STOCK MARKET WATCH, Thursday April 12

[ozymandius]

Source: DU

Thursday April 12, 2007

COUNTING THE DAYS
DAYS REMAINING IN THE * REGIME 648 LONG DAYS
DAYS SINCE DEMOCRACY DIED (12/12/00) 2293 DAYS
WHERE'S OSAMA BIN-LADEN? 2003 DAYS
DAYS SINCE ENRON COLLAPSE = 1963
Number of Enron Execs in handcuffs = 19
ENRON EXECS CONVICTED = 9
Enron execs conveniently deceased = 3
Other Arrests of Execs = 54

---

U.S. FUTURES & MARKETS INDICATORS
NASDAQ FUTURES-----------------------------S&P FUTURES

---

AT THE CLOSING BELL WHEN BUSH TOOK OFFICE on January 22, 2001
Dow - 10,578.24
Nasdaq - 2,757.91
S&P 500 - 1,342.90
Oil - $27.69/bbl
Gold - $266.70/oz.

AT THE CLOSING BELL ON April 11, 2007

Dow... 12,484.62 -89.23 (-0.71%)
Nasdaq... 2,459.31 -18.30 (-0.74%)
S&P 500... 1,438.87 -9.52 (-0.66%)
Gold future... 681.70 +0.20 (+0.03%)
30-Year Bond 4.92% +0.01 (+0.18%)
10-Yr Bond... 4.74% +0.02 (+0.32%)






GOLD, EURO, YEN, Loonie and Silver

---

PIEHOLE ALERT

Heads Up!
Preliminary info on appearances by Bush & Co. throughout the country. Details & links are added as they become available so check back. And if you know more, are organizing something, or would like to, contact [email protected]

For information on protests and other actions Citizens For Legitimate Government

---

Read more: DU

[ozymandius]

1. Today's Market WrapUp

Global Distortions
US Dependency Goes Beyond Energy
BY CHRIS PUPLAVA

A New York Times article entitled, “Maybe Developing Nations Are Not Emerging but Have Emerged” (12.30.2006), presented a figure that speaks volumes of the global disparity in economic growth and prosperity.

-cut-

The tables have turned dramatically since 1998 as seen in the figure, where earlier in the 1990s developing countries relied on debt to fuel their growth which led to an increase in their current account deficits. This raised the currency risk in these countries where investors grew wary of further lending as the risk of default grew with any sign of economic weakness. An example of this situation was seen with the Asian currency crisis in the latter part of the 1990s which also led to a default by Russia on some of its foreign debt.

Fast forward to this decade where the US is borrowing record amounts of debt and our current account balances have ballooned southward as we have used debt to fuel our growth. Indeed, the tables have emphatically turned in just one decade. Developing nations, however, are accumulating wealth with a savings glut and are investing their savings abroad by financing our debt addiction. Developing nations are growing their wealth through several means such as taking advantage of their competitive edge in labor force with urbanization that has led to a surge in exports, and by their rich endowments in commodities at the expense of nations who lack the capacity to meet their nation’s needs, with the US becoming ever more dependent on foreign crude oil imports.

http://www.financialsense.com/Market/wrapup.htm

[Roland99]

3. Morning everyone! It's Friday for me.

Taking off tomorrow to take my youngest daughter on a long weekend road trip.

Doing my part to make sure the oil companies survive the precarious position in which they currently find themselves.


:sarcasm:

[ozymandius]

11. I am sure Lee Raymond apprecates it.

:sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm:

You sound like a great daddy Roland. Have a great time!

:hi:

[Roland99]

19. Oh, we will!

It's either a day trip to Philly (Liberty Bell and such) or a day trip to Manhattan and walking about on a cool but nice spring day.

I'd take my older daughter but she just had some exploratory surgery and couldn't do all the walking we'll be doing but she'll get her chance later this year with a trip to the beach in my annual trek down to FL with my Dad. :)

[AnneD]

17. Morning Marketeers....

:donut: and lurkers. Ah yes Roland....Spring, when a young man's fancy turns to other things...like beach babes, camping, 4 wheeling in the mud, drinking beer with the buds (needle scratches across the album). Wait, you have kids now, older kids. Let's make that shopping at the mall, chauffeuring her and her friends around and explain to me again why you need that ounce of makeup that costs $35 an ounce? Spring just doesn't have the same appeal that it once did.:(
But it can be a wonderful time to do some serious Dad and Daughter bonding. I showed my daughter how to change the fluids in her car over the last Spring Break. Loved watching her get her hands dirty for a change. Even thought she says she's not active (and I do trust her on this), I showed her how to use and put on a condom correctly. That actually turned out to be a pretty funny conversation. Ah yes, mother daughter bonding.

Well, the robins are still flying by, the azaleas are in bloom, and the Texas highways have so many bluebonnet that the highways look like they spring from distant oceans. If you enjoy a good road trip, Texas in Spring ranks with Vermont in fall for colourful displays. Gas prices do take some of the joy out but the short drive from Houston to Brenham provides lots of beauty and when you get to Brenham, you can tour the Blue Bell Ice Cream factory and get a free ice cream cone. Blue Bell beats the socks off Dryers and gives Ben and Jerry's some competition too.
These other guys have to offer coupons-Blue Bell has the market.

Happy hunting and watch for the bears.

[Roland99]

20. Oh yeah. Things are a bit different nowadays.

One daughter about to leave the teenage years behind and another about to start them. wheee!!! :-)

We have Blue Bell here in KY now, too. Haven't tried it yet, though. I've been watching my weight. Trying to keep that nice figure is harder once you pass that mid-point in life expectancy. :rofl:


Don't think we'll see any bears along the roadside but looks like some coming up today on Wall Street:

U.S. stock futures edge lower
Research In Motion disappoints; import price rise tops expectations
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/us-stock-futures-decline-import/story.aspx?guid=%7B56DB92AE%2D8432%2D49C2%2DB7C4%2D8382D3DD814D%7D


Funny thing about RiM. I was given a tip on them several years ago by a good buddy of mine and I didn't buy in. Sorta wish I had.

Among shares in pre-open focus, Research In Motion fell 6.8% to $136.14 in pre-open trading. The BlackBerry maker reported sales late Wednesday that just missed Wall Street forecasts and gave a profit forecast that disappointed some analysts.

[AnneD]

35. I think anyone that invests...

or fishes has a story about the one that got away. Mine was chiral molecules like the ones found in Nutra Sweet. Read it in Scientific American and immediately knew its value 3 years before it took off. I still see those every now and again and make as much as I can-but that was the best one.

As a moderately dyslexic person (I try to spell check everything)...I have an affinity for chiral molecules. I like the nano technology too. That is another up and coming.

[Roland99]

44. And tubes! Don't forget the tubes! But, actually, my BIG chance that I missed out on was...

not patenting "instant messaging" technology.

I got the idea for an online "buddy list" back in the Windows 95 beta days before MSN was available to the public. This would have been late 1994. I wanted a way to see a list of people who I knew that were online and be able to send them private messages. I never carried the patent process through, though, and AOL got one in '96 or '97.


Oh well....

[AnneD]

71. And you can get a patent on ideas and intellectual properties...

I wonder if a poor man's patent would work in this case? Any legal people out there?

[Roland99]

75. Oh it's way too late to do that. I've read AOL's patent and it covers my idea

pretty much entirely.

[AnneD]

78. But you could have another great idea...

keep hanging around these bright folks and keep your eyes open and your ear to the ground.

[Roland99]

83. I wonder if I could patent my ideas on what to do with the neocons?

:evilgrin:

[AnneD]

111. Sorry....

I beat you to that too.:evilgrin:

[ozymandius]

2. Today's Reports

8:30 AM Export Prices ex-ag. Mar
Briefing Forecast NA
Market Expects NA
Prior 0.6%

8:30 AM Import Prices ex-oil Mar
Briefing Forecast NA
Market Expects NA
Prior -0.1%

8:30 AM Initial Claims 04/07
Briefing Forecast 315K
Market Expects 320K
Prior 321K

http://biz.yahoo.com/c/e.html

[UpInArms]

6. 8:30 reports (Initial Claims @ 342,000 ewwwww!):

08. U.S. continuing jobless claims up 38,000 to 2.527mln
8:30 AM ET, Apr 12, 2007 - 3 minutes ago

09. U.S. March agricultural export prices up 2.1%
8:30 AM ET, Apr 12, 2007 - 3 minutes ago

10. U.S. March capital goods import prices fall 0.1%
8:30 AM ET, Apr 12, 2007 - 3 minutes ago

11. U.S. March imported petroleum prices up 9%
8:30 AM ET, Apr 12, 2007 - 3 minutes ago

12. U.S. March export prices up 0.7%
8:30 AM ET, Apr 12, 2007 - 3 minutes ago

13. U.S. March nonfuel import prices up 0.2%
8:30 AM ET, Apr 12, 2007 - 3 minutes ago

14. U.S. March import prices up 1.7% vs. 0.6% expected
8:30 AM ET, Apr 12, 2007 - 3 minutes ago

15. U.S. 4-wk avg. jobless claims up 7,000 to 323,250
8:30 AM ET, Apr 12, 2007 - 3 minutes ago

16. U.S. weekly jobless claims up 19,000 to 342,000
8:30 AM ET, Apr 12, 2007 - 3 minutes ago

[Roland99]

8. Yikes!

[ozymandius]

12. Aaaaah! That hurts!

When does Citigroup plan to cut 17k?

[AnneD]

18. Good to see you...

UIA. Missed you. Boy aren't you glad we don't shoot the messengers around here.

[UpInArms]

23. Hiya AnneD!

I miss my days at the SMW - real life has definitely changed for me - but I do get to "drop by" and do the early morning reports most of the time :)

:grouphug:

:hi:

[UpInArms]

7. deleted dreaded duplicate post :(

:blush:

[Roland99]

21. Import prices surge 1.7% on fuels; But excluding energy, imported inflation remains modest

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/import-prices-surge-17-march/story.aspx?guid=%7B34D5875E%2D5117%2D445F%2DB415%2D9CE11E5EC01E%7D


Outside of fuels it was only 0.2%. Now, if we could all only get by "outside of fuels".

[ozymandius]

4. Oil prices climb above $62 a barrel

VIENNA, Austria - Oil prices rose Thursday after the U.S. government reported a larger-than-expected decline in domestic gasoline stockpiles.

-cut-

Total U.S. motor gasoline stockpiles sank by 5.5 million barrels last week to 199.7 million barrels, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported Wednesday. Analysts had been expecting just a 1.3 million barrel decline, according to a survey by Dow Jones Newswires.

"That has really boosted gasoline prices and also created a knock-on effect on crude prices," said Victor Shum, an energy analyst with Purvin & Gertz in Singapore.

Looking further ahead, Vienna's PVM Oil Associates warned that "ongoing refinery outages in the U.S. continue to fuel fears of gasoline supply shortages during the upcoming peak driving season."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/oil_prices

[54anickel]

65. Crude Oil Gains After IEA Says OPEC Output Fell to Two-Year Low

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601072&sid=abiqNunpaEOs&refer=energy

April 12 (Bloomberg) -- Oil rose the most in two weeks after the International Energy Agency said OPEC reduced supplies to a two-year low to cut world stockpiles.

March oil output by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, source of 41 percent of world supplies, fell by 165,000 barrels to 30.1 million barrels a day, the lowest since January 2005, according to the IEA, adviser to 26 fuel consuming nations. A report yesterday showed that U.S. gasoline supplies dropped and crude inventories rose on reduced refinery output.

``OPEC is in a very solid position and they know it,'' said Peyton Feltus, president of Randolph Risk Management in Dallas. As refinery production rises ``and as OPEC holds their line on cuts, you will see an accelerated drawdown on crude'' inventories.

Oil for May delivery advanced 73 cents, or 1.2 percent, to $62.74 a barrel at 11:02 a.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The price has risen 24 percent since its low closing price for the year on Jan. 18.

big snip>

Expressed in U.S. dollars, the price of crude has fallen about 8.6 percent in 12 months. Oil has dropped about 18 percent in euros, 19 percent in British pounds and 8.2 percent in yen.

more...

[UpInArms]

5. dollar watch

It appears that the fed's attempt to save the buck is a flop :eyes:

http://quotes.ino.com/chart/?s=NYBOT_DX&v=i

Last trade 82.496 Change -0.166 (-0.20%)

Rising Inflation May Mean More Fed Rate Increases

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/12/business/12fomc.html?ex=1334030400&en=47e80fc8ec990155&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

At their last meeting, Federal Reserve officials agreed that more interest rate increases might be needed to tame rising inflation, though they also expressed concern that the economy could slow more than forecast.

Minutes from the March meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee, released yesterday, reinforced its position that inflation remained the biggest threat to the economy.

Investors interpreted that yesterday to mean that a rate cut in the near future was unlikely.

They had initially read the Fed’s statement from that meeting as encouraging the idea that an interest rate cut could happen within the next few months.

Stock prices fell sharply after the minutes were released at 2 p.m. The Dow Jones industrial average lost 89.23 points, or about 0.7 percent, in yesterday’s session. The broader Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index fell 9.52 points, or 0.66 percent.

...more...

Fed changed wording as growth, inflation uncertain

http://www.reuters.com/article/businessNews/idUSTRT00021420070412?feedType=RSS

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Federal Reserve could yet raise interest rates if needed to quell inflation, but cut a reference to possible hikes from its March statement due to economic uncertainty, meeting minutes released on Wednesday show.

"The Committee agreed that further policy firming might prove necessary to foster lower inflation," minutes of the policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee's March 20-21 meeting said.

However, Fed officials decided that weaker-than-expected economic indicators combined with "uncomfortably high" readings on inflation suggested greater risks of slower economic growth as well as greater uncertainty that core inflation would recede as expected.

<snip>

"Additional evidence of sluggish business investment and recent developments in the subprime mortgage market suggested that the downside risks relative to the expectation of moderate growth had increased," the Fed said.

Fed officials said recent increases in prices for energy and some non-energy imports might boost overall inflation in the near term and might put some upward pressure on core prices. Tight labor markets added to worries that inflationary pressures could build.

...more...

[burf]

9. I found these articles on the dollar and economy that

are interesting:

Doomsday for the Greenback

By Mike Whitney

04/10/07 "ICH" -- -- -The American people are in La-la land. If they had any idea of what the Federal Reserve was up to they’d be out on the streets waving fists and pitchforks. Instead, we go our business like nothing is wrong. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17512.htm

and

The Federal Reserve Monopoly Over Money

By Ron Paul

04/10/07 "ICH" -- - Recently I had the opportunity to question Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke when he appeared before the congressional Joint Economic committee. The topic that morning was the state of the American economy, and many of my colleagues raised questions about how the Fed might better "regulate" things to ease fears of an economic downturn. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17510.htm

[ozymandius]

13. I saw that in the Editorials forum with some sharp responses.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x274099

[burf]

43. Good morning Ozy and all.

Thanks for posting the link. I usually don't make it to Editorials. I went over and put my quarter's worth in.

