INTC Bitchslaps CSCO, Ups Guidance-Cites No Change in European Business

“We haven’t seen any change in enterprise in Europe,” Otellini said today at a meeting for investors at the company’s headquarters in Santa Clara, California. “The year is playing out just as we expected. Enterprise is good. It’s not fantastic.” Intel, the world’s largest chipmaker, also reaffirmed its forecasts for the second quarter.

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Someone bet big time against JPM today, with over 13,000 put contracts traded in the May 41’s (WEEKLIES), 10,000 contracts more than any call contract. Suspicious to say the least. If the news was leaked, this would help shed light as to why the market sold off hard during the final hour of trade and was weak all day, despite robust trading in Europe.

UPDATE: That trade just returned 10x overnight.

FAZ +6% in after hours trade.

CLICK ON DIMON’S FACE TO ACCESS CALL.

London Whale: Since March 31, 2012, CIO has had significant mark-to-marketlosses in its synthetic credit portfolio, and this portfolio has proven to be riskier, more volatile and less effective as an economic hedge than the Firm previously believed.

More from the filing: The Firm is currently repositioning CIO’s synthetic creditportfolio, which it is doing in conjunction with its assessment of the Firm’s overall credit exposure. As this repositioning is beingeffected in a manner designed to maximize economic value,CIO may hold certain of its current synthetic credit positions for the longer term.

More from the filing: The Firm is currently repositioning CIO’s synthetic creditportfolio, which it is doing in conjunction with its assessment of the Firm’s overall credit exposure. As this repositioning is beingeffected in a manner designed to maximize economic value,CIO may hold certain of its current synthetic credit positions for the longer term.

Those comments are likely what we are looking at for this conference call. Jamie Dimon scoffed at all the media stories about the bank’s Chief Investment Office, which the media dubbed the London Whale, during the quarterly results, calling it a “complete tempest in a teapot.” Looks like that might have been overstated.

Source: WSJ

OOPS

JPMorgan Chase- 10-Q comment on impact from potential Moody’s downgrade
On February 15, 2012, Moody’s announced that it had placed 17 banks and securities firms with global capital markets operations on review for possible downgrade, including JPMorgan Chase. As part of this announcement, the long-term ratings of the Firm and its major operating entities were placed on review for possible downgrade, while all of the Firm’s short-term ratings were affirmed. If the Firm’s senior long-term debt ratings were downgraded by one notch or two notches, the Firm believes its cost of funds would increase; however, the Firm’s ability to fund itself would not be materially adversely impacted. JPMorgan Chase’s unsecured debt does not contain requirements that would call for an acceleration of payments, maturities or changes in the structure of the existing debt, provide any limitations on future borrowings or require additional collateral, based on unfavorable changes in the Firm’s credit ratings, financial ratios, earnings, or stock price.

• Molycorp recorded Q1 GAAP net sales of $84.5 million, up 221% over Q1 2011 net sales of $26.3 million, and recorded Q1 2012 gross sales of $89.5 million.
• First quarter revenues at Mountain Pass increased 69% over first quarter 2011 levels to $44.5 million, based on 586 metric tons (mt) of REO equivalent. Consolidated sales volume across all segments was 719 mt of REO equivalent and 75 mt of rare metals.
• The Company reported a Q1 GAAP loss of $0.07 per diluted share and adjusted earnings of $0.18 per diluted share, taking into account certain non-cash, out-of-ordinary business expenses, and other operational expansion items.

Source

The U.S. government posted a budget surplus in April, the first in more than three years, as tax revenue climbed and spending dropped.

Receipts topped outlays by $59.1 billion compared with a deficit of $40.4 billion in April 2011, the Treasury Department said today. Economists projected a $35 billion surplus, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey. It was the first surplus since September 2008 and the biggest since April 2008.

“The total federal budget deficit is slowly shrinking,” said Steven Wood, president of Insight Economics LLC in Danville, California. “However, this improvement has been halting, due largely to erratic economic and employment growth.”

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Islamabad, Pakistan (CNN) — The International Committee of the Red Cross said Thursday it was suspending its work in Pakistan pending a review of its presence in the South Asian country.

The decision comes after the killing of Khalil Rasjed Dale, a 60-year old health program manager who was abducted four months ago in Balochistan. His body was found last month.

The 900 national staff members of the Red Cross have been placed on paid leave, and 80 foreign staffers have been flown to Islamabad, said spokesman Christian Cardon.

“Over the last few years unfortunately, it has become very dangerous not only in Pakistan but all over the world with the ICRC staff being targeted and coming under attack,” Cardon said.

Jacques de Maio, the head of Red Cross operations for South Asia, said the aid agency was compelled to “completely reassess the balance between the humanitarian impact of our activities and the risks faced by our staff.”

The organization has halted all all its activities and said it was painfully aware of the consequences on the wounded, sick and other vulnerable people.

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NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — Mortgage interest rates hit new lows this week as both the 30-year and the 15-year fixed-rates fell, according to a weekly survey by Freddie Mac. It was the second consecutive week that rates broke records.

The 30-year, the most popular mortgage product, fell by 0.01 percentage points to 3.83%. Last year at this time, it stood at 4.63%. The new lows can save borrowers $46 a month for every $100,000 borrowed. Over a 30-year term that comes to more than $16,000.

The 15-year fixed dropped by 0.02 percentage points to 3.03%, lowering borrowing costs to $692 a month for every $100,000 borrowed, a $38 savings compared with a year earlier. Borrowers would pay out only $24,565 in interest over the life of the loan.

