Iran Setting Up Prive Oil Export Group To Circumvent Sanctions

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) – An official says Iran has set up a private oil export group in an attempt to bypass a European ban on buying Iranian oil.

The ban is part of Western sanctions aimed at pressuring Iran over its nuclear program.

Hasan Khosrowjerdi, head of the Iranian oil products exporters union, said Monday the first contract for exporting Iran’s crude through the private sector will be signed next week.

Formation of the private group is the latest sign that the sanctions are taking a toll on Iran. The West suspects Iran is aiming to build nuclear weapons. Iran denies that.

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down over 60%

The magnitude of China’s slowing economy was put into some focus over the weekend after Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao warned of “huge downward pressure” facing the nation. His comments are the most blatant and blunt to date about the state of China’s economy.

At the same time, Wen tried to ease fears that the economy was growing much slower than expected, saying the economy was “running at a generally stable pace,” reports The New York Times.

Many estimates put China’s GDP growth for this year somewhere between 7 to 8 percent, which is down considerably from the country’s 10 percent-plus growth in recent years. But Gordon Chang, Forbes columnist and author of “The Coming Collapse of China, believes China is on a zero-growth trajectory due in large part to waning electricity consumption.

In April, China’s electricity output increased just 0.7 percent year-over-year, which is the slowest pace in nearly three years. In May, output increased by 2.7%. In the first five months of 2012, China’s electrical output rose 4.7 percent — less than half of that during the same time period in 2011.

“Because the growth of electricity historically outpaces the growth of the economy, we’re talking an economy that has flatlined,” says Chang, who is a longtime skeptic of China’s mega-growth.

Recent Chinese data also suggest China’s growth is stalling, perhaps at a faster clip than most forecasts. Wen’s comments come on the heels of an unexpected interest rate cut by China’s central bank last week, which was the second in four weeks. And on Monday, China’s consumer price index fell to a 29-month low of 2.2 percent in June from 3 percent in May, easing inflation fears.

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via BusinessWeek.com

Patriot Coal Corp. (PCX) (PCX), the U.S. fuel producer that has lost more than $7 billion in value, has lined up financing ahead of a bankruptcy filing that may come as soon as today, said two people with knowledge of the matter.

The so-called debtor-in-possession financing is being provided by Citigroup Inc., Barclays Plc and Bank of America Corp., said the people, who asked not to be identified as the process is private.

Patriot is the biggest casualty so far of the slump in the U.S. coal industry, which has seen tens of millions of tons of production cutbacks this year. Coal miners are struggling because of a combination of a warm winter, utilities switching some generating capacity to cheaper natural gas and regulatory moves to curb emissions from coal-burning power plants. U.S. coal use in the first quarter was the lowest for that period since 1988, according to the Energy Information Administration.

Patriot was spun off five years ago by Peabody Energy Corp. (BTU) (BTU) The shares had tumbled 74 percent this year through July 6 after the company idled some of its mines. The company’s market value peaked at $7.5 billion in 2008.

Patriot, Citigroup, Barclays and Bank of America didn’t immediately return phone calls seeking comment.

The St. Louis-based company said in May it hired Blackstone Group LP as it worked with lenders to refinance $625 million of loans and credit facilities.

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You had to know this; if not then your not paying attention…..

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Big brother and local law enforcement are listening….

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Some chart chomping analysis….

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“John Hussman has long been on the recession bandwagon and he says his call is finally coming to fruition.  In his latest note he highlights the evidence showing that we have reached the point that clearly delineates expansion from new recession (viaHussman Funds):”

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“The first question on the new Q&A page was:

Can you explain why you don’t think the USA is going to have a Greek style debt crisis?

Good question! This is one of those things that really confuse people because they understand how their own lives and businesses work as revenue constrained entities. But the autonomous currency issuer to household or business analogy doesn’t hold true. The reasoning is actually quite simple.”

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S for Stupid Silly Fast….

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REALLY ?

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“The Treasury and Federal Reserve are pursuing a weak dollar policy, as John Tamny, editor of RealClearMarkets.com sees it.

And the economy will continue to suffer if they don’t change course, he says.

“My view for quite some time has been that when we talk about economic problems in the U.S., we are really talking about symptoms of the weak dollar,” Tamny tells Yahoo.

“If the stated objective of your monetary policy is to devalue dollars, it is going to be true that investment is going to be less such that economic growth is less.”

Some economists say a weak currency is beneficial, because it boosts exports and curbs imports. But Tamny disagrees.

“Imports are beautiful. It is poor countries that don’t import,” he says. “If devaluation were the path to prosperity, then countries like Argentina and Zimbabwe and Turkey would be among the richest in the world.”

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“Wall Street banks are increasingly choosing to hoard their U.S. bonds rather than sell them to the Federal Reserve as speculation grows that a slowing economy and global financial turmoil will only make them more dear.

The world’s biggest bond dealers offered an average of $7.2 billion in Treasuries a day to the central bank in June, down 40.5 percent from a high of $12.1 billion in October, data compiled by Bloomberg show. The amount tendered has fallen even as the dealers almost doubled their holdings of the securities.”

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“Gartner has updated its forecasts on IT spend worldwide: spend in areas like hardware, software, and IT services are going to drive total investment of $3.6 trillion into IT overall. Gartner calls that number “lackluster,” in that it’s only slightly higher than Gartner projected last month, and only three percent more than 2011′s $3.5 trillion figure. However, what’s noticeable is that we are continuing to see a strong appetite for cloud computing. It will reach $109 billion in 2012 and will almost double in value by 2016 to $209 billion.”

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“Kayak’s perpetually-delayed IPO finally moved forward today, as the company has officially announced it has priced its shares between $22 and $25, and will begin trading on the NASDAQ under the ticker symbol “KYAK.”

In the most recent SEC filing, the company said it’s going to offer 3.5 million shares, in a deal led by Morgan Stanley – Stanley’s first since the Facebook IPO. Other banks participating include Deutsche Bank, Piper Jaffray, Stifel Nicolaus and Pacific Crest.”

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“Campbell Soup Co. (CPB), world’s largest soupmaker, agreed to buy Bolthouse Farms for about $1.55 billion in cash to bolster its juice business.

Bolthouse had sales of $689 million and earnings before interest and taxes of $79 million in its fiscal year ended March 31, Camden, New Jersey-based Campbell said today in a statement. Bakersfield, California-based Bolthouse is being bought from private-equity fund Madison Dearborn Partners LLC.”

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