Cramer: disregard everything I just said

Just when I bring myself to post one of his pieces; a good one, I would add; the man reverses himself inside of 24 hours.

Complete one-eighty, to be viewed here:

Maybe it’s the large cash position we have on hand in our ActionALertsPlus portfolio. Maybe it’s the sigh of relief — audible for me even as it seems to be inaudible for so many other people — but I want to do some buying here. I know the hazards:

1. Unknowns in the budget bill

2. Anemic hiring

3. Inflation

4. Lack of leadership

5. European woes

But guess what. We’ve dealt with all of those before, and they didn’t kill us. The systemic risk, the crisis risk of the president’s invoking the 14th amendment or selling the gold in Fort Knox, is off the table, and that’s what matters to me.

Which means earnings matter again. Now, having been through enough earnings to make some judgments, one can conclude that other than tech, steel, government-related (meaning funded) health care and banks, you’ve got far more good quarters than bad.

It’s true that consumer confidence has been sapped, and there’s no new stimulus coming from Washington, D.C. But there are plenty of companies that can do well with simple certainty from Washington. If Washington drops out of the picture — help or harm — it is a win for business.

August 2, 2011 2:11 PM ET.

WASHINGTON (AP) – President Barack Obama has signed legislation to increase the nation’s borrowing authority and avert a potentially catastrophic government default.

Obama signed the bill privately in the Oval Office little more than an hour after the Senate voted final passage. It capped months of contentious and partisan debate. The compromise bill paired an increase in the debt ceiling with promises of more than $2 trillion of budget cuts over the next decade.

Pardon me, but the fact that they’re hanging out in the dirt cheap territory and can’t seem to get it together probably means they should be more concerned with turning over the reins, and less concerned with protecting their turf.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Eastman Kodak (NYSE:EK – News) adopted a poison pill on Monday to reduce a tax hit it would take from a sale of its valuable intellectual property portfolio that it has been shopping around in recent weeks.

A poison pill, or shareholder rights plan, is also used to protect the company from an unwanted takeover. Under the poison pill, if any person or group tried to acquire 4.9 percent or more of Kodak’s outstanding shares, Kodak could issue more shares to dilute its ownership.

The American icon, which coined the once-ubiquitous “it’s a Kodak moment” catchphrase, has labored for years to convince Wall Street it can turn a profit as it shifts toward digital technology and away from its ailing film business.

Many investors now see Kodak’s value in its lucrative portfolio of intellectual property.

Kodak stock, which hovered in the $90 range in 1997, currently trades at about $2.42, a 40 percent drop over the past 12 months.

Kodak shares were down 0.8 percent at $2.38 on Monday, after rising as much as 3.8 percent earlier in the session.

A poison pill also discourages unwanted takeover activity.

The company said its tax assets were valued at about $2.9 billion as of December 31, 2010. Kodak’s ability to pay lower taxes would be “substantially limited if there were an ownership change,” Kodak said in a statement.

An ownership change would occur if a Kodak shareholder who owns 5 percent of shares collectively increased ownership in Kodak by more than 50 percentage points over a three-year period.

The announcement comes about two weeks after Kodak said it was shopping around its patents for digital imaging, which represents about 10 percent of its U.S. patent portfolio. Analysts have estimated the entire value of its portfolio at $2 billion.

A Kodak spokesman on Monday said the company has not made any progress with a patent sale yet.

“As for the patents, we are early on in the process and there is nothing new to report at this time. When there is something to report we will update the market accordingly,” Kodak spokesman Gerard Meuchner said.

Any money Kodak makes from the sale of its patents could be taxed if Kodak did not preserve its net operating loss through this plan, said Rafferty Capital analyst Mark Kaufman.

“There’s a big tax burden on the sale of these patents. One of the values of Kodak is that you can sell these assets and not have to pay taxes on gains,” Kaufman said.

Kaufman added that the plan could be used as a poison pill against a hostile takeover or a party taking a large stake in the company becoming an activist investor. An ownership change would limit Kodak’s ability to be taxed less.

“What this does is deter activist shareholders from gaining a large stake in the company and it discourages a potential hostile takeover,” Kaufman said.

Meuchner, the Kodak spokesman, told Reuters that “we are not aware of any interest to acquire the company at this time.”