[Roland99]

22. Thanks for that Ron Paul article!

[fasttense]

16. UpInArms I thank you for posting the dollar watch.

I look forward to it every (work) day and find it very useful for tracking real inflation. Thanks again.

[UpInArms]

25. you're welcome, fasttense -

sometimes I think I have OCD 'cuz I've been watching it for so long :D

:hi:

[54anickel]

26. Getting pretty close to kissing that 52 week low

That 1 year chart is pretty damning...it that a trace of yenetics showing up between Dec and Feb again? :shrug:

http://quotes.ino.com/chart/?s=NYBOT_DX&v=d12

Last trade 82.480 Change -0.182 (-0.22%)

Settle Time 15:02 Open 82.637

Previous Close 82.662 High 82.665

Low 82.442 2007-04-12 09:02:46, 30 min delay

52wk High 89.86 52wk High Date 2006-04-13

52wk Low 82.24 52wk Low Date 2006-12-05

[UpInArms]

32. definitely looks a bit yennish to me 54anickel

and check out that long term chart

http://quotes.ino.com/chart/?s=NYBOT_DX&v=dmax

can you refresh my memory on that long fall after April 2006?

[54anickel]

38. Off the top of my head, it was what we've been watching for as long

as I've joined you in the buck watch...the closing of the fiscal year for Japanese corporations in March, when low yen maintenance intervention subsides. It's become as predictable as the cherry blossoms in spring.

Of course the media was playing up the dire warnings by the IMF - First credit derivatives then the US budget and trade deficits. Here's just a sample of what we were posting about back then...Chopper Ben warnings, oil at $72 and gold just beginning it's ascent to $700

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=2237567

[UpInArms]

48. thanks for jogging my sagging memory - it has just been one long trainwreck

since the BFEE's assault on our country began.

:hi:

[54anickel]

55. INFLATION PICKPOCKET (Sorry if it's a dupe)

Sounds pretty much like the Bushco Economic Policy to me...:shrug:

http://www.financialsense.com/fsu/editorials/2007/0404.html

Inflation is not an even game, it is not a fair game, and we are not all in this boat together. For inflation is not about destroying everyone’s wealth – it is about redistributing that wealth, and if you don’t understand this, then it will likely be your wealth that will be getting redistributed.

ACT ONE: Smooth Economic Sailing
To illustrate how inflation redistributes wealth, we will use a simple morality play with two investors, in three acts. Peter is our virtuous hero, for he understands that a penny saved is a penny earned. Peter has been diligently saving for retirement, and that saving has taken two forms. The first was paying down all his debts, and the second was building up retirement assets. So Peter contributed to society through his work, was paid for his contributions, controlled his spending, responsibly deferred his gratification, and built up $100,000 in hard-earned savings.

Scott is our irresponsible villain. Scott is not the kind of guy who appreciates the wisdom of being debt-free, indeed, Scott doesn’t assign any moral implications to how he manages his money at all. Scott has a use for $100,000, he sees that Peter has the money ready for investment, so Scott borrows $100,000 from Peter.

So, in the smooth economic waters of the present, virtuous Peter has a $100,000 asset with no debt, and irresponsible Scott has a $100,000 debt.

(Both hero and villain happen to be Baby Boomers, for there are aspects of this play that are particularly appropriate for investors of the Boomer generation. However, the lessons apply to all investors, and indeed, some aspects are even more applicable for many investors outside the United States than they are for American investors.)

ACT TWO: Picking The Pocket
The Boomers start to retire, and begin simultaneously trying to convert their bountiful paper wealth supply of dollar denominated investments into a quite limited supply of real goods and services, even as government deficits reach all new levels in attempting to pay for Social Security and Medicare. The Chinese and Japanese stop buying US treasury bonds (and thereby stop supporting the dollar), and instead directly buy oil, which is in much tighter supply than it used to be. The US scrambles to simultaneously find buyers for the Boomer’s securities, buyers for the bonds needed to pay for Boomer retirement promises, and hard currency to buy oil from exporters that will no longer accept dollars. (A concise description of some complex issues, but this is a short play and illustration, not an econometric model.)

The dollar drops 90%.

The former dollar is now only worth ten cents. What you used to be able to buy for $1 now costs $10. Whichever way you care to look at it, 90% of the former value of the dollar is gone. And so is 90% of the value of the debt which Scott owes Peter.

more....

[54anickel]

73. New Rules for Global Investing in 2007

http://www.kitco.com/ind/Dorsch/apr102007.html

Jesse Livermore, widely regarded as one of the greatest stock market operators of all-time, considered himself a humble student of the market until his last day in 1940. “I study the market, because it’s my business to trade. In the forty years which I have devoted to making speculation a successful business venture, I am still discovering new rules to apply to that business,” he once remarked.

“Experience has taught me the way a market behaves is an excellent guide for an operator to follow. Observation gives you the best tips of all, and the behavior of a certain market is all you need at times. You observe, and then experience shows you how to profit by variations from the usual, that is to say, from the probable.”

Had Livermore been operating in today’s markets, he might have found it intriguing that the direction of the Japanese yen would become a key driver of the Dow Jones Industrials. Traditional indicators such as the health of the US economy, company earnings, cash flow, and future sales forecasts are all taking a backseat to forecasting the direction of the heavily manipulated Japanese yen in the foreign exchange market, in order to predict the Dow Jones Industrials.

The infamous “yen carry” trade, which involves borrowing in Japanese yen at less than 1% to invest in riskier assets like commodities and stocks, has mushroomed to an estimated $500 billion to $800 billion in size. It’s made the Bank of Japan, the world’s top central banker, and the US Treasury and the Federal Reserve are key collaborators with Tokyo in guiding the dollar /yen and the Dow Jones Industrials.



Someday, the Dow Industrials’ obsession with the dollar /yen exchange rate will fade into oblivion. But for now, it’s the endless flow of cheap capital from Tokyo that is pumping up the DJI Index to record highs, at a time when the US economy is slowing towards zero percent growth, and S&P 500 earnings growth is expected to slow to +6 to 8% YoY in Q’1, after 4-½ years of straight double-digit profit gains.

The DJI’s 416-point plunge on February 27th, the seventh largest daily point loss in history, ignited by a sudden plunge in the US dollar from 120.75-yen to 118-yen, is just a fading memory. Five weeks later, the DJI is once again riding high, recouping most of its panic stricken losses from the Feb 27th to March 13th shakeout, the shortest and shallowest correction from a record high in history.

Instead, it’s the US dollar’s recovery from a low of 115.25-yen on March 5th to 119.25-yen on April 10th that has revived bullish sentiment on Wall Street. Higher stock prices at a time of slowing earnings growth can raise S&P 500 P/E ratios to dangerously high levels. But it’s the Bank of Japan’s 0.50% overnight loan rate and the Fed’s purchases of long-dated bonds in the Treasury market, that are the primary obsession of US and global stock market operators these days.

more...

[ozymandius]

53. Hi 54anickel!

Good to see you around here again. I had wondered if we were becoming like the rhetorical "ships passing in the night". How's bidness and all?

:hi:

[54anickel]

60. Hi Ozy, glad to be back, though I'm not sure how long my "lull" with life will last

this time around. Things here are going fairly well. I'm between projects right now. The last one was a "hurry up and get this done" kinda "thang". So I did, it's done and now it's on hold...go figure. :eyes: Of course that put me behind on my day to day real life chores, so I've been playing catch-up with all of that. I missed being around here where the action is. Then again I figured there couldn't be too much exciting market action while institutional investors and funds are looking for places to park all that retirement money pouring in before the IRS deadline. :evilgrin:

I'm guessing the next quarter is going to start getting pretty bumpy around here...I've been waiting to see how the buck fairs April as compared to last year. So far, it's pretty much what I expected - seems to buy me less and less every trip to the grocery store or gas station. But hey, plasma screens are still a bargin. :eyes:

[AnneD]

88. Hail hail the gangs all here...

:party: let's get the party started. Great to see everyone here, and it's not even Friday.

After reading and thinking abour inflation, I think I might park that retirement money elsewhere, like gold and silver-at least it keeps up with inflation. :eyes:

[54anickel]

90. No place to run to baby, no place to hide.

[AnneD]

110. Ewwww

our theme song today......

[Ghost Dog]

31. Trichet Backs Expectations for June ECB Rate Increase

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601085&sid=a4qFt.ODa8.s&refer=europe

April 12 (Bloomberg) -- European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet said he wouldn't alter expectations that policy makers will raise their benchmark interest rate in June after leaving it unchanged today.

``I would not say anything today that would be aimed at changing expectations for June,'' Trichet said at a briefing in Frankfurt today after the ECB left its key lending rate at 3.75 percent, as expected. All 18 economists in a Bloomberg survey expect the bank to raise the rate to 4 percent in two months.

The economy of the 13 nations sharing the euro is showing few signs of cooling after expanding at the fastest pace in six years in 2006, raising the risk companies will increase prices and wages. Trichet said the ECB will act in a ``firm and timely'' manner to prevent a pickup in inflation, which has exceeded the ECB's 2 percent target every year since 1999.

``Our monetary policy continues to be on the accommodative side'' and the inflation outlook ``remains subject to upside risks,'' Trichet said.

/..

[Ghost Dog]

37. (Before Trichet) Euro at fresh records vs yen and Swissie

http://mwprices.ft.com/custom/ft2-com/html-story.asp?pulse=true&siteid=ft&dist=ft&guid=%7B99482302%2D90a7%2D4b4d%2D8998%2Dead768aaf6ec%7D

The euro hit a two year high against the dollar on Thursday, and touched new records versus the yen and Swiss franc on expectations the European Central Bank will later signal the need for further rate increases. Although the central bank was not expected to raise rates from their current 3.75 per cent, strategists believed Jean-Claude Trichet, ECB president, will pave the way for a 25-basis-point increase in May or June. Primary among the governing council’s concerns is likely to be wage inflation, with consumer prices expected to rise on average by 1.8 per cent this year. Paul Chertkow at The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, said: ”Reiteration of concern over wage inflation would reinforce speculation that the ECB will raise the refinancing rate by a final 0.25 points before year-end, probably in June.” This put added pressure on the yen, as Japan remains cautious in its approach to monetary tightening. The Japanese currency hit a fresh record low against the euro at Y160.86, and by late morning in London was down 0.2 per cent at Y160.56. The euro meanwhile, hit a new record against the Swiss franc. The Swissie, like the yen, has been weakened during periods of strong risk appetite by the carry trade. At 2.25 per cent, Switzerland’s short-term interest rate makes the Swiss franc an attractive choice for funding higher-yielding purchases. The euro was 0.1 per cent higher against the Swissie at Sfr1.6412, having hit a record peak of SFr1.6452. The euro climbed to a two-year high against the dollar at $1.3477 in spite of signals from the Federal Reserve overnight that inflation remained a concern and that it may not yet have ended its rate tightening cycle.

[54anickel]

34. Gold Rises After Dollar Declines Against Euro; Silver Drops

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601012&sid=aYPCaMadWOpM&refer=commodities

April 12 (Bloomberg) -- Gold gained on speculation a drop in the dollar against the euro will increase demand for the metal as an alternative investment. Silver fell.

Gold has climbed 6.5 percent this year as the dollar dropped about 2 percent against the euro on speculation Europe will raise interest rates to curb inflation. Holdings in StreetTracks Gold Trust, the world's biggest fund offering investors direct exposure to gold, have increased 2.2 percent this month, figures from the World Gold Council show.

``The weak dollar could be quite supportive for the gold price,'' said Wolfgang Wrzesniok-Rossbach, head of sales and marketing at Heraeus Holding GmbH in Hanau, Germany. ``With European interest rates going up, that would support the euro certainly and therefore would mean a weak dollar.''

Gold for immediate delivery rose 65 cents to $677.95 an ounce at 12:35 p.m. London time.

snip>

Silver dropped 0.49 cent to $13.86 an ounce and platinum advanced $1 to $1,268.50 an ounce.

more...

Attempting to draw lines in the sand?

[54anickel]

81. Gold falls despite weakness in the dollar

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/gold-falls-euro-pares-gains/story.aspx?guid=%7B495D47B5%2D1039%2D4A95%2DB106%2D1424A0F905FE%7D

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Gold futures fell in volatile trading Thursday, as traders locked in gains, shrugging off weakness in the dollar and strength in crude-oil prices.

Gold for June delivery fell $1.40 at $680.30 an ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

"Gold has shown signs of weakness today despite factors such as a weaker dollar and firmer oil, which would normally be supportive," said James Moore, analyst at TheBullionDesk.com.

The euro rallied to a more than two-year high against the dollar Thursday, after the head of the European Central Bank signaled that interest rates in the euro zone will rise in the coming months.

The dollar fell across the board on concerns over uncertainties in U.S. economic growth and as traders positioned themselves ahead of the upcoming meeting of Group of Seven finance ministers in Washington over the weekend. See Currencies.

snip>

Jon Nadler, analyst at Kitco Bullion Dealers, said: "Bullion has been running into headwinds near the $682 area, despite continuing perceptions (and trading reality) that the U.S. dollar is on a basically one-way slide."

more...

[Ghost Dog]

39. Canadian dollar extends four-month highs, bonds up

http://yahoo.reuters.com/news/articlehybrid.aspx?type=comktNews&storyID=2007-04-12T134136Z_01_N12300026_RTRIDST_0_MARKETS-CANADA-DOLLAR-BONDS.XML

TORONTO, April 12 (Reuters) - The Canadian dollar continued its surge on Thursday, extending its four-month highs as the interest rate outlook favored the currency, while the greenback lost ground versus the euro.

Bond prices were up slightly.

At 9:30 (1330 GMT), the currency was at C$1.1376 to the U.S. dollar, or 87.90 U.S. cents, up from C$1.1398, or 87.73 U.S. cents, at Wednesday's close.

The currency showed little reaction to a report showing Canadian new housing prices rose 0.5 percent in February from January, as analysts said last week's strong jobs data and signs of building inflation were driving the currency. "The Canadian dollar is doing quite well. Obviously the weaker U.S. dollar tone has something to do with it, but it's come a long, long way very quickly," said Shaun Osborne, currency strategist at TD Securities.

A rising euro pressured the U.S. currency somewhat, allowing the Canadian dollar to hit a four-month high of C$1.1370, or 87.95 U.S. cents.

