Check Out Bill Ackman’s Slideshow Presentation About His Long Hong Kong Dollar Trade

COURTESY OF MARKET FOLLY 

Netflix Says One Million Customers Expected To Depart After Price Hike

TRENTON, N.J. – September 15, 2011 (WPVI) — MTV’s “Jersey Shore” GTL motto might now stand for gym-tax credit-laundry instead of gym-tan-laundry.

The state Economic Development Authority on Wednesday approved covering $420,000 of the production costs for the hit reality series’ inaugural 2009 season.

Assemblyman Declan O’Scanlon told the Statehouse Bureau of The Star-Ledger of Newark and The Record newspaper he can’t believe taxpayers are paying “for fake tanning for `Snooki’ and `The Situation.”‘

The show centers on the cast living it up along the beach and boardwalk in Seaside Heights.

Seaside Heights Mayor P. Kenneth Hershey says the local economy gets a boost when the cast is in the town.

Gov. Chris Christie suspended the film tax credit program in 2010 to close a budget deficit.

SOURCE

Story Here

__________________

“The rent’s too damn high,” to quote Jimmy McMillan, former New York State gubernatorial candidate.

And for Donald Trump, that’s true when it comes to rent in cold hard dollars, given his sharp criticisms of the Federal Reserve’s open fire hydrant of dollar printing and the Obama Administration’s fiscal policies.

Which is why, for the first time ever, Trump will accept today gold bullion instead of dollars for a lease deposit from his newest tenant in one of his marquee properties, 40 Wall Street, a 70-story skyscraper in Manhattan’s Financial District that at one time was the tallest building in the city until the Chrysler Building surpassed it. Trump will accept the gold at an event in the lobby of the Trump Tower at 725 Fifth Avenue.
Read more: http://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/2011/09/15/trump-accepts-gold-instead-dollars-from-tenant/#ixzz1Y2EwXWY9

PUERTO GAITAN, Colombia — “I don’t have any problems firing everyone I need to fire,” Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez thundered in 2002, as he began purging state oil company executives who had mounted protests against him.

Months later, nearly 20,000 oil workers, from petroleum engineers to geologists and managers, had been fired. But with the company under the president’s tight control, production has swiftly fallen and Venezuela has slipped from the world’s fifth-largest oil exporter to the 11th.

The oilmen who were banished have taken their experience drilling for Venezuela’s tar-like oil to countries as varied as Iraq, Nigeria and Canada. But the presence of Venezuelan petro-scientists has been most vital here in Colombia, where they have helped oil companies sharply increase the production of crude, much of which is exported to the United States.

“Chavez has been a huge help for the petroleum industry in Colombia,” said Humberto Calderon, a former Venezuelan mining minister who now runs Vetra Energy in southern Colombia.

Colombia is now on the verge of achieving what just a few years ago was unthinkable: pumping 1 million barrels of oil a day, up from 540,000 barrels daily in 2005.

“This is practically doubling production during the last four or five years,” said Javier Gutierrez, president of Colombia’s state oil company, Ecopetrol. “It’s a spectacular development.”

The new El Dorado is here in Colombia’s stark eastern plains, a wild land known for its horsemen and harp-based folkloric ballads.

Across 700 square miles, Pacific Rubiales Energy, which is listed on the Toronto stock exchange, jacked up production from 14,000 barrels a day as recently as 2007 to 224,000 last week. Although 12,000 Colombians work here, the company’s top directors and those overseeing exploration and production cut their teeth at the Venezuelan state oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela, known worldwide as Pdvsa.

“The top management of Pdvsa is now the top management of Pacific Rubiales,” said Ronald Pantin, the chief executive and founder of the company, himself a former high executive at Pdvsa (pronounced peh-deh-veh-sah). “All the people we brought from Venezuela have more than 25 years of experience, so people with a huge knowledge of all this geology.”

A new reality

That experienced oilmen are now considering Colombia as a destination is a testament to a new reality on the ground in this once-chaotic country and what oil analysts call Venezuela’s mismanagement of its oil sector.