Private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts has a $400 million investment in the company as well as two seats on Kodak’s board.

Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz is acting as Kodak’s legal counsel while Lazard Ltd (NYSE:LAZ – News), its adviser on its patent sale, will be its financial adviser, Kodak said.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Connecticut’s financial outlook “could be significantly compromised” even if Congress approves a last-minute compromise plan raising the federal debt ceiling, a state official said on Monday.

Local politicians around the nation said even a compromise debt cap plan to avoid the first-ever U.S. default poses a potential hazard: the loss of billions of dollars of aid for states, counties, cities and towns.

“Dollars that we depend on year after year could suddenly disappear if federal spending cutbacks result in drastic funding cuts to Connecticut,” Democratic state Comptroller Kevin Lembo said in a statement.

“One year’s federal stimulus money could become another year’s devastating federal cutbacks,” he added.

Like New York and New Jersey, Connecticut has gotten the benefit of Wall Street’s recovery but this bounty is limited to the tri-state’s commuting suburbs. That has left a number of old industrial cities, from Camden, New Jersey, to Bridgeport, Connecticut, out in the cold.

Many states opted to slash spending and layoff workers or negotiate savings with them to balance their latest budgets in the face of strong anti-tax hike sentiments and the expiration of the stimulus plan. The plan attempted to lift the nation out of the worst recession since the 1930s by giving states extra funds for education, healthcare and the like.

With the federal government now promising to slash its deficit, as states and local governments already have done, the task of spurring the economy and adding jobs falls to companies. Private employers in turn are fearful consumers have shut their wallets, squeezing demand for services and products.

Connecticut was one of 24 states that lost payroll jobs in June, Lembo said, predicting that at the current rate of job growth it will take more than a decade for the state to win back the over 100,000 jobs lost due the recession.

The still-weak real estate market also could hobble the recovery. In Connecticut, for example, home prices slid 9.9 percent in the first quarter of 2011 compared to 2010, Lembo said.

Connecticut has a surplus of just under $160 million but those funds have already been earmarked to pay off debt and future liabilities, Lembo said. He called on state politicians to replenish the rainy day fund and boost its cap.

The rest can be read here:

SHELL GAMES: A Reuters Investigation

By Nanette Byrnes and Lynnley Browning

NEW YORK – A spate of spectacular collapses of Chinese stocks listed on American exchanges has cost U.S. investors billions of dollars. The fiasco has sparked multiple investigations. Accusations are swirling in Washington and Beijing.

It all began with an email sent out of the blue a decade ago to a Texas businessman named Timothy Halter.

The email came from Shanghai native Zhihao “John” Zhang. The former medical student introduced himself and asked: Was Halter interested in helping bring Chinese companies to the U.S. stock market? Zhang proposed using a backdoor method that the Texan had mastered for American firms: buying dormant shell companies listed on U.S. exchanges. Soon, Halter and Zhang brought two Chinese firms to market in America: a manufacturer of power-steering systems and a maker of vitamins, weight-loss supplements and household cleaners.

The email led to a boom for a niche industry of advisers who specialize in a brand of deals, called the “reverse merger,” that use shell companies to give clients easy entry into U.S. capital markets. More than 400 Chinese companies seized the chance.

Leading the way was Halter, a slim, salt-and-pepper-haired man who played a direct or indirect part in 23 deals; staked his name on at least 20 other deals done by his Shanghai partner, Zhang; and paved the way, through conferences in China, for dozens of other deals.

It was a lucrative gambit: Halter lives with his family on a 50-acre ranch in Texas, where he breeds bass.

His firm, Halter Financial Group, threw splashy “summits” to promote the industry, including a gathering headlined by former President George W. Bush in 2010. Its website boasts: “Reverse Merger Experts!”

But deals birthed by Halter and his imitators are now blowing up.

Investors have alleged widespread accounting irregularities and other problems at dozens of the Chinese companies that reverse-listed in the U.S., causing share prices to nosedive. Since March, some 30 Chinese firms have seen their auditors resign and at least 25 have been delisted from U.S. exchanges.

Reuters: By Andy Sullivan and Laura MacInnis

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Congressional leaders rushed to line up Republican and Democratic votes on Monday for a White House-backed deal to raise the U.S. borrowing limit and avert an unprecedented debt default.