The strong data have quieted previous talk of Bank of Canada interest rate cuts, and prompted analysts to start speculating about the timing of possible rate hikes, which would raise the yield on Canadian investments and boost the currency. However, with the currency having risen almost 4 percent in just over a month, it could be due for a pullback in the near future, analysts say.

/...

[54anickel]

42. I'm suffering a brain fart....I suspect anticipation of a declining buck

is playing some role in the decision to recalculate steel dumping duties, but I can't quite "articulate" my suspicions beyond the idea that we won't be able to afford to import steel inflated by duties with a worth less buck....Somehow this seems like an attempt to "save face" for the buck. It's the last paragraph that clouds that thought with flatulence in my brain.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-0704100398apr11,0,3010927.story?coll=chi-business-hed
U.S. eliminates duties on steel imports

WASHINGTON -- The Commerce Department, bowing to a ruling by the World Trade Organization, agreed to eliminate anti-dumping duties on eight European steel exporters and lower them for other steelmakers.

The U.S. eliminated duties on imports of steel bar from the United Kingdom's Corus Group PLC, the French operations of Arcelor Mittal and six other producers in Italy, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy and Sweden.

In a 26-page decision released Tuesday, the department computed new dumping duties, aimed at products sold in the U.S. at below-market prices, without using a process called "zeroing," which considers the difference between the price a company charges for its product at home and in the U.S. The U.S. averages the differences in calculating duties, except when the product is sold at a higher price in the U.S.

By zeroing out the higher U.S. price, the Commerce Department was widening the average difference in price for goods sold below the home country's cost, making tariffs higher.

[Buttercup McToots]

47. 82.12

82.12

[Roland99]

50. Wow.

Euro breached 1.35 today.

[Buttercup McToots]

82.11

82.11

[Buttercup McToots]

58. 82.07

82.07

[DemReadingDU]

129. Where do u get this info about the falling dollar?

Is there a link?

[54anickel]

132. The numbers? The INO link in UpInArms daily "dollar watch" post

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2804079#2804107

http://quotes.ino.com/chart/?s=NYBOT_DX&v=i

[Buttercup McToots]

62. 82.08

82.08

[54anickel]

61. Inflation-linked Treasuries in demand

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/39e4bfc4-e856-11db-b2c3-000b5df10621.html

Bond market expectations of future inflation have risen to their highest level in seven months, boosting demand for Treasuries that protect investors against increases in consumer prices.

Investors will get a chance to buy $6bn in 10-year inflation-linked Treasury bonds, known as Tips, at an auction on Thursday, and strong demand is expected, particularly as investors originally expected a sale of about $8bn.

“We are nervous about inflation,” said David Ader, bond strategist at RBS Greenwich Capital. He said the smaller auction and the seasonal tendency for inflation to rise in March supported demand for Tips.


Tips protect investors against inflation by adding principal as consumer prices rise. As inflation expectations increase, investors become more willing to pay higher prices for such bonds and accept lower yields.

The difference between the yields on standard 10-year Treasury bonds and 10-year Tips, known as the break-even rate, is a proxy for market expectations of average annual consumer price inflation. The greater the difference, the higher the inflation expectation.

This indicator has been rising to nearly 2.5 per cent in recent weeks, up from less than 2.3 per cent at the start of this year. :eyes:

more...

[54anickel]

63. Fed Revives Prospect of Increasing Interest Rates

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=a.QvfoSB9h7k&refer=us

April 12 (Bloomberg) -- Federal Reserve policy makers, questioning their forecast that inflation will recede, revived the prospect of interest-rate increases.

Records of the Fed's meeting last month, released yesterday, said officials agreed tighter credit may ``prove necessary.'' Those words, similar to the language used by the central bank since August, were absent from the five-paragraph statement on March 21, leading some economists to predict a cut.

The minutes didn't refer to lower borrowing costs and said the risk had increased that inflation wouldn't slow as the Fed has forecast. The Fed's preferred inflation gauge rose to a five- month high in February, while signs of economic weakness have spread to areas such as business investment.

``The Fed won't entertain easing with inflation this elevated and without clear evidence that it is moderating,'' said Brian Sack, vice president of Macroeconomic Advisers LLC in Washington. ``It is hard to see tightening in the near term, but it is also hard to see easing.''

Sack, a former central-bank economist who has conducted research with Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke, forecasts no change in the benchmark rate this year or next.

snip>

Sowing Confusion

Minutes of the meeting revealed that officials hadn't ruled out future rate increases even though the March 21 text didn't list tighter policy as an option.

``We thought they didn't believe that anymore,'' said Jeffrey Kleintop, who helps oversee more than $150 billion as chief market strategist at LPL Financial Services in Boston. ``At the same time the Fed is trying to communicate more effectively, this seems like a bit of a stumble.''

more...

[citizen snips]

119. Dollar Trades Lower

NEW YORK (AP) -- The dollar fell against the euro and other major currencies Thursday after the European Central Bank held its interest rate steady and U.S. jobless claims hit a two-month high.

The dollar bought $1.3480 euro in late New York trading, up from $1.3427 late Wednesday, while the pound rose to $1.9783 from $1.9753.

The Japanese yen fell to 119.06 from 119.30.

The dollar weakened against the euro after the ECB decided to keep its interest rate unchanged at 3.75 percent, and Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet suggested it would likely lift the rate to 4 percent by June.

more...
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070412/dollar.html?.v=2

[UpInArms]

10. Derivatives markets may hold key to U.S. recession

http://www.reuters.com/article/bondsNews/idUSL1171898420070412

LONDON, April 12 (Reuters) - Relaxed lending standards may have contributed to a surge in U.S. mortgage failures this year, but the chance of recession could hang on the complex derivatives used to hedge loan risk, analysts say.

Collateralised Debt Obligations (CDOs) are baskets of bonds that give investors varying levels of exposure to defaults. CDOs helped fuel the U.S. housing boom by purchasing bonds backed by sub-prime mortgages and distributing the risk.

"In the old days banks would hang on to loans and have an interest in ensuring credit worthiness," said Albert Edwards, global strategist at Dresdner Kleinwort. "The ability to offload risk through CDOs has led to incredibly loose lending standards in the mortgage industry."

The CDO market has grown explosively in the past decade, with issuance hitting nearly $500 billion last year, according to JP Morgan, compared with almost nothing 10 years ago.

About 40 percent of CDO collateral is residential mortgage backed securities, according to a recent paper by Joseph Mason of Drexel University's business school, and Joshua Rosner of research firm Graham Fisher & Co.

Two-thirds of that is subprime and home equity loans, a market which on a dollar basis has grown from $35 billion in 1994 to $625 billion in 2005.

...more...

[ozymandius]

14. U.S. Stocks Headed to Lower Open

NEW YORK (AP) -- U.S. stocks pointed to a lower opening Thursday as investors turned cautious amid warnings of weak retail sales and data that showed jobless claims rose more than expected.

Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits rose last week to the highest level in two months. The Labor Department reported applications for jobless benefits totaled 342,000 last week.

Same-store sales reports released before the opening bell found many retailers beating expectations because the Easter holiday came earlier this year. However, there were scattered warnings that sales will be light during April.

-cut-

Ahead of Thursday's market opening, Dow Jones industrial average futures expiring in June were down 20.00, or 0.11 percent, at 12,534. Standard & Poor's 500 index futures fell 3.20, or 0.22 percent, to 1,445.50, and Nasdaq 100 futures fell 5.25, or 0.29 percent, to 1,807.50.

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070412/wall_street.html?.v=7

[ozymandius]

15. Nestle to Buy Gerber for $5.5 Billion

Nestle to Buy Gerber for $5.5 Billion, Becomes World's Top Baby Food Manufacturer

GENEVA (AP) -- Nestle SA, the world's biggest food and drink company, said Thursday it will buy Gerber Products Co. from pharmaceutical maker Novartis SA for $5.5 billion, giving it the largest share of the global baby food market.

The acquisition helps further Nestle's recent focus on health and nutrition, following its purchases of the U.S. weight control company Jenny Craig and Novartis Medical Nutrition.

Nestle, which owns brands such as Nescafe, Perrier and Dreyer's, is also the world's largest manufacturer of infant nutritional products -- largely through its leading positions in developing countries such as Brazil and China -- but had no presence in baby food in the United States.

Gerber, which Nestle has coveted for more than a decade, dominates the U.S. baby-food market, with a 79 percent share, according to Morgan Stanley.

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070412/nestle_gerber.html?.v=13

[AnneD]

94. Why does this make me uneasy.......

could it be......
The Bottle Baby Scandal in the Third World
SYNOPSIS: With the birthrate in the United States declining, infant formula manufacturers (Nestle and Bristol-Myers in the forefront along with Abbott and American Home Products) began pushing their products on the Third World to ensure their continued profits.
They rely on exploitative and deceptive tactics to sell their products including:
1) giving free samples to mothers so their own milk will dry up, leaving them dependent on expensive formulas;
2) promises of "modernization and heightened status" through use of the formulas, as encouraged by well-financed media campaigns (which include radio and television spots, calendars, billboards, and baby contests),
3) telling new mothers that their own milk is "inappropriate" or may be "unsuccessfully" given to their baby, etc.
The majority of Third World mothers wind up watering down the formulas, using contaminated water, and otherwise malnourishing and infecting their children because they cannot afford to administer formulas in the prescribed way. Parents would have to spend 30-40 percent of their aver age daily wage to feed their babies on this mother's milk substitute. Malnutrition and denial of natural immunities (which would have been provided had the mother breast-fed) caused by infant formula feeding account for 35,000 deaths and untold brain damage in babies of predominantly Third World countries.
Meanwhile, the profit margins on infant formulas have been documented at up to 72 percent; a billion dollars a year are taken from the Third World countries from the import of these formulas.

<snip>
It is now estimated that "one million infant deaths per year can be prevented by using the world's most economical and effective health protection: breast milk." But Third World mothers are still not being told this and continue to be bombarded with promotions for formula. Anyone interested in this issue would be well advised to look up the original Mothering article. It is an exceptionally well-researched history of the problem dating back to 1939 when Nestle was selling sweetened condensed milk as infant food despite research showing it was unsafe for infants. It also contains dozens of names and addresses of organizations and individuals who can be contacted for further information.
<snip>
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Project%20Censored/CensoredNews_1977.html

It is not uncommon for any company to have a recall-something gets put in food by mistake. But Gerber does have a good rep as a corporation and Nestle has been bad from the get go. They take advantage of those that can afford it the least and display neither conscious or soul. Moms watch out. :mad:

[UpInArms]

24. UPDATE 2-China's foreign reserves breach $1.2 trillion

http://www.reuters.com/articlePrint?articleId=USPEK27186420070412

BEIJING, April 12 (Reuters) - China's foreign exchange reserves breached $1.2 trillion in the first quarter after a record quarterly jump, but money supply growth eased slightly in March in response to a government tightening campaign.

The central bank said on Thursday that reserves had swollen by $135.7 billion to $1.202 trillion between January and March, more than half the $247.3 billion reserves accumulation for the whole of 2006.

Analysts said the quarterly jump, which will have intensified upward pressure on the yuan (CNY=CFXS: Quote, Profile, Research), had confounded expectations, given a narrowing in the country's trade surplus in the first three months.

"It is a bit strange because there was a huge gap between the FX reserve increase and the size of the trade balance in the first quarter," said Jun Ma, an economist for Deutsche Bank in Hong Kong.

<snip>

China's reserves have ballooned in recent years as the central bank, in order to hold down the yuan, has bought most of the dollars generated by a growing trade surplus, inflows of foreign direct investment and speculative capital.

...more...

[Ghost Dog]

33. China's Money Supply, Reserves Add Yuan Pressure

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601080&sid=aM6GMycUj0.w&refer=asia

April 12 (Bloomberg) -- China's money supply grew by more than the central bank's target for a second month and foreign- exchange reserves surged to a record $1.2 trillion, increasing pressure on the government to allow faster yuan gains.

M2, which includes cash and all deposits, increased 17.3 percent in March from a year earlier, the central bank said today. The currency reserves, the world's largest, grew 37 percent from a year earlier, the fastest pace since November 2005.

Booming exports helped drive a $136 billion increase in the reserves in the first quarter, adding to a flood of cash that's made it harder for the government to avoid asset bubbles and inflation. China has raised interest rates and ordered banks to set aside more money as reserves, while resisting calls to loosen currency controls.

Faster yuan appreciation is ``an essential tool to tighten overall monetary conditions,'' JPMorgan Chase & Co. economist Wang Qian said in Hong Kong.

The yuan has gained 7.1 percent against the dollar since the government ended a decade-old fixed rate in July 2005. The currency was little changed at 7.7255 at 5:30 p.m. in Shanghai.

/...

[54anickel]

27. A note from Mogambo.....

I can't seem to make a selection to copy and paste. :shrug:

http://www.321gold.com/editorials/daughty/daughty041107.html


Here's the Daily Reckoning 04/09/07 Mogambo posting...

http://www.dailyreckoning.com/Writers/Mogambo/DREssays/MG040907.html
Tasty Morsels of Deficit Spending

Money must be getting tight, as Total Fed Credit is up only $1 billion from last week, foreign central banks are cutting back on their gluttony (adding only $4 billion to their holdings at the Fed), and now I am forced to make the painful choice between paying for the kids' damned dental problems or getting that expensive new driver that is GUARANTEED to give me another 15 yards off the tee, curing my accursed fade-away slice problems forever. And this will (in the final analysis) make me a whole lot happier, and will last a hell of a lot longer than anything that stupid dentist does, too. ("See you again in six months, suckers!")

But it is neither golf nor dentistry that disturbs my already restless slumber; it is inflation that makes me wake up screaming in the night, with a spasmatic trigger-finger, and my loud, irritating voice issuing both wails of fear and sulfurous curses to add to the incessant Mogambo Inflation Alert System (MIAS) buzzer - which indicates that monetary inflation is raging, raging, raging around the globe, as all the central banks are busily, busily, busily creating money and credit at monstrously high rates of issuance, averaging (as I understand it) about 14% a year. That means that inflation in prices will continue to get worse and worse - as will my aforementioned sleeping and trigger-finger problems.

And surely things are going to get heated up pretty soon thanks to inflation - especially when the middle class starts whining; Congress really comes alive then. And speaking of that, we have Ty Andross of TraderView.com newsletter reporting that "the broad middle class has not shared in the wealth of this expansion except for the bubblicious appreciation of their home values."

He adds, picturesquely, that they were "robbed at night while their money was sitting in the bank and the Treasury's printing presses churned out dollars and credit by the trillions", which made every dollar of that appreciation in the house worth less! And then the homeowner had to pay higher property taxes and insurance premiums on the now-expensive house! Hahaha! I'll bet THAT is not in the stupid little econometric models the stupid Federal Reserve uses! Hahahaha! What dorks!

