All is well. Long live Dimon.
Comments »Monthly Archives: June 2012
Mortgage Applications Fell Last Week
“According to the Mortgage Bankers Association, applications for mortgages declined by -0.8% last week compared with a week earlier. The refinance index rose by 1%, but the purchase index fell by -9%. Here’s the MBA’s take:
Comments »Refinance volume increased again last week, but the composition of activity changed markedly. Despite rates remaining near all-time lows, conventional refinance application volume declined, and the HARP share of refinance activity dropped to 20 percent. On the other hand, FHA refinance volume exploded to an all-time high, more than doubling over the week. … Purchase activity fell off last week, but this is likely only a recalibration following the Memorial Day holiday, as the level of activity remains within the narrow band seen for the past 3 years.”
Burger King Stock Returns to NYSE Today
***ALERT*** FED DECISION WILL BE GIVEN AT 12:30 TODAY, NOT 2:15
BRIC Countries Discuss Currency Swaps and a Liquidity Pool To Avoid Problems With Euro Crisis
“Brazil, Russia, India and China, the BRIC countries, are back to talking about creating a unified financial system where they can avoid euro and dollar volatility. This time, a pooling of Central Bank dollars from the countries in case liquidity dried up as the world tracks the West’s crisis momentum.
Regardless of the amount of difficulty involved, the big four emerging markets plus South Africa said earlier this week they were considering setting up a foreign-exchange reserve pool and a currency-swap arrangement in an effort to avoid any credit crisis stemming from the advanced economies.”
Comments »UCLA Economic Forecasters Expect Tepid Recovery Through 2012
“UCLA’s economic forecasters expect the rest of 2012 to feel like a Jeep ride through thick mud: “slow and bumpy.”
While the housing market has shown signs of bottoming out, the university’s economists aren’t ready to bank on it. Instead, they’re more certain that 2013 and 2014 will be the growth years, according to the quarterly economic forecast released Wednesday by UCLA’s Anderson School of Business.
“Consequently, our forecast continues to give residential construction the dubious honor of standing with government as the two sectors providing a drag on the 2012 recovery,” writes senior economist Jerry Nickelsburg.
California’s economy will see continued slow, steady gains in employment through the year’s end but won’t see single-digit unemployment until 2013.
“The unemployment rate will hover around 10.6 percent through 2012,” Nickelsburg wrote in the forecast. “Unemployment will fall through 2013 and will average 9.7 percent, approximately the same as our last forecast. In 2014, we expect the unemployment rate to drop to 8.3 percent, a percent higher than our U.S. forecast.”
Comments »Upgrades and Downgrades This Morning
Gapping Up and Down This Morning
Gapping up
IDIX +20.6%, LZB +4.3%, ONXX +2.2%, RIO +2.2%, JBL +2%, AMAT +1.9%, BBL +1.5%,
CSCO +0.5% , BHP +1.2%, CHH +2.6%, MPC +1.6%, ARMH +1.8%, NKE +1.2%, TSLA +2.3%,
ARNA +5.2%, GEVO +18.2%, RIO +2.2%, MT +1.7%, BBL +1.5%, GOLD +0.8%,
Gapping down
FSII -13.1%, CIM -5.2%, ADBE -5.2%, SHO -2.6%, PG -2.3%, QSFT -1.2%,
SO -0.6%, WAG -0.8%, CRUS -0.7% , MTL -3.2%, LZB -1.2%,
JAG -2.3%, AUY -1.3%, ABX -1.3%, GG -1.1%, GDX -1.1%, GLD -1.0%, NEM -1.0%,
SLW -0.8%, AEM -0.5%
Comments »In Play and On the Wires
DICK bove: To Fire Up Growth, Scrap Excessive Bank Rules
“The Federal Reserve is debating whether or not it will stimulate the economy to encourage job creation, but any decision to intervene won’t work, says Dick Bove, a banking analyst at Rochdale Securities.
Scrapping regulations to encourage more lending will give the economy the jolt that it needs, Bove says.
“It seems clear that the United States economy’s growth is slowing and that the global economy is facing major challenges. This suggests a need for some action by the Federal Reserve and other central banks,” Bove writes in a note to clients, CNBC reports.
“It also appears to be just as evident that lowering interest rates to zero and printing more money are not effective options.”
Comments »No Need for Easing, Fed’s Work Is Done: Former Fed Governor
“The Federal Reserve’s monetary easing has reached its limit and it is now time for the government to put fiscal policy to work, according to Robert Heller, former governor of the U.S. central bank.