With scars still fresh from the months-long brawl over increasing the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling, a new fight was shaping over the incendiary topic of taxes.

Global markets showed signs of relief that the United States appeared to be dodging default, but fears that the country might still lose its triple-A credit rating even with a debt deal contributed to a fizzle in a brief stocks rally.

“We avoided the possibility of a default, but now concerns are turning to a possible downgrade,” said Phil Streible, senior market strategist with futures broker Lind-Waldock in Chicago.

Votes were expected later in the day in the House of Representatives and Senate on a plan to cut at least $2.4 trillion over 10 years, form a powerful new congressional committee to recommend a deficit-reduction package by late November, and raise the U.S. borrowing limit through 2013.

The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office confirmed that the debt deal would reduce budget deficits by at least $2.1 trillion over 10 years.

U.S. lawmakers split into Democratic and Republicans camps to hear appeals from their party leaders to approve the deal which emerged from feverish negotiations as the clock ticked toward a Tuesday deadline. Party leaders are hoping for sizable majorities in order to give the deal credibility.

From bizjournals:

Missouri American Water has acquired Roark Water & Sewer Inc. for approximately $1.6 million.

The move will add about 675 water customers and 635 wastewater customers to the company’s customer base. The Missouri Public Service Commission approved the application for ownership April 27, the company said.

Roark serves customers in Stone and Taney counties near Branson in southwest Missouri.

The acquisition allows Missouri American Water to expand its existing reach into southwest Missouri, Matthew Barnhart, the company’s southwest operations manager, said in a statement.

He makes some valid points:

Time to be disciplined
Sell your debt-resolution plays and focus on stocks that won’t be derailed by a US default.

Back to individual stock picking — for now. That’s how I view this debt ceiling deal, which I believe will pass simply because every single reporter says it will, and I have to trust the consensus like everyone else or be run out of town on a bull.

To me, if you bought “exposure,” meaning deep-in-the-money calls or some higher-beta stocks on Friday, as I suggested here, you sell them into strength, take the profit. You didn’t get to build the position, but you did get to make the money.

Then I would just wait. I would wait for the people who have to come out and say:

1. Didn’t matter, too small, we will eventually be downgraded.

2. Nothing’s changed. We are still dysfunctional.

3. Things are even worse because now there will be less spending to prop up the economy.

4. It’s too late, as the second half has been killed by this wrangling.

5. The deal does not clarify taxes enough to make companies feel good enough about spending.

6. China is still slowing, although not as fast as we would like, because the tightening goes on.

7. Spain

8. Italy

9. Greece

10. Country to be named later

In other words, the whole litany of woe — it hasn’t changed, it won’t change. We are in a new, bad world that makes it so we lurch and lurch until bonds are no longer the issue. That’s the real problem, by the way: trying to figure out where the bond issues hit the stock road. It has been the problem since the beginning of the sovereign debt issues in Europe and since both former President George W. Bush and President Barack Obama decided to authorize a huge amount of spending that was embraced by Congress.

Macau gambling revenue has broadly outpaced expectations, rising to 48% year over year in July, and the China island continues to make its mark on the gaming industry.

Read Here:

If the definition of a compromise is something that most folks don’t like, then the $2.4 trillion debt-ceiling deal worked out over the weekend by President Barack Obama and GOP leaders in Congress is a resounding success.

As details of the framework began to leak early Sunday, the far wings of each party quickly rejected the compromise as capitulation. Democrats angrily noted that the plan was all spending cuts and no revenue increases. MoveOn.org, the liberal advocacy group, panned the deal and called on Congress to “pass a clean debt ceiling bill that doesn’t force the middle class and the poor to bear the brunt of this crisis.”

Conservatives, meanwhile, worried that the deal left open the door to revenue increases and could lead to steep defense cuts. “Republican Leaders are asking their members to accept tax increases or massive defense cuts and senior anger right before the election,” blogged Erick Erickson, editor of the conservative website RedState.com.
With the clock ticking and various congressional groups scheduled to meet on Monday morning to discuss the framework, the key question is whether the center can hold this deal together. Senate leaders certainly seem to think so, and a vote in the upper chamber is expected Monday afternoon.

