,000,000
2 NBG -6.15 Foreign Money Center Banks 6,210,000,000
3 BCS -5.95 Foreign Money Center Banks 47,100,000,000
4 STD -5.94 Foreign Money Center Banks 96,000,000,000
5 LYG -5.76 Foreign Money Center Banks 49,970,000,000
6 AIB -5.06 Foreign Money Center Banks 2,180,000,000
7 ITUB -4.21 Foreign Money Center Banks 102,640,000,000
8 UBS -3.85 Foreign Money Center Banks 67,090,000,000
9 WBK -3.72 Foreign Money Center Banks 70,740,000,000
10 CS -3.62 Foreign Money Center Banks 45,720,000,000
11 GGAL -3.09 Foreign Money Center Banks 1,810,000,000
12 HBC -2.17 Foreign Money Center Banks 174,630,000,000

No. Ticker % Change Industry Market Cap
1 BBVA -7.08 Foreign Regional Banks 49,400,000,000
2 IRE -3.77 Foreign Regional Banks 1,400,000,000
3 BBD -3.65 Foreign Regional Banks 76,450,000,000
4 BMA -3.50 Foreign Regional Banks 2,340,000,000
5 BPOP -3.44 Foreign Regional Banks 2,820,000,000
6 HDB -3.08 Foreign Regional Banks 28,150,000,000
7 SHG -2.95 Foreign Regional Banks 22,760,000,000
8 BFR -2.91 Foreign Regional Banks 1,840,000,000
9 IBN -2.33 Foreign Regional Banks 27,640,000,000

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Today’s Top Performing ETF’s

No. Ticker % Change
1 TVIX 12.03
2 CVOL 8.13
3 TVIZ 7.61
4 EDZ 7.35
5 BXDC 7.27
6 DPK 6.89
7 LHB 6.42
8 ERY 6.21
9 FAZ 6.02
10 EPV 6.02
11 VIXY 5.91
12 VIIX 5.88
13 YANG 5.87
14 VXX 5.85
15 BZQ 5.34
16 FXP 5.24
17 RUSS 5.11
18 MWN 4.85
19 EEV 4.81
20 SRTY 4.77
21 DRV 4.59
22 SMK 4.48
23 SMN 4.46
24 SPXU 4.44
25 BGZ 4.40

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Fund Manager Mike Riddell: Italy and Spain Will Be Downgrade and There Will Be Carnage

“Italy was until recently deemed by the market (not by us) to be the ‘safe’ peripheral country, and a lot of international investors have been overweight Italy versus benchmarks as a proxy against zero holdings in Portugal, Ireland, Greece and Spain,”

 

Full article

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Dollar slump over according to currency forecasters

The best currency forecasters say the dollar’s 13 percent slide over the past year is coming to an end as Europe’s deepening debt crisis discourages bets against the world’s reserve currency.

Led by Schneider Foreign Exchange Ltd., the five most- accurate firms during the six quarters through June 30 as measured by Bloomberg see the dollar trading at $1.42 per euro on average by year-end, compared with $1.43 on July 8. Against the yen, they predict the greenback will rise to 83 from 80.64.

While Moody’s Investors Service added to Europe’s woes last week by lowering Portugal’s credit ranking to junk, the dollar is regaining its status as a haven after the worst performance over the past year among 10 developed-market currencies based on Bloomberg Correlation-Weighted Indexes. The dollar is up 5.3 percent from a 17-month low on May 4 against the euro.

“There’s not a lot of room left for it to weaken beyond $1.50 to the euro, and we still see it recovering to about $1.40 by year-end,” said Stephen Gallo, head of market analysis at Schneider in London, who had an average margin of error of 5.05 percent across all currency pairs. “The risk of a disorderly default is, for now, much higher in Europe than in the U.S.”

Read more here.

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Almost 20% of personal income from government

The safety net largely expires at the end of this year.