And all that price inflation was spawned by the Federal Reserve, since it created the money and credit to finance a stock market boom, and a bond market boom, and a derivatives boom, and a financial-services industry boom, and then a housing boom. All now busted, to one degree or another.

more...

[Roland99]

41. Hmm...Mogambo going to an RSS feed at the Daily Reckoning.

Guess I'll have to brush up on that but I was able to add the Daily Reckoning to My Yahoo.

*shrug*

[54anickel]

45. He doesn't sound too pleased with the decision...n/t

[Roland99]

49. Nope but I suspect Mogambo will persevere!

At least my trusty Mogambo Inner Notion Detector (MIND) says so. :)

[54anickel]

52. Bwahahaha! You've been following him and his love for acronyms for too long!

[Roland99]

56. Guilty!

:toast:

[Ghost Dog]

74. Ok. The Daily Reckoning RSS feed is here:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/dailyreckoning

And this week's (shorter) Mogambo is here!:

The Eerie Accuracy of Economic Indicators
http://www.dailyreckoning.com/RSS/MG040407sec2.html

"Already angry at being thwarted in my attempt to deliver the Speech Of A Lifetime (SOAL) that would have lead to my being crowned King, the news that inflation is "only going to get worse" makes me angrier and angrier…"

by The Mogambo Guru

We glean a little macroeconomic forecasting lesson when Richard Benson of Benson's Economic & Market Trends newsletter says, "So, when looking forward, it is important to remember that whenever productivity slows down, inflation will suddenly pick up", which I take to mean that if productivity drops, you should immediately short bonds! Hahaha! This investing stuff is so easy!

"Now that I clearly understand how this productivity tax works," Mr. Benson goes on to say, "I am less inclined to buy inflation-indexed bonds and more inclined to buy gold and silver. I believe precious metals are more likely to track the real inflation numbers."

"And why is this?" you ask with that cute little innocent, quizzical look on your adorable, trusting face. Instantly I am on my feet to deliver a stirring and powerful condemnation of the Federal Reserve for creating all that money and credit, gradually working the crowd into an absolute blood-frenzy, see, ending with me being declared King Mogambo by cheering throngs of adoring people ready to obey my every command, and given unlimited powers of retribution and vengeance! I cruelly sneer as I laugh the hollow laugh of the damned, "Hahaha! Let the games begin!"

/...

[54anickel]

77. Thanks GD! I meant to go back and dig for that, but my short attention

span got the best of me --- as usual.

[Ghost Dog]

80. Actually, I now see these are some paragraphs culled from last week's TM

(by the Daily R, I presume - posted to RSS Tue, 10 Apr 2007 13:00:07 GMT).

Sounds like Mr. Daughty is not happy about this, but still expects his stuff to appear in this RSS feed (sometime. eventually...):

http://www.321gold.com/editorials/daughty/daughty041107.html
MoGu him no come no mo'

Richard Daughty
...the angriest guy in economics
The Mogambo Guru


Dear erstwhile recipients of the Mogambo Guru newsletter, DailyReckoning.com has informed me that "we're changing our syndication publishing format."

Thus and henceforth, I regret to tell you that I will not be sending the regrettable Mogambo Guru newsletter to you anymore.

But if you are still interested in posting it because your publishing standards are so low, or you just feel sorry for me, or some other reason that I can only wonder about and recoil in horror, you will still be able to "pick it up" from an "RSS feed", whatever in the hell that is, from, I assume DailyReckoning.com.

It's a big change! And I want to thank you all very, very much for the years of deeming the MoGu as worthy of your kind attention by allowing me to send it directly to you, however demeaning and humiliating it ultimately was for you, although you just don't realize it yet.

See you at an RSS feed!

-Mogambo

[54anickel]

84. I'm guessing we'll have to use the following link to track down the

latest Mogambo...
http://www.dailyreckoning.com/Writers/MogamboGuru.html

[Roland99]

82. Need to bookmark that one

:)

[Ghost Dog]

28. Asian Stocks Fall From Six-Week High; Toyota, BHP Billiton Drop

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601080&sid=aEHPcsx5_H9A&refer=asia

April 12 (Bloomberg) -- Asian stocks fell from a six-week high after the Federal Reserve said it may raise interest rates to curb inflation. Toyota Motor Corp. and BHP Billiton Ltd. led declines among companies that rely on U.S. sales.

``The minutes from the Fed reminded investors of the threat of inflation,'' said Andrew Wang, who manages $228 million at Prudential Securities Investment Trust Co. in Taiwan. ``A delay in a rate cut in the U.S. will hurt profit prospects of Asian exporters and a rate increase will be worse.''

Paladin Resources Ltd., an Australian uranium explorer, declined after raising its stock offer for Summit Resources Ltd. by 20 percent. Japanese steelmakers gained after Nippon Steel Corp. agreed to increase production at a venture in China.

The Morgan Stanley Capital International Asia-Pacific Index slipped 0.5 percent to 147.23 as of 7:45 p.m. in Tokyo, halting a three-day, 1.1 percent climb that lifted the measure to the highest since Feb. 27.

Japan's Nikkei 225 Stock Average and the broader Topix index declined 0.7 percent. The Philippine Stock Exchange Index slid 2.2 percent, Asia's biggest drop.

Benchmarks fell elsewhere except in South Korea and Australia, which closed at new highs. China rose to its ninth straight record. Indexes also gained in New Zealand, Malaysia and Pakistan.

/...

[UpInArms]

29. 9:47 EST numbers and blather

Dow 12,440.17 44.45 (0.36%)
Nasdaq 2,449.40 9.91 (0.40%)
S&P 500 1,435.01 3.86 (0.27%)
10-Yr Bond 4.722% 0.017

NYSE Volume 233,832,000
Nasdaq Volume 154,215,000

09:40 am : As expected, stocks opened lower as investors still struggle to digest the reality that the Fed is not about to cut interest rates anytime soon. With the Fed also reiterating its vigilant stance on inflation, a larger-than-expected rise in March import prices of 1.7%, the largest rise in 10 months, and oil prices climbing back above $63/bbl (+1.7%), are adding to the sense of nervousness at the onset of trading.

Not even a plethora of same-store sales clearly checking in better than expected has been enough to lift sentiment since a handful of retailers warned that April sales will weak. Throw in an unexpected jump in jobless claims to 342,000, the highest level in eight 8 weeks, possibly signaling a softening in labor market, and it's apparent the bears have enough fodder to keep buyers sidelined for the time being.DJ30 -29.39 NASDAQ -3.54 SP500 -1.72 NASDAQ Vol 76 mln NYSE Vol 42 mln

09:15 am : S&P futures vs fair value: -2.3. Nasdaq futures vs fair value: -6.0.

09:00 am : S&P futures vs fair value: -2.5. Nasdaq futures vs fair value: -5.5. Still shaping up to be a lower start for stocks as investors continue to question whether the change in views towards the interest-rate outlook, following yesterday's release of the FOMC minutes, has caused a fundamental shift in underlying sentiment. Meanwhile, with growth prospects throughout Technology coming into question of late, the influential sector will be in focus today following a Q4 shortfall and uninspiring guidance from Research In Motion (RIMM), which also said an informal inquiry into its stock-option practices by the SEC is now a formal probe.

[Ghost Dog]

30. European equities fall on US rate fears

http://mwprices.ft.com/custom/ft2-com/html-story.asp?pulse=true&siteid=ft&dist=ft&guid=%7B98d82318%2D42f7%2D43b1%2Da24a%2Da92a54cbe593%7D

European equity markets were lower on Thursday after an overnight fall on Wall Street in response to hints from the Federal Reserve at the possible need for further US interest rate increases. In mid-session trade, after the European Central Bank let eurozone interest rates on hold at 3.75 per cent, the FTSE Eurofirst 300 was down 0.6 per cent to 1,537.6, Frankfurt’s Xetra Dax slipped 0.5 per cent to 7,117.86, the CAC 40 in Paris shed 0.6 per cent to 5,718.64 and London’s FTSE 100 lost 0.4 per cent to 6,389.7.

...

Eiffage, the French construction company, was the biggest faller on the Eurofirst 300 on expectations that a large stake in the company will be sold by Spanish rival Sacyr Vallehermoso, which owns 33 per cent of the shares. Shares in Eiffage have been driven nearly 70 per cent higher in the past month as Sacyr’s stakebuilding prompted speculation of a takeover. However, market rumours were now focused on the possibiity the Spanish group could book huge capital gains on a sale of its stake, creating a large stock overhang in the French company. Eiffage shares fell 5.7 per cent to €108.48. Shares in Sacyr Vallehermoso fell 2 per cent to €44.57 as investors took profits after two days of gains.

/...

[Ghost Dog]

85. Bourses fall (slightly) on US rate fears

http://mwprices.ft.com/custom/ft2-com/html-story.asp?pulse=true&siteid=ft&dist=ft&guid=%7B821f5427%2De0ae%2D4485%2Daa34%2D9c9ab3021013%7D

European equity markets were lower on Thursday on the back of volatile trade on Wall Street in response to hints from the Federal Reserve at the possible need for further US interest rate increases. By the close of trade, the FTSE Eurofirst 300 was down 0.3 per cent to 1,542.88, Frankfurt’s Xetra Dax slipped 0.1 per cent to 7,142.95, the CAC 40 in Paris shed 0.1 per cent to 5,748.94 and London’s FTSE 100 was up slightly by 0.1 per cent to 6,416.4.

[Ghost Dog]

36. Nestle to Buy Gerber for $5.5 Billion, Expand in U.S.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601085&sid=aAlIe1SCoyIw&refer=europe

April 12 (Bloomberg) -- Nestle SA, the world's largest food company, agreed to buy the Gerber brand from Swiss drugmaker Novartis AG for $5.5 billion in cash to gain 82 percent of the U.S. baby-food market.

Gerber, with revenue of $1.6 billion, sells pureed carrots and strained peas in 80 countries. Nestle will add the unit to its nutrition division, which includes Jenny Craig diet foods and Neslac infant formula, Chief Executive Officer Peter Brabeck said in Vevey, Switzerland today.

...

``Strategically, this is a win-win situation as baby food isn't part of Novartis core business and is a key part of Nestle's,'' said Patrick Hasenboehler, an analyst at Bank Sarasin in Zurich. The brand, featuring the cherubic Gerber baby on its labels, is sold in 80 countries and had operating profit of $307 million last year. Its headquarters are in Parsippany, New Jersey. Daniel Gerber founded the business in the U.S. in 1928, mass-producing strained fruit for infants at a cannery.

Nestle spent almost $4 billion last year buying nutrition brands, including a Novartis unit that makes enriched meals for the sick and elderly. Basel-based Novartis is the world's fourth-largest drugmaker.

...

Shares of Nestle fell 0.6 percent to 487 francs at 1:52 p.m. in Zurich, while Novartis shares were 25 centimes higher at 67.35 francs.

``It's a steep price at almost 16 times earnings,'' said Bank Sarasin's Hasenboehler, who has a ``buy'' rating on Nestle. Nestle's stock has gained 12 percent this year, while Novartis shares have dropped 4 percent.

[54anickel]

40. NYSE SLAPS S&P ANALYST

http://www.nypost.com/seven/04122007/business/nyse_slaps_sp_analyst_business_roddy_boyd.htm

April 12, 2007 -- A high-profile research analyst was sanctioned yesterday by regulators for maintaining a secret brokerage account in which he traded against his own recommendations.

The New York Stock Exchange tagged Paul Starsia, a biotech analyst who most recently worked for the equity-research division at credit-ratings powerhouse Standard & Poor's, for a series of disclosure and improper-trading violations. Without admitting or denying the allegations, he accepted an 18-month ban from the industry.

Starsia, according to an NYSE regulatory filing, engaged in his illegal activity when he was an analyst at Swiss American Securities. According to the NYSE hearing board decision, he failed to disclose that he had a secret trading account at an unnamed Wall Street broker. Starsia also violated the "no-trade window" rules, executing trades at some point 30 days prior to and five days after releasing reports.

The most eye-opening charges were that Starsia traded against his recommendations in his secret account, presumably by touting stocks he owned and then selling them after the inevitable - albeit temporary -price appreciation from his recommendation.

While not a household name on Wall Street, Starsia had a modest presence when he was at S&P, and he was quoted in Forbes and on the Motley Fool Web site. He was also featured giving his 2007 biotech investment thesis on a Webcast featured on BusinessWeek's Web site - S&P and Business Week are both owned by McGraw-Hill.

more...

[Roland99]

46. 10:45am - Broad non-positive news galore but markets recovering

and sending mexed missages:

DJIA 12,470.97 -13.65 -0.11%
Nasdaq 2,462.23 +2.92 +0.12%
S&P 500 1,438.57 -0.30 -0.02%
Dow Util 510.03 -3.14 -0.61%
NYSE 9,412.83 -0.80 -0.01%
AMEX 2,201.70 +2.65 +0.12%
Russell 2000 807.05 -1.19 -0.15%
Semcond 472.57 +1.29 +0.27%
Gold future 682.20 +0.50 +0.07%
30-Year Bond 4.90% -0.02 -0.31%
10-Year Bond 4.72% -0.02 -0.36%

[54anickel]

51. Summer dairy prices headed up

Warning comes as producers seek aid, citing woes last year

http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2007/04/12/summer_dairy_prices_headed_up/

The price of milk and some other dairy products are headed for record highs this summer, with raw milk prices expected to jump as much as 40 cents a gallon since last year, according to industry officials.

Officials at H.P. Hood, the Chelsea-based dairy, said the price farmers receive for raw milk has been rising steadily and will rise at least another 25 cents during the summer . As a result, retail prices for milk, ice cream, and cottage cheese will increase, although by how much is unclear. Retailers declined to comment yesterday.

"We have an unprecedented situation," said Mike Suever , senior vice president for milk procurement at Hood.

snip>

Senator Stephen M. Brewer , a Democrat from Barre who is seeking state financial help for Massachusetts' 167 dairy farmers, said the escalation in prices is good news. "But it doesn't obviate the need to deal with the debt these farmers have incurred over the last year," he said. Brewer said farmers need an immediate infusion of $3 million to $12 million from the state.

more...

[54anickel]

79. Where’s the Beef?? It Better be in Your Freezer

http://www.kitco.com/ind/petch/apr092007.html

Several different things I want to address first before getting to analysis of the HUI. The first one has to do with meat. The governments do not include the price of food or energy in the core rate of inflation (soon they will be including those that lie in graveyards into their index to further “average” the price down I am sure of it) so everything that you or I have to buy in the grocery store no matter how much costs rise is not “their definition of inflation”. This is the government’s way of hiding the volumes of money being created out of thin air.