“Monetary policy, the foot is on the gas pedal, has been there for a long time, three years now,” Heller, who served on the Fed’s board from 1986 to 1989, told CNBC Asia’s “Squawk Box” on Wednesday. “And I think the Fed has done what it can do. It’s now the time for fiscal policy to do its part.”
Comments »Proctor and Gamble Cuts Growth Targets
$JPM and Other Banks Win a Recent Battle of Derivatives Exposure Documentation
“JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM), UBS AG (UBSN) and two other banks won an attempt to block U.K. prosecutors from seizing documents that Italian authorities sought to use at a criminal trial over derivatives, a London judge ruled today.
The lenders, along with Deutsche Bank AG (DBK) and Depfa Bank Plc, won a ruling quashing a request for information from the U.K. Serious Fraud Office, Judge Peter Gross said in a judgment issued today in London. The SFO had an “obvious lack of authority” in the case, Gross said.”
Comments »The European Debt Crisis Causes Japan to Report Their First Trade Deficit
“Japan reported its first trade deficit with the European Union since the Finance Ministry began tracking data in 1979 as the debt crisis roiling Spain and Greece limits a rebound in Japanese exports.
An overall shortfall of 907.3 billion yen ($11.5 billion) for May, reported today in Tokyo, was bigger than all 24 estimates in a Bloomberg News survey of economists. Exports rose 10 percent from a year earlier, the most in 17 months, while imports exceeded estimates. The trade gap with the EU was 11.1 billion yen.”
Comments »Hollande Says Europe Mulling Having ESM Buy Italian Bonds
“French President Francois Hollande pushed German leaders to use the European Union’s permanent rescue fund to buy debt from countries such as Italy that have taken steps to revamp their economies.
“Italy has launched an idea that deserved to be looked at,” Hollande told reporters after a summit of Group of 20 leaders in Los Cabos, Mexico. The proposal is for “virtuous countries like Italy,” which have improved their public finances, to “be able to get funding for their debt” at better rates than countries that didn’t make the same efforts.”
Comments »The Bank of England Overrules King’s Effort to Ramp Up QE
“Bank of England Governor Mervyn King was overruled for the first time since 2009 as he joined a push to expand stimulus that’s gaining momentum amid rising jobless claims and growing risks from Europe’s debt crisis.
The Monetary Policy Committee voted 5-4 to keep its bond- purchase target at 325 billion pounds ($511 billion) this month. That defeated votes by King, Adam Posen and David Miles for a 50 billion-pound expansion, and Paul Fisher’s bid for 25 billion pounds. A separate report showed jobless-benefit claims climbed climbed 8,100 in May from the previous month to 1.6 million, the Office for National Statistics said.”
Comments »Rio Tinto Drops $4.2 Billion to Expand for Future Demand in China
Rio Tinto will expand mines under use in Australia and Guinea to meet future China demand.
Comments »Inflation Slows in South Africa
Good news out of South Africa as inflation has slowed to 5.7%. Anytime an emerging emerging market sees inflation slowing, the western world can take a breathe of relief as they continue to print money.
Comments »World Markets and U.S. Futures Cheer on Greece as the New Party Leader Says They are Forming a Coalition Government
World markets took another breathe of relief as the new party government of Greece said they are committed to forming a coalition government. More importantly, lower yields in Spain & Italy along with expected action from the fed has allowed equities to rise significantly off the 200 day or lower.
Comments »Spanish and Italian Yields Fall Ahead of the Fed Meeting
“Spanish and Italian bonds rose for a second day on speculation European leaders are seeking ways to cut countries’ borrowing costs. Stocks and U.S. index futures rose as Greece’s Pasok party leader Evangelos Venizelos said the country is forming a government and before theFederal Reserve announces whether it will take new steps to boost the economy.
The yield on the Spanish 10-year bond fell 18 basis points to 6.86 percent at 7:45 a.m. in New York, with the equivalent maturity Italian yield 12 basis points lower. The Stoxx Europe 600 (SXXP) Index added 0.3 percent and Standard & Poor’s 500 Index futures increased 0.2 percent. Japan’s Topix rallied 1.7 percent to the highest since May 15 after exports beat estimates. The Dollar Index fell less than 0.1 percent. Turkey’s lira gained after Moody’s Investors Service upgraded the country’s debt. Cotton climbed 1.2 percent after jumping 6 percent yesterday.”
Comments »
