The automaker announced Thursday that it will pay 10 cents a share to shareholders on March 1. Ford resumed paying dividends at the beginning of 2012 after suspending the payments in 2006 due to mounting financial losses and a need to preserve cash….”
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“The national flu outbreak is doing more than making people sick. It’s hurting worker productivity and businesses across the country are ailing from increased healthcare costs and widespread absenteeism, says John Challenger, CEO of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, an outplacement consulting firm.
Sick employees may be worried about job security or are eager to continue contributing to their workplace, but “presenteeism,” or when workers perform at reduced capacity, only makes matters worse by spreading illnesses, he advises.
“The economy is still on shaky ground and many workers continue to be worried about losing their jobs, despite the fact that annual layoffs are at the lowest level since the late 1990s,” Challenger says. “In this environment, workers are reluctant to call in sick or even use vacation days….”
Comments »“While the world and their cat believes that Mario Draghi saved the world last year – and continues to do so with his open-ended promise to do “whatever it takes” whatever that means (and the market’s “positive contagion”). However, the reality, away from a sovereign-bond implied view of the world – with short-dated Spanish bonds now at 26-month low yields (whereby these bonds are sucked up wholesale by an ever more concentrated and self-satisfying group of European banks) is far different. As these two charts show, not only does Draghi’s decision not to lower rates (when inflation and unemployment – both more ‘real-world economy’-impacting items) indicate Taylor-Rule-esque that rates need cutting; but while banks get all they want (and more) from his over-flowing cup or collateralization and repo, credit extension in Europe continues to slide ever more negatively. Yes, Draghi saved the banks (for now) but, just as the scariest chart shows, Europe is very far from saved;….”
Comments »” The internet and retail analysts at Morgan Stanley recently published a massive report on how the retail industry was changing.
For the most part, the evolution involves a shift from brick-and-mortar retail to e-commerce, which they estimate will grow to $1 trillion by 2016…”
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“Frank Holmes, the Chief Investment Officer at U.S. Funds, just published his market outlook for 2013.
In his presentation titles More Sunshine, Less Storms, Holmes offers the key charts that underlie his bullish call on commodities, an asset class that underperformed in 2012.
In short, he argues that much of the uncertainty from last year will be washed away by two major themes: strengthening emerging markets and the rise of American energy production.
There are also some interesting correlations that have emerged between bond flows, equities and gold.
Check it out.
Thanks to US Funds for giving us permission to feature this presentation.
Comments »“BlackRock Inc. (BLK), the world’s largest asset manager, agreed to buy an exchange-traded funds unit from Credit Suisse Group AG (CSGN) to boost its presence in Switzerland.
The purchase of a business with $17.6 billion of client assets under management is expected to close by the end of the second quarter, the New York-based firm said today. BlackRock didn’t disclose the price of the Credit Suisse unit, which has 58 ETFs, including $8.7 billion in nine funds domiciled in Switzerland and others in Ireland and Luxembourg.
The acquisition of Europe’s fifth-biggest exchange-traded products business will consolidate the top ranking of BlackRock’s iShares unit, which has a 38 percent market share in the region, according to figures published last month by the New York-based firm. Chief Executive Officer Laurence D. Fink said last year BlackRock would address the strategy of its iShares unit, which has about $760 billion in ETPs, after losing market share in the U.S. to Vanguard Group Inc…”
Comments »U.S. equities started off with a blast, but have gone flat to slightly positive rolling into mid day trade…aka samch time.
Commodities are fairly better than the broader averages with gold up $20 bones and WTI up $1.05.
Europe failed to hold gains into the closing bell, partly due to conservative comments out of the ECB. As well cocaine gorilla traders were probably upset that rates were not cut in Europe.
MO, AIG, BA, CIT, KO, CS, DMND, DNKN, EMC, FSLR, FMS, LULU, MGM, MSFT, R, TYC, WWAV, WYNN,
Comments »“Deutsche Bank AG DBK.XE +2.10% made at least €500 million ($654 million) in profit in 2008 from trades pegged to the interest rates under investigation by regulators world-wide, internal bank documents show.
The German bank’s trading profits resulted from billions of euros in bets related to the London interbank offered rate, or Libor, and other global benchmark rates.