Rates are tracking the downward trend in Treasury yields, according to Frank Nothaft, Freddie’s chief economist, which have fallen in response to election results in Europe and a weaker than expected U.S. employment report.

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NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — It may be dangerous, difficult work, but oil drillers are well compensated for the job: In 2011 the average salary for rig workers and other industry personnel was $99,175.

That number includes fat paychecks for the highly skilled, like $235,586 for a “drilling consultant” and $139,868 for a “reservoir engineer”, according to Rigzone, an industry information provider that compiled the figures.

But even for someone with less than a year’s experience the average wage was $66,923.

A roustabout, one of the lowest workers on a rig who performs general maintenance and physical labor and requires little prior training, made $34,680 — the median wage for all American workers.

Read up on Po Pimp’s lucrative lifestyle, here:

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — Just in time for the start of the summer driving season, U.S. drivers are enjoying some relief at the pump, much sooner than past years.

Early May is typically about the time of year that gas prices hit their peak, as refineries switch over to start making the summer blend required after Memorial Day. In 2008, the record high price for gas of $4.114, didn’t come until July 17.

But this year the average national price for a gallon of unleaded has already been declining slowly but steadily for just over a month, shaving about 20 cents off a gallon of unleaded in that time. And with oil prices also falling, more declines at the pump are expected.

“You have seen an early peak in gasoline prices, and barring any headlines from Iran, that [decline in prices] should be the case throughout the summer,” said Mike Fitzpatrick, editor-in-chief of Kilduff Report’s Energy Overview.

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Occupy DC has gotten an upgrade from the run-down tent village where they once lived, now that one of the country’s most powerful labor unions is paying for office digs in downtown Washington.

The Service Employees International Union, one of President Obama’s biggest supporters, is paying the protest group’s $4,000-a-month rent at the Institute for Policy Studies, institute spokeswoman Lacy MacAuley told Fox News on Wednesday.

She said SEIU recently extended the offer, so Occupy organizers went shopping for office space and decided on a “separate, side suite” at the institute’s headquarters.

An Occupy spokeswoman confirmed the group is working from the space. The group settled in Monday, as first reported by The Washington Examiner.

At least one union member is not pleased with the arrangement.

SEIU member Kandy Gonzalez said Wednesday that she and other members were upset with the union spending dues on non-union concerns.

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Maybe they shouldn’t have agreed to those cuts in the first place? Fucking idiot Tea Party freshmen.

The House of Representative has voted to change the terms of last summer’s debt-ceiling deal, in order to protect the Pentagon from some automatic spending cuts.

The bill passed on a 218-199 vote.

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President Barack Obama has threatened to veto a Department of Justice appropriations bill House Republicans passed because, among other things, it includes a provision that blocks a gun control law his administration used Operation Fast and Furious to pass.

The Obama administration’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives wrote, and began implementing, a new rule that would require gun dealers in the four U.S. states that border Mexico to report sales of multiple semi-automatic rifles to the ATF.

In the 2013 fiscal year budget for the Department of Justice and related agencies, House Republicans inserted a rider, or condition, that would force the ATF to not implement that rule.

In a statement the White House released upon receiving the House appropriations bill, the administration threatened it would veto the legislation because of that ATF rider, among other things.

In the statement, the White House called that rider blocking the ATF rule’s implementation one of the few it “strongly opposes” because the Obama administration thinks it represents “problematic policy and language riders that have no place in funding legislation.”

Several House Republicans have charged that the Obama administration had an anti-gun agenda when it carried out Fast and Furious, and are particularly wary of Attorney General Eric Holder, who once expressed the need to “brainwash” the American people into disliking firearm ownership.

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The dispute between China and the Philippines over the countries’ maritime boundaries seems to have moved to a much more dangerous level — and could soon include the United States.

China is now warning of a potential war with its Asian neighbor.

“No matter how willing we are to discuss the issue, the current Philippine leadership is intent on pressing us into a corner where there is no other option left but the use of arms,” said an editorial in the state-controlled China Daily newspaper.

The dispute is over a small group of islands called the Scarborough Shoal off the northwestern Philippines that both nations claim as their territory.

Last month, a tense standoff took place between navies of both countries, after military vessels from the Philippines tried to stop a Chinese fishing fleet from entering the territory.

Non-military ships from both nations remain in the area to enforce their claim.

The shoal is about 140 miles from the coastline of the Philippines, which insists its claim is supported by international law.

The nearest Chinese-controlled land mass is several hundred miles away.

But China claims most of the South China Sea. Its claim spreads far to the southeast and includes waters very close to other Asian nations, such as Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam.

It is thought the South China Sea has vast quantities of oil and gas beneath it and all of these nations want to stake their claim.

It’s also a widely perceived as a potential flashpoint between the countries; it is also a major international waterway of the United States, which uses it to have its fleets pass through to the Middle East.

China announced today it was suspending all tours of the Philippines by Chinese nationals because of the risk, it says, for their safety.

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“The international branches of the Federal Reserve Central Bank have recently had liens issued against them.

Those banks are the European central banks; BIS, Germany, France, Netherlands, Belgium, Italy and Japan.

The liens against the central banks were done so under Admiralty Law.

Admiralty Law or the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) is the Law of the Sea treaty that was agreed upon after 1982. This law defines the rights and responsibilities of nations in their use of the world’s oceans, establishing guidelines for businesses, the environment, and the management of marine natural resources.

These liens constitute legal arrest warrants against the central bankers as conspirators against the global financial markets with intent to usurp control over the global monetary system.”

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This chart explains it all. Decoupling is merely a mirage for a quarter or two.

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