The coming of Peak Oil is causing a movement in the US to produce ethanol in order to provide an alternate fuel source. The big corporations are pushing for corn because it is big money. Use of straw grass, sugar beets etc. is far more efficient in the energy balance of the production equation. More energy is put into growing corn, fermenting it, distilling the ethanol and transporting it that what will be generated in energy in the car. Also, ethanol damages rubber gaskets, is corrosive and has a whole host of problems. The biggest problem is that corn is a staple for many poor families and also animal feed.

Higher prices for animal feed translates into higher meat prices, cereal etc. The price of corn has doubled the past year, so people should be expecting to see meat in the supermarket rise by as much as 30-40% by year’s end. Sound crazy? There is a fixed cost for animal feed and a doubling in corn price will amount to a doubling of the percentage that goes to grow cattle, pigs etc. for harvest.

More and more farmers are going to be planting corn this year; there is only so much land available for producing crops, so other crops such as soy, wheat, barley, flax etc. etc. are going to also rise in price due to a reduction in output with an ever increasing global demand. We are on the cusp of seeing food inflation rise by 10-15% YOY for at least the next 4-5 years out.

snip to the GACK!!!!>

Wonder why so many countries are secretly building so many detention centers? It is to try and contain the have-nots of the populace. The North American populous has never had to worry about famines, wars, and energy shortages, as there has always been something to fall back on. Unfortunately, lack of government insight and failure to follow through with the energy policies puts in place during the 70’s are all but a dream now. When the requirement for nuclear energy and other fuels are needed, the infrastructure will not be there, which is why parts of North America will be essentially walking with candles for 10-15 years until the dust settles.

more...

[Ghost Dog]

98. Please see also here:

More than three billion people in the world condemned to premature death from hunger and thirst

[AnneD]

109. Why is this making more and more sense to me...

Most half of my family still does subsistence farming and hunt. They try to grass feed the darlings (a few cattle a goat or two). And everyone has a vegetable garden. That said....the corn prices really distress me (more as a waste). Any use of chemicals on the farm are prohibitive these days and will be reflected in prices very shortly. I look for a sell off of beef (low prices) and then prices to go up to outrageous levels. It will be a rough future.
Buy in bulk and arrange for a meat locker if you have to. Try your hand at container gardening if you live in limited spaces like me.

Now about the portion of that article that says there will be no infrastructure for nuclear....my brother has been taking me out to see the construction going on in the county that he lives in. The pipes etc. are to big for electrical (this is the brother that use to work with an electrical engineer in his youth). He is saying that everyone says it is electrical, but he is think it may be dual use. I think he may be right.

[ozymandius]

54. Traders are happy for some reason. (numbers and blather)

11:13
Dow 12,512.01 Up 27.39 (0.22%)
Nasdaq 2,470.88 Up 11.57 (0.47%)
S&P 500 1,442.81 Up 3.94 (0.27%)
10-Yr Bond 4.726% Down 0.013
NYSE Volume 946,728,000
Nasdaq Volume 659,532,000

11:00 am : Buyers continue to show some resolve in face of diminished hopes of a Fed rate cut and rising oil prices. The Dow, despite 18 of its 30 components still posting losses, has now joined the S&P 500 and Nasdaq in positive territory. A more than 1.5% rebound in the S&P 500 Retail Index from its early lows is also helping to improve overall sentiment.

While Technology (+0.4%) erasing its early losses has helped the Nasdaq turn the corner, it is worth noting that the Health Care sector's Biotech component (+2.3%) is also playing an integral part behind the tech-heavy Composite's recent turnaround. MedImmune (MEDI 42.65 +4.81), the best performer on the Nasdaq 100 this morning, is soaring nearly 13% after its board authorized management to explore a possible sale of the company. DJ30 +15.77 NASDAQ +10.13 SP500 +3.11 NASDAQ Dec/Adv/Vol 1488/1224/560 mln NYSE Dec/Adv/Vol 1576/1392/362 mln

[Roland99]

57. Flock to safety in the biggest of the Dow components? Dec lead Adv handily.

[Buttercup McToots]

59. Ozy

What's going on...market seems weird...

[ozymandius]

131. money looking for shelter I'd say.

The next few days will seem dull in comparison to the past two. People with money to spend would be wise to see what shakes out of this week's revelations.

[mojavekid]

64. MSNBC: Mortgage woes could be 'tip of the iceberg'

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17929461/

Mark and Kerrie Russo, a Jackson, N.J., couple raising two young daughters, are struggling to hang on. Less than a year after buying a home in 2005, which they financed with a 30-year fixed rate loan based on a solid credit history, a local mortgage broker began sending letters offering to refinance their loan. A new product, the sales pitch said, allowed home owners flexibility to choose from a menu of different payments from one month to the next.

What the broker didn’t explain, Kerrie Russo says, is that this was a “negative amortization” loan — an expanding debt that buried the couple deeper in hock even as they thought they were paying down their mortgage balance.

Like many borrowers who were sold mortgages they couldn’t afford, Russo says that when she called the broker to complain, she was told that because she failed to read the fine print, the responsibility for getting in too deep was hers.

more...

[54anickel]

69. Ewww, more from your article

Rising foreclosures
For many subprime borrowers, the nightmare is only beginning.

In February alone, some 131,000 foreclosure filings were recorded by RealtyTrac, a Web site that compiles default notices, auction sales and bank repossessions. For all of 2006, the site logged more than 1.2 million foreclosure filings nationwide — or one in every 92 U.S. households, up 42 percent from 2005.

“Based on our numbers for the first two months of 2007, foreclosure activity is running at a rate that would project to a 33 percent increase over 2006,” RealtyTrac’s CEO James J. Saccacio, said in a news release last month. "It appears that as subprime and FHA loans default at higher-than-anticipated rates, and lenders tighten their underwriting standards, we’re going to continue to see a spike in the number of homeowners facing foreclosure.”

These statistics represent the end of a process that is costing many borrowers their homes. A rise in delinquency rates — the number of borrowers who are falling behind in their payments — is a harbinger of more foreclosures to come. From a low in 2005, the mortgage delinquency rate has been climbing steadily and is expected to continue to rise through 2007, according to CreditForecast.com, a joint venture of moodys.com and credit agency Equifax.

And this part.....

Another S&L debacle?
Some have compared the current wave of mortgage fraud to the savings and loan debacle of the late 1980s and early 1990s, when deregulation of the thrift industry opened the door to widespread abusive lending practices among commercial developers and lenders. After years of trying to roll over bad loans — only to see losses continue to mount – the government finally stepped in with the creation the Resolution Trust Corp. to buy up bad loans. The bill to taxpayers eventually came to $124 billion, according to a 2000 review by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

So far, no one is suggesting that the total dollar amount of bad loans in the current wave of mortgage fraud will approach that figure. In the savings and loan collapse, commercial mortgages each worth tens of millions of dollars — or more — went up in smoke. Mortgages to subprime borrowers, at the bottom of the real estate ladder, amount to just a few hundred thousand dollars for each borrower.

But the losers in the savings and crisis were largely professional investors, builders and lenders, many of whom escaped with their personal finances intact. Though taxpayers took a big hit, the impact on individuals was relatively small.

[mojavekid]

72. Hi 54anickel!

Good to see you back!

[54anickel]

76. Thanks Mojavekid. It's good to be back. Nice to see you posting here

a bit more regularly as well. Always great to see fresh faces and perspectives coming to the SMW thread. :hi:

[54anickel]

86. Concerns mount over commercial MBS market

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/4b5d3af2-e850-11db-b2c3-000b5df10621.html

Moody’s Investors Service is set to impose tighter rating standards for securities backed by US commercial mortgages amid a steady deterioration in loan underwriting quality in recent years, the ratings agency said yesterday.

The move echoes concerns over turmoil in the US subprime home-loan industry, where lax lending standards and a sharp slowdown in the residential property market have seen a steep increase in mortgage payment problems in recent months.

While Moody’s said the move to tighten rating standards was “principally driven” by credit concerns within the market for commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS), it acknowledged that the subprime “elephant in the room” had focused attention on other mortgage sectors.

“The parallels between underwriting developments in the subprime and CMBS market are striking and indicate that acting now should help mitigate potential CMBS losses in a future downturn,” the ratings agency said.

snip>

The agency also expressed concern over the growing number of commercial properties financed with loans for more than 100 per cent of their value. Such loans allow owners to cover early interest costs on the assumption cash flows will improve quickly enough for the property to become self-sustaining. “This is a direct response to the slow but steady erosion in underwriting quality within the securitised commercial mortgage lending world,” said Jim Duca, group managing director for CMBS at Moody’s.

more...

[54anickel]

87. Consumer groups call for bankruptcy fix

Subprime mortgage holders need help to hold homes, advocates say

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/groups-call-bankruptcy-fix-aid/story.aspx?guid=%7B0590BD12-98B0-475D-8991-9F7597ECEF82%7D

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- Consumer groups called Thursday for Congress to enact bankruptcy-law reform to save the homes of borrowers drowning in the rising tide of subprime mortgage foreclosures and stem the loss up to $164 billion in home-based wealth.

More than two million households in the subprime market have already either lost their homes to foreclosure or hold subprime mortgages that are likely to fail in coming years, according to the National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys, the Consumer Federation of America and the Center for Responsible Lending.

The groups want a revision of the federal bankruptcy code to eliminate or limit the provisions that exclude home loans from bankruptcy protection.
"For most of these families, bankruptcy is the only viable option to save their home," said Henry Sommer, president of NACBA. "This current exclusion is contrary to sound policy, and operates to disadvantage low-wealth and middle-income borrowers as compared to debtors with the wealth to own more than one home."

Of particular concern are "exploding" adjustable rate mortgages, so called because they start with relatively low payments that can then rise to unaffordable levels.

Allen Fishbein, director of housing and credit policy at the Consumer Federation of America, said modifying the bankruptcy laws to enable the write-down of "certain toxic mortgages" would provide "a critical lifeline for these at-risk families to hang on to their homes."

more...

[54anickel]

89. Subprime Losers Blame Bear, Credit Suisse, JPM, Morgan Stanley

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=avI34G5JBAjQ&refer=us

April 11 (Bloomberg) -- When Buck Meyer thinks about the $300,000 he lost after he bought a subprime mortgage lender's bonds, he doesn't hesitate to denounce financial titans Bear Stearns Cos., Credit Suisse Group, JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Morgan Stanley.

Like the thousands of people who snapped up American Business Financial Services Inc.'s notes yielding 10 times the going rate on Treasury bills, Meyer had no idea that the company was on the verge of bankruptcy. He wondered how something so celebrated as ``a kitchen-table startup'' by the Philadelphia Business Journal and so lucrative that it paid $50 million in fees to the four firms for its burgeoning credit, could default on his money.

``At what point did it become a Wall Street Ponzi scheme?'' said the 52-year-old Meyer, who almost wiped out the nest egg he received from selling his home in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, six years ago.

Whether Wall Street's best and brightest were reckless in their pursuit of profits and somehow responsible for the consequences will be decided in a Philadelphia court. That's where the four top brands of finance are accused of creating an ``illusion'' that American Business was a safe investment, according to a lawsuit filed on behalf of Meyer and more than 20,000 other individuals who held about $600 million of the company's bonds when it went bankrupt in 2005.

snip>

Anyone searching for someone to blame has an obvious target in the New York-based securities industry, which, according to estimates by Bear Stearns, earned $540 million last year turning subprime home loans into bonds.

The once-booming housing market contributed to the record earnings of Bear Stearns Chief Executive Officer James Cayne, JPMorgan CEO James Dimon and Morgan Stanley CEO John Mack. They each received at least $40 million in compensation last year, regulatory filings show. Credit Suisse Chairman Walter Kielholz was paid 16 million Swiss francs ($13.2 million).

more...

[mojavekid]

66. SP TIMES: Even a Realtor will tell you: Glut is huge

http://www.sptimes.com/2007/04/06/Business/Even_a_Realtor_will_t.shtml

From the St. Petersburg Times;


When the flood of fresh home listings stopped rising last fall, the Tampa Bay housing market appeared poised for a recovery.

Welcome to the recovery that wasn't.

So many for-sale homes continue to bloat the area real estate market - nearly 41,000 - that sales as a share of total home listings are at their lowest point in recent memory.

Realtors call it "absorption" and it's easy to calculate: Just divide total monthly sales by the total number of homes on the market.

In February, it was 5.4 percent. In other words, about one home of every 20 on the market found buyers. In hard numbers that's 2,225 out of 40,896 single-family homes and condominiums.

more...

[mojavekid]

67. The Always Bullish National Association of Realtors Has Cracked

http://www.economicpolicymonitor.com/2007/04/always-bullish-national-association-of.html

They admit that existing-home prices are beginning to decline.

"The national median existing-home price will probably slip 0.7 percent to $220,300 in 2007, following a 1.0 percent rise last year," the National Association of Realtors said today.

This would be the first overall drop in housing prices in more than 38 years.

Since 1968, when prices of single-family existing homes have been tracked regularly, the smallest price gain was 1.0% in 2006. The average gain has been 6.5%.

NAR also put out the following bearish estimates on new home sales and starts:

New-home sales are seen at 904,000 this year and 935,000 in 2008, below the 1.05 million last year, and housing starts are estimated at 1.47 million in 2007 and 1.55 million next year, down from 1.80 million units in 2006.

...end...

[burf]

106. I guess that means

my property taxes will be going down. I suppose that's will be the next talking point from the spin machine. Sometimes you gotta look really hard, but there is a silver lining around that cloud!

[mojavekid]

68. CNN: Have less than $25K in savings? Get in line

http://money.cnn.com/2007/04/10/pf/retirement/ebri_survey_2007/index.htm?cnn=yes

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- How much do you need to retire? Whatever your magic number is, few would say $25,000. And yet, there are a lot of people in that boat, according to a survey released Wednesday.

Nearly half of all workers saving for retirement have savings that fall short of the $25,000 mark, according to the 2007 Retirement Confidence Survey by the Employee Benefit Research Institute and Matthew Greenwald & Associates.

Predictably, the youngest workers (ages 25-34) dominate this group - 68 percent of them have less than $25,000 earmarked for their later years. But so do half of workers age 35 to 44 and a third of workers age 45 to 55 and over.

Overall, 40 percent of respondents said they are not currently saving for retirement while 34 percent said they didn't have any retirement money saved whatsoever. A full 25 percent, meanwhile, said they had no savings at all - retirement or otherwise.

more...

