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STOCK MARKET WATCH -- Friday, 4 May 2012
[font size=3]STOCK MARKET WATCH, Friday, 4 May 2012[font color=black][/font]
SMW for 3 May 2012
AT THE CLOSING BELL ON 3 May 2012
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Dow Jones 13,206.59 -61.98 (-0.47%)
S&P 500 1,391.57 -10.74 (-0.77%)
Nasdaq 3,024.30 -35.55 (-1.16%)
[font color=green]10 Year 1.93% -0.02 (-1.03%)
30 Year 3.12% -0.02 (-0.64%) [font color=black]
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[font size=2]Market Conditions During Trading Hours[/font]
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[font size=2]Euro, Yen, Loonie, Silver and Gold[center]
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[font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Market Data and News:[/font][/font]
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Economic Calendar
Marketwatch Data
Bloomberg Economic News
Yahoo Finance
Google Finance
Bank Tracker
Credit Union Tracker
Daily Job Cuts
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[font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Economic Blogs:[/font][/font]
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The Big Picture
Financial Sense
Calculated Risk
Naked Capitalism
Credit Writedowns
Brad DeLong
Bonddad
Atrios
goldmansachs666
The Stand-Up Economist
The Automatic Earth
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[font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Government Issues:[/font][/font]
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LegitGov
Open Government
Earmark Database
USA spending.gov
[/center][font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Videos:[/font][/font]
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Charlie Rose talks with Roubini
Charlie Rose talks with Krugman
William Black: This Economic Disaster
Bill Moyers with Kevin Drum and David Corn
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Financial Sector Officials Convicted since 1/20/09 = [/font][font color=red]12[/font]
2/2/12 David Higgs and Salmaan Siddiqui, Credit Suisse, plead guilty to conspiracy involving valuation of MBS
3/6/12 Allen Stanford, former Caribbean billionaire and general schmuck, convicted on 13 of 14 counts in $2.2B Ponzi scheme, faces 20+ years in prison
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[font size=3][font color=red]This thread contains opinions and observations. Individuals may post their experiences, inferences and opinions on this thread. However, it should not be construed as advice. It is unethical (and probably illegal) for financial recommendations to be given here.[/font][/font][/font color=red][font color=black]
81 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
Sly Bailey, the chief executive of Trinity Mirror who was facing a shareholder revolt about her £1.7m pay package, unexpectedly handed in her notice to the board on Thursday
Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/8P1R88/L92468/VTVRG/MSBQGE/VLYPAW/9A/t?a1=2012&a2=5&a3=3
10 YEARS, 140 NEWSPAPERS UNDER HER CARE...SLY FOUND THE SHAREHOLDERS WERE REVOLTING...(I know, it's an old gag, but it never gets stale)
Bullshit!
Perp walks, now that's something I'll believe in. 
More like couch cushion pennies.
Wanna PM me?
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-04-26/coals-future-is-rocky-at-best
Is coal doomed? The dirty yet abundant energy source has had some rough patches before, but nothing like this. In 1985 coal accounted for 57 percent of all power generated in the U.S. Last year it was 42 percent. The U.S. Energy Information Administration estimates it will fall to 40 percent this year. Prices for Appalachian coal are down 24 percent over the past 12 months; for coal from the Powder River Basin in Montana and Wyoming, they’re down 45 percent. “With the prices you’re looking at now, no one can make money,” says Lucas Pipes, an analyst at Brean Murray, Carret.
Coal is in a struggle with a perfect adversary: ultracheap natural gas. With all the shale reserves unlocked by fracking, gas prices have steadily declined since mid-2008, to the point where they’re hovering around $2 per million British thermal units for the first time in a decade. That’s lower than coal prices. The natural gas is all domestically derived energy, so the country’s fuel import bill doesn’t go up. It’s clean. And it’s so abundant that the industry may run out of places to store it. Utilities that switch to natural gas are already passing savings on to customers. In 2013 residential U.S. utility bills should fall 1 percent.
With the price of natural gas around $2, everyone who can switch is switching. This year, Goldman Sachs (GS) energy analyst David Greely expects utilities to change from coal to gas at the unprecedented rate of 4.9 billion cubic feet per day. In 2008 coal made up 70 percent of Southern Co.’s (SO) electricity generation; now it’s 32 percent. At the same time, Southern has increased its gas-fired generation from 16 percent to 46 percent. Even utilities in West Virginia, the heart of coal country, are converting.