Once terrorized by leftist rebel groups that often bombed oil pipelines, much of rural Colombia has been pacified after a long army offensive supported by U.S. aid. Colombia’s previous government, led by President Alvaro Uribe, also introduced financial incentives that lured scores of oil companies, said Ramon Espinasa, senior oil and gas specialist at the Inter-American Development Bank.

Gutierrez of Ecopetrol said 65 percent of the basins that may hold oil have now been awarded to oil companies; eight years ago only 13 percent of the potential oil fields were being developed.

SOURCE 

Check Them Out Here

Full article

Story Here 

Full article

BNP Paribas leading the way, +14%.

Currently up $1.97 @ $30.62

Full preliminary report 

Another look

Upgrades

MHP – McGraw-Hill upgraded to Buy at Argus

INXN – InterXion initiated with a Buy at Stifel Nicolaus

ACI – Arch Coal upgraded to Buy from Hold at Deutsche Bank

NOG – Northern Oil & Gas initiated with a Market Perform at BMO Capital

GNOM – Complete Genomics initiated with an Outperform at Mizuho

ONXX – Onyx Pharma upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Goldman

SPIL – Siliconware Precision upgraded to Buy from Underperform at BofA/Merrill

ARX – Aeroflex added to Conviction Buy List at Goldman

CBRL – Cracker Barrel upgraded to Outperform from Market Perform at Raymond James

HMIN – Home Inns initiated with an Outperform at William Blair

KOG – Kodiak Oil & Gas initiated with a Outperform at Oppenheimer

GIII – G-III Apparel upgraded to Buy at Stifel Nicolaus

NCR – NCR Corp initiated with a Outperform at Oppenheimer

FMBI – First Midwest Banc upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Sterne Agee

AMAT – Applied Materials upgraded to Outperform at Oppenheimer

HSNI – HSN initiated with a Buy at Wunderlich

CL – Colgate-Palmolive upgraded to Buy from Neutral at BofA/Merrill

XEC – Cimarex initiated with a Perform at Oppenheimer

Downgrades

ILMN – Illumina downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at Leerink Swan

SMG – Scotts Miracle-Gro downgraded to Neutral from Buy at BofA/Merrill

CENT – Central Garden downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Suntrust

CAG – ConAgra downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Goldman

EL – Estee Lauder upgraded to Buy from Neutral at BofA/Merrill

PG – Procter & Gamble downgraded to Neutral from Buy at BofA/Merrill

LNKD – LinkedIn initiated with a Hold at Argus

UTHR – United Therapeutics downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Goldman

DOLE – Dole Food upgraded to Overweight from Neutral at JP Morgan

LIFE – Life Technologies downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at Leerink Swann

GPC – Genuine Parts downgraded to Underperform from Buy at BofA/Merrill

Gapping up

TSPT +18.3%, NCT +7.1%, DB +4.4%, BBVA +4.3%, LYG +3.3%, ACC +3.1%, ING +2.8%, MT +2.7%, CS +2.7%,

BCS +1.9%, SNY +1.9%, BP +1.9%, HBC +1.8%, TOT +1.8%, COL +1.5%, RIO +1%, SCOK +4.4%, COL +1.5%,

PIR +1.3%, RBS +2.3%, SVM +4.9%, AU +1.6%, BBL +1.3%, RIO +1%, BHP +1%, AMAT +2.3%,

Gapping down

UBS -8.5%, CLC -7.8%, BQI -4.3%, GLD -0.9%, VECO -9.4%, AIXG -17.4%, SLV -0.9%,  GDX -0.6%, KITD -8.7%, NFLX -14.5%,   BQI -4.3%, CLC -7.8%, PWRD -7%, AN -1.1%, ASNA -3.2%,

In Play

On the Wires

Full duh article

Here we go again….yesterday equity markets had some hope, but Merkel has decided to reiterate negativity with a belief that EU bonds will not solve the problem.

So far equity markets are ignoring her comments.

Full article

Video article on this and the day ahead