The timing is key. Markets will be watching closely, and ever since the debacle of the first failed bank bailout vote in 2008 when the Dow plunged 778 points, lawmakers have been sensitive about when they hold economically perilous votes. But 11th hour action– the U.S. treasury has given Congress until midnight Tuesday before it says it will have to take drastic action to avoid a default –will force the House to act, leaving brazen conservative lawmakers no time to amend the bill and no choice but to pass it.

Convincing House Republicans will be a heavy lift. As President Obama announced Sunday night that “the leaders of both parties, in both chambers, have reached an agreement,” Boehner was telling his conference, “There’s no agreement until we’ve talked to you.” The embattled Speaker apologized to his members that the deal “is not ideal,” while trying to reassure them that “there is nothing in this framework that violates our principles.”

“It’s all spending cuts,” Boehner said. “The White House bid to raise taxes has been shut down.” Here’s the Speaker’s problem: It isn’t exactly true that any effort to increase revenue has been defeated. While the deal would enact no tax increases up front, it leaves the door open to increased revenues through the special commission.

The plan would cut more than $900 billion in spending right away and raise the debt ceiling through January. Next, it would call for a vote on a balanced budget amendment to the constitution, which would likely fail in the Senate. Third, it would set up a commission of six Republicans and six Democrats to find an additional $1.5 trillion in savings. Democrats will surely push for revenue increases in the third stage, though they will be limited on the amount they can raise from individual income because they’ll be working off the “current law” baseline, which assumes the expiration of the Bush tax cuts. The most likely source of new revenue will be ending corporate tax breaks and subsidies.

The real tough sell to Republicans is the enforcement mechanism on the commission. If the committee were to deadlock, $1.2 trillion in across-the-board cuts over a 10-year period would automatically kick in. Democrats have their own problems selling their members on a 2% or more cut to Medicare providers in the event of a deadlock, but Medicare benefits as well as Medicaid and Social Security would remain untouched. Republicans hate that fully half of the $1.5 trillion in triggered cuts would come out of the Pentagon’s budget. When confronted with the choice of defense cuts or increased revenues, President George H. W. Bush chose to raise taxes, a move that arguably cost him reelection.

Still, Democrats argue that Republicans got almost everything they wanted in the end. When Obama started debt ceiling negotiations, he asked for a three-to-one ratio of cuts to revenue increases. By the end of his “grand bargain” talks with Speaker Boehner, that ratio was five-to-one. Unless Democrats can win some revenue increases through the commission, the deal will end up as 100% cuts and no tax hikes. In addition, Republicans will get a vote on a balanced budget amendment in the Senate.

Despite those gains, there remains a real question as to whether Boehner can convince enough of his House Republican flock to vote for the deal. He failed to get 216 Republicans to vote for his version of this compromise on Thurdsay, and that plan was significantly more conservative than the one under consideration now. House Democrats aren’t wild about the compromise either. “We all may not support it, or none of us may be able to support it,” House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi told reporters Sunday evening, though her staff was quick to clarify that she is keeping an open mind.

The final outcome may be something right out the deficit reduction deal struck by President Ronald Reagan and House Speaker Tip O’Neill in the 1980s. That vote split the House exactly; both sides delivered 109 votes. It’ll be bad news for Boehner if he can’t get a majority of his own conference – 121 votes — and worse if he can’t get 108 to make up for half of the 216 votes required for passage. Boehner’s future would be in doubt if the vote comes down to something like the second bank bailout vote in 2008, when 172 Democrats and 91 Republicans swallowed the bitter medicine together. If the bill fails altogether, as the first bank bailout did when Boehner didn’t deliver the number of votes he promised, it could be the final nail in the Speaker’s coffin. Pelosi’s case to reclaim the House will grow stronger with every vote Boehner fails to muster.

Conversely, the one clear winner from all this seems to be President Obama. If the bill passes, he can now claim the mantle of fiscal conservatism – a surefire defense to ubiquitous Republican accusations of socialism and big government. If the debt ceiling were breached and the economy tanked, he likely would’ve borne the greatest political price. But by swooping in and making the deal at the last minute, Obama can say he saved the day. Of course, giving Obama a win is the last thing staunch conservatives in the House want to do. With the clock running out to raise the debt ceiling and a flurry of meetings scheduled for Monday, no less than the U.S. economy and the political fortunes of Washington’s top leaders are now in their hands.

