The exchange was halted again after a bidless market destroyed stocks for a second consecutive day.
Comments »Flash: Moody’s Downgrades Spanish Banking Sector
Spanish banks are expected to trade lower. This downgrade was widely expected.
Comments »Korean Smartphone Users Pass 10 million
The Korean Communication Commission is reporting Korean smartphone users have surpassed 10 million, just 16 months after the iPhone was launched there. Moreover, they are projecting that number to surge to over 20 million by the end of this year.
Note: we are talking South Korea here. The baboons in the North are still using tomato cans and wire.
Comments »No Country Leans on Upper-Income Households as Much as U.S.
Be sure to read the whole piece, if for no other reason than to access the tables. The money quotes come in the last paragraph, which I’ve not quoted here.
“During my recent testimony before the Senate Budget Committee (found here), I cited an OECD statistic that the U.S. has the most progressive income tax system among industrialized nations.[1] This prompted one Senator to point out that if the richest 10% of taxpayers earn the most of any OECD country, shouldn’t it make sense that they bear the largest tax burden of any country?
The answer can be found in the OECD table below. This table shows the share of taxes paid by the richest 10 percent of households, the share of all market income earned by that group, and the ratio of what that 10 percent of households pays in taxes versus what they earn as a share of the nation’s income.
The first column shows that the top 10 percent of households in the U.S. pays 45.1 percent of all income taxes (both personal income and payroll taxes combined) in the country. Italy is the only other country in which the top 10 percent of households pays more than 40 percent of the income tax burden (42.2%). Meanwhile, the average tax burden for the top decile of households in OECD countries is 31.6 percent.
By contrast, column #2 shows that the richest decile in America earned 33.5 percent of the market income in the country in 2005 – the year in which this snapshot was taken, but little has changed since then. But, a few other countries do have a greater or similar concentration of income as does the U.S. For example, the OECD table shows that the wealthiest decile of households in Italy and Poland earn a greater share of their country’s market income than do our “rich” – 35.8 percent and 33.9 percent respectively – while the share of income earned by the top decile of households in the U.K. is about on par with those in the U.S. at 32.3 percent.”
Read the rest here.
Comments »Neutron beam observed 13 times at crippled Fukushima nuke plant
Crazy stuff.
“Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Wednesday it has observed a neutron beam, a kind of radioactive ray, 13 times on the premises of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant after it was crippled by the massive March 11 quake-tsunami disaster.”
Read the rest here.
Comments »Footage from Misrata
The struggle to behead Ghaddafi continues.
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2mw-JseOIs&feature=player_embedded 550 400] Comments »Smoke Emanating From Reactors 1-4
Things are looking dicey again at Fukushima, with elevated radiation levels and smoke billowing from reactors 1-4.
Related: the NIKKEI opened up 0.4%
Comments »Morgan Stanley: Japanese Disaster to Trim Global Growth to 3.8%
They are guestimating a 0.5% decrease in global growth in 2011, down to 3.8%.
Comments »Investors Continue to Flee Chinese Listed Stocks
Thanks to outright fraud from a number to Chinese listed name here in the US, investors have been shooting first, asking questions later.
Here are some of today’s big losers.
CAAS -12%
DGW -12%
JGBO -12%
YONG -10%
CBEH -10%
SIHI -10%
BONA -7%
DANG -6%
Gold/Silver Stocks Surge
Despite dollar strength, investors piled into precious metal names today, as gold and silver surged to new highs.
AUMN +24%
MGH +13%
UXG +11%
GPL +10%
KBX +8%
HMY +8%
MMG +8%
EGI +7%
GRS +6%
AG +6%
Today’s Biggest Winners
Ticker % Change
AUMN 24.1
MOBI 22.05
SYMX 21.71
FSII 18.66
FACE 17.03
AEHR 16.38
OMEX 15.92
VRML 15.7
KV-A 14.75
BSDM 13.87
MGH 12.82
TXCC 12.55
——————-
Micron beats by $0.04, beats on revs
revenues rose 15.1% year/year to $2.26 bln vs the $2.07 bln consensus.
Comments »Flash: Portugal Rejects Austerity
They voted it down because they like to spend money.
Comments »AEC declares common dividend
Dodd-Frank provision for debit fees receives opposition
A rather large and diverse assortment of groups have come out opposed to the measure; from credit unions, the NAACP, the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, to Fed members who originally proposed the rule. Suddenly, everyone seems to be questioning the provision, and wondering what sort of unintended consequences it would have.
Comments »Portugal expected to reject austerity
Their Parliament is expected to reject plans, paving the way for a possible collapse of the minority Socialist administration. Prime Minister Jose Socrates has threatened to resign if the measure is defeated.
Comments »Flash: Radiation Levels at Fukushima at Highest Levels Ever
Just when you thought things were improving, apparently, Japanese officials have disclosed nuke plant #2 is registering its highest radiation readings to date.
Comments »Egyptian Market Plunges
After two months of being close, the Egyptian market opened today and investors sold every which way but loose, ending lower by 9%.
Comments »Allies Playing Hot Potato With Libya
Sadly, this was predictable.
“Deep divisions between allied forces currently bombing Libya worsened today as the German military announced it was pulling forces out of NATO over continued disagreement on who will lead the campaign.”
Read the rest here.