Since last April, shares of Peabody Energy (BTU), the biggest coal producer in the U.S., have dropped more than half, from $70 to $29. The stock of Arch Coal (ACI) has gone from $35 to less than $10 in the same period. Several coal producers have reported losses in the hundreds of millions of dollars. “Cheap natural gas has really made a mess of a lot of these business models,” says Kuni Chen, an energy analyst at CRT Capital Group. More trouble lies ahead. A number of old, dirty coal-fired plants are scheduled to be shut down by the end of 2014 in compliance with regulations from the Environmental Protection Agency. That could drive another 5 percent of coal demand out of the market, says Chen...
Is coal doomed? The dirty yet abundant energy source has had some rough patches before, but nothing like this. In 1985 coal accounted for 57 percent of all power generated in the U.S. Last year it was 42 percent. The U.S. Energy Information Administration estimates it will fall to 40 percent this year. Prices for Appalachian coal are down 24 percent over the past 12 months; for coal from the Powder River Basin in Montana and Wyoming, they’re down 45 percent. “With the prices you’re looking at now, no one can make money,” says Lucas Pipes, an analyst at Brean Murray, Carret.
Coal is in a struggle with a perfect adversary: ultracheap natural gas. With all the shale reserves unlocked by fracking, gas prices have steadily declined since mid-2008, to the point where they’re hovering around $2 per million British thermal units for the first time in a decade. That’s lower than coal prices. The natural gas is all domestically derived energy, so the country’s fuel import bill doesn’t go up. It’s clean. And it’s so abundant that the industry may run out of places to store it. Utilities that switch to natural gas are already passing savings on to customers. In 2013 residential U.S. utility bills should fall 1 percent.
With the price of natural gas around $2, everyone who can switch is switching. This year, Goldman Sachs (GS) energy analyst David Greely expects utilities to change from coal to gas at the unprecedented rate of 4.9 billion cubic feet per day. In 2008 coal made up 70 percent of Southern Co.’s (SO) electricity generation; now it’s 32 percent. At the same time, Southern has increased its gas-fired generation from 16 percent to 46 percent. Even utilities in West Virginia, the heart of coal country, are converting.
Since last April, shares of Peabody Energy (BTU), the biggest coal producer in the U.S., have dropped more than half, from $70 to $29. The stock of Arch Coal (ACI) has gone from $35 to less than $10 in the same period. Several coal producers have reported losses in the hundreds of millions of dollars. “Cheap natural gas has really made a mess of a lot of these business models,” says Kuni Chen, an energy analyst at CRT Capital Group. More trouble lies ahead. A number of old, dirty coal-fired plants are scheduled to be shut down by the end of 2014 in compliance with regulations from the Environmental Protection Agency. That could drive another 5 percent of coal demand out of the market, says Chen...
http://www.businessinsider.com/the-euro-area-economy-is-deteriorating-at-a-disastrous-pace-2012-5
In case you forgot how quickly the euro area economy was deteriorating, here's a look at the latest reading of composite PMI for the 17-country region.
That index fell to 46.7 this month, even worse than an earlier flash reading of 47.4.
Perhaps most concerning is that the effects of the European Central Bank's two three-year long-term refinancing operations appears to already be fading, as business activity rebounded slightly at the start of 2012 before declining sharply later in the year.
The idea that economic momentum driven by the LTROs has faded already stands in contrast to statements by ECB president Mario Draghi yesterday, who told reporters that the effects of the LTRO had not yet been felt in the markets.
Check out that PMI data for the eurozone:
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/the-euro-area-economy-is-deteriorating-at-a-disastrous-pace-2012-5#ixzz1ttvoY6Uz
In case you forgot how quickly the euro area economy was deteriorating, here's a look at the latest reading of composite PMI for the 17-country region.
That index fell to 46.7 this month, even worse than an earlier flash reading of 47.4.
Perhaps most concerning is that the effects of the European Central Bank's two three-year long-term refinancing operations appears to already be fading, as business activity rebounded slightly at the start of 2012 before declining sharply later in the year.
The idea that economic momentum driven by the LTROs has faded already stands in contrast to statements by ECB president Mario Draghi yesterday, who told reporters that the effects of the LTRO had not yet been felt in the markets.