BOSTON (TheStreet) — Hopeful homebuyers may soon need to shell out more money upfront before being approved for a mortgage.

The public comment period concludes Monday for potential mortgage-related provisions spawned by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010. Among the potential outcomes is that homebuyers could be required to front a higher down payment — as much as 20% — before they can legally qualify for a mortgage loan.
Government regulators are cracking back into mortgage reforms that could create hurdles for buyers: a return to 20% down payments for homes.

The proposed changes are being reviewed by federal regulators, among them the Treasury Department, Federal Reserve Board, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., the SEC, the Federal Housing Finance Agency and Department of Housing and Urban Development. There is no set timeline for when final decisions will be made.

Many in the real estate sector have joined forces to fight such a change aimed at so-called Qualified Residential Mortgage loans, arguing that a 10% or 20% down payment mandate would deliver yet another damaging blow to the floundering housing market.

In past decades, a 20% or more down payment was standard. The lower the down payment, according to conventional wisdom and ongoing research, the greater the risk of default.

As housing prices soared and mortgage lenders dove head-first into what would be the subprime crisis, that common practice fell by the wayside. You may pay more in interest, closing costs or PMI, but just 5% down is enough for many banks and lenders. FHA loans, insured by the government, typically require only a 3.5% down payment.

The Mortgage Bankers Association, in written testimony, says the proposed QRM definition “is so restricted that 80% of loans sold to Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac over the past decade would not meet these requirements.”

According to the National Association of Realtors, drawing upon national savings rate data, “it would take 9.5 years for the typical American family to save enough money for a 10% down payment and closing costs, and fully 16 years to save for a 20% down payment and closing costs.”

Read here.

Commentary: What do insiders know that outsiders do not?

Bad news, stock-market bulls: Corporate insiders are selling their companies’ shares at an abnormally fast pace.

In fact, one measure of that selling activity shows insiders of NYSE- and AMEX-listed companies recently were selling at the fastest rate since data began being collected in the early 1970s, four decades ago.

On the theory that insiders know more about their companies’ prospects than do the rest of us, this is an ominous sign.

Corporate insiders, of course, are a company’s officers, directors and largest shareholders. They are required to file a report with the Securities and Exchange Commission more or less immediately upon buying or selling shares of their companies, and the SEC makes those reports public.

One firm that gathers and analyzes the data is Argus Research, which publishes its findings in the Vickers Weekly Insider Report. One indicator that the firm calculates is a ratio of the number of shares that insiders have sold in the open market to the number that they have purchased.

In the week ending last Friday, according to the latest issue of the Vickers report, this sell-to-buy ratio stood at 6.43 to 1. This is higher than 95% of other weeks’ readings over the last decade.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Colonial Properties Trust (NYSE:CLP – News) announced its results for the quarter ended June 30, 2011.

For the second quarter 2011, the company reported a net loss available to common shareholders of $6.4 million, or $0.08 per diluted share, compared with a net loss available to common shareholders of $11.8 million, or $0.17 per diluted share, for the same period in 2010. For the six months ended June 30, 2011, the company reported a net loss available to common shareholders of $18.1 million, or $0.22 per diluted share, compared with a net loss available to common shareholders of $24.2 million, or $0.36 per diluted share, for the same period in 2010. The change from the prior year periods is primarily attributable to an increase in net operating income (NOI) from the company’s multifamily same-property communities, as a result of improving rental rates, and income from multifamily properties acquired in 2011.

Funds from Operations Available to Common Shareholders and Unitholders (“FFO”), a widely accepted measure of REIT performance, for the second quarter 2011 was $28.7 million, or $0.32 per diluted share, compared with $20.7 million, or $0.27 per diluted share, for the same period in 2010. FFO for the six months ended June 30, 2011, totaled $51.9 million, or $0.58 per diluted share, compared with $41.3 million, or $0.54 per diluted share, for the same period in 2010. The change from the prior-year periods is primarily attributable to an increase in NOI from the company’s multifamily same-property communities, as a result of improving rental rates, and income from multifamily properties acquired in 2011. FFO per share reflects the additional common shares issued under the company’s “at-the-market” equity offering programs in 2010 and the six months ended June 30, 2011.

