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Media Using Anti-Nuclear Lobby as Experts on Crisis?

It should be no surprise that the media would welcome a nuclear disaster as it gives them a chance to trash the industry.

“The media, however, has risen to the challenge, with a combination of poor information, ignorance, and alarmism, along with antinuclear activists passing themselves off as unbiased experts.

Let’s try to make some sense of it all.”

Read the rest here.

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Standard & Poors March 15 ratings actions

Prestige Auto Receivables Trust 2011-1 $221.62 Million Notes Assigned Preliminary Ratings 15-Mar-2011
11:33 EST

Rating On South Davis Recreation District, UT’s 2004 Bonds Raised To ‘AA-‘ On Strong Financial And Population Trends 15-Mar-2011
11:23 EST

Six Ratings From Three CDOs Lowered; 14 Ratings Affirmed 15-Mar-2011
11:21 EST

Preliminary Ratings Assigned To Bank of Scotland’s U.K. RMBS Transaction Headingley RMBS 2011-1 15-Mar-2011
11:17 EST

Western Refining Inc.’s $325 Million Term Loan B Rated ‘B’ (Recovery Rating: 3) 15-Mar-2011
11:16 EST

Florida Housing Finance Corp. 2011 Bonds Rated ‘AA+’ 15-Mar-2011
11:00 EST

Grupo ACP Inversiones y Desarrollo Rated ‘BB-‘; Outlook Stable 15-Mar-2011
10:43 EST

Taylor, MI’s GO Debt Rating Lowered To ‘BBB’ Due To Weakened Finances 15-Mar-2011
10:39 EST

Esterline Technologies Corp. Rating Raised To ‘BB+’ From ‘BB’ On Improving Financials; Outlook Is Stable 15-Mar-2011
10:14 EST

Alberto-Culver Co. ‘BBB’ Rating Remains On CreditWatch Positive Pending Close Of Unilever Transaction 15-Mar-2011
09:54 EST

North Spencer County Elementary School Building Corp., IN’s Series 2011 Bonds ‘AA+’; Outlook Stable 15-Mar-2011
09:31 EST

Ratings Assigned In Dutch RMBS Transaction STORM 2011-II 15-Mar-2011
07:26 EST

BNP PARIBAS ZAO Upgraded To ‘BBB’ On Very Likely Group Support, “Core” Status; Outlook Stable; Affirmed At ‘A-3/ruAAA’ 15-Mar-2011
07:17 EST

Ratings Assigned In Dutch RMBS Transaction STORM 2011-I 15-Mar-2011
07:16 EST

S&P Resolves Counterparty Related CreditWatch Placement Of Asti Finance’s Class A Notes 15-Mar-2011
07:04 EST

Kazakh Agrarian Credit Corp. Proposed KZT3 Billion Bond Rated ‘BB/kzA+’ 15-Mar-2011
05:58 EST

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URS Corp. (URS)

Gotta fix nuclear plants? URS. Gotta close Nuclear plants? URS.

Book $50
Cash 7.00
Debt .16
12x eps
.4x sales
Price 44.23

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PANIC in the Streets of Tokyo?

Worldwide markets are in full-blown panic mode. It has taken a nuclear crisis to act as the straw that breaks the camels back. And I don’t need to list the litany of thing that have gone wrong over the past two months.

The markets inability to trade “normally” (ebb & flow) is going to add to the market vacuum as we should not have been anywhere near pre-creditcrash levels. Because of the unlimited and never-ending bid, the market is totally divorced from anything that resembles reality even before this shit hit the fan. So many trader-types said that they would remain long until the uptrend line brakes. It broke on Friday.

If you are stock or commodity heavy, you will have to stop quickly or “hope” the market comes back like it has so many times. In the meantime, get your buy lists ready. Futures are indicating SPX 1260 and there will almost undoubtedly be a bounce after a sharp drop. But I won’t be doing any real buying until SPX 1200-1230.

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Against concensus, Obama underscores need for nuclear energy

In a posturing that may help shore up the stock of nuclear companies and relax the run in other energy related names, the Obama administration has come out in support of nuclear energy as having an important place in all future policies.

White House spokesman Jay Carney said nuclear power, “remains a part of the president’s overall energy plan. When he talks about reaching a clean energy standards it’s a vital part of that. And as we get more information from Japan and what happened there, that can be incorporated, but right now we remain committed to the clean energy standards and the other aspects of the president’s energy plan.”

Monday, energy names not related to nuclear power ran higher as traders prepared for the reactions of the public and public officials to the events unfolding on Japan.

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Moody’s puts Japan on outlook

Exactly how this catastrophe will effect Japan’s economy, or that of other global markets, remains unclear as cheap liquidity has begun to flood the system. Like everyone else, the credit rating agency seems to be playing things as they develop.

“No fiscal crisis is imminent in Japan after the earthquake. Debt markets are likely to fund government deficits at low cost, given Japan’s deep and liquid government debt market. However, a tipping point may be reached at some point if the market loses confidence in the soundness of government finances, and demands a risk premium on government bonds.”

They have been slightly more adventurous when discussing Japan’s largest and most decentralized organizations.

“While the situation in Japan remains uncertain and fluid following the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, at this point we do not believe there will be rating implications for most large Japanese corporates and banks. Most entities are broadly diversified and therefore do not demonstrate material concentration risks to the most affected prefectures.”

