Asia Trades a Little Lower, Europe Rallies, U.S. Futures Reach for Higher Ground

World Markets

Currencies

Commodities

USD Libor

Euribor

Yields for Italy, Spain, France,  and Germany …

A great read from iBC’s own Redman.

Volume tends to be the go-to excuse for bears as this market keeps grinding higher.  While I have nothing new to say, I wanted to share two articles that highlight on why volume on the indices should not be a factor in your bull/bear case.

Read the rest here.

• An international group of prominent scientists supports the idea that animals are conscious and aware to the degree that humans are.
• The list includes all mammals, birds and even some encephlopods.
• The group says consciousness can emerge even in those animals that are very much unlike humans

Read the rest here.

Pew Research conducted an exhaustive survey monitoring how favorably or unfavorably President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney were being portrayed in all media outlets. Pew discovered that during morning and evening network news, Obama was portrayed much more favorably than Romney, even in the midst of a slumping economy.

Read the rest here.

FRANKFURT — The president of the German central bank said in an interview published Sunday that he remained staunchly opposed to government bond purchases by the European Central Bank, a position that could make it more difficult to deploy a weapon many economists believe is essential to saving the euro.

Read the rest here.

Simon Johnson’s new piece is worth a read…

Two diametrically opposed views of Wall Street and the dangers posed by global megabanks came more clearly into focus last week.  On the one hand, William B. Harrison, Jr. – former chairman of JP Morgan Chase – argued in the New York Times that today’s massive banks are an essential part of a well-functioning market economy, and not at all helped by implicit government subsidies.

On the other hand, there is a new powerful voice who knows how big banks really work and who is willing to tell the truth in great and convincing detail.  Jeff Connaughton – a former senior political adviser who has worked both for and against powerful Wall Street interests over the years – has just published a page-turning memoir that is also a damning critique of how Wall Street operates, the political capture of Washington, and our collective failure to reform finance in the past four years.  “The Payoff: Why Wall Street Always Wins,” is the perfect antidote to disinformation put about by global megabanks and their friends.

Specifically, Mr. Harrison makes six related arguments regarding why we should not break up our largest banks.  Each of these is clearly and directly refuted by Mr. Connaughton’s experience and the evidence he presents.

Read the rest here.

A recovery in housing could boost Weyerhaeuser’s sales and earnings, and unlock the value of its high-quality timberland and real-estate assets. A REIT with rising payouts.

Read the rest here.

(Reuters) – The streak is over, but is the trend intact?

A six-week string of gains in the S&P 500 .SPX ended on Friday amid shifting expectations for central bank stimulus. This week could bring clarity on that issue, and that could determine whether the recent rally that took the index to four-year highs will persist.

Read the rest here.

On August 24^th, we warned on Forbes that Tropical Storm Isaac could pose a threat to energy markets and even rival Hurricane Katrina in its destructive power (Could Tropical Storm Isaac Turn Into Another Katrina?).  While the computer models are still showing a substantial spread in solutions, it appears more likely that Isaac will make landfall somewhere near the Louisiana, Mississippi Gulf Coast.  This track will provide the storm more time to intensify over the very warm water of the Gulf of Mexico.

Read the rest here.

After a contentious three-week patent trial between Apple and Samsung, jurors awarded Apple $1.05 billion and concluded that Samsung “willfully” infringed several Apple patents. The legal battle was significant for the normally clandestine company. Lawyers managed to get Apple talking in ways it never had, from telling emails between executives to weird and wonderful iPhone prototypes. Here are the juiciest revelations.

Read the rest here.

[youtube://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cO1F7EcGFAc 450 300]

Gold traders are the most bullish in nine months after investors’ bullion holdings expanded to a record on mounting speculation that central banks will do more to bolster economic growth.

In the months following the 2008–09 economic crisis, emerging-market economies robustly rebounded. Output in China and India expanded more than 10 percent in 2010, and Brazil’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth of 7.5 percent was its best performance in 25 years. Emerging-market economies retraced their precrisis level of industrial production by 2009, while advanced economies remained below their precrisis levels in 2012 (Chart 1).

Enlarge

But the strong emerging-market rebound—most significantly in China—hasn’t endured. When China’s average GDP growth remained above 9 percent in 2011, hopes rose that a sustained recovery would prop up the world economy amid the European sovereign debt crisis and subpar growth in the U.S. However, China’s economy deteriorated rapidly in 2012, with GDP growth slowing to 8.1 percent in the first quarter from 8.9 percent at year-end 2011. Second quarter GDP growth slid further, to 7.6 percent, the lowest reading since the height of the global financial crisis in early 2009.

Even with the decline, there is speculation that these figures may still understate economic slowing. Economists have long doubted the credibility of Chinese output data. For example, some studies indicate that GDP growth was overstated during the 1998–99 Asian financial crisis, when official figures reported that China’s GDP grew on average 7.7 percent annually. Alternative estimates using economic activity measures such as energy production, air travel and trade data ranged from 2 percent to 5 percent.[1]

The dubious character of the official figures is no secret in China. Senior government officials, including Vice Premier Li Keqiang, dismiss official GDP data as “man-made” and “for reference only” because of political influence, particularly at the local level, on data reporting.[2]

Read the rest here.

…I still believe that, but also see that the hive on Eighth Avenue is powerfully shaped by a culture of like minds — a phenomenon, I believe, that is more easily recognized from without than from within.

When The Times covers a national presidential campaign, I have found that the lead editors and reporters are disciplined about enforcing fairness and balance, and usually succeed in doing so. Across the paper’s many departments, though, so many share a kind of political and cultural progressivism — for lack of a better term — that this worldview virtually bleeds through the fabric of The Times.

As a result, developments like the Occupy movement and gay marriage seem almost to erupt in The Times, overloved and undermanaged, more like causes than news subjects.

Read the rest here.

In addition to trying to shut down bridges to prevent delegates from reaching the convention center next week, Brandon has learned that a subgroup of Occupy is looking to shut down EMS communications throughout the city.

Read the rest here.

See the satellite here.

Is there a trade here?

THE hottest new material in town is light, strong and conducts electricity. What’s more, it’s been around a long, long time.

Nanocrystalline cellulose (NCC), which is produced by processing wood pulp, is being hailed as the latest wonder material. Japan-based Pioneer Electronics is applying it to the next generation of flexible electronic displays. IBM is using it to create components for computers. Even the US army is getting in on the act, using it to make lightweight body armour and ballistic glass.

To ramp up production, the US opened its first NCC factory in Madison, Wisconsin, on 26 July, marking the rise of what the US National Science Foundation predicts will become a $600 billion industry by 2020.

Read the rest here.