[54anickel]

70. Looks like we have a lot of Scotts floating around....n/t

[54anickel]

91. Wolfowitz must be told to resign now

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/18b3bad0-e914-11db-a162-000b5df10621.html

The president of the World Bank has one asset: his credibility. The Bank’s capacity to make a difference lies not in its money and ideas but in its ability to be the world’s voice for development. This includes, as Paul Wolfowitz, the current president, has insisted, being the voice for good governance. Recent revelations have, however, demonstrated such serious failures that the Bank’s moral authority is endangered. If the president stays, it risks becoming an object not of respect, but of scorn, and its campaign in favour of good governance not a believable struggle, but blatant hypocrisy.

It is important to understand what is not at issue here. It is not Mr Wolfowitz’s unpopularity, even though his role as an architect of the Iraq war made him disliked from the start. It is not failures of management, even though his reliance on a group of outside appointees made him mistrusted by many inside and outside the Bank. It is not disagreements over development doctrine, where some convergence of views has occurred. It is not a romantic relationship with a subordinate, itself hardly a rarity in today’s world.

The issue is whether the failures of corporate governance are serious enough to damage the Bank’s moral authority. In a world where curtailing corruption and improving governance have become central to the practice of development, the world’s premier development institution must, like Caesar’s wife, stand above suspicion.

What then is the story? When Mr Wolfowitz became president of the World Bank he also became the boss of his girlfriend, Shaha Riza. To resolve this situation – inconsistent, rightly, with Bank rules – Ms Riza was seconded to the US State Department.

So far, then, so unproblematic. Yet, it is alleged, the terms of the appointment, which appear astonishingly generous, violate a number of Bank protocols. Worse, it now appears Mr Wolf­owitz personally directed the Bank’s head of human resources to offer his girlfriend these exceptional terms. Worse still, this has come out after misleading claims by a senior official that the ethics committee of the board, in consultation with the general counsel, approved the agreement.

more...


IMF's Rato backs World Bank to fix Wolfowitz row

http://www.forbes.com/markets/feeds/afx/2007/04/12/afx3606581.html

WASHINGTON (Thomson Financial) - International Monetary Fund chief Rodrigo Rato expressed confidence on Thursday in the World Bank's ability to resolve a nepotism controversy swirling around its embattled president, Paul Wolfowitz.

'I have total confidence in the institution,' Rato told reporters when asked about the path ahead in the damaging row that has engulfed the IMF's sister organization.

Wolfowitz is accused of favouritism over hefty pay rises given to his girlfriend at the development lender.

Earlier on Thursday the former deputy US defence secretary apologized for a 'mistake' over the employment terms of Libyan-born Shaha Riza, but refused to say if he might quit as the World Bank board met to debate the matter.


So Wolfie tries the "no harm, no foul" defense? Nothing illegal, just unethical and immoral --- the sort of defense we've come to expect from Bushco and Friends.

[54anickel]

95. Wolfowitz Corruption Push Clashes with Debt Relief

Bwahahaha, can you say credibility gap?

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=9525865

As the Deputy Secretary of Defense, Paul Wolfowitz was a leading architect of the Iraq war, boldly arguing that the overthrow of Saddam Hussein could lead to a new era of democracy in the Middle East. His pre-war prediction that the Iraqi people "will greet us as liberators" was later cited by war opponents as an example of the mistaken assumptions that undermined the U.S. effort in Iraq.

In 2005, President Bush picked Wolfowitz to head the World Bank, an institution dedicated to fighting poverty, not waging war. But Wolfowitz has faced almost as much controversy in his new job as he did at the Pentagon, and once again, it is a provocative Wolfowitz idea that is causing the stir.

Since arriving at the bank, Wolfowitz has argued that the biggest barrier to development in many poor countries is a high level of government corruption.

"Corruption is often at the very root of why governments do not work," Wolfowitz argued in a speech in Indonesia in April 2006.

He felt so strongly about the need to fight corruption that he moved on his own to suspend World Bank assistance to several countries because of his dissatisfaction with their anti-corruption efforts. In the process, however, Wolfowitz angered key European governments. He also alienated many staff members who felt he was acting arbitrarily and disregarding the views of development professionals with many years of World Bank experience.

more...

[54anickel]

92. Biggest provider of student loans settles inquiry

Sallie Mae denies wrongdoing and says it didn't share revenue with schools. It will pay $2million.

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-student12apr12,1,2266197.story?coll=la-headlines-business&ctrack=1&cset=true

NEW YORK — The largest U.S. student loan company reached a settlement with New York's attorney general Wednesday, and federal lawmakers called for further investigation of the widening scandal in the $85-billion-a-year industry.

SLM Corp., known as Sallie Mae, agreed to pay $2 million and end some of its practices, which Atty. Gen. Andrew Cuomo said were deceptive and unlawful. SLM will pay the $2 million into a fund that will educate students about financial aid.

Meanwhile in Washington, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) asked the Securities and Exchange Commission to investigate stock dealings of a CIT Group Inc. subsidiary, school financial aid officers who did business with the company and an official of the Education Department.

Cuomo said his investigation continued into other schools and lenders, including CIT Group's Student Loan Xpress. SLM, the first to reach a settlement with New York, has agreed to cooperate with the probe.

"To the schools and lenders, you now have a choice: You can either settle with us or the investigation will continue," Cuomo said.

more...

[54anickel]

93. Tainted pet food still on shelves, FDA says

http://www.reuters.com/article/governmentFilingsNews/idUSN1227947920070412

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Contaminated pet food is still being sold at some stores, U.S. health officials warned on Thursday after checking hundreds of retail outlets.

The Food and Drug Administration said it had inspected about 400 stores nationwide and still found some dog and cat food products affected by last month's recall by Canada-based pet food maker Menu Foods Income Fund and other manufacturers.

"FDA believes most companies have removed the recalled product; however, some have not," the agency said in a statement.

The announcement comes two days after Menu Foods expanded its recall to include more types of cat food. Last week it also widened its alert to include products with earlier production dates as well as dozens of more varieties.

Initially, the company recalled 60 million cans and pouches of wet pet food sold under various brands including Procter & Gamble Co.'s Iams and Eukanuba as well as store brands sold at Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Safeway Inc..

snip>

FDA's priority is to make sure that cats and dogs have safe food to eat," Dr. Stephen Sundlof, head of FDA's Center for Veterinary Medicine, said in the statement.

Sundlof is scheduled to appear before a Senate Appropriations subcommittee later on Thursday to discuss the pet food scare.

more...

[54anickel]

96. 2:08 and everything is just fine, peachie-keen

Dow 12,530.37 45.75 (0.37%)
Nasdaq 2,474.18 14.87 (0.60%)
S&P 500 1,444.80 5.93 (0.41%)
10-yr Bond 4.7390% 0.0000
30-yr Bond 4.9140% 0.0010
NYSE Volume 1,843,714,000
Nasdaq Volume 1,285,553,000

2:00 pm : A day after having its eight-day winning streak snapped, the Dow is rebounding nicely and currently holding onto the bulk of its gains today; but it's 50-point advance still leaves it roughly 40 points away from recouping yesterday's pullback and nearly 100 points away from where it closed the day before the global sell-off on February 27.

Of its 30 components, 23 are now trading higher, led by gains of at least 1% from the likes of DD, HON, HPQ, MCD, MRK, MSFT, and PFE. DJ30 +50.61 NASDAQ +18.50 SP500 +6.63 NASDAQ Dec/Adv/Vol 1103/1818/1.24 bln NYSE Dec/Adv/Vol 1178/1986/892 mln

1:30 pm : The indices have broken out of their recent ranges within the last 30 minutes. Eight out of 10 sectors are now in positive territory, with Telecom being the latest to turn the corner. Financials more than halving its recent losses has also contributed to the market's latest push.

The ability by the Dow and S&P 500, though, to break through resistance near 12525 and 1445, has exacerbated the momentum that now leaves all three major averages at session highs. DJ30 +52.88 NASDAQ +18.30 SP500 +7.28 NASDAQ Dec/Adv/Vol 1182/1709/1.11 bln NYSE Dec/Adv/Vol 1339/1825/802 mln

1:00 pm : Not much has changed since the last update as the major averages settle into a relatively narrow range. Health Care, Industrials, and Technology are still turning in the best performances, averaging intraday gains of 0.7%.

Weakness in Financials, though, continues to prevent a more aggressive push to the upside. REITs are among the day's worst performers for a second straight day. The group was down yesterday after Lehman Brothers said total insider sales volume in Q1 surged about 36% year/year, the highest amount in four years. DJ30 +30.85 NASDAQ +13.60 SP500 +4.00 NASDAQ Dec/Adv/Vol 1208/1678/1.04 bln NYSE Dec/Adv/Vol 1385/1758/746 mln

12:30 pm : Investors kick off the afternoon session with a renewed sense of buying interest. Even though market gains remain modest in scope, all three major averages are hitting fresh session highs. The Dow Jones Transportation Average's resilience in the face of oil prices hovering above $63/bbl (+1.6%), fueled by another railroad rally, continues to be among today's most surprising stories.

The Railroads group has soared nearly 9% since Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway disclosed a 10.9% stake in Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNI 91.93 +4.28) and small stakes in two other rails last Friday. It now ranks as today's best performing S&P industry group (+5.3%) and ranks sixth among this year's best performers (+20.7%). DJ30 +32.26 DJTA +1.8% NASDAQ +13.13 SP500 +4.12 NASDAQ Dec/Adv/Vol 1233/1644/940 mln NYSE Dec/Adv/Vol 1313/1796/670 mln

12:00 pm : The indices are holding onto small gains midday as investors weigh an update on consumer spending against renewed inflation risks a day after hopes of a rate cut anytime soon were dashed.

March same-store sales clearly checked in better than expected; but a handful of retailers warning that April sales will be weak has left retailers mixed. With the Fed reiterating its vigilant stance on inflation, a larger-than-expected rise in March import prices of 1.7%, the largest rise in 10 months, and oil prices climbing back above $63/bbl, are also underpinning a cautious tone. Advancers and decliners evenly matched on the NYSE and Nasdaq further underscore the lack of conviction on the part of both buyers and sellers.

The Nasdaq is outpacing its blue-chip counterparts to the upside; but an intraday gain of only 0.3% offers little to get overly excited about. In fact, while the Tech sector erasing early losses is noteworthy and has helped the Nasdaq stay positive, it is worth noting that Biotech (+2.3%) is also playing an integral part behind the largely tech-heavy Composite's modest advance.

MedImmune (MEDI 42.29 +4.45), the best performer on the Nasdaq 100 this morning, is soaring nearly 12% after its board authorized management to explore a possible sale of the company. Manor Care (HCR 64.25 +2.57) tacking a 4.2% advance onto yesterday's buyout-induced 10.6% surge, following an analyst upgrade earmarks Health Care Facilities (+2.4%) as one of today's top performers. The biggest source of support for Health Care, however, has been a 1.0% advance in shares of Pfizer (PFE 26.31 +0.27). The Dow component also ranks among the ten most influential S&P 500 constituents. BTK +1.5% DJ30 +4.60 NASDAQ +7.41 SP500 +1.52 NASDAQ Dec/Adv/Vol 1412/1420/830 mln NYSE Dec/Adv/Vol 1594/1500/582 mln

[Hugin]

97. Swell!

It's keen everything is so happy!

[54anickel]

99. A bit off topic: Top Democrat: Intel czar's wiretap plans are 'deeply troubling'

http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Top_Democrat_Intel_czars_wiretap_plans_0412.html

A proposal by President Bush's new Director of National Intelligence to expand the intelligence community's authority to wiretap individuals in pursuit of the administration's "terrorist surveillance program" was called "deeply troubling" by a Democratic Congressman who promised his subcommittee would investigate the matter.

"I have been extremely concerned about even the legality of the Administration's warrantless wiretapping program for a long time, so of course, a proposed expansion is deeply troubling," Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties told RAW STORY in an exlcusive statement.

"Just when you thought they couldn't do any more damage to the Constitution and Americans' civil liberties, they come out with this?" he added.

Nadler was referring to news reported yesterday by the Associated Press that Mike McConnell, the Director of National Intelligence appointed by President George W. Bush in January, would seek to expand the intelligence community's wiretapping authority in pursuit of the "Global War on Terrorism."

McConnell was reportedly previewing the draft legislation in advance of an April 17 hearing of the Senate Intelligence Committee. The changes to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act he is seeking would significantly expand the intelligence community's authority.

more....


And a bit further off topic....

http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Issue/story?oid=oid%3A465111

Refugees Remain in Taylor Prison

By now, most of the country has heard of the T. Don Hutto Residential Center in Taylor, 40 miles north of Austin. About four months ago, protests outside the detention center, organized by the human-rights coalition Texans United for Families, garnered local coverage that soon turned national. In February, the New York-based Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children visited the Hutto facility and called for its immediate closure, stating that the standards of care – from the food to education to health care – are unacceptable. Small changes have since been made to the educational program, which was recently increased from two hours a day to seven. The facility – run by the largest private prison company in the world, Corrections Corporation of America – was a prison before it reopened for business almost a year ago as a "residential facility" for immigrant parents and their children, many of whom are asylum seekers. Of course, CCA is in the incarceration business, and at Hutto, families aren't held in apartments but in prison cells.

On March 6, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a suit against the Department of Homeland Security and its secretary, Michael Chertoff, calling the Hutto facility in violation of Flores v. Meese, a 1997 settlement that established a minimum of standards for the care of minors in federal immigration custody. The suit is filed on behalf of 10 kids who were incarcerated at Hutto; six have since been released with their families: Kevin Yourdkhani, Richard Carbajal, Angelina Carbajal, Aisha Ibrahim, Mohammed Ibrahim, and Bahja Ibrahim. Deka Warsame, mother of the Ibrahim children, must wear a tracking device until her immigration status is determined, "further confirmation that alternatives to detention are viable," says Amy Everhart-Davis, communications director of the ACLU of Texas. "And poses the question of why such alternatives are not employed in the first place." Congress has stipulated that the detention of kids should only occur after all other alternatives have been exhausted. Furthermore, as Michelle Brané, the director of the WCRWC's Detention and Asylum Program, pointed out in testimony before Congress less than a month ago, immigration violations are civil offenses, not criminal ones. Yet DHS arrests more than 1.6 million undocumented people each year in this country, of whom more than 230,000 are detained.

The 1997 settlement upon which the ACLU is basing its case requires that the federal government actively seek the release of children in its custody unless their safety is in question or if there is any indication that they will not appear in a court hearing and that children be held in the least restrictive setting and be provided with adequate food, medical care, and education. (Each plaintiff in the ACLU case has complaints about life in Hutto, from cruel guards to disgusting food to negligence in health care.) A common argument in favor of detention is that people aren't showing up for their immigration hearings, but "that doesn't apply to one plaintiff in this case," says Vanita Gupta, an ACLU staff attorney with the Racial Justice Program. Another reason that the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency gives for the existence of detention centers like Hutto is that they're trying to keep families together, which Gupta agrees is of utmost importance. "However, there are a lot of intermediate steps that the federal government could have taken to ensure that its immigration laws would be complied with that would be far short of detention." Gupta offers electronic monitoring with ankle bracelets as a viable option, saying that it is more humane and cost-effective than detaining people at Hutto, which costs ICE $2.8 million a month.