Regulators have been investigating allegations that more than a dozen banks, including Deutsche Bank, rigged Libor and other interest rates underpinning trillions of dollars in loans and other financial contracts. The probe has already produced settlements totaling nearly $2 billion with BarclaysBARC.LN +0.64% PLC and UBSUBSN.VX 0.00% AG.
The Deutsche Bank documents, handed to investigators by a former employee of the bank and reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, show for the first time the scope and manner in which a bank painstakingly constructed a string of trades in hopes of profiting from small changes in various rates…”
Comments »“U.S.-based stock-exchange operator BATS Global Markets said a system error led to hundreds of thousands of transactions being executed at prices that were not the best available.
The error dating back to 2008 caused some short-sale orders to be executed at prices that were equal to or less than the national best bid or offer price (NBBO), the company said in a statement on its website Wednesday.
Exchanges and broker dealers are required to execute transactions at the best price available, under the regulation also known as NBBO.
BATS said it was working to correct the error by Jan. 25.
Representatives from BATS and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission were not immediately available for comment.”
Comments »“Banks and financial institutions are leading the pack of global borrowers that have rushed to the U.S. debt markets at the start of the year.
Global corporations began 2013 with a wave of issuance that pushed total bond sales in the U.S. over the $40 billion mark in less than a week. But no group of borrowers has been more aggressive than banks and financial institutions.
Citigroup, Allstate, and MetLife, among others, were joined by the U.K.’sStandard Chartered and Italy’s Intesa Sanpaolo, sending dollar-denominated sales of bank debt to $14.3 billion so far this year, according to Dealogic. In a single blockbuster sale, Bank of America offered $6 billion in three parts on Tuesday. That was the largest bond sale so far in 2013.
Banks are rushing to squeeze in as many sales as possible ahead of the so-called quiet period, which precedes the release of their quarterly earnings reports, analysts said. Wells Fargo kicks off the US bank results season on Friday, withJPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, and Goldman Sachs coming next week.
“Banks tend to come to markets earlier in the year, but they are certainly being more aggressive,” said Jason Brady, portfolio manager at Thornburg Investment Management. “It’s a sign they are growing more comfortable with their balance sheets and in a position to take more debt.”
A recent rise in Treasury yields may also be contributing to the banks’ rush to lock in new funding sooner rather than later. The yield on the 10-year note moved close to 2 percent from 1.7 percent in a matter of days, before paring some of its advance….”
Comments »“…..The number of people with graduate degrees — master’s degrees and doctorates — who have had to apply for food stamps, unemployment or other assistance more than tripled between 2007 and 2010. Of the 22 million Americans with master’s degrees or higher in 2010, about 360,000 were receiving some kind of public assistance, according to the latest Current Population Survey released by the U.S. Census Bureau in March 2011.
So holding a PhD does not automatically walk you into even a decent paying job any more. This infographic below helps to illustrates this sad new reality in America.”
” Jan. 10 (Bloomberg) — Warren Buffett, the billionaire investor who oversees stakes in some of the largest U.S. banks, said the nation’s lenders have rebuilt capital to the point where they no longer pose a threat to the economy.
“The banks will not get this country in trouble, I guarantee it,” Buffett, chairman and chief executive officer of Omaha, Nebraska-based Berkshire Hathaway Inc., said in a phone interview last week. “The capital ratios are huge, the excesses on the asset side have been largely cleared out.”
Lenders including Bank of America Corp. and Citigroup Inc. have sold assets, cut jobs and bolstered balance sheets after repaying taxpayer bailouts from 2008, when the companies were overwhelmed by losses on securities tied to the housing market. Those actions helped boost financial stocks last year and increased the value of Berkshire’s holdings.
Buffett’s firm has investments in at least four of the seven biggest U.S. lenders by assets, including a stake of more than $14 billion in San Francisco-based Wells Fargo & Co., $5 billion in Bank of America and warrants that allow it to buy $5 billion of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. shares. Berkshire also has a holding in U.S. Bancorp.
“Our banking system is in the best shape in recent memory,” Buffett said….”
Comments »“Herbalife became very popular recently when activist investor Bill Ackman deemed it a pyramid scheme and said the stock price was going to zero.
Yesterday, high-profile hedge fund manager Dan Loeb came out and said Ackman’s claim was wrong and joined the other side of the bet.
Now The New York Post is reporting that Carl Icahn is on Loeb’s side in the bet favoring Herbalife:
Ackman isn’t on the good side of fellow activist investor Carl Icahn either, sources added…”
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