Comments »(Reuters) – North Korea said on Thursday it would carry out further rocket launches and a nuclear test that would target the United States, dramatically stepping up its threats against a country it called its “enemy”.
Monthly Archives: January 2013
La Fille De Pekin
[youtube://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fExRKHx65g 450 300]
Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fExRKHx65g
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So You Call Yourself a Skeptic
[youtube://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BJA1R8YIHk 450 300]
Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BJA1R8YIHk
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100 Richest People Could End Poverty with One Year’s Profits
I wonder if you included the next 900 could you get the time frame down to a month’s worth of profits.
Personally, if i were ever privileged enough to make into the top 100 then i’d happily give a year up.
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Britain’s Top Medical Adviser Raises a Red Flag of Armageddon Proportions
“Britain’s most senior medical adviser has warned MPs that the rise in drug-resistant diseases could trigger a national emergency comparable to a catastrophic terrorist attack, pandemic flu or major coastal flooding.
Dame Sally Davies, the chief medical officer, said the threat from infections that are resistant to frontline antibiotics was so serious that the issue should be added to the government’s national risk register of civil emergencies.
She described what she called an “apocalyptic scenario” where people going for simple operations in 20 years’ time die of routine infections “because we have run out of antibiotics”.
The register was established in 2008 to advise the public and businesses on national emergencies that Britain could face in the next five years. The highest priority risks on the latest register include a deadly flu outbreak, catastrophic terrorist attacks, and major flooding on the scale of 1953, the last occasion on which a national emergency was declared in the UK.
Speaking to MPs on the Commons science and technology committee, Davies said she would ask the Cabinet Office to add antibiotic resistance to the national risk register in the light of an annual report on infectious disease she will publish in March….”
Comments »On the Matter of Salesmanship, Media, & True Blame
Ever since the beginning of the great recession i was verbally chastised for placing blame with the crowd soon to be coined vampire squids.
Slowly over the years the media has helped to defend the banksters in placing blame in the home owners and government institutions like Fannie and Freddie.
Not that I’m a fan of Freddie, Fannie & Homer Simpson, but it has always been the streets motto to sell anything and everything. The less the client knew in some cases was the better.
While it is important to do your homework; many investors and customers lend a fair amount of trust and faith to their financial adviser.
This article only justifies why RICO laws were broken with complicity.
True blame can only lie largely with one party while institutions like Fannie and Freddie were systematically used and exploited to repeat the process.
While some Homer Simpsons bot a little more than they could chew, some over did it in their investment portfolio’s, and some were downright idiotic in their purchases; for the most part we all know where the true blame lies.
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Asia Opens Mixed
[youtube://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_8IXx4tsus 450 300]
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Cramer: Don’t Chase $AAPL, Magic & Momentum Lost
$AAPL is more akin to $IBM or $JNJ as opposed to its God like status when Jobs was around….
Comments »Russia Says Armed Freedom Fighters Who Overthrew Gadaffi are The Same People Being Fought in Mali
If this true, and remember after Gadaffi was over thrown an al Qaeda flag was flown , then it is another black eye for our foreign policy.
“RUSSIA TO WEST: We Told You Not To Overthrow Qaddafi!”
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Neil Kashkari To Leave PIMCO and Run For Office in CA
Neel Kashkari, one of the main operatives of the bank rescue TARP (and therefore one of the men who helped save America from financial Armageddon) is leaving PIMCO, and running for office, according to Dealbook.
It’s not clear what office he’ll run for, except that it will be in California, and it will be as a Republican.
Frankly, if someone at the heart of TARP can entertain a run for office without being totally laughed out of the room, that tells you a lot about how America has gotten over the crisis.
Of course, any run will inevitably bring out a replay of some of his most infamous moments, including when he was asked by a Congressman during a hearing: “Is Kashkari a chump?….”
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Hyperinflation in Hell
[youtube://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsdSxk-qxZE 450 300]
Comments »$AAPL Posts $13.81 vs Consensus of $13.47, Revenues of $54.51b vs Consensus $54.73b
47.8 m iPhones sold…below consensus, 22.9m iPads sold…beating consensus
gross margins come in at 38.6%
guidance of $41-43b with margins of 37.5-38.5%
Stock off $24 bones @ $491ish
Comments »$NFLX Pops 24% as They Post a Profit of $0.13 vs Consensus of a Loss of $0.13
WOW!
Revenues of $945m vs consensus of $934m…
Subscribers are on the high end both domestically and internationally….
Company gives better guidance than estimates for next Q with slightly higher expectations of new subscribers…
Shorts get fucked!
Come back later for the full report as their website with the earnings release is crashing…..
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The Bulls Grab Another Round of 5 Year New Highs
As has been the case for the last 2 months the markets started off slightly negative and finished with upside according to the new law of central bank physics.