A reconciliation of net loss available to common shareholders to FFO and to Operating FFO, as well as definitions and statements of purpose, is included in the financial tables accompanying this press release.

“Multifamily fundamentals continued to improve during the second quarter, leading to an increase in our 2011 full-year same-property NOI and FFO per share guidance range,” stated Thomas H. Lowder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. “Our new and renewal lease rates are accelerating, while resident turnover has declined and occupancy levels have remained high. The second quarter results demonstrate our ability to capitalize on these fundamentals, execute on our balance sheet targets and focus on growing the company.”

Highlights for the Second Quarter 2011

Multifamily same-property NOI increased 7.5 percent compared with second quarter 2010

Multifamily same-property revenue increased 3.9 percent compared with second quarter 2010

Ended the quarter with multifamily same-property physical occupancy of 96.2 percent

Resident turnover levels declined to 58.7 percent at June 30, 2011 from 62.6 percent the prior year

Increased full-year 2011 same-property NOI guidance range to 5.5 to 7.0 percent, up from 4.0 to 6.0 percent

Announced $75 million “at-the-market” equity offering program, which was subsequently completed in early July with 3.6 million shares issued at an average price of $20.67 per share

Subsequent to quarter end, completed a $250 million seven-year unsecured term loan, reducing outstanding borrowings under our unsecured credit facility

Lindsey Rupp, On Wednesday July 27, 2011, 10:43 am EDT

Bank of America Corp. (BAC), faced with a glut of foreclosed and abandoned houses it can’t sell, has a new tool to get rid of the most decrepit ones: a bulldozer.

The biggest U.S. mortgage servicer will donate 100 foreclosed houses in the Cleveland area and in some cases contribute to their demolition in partnership with a local agency that manages blighted property. The bank has similar plans in Detroit and Chicago, with more cities to come, and Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC), Citigroup Inc. (C), JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) and Fannie Mae are conducting or considering their own programs.

Disposing of repossessed homes is one of the biggest headaches for lenders in the U.S., where 1,679,125 houses, or one in every 77, were in some stage of foreclosure as of June, according to research firm RealtyTrac Inc. of Irvine, California. The prospect of those properties flooding the market has depressed prices and driven off buyers concerned that housing values will keep dropping.

“There is way too much supply,” said Gus Frangos, president of the Cleveland-based Cuyahoga County Land Reutilization Corp., which works with lenders, government officials and homeowners to salvage vacant homes. “The best thing we can do to stabilize the market is to get the garbage off.”

BofA’s 40,000

Bank of America had 40,000 foreclosures in the first quarter, saddling the Charlotte, North Carolina-based lender with taxes and maintenance costs. The bank announced the Cleveland program last month, has committed as many as 100 properties in Detroit and 150 in Chicago, and may add as many as nine cities by the end of the year, said Rick Simon, a company spokesman.

The lender will pay as much as $7,500 for demolition or $3,500 in areas eligible to receive funds through the federal Neighborhood Stabilization Program. Uses for the land include development, open space and urban farming, according to the statement. Simon declined to say how many foreclosed properties Bank of America holds.

Ohio ranked among the top 10 states with the most foreclosure filings in June, according to RealtyTrac. The state has 71,617 foreclosed homes, Cuyahoga County 9,797 and Cleveland 6,778, RealtyTrac said.

The tear-downs are in varying states of disrepair, from uninhabitable to badly damaged. Simon said some are worth less than $10,000, and it would cost too much to make them livable.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Colonial Properties Trust (NYSE:CLP – News) announces that it has entered into an agreement providing for an option to sell certain multifamily assets.

The agreement provides for the potential sale of up to 5,659 apartment homes for an aggregate purchase price of approximately $338 million. The portfolio of properties includes 18 apartment communities located in Georgia, North Carolina, Texas and Virginia and has an average age of 25 years, and would represent a sales cap rate of approximately 6.0%. The company’s 90/10 multifamily/commercial portfolio mix target remains unchanged. Our on-going strategy is to recycle older multifamily assets to improve the multifamily portfolio’s average age, margin and capital expenditure requirements. Under the terms of the agreement, the transaction will only be completed if the company is able to identify reinvestment opportunities for the sales proceeds. In addition, the agreement provides the company with the option to cancel the contract at any point in time upon a termination payment of $250,000 to reimburse the buyer for due diligence costs. The sale of units is also subject to satisfaction of customary closing conditions. No assurance can be given that the company will complete the sale of any units under this agreement.

