MDRX, FOLD, EAT, XTEX, DRI, DFS, GG, HLF, MU, NKE, PAYX, RIMM, WHR,

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ABT, BLK, SAM, BREW, DVA, RE, FCX, AWAY, LNCO, TAP, PNR, TKC,

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“SINGAPORE–Asian central banks should closely monitor capital flows, following additional easing measures in major economies, the World Bank said Wednesday, as it tipped the region’s economies to continue growing robustly ahead, albeit at a weaker pace than in recent years.

The World Bank forecast growth in East Asia Pacific to pick up to 6.6% in 2013 and 2014, from 5.8% in 2012. Its projections for 2012 and 2013 were revised down by 0.5 percentage point and 0.4 point, respectively, from its view in May. Developing Asia Pacific was tipped to expand 7.5% in 2012, 7.9% in 2013 and 7.6% in 2014. China is expected to grow 7.9% in 2012, 8.4% in 2013 and 8.0% in 2014…”

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BBT, CENT, C, GTAT, HBI, MDVN, ONXX, PNRA, RF, SD, SWHC, USB, WFC

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“LONDON (Reuters) – Ratings firm Fitch said on Wednesday it is more likely to strip the United Statesof its triple-A status if a political deal is not reached to halt $600 billion of spending cuts and tax hikes set for early next year.

“Failure to avoid the fiscal cliff … would exacerbate rather than diminish the uncertainty over fiscal policy, and tip the U.S. into an avoidable and unnecessary recession,” Fitch said in its 2013 global outlook, published on Wednesday.

“That could erode medium-term growth potential and financial stability. In such a scenario, there would be an increased likelihood that the U.S. would lose its AAA status.”

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“Axa SA (CS), France’s largest insurer, was downgraded by Standard & Poor’s as the economic slump in Europe weighs on results.

The insurer’s credit rating was cut to A- from A as “unfavorable investment market conditions and weak economic prospects are likely to dampen AXA group’s earnings growth,” the ratings firm said yesterday in a statement on the Paris- based company. ”

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“Goldman Sachs’s Li Cui and her team revised their Q4 2012 Chinese GDP growth forecast to 7.8 percent year-over-year, up from 7.6 percent.

The revision in fourth quarter data is based on better than expected “production-side data” namely better fixed asset investment and industrial production data.

Goldman analysts also revised their 2013 GDP forecast to 8.2 percent, up marginally from 8.1 percent….”

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BMI, CBOU, CLF, CTRP, DUK, FE, GS, HPQ, KSU, SIRI, TSLA, TRMB, YOKU,

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AAPL, BHI, BDX, CPHD, CERN, FINL, MCP, QGEN, SD, SAP, TXN, TRV, UN, USNA, USG, YY,

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“Apple fell under $500 in pre-market trading this morning.

It could continue to drop says trader Mark Dow. When a stock loses its momentum, you can throw out the fundamentals, says Dow. Based on a simple technical analysis, he believes it could slide all the way to $425:

While I’m here, let me make a quick, behavioral point on AAPL. AAPL has been THE story stock in the market over the past few years. It has been our collective obsession. It has sucked all the oxygen out of every financial chat room and could do no wrong. I can’t speak to the fundamentals, which may or may not have changed, but I do know this: once the fever breaks on a story that is so beloved, sentiment usually doesn’t stop deteriorating until the pendulum has overshot to the other side. And I get no sense we are near that point yet. I still see virtually all knife-catchers and no momentum shortsellers, and until this changes, it is probably not safe to buy the fruit….”

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“Brian J. White, the famous Apple bull at Topeka securities is sticking with his $1,111 price target, which would be more than a double from here.

He says China is going to be huge, based on this weekend’s news that Apple sold 2 million iPhone 5s in its first weekend there….”

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ADBE, BV, BP, BKW, CIEN, CL, CVS, DVA, DE, EQR, XOM, KMB, MRO, MSFT, PG, RIGL, RDS-A, S, TIVO, WYNN, YOKU, ZUMZ,

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ALGN, AMGN, C, DYN, FDX, MFRM, MDLZ, NKE, OPEN, ORCL, POT, MOS, PB, STX, TTWO, TEVA, UA, VOLC, YELP,

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ANF, ALGN, ACC, ARUN, FWLT, FTE, GPS, HMN, IR, KORS, MWW, PMT, RKUS, TWC, TUMI, URBN,

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ANF, AAP, APA, BBY, CME, EBAY, FCX, ISLE, MET, NBL, OMC, PLXS, QRE, SKS, TRIP, CYBX, NYX,

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In a word BANKS.

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“One trend I am seeing consistently in these 2013 annual strategy reports is the risky environment that is building in corporate credits.  In this summary, Credit Suisse provides a rationale for being overweight equities relative to credit in 2013:

1) Credit has outperformed strongly, leaving equities appearing cheap on a number of valuation scores….”

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FCX, FIO, HNZ, JDSU, LGF, MFRM, MET, ZQK, SPG, SCCO, SBUX, JOE, TIF,

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“Standard & Poor’s on Wednesday cut Greece’s sovereign long-term foreign currency credit rating to “selective default” from an already low “CCC” rating.

Last week Greece and its international lenders reached a deal to lower the country’s debt burden, which included a debt buyback.

The decision to lower the sovereign rating follows the government’s invitation to private sector bondholders to participate in the debt buyback “which under our criteria we view as a selective default,” S&P said in an e-mailed statement.

“When the buyback is consummated (which we understand is scheduled to occur on or about Dec. 17, 2012), we will likely consider the selective default to be cured and raise the sovereign credit rating on Greece to the ‘CCC’ category,” the statement said…”

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“As discussed earlier (see post), US manufacturing data for November shows shrinking inventories. This is true for both the ISM survey as well as the Markit PMI index (see figures below).

Goldman looks at the change in private inventories (also called “inventory investment”) as a good predictor of GDP growth. The Q3 GDP exhibited relatively strong inventory accumulation, which is being reversed this quarter (as the charts above show).

GS: – Inventory investment is often an important contributor to quarterly fluctuations in real GDP. Most recently, real GDP growth in Q3 saw a sizable boost from inventory accumulation. … Given the soft early indicators from business sentiment surveys to date, and our own econometric analysis, we expect that the boost to GDP growth from inventory investment seen last quarter will not persist into Q4. Inventories will probably be a moderate drag on GDP growth into year-end.
…
The recent decline in the series is consistent with a moderation in inventory investment in the current quarter, and hence a decline in the contribution from inventory investment to real GDP growth. A simple regression of quarterly inventory investment on our indicator [R-squared = 0.8] suggests that inventory accumulation could fall by $34 billion in Q4 ($135 billion at an annual rate) to $27 billion, enough to detract roughly a full percentage point from Q4 real GDP growth if taken at face value.”

 

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