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Pfizer shares climb on rumors of asset divestiture

Rumors that Pfizer Inc. would sell off underperforming assets, circulated by analysts at Sanford C. Bernstein, are causing the shares to rally today.

It’s one of the only stocks that is…

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Libya conflict continues as rebels reprise

Qaddafi continued his press forward against the positions of rebel forces throughout the weekend, going into Monday, as warplanes bombed Tobruk, a strategic location for the opposition.

France and Britain hiked up pressure, meanwhile, for the implementation of a no-fly zone that rebels are desperately pleading for.

At the oil port of Brega, rebel forces which were recently dislodged from their fortifications have claimed that they snuck back and reclaimed the city by nightfall.

Qaddafi’s forces, despite a strong push back against the uprising, are stretched and dependent on continued airstrikes and artillery positions, or so claims from the uprising suggest.

As to which side is winning, both are claiming victory.

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Monday S&P credit ratings

S&P Corrects Rating On One Maturity Of Metropolitan Transportation Authority, N.Y.’s 2003B Bonds To ‘A’ From ‘AAA’ 14-Mar-2011
10:40 EST

ADS Tactical Inc. Assigned ‘B+’ Corporate Credit Rating, $275 Million Notes Rated ‘B’; Outlook Is Stable 14-Mar-2011
10:37 EST

Class A1 Ratings Lowered To ‘D (sf)’ In EUROMAX IV MBS Cash Flow CDO Of Mezzanine ABS 14-Mar-2011
10:11 EST

Swiss Chemicals Company Clariant Affirmed At ‘BBB-/A-3’; Off Watch; Outlook Negative On Medium-Term Deleveraging Risks 14-Mar-2011
09:48 EST

Morgan Stanley ACES SPC Series 2006-8 Class A-10 ‘B- (sf)’ Rating Affirmed 14-Mar-2011
09:41 EST

Rating Lowered On Class A3 And Unchanged On Class A1 And A2 Of Irish RMBS Deal Fastnet Securities 6 After Restructure 14-Mar-2011
08:50 EST

Three Notes Issued By Abu Dhabi Special-Purpose Entity IPIC GMTN Ltd. Rated ‘AA’ 14-Mar-2011
03:59 EST

Ranhill Bhd. Rating Lowered To ‘B-‘ On Project Suspension In Libya, Refinancing Risk; Remains On CreditWatch Negative 13-Mar-2011
23:38 EST

S&P Corrects Rating On Helium Capital Ltd. Series 64 Transaction 13-Mar-2011
23:35 EST

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Economists Believe Japan May Recover Very Quickly

Reuters has an interesting take on how the earthquake and tsunamis will affect Japan’s future economic growth.

“The instinctive reaction when viewing the extensive damage and frantic efforts to secure damaged nuclear reactors is to assume economic havoc will follow.

But researchers who have studied similar disasters in rich countries reach a reassuring conclusion: human resilience and resourcefulness, allied to an ability to draw down accumulated wealth, enable economies to rebound quickly from what seem at first to be unbearable inflictions – be it the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York or Friday’s 8.9-magnitude earthquake, the worst in Japan’s history.

Japan itself provides Exhibit No. 1 in foretelling the arc of recovery. A 6.8-magnitude temblor struck the western city of Kobe on January 17, 1995, killing 6,400 people and causing damage estimated at 10 trillion yen, or 2 percent of Japan’s gross domestic product.

The importance of Kobe’s container port, then the world’s sixth-largest, and the city’s location between Osaka and western Japan made it more significant for the economy than the more sparsely populated region where the latest quake and tsunami struck. Extensive disruption ensued, yet Japan’s industrial production, after falling 2.6 percent in January 1995, rose 2.2 percent that February and another 1.0 percent in March. GDP for the whole of the first quarter of 1995 rose at an annualized rate of 3.4 percent.

“Despite the scale of the disaster, it is hard to find much evidence in the macroeconomic data of the effects of the Kobe earthquake,” said Richard Jerram, chief Asian economist at Macquarie in Singapore and a veteran Japan-watcher.

Indeed, Takuji Okubo, chief Japan economist at Societe Generale in Tokyo, noted that Japan’s economy grew by 1.9 percent in 1995 and 2.6 percent in 1996, above the country’s trend growth rate at the time of 1.5 percent. Private consumption, government spending and, especially, public fixed investment all grew above average in 1995 and 1996, Okubo said in a report. By analogy, the medium-term impact on growth from the latest quake was also likely to be positive, he said.”

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Radiation Leaks Recede, Cooling Resumes After Explosion of Nuclear Plant

It is amazing that the containment facility appears to have been effective at stopping the spread of radiation:

“We’ve confirmed that the reactor container was not damaged. The explosion didn’t occur inside the reactor container. As such there was no large amount of radiation leakage outside,” Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said in a news conference Saturday evening. “At this point, there has been no major change to the level of radiation leakage outside, so we’d like everyone to respond calmly.”

Plans to continue cooling the plant are underway, including pumping in sea water. Officials are also planning on using boric acid to slow down the reaction.

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Higher Healthcare Costs if Commuting Grandma Gets Run Over By a Reindeer

In between leaving shiny apples on Ben Bernanke’s desk, Steve Liesman, resident annoying dork at CNBC, is out with a piece about older women increasingly rejoining the workforce. While this may help out employers in terms of  higher levels of productivity from experienced workers, it is sure to raise healthcare costs.

(Source: CNBC)

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