Today the S&P was the only board that was skittish and concurrently finished up the weakest.
Gold and oil performed poorly today while technology did well when looking at specific names like $IBM & $GOOG.
Retailers took it on the chin thanks to poor earnings out of $COH.
The markets were led by technology followed by service companies. Despite positive markets transportation, healthcare, and capital goods were largely flat on the day while conglomerates, consumer cyclicals, energy, and financials were down.
This happens to be the tenth longest rally without a correction so it’s no wonder we are experiencing a slow grind higher based on relatively okay earnings and the powers of the bearded clam.
DOW up 65
NASDAQ up 10
S&P up 2
Russell 2000 down 2
Gold down $7
WTI down $1.07
Brent up $0.60
China Created Gun Powder, Now They Have a $2.1 Trillion Powder Keg
“In December, Fitch warned that WMPs were creating growing risks in the Chinese banking sector.
Chinese investors took to the streets to protest that month when the WMPs they bought from Huaxia Bank didn’t pay out the 11 percent returns that were promised.
Wealth management products (WMP) issued by banks have grown extremely popular in China over the last few years. There were reportedly over 13 trillion yuan (or around $2.1 trillion) of WMPs outstanding at the end of 2012, a 50 percent year-over-year increase, according to Fitch.
First let’s understand what a WMP is. This chart from GMO analysts Edward Chancellor and Mike Monnelly shows the make-up of a wealth management product pool and how it operates. WMPs essentially are securities that yield on average 2 percentage points higher than bank deposits, though banks are free to set interest rates.
They are sold as low-risk investments, and the analysts explain that since WMPs advertise “expected” instead of “guaranteed or promised returns” they can hold both assets funded by investors or liabilities raised from them off the balance sheet.
What’s got everyone hot and bothered?
Chancellor and Monnelly explain:
“WMPs share some of the characteristics of both the Structured Investment Vehicles (SIVs) and Collateralized Debt Obligations (CDOs), which were used by U.S. banks before 2008 to keep loans off balance sheet.
Central to the structure is the pooling of investor funds. Money raised from the sale of several different WMPs is aggregated into a general pool. The general pool then funds a variety of assets, investing across the risk spectrum. Some money goes into trust products and LGFV bonds described earlier in this paper, and some is invested in less risky interbank loans…..”
Comments »The House Overwhelmingly Passes a Bill to Avoid Debt Default
“WASHINGTON (AP) — The House overwhelmingly passed a bill Wednesday to permit the government to borrow enough money to avoid a first-time default for at least four months, defusing a looming crisis setting up a springtime debate over taxes, spending and the deficit.
The House passed the measure on a bipartisan 285-144 vote as majority Republicans back away from their previous demand that any increase in the government’s borrowing cap be paired with an equivalent level of spending cuts.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said the chamber would immediately move to advance the legislation to the White House, which has announced Obama would sign it.
The measure would suspend the $16.4 trillion cap on federal borrowing and reset it on May 19 to reflect the additional borrowing required between the date the bill becomes law and then. The amount of borrowing required depends on the tax receipts received during filing season, but over a comparable period last year the government ran deficits in the range of $150 billion.
The measure also contains a provision that slaps at the Senate, which hasn’t debated a budget since 2009, by withholding the pay for either House or Senate members if the chamber in which they serve fails to pass a budget plan. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., announced Wednesday that the chamber would indeed debate a budget this year but maintained the GOP’s “no budget, no pay” move had nothing to do with the decision.
President Barack Obama vows not to negotiate over the debt ceiling as he did in the summer of 2011, though he promises further action on the budget. Wednesday’s developments mark a shift of the budget debate away from failed head-to-head talks between Obama and Boehner
The idea driving the move by GOP leaders like Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, is to re-sequence a series of upcoming budget battles, taking the threat of a potentially devastating government default off the table and instead setting up a clash in March over automatic across-the-board spending cuts set to strike the Pentagon and many domestic programs. Those cuts — postponed by the recent “fiscal cliff” deal — are the punishment for the failure of a 2011 congressional deficit-reduction supercommittee to reach an agreement.
This “no budget, no pay” idea had previously been regarded by many as a gimmick but has been given new life by Boehner as a “reform” to pair with an increase in the so-called debt limit. Boehner previously had insisted that any increase in borrowing authority to avoid lapses in payments to contractors, unemployment benefits or Social Security checks — and possibly even interest payments on U.S. Treasury obligations — be matched dollar for dollar with spending cuts. Many Republican speakers preferred to focus on the pay provision….”
Comments »U.S. Manufacturers Paint a Good Picture as Demand Rises
“BOSTON (Reuters) – Top U.S. manufacturers sounded a confident note about their expectations for 2013 on Wednesday as fears of the year-end “fiscal cliff” faded into memory.
