Portuguese Bonds Fall On Downgrade
Australia Posts a Trade Deficit Due to Japan Crisis
Australia Keeps Rates on Hold at 4.75%
NASDAQ Rebalancing Takes a Bite Out of Apple
NASDAQ rebalancing will reduce the weighting in AAPL from 20% to approximately 12%. The big winner will be Microsoft, with its weighting jumping to 8.3% from 3.4%. These changes will likely spur selling in shares of AAPL by managers who are pegged to the index.
The rebalancing is likely to kick off waves of trading in the stock market as money managers scramble to adjust holdings to reflect the new composition of the index. There are more than 2,900 financial products tracking the Nasdaq-100 in 27 countries, Nasdaq says. That includes the $24.4 billion PowerShares QQQ exchange-traded fund, which over the past year has been the sixth most actively traded stock on U.S. exchanges.
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Moody’s Cuts Portugal to Baa1 From A3
They cite politically uncertainty.
Comments »China to Make Up 20% of Luxury Market by 2015
Libyan Rebels Trick Qadaffi Forces in Misrata
Ha, ha, you’re dead!
Comments »Wefaq Libya Reports from Misrata:
For each battle, one way to win includes this war trick! Because our freedom fighters have a sense of humor, they’ve been inspired to use this method to overcome the tyrant. Several days ago, the freedom fighters unloaded the fuel station located on a the service road for heavy transport vehicles. The gasoline it contained was emptied and was replaced with water instead. The freedom fighters then retreated thus leaving the fueling station to be accessible to the nearby Gaddafi brigade. Because it’s easy to trap a mouse in a trap, the rats of Gaddafi looted the fuel station and started filling their armored vehicles with ‘fuel’! When they attempt to leave, their vehicles stopped moving , and that is when our freedom fighters ambushed them! Gaddafi’s solders were forced to flee leaving their dead vehicles behind. I guess the next time they want to fill up, they’ll have to taste the fuel to be sure!
Flash: France Cuts Growth to 2% from 2.5%
On that news, European shares are expected to open flat to slightly lower.
Comments »Libyan Rebel Commander: ‘Cut Gaddafi’s Throat, Then Establish an Islamic State’
Wow. Perhaps Gaddafi wasn’t lying when he stated that Al Qaeda was responsible for the uprising.
“Whereas American officials have been straining to make out “flickers” of intelligence suggesting a jihadist influence in the eastern Libyan rebellion against the rule of Muammar al-Gaddafi, Fouchet encountered a flagrant jihadist presence and met with participants who talked openly about their dedication to jihad and/or their desire to establish an Islamic state.”
Read the rest here.
Comments »TEPCO Shares Plunge to 1951 Levels
Dumping toxic fluids into the ocean is pissing off fishermen. Shares are down 15%.
Comments »New GOP Budget Claims to Cut 6.2 Trillion in Spending Over 10 Years
Our budget, which we call The Path to Prosperity, is very different. For starters, it cuts $6.2 trillion in spending from the president’s budget over the next 10 years, reduces the debt as a percentage of the economy, and puts the nation on a path to actually pay off our national debt. Our proposal brings federal spending to below 20% of gross domestic product (GDP), consistent with the postwar average, and reduces deficits by $4.4 trillion.
A study just released by the Heritage Center for Data Analysis projects that The Path to Prosperity will help create nearly one million new private-sector jobs next year, bring the unemployment rate down to 4% by 2015, and result in 2.5 million additional private-sector jobs in the last year of the decade. It spurs economic growth, with $1.5 trillion in additional real GDP over the decade. According to Heritage’s analysis, it would result in $1.1 trillion in higher wages and an average of $1,000 in additional family income each year.
Read the rest here.
Comments »Bernanke: We Must Blow Up Clearing Agents With Derivatives and Bogus Regulation
IMF Chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn: “The Washington consensus is now behind us”
Share Buybacks Do Not Signal Higher Prices
Libyan Rebels Desire to Get Rich Off Oil Assets
March Madness: U.S. Gov’t Spent More Than Eight Times Its Monthly Revenue
(CNSNews.com) – The U.S. Treasury has released a final statement for the month of March that demonstrates that financial madness has gripped the federal government.
During the month, according to the Treasury, the federal government grossed $194 billion in tax revenue and paid out $65.898 billion in tax refunds (including $62.011 to individuals and $3.887 to businesses) thus netting $128.179 billion in tax revenue for March.
At the same, the Treasury paid out a total of $1.1187 trillion. When the $65.898 billion in tax refunds is deducted from that, the Treasury paid a net of $1.0528 trillion in federal expenses for March.
That $1.0528 trillion in spending for March equaled 8.2 times the $128.179 in net federal tax revenue for the month.
Read the rest here.
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