Four plaintiffs remain imprisoned at Hutto. According to the ACLU, 9-year-old Saule Bunikyte and her 15-year-old sister, Egle Baubonyte, have been held with their mother, Rasa Bunikiene, since Dec. 14, even though the mother is married to a U.S. citizen who's willing to have the girls live with him. Four-year-old Wesleyann Marieh Emptage has, along with her mother, Raouitee Pamela Puran, been at Hutto since Dec. 28. Puran fled Guyana after her husband was kidnapped by forces linked to the government, who then threatened to kill the entire family. When she applied for a visa to legally enter the U.S., she was denied due to lack of assets. She came anyway and is now seeking asylum from her cell. Finally, 13-year-old Sherona Verdieu and her mother, Delourdes, have been held at Hutto since Sept. 12, the longest of any of the plaintiffs. They fled Haiti after Delourdes' husband was kidnapped and killed when she couldn't afford the ransom. She, too, is seeking asylum from behind bars.

more...

[citizen snips]

100. Rite Aid Reports Small 4Q Profit

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) -- Rite Aid Corp. on Thursday reported a small fourth-quarter profit that missed expectations, and the nation's third-largest drugstore chain said it has agreed to divest two dozen stores in a deal for 1,850 Brooks and Eckerd stores that it expects to close in May.

Rite Aid said it agreed with Federal Trade Commission staff to shed the 24 stores in nine states as part of the acquisition. The move is expected to satisfy antitrust concerns. The commission still must approve the deal, and Rite Aid remains in talks with state attorneys general, which could yield more divestitures.

The deal is now expected to close by the end of May, after Rite Aid originally predicted a fourth-quarter close, meaning Rite Aid can only count on nine months of revenue from the Brooks and Eckerd stores in the new fiscal year. Although Rite Aid said it had never counted on full-year revenue from the stores for fiscal 2008, some analysts had figured it into their expectations.

Still, the possible divestiture of 24 stores, most in the northeast, was fewer than Rite Aid expected, and makes the $3 billion deal more profitable because the Camp Hill-based chain now expects to save more money in efficiencies than it originally announced, the company said.

more...
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070412/earns_rite_aid.html?.v=8

[citizen snips]

101. Genentech Among Wall Street's Movers

NEW YORK (AP) -- Stocks that were moving substantially or trading heavily Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq Stock Market:

NYSE

Genentech Inc., down $1.69 at $81.

The biotechnology company said first-quarter sales of its two key cancer treatments fell from the fourth quarter. The company's first-quarter profit surged 68 percent.

Manor Care Inc., up $1.33 at $63.01.

The company said Wednesday it is considering its options, including a sale assets or the entire company.

more...
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070412/wall_street_stocks.html?.v=2

[citizen snips]

102. Sector Snap: Airline Stocks Slip

NEW YORK (AP) -- Airline stocks slipped in mixed trading Thursday, as crude prices jumped and a JP Morgan analyst warned of tougher times potentially ahead for the industry.

Snowstorms in the Midwest also forced the cancellations of hundreds of flights.

The Amex Airline Index lost half of 1 percent in afternoon trading, with nine of its 11 component stocks declining. Hurting shares was a barrel of oil gaining 92 cents to $62.93 on the New York Mercantile Exchange, which adds pressure to an industry that counts jet fuel among its top costs.

JP Morgan analyst Jamie Baker also trimmed his first-quarter expectations for several carriers, partly due to higher jet fuel prices. In a research report, he wrote, though, that the more important issue facing the industry is the increasing difficulty it will have in further growing profits.

more...
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070412/airlines_sector_snap.html?.v=1

[citizen snips]

103. Sector Snap: Railroads Extend Rally

NEW YORK (AP) -- Railroad stocks regained their momentum Thursday as investors viewed billionaire Warren Buffett's recent purchase of a large stake in Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp. late last week as a a vote of confidence in the whole industry.

"This week's rally is due to one man," said Randy Cousins, transportation analyst with BMO Capital Markets in Toronto.

Buffett's investment engine, Berkshire Hathaway Inc., disclosed in a regulatory filing Friday that it bought 39 million shares of Burlington Northern, or a 10.9 percent stake. CNBC reported Monday that Buffett also bought stakes in two other unidentified North American railroads.

Investors betting on which companies those might be, drove up shares prices sectorwide.

more...
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070412/railroads_sector_snap.html?.v=1

[citizen snips]

104. DreamWorks Animation Up on Pali Upgrade

NEW YORK (AP) -- Shares of animated film maker DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc. surged Thursday after a Pali Research analyst lifted his rating on the stock, due to the removal of past concerns and strong DVD sales expectations.

The stock advanced $1.16, or 4 percent, to $29.98 on the New York Stock Exchange with heavier-than-usual volume in afternoon trading.

Richard Greenfield in a client note upgraded the stock to "Buy" from "Neutral" with a $35 target price -- implying 21.4 percent growth over its closing price Wednesday of $28.82.

The analyst noted the company's past "Wallace and Gromit" claymation film did not perform as well as expected, while "Flushed Away" incurred a pre-tax charge of $109 million.

more...
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070412/dreamworks_animation_mover.html?.v=1

[mojavekid]

105. Jim Willie: HI HO EURO

http://www.financialsense.com/fsu/editorials/willie/2007/0412.html


Hardly a dull moment in the currency market these days. Much attention centers upon central bank actions. The Bank of Japan held steady, as world speculators thank heavens. The Euro Central Bank held steady, as the US bankers thank heavens. But the ECB aint done hiking. The Bank of England held steady, just like the ECB, but earlier. The Reserve Bank of Australia held steady, from Down Undah. The Bank of Canada held steady, but now markets think they could hike soon. We live in a bond driven world, totally divorced from economic fundamentals, trade deficits, mismanaged economies, and bankrupt policies. Some brief points are provided on currency matters, each detailed more fully in the April Hat Trick Letter due out over next weekend, the US income tax deadline. They all are pertinent to gold. From the other side of the chasm is the housing & mortgage crisis, another impetus for gold. Let it be known we have a 3-SIGMA event on our hands, a credit derivative early stage in the meltdown.

With the rising euro currency will come massive shock waves to the FOREX markets and to precious metals. The euro is the lever placed at the fulcrum of the gold and silver prices. As the euro breaks out, the $700 mark for gold and the $15 mark for silver will be surpassed. The breakout will cause problems for the European economy, as competing currency wars ratchet up dangerously.

SIGNALS FROM JAPAN & CHINA

A good forward indicator for the Japanese yen currency, and its associated Yen Carry Trade unwind, is the Nikkei stock index of major Japanese stocks. A highly bullish triangle has shown itself, undeterred by the recent late winter shock. The Bank of Japan cannot deliver a series of shocks. The BOJ and other central bankers must weigh the risks of continued easy money in Japan where domestic risks are mounting, versus the pain of more shock waves to the global financial market. Let it be known the Nikkei index is saying “yen will remain weak” in clear fashion. Stocks are forward signals. This is a big flashing green light for continued Yen Carry Trade, a crucial ingredient to global market speculation, of which gold is part (hard to admit).

more...

[54anickel]

107. The Great American Catalyzing Event

http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_manuel_v_070411_the_great_american_c.htm

Somewhere inside the halls of governance, where power and control and greed unleash their fiery cocktail of wickedness, where corrupt men and criminal cabals strategize over master plans of delusion and domination, there lies an unnerving fear of a movement, still in its infancy, of a mass tectonic shift in human energy. This movement, while barely growing legs, gaining experience and slowly learning the massive power within its grasp, is the tremor being felt underneath the putrid and rotting nest of corruption and criminality called Washington.

This movement, while still learning to fly, while still small compared to what it will invariably become, is the harbinger of a revolution to end all revolutions, the inevitable, and end result, of a system that through its principles begets greed, injustice, criminality, exploitation and inequality. It is this system, which controls the present state of human affairs, which by its implementation and maturation, indeed by its very nature, has overextended itself to the point of eventual decline and fall.

Devastating humanity and the planet through its hypnotizing allure of wealth and power, where only a few benefit and the many suffer, the system has for years been planting the seeds of its own demise. By creating unfathomable levels of animosity, anger and resentment through its dependence – and insistence – on the creation of vast inequality, by becoming the assembly line of greed, that blinder of empathy and humanity, and by giving birth to the idea that the Almighty Dollar is worth more than human beings, the system, and its greatest defenders, have slowly, but surely, been assuring the eventual decimation of the human imbalance they cherish and the narcotic they have become addicted to.

It is has been the steady rise of greed, birthed through the system’s very essence, that has assured its decline and fall as well. A system dependent on exploitation of human beings, of natural resources, of the planet itself, of maintaining a caste system of inequality that is designed to make the rich richer and poor poorer cannot sustain itself, especially in this so-called democratic stage of human development. By its very nature the system creates the vices of greed and exploitation, the need to possess and control power, the necessity to control human beings.

Indeed, the system thrives because its success depends on unleashing the worst vices in the human condition. The system fosters our selfishness and greed, our mammalian urges of domination and hierarchy, of power, of possession of territory – and ownership of objects –, our ingrained desire for procreation – wealth and power assures the selection of the best possible mate – and the uncompromising desires of comfort and security. Thus, like a parasite, the system has attached itself to our civilization, and has succeeded accordingly, because its existence is dependent on those vices the human animal has the hardest time controlling and defeating. In short, the system has become our master through the exploitation of our weaknesses, through our own mammalian instincts, behavior and psychology.

Capitalism, for this is what the system is called, has become predatory and pathological over the decades because it is easier for humankind to fall prey to our temptations and addictions than to devise a system that directly contradicts our wants and needs, our instincts and behaviors. Capitalism succeeds because it is a system designed to thrive under the mammalian psychologies that have evolved for millions of years, from days as rats to days of primates. A species of high intelligence and brain capacity is still enslaved to our evolutionary journey, and our insistence on the present system, even as corrupted as it has become and as terrible as it is for the vast majority of humans, is but one manifestation of this. Capitalism is designed for the minds of primitive primates, not enlightened humans. It exists because it captures our instincts and behaviors, not our thinking, reasoned minds.

more...

[54anickel]

108. Bernanke: Rules OK for hedge industry

Critics say recent failures suggest system is flawed

http://www.redding.com/news/2007/apr/12/bernanke-rules-ok-for-hedge-industry/

WASHINGTON -- The current market-based system is the best way to regulate the trillion-dollar hedge fund industry, although improvements can be made, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said Wednesday.

Bernanke, speaking to a conference on global economics in New York City, said the current system is superior to increased government regulation. That view is at odds with critics who say large failures in recent years highlight the need for greater supervision.

"Thus far, the market-based approach to the regulation of hedge funds seems to have worked well, although many improvements can be made," Bernanke said in remarks to a global economic conference sponsored by the New York University law school.

Bernanke noted that the collapse of a Connecticut hedge fund, Long-Term Capital Management, came during a period of severe financial stress in 1998.

He said Congress correctly rejected suggestions after that failure to impose greater government regulations. He said in the past 10 years, the ways investors have to manage risks "have become considerably more sophisticated."

Bernanke did not mention in his speech last fall's collapse of another hedge fund, Amaranth Advisors, which critics contend shows the need for greater government oversight.

Instead, Bernanke said he supported the conclusions reached by the President's Working Group in February, which stated that what the hedge fund industry needed was increased vigilance on the part of investors rather than new government rules.

more...

[54anickel]

112. Globalists envision another 9/11 crisis as great for creating climate for North American Union

http://www.agoracosmopolitan.com/home/Frontpage/2007/04/10/01486.html

Robert Pastor, a leading intellectual force in the move to create a North American Union, told WND he believes a new 9/11 crisis could be the catalyst to merge the U.S., Mexico and Canada.

Mr. Pastor, a professor at American University, says that in such a case the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America, or SPP - launched in 2005 by the heads of the three countries at a summit in Waco, Texas - could be developed into a continental union, complete with a new currency, "the Amero", that would replace the U.S. dollar just as the euro has replaced the national currencies of Europe.

In May 2005, Pastor was co-chairman the Council on Foreign Relations task force that produced a report entitled "Toward a North American Community," which he has claimed is the blueprint behind the SSP declared by President Bush, Mexico's then-President Vicente Fox, and Canada's then-Prime Minister Paul Martin.

At American University in Washington, D.C., Pastor directs the Center for North American Studies where he teaches a course entitled "North America: A Union, A Community, or Just Three Nations?" As WND previously has reported, Pastor is on the board of the North American Forum on Integration, the NAFI, a non-profit organization that annually holds a mock trilateral parliament for 100 selected students drawn from 10 universities in the U.S., Canada and Mexico.

snip>

This was the first time WND had found a major intellectual leader behind the push to integrate North America suggesting that a crisis of 9-11 proportions might be just what was needed to advance the process toward establishing a North American Union and the "Amero". Professor Pastor along with the U.S. Bush administration envisions that "the "Amero" will replace the Canadian Dollar (along with the current currencies of the United States. and Mexico). WND reached Pastor in his office at American University and conducted a telephone interview to make sure the Spanish publication accurately reflected his views.

more...

[54anickel]

113. Constitutional Crisis?

http://www.voiceofsandiego.org/articles/2007/04/12/opinion/01golds041207.txt

Thursday, April 12, 2007 | The history of the republic is a history of Congress and the president dueling for power, so let's not be too shocked that the current Congress is challenging an incompetent presidency. In this showdown over Iraq, we see the value of division of power, rather than having it exclusively in the hands of one party.

"Ambition must be made to counteract ambition," wrote Madison in the Federalist Papers (No. 51), which laid out the principle of separation of power. The clash of ambition would protect us from tyranny.

Last November's election was no accident. Voters couldn't get at George W. Bush so did the next best thing and turned Congress over to the Democrats -- including the Senate, which was considered a long shot. Had the outgoing Congress acted as the separate branch of government the constitution intended it to be, rather than the cat's paw of the presidency, voters might not have turned it out.

The Bush Administration launched an all-out assault on our separation of powers system. Congress and the president merged into one and through appointments and confirmations began to suck the courts into its web. Minorities were ignored, dissent was suppressed, the press surrendered and imperial government replaced our traditional system of checks and balances.