Textron Inc , whose Cessna unit is the world’s biggest maker of corporate jets, laid out an earnings forecast that would represent growth of about 12 percent, while larger peer United Technologies Corp , which makes Otis elevators, Carrier air conditioners and Sikorsky helicopters among other products, reiterated a projection that its profit would rise about 13 percent.
Executives at each company said demand is recovering after a year-end pause in ordering, when customers worried about a budget standoff that could have triggered large spending cuts and higher taxes in the United States.
“We probably have had more order activity than we’re used to seeing at the beginning of January,” reflecting orders that had been delayed, Textron Chief Executive Scott Donnelly said on a conference call with analysts. “We’ll see a degree of uncertainty in the jet market as Washington works through its fiscal challenges, but we believe demand will solidify as those uncertainties are reduced.”
The Providence, Rhode Island-based company, which also makes Bell helicopters and EZ-Go golf carts, said it expects sales of its Cessna corporate jets to pick up this year.
Budget battles continue in Washington even after the White House and Congress averted a possible year-end crisis that economists called the “fiscal cliff” with warnings of another possible recession.
But the current battle seems less daunting to executives in the face of other signs of a recovering economy.
“What we see in the economy in the U.S. is that the rebound in the housing market is really having a pull-through effect on the rest of the economy,” said Greg Hayes, chief financial officer of United Tech, in an interview. “Commercial construction is coming back. We saw particular strength in North America and Asia, not as much of a story in Europe, as you can imagine.
The U.S. housing slump set the 2007-2009 recession in motion and a slow recovery in that market has been one important drag on a long, sluggish recovery. Recent government data have shown a pickup in demand, with a report last week showing housing starts surged to a four-year high in December.
‘PATH GETS EASIER’…”
Comments »Reuters Polls Suggest 2013 Will Be a Good Year
“LONDON (Reuters) – The world economy should perform slightly better this year because recovering growth in Asia will gradually overpower the political and economic malaise in the West, according to Reuters polls.
The latest surveys of more than 600 economists worldwide, released on Wednesday, showed global economic growth is likely to hit 3.3 percent this year following an expected 3.1 percent growth in 2012 – a slight cut to forecasts from a poll three months ago.
The outlook for this year hinges to a certain extent on whether emerging economies such as China and Brazil finally deliver the upturn that many economists had expected in 2012.
The main threats to the stability of the world economy lie in Europe and the United States, and they have a now-familiar ring to them.
U.S. politicians must again strike a deal in March to avert a potentially severe budget tightening that could stall the world’s No.1 economy, and the global engine with it.
And recession-hit Europe will still drag on its main trading partners for as long as the euro zone’s sovereign debt crisis smolders.
“Our expectation is that it could be a little better than last year globally, but not much,” said Andrew Brigden, chief economist at Fathom Financial Consulting in London.
But there are some reasons for optimism.
“The U.S. will slow, but certainly avoid a recession, we would hope. Most other places will improve slightly…”
Comments »Options Chains are Suggesting a 7% Move in $AAPL After Earnings Release
“NEW YORK/CHICAGO (Reuters) – The options market is bracing for a big move in Apple shares after it posts earnings on Wednesday amid what has been a dramatic plunge for the world’s most valuable publicly traded company.
Apple Inc shares were trading at $512 on Tuesday, down sharply from $702.10 in September, on worries that its mobile devices are no longer as popular.
Based on options activity just hours before the announcement, due after the market close, traders were estimating about a 7 percent one-day move after the earnings, which would be a much more volatile outcome than normal for Apple. Such a move could push the shares as low as $465 or as high as $535, depending on how earnings come out.
“Three ingredients make this earnings for Apple especially appetizing for options traders: (CEO) Tim Cook has missed earnings estimates 60 percent of the time over the past five quarters, the stock has crashed almost 30 percent since September, and no stock has as many hedge funds owning it,” said Gareth Feighery, a founder of options education firm Markettamer.com in Philadelphia.
“Combine those three factors together and Apple is a fireworks display ready to ignite, which makes it no surprise to see its options building in a move of close to 7 percent post-earnings.”
In the previous eight quarters, the average one-day earnings move has been 3.9 percent, according to RiskReversal.com, an options research firm based in New York.
As competition intensifies from Samsung Electronics Co Ltd and others using Google Inc’s Android software, investors are wondering if Apple’s days of hyper growth are over.
Despite the sharp decline in recent months that cost Apple nearly $190 billion in market capitalization – about equal to the entire value of AT&T – plenty of Apple bulls remain on Wall Street, with about four-fifths of the nearly 60 analysts covering the company rating it “buy” or “strong buy,” according to Thomson Reuters data…”
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