Check out that PMI data for the eurozone:
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/the-euro-area-economy-is-deteriorating-at-a-disastrous-pace-2012-5#ixzz1ttvoY6Uz
Maguire explained how JPM routinly manipulates PM markets (primarily at the time of options expiry, non-farm payroll data releases, etc) back in 2010
Payroll numbers may now be such a trigger to fuck around with WTI. 
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/comment/2012/05/austerity-europe-election-france.html
Since the financial crisis hit in 2008, the European Community has embraced the self-flagellation of strict economic austerity: cut spending and raise taxes, and you’ll bring down budget deficits and win the confidence of the financial markets, or so the theory goes. For too long, the élites of Europe have bought into this argument, and ordinary voters have reluctantly acquiesced. No longer, perhaps.
Sunday’s presidential runoff in France is about many things—a preening leader whom many French people no longer regard as un homme sérieux; a Parti Socialiste struggling to reinvent itself after ten years out of parliamentary power and sixteen years out of the Elysee Palace; a country at home in Europe but still acutely conscious of its own identity. But most of all, especially from a global perspective, the election is a referendum on austerity.
From an economic perspective, it has been clear for some time that Europe’s approach, championed by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and supported (with a few quibbles) by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, has failed. Almost four years after the crisis began, the Euro area is languishing in a double-dip recession. So far, however, the political commitment to austerity has proved inviolate. After Sunday’s vote in France, which Sarkozy is expected to lose, together with fresh parliamentary elections in Greece, and the recent political strife in other countries (Czechoslovakia, Holland, Spain) things might finally start changing.
About time, you might say. In the Euro area as a whole, unemployment is running at more than ten per cent, and output is falling. In Ireland and Portugal, the unemployment rate is close to fifteen per cent. In Greece, it is twenty-two percent; in Spain, twenty-four per cent. Unemployment rose again in March, and manufacturing output hit a three-year low in April. For many Europeans, this isn’t a recession: it’s a depression. And yet, any hopes that the European Central Bank would ride to the rescue by lending the continent’s stricken banks unlimited amounts of Euros appear to be fading. On Thursday, the E.C.B. left interest rates unchanged, and urged governments to stick with austerity policies and combine them with structural reforms to promote job creation and growth.
Read more http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/comment/2012/05/austerity-europe-election-france.html#ixzz1tuEfZSYY
Since the financial crisis hit in 2008, the European Community has embraced the self-flagellation of strict economic austerity: cut spending and raise taxes, and you’ll bring down budget deficits and win the confidence of the financial markets, or so the theory goes. For too long, the élites of Europe have bought into this argument, and ordinary voters have reluctantly acquiesced. No longer, perhaps.
Sunday’s presidential runoff in France is about many things—a preening leader whom many French people no longer regard as un homme sérieux; a Parti Socialiste struggling to reinvent itself after ten years out of parliamentary power and sixteen years out of the Elysee Palace; a country at home in Europe but still acutely conscious of its own identity. But most of all, especially from a global perspective, the election is a referendum on austerity.
From an economic perspective, it has been clear for some time that Europe’s approach, championed by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and supported (with a few quibbles) by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, has failed. Almost four years after the crisis began, the Euro area is languishing in a double-dip recession. So far, however, the political commitment to austerity has proved inviolate. After Sunday’s vote in France, which Sarkozy is expected to lose, together with fresh parliamentary elections in Greece, and the recent political strife in other countries (Czechoslovakia, Holland, Spain) things might finally start changing.
About time, you might say. In the Euro area as a whole, unemployment is running at more than ten per cent, and output is falling. In Ireland and Portugal, the unemployment rate is close to fifteen per cent. In Greece, it is twenty-two percent; in Spain, twenty-four per cent. Unemployment rose again in March, and manufacturing output hit a three-year low in April. For many Europeans, this isn’t a recession: it’s a depression. And yet, any hopes that the European Central Bank would ride to the rescue by lending the continent’s stricken banks unlimited amounts of Euros appear to be fading. On Thursday, the E.C.B. left interest rates unchanged, and urged governments to stick with austerity policies and combine them with structural reforms to promote job creation and growth.
Read more http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/comment/2012/05/austerity-europe-election-france.html#ixzz1tuEfZSYY