Oops, looks like expectations don’t matter as much as outcomes. Enjoy the sell off, suckers…

NEW YORK (AP) — The nation’s crude oil and gasoline supplies grew last week, according to government data released Wednesday.

Crude supplies increased by 2.3 million barrels, or 0.7 percent, to 354 million barrels, which is 1.9 percent below year-ago levels, the Energy Department’s Energy Information Administration said in its weekly report.

Analysts expected a drop of 2.3 million barrels for the week ended July 22, according to Platts, the energy information arm of McGraw-Hill Cos.

Gasoline supplies rose by 1 million barrels, or 0.5 percent, to 213.5 million barrels. That was more than analysts expected and 3.9 percent below year-ago levels.

Demand for gasoline over the four weeks ended July 22 was 3.3 percent lower than a year ago, averaging nearly 9.1 million barrels a day.

U.S. refineries ran at 88.3 percent of total capacity on average, a drop of 2 percentage point from the prior week. Analysts expected capacity to rise to 90.5 percent.

Supplies of distillate fuel, which include diesel and heating oil, rose by 3.4 million barrels to 151.8 million barrels. Analysts expected distillate stocks to increase by 1.8 million barrels.

Crude prices fell $2.10, or 2.1 percent, to $97.49 per barrel in morning trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Pardon me, I know most of you don’t care about state specific politics. However, given how Michigan was the only state to my knowledge to be in a recession during the housing boom, and the general pathetic level of public finances that can be found here, I thought I’d pass this along.

The effort to recall our new governor here in Michigan, the estimable Mr. Rick Snyder, after coming out of the gate hot in response to the cuts in our bloated and most ineffective education system, has flamed out horribly.

Today, in a local newspaper, it was reported that the effort managed to raise $24,089.

(laughter) I’ve been flicking these people off as they passed out papers on the corners for months, so this is pretty vindicating for me.

A good amount of that money came from out of state. Although an all volunteer movement, it’s looking increasingly like an epic fail from these tots. They have until the beginning of August to come up with the 800,000 some odd signatures they need to put Snyder up for recall. I look forward to pissing on their graves.

WASHINGTON (AP) — In a blunt challenge to President Barack Obama, House Republicans drafted legislation Monday to avert a potentially devastating Aug. 2 government default — but along lines the White House has already dismissed. U.S. and world financial markets shrugged off the uncertainty.

“This is a city where compromise is becoming a dirty word,” Obama lamented as congressional leaders groped for a way out of a looming crisis.

In stinging remarks a short while later on the Senate floor, the Republican leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, urged the president to reconsider his position rather “than veto the country into default.”

According to a GOP aide familiar with the emerging House bill, it would provide for an immediate $1 trillion increase in the government’s $14.3 trillion debt limit in exchange for $1.2 trillion in cuts in federal spending.

The measure also envisions Congress approving a second round of spending cuts of $1.8 trillion or more in 2012, passage of which would trigger an additional $1.6 trillion in increased borrowing authority.

White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer called the proposal “not a serious attempt to avert default because it has no chance of passing the Senate.”

While the bill marked a retreat from legislation that conservatives muscled through the House last week, the two-step approach runs afoul of Obama’s insistence that lawmakers solve the current crisis in a way that avoids a politically charged rerun next year in the middle of the 2012 election campaign.

Without signed legislation by day’s end on Aug. 2, the Treasury will be unable to pay all its bills, possibly triggering an unprecedented default that officials warn could harm an economy struggling to recover from the worst recession in decades.

That deadline has set off an epic clash between the two parties, each side maneuvering for public approval and political leverage in advance of next year’s elections with the White House and control of Congress at stake.

House conservatives, many of them backed by tea party organizations, have provided the political muscle for the Republican drive to cut spending deeply in return for raising the debt limit.

But two rank-and-file Republicans said their constituents were voicing concerns other than the rising federal debt.

Rep. Tom Rooney, R-Fla., said his office is getting calls from constituents saying, “If I don’t get my Social Security check, it’s your fault.”