An extraordinary amount of personal income is coming directly from the government.

Close to $2 of every $10 that went into Americans’ wallets last year were payments like jobless benefits, food stamps, Social Security and disability, according to an analysis by Moody’s Analytics. In states hit hard by the downturn, like Arizona, Florida, Michigan and Ohio, residents derived even more of their income from the government.

By the end of this year, however, many of those dollars are going to disappear, with the expiration of extended benefits intended to help people cope with the lingering effects of the recession. Moody’s Analytics estimates $37 billion will be drained from the nation’s pocketbooks this year.

In terms of economic impact, that is slightly less than the spending cuts Congress enacted to keep the government financed through September, averting a shutdown.

Unless hiring picks up sharply to compensate, economists fear that the lost income will further crimp consumer spending and act as a drag on a recovery that is still quite fragile. Among the other supports that are slipping away are federal aid to the states, the Federal Reserve’s program to pump money into the economy and the payroll tax cut, scheduled to expire at the end of the year.

“If we don’t get more job growth and gains in wages and salaries, then consumers just aren’t going to have the firepower to spend, and the economy is going to weaken,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics, a macroeconomic consulting firm.

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Upgrades and Downgrades This Morning

Upgrades

FOSL – Fossil coverage assumed with Overweight at $150 tgt at JPMorgan

EQT – EQT Corp. upgraded to Buy from Neutral at SunTrust

EMC – EMC initiated with Positive at Susquehanna

CHKP – Check Point Software tgt raised to $65 from $60 at RBC

ELN – Elan ests and target raised to $15 at RBC Capital Mkts

KLAC  – KLA-Tencor upgraded to Hold from Sell at Citigroup

PETS – PetMed Express downgraded to Market Perform at William Blair

ONE – Higher One upgraded to Buy at Goldman

NFLX – Netflix tgt increased to $330 from $300 at Goldman

CVC – Cablevision initiated with a Hold at Brean Murray

MICC – Millicom added to Conviction Buy list at Goldman

CBS – CBS target raised to $35 at Needham

DTV – DIRECTV initiated with a Buy at Brean Murray

LRCX – Lam Research upgraded to Buy from Sell at Citigroup

WFM – Whole Foods added to Conviction Buy List at Goldman

MSCC – Microsemi upgraded to Outperform at Oppenheimer

Downgrades

TDC – Teradata downgraded to Hold at KeyBanc Capital Mkts on valuation

TMK – Torchmark downgraded to Neutral at JPMorgan

NTSP – NetSpend downgraded to Neutral at Goldman

CVC – Cablevision target lowered to $15 at Hudson Square Research

DEO – Diageo plc downgraded to Mkt Perform at Bernstein

BSYBY – British Sky Broadcasting upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Goldman

CREE – Cree target lowered to $34 at Wunderlich

TWC – Time Warner Cable initiated with a Hold at Brean Murray

BMR – BioMed Realty downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at Wells Fargo

IYR – Industrial REIT sector downgraded to Market Weight at Wells Fargo

GOV – Government Properties Income Trust downgraded to Underperform at Wells Fargo

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Gapping Up and Down This Morning

Gapping Up

SQNM +1%, LRCX +1%, ARJ +9.7%, WFM +1.4%, ENP +4.6%, RBCN +4.6%, ESL +1.3%,  SONO +1.6%, SWC +1.1%, ESIC +5.9%, PSTI +4.2%, ARJ +9.7%, SIRI +2.7%, ESIC +5.9%,

Gapping Down

BCS -3.4%, BP -1.4%, TOT -2.7%, SNY -2.1%, E -2.8%, BUD -2.8%, TEF -2.7%, STO -2%,  ARMH -1.4%, UBS -1.8%, CS -1.6%, RDS.A -1.6%, MT -1.4%, RIO -1%, BBVA -3.2%, DB -3.1%, STD -3.1%, RBS -3.1%, 

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