Controlling all levers of power, Bush was able to impose a radical program on the nation and, through such aberrations as the doctrine of "pre-emptive war," on the world. He achieved this sans mandate, for, as we know, he lost the popular vote in 2000. Had Bush been the president he promised -- a uniter not a divider -- his presidency would look very different today. But he listened to Vice President Dick Cheney, whose goal was to consolidate all power in the presidency, and now sits isolated in the White House, with only Cheney for company.

Even without the catastrophe of Iraq, as black a mark on this nation's integrity as anything it has ever done, Bush's presidency has been an exercise in presidential arrogance and incompetence that will burden us for years to come.

more...

Edit to add...(can't forget the image!!!!)

[citizen snips]

114. Joy Global Shares Up on Analyst Optimism

NEW YORK (AP) -- Shares of Joy Global Inc. got a boost Thursday on positive analyst comments about demand for the mining equipment maker's products.

The company's stock closed up $1.62, or 3.6 percent, to $46.48 on the Nasdaq Stock Market, after peaking at $46.62 earlier in the day. Over the past 52 weeks, the stock has traded between $31.32 and $72.23.

Lehman Brothers analyst Joel Tiss maintained his "Overweight" rating and $65 price target for the stock, saying global demand for the company's products remains strong and he believes that investors continue to be overly concerned with the U.S. coal slowdown.

The analyst said he expects U.S. demand for coal to increase as demand for electricity begins to pick up because of warmer weather.

more...
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070412/joy_global_mover.html?.v=1

[citizen snips]

115. Soybeans Fall, Grains Mixed

CHICAGO (AP) -- Soybean futures declined while grains finished mixed Thursday on the Chicago Board of Trade.

Wheat for May delivery rose 1 3/4 cent to $4.58 a bushel; May corn fell 2 cents to $3.58 3/4 a bushel; May oats fell 8 cents to $2.69 1/2 a bushel; May soybeans fell 8 1/4 cents to $7.38 1/4 a bushel.

Beef futures decreased while pork futures advanced on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.

June live cattle fell 2.15 cents to 92.47 cents a pound; May feeder cattle fell 2.80 cents to $1.0840 a pound; May lean hogs rose .33 cent to 75.65 cents a pound; May pork bellies rose 1.92 cent to $1.0377 a pound.

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070412/board_of_trade.html?.v=4

[citizen snips]

116. Sector Glance: Hotels

NEW YORK (AP) -- Shares of MGM Mirage edged up Thursday as the company signed a joint venture deal with United Arab Emirates-based investment and development company Mubadala Development Co. to create a new hotel company.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Through the newly formed company, MGM and Mubadala plan to develop luxury non-gaming hotels and resorts globally, initially targeting Abu Dhabi and Las Vegas.

Mubadala is owned by the Government of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi.

Shares of MGM Mirage added 82 cents to close at $71.89 on the New York Stock Exchange.

more...
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070412/sector_glance_hotels.html?.v=1

[citizen snips]

117. Sector Glance: Telecom

NEW YORK (AP) -- Investors disappointed with Research In Motion Ltd.'s results and guidance sent the BlackBerry maker's shares tumbling on Thursday, while Leap Wireless International Inc. saw its stock climb 4 percent after an analyst started coverage with an upbeat rating.

RIM's earnings and outlook were roughly in line with expectations, but investors were likely looking for more following last quarter's "blowout," wrote Morgan Keegan analyst Tavis C. McCourt in a note to investors.

Richard Klugman, an analyst with Prudential, started coverage on Leap with an "Overweight" rating and said he expects the wireless service provider's sales to quintuple over the next decade as the company capitalizes wireless industry growth, a focus on underserved demographics geographic network expansion.

The beaten and battered Shares of Vonage Holdings Corp., meanwhile, felt some relief after the company announced its chief executive, Michael Snyder, resigned.

more...
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070412/sector_glance_telecom.html?.v=1

[citizen snips]

118. Sector Wrap: Staffing Rises

NEW YORK (AP) -- A number of staffing stocks inched higher on Thursday, after a rise in claims for unemployment benefits was attributed to the Easter holidays instead of fundamental labor market weakness.

The Labor Department said applications for jobless benefits rose by 19,000 to 342,000 last week, but analysts attributed the increase to adjusting the data for changes in layoff patterns reflecting different times each year for school breaks and the Easter holidays.

Looking at how staffing companies are expected to fare in the first quarter, BMO Capital Markets analyst Jeffrey M. Silber said most staffing firms will probably report improving results. Silber said that as hourly wages for temps increased 7.2 percent year-over-year for the first two months of the first quarter, most staffing providers probably passed at least some of the increase on to their clientele, driving revenue growth.

"We admit our optimism has been shaken a bit by cautious comments about full-time hiring trends from a number of companies. Nevertheless, we do not believe a U.S. labor recession is imminent," Silber wrote.

more...
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070412/staffing_sector_wrap.html?.v=1

[citizen snips]

120. Sector Snap: Internet Retailers Up

NEW YORK (AP) -- Shares of Internet retailers rose modestly Thursday, as an analyst reiterated his "Buy" rating for eBay Inc.

Shares of the online auctioneer rose 32 cents to $33.93 in afternoon trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market.

Jefferies & Company analyst Youssef H. Squali maintained $45 price target for eBay in a client note Thursday, predicting the company's first-quarter results will gain from higher conversion rates and strength in its average gross market volume.

These positives should balance the company's slow listings growth, he wrote.

more...
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070412/internet_sector_snap.html?.v=1

[citizen snips]

121. Sector Glance: Apparel Sellers

NEW YORK (AP) -- Apparel retailers' stocks jumped on Thursday, after most retailers reported strong March same-store sales, many above Wall Street expectations.

Same-store sales, or sales in stores open at least one year, are a key measure of a retailer's financial strength, because it measures growth at established stores rather than simply growth from expansion.

Results were helped by warmer weather and an earlier Easter holiday.

Pacific Sunwear of California Inc. was one of the biggest gainers. It reported March same-store sales rose 14.1 percent, ahead of analyst expectations of a 3.4 percent rise, according to a Thomson Financial poll.

more...
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070412/sector_glance_apparel_sellers.html?.v=1

[citizen snips]

122. Treasurys Rise Despite Data

NEW YORK (AP) -- U.S. Treasurys prices were higher Thursday morning following higher-than-expected jobless claims data, though bonds continued to stick to a tight range ahead of Friday's inflation number.

Prices, up slightly at the start of New York trade Thursday, increased after jobless claims for the week ended April 7 rose 19,000 to 342,000 on a seasonally adjusted basis compared with expectations for a decrease of 1,000. The data though was attributed mostly to the timing of the Easter holiday and spring recesses so Treasurys reacted only a modestly. Higher import prices for March were all but discounted by the market, as most of the increase was seen as a function of higher oil prices.

Early trade took the two-year note up 1/32, for a 4.70 percent yield, and the 10-year note up 5/32, for a yield of 4.72 percent. That put the Treasurys yield curve -- the spread between the 10-year and two-year note yields -- at plus 0.02 percentage points, compared to Wednesday's close of plus 0.01 percentagepoint.

"Oil played a part in import prices, jobs pointed to seasonals, but the market has a bid," said Scott Gewirtz, head of Treasury trading at Lehman Brothers in New York, with weakness in stocks also possibly helping the market.

more...
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070412/bonds.html?.v=4

[citizen snips]

123. Research in Motion Shares Fall

NEW YORK (AP) -- Shares of Research In Motion Ltd. tumbled Thursday, as the BlackBerry maker's results and outlook disappointed investors who may have been hoping for -- as one analyst put it -- a blowout.

The Canadian company's fiscal fourth-quarter results, reported late Wednesday, met Wall Street's expectations. The company also issued a first-quarter outlook roughly in line with analyst estimates. The company forecast income of 99 cents to $1.07 per share, versus an analyst consensus of $1.04 per share, as measured by a Thomson Financial poll.

However, shares fell $11.62, or 8 percent, to $134.40 in afternoon trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market. The stock has traded between $61.03 and $148.95 in the past 52 weeks.

"Investors will likely be disappointed at the lack of upside following last quarter's blowout, but year-over-year earnings growth was 56 percent and is likely to stay in the 50 percent range for the next two quarters," wrote Morgan Keegan analyst Tavis C. McCourt in a note to investors. He kept a "Market Perform" rating on the stock.

more...
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070412/research_in_motion_mover.html?.v=1

[citizen snips]

124. S&P 500 Leaders & Laggards: MEDI, BC

NEW YORK (AP) -- MedImmune Inc. helped pull the Standard & Poor's 500 Index higher Thursday after the biotechnology company said it hired Goldman Sachs as a financial adviser to help evaluate whether it should sell itself.

MedImmune rose $5.79, or 14.3 percent, to close $43.43 on the Nasdaq Stock Market, and touched a 52-week high of $43.77 during the session.

The S&P 500 Index closed up 8.93 to 1,447.80.

Monster Worldwide Inc., parent company of the online job search site Monster.com, also rose on news that William M. Pastore resigned as CEO and replaced by Sal Iannuzzi, who has served as chairman of the board's executive committee.

more...
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070412/s_p_500_laggards.html?.v=1

[Roland99]

125. Closing Numbers - Markets love it when loudmouth DJs get fired by CBS

DJIA 12,552.96 +68.34 +0.55%
Nasdaq 2,480.32 +21.01 +0.85%
S&P 500 1,447.80 +8.93 +0.62%
Dow Util 511.20 -1.97 -0.38%
NYSE 9,477.76 +64.13 +0.68%
AMEX 2,211.49 +12.44 +0.57%
Russell 2000 815.05 +6.81 +0.84%
Semcond 475.88 +4.60 +0.98%
Gold future 679.70 -2.00 -0.29%
30-Year Bond 4.91% -0.01 -0.10%
10-Year Bond 4.74% -0.00 -0.04%


And, yes, Imus was fired from his radio show (about 10-15 years too late). He stopped being interesting/funny about the time Ross Perot was parading his giant sucking sound around.

[ozymandius]

130. and the closing blather with candy sprinkles

4:20 pm : After a shaky start, the belief that Wednesday's pullback was overdone sidelined early follow-through selling interest and prompted renewed buying activity that left all three major averages at session highs with noticeable gains.

Before the bell, investors questioned whether the change in views towards the interest-rate outlook following yesterday's release of the FOMC minutes had caused a fundamental shift in underlying sentiment. Throw in an unexpected jump in jobless claims, possibly signaling a softening in the labor market, a handful of retailers warning that April same-store sales will be weak, and the largest rise in import prices since May, and the market had all the makings of another down day.

However, the market eventually gave way to buyers looking for places to park investment dollars.

As evidenced by Railroads turning in the day's best performance, billionaire investor Warren Buffett's recent endorsement of the group seemed as good as any place to start. In fact, the Dow Jones Transportation Average's resilience in the face of oil prices soaring 3%, due largely to another railroad rally, was among the day's most surprising stories and gave Industrials a noticeable boost.

The Health Care sector was also up 1.0% and provided some notable support in the absence of any leadership from the struggling Financials sector. Biotech got a boost as reports that MedImmune (MEDI 43.63 +5.79) was seeking a potential buyer fueled speculation that its peers may also be takeover candidates.

Manor Care (HCR 62.81 +1.13), building on yesterday's buyout-induced 10.6% surge, provided additional sector support. The sector's defensive characteristics, which are largely why we reiterated an Overweight rating on Health Care in late January, also contributed to its outperformance. Dow component Pfizer (PFE 26.46 +0.42), which also ranks among the ten most influential S&P 500 constituents, surged 1.6%.

Fortunately for the bulls, oil's late-day rally finally woke up an Energy sector that was initially ignoring today's early gains in crude. The May contract spiked to session highs near $64/bbl just before the NYMEX closed after Valero Energy (VLO 68.71 1.33) said its fire-damaged McKee facility will not reach full capacity of 170,000 barrels per day this year.

The energy sector's 1.4% advance eventually provided enough leadership for the stock market to help offset the early inflationary concerns sparked by import prices surging 1.7% to 10-month highs. BTK +2.5% DJ30 +68.34 DJTA +1.7% NASDAQ +21.01 NQ100 +0.9% R2K +0.8% SP400 +0.7% SP500 +8.93 XOI +1.6% NASDAQ Dec/Adv/Vol 1098/1927/1.90 bln NYSE Dec/Adv/Vol 1108/2177/1.38 bln

[citizen snips]

126. DJIA Leaders & Laggards: Pfizer, AT&T

NEW YORK (AP) -- Shares of two drug makers climbed Thursday to the biggest gains on the Dow Jones industrial average.

The 30-stock index was up 68.34, to close at 12,552.96.

Pfizer Inc. rose 42 cents to $26.46 on the New York Stock Exchange to the biggest gain on the index.

Merck & Co. shares rose after the Food and Drug Administration considered approving the company's pain reliever Arcoxia. The stock gained 71 cents, to end at $46.36 on the NYSE.

Microsoft Corp. reversed Wednesday's loss and rose 43 cents to $28.54 on the Nasdaq Stock Market. The software and Internet company is part of a deal to create CBS Interactive Audience Network to distribute the network's programming online.

more...
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070412/djia_laggards.html?.v=1

[citizen snips]

127. Nasdaq 100 Leaders & Laggards: MEDI RIMM

NEW YORK (AP) -- The Nasdaq 100 got a boost Thursday after drug maker MedImmune Inc. said it is considering a sale of itself.

The Nasdaq 100, which includes 100 of the largest nonfinancial securities traded on the Nasdaq Stock Market, rose 15.40 points to 1,813.49. The broader Nasdaq composite advanced 21.01 points to 2,480.32.

MedImmune added $5.79, or 15.3 percent, to finish at $43.63, and touched a 52-week high of $43.77 during the session.

Fastenal Co., a retailer of industrial and construction supplies, jumped $3.32, or 9.5 percent, to $38.27 after reporting fiscal first-quarter profit and sales each rose 13 percent.

more...
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070412/nasdaq_100_laggards.html?.v=1

[citizen snips]

128. Krispy Kreme Narrows 4Q Losses

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) -- Krispy Kreme Doughnuts Inc. said Thursday its fourth-quarter loss narrowed as the doughnut maker continues its recovery from a bad stumble several years ago.

For the quarter ending Jan. 28, the Winston-Salem-base company said it's net loss was $24.4 million, or 39 cents per share, compared with a net loss of $37.7 million, or 61 cents per share, in the year-earlier quarter. Revenue for the quarter was $112.2 million, down from $122.2 million a year earlier.

A former stock market darling, the Winston-Salem-based company stumbled badly three years ago as it attempted to expand.

A stock that once traded at more than $50 bottomed out last year at about $4, and the company's board ousted two former executives it concluded were trying to "manage earnings" to meet Wall Street expectations.

more...
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070412/earns_krispy_kreme.html?.v=2