WASHINGTON (AP) — Unemployment rates rose in more than half of U.S. states in June, evidence that slower hiring is affecting many parts of the country.

The Labor Department said Friday that unemployment rates in 28 states and Washington, D.C., increased last month. Rates declined in eight states and were flat in 14. That’s a change from May, when 24 states reported falling unemployment rates.

Twenty-six states reported a net gain in jobs in June, while 24 states lost jobs.

The changing trend in state unemployment rates reflects a weaker economy hampered by high gas prices and lower factory output. Nationally, employers added only 18,000 net jobs in June, the second straight month of feeble hiring.

The U.S. unemployment rate ticked up to 9.2 percent.

The economy expanded only 1.9 percent in the January-March period, and most economists expect similar growth in the April-June quarter. The government releases its first estimate for second-quarter growth on July 29.

Nevada had the highest unemployment rate among the states for the 13th straight month. It rose in June to 12.4 percent, up from 12.1 percent in May. The state has been hampered by foreclosures, depressed home sales and a decline in tourism.

It was followed by California (11.8 percent) and Rhode Island (10.8 percent).

Some companies are cutting their work forces. Layoffs rose to their highest level in nine months in May, according to a separate Labor Department report last week.

The impasse in Washington over raising the federal government’s borrowing limit could affect several states, including Tennessee and Virginia. Those states could see a downgrade to their credit rating if the U.S. defaults on its debt, according to Moody’s Investors Services.

The government reached its $14.3 trillion borrowing limit in May. The Treasury Department has said it will default on its debt if the limit is not raised by Aug. 2.

Virginia is closely tied to the federal government because of its large number of military bases, defense contractors and government employees. A downgrade to a state’s rating would mean it would pay higher interest rates to borrow money.

Analysts are expecting another weak month of hiring in July, based on recent data.

The economy needs to generate about 125,000 jobs per month to keep up with population growth and prevent the unemployment rate from rising. It needs at least twice that many to rapidly reduce unemployment.

Get ready for the oil markets to freak to the upside.

(CNN) — At least one explosion rocked government buildings in Oslo, Norway, on Friday, state TV and witnesses said.

Windows in several buildings had been blown out, and people were in the street bleeding, state TV broadcaster NRK said on its website.

There are conflicting reports about whether a second blast followed the first, which occurred mid-afternoon in the center of the Norwegian capital.

One explosion happened near a government building housing the office of Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, said Linda Reinholdsen, a reporter for Norwegian state broadcaster NRK. Another hit near the Norwegian parliament, she told CNN.

Several buildings in Oslo were on fire, she said, and smoke was pouring from them.

Walter Gibbs, a journalist with Reuters, said he saw eight injured people, including two or three with serious wounds and one who looked dead.

Gibbs said he believes one explosion happened on an upper floor of a main government building. He said it blew out every window on the side of the building.

The blast also severely damaged the Oil Ministry and left it in flames, he said.

Reuters reported that Stoltenberg was safe.

Nick Soubiea, an American-Swedish tourist in Oslo, told CNN he was less than 100 yards from the blast, which he described as deafening.

“It was almost in slow motion, like a big wave that almost knocked us off our chairs,” he said. “It was extremely frightening.”

He said the streets were crowded with people trying to get away from the center of the city. “There are people running down the streets, people crying, everyone’s on their cell phones calling home,” he said.

A hotel worker in Oslo’s Grand Hotel, about a five-minute walk from the government building, said everyone in the hotel felt and heard the explosion, which felt like someone was shaking the entire building.

“It’s crazy,” she said, not wanting to be identified because she is not authorized to speak to the media on behalf of the hotel. “This happens in the big world, not in Oslo. I’m shocked.”

Vivian Paulsen, media adviser for the Norwegian Red Cross, lives 20 minutes away from the center of Oslo in the northern outskirts of the city. She said she heard a “huge blast.”

“I heard the big bang, I didn’t think it was anything serious. I can still see smoke coming up from the place,” she said, watching from her apartment balcony. She also heard sirens and ambulances.

As for Oslo, she said what others have been saying: Events like this don’t happen in the northern European capital.

“There’s occasional arrests of terror suspects we read about in the paper, or people planning something. I can hear ambulances and sirens.”